Principles of Cycle Training – Stress and Recovery

By tejvan on May 9, 2008 in training

One of the basic principles of training is the concept of stress and recovery. What this means is that we start off by riding faster / further than we are used to. This stretches the muscles beyond their previous capacity. This makes the muscles (of both the heart and legs) grow and become stronger. However, in the process of stretching the muscles we also damage them. This is why it is necessary to allow a period of recovery for the muscles to rehabilitate.

What This Means

For interval training to be Most Effective, you shouldn’t do it everyday. Relief! It is best to leave a gap of 1 day or 2 days for really intense interval sessions.
Don’t do Too Much At Once. Training is a continual progress. If we are new to cycling, we should get the muscles used to riding before really strenuous exercies.
Recovery is an important aspect of getting fitter and stronger. We tend to associate recovery with wasted time. But, it may be just what we need.
The Stress and Recovery Cycle doesn’t just apply to days of the week. It is is good to think in terms of 4 week cycles. Vary the intensity of your week’s training; after 3 weeks of hard training take a week of lighter training.
To Taper for a Race, the stress placed is less and recovery is given a higher importance.
To make improvements we need to cycle faster than we are used to. i.e. even if we cycle 400 miles a week, we may not get faster in a time trial. If we want to go faster we have to train at a pace equal to or preferably higher than race pace. This is how real improvement will come.

Other Notes

One of the best way to recover from a hard interval training is to have a moderate ride the next day. Recovery doesn’t have to involve complete rest, in fact it is better to keep the legs ticking over. In the Tour de France, the riders will still ride for 2 hours on the tour rest day.
This principle doesn’t mean you can’t still race for 2-3 consecutive days. Think of the big tour riders, they are racing for several consecutive days, and there are pretty fit at the end!

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