There are days – where you just go out and ride…long. Why? We had done solid quality the day before (4.5 hrs at race pace or faster) and today a 6 hr ride was scheduled. All aerobic..it was going to be a day just like last week in Park City – 3 hrs out – long chill stop – and a long ride back…throw in that today was also over a beautiful landscape with McKenzie pass on the agenda. Flat roads into Sisters – then a nice 15 mile gradual climb into Lava fields and spectacular vistas. Then the plan was to descend down the other side, flip a b*tch, back home we go.
Why not ride focused? Why just a big ole ride? Why turn the brain off? When we just ride, we again listen to our body and tend to ride smarter. There are days to push – watch the watts, HR, pace etc. Where we want to grind out the work, keep the technique sound while being very focused on keeping up the intended workload. This days require mental and physical engagement…and therefore they are quite taxing for both – brain & body…And while we often feel ok enough to come back and do it again the next day, it often is not as effective as taking a day to focus on aerobic training, relaxed riding, good circles, good breathing – allowing the body to create the fatigue based off the distance (100+ miles) vs. the effort. The load stacks well for a few reasons: first, because the brain and body need a break from the efforts/focus the day before, secondly if you look at the energy burned (kj) and training stress, 6 hrs easy, on feel, burns the same energy and stresses the body the same as 3-4 on intervals and focused numbers. So – at the end of the day the body still had the same energy load, but the brain and body got a break from pushing it to the edge again.
Plus – when we just ride on a big ole ride, its seems less easy those last few hours since the body is tired anyways…so the brain and body get to a similar point just on time alone. Mitochondria is nicely stimulated in this the of ride, and often that means one needs to ride easier than you think!!
The constant triathlete mantra SHOULD be – but is often forgotten: train hard on focused interval and speed days, train easy on easy days. It allows your peaks (stimulus) to kick in stronger, since your valleys (active recovery/rest days) are well absorbed. Too many do the good ole triathlete misstep: train a tick too hard on easy days, and not hard/focused enough on the hard days… IF you stack it right – the body will respond better and better to the stimulus…and that is our entire goal right?
So often coaches (like me) look at the athletes training plan and we wonder why the athlete can’t execute the training as written (data/testing/races all provide the validation that the intervals SHOULD be doable), but because the easy days were not quite easy enough..the body was just not ready/available..OR the athlete get sick/injured after a few weeks of this “just a tick too hard” on easy days…because the fatigue causes a crack in the armor…and gradually the body breaks…all because of that incremental “tick too hard”…
If you wonder if you are going easy enough….go easier…then you are getting close…and watch the fast days crank up!
Great day today: a little over 100 miles, 6500ft of climbing, good company, and steady, relaxed, aerobic legs all day. Never went over the wattage I held yesterday for 77 miles…despite climbing 15 miles today…all low watts.
For me..tomorrow quality again – 20 min intervals climbing, strength work, and a 45 min race pace run.