detraining

[leanman]

i'm a bit confused about how this works. i know if your race fit and take a lot of time off from training/racing, you'll loose a percentage of your fitness.I'M TRYING TO FIND OUT THE MOST DAYS YOU CAN TAKE OFF THE BIKE WITHOUT LOOSING ANY FITNESS AT ALL.a few reasons and examples. a friend who trains hard, does his usual 3-4 hour long hard team ride sunday. monday he does an ez 45 minutes to 60 minute spin on the trainer.. ez spinning tuesday just like monday. wednesday he does hard tempo on the trainer.. 30 minutes riding warming up then a few hard 30 second sprints for the warmup, then 20 minutes hard...thursday same as monday. friday off. sat same as monday.sunday the same as the previous week or race.. so he is going hard and long sunday. intervals wednesday. rest of the week either ride ez or off.3 weeks on 1 week off.. he's fit , srtong and fast.a master 50+..he went out of town for business, missed almost a week and his first workout after a week off he said he had the best legs all summer.. so i was wondering if time off makes you repair the muscles from training, why not take more time off??? wouldnt it be smart to train the 2 hard days a week he currently does, and take more days off from his current way of weekly training?i just had a good year. its over now so i took 3 weeks off the bike and did my first ride yesterday and couldnt believe how fresh i felt...i didnt feel this fresh and quick, even whe i was race fit..so would it be smart to alter his and my normal weekly training to the few hard days and only maybe 1 recovery spin then off the bike the other few? my question, how long does one need to be off the bike before we loose what we gained training, and why do we thing we're fit, but when we take a week or more off our legs are the best of the whole year??thank for any replies

 

[Enriss]

Someone will probably correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure there's no set time-frame for how long you can rest before you fall out of shape. It depends on too many factors.
The workout that works best for you will be based on a number of things, including how fit you are. When you're a beginner, your body can easily recover from almost any stress you put on it in about two days, so there's no reason not to go hard every other day. As you advance though, proper resting and periodization become vitally important. Going as hard as you can every single day will start to drain more than you recover from, and until you give yourself enough time to recover, your performance will suffer. The intricacies of how exactly you should balance stress and recovery from stress aren't something I know all the gory details of, but if you really want to learn, you should talk to an experience coach in your area, or pick up some books on training techniques that cover periodization.

The body gets stronger by recovering from stress. If you never let yourself recover, you will never get stronger.

 

[The S is Silent]

my question, how long does one need to be off the bike before we loose what we gained training, and why do we thing we're fit, but when we take a week or more off our legs are the best of the whole year??thank for any replies

You don't gain fitness by training, you only stress the body and gain fatigue. Gains in fitness are only made during the recovery after training, when the body repairs the miles of fatigue that you have caused it to endure.

If you take the days off and go easy too often, then of course you're going to feel fresh all the time, but you won't be putting the stress on the body that is required to build additional fitness. Some people I ride with take your proposed approach. Ride hard on Wed and Saturday. Longer mellow ride on Sunday and recover on Mon, Tues, Thurs and Friday on the rollers. They're always fresh for the hammerfests that happen on Wed and Saturday, but they are still riding at the same level that they were when I started riding 3 years ago. I take a week off to let my body recover and I'm stuffing them in the hurt locker like so much Screech.

Not that what you're describing is off-mark at all...you've made the connection between fitness and recovery. There is just a specific time for it. What you're describing sounds very much like tapering. Taking a easy week or two to let the body fully recover from a long stretch of intense training before an A priority race. Let the form really kick in and see all the gains from the previous months of training.

 

[daveryanwyoming]

...you've made the connection between fitness and recovery. There is just a specific time for it. ...

+1 great response.

No question you feel fresh after rest, a bit surprising that in both the cases you mention the rider felt great after extended complete rest, many riders need a few 'openers rides' after complete rest before they're firing on all cylinders but still not surprising that rest led to good performances after steady training. The problem with extending that line of thinking too far is that you need both the workload and the rest to succeed. The trick is finding the balance that works best for you and which works best at different points in your season.

One way to get your head around this is to think in terms of Bannister's impulse response model or Andy's implementation of it for power analysis in WKO+. Basically it comes down to:

'form = fitness + freshness'

You gain fitness by appropriate training which includes enough rest to recover and adapt but also applies regular stress to give the body a reason to adapt. You gain freshness by resting. The trick is to get 'form' when you need it most by building appropriately and resting appropriately before important events.

Maybe you and your masters friend need a bit more rest during regular training or perhaps you've both reaped the benefits of some rest after a long block of good training. Just don't extrapolate too far and back off the training too much because rest alone won't bring additional fitness.

But as silent said above the important thing is to recognize the connections between training, rest and great days and start figuring out how to make it work for you.

Good luck,
-Dave

 

[randochap]

I can't add anything to the good advice above. Indeed, "horizontal training" is where the gains come, as your body adapts to stress. It's getting that stress right for you and your objectives that is key.

Many riders confuse volume with quality.

I'd recommend Joe Friel's Training Bible. Here's his blog.

 

[baker3]

Once or twice per year I choose to detrain with beer. The daily detraining rate correlates with my increasing beer intake.

 

[The S is Silent]

Once or twice per year I choose to detrain with beer. The daily detraining rate correlates with my increasing beer intake.

And drink enough beers and your detraining most certainly will become horizontal.