How do you know if your recovered?

nah i cant seem to get the session to budge, I am sure I could move it somehow but I am lazy 😉 .

Anyways the Recovery from INT 1 took 17secs, INT2 took 30secs, INT 3 took 20 secs, INT 4 took 18 secs and INT 5 took 17 secs. I had to drop from 164-174bpm back down to 144 bpm.

dm69 said:

besides taking resting heart rate every day what on the bike sessions do you use to determine recovery? Obviously aching in the legs can be a good sign of fatigue but besides that how do YOU use your HRM to check recovery levels.

Here is a once a week session that could be used on a Windtrainer? (you will need a computer connected HRM eg polar 725x): 5 minute warm starting from 60% MHR and building it up to 80%MHR (keep it steadily rising), Then maintain a HR between 80% MHR and 85% MHR: after 5 minutes totally stop pedalling and hold your body still until your HR goes back down to 70% MHR when you hit 70% repeat the 5minute interval between 80-85%...do that interval 3-5 times and make sure it is the SAME EVERY week. With your polar you should have an interval option and you can analyse how quickly your HR dropped back down to 70%. Keep the records of this and you SHOULD see that the more fatigued you are the longer it takes to get down to 70% MHR!!!

I will do this relatively easy interval on a monday night every week and I usally keep my week structure very similar eg: Monday easy, Tuesday hard with LT and Aerobic Stamina sessions, Wednesday active recovery...so I should be able to get a fair prediction of fatigue on a week to week basis.

BTW a polar employee (former olympic swimmer) recommended this to me.
Does this also determine whether you have a high vo2max? Do ppl with high vo2's get back to a low HR quicker than those with less efficient oxygen carrying capacities? Hopefully it means YES because at a recent training seminar I was by far the quickest recovered athlete after these intervals. I finished warming down after my 5 sets when ppl were still recovering from there 4th set or were in the middle of the 5th interval 😄 .

I will try and add pics of this session soon.

Tell me what YOU do please!!!

Just use TRIAL AND ERROR

Roadie_scum said:

Just use TRIAL AND ERROR

Thx for the imformative post.:eek:

It would be nice to know what other people do so I can trial more techniques and see what works for me.

dm69 said:

besides taking resting heart rate every day what on the bike sessions do you use to determine recovery? Obviously aching in the legs can be a good sign of fatigue but besides that how do YOU use your HRM to check recovery levels.

Tell me what YOU do please!!!

I check my HR. If it's still beating i'm recovered. If it's not beating i'd worry. I don't need a HR monitor for that though.

Or, if i can do the session that was prescribed then i was recovered for it, and if i can't do the session prescribed, then i wasn't recovered for it.

And, i'd use PMC to help out.

ric

Don't you want to stress yourself a little more every week for 2-4 weeks then have a slightly easier week? So in theory wouldn't your recovery should get a little worse each week but by the end of the recovery week (or even just 1-3 days) you're better than at the start of the block? I know it's never that simple but hey....

It seems if you always recover the same amount week in week out then you're going nowhere...

Jono L said:

Don't you want to stress yourself a little more every week for 2-4 weeks then have a slightly easier week? So in theory wouldn't your recovery should get a little worse each week but by the end of the recovery week (or even just 1-3 days) you're better than at the start of the block? I know it's never that simple but hey....

It seems if you always recover the same amount week in week out then you're going nowhere...

Yes thats exactly right! An ideal plan for me would raise my recovery time for 2 weeks as I stress my system then after a recovery week or before a race I should see a quicker drop in HR.

Hopefully this works because it could be an invaluable and extremely accurate way of detrmining fatigue/ form and recovery.

ric_stern/RST said:

I check my HR. If it's still beating i'm recovered. If it's not beating i'd worry. I don't need a HR monitor for that though.

Or, if i can do the session that was prescribed then i was recovered for it, and if i can't do the session prescribed, then i wasn't recovered for it.

And, i'd use PMC to help out.

ric

How rebellious of you 😎 ...:p

WOW! for a professional coach you sure dont care much about how your body adapts to training!?!

You probably need to buy a heart rate monitor dude...a PM cant tell you if your recovered or not! Hey if a Pm can do that aswell I am buying one tommorow but atm I will stick with my polar! I need to know how my body is responding...much more valuable than a number on my screen that tells me how hard I am pushing ( I know that already :p ).

If I feel like training I'm recovered.

dm69 said:

How rebellious of you 😎 ...:p

WOW! for a professional coach you sure dont care much about how your body adapts to training!?!

Your HR *only* tells you how fast your heart is beating.

Quoted post said:

You probably need to buy a heart rate monitor dude...

at an approximate guess, i probably have about 20 of them lying around in my office.

Quoted post said:

a PM cant tell you if your recovered or not! Hey if a Pm can do that aswell I am buying one tommorow but atm I will stick with my polar! I need to know how my body is responding...much more valuable than a number on my screen that tells me how hard I am pushing ( I know that already :p ).

The PMC graphs/data can give an indication of how much fatigue you're carrying. and for that you need a power meter

ric

i know to what extent i've recovered by the sensations my legs give me when i walk down the stairs in the morning shortly after waking up and just before making breakfast. seriously.

Not everyone can afford a power meter. Most can afford an HRM on the other hand.

I find it odd that a coach would advocate expensive machinery in order to tell if you have recovered enough. Are you able to maintain the same speed at the same heart rate as yesterday? If not, you may not be recovered. It's not that difficult,no matter how much some may tell you otherwise.

benkoostra said:

Not everyone can afford a power meter. Most can afford an HRM on the other hand.

I find it odd that a coach would advocate expensive machinery in order to tell if you have recovered enough. Are you able to maintain the same speed at the same heart rate as yesterday? If not, you may not be recovered. It's not that difficult,no matter how much some may tell you otherwise.

Being able to maintain the same speed at the same HR does not tell you if you're recovered, or really anything else other than a ratio of speed to HR.

My HR can vary significantly - whilst i am well enough recovered to put out the same effort (power).

If you want an inexpensive option, then Joe's is the best, but that still doesn't use HR.

Ric

dm69 said:

besides taking resting heart rate every day what on the bike sessions do you use to determine recovery? Obviously aching in the legs can be a good sign of fatigue but besides that how do YOU use your HRM to check recovery levels.

I don't use a HRM for this, so feel free to disregard this post.

I don't track recovery on a day-to-day basis. Sometimes (eg, on weekends) I will work back-to-back and dig into a little hole, and other times I take 1-2 days completely off to recover. I track overall fatigue over the longer term rather than worrying about it on a daily basis. For this I *personally* use the software that Ric mentioned, but I think it could be roughly done using HR with TRIMPS, or an estimation of TSS based on duration and estimated intensity. These concepts have recently been discussed here and here.

dm69 said:

besides taking resting heart rate every day what on the bike sessions do you use to determine recovery? Obviously aching in the legs can be a good sign of fatigue but besides that how do YOU use your HRM to check recovery levels.

Here is a once a week session that could be used on a Windtrainer? (you will need a computer connected HRM eg polar 725x): 5 minute warm starting from 60% MHR and building it up to 80%MHR (keep it steadily rising), Then maintain a HR between 80% MHR and 85% MHR: after 5 minutes totally stop pedalling and hold your body still until your HR goes back down to 70% MHR when you hit 70% repeat the 5minute interval between 80-85%...do that interval 3-5 times and make sure it is the SAME EVERY week. With your polar you should have an interval option and you can analyse how quickly your HR dropped back down to 70%. Keep the records of this and you SHOULD see that the more fatigued you are the longer it takes to get down to 70% MHR!!!

I will do this relatively easy interval on a monday night every week and I usally keep my week structure very similar eg: Monday easy, Tuesday hard with LT and Aerobic Stamina sessions, Wednesday active recovery...so I should be able to get a fair prediction of fatigue on a week to week basis.

BTW a polar employee (former olympic swimmer) recommended this to me.
Does this also determine whether you have a high vo2max? Do ppl with high vo2's get back to a low HR quicker than those with less efficient oxygen carrying capacities? Hopefully it means YES because at a recent training seminar I was by far the quickest recovered athlete after these intervals. I finished warming down after my 5 sets when ppl were still recovering from there 4th set or were in the middle of the 5th interval 😄 .

I will try and add pics of this session soon.

Tell me what YOU do please!!!

I use VO2 to determine my recovery;i start with 15' WU and do 3x 2.5'(120%)= R1'. That tell me how fresh my legs are and how hard my W/O will be .I repeat every other day , it work well for me 🙂 . Musher

dm69 said:

How rebellious of you 😎 ...:p

WOW! for a professional coach you sure dont care much about how your body adapts to training!?!

a PM cant tell you if your recovered or not! Hey if a Pm can do that aswell I am buying one tommorow but atm I will stick with my polar! I need to know how my body is responding...much more valuable than a number on my screen that tells me how hard I am pushing ( I know that already :p ).

Buy one tomorrow because it is the best accurate way to know.

I agree that a power meter coupled with performance manager charts are by far the best way. But since this isn't the power forum, I think the best non-power based way is too simply see how my legs feel after 20ish minutes of riding. Many days I get on the bike tired and sore but the kinks work themselves out and a little ways into the ride I feel great.

BTW, recovery is overrated.

whoawhoa said:

I agree that a power meter coupled with performance manager charts are by far the best way. But since this isn't the power forum, I think the best non-power based way is too simply see how my legs feel after 20ish minutes of riding. Many days I get on the bike tired and sore but the kinks work themselves out and a little ways into the ride I feel great.

BTW, recovery is overrated.

😕 Ritey oh then...good luck improving at anything!

zaskar said:

Buy one tomorrow because it is the best accurate way to know.

ill be rite thanks

dm69 said:

😕 Ritey oh then...good luck improving at anything!

I should say "recovery days are overrated." Obviously recovery is important, I just find it takes an abnormally large amount of stress to force me to take more than 24 hours off (not that I don't for other reasons).