Power meters · Public discussion

value of easy days - what system being trained?

Started by DecaturNW · · Last activity · 12 posts · 1,883 views

← Back to Power meters

Thread navigation

Jump through the discussion

Go to the original post, the replies on this page, or the latest preserved contribution.

01 / Original postvalue of easy days - what system being trained?DecaturNW · 30 Jun 2007 02 / This pagePosts 1–12Page 1 of 1 · chronological order 03 / Latest replyPost #12DecaturNW · 8 Jul 2007

Thread details

What we know about this thread

Original section
Power meters
Published
30 June 2007
Last activity
8 July 2007
Original author
DecaturNW
Posts
12
Discussion status
Public discussion
Total views
1,883
Views / 30 days
0
Topics
ClimbingFTPGroup ridingPower metersVO2 max

The navigation and discussion metadata provide context. Posts remain in their original chronological order.

Showing posts 1–12 of 12
Posts remain in their original chronological order.

Text size
  1. Original post
    DecaturNW
    Archived post
    #1

    I'm trying to understand the value of "easy days" in the middle of the peak season and what energy system I am training, if any, by doing them. I have a particular question about my training plan, but also I just don't understand what I am working on these non-rest, non-interval, non-event ride days. Note: I tried searching on this and other forums, I have a power meter and have read the Allen/Coggan book and have not found the answer or am too dim-witted to comprehend it. I am not a road racer, my objective is to be very fast at 100-200 mile hill climb rides.

    In my season (May to Sept) - now - the week looks like this:
    Mon - off
    Tues - hill intervals (VO2max)
    Wed - easy - 2 hours
    Thurs - FTP intervals
    Fri - active recovery (up to 90 min)
    Sat - easy 2 hours
    Sun - 100-200 miles, 7-10K of climbing (event) or shorter group ride of 70 miles, 6K climbing.

    So in season, what is the purpose of Wed and Sat? Build endurance? But don't I already have that through the super efforts on Sunday? What level should these rides be at - 1 or 2? Do these days add any value? If the value is solely like active recovery is it reasonable to substitute other activities (like walking, etc)?

    Report
  2. pascalhayes
    Archived post
    #2

    http://groups.google.com/group/wattage/browse_thread/thread/a8d050f807ed03ab/e8f619987391d367?lnk=gst&q=purpose+of+level+2&rnum=22&hl=en#e8f619987391d367

    Report
  3. rayhuang
    Archived post
    #3
    DecaturNW said:

    So in season, what is the purpose of Wed and Sat? Build endurance? But don't I already have that through the super efforts on Sunday? What level should these rides be at - 1 or 2? Do these days add any value? If the value is solely like active recovery is it reasonable to substitute other activities (like walking, etc)?


    I have loads of recovery days and race and TT just fine. The only times I dont race well is when I am overtrained. I am a HUGE believer that you cannot go hard on your hard days if all you have are hard days. The easy days are just as important as the hard days. They are certainley not for endurance mid season.

    Ray

    Report
  4. DecaturNW
    Archived post
    #4
    pascalhayes said:

    http://groups.google.com/group/wattage/browse_thread/thread/a8d050f807ed03ab/e8f619987391d367?lnk=gst&q=purpose+of+level+2&rnum=22&hl=en#e8f619987391d367


    thanks for that link - not that it totally cleared it up for me - but given the exchange the one conclusion I'd draw for sure is one benefit to doing level 2 is it is FUN.

    Report
  5. jbvcoaching
    Archived post
    #5

    My opinion is that those days/rides are there primarily to manage CTL. In other words, they're relatively low stress TSS "filler".

    Report
  6. Speedskater
    Archived post
    #6
    jbvcoaching said:

    My opinion is that those days/rides are there primarily to manage CTL. In other words, they're relatively low stress TSS "filler".


    That said, do you believe they do something valuable from the physiological perspective or are just good for the believers of pure numbers?

    Report
  7. jbvcoaching
    Archived post
    #7
    Speedskater said:

    That said, do you believe they do something valuable from the physiological perspective or are just good for the believers of pure numbers?


    I think there is value (the physiological perspective) in maintaining and managing overall training load.

    Report
  8. Spunout
    Archived post
    #8

    If a recovery day is used to support training load, you didn't train hard enough before and your recovery day is too hard.

    Muscle suppleness, clearing waste, thrombotic(sp) circulation, healing. Van den Bosch has a great take on recovery days. Read it.

    Report
  9. DecaturNW
    Archived post
    #9
    Spunout said:

    If a recovery day is used to support training load, you didn't train hard enough before and your recovery day is too hard.

    Muscle suppleness, clearing waste, thrombotic(sp) circulation, healing. Van den Bosch has a great take on recovery days. Read it.


    you misread question. I wasn;t asking about recovery days.

    Report
  10. daveryanwyoming
    Archived post
    #10
    DecaturNW said:

    .... What level should these rides be at - 1 or 2? ...

    I agree with jbvcoaching that these can help wrt sustaining training load but I'd keep them at mid to high L2 or even make one of them L3 for that purpose.

    From your schedule it sounds like you're targeting long steady endurance events as opposed to more dynamic racing. If so, some additional L2 miles are a nice addition to the week.

    Have you tried a midweek L5-L4-L3 three day block? I find those work real well and I recover very nicely from day to day (as long as I keep the L5 day shortest, lengthen the L4 day a bit and the L3 day is longest) and also recover well from the overall block for weekend riding and racing. My L3 rides are my favorites as they're fun, fairly fast and my legs feel great after a good moderate length tempo session. You might give it a shot to see how you feel with a little more intensity than "easy".

    Good luck,
    Dave

    Report
  11. Speedskater
    Archived post
    #11
    daveryanwyoming said:

    Have you tried a midweek L5-L4-L3 three day block? I find those work real well and I recover very nicely from day to day (as long as I keep the L5 day shortest, lengthen the L4 day a bit and the L3 day is longest) and also recover well from the overall block for weekend riding and racing. My L3 rides are my favorites as they're fun, fairly fast and my legs feel great after a good moderate length tempo session. You might give it a shot to see how you feel with a little more intensity than "easy".


    I would also give that a shot. Sometimes I try to follow the L5-highL4-lowL4 scheme for 3 days but often fail to do the intervals on the third day correctly. Then I take a few minutes of easy rolling and switch to L3. The great thing about this is that my legs loosen up and I have no problem with riding at the high end of L3 and can maintain L4 power on longer hills.

    Report
  12. DecaturNW
    Archived post
    #12

    great suggestions - I'll give it a shot. thanks.

    Report

Keep exploring

Browse the sectionPower meters Return to CyclingForumsStart at the home page Search discussionsFind another thread

Active in the last 60 minutes

Active in this thread

0 users · 0 guests ·0 bots ·0 total

No signed-in users are active right now.

No known search crawlers active right now.