With work and family commitments to consider and a busy summer cycling season ahead, it’s easy to spend every spare second you have training. There are, however, two very important aspects of any training plan - rest and recovery.
What is rest and recovery?
Simply put, rest is a period of time spent doing very little or no physical exertion.
Recovery, on the other hand, is more complex as it’s about how well your body can repair itself. Hydration, diet, sleep, stress and many other factors can also influence your recovery.
Why should you build rest and recovery into your training plan?
1. Reduce the risk of overtraining and illness
If you skip your rest and recovery sessions, you risk picking up illnesses and injuries and you could see a decrease in your performance. Rest and recovery is important in preventing overtraining and illness as it gives your body time to repair and rebuild before your next training session.
2. Make your training effective
Overtraining can render your training sessions ineffective resulting in decreased performance. To optimise each training session, you need to find the correct balance between training and recovery.
3. Be ready for your next session
Remember, each session is as important as the one before and the one to follow. Without rest and recovery periods, your body will not have time to repair itself between sessions and may not be able to handle the stress of another workout.
What about training when you’re ill?
A deterioration in performance can often be a warning sign of illness. If you find yourself in this situation, stop training, this will give your body the time it needs to recover and repair.
When you do start to ease back into training, follow the recovery, zone 1 and zone 2 rule.
Recovery, zone 1 and zone 2 rule
If you’re going through a period of illness, injury or stress, don’t exceed training zones recovery/ zone 1/ zone 2 and limit your session to 45 minutes or less. This is only a short term rule and you can jump back into your training plan when you’re feeling better.
All of the Wattbike training plans have built in rest and recovery periods, so you can be sure you’re getting the right amount of training. Download one of our training plans here.