Next week is the scheduled recovery week of the first part of the build medium plan. However, in two weeks I will take a transcontinental flight and gain 2km of altitude in the process so I believe it would be better to take that week as recovery.
Do you think is a good idea to postpone the recovery for two weeks and instead repeat the last two weeks of my building plan?
Thanks for the advice!
Hi.
As long as you are not fatigued, You know you are going to take it easy in 2 weeks time. It makes sense to carry on. Are you completing the workouts easily? If Yes maybe do a Ramp test and then 2 more build weeks.
Recovery is essential if you want to increase the intensity of workout. Better if you make a good diet plan for the recovery period.
Just curious why you believe it better to move a recovery week for 1 flight?
As a person who flies multiple days every week I think it’s really important to follow the plan as designed.
If i take into account the time I will need to: pack my stuff, (including the bike), the actual flight (~12h of flight, plus multiple hours of waiting in line at immigration), unpacking and settling in the new place. Also, I will be jet-lagged and I will gain 2KM of altitude. I don’t think that will be a very fruitful week overall for training.
Being a pilot I guess we will agree to disagree. Taking a week off for 1 flight (for me) would mean zero riding. My opinion but, it’s just not necessary. In the scenario you describe above I’d take that day off but, not move the rest week.
Also, what’s with the 2KM altitude thing? If you are flying a “transcon” at least here in the US we typically cruise from 35,000-40,000’ so around 7 miles or 11KM. Even if you meant 12 KM the cabin pressure is around 5,000’ for something like a 787 or up to 8,000’ for most other airliners. At the worst 8,000’ is not that bad. You might get a little sleepy so try and use the time to catch up on sleep.
I believe he means that he’ll be gaining 2km of elevation compared to his current location which would be affect his training performance.
Ahh. That makes sense. Still doesn’t change my opinion. I look forward to traveling from my SL to areas 6-7000’. Doing it tomorrow…
Is two easier weeks an option?
I have a hard time with more than a 4 week cycle and I wouldn’t want a hard week the same time I’m flying somewhere. Recovery is shit for me when I travel, just opening the immune system up to more problems than I’d really need/care to and motivation takes a bit of a dive.
Really?
You think its a good idea to not adjust anything, and train as normal with additional stress and at 2km elevation compared with normal.
Think I would, as the OP is thinking, mitigate this period of potentially poor training by taking a recovery week. The other option is to do the non-adjusted week under additional stress but at a lower level. You might get a similar / the same adaptation but at a much lower level of performance.
Take a recovery week: I would caution that a recovery week is extremely important, so if you can’t recovery properly (90 - 100%) that needs to be taken in to account.
I can only give my opinion based on my experience. For me at 6000’ non-acclimatized I’d take 10-12% off the power and continue to press on. Sounds like for the op a rest week would be a better option.
Appreciate your honest open reply, not something most of us ever encounter. If we do, not sure we’d know how to deal with it especially on such a frequent occurrence.
Appreciate it. Forums can be problematic as it’s easy to misunderstand the issue either from mis-reading/interpreting (me all the time) or the author not adequately conveying what they mean (me again 
)…
Landis, it doesn’t sound like he’s just taking one flight. For most people outside of the airline industry flying to a different country is a big deal. It can also be expensive and difficult to tote along a bike and probably not worth it if he will only be able to get in a few rides while he has to work or be on vacation with the rest of the family.
I do agree that the elevation issue is a non-issue.
Update: Looks like my body has done its descition for me. Today I did Elephants +4 and it costed me. Normally I have no problems with sweet spot workouts, but today my legs felt very tired by the end of the workout. I guess my body really needs that recovery week.
Thanks everyone for the feedback!
I agree.