Getting back on the bike after three weeks of illness

Training
1

I was out of commission for three weeks and am finally healthy enough to get back on the bike and resume regular training. On the plus side, I lost 2.5 kg. Unfortunately, 1 kg of that was muscle tissue (according to my Withings scale).

I had Plan Builder tailor a plan for me, but since I had to put in fake race dates at the time anyway, I’m happy to start from scratch. Before I stopped, I was just finishing the last “real” week of SSB1 MV, which I finished half-way before the rest week.

So my plan is as follows: I want to repeat the last two weeks of proper workouts of SSB1, followed by the rest week, but reduce the intensity of my first weeks’ workouts. Does that sound sensible?

2

I would take one week of just riding around without any intervals or high intensity. Just getting back on the back and do some zone 1 & 2. After that I would do as you suggested, but I would really lower the intensity to give myself a good chance of completing the workouts. My self esteem goes out the window with illness so that’s import for the mental game. During your recovery week make sure to do a new ftp test but don’t worry if it’s lower than last time, you’ll be back soon but it takes time to recover from an illness.

4 Likes
3

Thanks for the input. For the record, I did two 90-minute workouts over the weekend, one where I did 8 intervals at 97 % of my FTP and today’s where I stayed below 88 % but focused on high and slow cadence drills. I felt :+1: both days.

4

Seems your ok then - I had flu/weight loss last Feb and had 3 weeks off - I did one week of endurance - Pettit/Fletcher etc, then a week of tempo - Round bald etc - then I redid the ramp test (had lost 10W!) and started back where I had stopped.

2 Likes
5

Yeah, that sounds quite similar. The most annoying thing was that I wasn’t sick-sick, I dealt with everyday life just fine. I was just too sick to train.

How long did it take you to completely bounce back if I may ask?

1 Like
6

Well I was really ill - had time off work (I teach and stupidly went back in to early for a parents evening and nearly collapsed during the evening!) - which is rare for me - only my second time taking time off in 20+ years teaching. I felt ok on the bike straight away - but it took about 6 weeks to get my FTP back to where it was before I got ill.