Sound like recovery rides offer a great opportunity for you to work on you pedal fluidity and balance.
The recovery week should really just be prioritizing sleep, diet, and other recovery modalities over the actual training itself. Sleep surplus, caloric surplus (more carbs, more protein), naps, generally the lazier the better is the right way to do it.
I think on the on bike training is secondary to a large degree. Getting in 6-8 hours of easy riding (if for example youāre typically training 12-16 hours) is plenty to keep the body from losing most of the temporary adaptations. I wouldnāt overthink specific intensities or duration here, the recovery rides really only serve to minimize de-training, not enhance recovery. The work you put in during the last 3-6 week training block is what the body is using for signaling to enhance itself.
Yeah you have to ride on a flat route and, for me, it makes me wonder on every pedal stroke if itās actually doing anything to move the bike forward. On outdoor recovery rides Iām probably doing an average of 12mph or less on a flat trail.
Yeah thatās what heās said on his podcast.
I recently started with one of their other coaches and I havenāt been given any hard power numbers. Maybe I would if I started doing them too hard. But so far sheās not been strict with the recovery days. Sometimes Iāll ride easy around town (NP 100-130W FTP305W), sometimes I do a 20-30 super easy jog/walk, sometimes I just do a longish walk with my wife, and sometimes I just say ādidnāt get a ride in, spent the time doing some light chores and errandsā. Emphasis on āRecoveryā and not āRideā.
Sometimes if that recovery ride is preceding a harder workout then it can be nice to get the legs moving vs just passive recovery. Even if the difference is purely mental.
Also, thereās definitely some confusion in this thread about whether people are talking about a recovery ride within a week of real training or an entire week of recovery. Because my recovery weeks from Empirical Cycling are certainly not just 7 days of couch and <100W riding.
Not sure what you are disagreeing withā¦
Again, the recovery period is less about the actual training (so long as you donāt screw it up by doing a ton of training that causes you to over reach even more) and more about the sleep, diet, etc. Iām not advocating the best or only way to recover is to sit on the couch all day and just do a few 100 watt rides, or not ride at all, or saying there is a specific % of TSS or volume that is optimal or can applied to every single person. Iām also not saying it has nothing to do with training either, but I donāt think there is a magical combination of rides or lack of rides or specific intensities that enhance recovery to a large degree on a macro scale throughout a season. I think the bigger risk is screwing up your recovery up by not eating and resting hard, and/or riding too hard and too often, than erring on the side of more sleep, more food, and less intensity and volume for a handful of days. A single 3-6 block of recovery every say 6 weeks, even if you donāt ride much at all, is not going to ruin your fitness, and in some cases can pay dividends by allowing you to take on more load the next block. Likewise doing some sort of sprints or adding in a tempo ride, as long as the load is sufficiently small, wonāt screw it up either.
I think some personal experimentation is required there. I was doing sub 20hr weeks and found TRs recovery weeks to be too much. I switched to 5 days of z1 then 2-3hrs/day of z2 on the weekend, then back into it. With the TR recovery week I felt crappy the first 1-1.5 weeks of the next block, with the extra recovery I was feeling great right at the start of week 1. I also played with adding some short intervals in the middle and didnāt like how it left me feeling and I was worse in week 1 of the next block. YMMV!
@rkoswald, recovery rides are normally between 30-90 mins and should be around 40%-65% of FTP. These rides are not meant to be taxing and should feel easy with as little stress on your body as possible.
I personally like riding outside, so when I do a recovery ride, I try to find a āflatā one hour loop with good views that has a coffee stop at the end, hehe. These are times to smell the flowers and relax. I am with you on #4 @cartsman!
@Bbt67, as you mentioned, it is extremely individual. We all have very different schedules and recovery rates.
While a week may seem like a long time to focus on recovery, it can be one of the most productive weeks in your training plan when you give it the care and attention it needs.
In most plans, youāll have a recovery week integrated into your schedule every three to six weeks. The week itself is designed to reduce overall training stress through low-intensity rides. These types of rides put comparatively smaller amounts of stress on your body so that you can recover completely from prior weeks of training.
Weāve changed the work-to-recovery ratio from 5:1 to 3:1 on our General Base Phase (previously known as SS Base). This means youāll get a Recovery Reek every fourth week in your general base plan, just like most of our other training phases.
When you donāt recover sufficiently, you risk shortchanging positive physical adaptations and compromising the productivity of upcoming workouts. Over time, you can even put yourself at risk of overtraining if you donāt recover properly. Of course, you are always welcome to adjust your recovery weeks as you see fit. At the end of the day you know yourself best.
This is probably why you listen to your body on a daily basis 
. But for those athletes who arenāt as in tune with their bodies/training yet and are unsure, it can be hard to know when recovery is needed. For this reason, we recommend taking the Recovery Weeks as scheduled if you are following our plans.
We have a blog post that goes more in-depth about Recovery Weeks here:
3 Likes
There it is! 
the truth comes out
I think any volume, even at super low intensity, is better than nothing. Compound those low-level gains every day over time and it starts to add up.
For me a recovery block is about going from: āPhew Iām tired. All I seem to do is train, eat, work and sleepā, to āI canāt wait to start training again, Iāve caught up on those nagging jobs and done loads of food prepā.
That takes however long it takes.
If I add in extra rides: recovery (stupid term in my opinion, theyād be called Exercise Addiction rides if we were more honest), or endurance, then the restart can gets kicked down the road by a day or two.
After that I lauch into another 2,3,4 week training block, make wonderful progress until that āJeez Iām tiredā feeling returns
#humblebrag 
Yeah, he was getting EXCITED on the podcast about riders ONLY having a tss of like 3-5 on a recovery ride 
As I kinda said earlier, the bigger your shovel, the bigger hole you can dig, and the lighter your recovery week needs to be relative to your loading weeks in order for you to climb out.
On a slight tangent, I wonder whether itās just a matter of hours/TSS or whether total kJ burned (and taken in) makes a difference? So would two theoretical riders doing exactly the same (relative) efforts and fuelling the same have different recovery needs if their FTPs were, say 250 watts and 350 watts? Or, same rider at 250 and 350 after sweet gains?
Recovery ride done at 24% FTP.
Why not sleep? Without going into it, the easy answer is because weāre not all the same, and assuming as much makes bad coaches. Some people get lots of days off, some hate days off, and itās easy to try and accommodate both.
Possibly aids recoveryā¦
Thereās science leaning both ways.
Many/most/all amateur cyclists fail miserably at recovery rides. Too hard, too long etc. All they do is add yet more load and delay recovery.
It aināt worth the hassle.
Just take a day off. Get some actual rest. If you absolutely must do exercise, just go for a short stroll, get an ice cream etc.
Iād bet money that actually resting properly would help most amateurs with jobs, family commitments etc.
The term recovery ride needs to die a death.
Sorry Iām confused here. Whoās stressed getting ready for a ride? And why is TSS important? What is āclickbaitā about the ride?
No. I quite like getting ready for a ride, itās relaxing. Lots of people feel the same way.
Okay guy, really. You sure like to start your responses like this donāt you. Please find a new and more subtle way to imply someoneās dumb. If youād like to actually engage in a discussion, Iām here for it but first, quit talking down to people or Iām out, and second please answer my question about why you feel the hours and TSS are relevant here? I was expecting some kind of rationale that was based in physiology and coaching experience (thatās how Iāve developed my philosophy on recovery) and not monopoly money like TSS.
My recovery rides are 45 minutes 50% FTP. Or less.