Ok, so this is becoming ever more recurrent and also quite annoying in terms of scheduling.
What I’m talking about is the struggle with intervals after a rest day mostly due to my hr feeling like it goes through the roof whilst my legs are usually fine.
After a full recovery week I know the first couple of days are spent to just find the pace back. This has been the case for some time now but it’s more common than struggling even after a single rest day which I’ve been experiencing lately.
It seems as though my body needs to keep going unless it’s coming off a significant load in which case it can go hard after a recovery day or two.
Does this happen to others as well? Do you move the interval day to the second day in the training week?
Yes. I stopped taking days ‘off’ because of this after I experimented with active recovery days. I started with 30min around 45% FTP and interval days are much easier as the body doesn’t shut down from a day off. I switch from 5 days on / 2 days off to 5 days on / 2 days active recovery.
My rules are 45% FTP or less. No more than 60min anything less is fine. I also use ERG to force me to behave. I think started with Lazy Mountain -2 / -1 or something like that.
Way back in the day - before heart rate monitors, much less power meters - I learned that I needed to restrict the intensity and duration of my easy days for them to serve their purpose. My solution was to go “sightseeing” in the nicer neighborhoods (of Muncie, IN) for an hour or so, but not much more. By not following a familiar route, I wasn’t tempted to go too hard just to get the workout over, and being able to ride through shade and sprinklers made it more pleasant.
The other thing I learned - back in the day of 5 speed straight blocks, mind you - was to not be lazy and to put the 42 tooth small ring back on in Sunday night/first thing Monday morning, as opposed to just leaving the 46 tooth ring I used in criteriums in place. Doing the latter was okay short-term, but even though where I lived was quite flat, not having a gear lower than 46 x 18 would eventually catch up with me.
TL,DR: true recovery rides and restricted in terms of both intensity AND time.