I got sick after a big rainy ride in September, sort of flu-y cold. I was mostly off the bike for two weeks:
I had grand plans to try to keep the legs spinning while I was sick, and I did a little of that, but it felt miserable. There’s a lot of advice on this forum and on the podcast and the support articles to just stop working when you’re sick, because any effort is going to divert your body’s attention from healing itself, and extend your sickness.
When I was feeling recovered, I started up SSBMV1, but replaced the ramp test with the endurance version of Mount Field, and replaced the sweet spot work on Saturday with a longer endurance ride (per the week tips) to ease back in. I’d ramp tested recently, so I figured I’d start from that benchmark and drop things down as needed instead of digging myself into a hole with an all-out effort or guesstimating my loss of fitness:
Everything felt hard, it was all much higher RPE than I expected. My heart rate during Mount Field, 3x12 at 85%, was hovering right under my LTHR. Reinstein is over/unders but at a 2/1 ratio, and even with 10 minutes of rest in between my heart rate never really recovered. I think that’s probably unavoidable when you’re coming back from not riding, and I’m really glad I eased back in instead of slamming it from day one.
I did the same Sunday long-and-slow replacement on week 2. By week 3, everything felt back to normal, “tough but doable”. (McAdie was still a slog.)
All that to say, give yourself a little time. You’ll bounce back.