Do many people here change out the standard recovery weeks in the plans? Ive followed the plans for a year and now the calendar is out I’m just starting to play with the recovery weeks. In the past I find after the recovery week I feel flat and the first couple tough workouts back feels very hard as I’m not used to the high power and the legs feel weak. I’m going to try keeping some intensity and higher power efforts in but short ones (1minute efforts)and keep the weeks TSS or training time to half the week before. Does this seem reasonable or a bad idea and not enough recovery will happen due to too high intensity? Look forward to hearing some other opinions or experiences!
I’m trying something different this time around between Sweet Spot Base 1 and 2. I agree about feeling a little flat during recovery week as last week was my recovery week. Instead of jumping straight into Base 2, I’m currently finishing up a week of the following workouts, which I’m hoping will help me get back into doing the higher intensity workouts.
Day 1: Tempo
Day 2: Endurance (aka recovery)
Day 3: Tempo
Day 4: Endurance
Day 5: Sweet Spot
Day 6: off
Day 7: Noodle ride outside with my gf
Next week is the start of Base 2. This works out well for me to do the first 3 weeks of Base 2 and then a week off while I travel for the Thanksgiving holiday. After I return, I will then finish the final 3 weeks of Base 2. Not sure what type of workouts I’ll be able to do while on holiday, probably not much.
I’m partway through week 6 of SSBII and my legs are still pretty tired. This is the time when you are recovering from the heavy load you put yourself through during the prior 5 weeks - so even the relatively easy recovery week workouts still have you feeling the burn. This isn’t unusual, and for most people, won’t be mitigated by introducing more intensity into your recovery
It takes a long time for your body to feel the full fatigue from the volume you’ve accumulated - I’d strongly recommend considering taking the recovery week seriously. The most common mistake I see from riders is not keeping their recovery time easy enough
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So I actually did a ramp test the first day of a recovery week ( well tuesday) and one the next tuesday and found i gained about the same amount of ftp during the rest week as I did the previous weeks training. So atleast for me I think they are totally worth taking it easy.
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I think this is one of the big things which separates the pros from the amateurs.
Pros go really hard and really easy; amateurs just keep trying to go hard all the time.
Hard days hard, easy days easy. 
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Oh I’m definitely taking the recovery week seriously and planning to recover hence the discussion. 
The plans recovery week is 309 tss with 7 hours of riding. My plan was to match that tss but only ride 3 days and 3.5 hours. Maybe Osceola Tuesday, Scott’s peak Friday and a couple hour endurance ride Sunday. As a rough guide that is. Do you think that’s too much and not enough recovery even with the half the riding time and twice as many no ride days?
I would generally do a group ride outdoors on the Saturday. This would be enough to leave me feeling sharp enough for the FTP test on the Tuesday.
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Different things work for different people. For me - that wouldn’t be the best recovery for going into a build plan but would be a good recovery for going into a race.
Essentially what you’re considering is lowering volume but maintaining intensity which is a classic taper to stay very fresh for a peak without losing top end fitness.
However, for going into build you’re not trying to peak, you’re trying to fully recover and let your legs gain strength and rest. The first week of the build plans are generally sticking to threshold and over/unders so you don’t have any real sharp 120% stuff - they ease you into that so there isn’t a need to develop that super high end by maintaining that intensity.
Again, your results will vary, but for me I want to have as much rest as I can on those recovery weeks. In my experience the most important rest weeks are week 4 of build and your last week of base - you need to get as much back into your legs as possible during those times because you’re about to be hit by some very heavy volume and intensity
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I was going to start a new thread but I kind of think this one covers it.
(Sorry if bringing up an old thread is bad mojo?)
This kind of explains what it is but it doesn’t really explain the science behind what we’re looking for with a recovery week. I’m wondering what the adaptions are - or if it’s more just allowing muscles to repair before jumping into the next round?
I guess trying to gauge if I should do more or less on the recovery week.
I’m just here right now. I’ve taken two recovery weeks in my life and both have been detrimental to my training and fitness. I’ve just started training with TR and last week was my first recovery week ever, some part due to illness. But Monday I did Basin -5 to prep for the coming ramp-test, which I failed or more precisely I did a much lower result than my FTP week before the recovery-week. I had Mount Goode scheduled today and at the start of the third interval I felt like this ain’t going to do me any good. Legs are tired and my motivation went bye bye.
I’m starting to feel like maybe I should just go on about my training as I did before and substitute all recovery weeks. I’m on the low volume general build-plan now and I’m adding in a fasted 4hr long distance MTB ride or a shorter 70 min race on Sundays giving me an extra 140-150TSS so my weeks are averaging about 400TSS. Nothing crazy but I feel like I can do more. I’m always very rested and recovered even though I strength train Wednesdays/Fridays as well as hitting the trainer intensely.
What advice would you all give? Feels like I’m in a black hole right now having to work up my FTP again being more tired than before the recovery week.
General build low-volume week4 tips:
“Low-volume riders often don’t need an entire week of recovery”
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Got it. But since I don’t only do TR-workouts it’s never really low volume.
Normal week:
Recovery week:
Anaerobic workout as opener for ramp test? I’m assuming the ramp test was the next day, on Tuesday. That is the only thing jumping out to me.
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Yeah that could actually be it. I read somewhere that it’s a good idea to do an opener before the ramp-test after a recovery week. But that might’ve been the nail in the coffin.
I use Truuli -2 as my opener, and it does wonders to pull me out of my recovery week and in preparation for the Ramp Test the next day.
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Openers are very individual and work for some, while they don’t work for others. Testing is required.
The particular opener is also worth trying. I like Truuli -1, but some like very different ones. Again, worth testing to find the right one, if one is appropriate at all.
I’ve used Basin -5 and Baird -2 as a pre-race opener and that worked great so that’s why I tried it. Obviously I need to cut my recovery weeks short or do something else. Thanks for all the replies and tips!
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With your weekend riding I would try doing ramp test without an opener the day before.
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Yeah I think that might be a good idea actually.