Do you guys actually do the rest week as prescribed? My volume goes from 260tss to like 80 on rest week. That seems like a big dip. I get the idea but does it really need to be that low?
I usually do endurance ride but bump it up to Z2 rather than the Z1 prescribed. Usually outside.
My training calendar does look like a Christmas tree though with lights everywhere…soooo…
What have you had most success with?
PS I know the TR admins are pulling their hair out reading this!!
I know this is crazy on a Trainerroad forum, but I normally listen to my body. I normally do the first ride with the intensity and then bump the next one up/down depending on how I fell.
Normally (for me) it’s pretty easy to tell when I need rest.
It’s being pushed into a box that it have to be a whole week of resting. If you have 4 relaxing days and your body feels good, then I can’t see the reason why not to bump up the rest of the week.
You’re not wrong!!
I’ll jump in to give my two cents, although I appreciate you’re not necessarily looking for TR feedback on this one.
Why Such a Big Dip in TSS?
That steep reduction in training load is intentional. The goal of a rest week is to reduce accumulated fatigue while maintaining fitness, allowing for optimal adaptation in the following training block.
Training creates physiological stress. If training stress accumulates without sufficient recovery, fatigue can impair adaptation, increasing the risk of non-functional overreaching—where fitness gains stall or even regress.
A well-structured rest week reduces both intensity and volume to facilitate recovery.
This enables:
Without a reduction in both volume and intensity, fatigue can accumulate to the point where subsequent high-quality training becomes difficult, limiting long-term progress.
Zone 1 vs. Zone 2:
Zone 1:
Zone 2:
What Happens If You Skip Rest Weeks?
Skipping structured recovery weeks can lead to cumulative fatigue, suboptimal glycogen replenishment, and suboptimal neuromuscular function, all of which negatively impact subsequent training quality.
By reducing training stress temporarily, you set yourself up for greater gains in the next block. Rest weeks are desinged intentionally. We all have the same goal! We also want to make you as fast as you possibly can be :).
Thanks Sarah but I’m gonna go with the first guys answer as that was what i wanted to hear.
Disclaimer! I still think you need to take a rest periode - just to be clear 
Obviously previous comment is a joke but I suppost I was looking for a answer from you guys. I use trainer road partly as i dont have to plan or think about training, but I also cant help but question these things even if that is to reinforce or justify the plan.
Could you eloborate more on why its so low. It’s about 30% which is lower than most other plans will offer. I get the concept but wouldnt 50 to70% reducipn in volume /intensity also allow recovery or is the idea that by wk3 we are buired and need a week off essentially?
I think in your specific case it’s really amplified by the low volume plan TSS. 80 in a week is REALLY low, so I can see why you get antsy to get moving.
I also play it by ear. I take the beginning of the week to recover, but if I’m feeling good by the weekend, I’ll usually keep at least my long Z2 ride intact. I do appreciate that it kind of gives me “permission” in my head to do something short and easy and spend an extra day with family though, and will sometimes plan my recovery weeks that way.
I have often seen 60% of volume as a guideline for a rest week. 30% seems really low.
My thoughts exactly. I’d imagine if you take out the intensity workouts from a low volume plan, you strip out most of the 260 TSS hence you’re left with just 30%. My rest weeks typically look like 50-60%, which I’m fine with.
I’ll largely adhere to there best week for 4-5 days, but at the weekend like to bump things up a little (either duration or maybe a tempo ride) as I find going back into the first threshold session after a week of recovery is too much of a shock to the system!
I handle my rest weeks similar to what @Flashpoint51 described. I will decrease hours (~10ish to 7-8ish) with all rides being Z2. The rides early in the rest week are low Z2 and I’ll increase the intensity towards high Z2 by the end, depending on how I feel. Because there is no intensity, the TSS drop is more substantial.
I also find that first workout of the next block to seem quite hard. I’m going to experiment with a little bit of intensity over the weekend at the end of the rest week, something like an opener, to take the edge off.
EDIT: And I did skip my most recent rest week, which was at the end of Traditional Base III, and went straight into General Base I. I felt great, and accelerated my schedule a week to align the next rest week with a week-long business trip. I also have a 4-5 hour gravel event scheduled for the end of the upcoming rest week, so I’ll go into it fairly well rested, sort of like a taper but within the normal periodicity of the plan.
The answer to almost every training question is “it depends”!
There’s a few main things that affect how much recovery you need:
So you can take one of two approaches to recovery. Follow a generic recovery recommendation or go by feel. Some people just aren’t capable of going by feel, either due to impatience or not being in tune with their body. Just like some people can feel out their FTP, some people are patient enough to do a proper FTP until TTE test, and others just have to take shortcuts (ramp test, 20 min test, AI).
This is a good example of recovering by feel. I would add that regardless of feel, if you’ve really pushed yourself recently, you take it easy whether your planned recovery “week” is here or not. Basically the same concept as Red Light / Green Light, though I’m not saying the specific implementation is great.
I take the rest week serious for most of it except the sunday ride, then I just do whatever.
This episode of the Empirical Cycling podcast is a great resource on this.
Don’t hit the gym on your weekly recovery day.
Im curious about this - what plan have you setup, how many days a week, interval days? Something does seem off with the large drop - are all of your rest weeks going forward like that?
I agree that dropping down to 80TSS seems a bit excessive. My plan is set for 250-280TSS on a masters riding 4 days a week with 2 interval days. Looking at my rest weeks my TSS drops down to 160ish - still 4 days a week, but all Z2.
I have noticed a marked difference in TSS reduction in recovery weeks with custom plan builder, vs predefined plans. With the custom plan builder rest weeks prescribing more volume and typically slightly higher intensity (low z2 vs true recovery rides with the predefined plans).
I follow the TR workout bits of my rest weeks but I must admit that social rides tend just to be ridden as norm and often people end up relying on me to be strong at the front.
I don’t use TR but you can generalize my experience.
First, the closer you are to your recovery limit coming out of the ‘work’ block, the more recovery you’ll need during your recovery week.
For me though, a full week of recovery rides is just too much. Unless the block before was something super hard like a concentrated VO2 block. So my typical rest week looks something like: (with a normal week being 5-6 days of riding, 2 hard days, and one lift)
Mon - light lift (volume and intensity cut by ~50%)
Tues - Off
Wed - Recovery Ride
Thurs - Off
Frid - 1.5-2hr low endurance
Sat - 3-4hr ride with FTP intervals
Sun - 4hr endurance ride
So it’s super low during the week and then basically back to work on the weekend. It’s been working well for me for the past year and a half or so. Keep in mind that your body has no concept of ‘weeks’. So it doesn’t know or care that you went easy Monday to Sunday. Just that you’re fully recovered before going hard again.
But also don’t just get back to work cause you’re feeling antsy or like you’re missing out on gains. It would be better to recover a bit too much during these weeks than to get back to work early and slowly grind yourself down.
though i have to say, i have a rest week this week and now finally the weather has turned… might go out for a longer ride than planned
“What have you had most success with?”
@JohnB if I’m trying to build fitness I will do enough work below 1st lactate threshold to maintain a flat chronic training load (or ‘fitness’ on intervals.icu). So if my chronic training load is 40 going into a recovery week I’ll still do ~280 total TSS endurance/recovery riding work. Sometimes I’ll increase the workout frequency so I can do more, smaller TSS workouts to achieve the same training stress.
In that way my build looks like three weeks of steady CTL increase followed by a week of CTL plateau…then more increase.
In the past when I’ve done structured programs, I follow the rest week pretty close, but maybe a longer endurance ride on the weekend.
My current training methodology is largely polarized. If I’m feeling good, my rest weeks will be similar in volume (maybe 80-90% time on the bike), but my power stays in the lower part of the 55-75% endurance zone for the week.
If my body is tired or I’m unexpectedly sore after one of these workouts, I’ll usually cut it back a bit more.
I’m only doing around 10-12 hrs a week on most weeks, so it might be different for people really in the process of building volume, or those already at a much higher volume. I’m mostly just not doing 15+ hrs due to time constraints at the moment, and not willing to cut into my sleep too much more to get there.