So I went to Mallorca to train from Friday to Wednesday. I did 18 hours of riding in 4 days (around 1000 TSS), mostly pretty low intensity, so I would get out of the camp fresh.
I went out nearly 6 hours on tuesday, doing 135 kilometers and about 2500 meters elevation… i did nothing yesterday (wednesday). Today i’m back in Denmark feeling fatigued. Flu like symptoms, but I dont think I have the flu. Just feeling fatigued and like i’m going to get sick. I had a VO2 Max workout today, although Yesterday was a red day, which dont make any sense to me. So I skipped it.
My question is; should I just rest til I feel recovered, or follow the plan from tomorrow? I have an hour endurance ride tomorrow, a two hour sweet spot on saturday, a two and a half hour endurance ride on sunday, followed by a rest day on monday.
Nothing wrong with ignoring the plan after a big camp like that. 18 hours and 1000 TSS over 4 days is huge!!
Especially if you’re feeling borderline sick – that’s definitely a sign that you should take it easy. I’d even encourage you to take a few days off the bike entirely and ease back into things with some zone 1 spins/easy endurance riding once you’re feeling more recovered.
After that, once you feel fresher, I’d say you’d be good to get back into your plan. Adaptive Training will propose adaptations to get you back on track once you’re ready! Plus, you’ll be recovered and be able to benefit from the fitness you’ll have gained from the camp once all that fatigue is shed off.
What about nutrition? During Camp i ate pretty much all I could, and fueled alot on the bike too. Should i keep calories a bit higher than normal for a couple more days?
I’m not a registered dietician, but for general guidance, I’d say continuing to eat if you’re still feeling hungry after such a big block of riding is a good idea. I wouldn’t shy away from carbs either!
I wouldn’t say it’s necessary to force-feed yourself if you’re not hungry, but this period of recovery after a training camp is definitely not the time to shy away from food. I know that I’ve personally had trouble eating enough to keep up with big blocks of training like that in the past because of how many calories you end up burning with so much riding, so I’d say eat up!
I think that would be a good approach to take here. Give it as much time as you need – it might only be a day or two, or it might take a week. It varies from athlete to athlete.
The most important thing here is getting back to that “normal” feeling again. Jumping back into hard training while you still feel fatigued/sick will only make those sensations worse, so rest up now and you’ll be back on track for the long run once you’re feeling better!
I’ve gotten the advice to try starting a given ride, and be willing to play it by ear.
Example would be that you came back, had a red day, then apparently a green day with Vo2 scheduled. You started the day not feeling great, and the idea would be to head out on the ride and do your warmup, maybe even the first set, and see how you actually feel. I’ve had lots of training days/races, where I thought there was no way, and I actually just needed a longer warmup or to get the rust off.
The key is that you remain open to stopping if that’s what your body tells you to do.
+1 on comments about taking it easy. I’ve beat myself down like that before and here’s what works for me -
Relax and eat healthy until you don’t feel like you are getting sick (hopefully no more than a day or 2). You will likely still not feel like training hard at that point, but I personally find it helpful to get on the bike and spin easy for an hour or so, like under 50% of FTP. Do that daily until you feel ready to train. For whatever reason, spinning out the legs daily gets me back quicker than pure rest.
And maybe stating the obvious, but a rest/easy week is ideal after a big push. If it wasn’t already scheduled on your calendar, it might be worth shuffling you plan a bit to bring a rest week in and then start a new block after. Otherwise, you might end up resting this week and then having another rest week right away or only 2 weeks from now.
So I did 45 min today at 55% of FTP. Felt pretty good. I guess it’s just a matter of being honest to myself about how I feel from here, and increase intensity from there…
