Background: I took 2 weeks off for a business travel and a short vacation, only to catch COVID just as I returned. Had a medium case and gradually started adding in easy Z2 workouts and slowly increasing intensity. I have now done 2 “achievable” SS workouts. Data (RHR, SS HR, etc) suggest that I’m now recovered, and I had planned/hoped to do my scheduled workout tomorrow (with PLs much reduced by AT) due to all the skipped workouts), only to realize that I’m now in a recovery week. And my A event is only 4 weeks away. This event is just a friendly century where I want to finish strong, so I’m not at all concerned about any sort of fine tuning in the few remaining weeks.
My thinking is that at this point I don’t really have any accumulated fatigue from which to recover. AFAIK, there is no way to trick the TR plan into removing the recovery week, so I’m contemplating just replicating the skipped workouts from last week. But I’m quite open to other suggestions on the best way to bridge the gap between recovery and “the plan”.
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Better to just take the recovery week. If you over shoot and feel fatigued going into the century, you’ll regret it
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Seconded, take the recovery week.
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I can’t speak for the other responses but if you haven’t come off at least a consecutive three week training block (potentially four) I wouldn’t take a week off. I’d focus on putting some quality “achievable” sessions together, build from there, and take your recovery the week before your century ride.
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In the last 4 weeks there have just been 7 rides in total — all in the the last two weeks. Several of those were short z2 being careful not to risk my COVID recovery. So only 2 rides with any intensity and those were both SS last week. The latest of those (Sunday) felt easy as it was a low WL.
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I’m no expert, and I’m just another guy on the internet but damn if I’d be taking a recovery week after all that time off. I had covid in March, right after a two week vacation, I did a gradual build into a six week block. Then took a recovery week. Note, my HR would sporadically be super elevated on rides, and some weeks I’d have a random day of fatigue for no rhyme or reason. My training remained strong and I stopped having any symptoms within about a month or so. take it slow and steady.
If you’re feeling good re:COVID, no reason you can’t do some work for three weeks and then take a recovery into your century. Just be reasonable. Anything you do now isn’t going to impact century performance greatly in four weeks. So don’t go trying to crush yourself for gainz… just do some relevant work, make sure you’re recovering between workouts, and then take a few days off, then some easy stuff with openers before the 100.
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Is a “recovery week” for you a week off or just chill Z2 riding?
I wouldn’t take a week off but I wouldn’t kill myself trying to make up for lost time. Is there middle ground here?
Just the typical TR recovery week. 5 Z2 workouts. Most are 1.5 or 2 hr, with one easy 1 hr ride. Am in a HV plan.
If that’s the case I’d rather error on the side of recovery than not enough. Maybe take this week easy, see how you feel, get the rust off and get a couple medium intensity weeks in before your race.
About two weeks before a big marathon I was training for I tweaked my calf doing a stupid track workout due to me going too fast. I knew there was nothing I could do to get in better shape at that point and my best shot at maximizing my potential was to let it heal. I took a week off and still was there so took a few more days. I did some light running a few days off and ran the race. Ended up right where I expected.
Not that this works for everyone but I think it’s better to be 90% fit and 100% healthy than 100% fit and 90% healthy.
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Second @kurt.braeckel and the other responses from above, no need to take a recovery week just because you put that plan in ages ago. You did your Z2 return and some intensity to test the waters.
Sounds like your reasonable with your return to training. Don’t give yourself a hard time if you need to decrease the intensity of the workout a little bit to make it work while returning.
Have you used anotations to let AT know that you have been traveling and have been sick? It’s my understanding that AT would have updated your plan if you did and not have you do a recovery week now.
I did put in the vacation in AT, but as near as I can tell you cannot annotate skipped workouts. Just failed workouts. Did I miss something?
Yeah - have decided to just substitute 2 low, “productive” SS workouts. Might do a much longer z2 on Sunday if I feel up to it.
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Ah, figured out now how to annotate the period I was down with COVID. Did not change the current week in the plan, nor did it trigger any adaptations so far.
Sounds great! Good luck for your return and race