Rest Days or Z2 Forever?

Training
21

I don’t really think it depends, personally. I think everyone needs to take days away from the bike periodically, if for nothing else than a psychological/stress reset. Riding can become more compulsion than anything, and people need to recognize that and be able to step away from it.

I generally have all of my athletes take one day off each week (meaning no bike or strength work), and then I usually program at least two full rest days during recovery weeks. I have a couple of guys who will usually do a recovery spin on those “off” days and I don’t mind that if it’s what they really want to do and doesn’t impact their stress levels. One, in particular, seems to refuse to take a full day off, but his recovery rides are literally 1hr at 40% and he just zones out, so it meets the intent.

If you’re doing Z2 every day, that’s different IMO. I wouldn’t.

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22

Lesson’s I learned the hard way:

  • You can’t keep on the gas forever. You need a season break.
  • You can’t keep on the gas forever. You need to ease back the intensity once in a while.
  • You need a day off now and then (but not too many).
  • Tons of mileage and not doing workouts is not recovery.
  • The training you did in your 20’s is not optimal for you later in life.
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23

IMO it is important to have rest days focused on leg rest, so if you’re into upper body work like strength training those are the ideal days for it. 5 days on the bike, 2 days upper body strength training. But there are always people who’ve been riding since they were 10 years old so, at age 35, two hours Z2 might be considered rest for them.

24

When you’re tired or bored? Xert, as one example, would probably not recommend a rest day, in the example scenario you’ve laid out.

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25

Actually it mostly was, trying riding tempo and above for those durations.

26

I only take complete days off when I don’t have time, or feel like I can’t bike or really don’t want to bike. In practice, this ends up being about once a week. I don’t schedule them in, though.
For reference, I’m very fit and my CTL is in the high 90s right now.
I would rather spin my legs for 45-75min with a very low HR (for me 110ish) than take a day off.

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27

I’m the same. I don’t schedule rest days but life (work, dad life, etc) gives me rest days. Sometimes it’s once a week, sometimes I train 10 days or more straight. I do pay close attention to the types of workouts I do though. If I’m on a 10+ day streak I make sure I’m mixing in very easy rides like Lazy Mountain and not doing more than 2 or 3 high intensity rides plus 2 days of lifting.

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28

Good approach for busy people who have things that pop up, as long as they honor it. I have a couple people I program 7 days/week for and we just slide when the inevitable missed day comes up, which is usually once a week.

The drawback of this is those missed days are usually very stressful anyway, so I’m not sure how “restful” it is and I still pre-program days completely off the bike for these people periodically. Stress is stress.

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29

+1. But probably best not to stack more on top of it… so I am sure there is some good done there!

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