Originally Posted by
lhbernhardt
When I was racing, the rest day would be TWO days before. The day before would be a short ride but with some high-intensity thrown in. This set you up for a hard effort the next day.
It also helped to have a vegetarian (or very light on meat) meal the night before. I'm not a veggie, but meat takes a lot of energy to digest, and I could feel the difference in performance if I held off on the steak until after the ride.
And extra hydration also helped. You should have to get up and use the bathroom at least once during the night.
So if the event is on Saturday, I'd take the bus in on Thursday, and then ride in on Friday, freely engaging in any informal street racing. Heck, I'd even ride in on Thursday, but without making anything resembling a hard effort ("active rest").
Luis
This is an interesting approach. Now that I think of it, if I don't ride during a weekend, my legs feel the best on my Tuesday commute, after warming them up on the Monday commute. I'll have to try this next time. Too late for this weekend - I rode Thursday and am taking today off the bike before back-to-back 200's this weekend.