Originally Posted by
oilman_15106
Read somewhere that the recovery ride theory does not hold water. Not recommending this but the thought was to just ride as hard as you feel you can the day after a hard ride. A several mile walk will also do for a recovery ride repalacement.
Not saying you are wrong- but I use the recovery ride to get the muscles working. No strain put on them and this normally means low gears and high cadence. The muscles get put through their full movement and blood flows to get rid them of any toxins left.
Getting the HR up to about 70% of my max seems to do the trick- but if you do not have a monitor- that just means breathing firmly for a good proportion of the ride.
Best recovery ride I have ever done was straight after a long hard century ride. It finished not far from home- about 8 miles- so I rode the Tandem home solo. No power put in anywhere- cadence kept up to around 100 to 110 and what would normally have been a 30 minute ride- took 3 times longer. Next day there was not an ache of even a sign of any muscle damage. Not bad after a 12 hour ride that usually took about 3 days to recover from.