Originally Posted by
ooga-booga
so is a "recovery mile" after a hard interval a junk mile? how about a "cool-down mile" (or five) after a decently-paced/mountain century? asking for a friend...
i'll take a junk mile any day (not working on cardio, pushing the big ring/biggest gear) over sitting on the couch. different riders have different objectives/wants/needs/constraints/hangups.
if a junk mile is pushing < 400w...then 95% of my miles are junk miles. happy to be a junkman.
My initial understanding when I started this thread was that junk miles were easy miles. However, I have learned that easy miles can have a training benefit. For recovery and cool down as you state. However, not everybody believes in the value of active recovery. There are differences of opinion about what kinds of activities yield a training benefit. There are some interesting and informative exchanges between contributors with differing opinions above. Also some links to interesting resources.
Part of what I train for is to ride my bike. I train to live I do not live to train. YMMV