How do you recover - recovery ride
 

I'm doing a long (for me) ride Saturday: 130 miles that includes about 30 miles of dirt and 12K feet of climbing. I've been training with longer mileage rides with very steep sections and I seem to have gotten slower, so I know I'm tired and maybe overtrained though age might also be a factor.

I'm curious to know what some of you do to recover before a long and hilly endurance event. How much time off before long event? Do you do short, easy rides? It's really tough for me to do a flat "recovery" ride because there isn't much flat where I live - though I could drive somewhere. Using a trainer is a possibility though pretty darned boring. I'm in my 50s which is a factor.

I take two days off the bike before a big ride. Although I probably would be ok with just one.

However, I am never overtrained (have the opposite problem), so I don't enter into that 2 day period with any significant accumulated fatigue.

sounds like you need more rest as a general thing. I like to ride most days, but taking a couple of days off before a long, difficult ride is probably a good idea.

If you're getting slower and have evidence to support that conclusion, you're overtrained. The usual evidence is having to grab a cog lower on a climb you've done many times and that not getting any better. Training should involve getting faster. If you're not getting faster, you're doing it wrong.

All that said, a reasonable taper for a next Saturday ride is:
Saturday: 60 miles, some hills, some hard work but not too much.
Sunday: Off
Monday: 1 hour on the trainer of light to moderate effort with maximum efforts of 4 x 30" X 4'.
Tuesday: Same thing, but 3 X 30".
Wednesday: Same as Tuesday.
Thursday: 30' recovery on the trainer.
Friday: Off.

There are many similar tapers, but this is the idea. Way less time, but still a little intensity, just not enough to tire a person. The use of the trainer is to prevent overdoing it.

Some long distance cyclists simply do nothing for the whole week, but I don't think that's optimal.

I eat lots of protein 2 days before. I eat high fiber the day before (I prefer beans). The day of the ride I carb up with massive amounts of oatmeal for breakfast, and carb up during the entire ride.
I ride 50-65 miles in Z2 and Z3 2 days before. Day before I take it easy in Z2 ride for 25-40 miles.
If there are hills around, no worries, just keep it in Zone 2.

Before a major ride, the plan is generally to take a day off, eat extra calories, and go to bed early.

If I'm not hurting anywhere the day after the major ride (generally my left knee or butt), I'll just pootle around at low intensity to relieve muscle soreness.

Three weeks ago (3/8 and 3/15) I got crazy and rode a 400K on two consecutive Saturdays. The first had approximately 6800 feet of climbing, and the second was almost flat. I did a pretty hard 28 mile ride on the Wednesday before each ride, and took 2 full days off before each 400K. I felt great and had good legs for both rides, and I'm in my mid-60's. Rest up for a couple of days and you'll be eager to ride and shouldn't have any problems.

Thanks for the posts and advice. I think I'm probably overtraining as I'm tired, I do use a lower gear on hills than usual and I don't feel that power while climbing that I had not too long ago. There is another factor - I've been riding my new CX bike I bought so I can ride dirt as much as possible while mostly riding on the road. The bike is so much fun but it is very heavy - 8 pounds more than my road bike. Maybe I need the lower gear for the increased weight? Not sure.

Ride is in 3 days. I found a flat ride to spin for 17 miles today. I can see the benefit of using a trainer because there's no way to ride with a group and keep it easy; at least I don't have that kind of discipline.

I don't understand the nomenclature of "maximum efforts of 4 x 30" X 4' ". Is that 4 efforts of 30 seconds? What's the 4 minutes when the workout is 60 minutes? Thanks.

You might notice that the heavier bike is a little more sluggish, but not another cog's worth.

Nomenclature = 4 reps of 30 seconds with 4 minutes recovery between them. So warm up, say 20 minutes, then do the reps, then finish out the hour at a recovery pace.

Take today, tomorrow and Friday off.

If you are not rabid for the 130 miler, just do a short easy ride and start building back up. I agree with all the other posters, you are over reached a bit and need some recovery. How much? Can't say. Three days sounds excessive but honestly, we all know you are doing the ride Saturday. Three days might be enough to keep you from digging the hole deeper.

Rest, sleep, nutrition, stretching. After a hard long ride take the following day off, then recovery ride to spin the legs out on the next day. 2 days before a big ride an easy spin, keep the HR and watts down, then take the day before off.

At the very least it will be a good opportunity to get other stuff done in the next 2 days! The bike has consumed me over the last couple months. I'm really looking forward to the big ride - despite another heat wave here in So. Cal.

I think the fact that you pose your question about "recovery" rides - as a means of preparing for a big, yet to be ridden event - demonstrates at how weirdly language can be distorted about exercise.

If you want insights in to how to prepare for an event - it helps if you use normally shared terminology for exercise, or "exercise science."

Good luck, don't discard the idea of going back to the basics and reading basic book on exercise to refresh your ideas about health, fitness and improving your performance. There are dozens, if not hundreds of good books.

The resident one-eyed bandit makes a fine point.

Recovery should be after the big ride.

How do the legs feel the day after?

Did you go for a light 10 mile spin at Grandpa pace today?

if you train hard, recovery is a big part of it. If your training is JRA, then you don't necessarily need to recover, but that's not a particularly good training plan.

I tend to be freshest after a 3 day rest. One or two days off are also good, but longer than three is worse. OTOH, I can also ride day after day with little built up fatigue, but by about day six a day off makes me fresher.

When I used to do tours riding about 100+ miles daily, I'd usually plan a soft day every 5 or so.

BTW- Sometimes you don't need an off the bike day to recover, just an easy ride day, where you're still riding, but not working anything hard.