Bike training is hard work. Cyclists have a “go for it” attitude and are typically very motivated. As such, it’s often difficult for a cyclist to take a day and recover.
I’m moving into a block of training where I’m performing threshold level intervals several times per week. I rode a total of 60 minutes at this level this past Saturday (broken up into long intervals), then 55 minutes at this level on Monday and 55 minutes today.
I got on the bike today and my legs had nothing. You know the feeling. As hard as I tried, they just didn’t respond. My heart rate was nowhere near it should have been and I could do nothing to bring it up.
So the question went through my head: Should I train hard today per my schedule, or should I recover?” Well……..I trained hard, as most of us dedicated cyclists would, right?
My reasoning is that while you want to be fresh and rested for most of your diffcult workouts in order to ”break through” to a new level of performance, there are days that you simply have to fight your way through the workout.
There are days when you’re not at your best. There are races when you’re not at your best. But you must find a way to battle when your body says “stop!” That’s what I did today. No, it was not the best quality workout and it may not benefit me all that much physically.
Mentally though, today was a fantastic workout. I fought and I battled all the way through these very difficult intervals. My body wanted me to stop and my mind told me it’d be OK to back off. But perservering gave me a great mental boost.
Now the next workout or race when I just don’t have it, I’ll be able to look back at today’s ride and know that I can get through it.
And tomorrow’s ride will be VERY, VERY easy. Ridiculously easy. I can’t wait!
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