More on Recovery on Demand

As you have more than likely figured out by now, I’m quite focused on recovery this past few days. My last three posts have been on this topic. It’s the one area that I have found athletes understand the least about and where they make the greatest errors in their training. Most don’t fully comprehend how important recovery is for performance. So here are some more thoughts on the subject.

Last June I posted a blog here about Darren Smith, an Aussie coach, who works with elite triathletes, mostly ITU World Cup competitors. In that blog I mentioned Darren’s use of what he calls “recovery on demand.” In that post I mentioned how this is really the best way to determine when an athlete should recover, both short term and long term. Short term means that an occasional easy training day may be necessary. Darren would determine that by having a conversation with the athlete each morning. With the personal data he collects on the athlete over the course of a few days he can determine if an extended break from training may be appropriate. Training resumes when he has determined that the athlete is adequately recovered. This is along the lines of what I explained in yesterday's post.

All of this reminds me of a presentation I went to almost 20 years ago. The Berlin wall had been down for some time by that point and Communist government of East Germany was gone. A former director of their Olympic sport program was visiting Fort Collins, Colorado, where I lived at the time, and was invited to speak at the local sports medicine clinic. Other than the use of performance enhancing drugs, which he “suggested” was done, he said that their success in the Olympics was due to the environment that was common for many East German athletes. Most lived in dorms where their sleep, nutrition, access to coaches and much more made for a very sport-focused lifestyle. He said that every day a coach or group of sports professionals would meet individually with athletes and decide what they should do that day. He believed this was the single most important thing they did from a coaching perspective to produce world class athletes. This is Darren’s recovery on demand.

As a serious athlete this is a great tool if you if you have the self-awareness and self-control to make a decision every morning about what you should do in training relative to what you have planned. Unfortunately, athletes tend to believe that more is better and that if they rest they are losing ground to their competition. That’s why most athletes are better off having a coach, such as Darren, who knows what he or she is doing and can provide guidance. The second best option is to use TrainingPeaks.com’s Performance Management Chart to help make decisions. I mentioned this in yesterday’s post, also. But realize that the PMC isn’t magic. You still have to learn what all of the data means and spend some time each day analyzing your current status. I’ll get into more detail on that in a future post. For now here’s a post from a while back which will give you some insight into what I’m talking about here.

Comments

[Kasperbs]

Does muscle soreness have anything to do with the need to recover?

Yesterday I had an interval session 3x10 km. at TT speed.

During warm-up I could feel that my vastus medialis was sitll a little bit sore. But after warm-up, it got better.

The day prior to that I had a rest day and sunday had a long ride in Zone 1 and saturday was a 3 hr. hilly "race like" session.

I finished the intervals with no problems, but was wondering, if I should have scaled back when I felt that my muscles hadn't completely recovered?

[Joe Friel]

Jasper's--it is very difficult to offer sound advice on what constitutes the need for a recovery ride. I've seen athletes have sore muscles during a taper-peak period for no apparent reason. Unfortunately, it's not a pure science. It's still an art. These sorts of decisions must be made on the fly. When in doubt, however, it is best to be conservative, meaning take a day of recovery.

[Kasperbs]

@Joe
Thanks. It makes sense.

What's the general advice on recovery-rides? Here I'm thinking as in the easiest Zone 1 or below intensity.

Are there any evidence that recovery rides are better than simply staying off the bike completely?

I ask because on rest days in the great Tours, you always see the riders out on their bikes for a short while. They never just rest.

[Joe Friel]

Kasperbs--The newer one is to at or the lower one's fitness the more benefit from a day off instead of a ride. For those who are highly fit an easy ride is more beneficial, generally, than a day off.

[Michael]

Do you have any experience with HRV readings, such as iThlete, OmegaWave or BioForce?

Thanks for the great blog!

Michael

[Miguel In Du Rain]

Joe

On recovery, or rest for that matter I'd be interested for your view on a hot topic in English Cricket right now.

James Anderson is one of the best fast bowlers in the world. He has been rested for a 5 day match against the West Indies when the 3 match series has already been secured. It will enable another young bowler the chance to gain much needed experience and is a move I support.

There is great debate about whether he should be rested or not. James is 29 years old and typically fast bowlers remain at their best until around 33/34 when their pace starts to fall. Is there empirical evidence (say on baseball pitchers as the most comparable physical action which would be well researched) that suggests reduced workload has prolonged a players career?

[Joe Friel]

Miguel--Afraid I can't be of any help here. I've never seen anything on rest and pitchers' longevity.

[Joe Friel]

Michael, I don't. Sorry I can't be of help here.

[Boon]

Hi Joe,

Great series of post on recovery. Is it ok if I ask you something about the week leading up to a A-priority race on Sunday?

In your training bible, it says the week should be done as a race like workout on tuesday (M2, M3, A2) for 3/4 duration as race and Wednesday, a long E2 ride the same duration as the race. However, in your blog post on such weeks, you advocated doing 5*1.5mins race pace efforts on Monday, 4*1.5mins on tuesday, 3*1.5mins Wednesday etc. Which should I follow?

Thanks in advance, Joe!

Cheers

[Joe Friel]

Boon--I think you're confusing what I said about training in a peak week as opposed to a race week. Race week is the 90 sec intervals.

[joseph friel]

i went to syracuse in 1986 from ireland, an pitch a ball for the syracuse team .and my is joseph friel from derry city in the north of ireland.if you rember this guy from ireland feel free to email me thanks at.joeamber@btinternet.com

[Joe Friel]

Joseph--I hope you don't have the problem of being called "Joel" by most people. :)