Onto the final installment of my series looking at the best bang for your buck changes you can make to maximise training gains.
I talk about the 4 Rs of recovery - REhydrate, REpair, REfuel (so glycogen, protein and hydration) all covered in the nutrition section of this series) and then REst - including sleep and time for recovery. Let's now look into that time for recovery in a bit more detail:
You might have already heard me mention this one, but remember (say it along with me) 'you don’t get fitter from training. You get fitter from recovery from training'.
Now before we disappear down a rabbit hole of ice baths and compression etc, remember we're talking about getting the basics right here. We’ve already covered the biggies of sleep and nutrition in terms of recovery. After them, one of the most effective recovery methods is some really low intensity exercise, for example a veeeerrrry easy swim or spin (for those who talk FTP, we're talking 45-50%, yes that low!) on the bike. Most people struggle to do these at low enough intensity. Remember the goal here is to accelerate recovery and the gains from training you've already done.
It's also important to make time for recovery in your training plan. Pretty much all my plans have a rest day every week and a rest (or I call it a consolidation week) every few weeks so that your body has time to recover. You should come back from that rest week feeling on top form, not just because you’ve had some rest, but because your body has rebuilt itself stronger in that time.
If you're someone who struggles to keep still and rest then try doing some gentle mobility work instead, see my blog on how adding just 5 minutes mobility work to your training plans can make all the difference.
Finally, don’t make the mistake of saying ‘this week I’ve got a massive deadline at work so I wont be able to train much so I’ll make that my rest week'. Your body doesn’t differentiate between training stress and life stress – it's all stress. So if life stress is up that isn’t a recovery week.
Want help on putting these tips into practice? All my training plans include regular coaching calls where we discuss these sort of issues, including your nutrition plan for races, and your mindset around rest and recovery or how to prioritise time for this.
>> Find out more about my personalised training plans with coaching
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