All in a day's work

There is a fairly simple reason why recovery is the blind spot of training: in a performance-driven world obsessed with pushing boundaries and seeking that extra effort that will make all the difference, it seems boring and counterproductive. 

We feel that we improve by training, which is true. When we rest, we are sometimes plagued by the opposite impression of being lazy, of letting ourselves go. 

Except that there is no improvement without rest. 

Adaptation

To simplify the fitness improvement cycle as much as possible, let's say that it involves putting significant stress on the body, giving it time to recover and adapt, then increasing the stress, and then recovering again.

If you neglect rest, it will be impossible to make progress, since your body will not have the chance to adapt, nor to regain the energy needed to repeat the effort you made previously. Without adequate recovery, you are not only doomed to stagnate at a certain level of fitness, but also likely to regress. 

Not to mention the risk of illness, because it is the immune system that repairs the body after exercise. When it is fully engaged in training, without rest, it can no longer always protect us against viruses, bacteria, and other external elements that threaten our overall health. 

Or worse still, reaching such high levels of stress that you could suffer from exhaustion and then overtraining.

That's why it's important not only to respect the rest periods in a training block, but also to recognize the signs of fatigue that may indicate that we need to modify our plan. 

Getting to know each other

If we consider the body as a machine, then we must view it as an extremely complex device that contains not only plumbing, electricity, and an impressive electronic circuit, but also emotions. 

All these components contain clues that we need to be able to detect, and which indicate our level of fatigue.

This means that the variables we consider relevant for measuring our efforts and establishing our training plans should be equally relevant for analyzing our fatigue and planning our recovery.

What's more, these variables are also used to adapt training and make it even more effective. As we mentioned above, a well-rested body trains better and reaps more benefits from the stress that training imposes on it. 

Sleep time, heart rate upon waking (or heart rate variability if you have a tool to measure it), and blood values are ways to check on your overall health. 

But things are not that simple. Beyond these objective measures, several subjective observations allow us to better perceive our actual fatigue and act accordingly. Hence the importance of learning to listen to your body as well as your mind. In other words, to know yourself.

The algorithm and the log

More and more tools are available to cyclists to measure their fitness level. Whether it's Today's Plan, TrainingPeaks, or GoldenCheetah, these tools allow cyclists to measure the short-, medium-, and long-term effects of their training load.

Essentially, these tools provide an objective measure of fitness as a balance between training stress and rest.

But we are not all the same. And so the magic number is not the same for everyone. Not to mention everything else that no software can measure: do you feel stressed or depressed? Have you had enough sleep? Are you experiencing financial difficulties or problems in your relationship? Is the baby sick? Does your job take up so much of your time that you no longer have a social life?

This is emotional TSS that adds to your training load and affects your fitness. It also affects your recovery.

The ideal solution is therefore to keep a training journal to force yourself to take the time to listen to yourself.

You will record objective data: workouts completed, TSS, heart rates, or variability if you have a WHOOP, for example. But also how you feel that day. First, physically: describe how you feel before, during, and after your workout. Don't forget to mention what's going on in your life. Do you feel depressed, do your loved ones complain about your mood, have you lost interest in everything, do you feel afflicted by severe general fatigue? Or, on the contrary, are you bursting with happiness and motivation? 

Resting is not giving up

Then there is the question of what to do when things don't go as they should.

First, you have to accept that rest is an important part of getting in shape. Then, you have to accept that one day off, or even two or three, won't ruin all the work you've done so far. On the contrary: it's unhealthy overload that could break you.

Then, you need to adjust your training accordingly. Even if it means revising your goals if you find that work, family, and life obligations are weighing you down and preventing you from following your program. 

Is this the wrong time of year for an intense block that involves many hours and requires a lot of motivation? If so, perhaps you should postpone your goals until another time of the season, or even until next year.

If you need to take some time off and reassess your ambitions, tell yourself that this is not a failure. It is a step back in order to move forward even faster in the future.