The Benefits of Resting When Training With Power Meters

I don’t know if you’ve heard this before – training makes you slower, recovery makes you faster. Think about it for a minute nest time you are sitting on your turbo trainer looking over the figures from your power meter or heart rate monitor …If you were to ride hard every day would you get faster? Or would you start to notice a stiffness in your legs, an inability to sprint, your wattage decreasing on your power meter, an sluggish heart rate on your heart rate monitor at the high end and eventually a debilitating fatigue that stops you riding and racing?

Training breaks muscle down, rest periods , such as when you are sleeping, is when it rebuilds. In a period of heavy training we need more than just our regular sleep. Days off of the bike are just as important as days on the bike.

You can bet that somewhere there are successful pro cyclists right this minute tapering for a big event or recovering from training blocks by doing rest. They’re not doing ‘nothing’ , they really are doing ‘rest’

So what sort of things can you do to aid this rest, recovery, repair and get results?
Firstly plan ahead to maximise your rest days – book a sports massage, go to the gym and chill in the sauna or steam room, sit in the Jacuzzi or just get some honiez back to chill in a hot tub with you!
Rent your favourite film on DVD and lay on the sofa or couch for the afternoon watching it
Cook some slow healthy food and take the time to enjoy eating it
Take care of outstanding paperwork from your couch so you don’t have to worry about it when you are riding next.
Have a lie in in the morning or take a long siesta.
Play with your kids or snuggle up with your partner who you’ve probably neglected during your training phases.

And what are the things you shouldn't do? Well, don’t work late in the office to catch up on things you ignored to go training. Don’t cross train and definitely don't lose the benefits of resting by doing a hard commute on the bike.

You might feel like you need to be doing 'something' but trust me you are... the real magic is going on in a place you can't see it and it works best when you are resting.