Down day

Monday, June 25, 2012

Legs aren’t exactly stiff, but they’re tired – more tired than yesterday morning, I think. Tired enough that I decided not to hike to Winco. (Anne didn’t feel like it, either.)

I think I’m experiencing the Second Day Slump. And that I probably should plan for this, in the future. Which means that I should always have AT LEAST two rest days between rides. I stretched for 15 minutes. I plan to take it easy, stay on my feet as little as possible, keep legs elevated when possible – hoping to enhance my recovery.

Meanwhile, I’m planning to ride tomorrow morning.
The amount of volume and the type of work performed during the training session will dictate how long it will take for strength & fitness levels to improve.Your initial fitness levels will also dictate how long it will take for your fitness levels to improve (i.e. the higher your work capacity, the quicker you will recover from workouts). If the body can not recover back to baseline levels, the exhaustion stage occurs. The exhaustion stage indicates that overtraining has occurred. The goal of training is to time training sessions accurately so that the next training session coincides with the Supercompensation stage. This term means that our strength & fitness levels have increased above our initial levels.If insufficient recovery time is not given between training sessions, the athlete's strength & fitness levels will drop further below baseline and more time will then be needed for the athlete to supercompensate. – from the web.

More good stuff when googling "supercompensation."  Explains a lot of what I've been dealing with.

I need to start assembling a file so I can go into this more deeply.  If I can find the time and energy.

Down for nap and slept at 2; refreshed but aware that I’m near the nadir of the recovery cycle. Feeling recovered yesterday was an illusion.
5:30 – Legs are tired, unsteady, and stiff. Carrying one of Anne’s paintings, I almost lost my balance.


Re-thinking the plans to ride tomorrow morning!