WHO THIS IS FOR
IS THIS YOU?
The rider who never takes easy weeks
You keep the volume high every week because rest feels like lost fitness, and you never reach the form you expect.
The cyclist coming off a hard training block or event
You have just finished a big week or a race and need to know how to structure the days that follow.
THE ROADMAN VIEW
The Roadman view
The most common mistake Anthony sees in self-coached amateurs is not overtraining the hard days — it is under-recovering the easy ones. A recovery week is not a concession to weakness. It is where the training you have already done turns into fitness. The adaptation happens in the recovery, not in the session.
The typical pattern is three hard weeks and one recovery week, though for masters riders it often flips to two-and-one. Dan Lorang's position on the podcast was direct: an athlete who skips recovery weeks consistently is not training harder — they are stacking fatigue on top of fatigue and eventually seeing their numbers go flat or backwards.
What does it actually look like? Two to four easy spins of 30–60 minutes, genuinely easy, no hard efforts. Eat properly. Sleep. Let the legs feel flat for a few days — that flatness is not fitness leaving, it is fatigue clearing. By day four or five most riders start to feel better than they have in weeks. That feeling is the point.
EXPERT EVIDENCE
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY
- Dan LorangHead of Performance, Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe
Recovery is a trainable input, not the absence of input. Planned recovery weeks are where the physiological adaptations from a training block consolidate. Athletes who resist them consistently underperform relative to their training load.
Hear it: Roglic's Coach Builds A Training Plan For Amateur Riders | Dan Lorang - Joe FrielAuthor of The Cyclist's Training Bible; coach to elite endurance athletes for over 40 years
The periodisation principle that works for every athlete from beginner to professional is the same: load, recover, adapt, repeat. Skipping the recover step breaks the cycle and caps the adaptation the hard weeks were designed to produce.
Hear it: Joe Friel's Cycling Training Plan Structure | Roadman Cycling
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
DO THIS WEEK
Drop volume to 40–50% and remove all intensity
If your normal week is 10 hours, a recovery week is 4–5 hours. No threshold efforts, no intervals. Every session stays below zone 2. This is not negotiable — half-hearted recovery weeks produce half-hearted recovery.
Ride short and often rather than doing nothing
Two to four rides of 30–60 minutes keeps the aerobic system ticking without adding meaningful stress. Complete rest for a week causes more fatigue on the return than easy spinning — the legs stiffen and the first hard session feels harder, not easier.
Use the week to address everything else
Sleep, nutrition, mobility, and admin. Eat enough carbohydrate even though you are riding less — glycogen replenishment is part of the week's purpose. This is also a good window for a bike fit tweak or equipment audit.
COMMON MISTAKES
WHAT CYCLISTS GET WRONG
MISTAKEDoing recovery weeks at 70–80% volume because 50% feels lazy.
FIXThe threshold for meaningful recovery is a real drop. 80% is just a normal week with fewer intervals — fatigue does not clear at that load.
MISTAKEOnly taking a recovery week when you feel broken.
FIXSchedule them in advance every 3–4 weeks. Waiting until you are depleted means you have already lost two to three weeks of potential adaptation.
MISTAKEUnder-eating during the recovery week.
FIXThe body needs carbohydrate and protein to rebuild during recovery. Cutting calories because you are riding less prolongs the recovery process rather than accelerating it.
FAQ
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How often should cyclists have a recovery week?
Will I lose fitness in a recovery week?
What is the difference between a recovery week and a deload?
Should I do any intensity at all during a recovery week?
How do I know when a recovery week is working?
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