WHO THIS IS FOR
IS THIS YOU?
The rider who 'never has an easy day'
Your recovery spins keep drifting up into Zone 2 and you're always a little flat.
The structured amateur
You follow a plan and want to know exactly how soft a recovery ride should be.
THE ROADMAN VIEW
The Roadman view
These two get blurred constantly, and the blur costs riders their progress. Zone 2 is training. It's the big aerobic base Seiler talks about — ridden at a pace you could hold a conversation through, but long enough that the last hour is doing real work on your mitochondria and fat oxidation. A recovery ride is not that. It sits a clear step below, and its only purpose is to flush the legs without asking the body to adapt to anything.
Anthony has put this to the World Tour coaches on the podcast, and the pattern is consistent: pros ride their genuine easy days easy, and their recovery days easier still. Christian Schrot's point about why pros train so easy applies twice over here — the recovery spin is meant to feel almost embarrassingly soft. If you finish it and feel like you've trained, you've missed the point and eaten into tomorrow's hard session.
So the test is simple. After a Zone 2 ride you should feel pleasantly worked but fine. After a recovery ride you should feel better than when you started — looser, not more tired. If your 'recovery' rides leave a mark, pull them down below 55% of FTP, cap them at 30–60 minutes, and let them do their actual job.
EXPERT EVIDENCE
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY
- Professor Stephen SeilerExercise physiologist, polarised-training researcher
Easy endurance riding is a deliberate aerobic stimulus, not filler. Recovery riding is a separate, lower category again — low enough that it promotes circulation and clearance without contributing measurable training load.
Hear it: Secret To Cycling Fast At A Low Heart Rate | Prof Seiler - Christian SchrotPerformance Coach, Team Jayco
Pros ride their easy days genuinely easy and their recovery days softer still. Amateurs lose progress by treating every ride as a chance to push — the recovery spin is supposed to feel almost too gentle.
Hear it: Why Your Cycling Training Has Stalled | Roadman Cycling Podcast
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
DO THIS WEEK
Set two separate ceilings
Zone 2 caps at ~75% of FTP. A recovery ride caps at ~55% of FTP. Put both numbers on your head unit so you stop riding one when you mean the other.
Cap recovery rides by time
Keep them to 30–60 minutes. A recovery ride doesn't need duration — duration is the Zone 2 stimulus you're deliberately avoiding on a rest day.
Use the after-feeling as your check
Finish a recovery ride feeling looser than you started. If you feel trained, it was Zone 2, and tomorrow's quality session will pay for it.
COMMON MISTAKES
WHAT CYCLISTS GET WRONG
MISTAKERiding recovery days in Zone 2 because it feels lazy otherwise.
FIXRecovery is meant to feel soft. Drop below 55% FTP and let the day do its job — flushing the legs, not training them.
MISTAKEMaking recovery rides long.
FIXKeep them short. Duration is a training stimulus; on a recovery day you want the opposite of stimulus.
MISTAKESkipping recovery rides and sitting fully still instead.
FIXFor many riders gentle spinning clears the legs better than total rest — just keep it genuinely easy and brief.
FAQ
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What power is a recovery ride?
How long should a recovery ride be?
Is a recovery ride better than a rest day?
Does a recovery ride count towards my weekly Zone 2 time?
Should I use heart rate or power for recovery rides?
Can I do intervals and a recovery ride on the same day?
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