If you’re training and/or racing, true recovery rides are an essential component of your plan. When you train hard you do damage—that’s part of the plan. Your workout breaks down your muscles, empties out your fuel stores, and generally taxes your metabolism above and beyond its status quo.
When you recover, your body repairs the damage so you can come back stronger and ready for more. If you skip the recovery part, you’re cheating yourself out of the maximum return on your hard work.
On paper, recovery rides should then make up the easiest part of your training. You saddle up, spin for about an hour, and call it good. All too often, however, we screw them up by riding harder than planned, which sets back the recovery process—or worse, makes you slower over time.
The Benefits of Recovery Rides
Along with eating well and getting enough sleep, recovery rides expedite the rebound process by sending more blood into your damaged muscles to deliver tissue-mending nutrients and flush out metabolic waste.
Recovery rides also help clear up postrace brain fog and help you maintain the general flow and habit of training and riding, so you don’t lose momentum. By doing lighter intensity rides, you can push it at a higher pace for those high-intensity workouts.
In other words, if you want to progress in your training, you have to hit your recovery.
The Ideal Intensity for Recovery Rides
You should work recovery rides into your training schedule once or twice a week following super hard training days and/or races.
To do them right they should feel really easy—like ridiculously easy. We’re talking a rate of perceived exertion level (RPE) of 1 to 2 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being all-out effort. For heart rate, aim for about 60 percent of your max. Or if you train by power zones, aim for no more than 55 percent of your functional threshold power.
You should pick the flattest route possible and keep it short—90 minutes max, 30 to 45 is usually plenty. Your legs should feel a bit lighter and fresher when you’re done.
To make sure you hit the low-intensity goals, we curated seven tips for nailing your recovery rides.
7 Strategies for Executing Your Recovery Ride
1. Go Solo
It’s pretty much impossible to do a recovery ride with a group, because it takes too much willpower to resist getting sucked into going faster and harder than intended. Use the time to go out alone and spin your legs and clear your mind.
2. Get Someone Riding
If you’d rather not ride alone, you can use your recovery rides as a time to play on bikes with your kids or to get a new friend or family member riding. You won’t go very far or very fast, and the focus is on them having fun.
Another option: Choose the ride buddy you know you’ll chat with the entire time, so you can let go of pace and just focus on that easy flow and conversation.
3. Call It a “Recovery Ride” on Strava
If you really hate seeing those super slow speeds and average mphs on Strava, but you don’t want to lose those miles on your annual log, then go ahead and label your recovery ride something like “Easy Like Sunday Morning Recovery Spin.” That way you can feel proud of just how slow you can go.
4. Change Bikes
Got an old beater or beach cruiser? Recovery rides are the perfect time to break them out because they don’t scream, “speed up!”
5. Dress Down
Keep your club, team, and/or fast, fitted kit in the drawer and pull on some casual riding-around-town attire instead. Then go spin around your neighborhood or ride to your local rail trail or park.
6. Use Your Gadgets
It’s tempting to turn off the metrics when you’re out for a recovery ride. But this might be the time you need them most to keep you honest. If you have a heart rate monitor and/or power meter, use it.
7. Do Another Activity
If you really don’t feel like riding slow, do something else. Activities like easy laps at the pool, gentle yoga, easy Pilates, walking the dogs, even going for a light jog (assuming you regularly run) can do the trick. Easy cross-training can also help you get stoked to get back on the bike after hard days in the saddle.
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