Want to reduce leg soreness? Try a cycling recovery ride

Recovery and recovery rides need to have their spot within your week to help prevent burnout, common cycling injuries, and overtraining. 

Want to get faster on your bike? You have to learn how to recover well. 

Want to ride your bike farther? Adding a recovery day into your week will take you there. 

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What is a cycling recovery ride?

A cycling recovery ride, an easy, conversation ride that lasts anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes, clears lactic acid from your muscles ¹ and increases blood flow to your muscles to promote recovery.

What’s the difference between a cycling rest day vs a recovery ride?

A cycling rest day is a day off from cycling. You might choose to forgo cycling for the day if you’ve got a busy schedule, feel under the weather, or when you’ve burnt out or overtrained on cycling. 

A recovery ride is an easy, relaxed ride that you do the day after an intense bike ride to get the blood flowing and shake out stiff muscles. 

Many cyclists feel better after a recovery ride, but try it out yourself.

Do a cycling rest day after an intense ride and see how you feel. 

Then, try a recovery ride the day after a hard cycling effort to see if you like a recovery ride more than a cycling rest day.

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Who should do a recovery ride?

Do recovery rides the day after a demanding workout, if you have a training program that includes high-intensity sessions, intervals, and long rides. (You’ll also want to recover after a long bike ride.)

That’s because you need to balance intensity (which breaks down your muscles) with rest (to rebuild muscles) to avoid overtraining, injury, and a decrease in your cycling performance. 

If you do easy, relaxed bike rides most of the time, you may not need a recovery ride.  But if you have tired legs from cycling, a cycling recovery ride can help relieve muscle soreness and stiffness.

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Why should you do a recovery ride?

Recovery rides can:

Help your body flush out metabolic waste removal

Increase your blood flow

Restore glycogen (or your energy)

Clear blood lactate levels

Reduce your injury or overtraining risk 

And reduce overall training stress throughout your week. 

In short, a recovery ride will help you feel fresh, so you can train hard when it counts—when you need to complete a certain distance or hit certain intensity levels during your workouts.

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How to do a cycling recovery ride

Do a recovery ride at least one day a week, the day after a hard (HIIT session, intervals) workout. 

You should feel like you’re cycling without straining. In other words, you should feel like you can ride your bike forever while holding a conversation. 

What should your cycling recovery heart rate be? If you train with heart rate zones, stay within your heart rate zone 1 or no higher than 55 percent of your max heart rate.

How long should a recovery bike ride be? Your recovery ride should be about 30 to 40 minutes long to flush out your system.

Try an indoor cycling recovery ride to help you control the intensity. If you do an indoor cycling recovery ride, keep your cadence high at an easy effort for about 30 to 40 minutes.

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