Cycling Training: When To Work Out On Tired Legs vs. Fresh Legs vs. Full Taper (#233)

OVERVIEW
What you rest for is what you're investing in. Group rides, interval days, training races, goal races... you can't be completely fresh and rested for all of them, but when should you train through an event versus tapering for it? Should you rest for a few days before big weekend group rides or treat them like any other training day? Scheduling rest and recovery is as important as scheduling aerobic endurance work or high intensity intervals. Coach Adam Pulford teaches you how to know the differences between using a short rest to freshen up, a structured taper to maximize performance, or a long rest to deload between training phases.

TOPICS COVERED

• Intro
• How to "freshen up" your legs for important training sessions
• When to train on tired legs
• Resting before a new training phase
• What "coming in fresh" looks like
• Building recovery into your annual training plan

ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST

HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform

GET FREE TRAINING CONTENT

Join our weekly newsletter

CONNECT WITH CTS

Website: trainright.com
Instagram: @cts_trainright
Twitter: @trainright
Facebook: @CTSAthlete

Chapters

• 0:07 Freshening Up for Performance Success
• 9:51 Optimizing Training for Performance Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

From the team at CTS.

Speaker 1: 0:08

This is the Time Crunch Cyclist podcast, our show dedicated to answering your training questions and providing actionable advice to help you improve your performance even if you're strapped for time. I'm your host, Coach Adam Pulford, and I'm one of the over 50 professional coaches who make up the team at CTS. In each episode, I draw on our team's collective knowledge, other coaches and experts in the field to provide you with the practical ways to get the most out of your training and ultimately become the best cyclist that you can be. Now on to our show. Now on to our show. Welcome back, Time Crunch fans. I'm your host, Coach Adam Pulford.

Speaker 1: 0:53

Many of you are still riding the wave of energy from the new year, training well and hopefully sleeping well and finding your groove for 2025. If not, you'll get there soon, I'm sure of it. Keep listening to this podcast for tips and you know what? If you want to pick the brains of a CTS coach, know that you have consultation options where you can schedule with a coach, get advice specific to you and then you apply it to your training. Head over to train rightcom and, uh, learn more about that. I'll also link to it specifically in our show notes on the podcast today. Any listener can also write into the show here and ask any training related questions that they want. I'm getting many of those coming in each week now and most are focused on you know what intervals, uh, are our best to do? You know what intervals are our best to do? How much more should they do? And, yep, good old zone two. I love it, and more of those Q&As will be coming out soon.

Speaker 1: 2:00

But between all of those questions and listening to athletes I ride with and athletes that I coach and work with, I felt the need to do a short podcast on maybe the number one tip to have a great year of high performance training and racing. That tip is to learn how to get yourself fresh and ready for the days that you want to have good legs, versus just training through it because the program says so. My main point is when you're going into a big race, a big ride or a big block of training that's going to stress you more than you're used to, You're better off freshening up versus training through it for some future fitness outcome. More specifically, anytime that you want the most out of yourself, being more fresh, if not fully recovered, is a better approach versus being tired or training through something to keep the training effect flowing. So let's unpack what this means and hopefully just a few short talking points. So, first and foremost, when you want the best performance at some event, go in fresh. This means for training camps, races, big days on the bike, etc.

Speaker 1: 3:11

Now, this may seem obvious, but many get it wrong, Whether it's their own insecurities or lack of awareness on how training works. I see so many athletes training pretty hard leading up to these big days and they show up with stale legs or not having as good of a day as they may be expected or wanted. And when things don't go their way, they often say well, I'm training through it. Okay, Fair enough. Uh, time and place for that, and we'll explore it more here in just a little bit. But maybe let's have a reminder of how training actually works.

Speaker 1: 3:46

Stress plus rest equals adaptation. What that means is, if you do training and then you rest adequately from it, you will form an adaptation, which is usually you are more fresh for key days of training and to get training stress okay, you'll have a higher dose of training from volume, intensity or some combination of the two, and we call that training, stress on training peaks, that TSS score. That that's really what we're talking about, or trying to quantify. If you get in more training, stress, then rest, you will get more adaptation. That adaptation is faster, stronger, more endurance, more resilience, and these are everything we're in the pursuit of as endurance athletes. So if you are more fresh, you'll get in more training, stress, more training effect and you'll get more adaptations. Now, fresh is key for performance and I don't think anyone listening here would argue with me on that overall advice.

Speaker 1: 4:55

But how many of you listening have had a race where you just imploded or failed because, or suffered completely when you didn't have to, overloaded, or failed because, or suffered completely when you didn't have to because you did too much the week of leading into the race because you were feeling so good? Yeah, I have raised my hand like not not that many months ago, even you know it was. It was terrible. Okay, Because I was feeling so good leading up to it, I was having fun and training, so I just overdid it right, Overcooked myself, and then I suffered for it the day of that race. Many of us keep grinding away thinking that even five days out from whatever event, will all that training that we do will help us on the weekend, and it won't. It only adds to our overall fatigue, especially if we're going hard. Now you don't have to stop training, that's not what I'm saying. But a reduction of training load can help us freshen up, going into a big day where we want good legs or high performance or a great result.

Speaker 1: 6:00

Now I'm not advocating for a full-on taper mode for the Saturday group ride, but learning how to bring yourself in fresh to the day where you want it, when you want it is what I'm advocating for. This is a huge skill as an athlete and a big part of the art of coaching. So how do you freshen up for something? First, get your sleep dialed. I always say if you're sleeping well, you can do anything well. So this advice is really everyday advice, but in this case it's definitely three to four days out advice. Sleep is king if you want to be fresh, Now for something bigger than we're used to.

Speaker 1: 6:54

So if we're going to freshen up for something bigger than we're used to, beyond the local group, beyond the 90 minute with interval sessions that we do midweek, I'm talking about a long weekend training camp with friends or teammates or something like that a big three, four day block. Or maybe it is your first big long ride of the year with friends. That's maybe five or six hours if you're trying to deepen the long ride and you have that time. What this means for most of us is reducing training volume and load for only about three or four days. Leading into something that big is what you need to do to freshen up. For example, four days out, you take a rest day, so you take one rest day and then two to three days leading in. All you're doing is riding easy endurance miles where you reduce your total volume per session by 15 to 25% of your normal ride. Translation on that is if you're used to doing 90 minute training sessions, just whittle it down to around 60 minutes and keep it to zone two for this little two to three day time window leading up to the day where you want to have good legs.

Speaker 1: 7:55

Simple, effective, Learn how you get fresh. So it's not a taper. Okay, it's not a full-on recovery week either per se, but a short block of time that allows your muscles time to recover, regenerate muscle glycogen and let your central system charge back up. Briefly, Finally, when you're trying to freshen up for something bigger than you're used to. You're better off missing a training session or two of that harder training in exchange for the bigger effect that you'll get from the weekend or that long ride or the camp, whatever we're trying to get fresh for. So just keep that in mind. You're essentially exchanging some of that training effect of the pre-big day for the big day itself. I hope that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 8:49

Now let's talk about something that you're used to. That's challenging, but maybe we don't have to freshen up as much. Okay, the local group ride, the Saturday group ride, is a great example of this. Now, this is more in line with just train through it, where you don't need three or four days but maybe take that day before and go easy or take it completely off. Because what we're trying to do, if that group ride is hard for you, if you normally maybe get dropped or if it's just like you're on the couch for the rest of the day after you do it, you want to show it fresh so you don't get blown out, so that you don't just suffer like a dog through it. Okay, Now and again this seems like common sense, but hey, people are asking about this, right. So my advice here is go easy the day before, and that may get a good night's sleep, better night's sleep, the time or the day before that. And really what you're, what you're doing is learning how to freshen yourself up so that you you're ready to rip on the day where you want to. That's the art here.

Speaker 1: 9:51

Now, I do this with the majority of my athletes and I find it usually far more effective than, say, intervals the day before and doing the group ride on tired legs. Now, there's a time and place for it, like I've said before, but not all that often. However, since I've been saying there's a time and place for it, let's talk about the times and places. So here's a couple examples of when you would want to do training on tired legs. First one is during an interval block itself. So an interval block typically, what I mean when I say that is two to three days of back to back to back intervals or some sort of specific intensity or overload of progression. So you know, come in fresh, hit it hard on day one, day two, you're probably going to be fatigued. Day three, You'll be fatigued, but I'll tell the athlete to keep pushing, keep overloading. That's, that's training. Okay, so there's a good example of training on tired legs. Second example is during the training camp itself. Okay, Date, you know. Say it's a four day training camp, day two, three and four. You're going to be sizzled, You're going to be cooked, but keep going, keep doing the miles, get the training done. Train on tired legs. And then maybe another example that resonates for most of us here is uh, you did this Sunday long ride after a Saturday hard group ride. But what we'll talk about in a few minutes is all about how you come into these days that are really key if you're going to be training on tired legs. So more on that here in a minute.

Speaker 1: 11:29

So another example of when you want to come in fresh is when you're starting a new training phase. Don't get me wrong. The whole point of training is to get tired through exercise, Then you rest, Then you get better. Remember, stress plus rest equals adaptation. So you'll be doing some of these training sessions where you're not 100%, and that's all part of the endurance ball game, not a hundred percent, and that's all part of the endurance ball game If you're moving along in your base building season. For many of us that could be happening right now and maybe you didn't get in all the exact workouts in at the right time or in total. But your program calls for starting on a higher intensity or maybe like a threshold phase of training soon.

Speaker 1: 12:14

My advice is take an easy week before starting the new phase so that you're more fresh and ready rather than stale and tired. So if you're going on that base building you're like you know what I've got this time I'm just I'm going to sneak in these few workouts and then just start that next phase right away. I'd advise against that. Take a full recovery week, Okay, and so an example of a full recovery week here would be Monday and Friday is rest day. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are easy endurance rides, anything from 45 to 75 minutes. Again, I would say whatever your normal duration is, reduce that by 15 to 25% and that's going to be good for the midweek ride sessions. And then finally, on the weekend, do your normal volume. I'd say watch the intensity, Don't go hog wild. Throw in a few sprints and get ready for the next block of training Again, so that you're fresh, you're ready to rip, ready to go Physically as well as cognitively. You'll get more out of a training phase when you enter into it more fresh and in a ready state.

Speaker 1: 13:19

What do I mean by being in a ready state, or being fresh, for that matter? You want to tune in. You ask yourself some questions. Okay, Tune into your mood and emotion. How eager are you to train? Are you excited to do intervals? How's your energy in the morning? How's your energy throughout the day? For the number nerds out there Uh, what is your TSB, Whoa, Training stress balance? It's the uh, the form um number. When you open up Training Peaks app on your phone, it's a little yellow number. Okay, Is it going from negative to positive, or is it at least going from more negative to less negative? Okay, Because that shows us how you're adapting to your training. Are you becoming more fresh? Mathematically? This is all hinged and based on TSS points. And for those who are confused about numbers or don't like the numbers, no need. Ask yourself some of those other qualitative questions and you'll start to learn how you're fresh and when you're ready. And all of these signs are indicators of freshening up, so that you can increase your readiness to train. If you have improved motivation, increased mood and you're excited to train, it's, it can be as simple as that.

Speaker 1: 14:36

Finally, my last piece of advice is this when you want your best plan, build recovery into the program itself. One way to stay ahead of all this fresh versus tired or when do I train through versus rest up questioning is to simply have a good plan that's built with recovery periods. Do this well and you'll know when and why you're pushing and when to let up. How I do this with my athletes is I get the race schedule okay and I get it mostly set by January or so if we have race dates, and I put those races in training peaks. I work with the athlete to prioritize the races from A, B and C, maybe even lesser categories, but in general, A priority races are the top priority. This is when you want to be at your best for the year. B priority races are the medium priority when you want to do well but you don't need to be your best. And finally, C priority races are the medium priority when you want to do well but you don't need to be your best. And finally, C priority races are the lowest priority.

Speaker 1: 15:40

These are training races and events where you want the training effect from. Maybe you have to show up, but a bunch of friends are going and you're just doing it for fun and getting some fitness. And what you want to do is, now that you have your races in there, you have them prioritized, put in taper blocks leading into the A and B races and then put in recovery blocks after those races as well, the high priority events in big training blocks. So, and you do this you put in the recovery so that you can recover from the big stresses. Finally, put in a mid-season break Of about a week Maybe two weeks for some Of off the bike and then for one week and then one week of just easy endurance riding Before you build back up. That's a good mid-season break For most of us. Finally, put in that year transition phase, which can be another two week block, Like the mid season block, or maybe a little bit longer If you, if you're a high volume athlete, um, taking a month of of D training is completely appropriate.

Speaker 1: 16:41

From there you work backward to plan your training phases and to know when you're doing intensity, why you're doing it, no way knowing when to push and when to let up. So quote unquote training through something has its time and place, such as those sea pride erases normal training sessions like I described, and maybe the local group ride. But if the thing that you're doing is bigger than you're used to or if you just want really good legs on a given day, my advice is to go in a bit more fresh than tired and you'll get way more out of it. You'll get more training effect, You'll get more of the fun factor effect and you'll learn how you actually freshen up. And learning this lesson of learning how you as an individual freshens up for a good day on the bike, that's worth its weight in gold. So, when in doubt, go in more fresh for better success. Finally, to take this thing home, I'll say this Anyone can train themselves into the ground and then complain about it on race day. It takes skill, patience and art to freshen up and have a good day on the bike when you want it. So, and finally, I hope that some of the advice I provided today helps you along your journey of figuring out how to freshen up for those good key days and just how to train right.

Speaker 1: 18:09

That's it. That's our show for today. Remember, this podcast is for you, our listeners. So if you have any questions for me or the team at CTS, head over to train rightcom backslash podcast, click on, ask a training question and submit your questions there. We'll do our best to answer it on future episodes. Thanks again, and don't forget to come back next week for more actionable training advice. Don't forget to come back next week for more actionable training advice. Thanks for joining us on the Time Crunch Cyclist podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. If you want even more actionable training advice, head over to trainrightcom backslash newsletter and subscribe to our free weekly publication. Each week you'll get in-depth training content that goes beyond what we cover here on the podcast. That'll help you take your training to the next level. That's all for now. Until next time, train hard, train smart, train right.