Within a big training week, it is critical to manage day-to-day training stress.  Our bodies cannot take day after day of high stress load.  Inserting days with a lower level of training, within the week, enables us to achieve more in the long run.  Day three of my big week, was all about recovering from yesterday.

Here is my low training stress day. 

It started with a morning bike ride on my trainer.  My ride was an ‘active recovery’ ride.  It lasted for an hour.  An ‘active recovery’ ride is a very easy effort ride, designed to get the legs moving and to flush out the toxins from within the muscles.  I rode at low power and at a relatively high cadence, while watching a few videos.  I felt better at the end of the ride, than I did at the beginning.  This is exactly how it should feel.

Late this afternoon, I went for a short run.  It was a 35 minute, Zone 2 effort run.  To minimize the stress, I ran at our local High School.  I did this because the terrain there is about as flat as it gets in Pittsburgh. While doing this run, I could feel some slight fatigue in my legs, but they functioned really well.  My perceived effort on the run was low, but my pace was quite good.  Again, I felt better after the run than before.

So there you have day three.  It was a day with low effort, but still included an hour and thirty five minutes of movement.  I am now up to a total of four and half hours of training for the week and I am only just getting started….