Rest weeks: rest when you can, so you can do the work when needed

Rest weeks can be a bit frustrating, sometimes feeling like a stumbling block on the way to fitness. You may be thinking, do I have to rest? Yes, rest is a key part to getting better. Without rest your body won’t adapt to the training you have been doing.

Enjoy your rest week. It is a good opportunity to do some riding where you feel good on the bike. The stress of having to hit the right numbers and push yourself should fall away. In a rest week the break is as much mental as it is physical.

The common mistake

With the rest week feeling like a blip on our road to greatness we often make a common mistake - we don’t go easily enough. While at Sans Chaine we would say that you should not always ride at the top of your training zones, this becomes doubly important during a rest week. If you spend your endurance rides during a rest week riding within 2bpm of the top of your endurance heart rate zone are you doing endurance or actually a bit of tempo? None of your rides during a rest week should be PBs.

Not resting properly during your rest week will catch up with you. You want to rest properly, making sure that the rides are not stressful, so that when it comes time to get back to training you have the energy and motivation needed to do the training. The worst thing to do is to sort of rest and then sort of train when it matters.

Embrace the mental and physical break that comes with the rest week. Replenish your reserves. It will keep your training consistent across your blocks of training, your season and your athletic lifetime as a rider.