Rest weeks: your legs might not feel that great

A rest week, time to put the legs up and chill out, right? Well, not quite. We still want to turn the legs over and make sure we keep some good “sensations” in the legs. Before every professional race in France the question everyone asks the riders is, “Et les sensation?”. We can often feel in our legs how they are going to perform on a given day.

Rest weeks are integral to our development as riders, the flip side of the training coin. We expect that resting will make us feel really good. But, you might be surprised in a rest week to find that your legs actually don’t feel great. You don’t feel that great. What’s going on?!?

The body is amazing at falling into and developing a rhythm. It loves getting up and going to bed at the same time everyday and training at the same time everyday. Ever been to a training camp or on a week long trip? After a couple of days the body just gets into the groove. Wake up, eat, ride, eat, sleep, wake up, repeat.

In general, this is what is happening as you work your way through a training block. The body finds the rhythm of the block, managing the stress of the training and adapting. When you drop a rest week on the body this rhythm is disrupted. Disrupting the rhythm in the body can often lead to a sensation of “blocked” legs - legs that can’t seem to turn the cranks smoothly, or pump out the wattage we would expect of ourselves when we are fresh.

In our rest weeks we don’t want to pump out the best efforts ever, or ride right at the top of our zones. We do however want to find a couple of rides during the week that will help our legs feel good. A cadence drill perhaps, or some openers.

The Sans Chaine programs will incorporate a couple of these rides into the rest weeks. Pay attention to which of the rides makes you feel good. To make the program even more your own, you can then take those days that work for you and sub them into the program when it comes time for your rest week. This will help you enjoy the program more and keep the legs feeling good.