As racing season begins, I wanted to talk about some basic training principles, which hopefully will help most cyclists meet their riding goals. The guidelines hold true for folks who are just getting into cycling or those targeting a specific ride later in the year. The following are qualities that will be helpful in creating a safe and rewarding riding season.
Rest permits rebuilding of the systems to a higher efficiency.
The amount of beneficial rest depends on the person but 2-3 days of moderately hard riding can require 1 day of rest. Passive rest would be taking the day off entirely. Fortunately, as the weather improves it is easier to spend more time outdoors on the bike. A graph of a nice seasonal progression of the riding season would probably produce a picture like this. The take home lesson is that if you want to improve your fitness, you must build up and stress the body in order for it to adapt.