As mentioned adaptations occur during rest so make sure you are fueling your body with good food.
The feeling of been smashed may or may not go away depending how you approach the rides, as we get fitter we tend to get faster so we end up still riding at our max, so while we don't feel any fitter we are actually putting out more power and our times drop but our effort doesn't really lower (80% is 80%), So on this note Its a good idea to have a particular route you can ride and time yourself. You can feel your fitness in a few ways, ride as you would normally and time yourself, as you get fitter the times should drop yet you're effort will still feel the same, so you may not feel any less buggered. Or you can stick to a certain speed/time and than you should feel like less effort is required.
Some people think they are not getting fitter because they still feel fatigued but in actual fact they are riding faster and producing more power than before.
As you get fitter though you should feel your recovery time improve significantly, so even if you are giving 100% and as I said you feel buggered you should take less time to recover from these big efforts.
My point is monitor a particular course every so often and use a consistent measure, time/effort/cadence/speed or whatever so you can compare it to old results to see where you're at.
That said don't be so scared you train too little, Speaking simple here we adapt because we push beyond. We essential are giving the body small bursts of overtraining. We train and the body is pushed what it is accustom too, so when its time to recover it makes up for that by compensating and getting better. The difference is we have enough rest for the body to recover fully. Overtraining occurs when our body does not have enough time for rest. And instead of building little steps of improvement upwards, we start seeing a decline in performance as the body slowly gets more and more fatigued.
On that note If you wake up and have a ride scheduled and don't feel 100% its best to take the day off or have a easy effort ride instead. Proffesional's monitor this stuff so when they are only recovered 70% they don't train beyond that. (unless under a supercompensation method)
There is a book that may be more suited to you which is designed for xc and road riders. Time crunched cyclist by Chris Carmichael, it is based on a 6hour workout week but it does have lots of information, a few different workouts and periods of training.
The feeling of been smashed may or may not go away depending how you approach the rides, as we get fitter we tend to get faster so we end up still riding at our max, so while we don't feel any fitter we are actually putting out more power and our times drop but our effort doesn't really lower (80% is 80%), So on this note Its a good idea to have a particular route you can ride and time yourself. You can feel your fitness in a few ways, ride as you would normally and time yourself, as you get fitter the times should drop yet you're effort will still feel the same, so you may not feel any less buggered. Or you can stick to a certain speed/time and than you should feel like less effort is required.
Some people think they are not getting fitter because they still feel fatigued but in actual fact they are riding faster and producing more power than before.
As you get fitter though you should feel your recovery time improve significantly, so even if you are giving 100% and as I said you feel buggered you should take less time to recover from these big efforts.
My point is monitor a particular course every so often and use a consistent measure, time/effort/cadence/speed or whatever so you can compare it to old results to see where you're at.
I have looked at those with mixed findings of if they really offer any benefit. I'd think deep water diving would be just as helpful. There is mixed evidence, im yet to see significant positive findings from someone other than the company selling the product.
Not disagreeing but its also important to consider training load adaptions. A sedentary person can easily over train if they haven't done any exercise for years, where these highly training athletes have built up their ability to train at these high loads. Over training is not going to be as common in general public as athletes but there is correlation between their fitness level and the point in which they over train. We can say an athlete will over train at 20 hours a week, but if a average joe went out and tried to train 10 hours they would probably crash within 3 weeks.. Its still important to not over do it depending on where you are starting your fitness path.
That said don't be so scared you train too little, Speaking simple here we adapt because we push beyond. We essential are giving the body small bursts of overtraining. We train and the body is pushed what it is accustom too, so when its time to recover it makes up for that by compensating and getting better. The difference is we have enough rest for the body to recover fully. Overtraining occurs when our body does not have enough time for rest. And instead of building little steps of improvement upwards, we start seeing a decline in performance as the body slowly gets more and more fatigued.
On that note If you wake up and have a ride scheduled and don't feel 100% its best to take the day off or have a easy effort ride instead. Proffesional's monitor this stuff so when they are only recovered 70% they don't train beyond that. (unless under a supercompensation method)
There is a book that may be more suited to you which is designed for xc and road riders. Time crunched cyclist by Chris Carmichael, it is based on a 6hour workout week but it does have lots of information, a few different workouts and periods of training.
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