Today is a rest day. No exercise. Just lots of carbohydrates and protein. Tomorrow I'll be cycling at least 25 miles - hopefully the full way back too as part of the first endurance test me and the guys I'll be cycling with are doing. We'll set off about 1pm and hopefully make it to the destination by 3pm.
Why a rest day today? Well simple, muscles get tired of doing the same thing every day; they also build energy stores up when you aren't using them. Ahead of the actual event there will be no training for three days but this week as its only a short distance I'll be giving my legs a break.
Remember there's absolutely no point at all in training your muscles to the point of them collapsing. By giving them a days rest you give time for the muscle fibres to strengthen, knit new connections.
There's two types of muscle that will be involved in the training both of which need to be at their peak. There is Fast Twitch muscle and Slow Twitch muscle. Fast Twitch muscles are used to give you a short explosive burst of energy - trouble is regardless of who you are they WILL build up lactic acid fast. Slow Twitch muscles are designed to develop power repeatedly and without fatigue, your neck is a perfect example, it keeps your head up all day and you never really think "God my head is really heavy today".
Giving the Fast Twitch muscles time wont do much - typically they will recover much quicker than you think. Its the Slow Twitch muscles that need to take their time to recover. The same properties that makes the muscle take longer to fatigue mean that it takes longer to remove the build up of lactic acid and other harmful chemicals.
You can speed this up with deep tissue massage and hot/cold cycle baths but seeing as I don't have access to a masseuse and I had to put up with cold showers in early spring for three weeks I am not willing to do either just yet. Maybe closer to the time when I am getting desperate to get that bit extra out of myself.
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