Deep Reset or Rest Week?
We’re getting better and better at realizing that there isn't an exact textbook for training that works for every athlete. While we might have ideas of what theoretically could be best, we need to put these theories into practice to really see what works for each individual athlete.
When it comes to resting, or recovery weeks, every athlete is different. Some athletes need openers in the middle of the week, other athletes need a day off. While a lot of this probably highlights our physiological differences, we also need to take into account everything happening off the bike - if you have a full-time job, a recovery ride might become another task that simply takes up too much time, whereas if you are in college, a recovery ride with the gang could be a really fun and exciting day with no pressure on the pedals.
I was recently talking to some of the EVOQ BIKE coaches, and there were a couple different scenarios that I thought were worth mentioning. A musing simply so you can ask yourself “Am I at a point where traditional rest and recovery is enough, or do I need to hit the Deep Reset button?”
Here are the two main protocols that we discussed:
Protocol 1: DEEP RESET p/b Keegan Swirbul, aka "Rip the Band-Aid Off"
I know that if I don't force myself to literally take days off full on the bike, I just end up doing more than I want. So I take three days fully, completely, off the bike. Just seems to give my body a full reset. And then a couple days where I'm quite a bit easier.
Complete 3 days fully off the bike
Previously did 5 days off, but found 3-4 days sufficient
Followed by a couple days at much easier intensity
Programmed into TrainingPeaks far in advance with explicit reminders! “Don’t be an idiot Keegan, REST”
Used every 2-3 months, even when not pushing hard
Goal: prevent staleness and provide a "real deep reset"
Protocol 2: The Traditional Structure Approach, p/b Owen Cole
Owen, what is your protocol?
Really just like the same structure of a week, in terms of rides or intervals, but just cutting down the total load. So I still like having some intensity days, but maybe cutting down the amount of intervals on those days. And then also not going and riding for like two or three hours of endurance after.
Maintains same weekly structure but reduces total load
Keeps intensity days but reduces number of intervals
Cuts down on endurance duration after interval sessions
Typically follows a three-week-on, one-week-off pattern
Flexible timing based on school schedule and weather constraints
Other Considerations
Some interesting points also arose about the rest week, where even if an athlete is resting properly and not pushing too hard on a traditional protocol, we still may need periodic deep resets. I'd recommend using family vacation time or business travel as these points in time.
Since we are extremely dedicated athletes, this may cause us to want to force workouts when we are gone on vacation—we want to burn some calories…we want to feel like we aren’t just loafing around, but these are great times for deep periodic resets.
I have used these in the fall as a great way to kick off my offseason and it has never affected my performance the next year. If anything, it's probably kept me hungrier to train and then really ready to hit it when I need to.
Another thing that we need to remember is that many times even though we know there is a lot of benefit to resting, we don't do it often enough. The love of riding and training drives us to do too much when a little bit less would be more conducive to our overall performance. We see friends or foes on Strava and Instagram riding and training, and we jump back in too soon…or never pause for a rest.
This is a great point to remind myself that resting and recovery is when I get stronger. The training breaks my body down and the recovery brings me back as a stronger athlete.
Recap:
Even if an athlete is resting properly and not pushing too hard, we may still need periodic deep resets
Athletes often resist taking full rest days despite knowing their benefits
Some athletes see better results from complete rest vs reduced volume
Weather and life schedules sometimes force adjustments to timing
Rest Week Count When Sick?
The last thing worth noting is a discussion that comes up quite often when someone gets sick. Let’s say they finish a three-week block and they start rolling into the rest week, and they get sick…does this actually count as rest then? Is our body recovering and rebuilding from the 3 weeks of training, or is all of our resources going to fighting off the illness and trying to get our body back to a healthy state? So, what do we do?
The big thing that we differentiated was the severity of the illness. Is it just a mild sickness or something more like the flu?
If it's just a little illness, a cough, a little cold—you can most likely count this as part of the rest week, but start out easy when you return. Instead of having intervals on the first Tuesday and Wednesday, the first few rides are just endurance to ensure that you are back to 100%.
On the other hand, if you have the unfortunate event of getting really sick, you probably need to build back much more gradually, especially since your time off the bike will probably have been longer.
You might need to do a couple endurance rides and then take a few more days rest. It's really going to be something that you need to figure out depending on how long you are off the bike. At the end of the day, I would take as much rest as needed to get to 100%, and then slowly start back to training. Yes, this is not optimal and this is a knock to your fitness, but these scenarios come up in endurance sports and you need to just learn to live with it and move forward!
Recap:
If athlete gets mildly sick (just a cold):
Can count as part of rest week
Light spins still possible
Transition back to training relatively quick
If athlete gets very sick:
Need to build back up more gradually
Don't count as a proper rest week
A knock to fitness, but just have to deal with it
Conclusion
While different coaches have varying approaches to rest weeks, we all emphasized the importance of having a systematic approach to recovery, whether through complete rest or reduced loading. Remember that many times LESS is MORE…doing less can make you a stronger athlete!!
It’s all about finding what works best for you, and these insights may come to light over many years of training and racing. Always try something because we are changing as athletes as well—what works for you in 2025 may not be the best solution in 2030!
Hope we’re all still smashing it then. See you in 5 years.