Recovery Going Well

Monday came with three perks. First, there's no morning swim practice, so I could SLEEP IN! Second, swim practice was at noon, which doubled as a great tanning session. And, third but not least, it was a recovery day and I had no pressure to kill myself with a painful workout.

Swim training can typically be done independently of biking and running, so despite it being a recovery day I mustered some decent intervals, then worked on technique at the end of practice. I've been swimming since the age of 4 and technique is still a work-in-progress/mystery!

In the late afternoon I headed out for my favorite recovery workout, a SUPER-EASY bike ride. Some people advocate a HR of less than 120 on a recovery ride, but when I need to recover my HR is less than 100; and when I REALLY need to recover, I'll keep the average HR less than 90. This ride's average was in the low 90's. I casually cruised the rural parts of the county. These roads are smooth and tree-lined with little traffic and gently rolling hills, a cyclist's dream. My favorite part of the ride is "Heart Rate Hill." This is not the typical Heart Rate Hill you'd suffer up in a race, but just the opposite. It's a downhill stretch where I set a personal HR record a few years ago, a riding low-HR record of 46. Today's was in the 60's.

Tomorrow I suspect I'll need another recovery day to do a good 40 km, but will be able to be aggressive in the swim.