{"id":6884,"date":"2021-05-06T14:21:12","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T18:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wahoofitness.com\/?p=6884"},"modified":"2022-01-21T11:57:54","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T16:57:54","slug":"ate-go-slow-can-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wahoofitness.com\/blog\/ate-go-slow-can-fast\/","title":{"rendered":"ATE: When To Go Slow, So You Can Be Fast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Training is a time to work on our weaknesses, increase our strengths, and really test our limits of performance in a low-risk environment. The inevitable desire to make every single session a PR gradually creeps into your mind as you progress with training and begin to see fitness gains. Soon enough you find yourself pressing a bit too hard every session, regardless if it is an easy spin, warm-up, or cool down. You get really good at one pace and that\u2019s it. Almost as if you\u2019re stuck in this limbo of a \u201cslightly hard\u201d effort at all times. But that\u2019s not what you really want, is it? You want to be able to hang with the pack and then launch a vicious attack 1k from the finish and find yourself on top of the podium, correct? Then learning how to go slow to be fast will be your best-kept training secret. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this even mean: going slow to be fast? Saying it out loud, the words contradict themselves, but when applied to training they make sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have 3 key sessions on the bike each week that really test your mettle, you\u2019d want to be well prepared to bring your all to these, right? What are you doing on the days in between these sessions? Are you allocating enough time for recovery fitness training? Are you riding at your recovery zones? Let\u2019s ask that again, are you <\/span>really<\/i><\/b> riding at your recovery zones? Are you performing your warm-up properly, or do you feel strained before you even get to the main session? When you get to the main session are you struggling to hit your high power numbers, but feel you can hold 85% of your FTP all day long<\/a>? <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you find yourself nodding your head in agreement with any of these above scenarios then it may be time to pump the brakes, literally. Unless you are a domestique for a World Tour team and your job is to sit on the front of a peloton hammering out 85-95% of your FTP for hours upon end, then you shouldn\u2019t be training for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often, we find ourselves getting sucked into this <\/span>Sweet Spot<\/span><\/i><\/a> rut. One where we can go moderately hard for long periods of time, but when it comes time to kick it up a notch, we simply cannot. Does this mean we are not strong enough or incapable of hitting higher power numbers? Not at all, but you also have not conditioned your body for these types of efforts. When we ride or even run moderately hard <\/span>all of the time<\/span><\/i> we become moderately good at moderate efforts. Doing this type of training does not allow your body to fully recover from hard efforts enough to be able to hit hard efforts again and again. Eventually, you lose the ability to hit peak power\/run paces due to accumulated fatigue. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can we do about this? Slow the heck down! Save your energy and motivation to destroy yourself on the days when it is being asked of you! It will be hard in the beginning to break these habits, but it will be worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When To Go Slow <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Recovery Days<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can view recovery fitness training as the days after hard workouts when we would prescribe a dose of \u201ceasy spinning.\u201d This easy spinning is not to \u201cflush the lactic acid\u201d since we know that our bodies can use lactate as fuel and all lactate will be \u201cflushed out\u201d within an hour or so of rest after activity! If this is not the reason, then what is? <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n