SBT GRVL: 8th Rest Day in 3 Weeks of Training

"...I want to demonstrate how important recovery is when training for an event (or just life in general)."

by Alison Powers, ALP Cycles Coaching

In February ALP Coach, Alison Powers, announced that she had signed up for SBT GRVL, a 141-mile race with 100 miles on dirt/gravel roads in Steamboat, Colorado. With race day approaching, she’s been blogging every day leading up to the race. She blogs about the specifics of her training, her preparation, headspace, etc. All the things that lead up to race day that not everyone gets to see or understand.

9 days to go - Friday, August 9th

Since I have started this SBT GRVL blog, I have had 7 recovery days. Today is my 8th. I want this to sink in— in the past almost 3 weeks, I have had 8 days off. As I’ve described before, days off are not always rest days, but I want to demonstrate how important recovery is when training for an event (or just life in general). Without proper rest and recovery, the body cannot make the changes and adaptations needed to become better, faster, stronger. Tomorrow will be my 9th rest day and there will be more this week leading into the race.

The past 3 days of training were hard. 5min intervals followed by a hard 4hr ride with 6,666ft of climbing all above 7,000ft and then 40/20’s. 2 of the days were double days. I’m tired. Train hard, rest hard, repeat.

Today was a great day to get work done, get caught up, and relax a bit (no rolling or stretching or anything today). Then, off to Specialized Boulder to meet with a few riders from ALP Cycles Racing and 7 girls from Mile High 360. This was cool. Mile High 360 is a comprehensive, wrap-around services program designed to provide students from high-poverty communities with after-school, weekend and summer access to essential out-of-school resources in three core areas. Today’s summer activity was to ride bikes. Together, we did bike handling drills, laid down fat skids, and finished with a relay race (the Skittles team won. And yes, the girl in the above photo did eventually crash due to keeping her right foot down all the time…).

Riding with the Mile High 360 girls, and riders from ALP Cycles racing was a fun and rewarding way to give back to the community and help to grow bike riding.

ABOUT ALISON POWERS

Now retired from racing, Alison Powers is the only person, in history, to win all three road discipline National Championships in one year (Road, Criterium and Time Trial - 2014). These go along with two previous national championships (Time Trial 2008, Team Pursuit 2008), two National Racing Calendar titles, and a 2nd place at the Leadville 100 mountain bike race (2013, 7:26hrs). Today she is the owner of ALP Cycles Coaching where she teaches road, cyclocross, and mountain bike clinics, and high performance race preparation and tactics. Alison is also team director for ALP Cycles Racing, a professional women's road and cyclocross team based in Boulder, Colorado.

ALP Cycles Coaching

Colorado-based ALP Cycles Coaching has over 25 years of professional sports experience. Each coach brings specific strengths and personal experiences to coaching sessions while collaborating to create a training plan that works for each and every person. Learn more at alpcyclescoaching.com

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