This morning, I got back on the bike after a week of recovery down in Devon.

And honestly?

I expected my legs to feel awful.

I had done a heavy weights session yesterday after not lifting for a week, so I thought I’d be dealing with tired legs, a bit of DOMS, and that heavy “why does cycling feel so hard today?” feeling.

But the opposite happened.

My legs felt good.

I felt good commuting yesterday.

And I felt good again on the bike this morning.

It was a good reminder of something I talk to my clients about all the time:

Recovery is not lost training.

Recovery is part of the training.

In fact, I was speaking about this with one of my clients during his check-in yesterday.

He’d just had a week off with his family after completing a 100-mile sportive, which came shortly after a 100k sportive the week before.

We’d been building towards those goals for three or four months, so his body had been through a lot.

And when you’ve been training hard for months, those events take a toll.

Physically, mentally, and emotionally.

So taking a week off might feel like you’re losing fitness.

But in reality, it can be the thing that allows your body to catch up.

Because your fitness doesn’t improve during the hardest training sessions.

It improves when your body adapts to those sessions.

And that happens through recovery.

Sometimes you need to take one step back so you can take two or three steps forward the following week.

You come back feeling fresher, more motivated, and more excited to get back on the bike again.

Because without those recovery periods, training can start to feel like a grind.

The turbo becomes something you dread.

The rides feel harder than they should.

And the thing you’re doing to get fitter starts to burn you out.

This becomes even more important as cyclists over 40.

I’m 43 now, and recovery simply isn’t the same as it was in my twenties.

That doesn’t mean progress stops.

It just means the balance needs to be better.

Less junk volume.

More quality training.

More planned recovery.

And a smarter structure that allows your body to actually absorb the work you’re putting in.

That’s why recovery is something I prescribe for all of my clients.

Not as an afterthought.

But as a key part of the plan.

Because the goal isn’t just to train hard.

The goal is to train in a way that improves your FTP, builds your strength, helps you stay lean, and keeps you enjoying cycling long term.

So if you struggle with knowing when to push, when to back off, and how to schedule recovery into your training without feeling like you’re going backwards…

Click here to learn more about my cycling coaching.

And if you’d like to chat through your options, you can book a call with me there too.

Neil