As the season progresses, you are increasing the demands on your body - more miles, harder hills, faster club rides - so you also need to increase the amount and quality of recovery. You get stronger and faster during the recovery periods, not during the hard workouts! Here are some suggestions for recovery:

• Ride no more than three hard days per week (a tempo ride and two intensity rides). The other rides are recovery rides - no heavy breathing!
• Alternate hard and easy weeks (often work and family obligations take care of this). If you want to average 250 miles per week, then a good pattern is to alternate 300 and 200 mile weeks.
• During a multi-day tour, if you are feeling fatigued take the short option one day. Or take a break in the sag van.
• Our lives are all very full, but try to get adequate rest. You produce more human growth hormone, to rebuild muscles, while sleeping than while sitting at your desk!
• Drink plenty of fluids during a ride, so that you're stopping to pee every couple of hours. A sports drink is excellent - providing water, glycogen and some electrolytes.
• During your tempo and intensity rides, you are burning primarily glycogen, which needs to be replaced. During the rides, drink a sports drink and eat something every hour. In the two hours after a ride, consume at least 1 gram of carbohydrate per pound of body weight. At meals, eat at least 60% of your calories from carbohydrates - choose cinnamon buns rather than omelets!