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Originally Posted by false_Aest
1. ibuprofen and other meds take the pain away but they hinder recovery. Inflammation + a bit of pain are a signal to the body to repair itself. Take that away and it's not going to do what it should. There's pretty good research backing this up. A few podcasts break it down better than I can: velonews + trainer road come to mind.
2. its common for my legs to feel "groggy" the day after a day *completely* off. this was true in my 20s and more-so in my mid-30s. After a 5 min warm-up I need to do a few 1-min hard efforts to wake things up.
3. Recovery takes longer when you get older. I'd consider doing 2 days of recovery: 1 active (<50% FTP for < 60min) and 1 day off. I'm guessing your "easy gravel ride" is still above recovery and you're still wearing your legs down.
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I didn't understand easy until I got a power meter. HR didn't help because it was significantly elevated after a hard training block. The first time I tested my FTP and then had an active recovery day I thought I was going to fall off my bike I was going so slow.
Now I realize that all my "recovery days" in my 20s were just making me slower in races.
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Gummee, I'd really start to try to quantify what your easy and hard days are. And if your training is more "whim-based" add some structure. It's really hard to sort things out unless you've got that structure.
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I try really hard to keep the HR down below 100BPM or 120w on easy days. If I'm hitting 20kph, I'm going quickly. Easy-moderate days are 100-110 or so 150-ish watts with spikes to 200ish getting up hills.
AFA training: I'd been doing Friel's 'plan' as adapted to my riding hours thru late June (Hilly Billy) then less structured, but shorter and harder thru CX season's start. Then Race, off, easy gravel or road depending on the weather, CX workout, easy or off, easy, kind of an openers ride, then race. IOW not too many hard days/week. AFA I could tell anyways.
M