On those day I am supposed to rest but want to do a ride… I split the difference and do a light ride, on TR, such as DANS. This lets me spin the legs and prevents me from over doing it outside with other cyclists. Then I can (mostly) focus on chores, errands or other things I need to get done.
Im offer up my experiences. I have battled other addiction in my life, and have come to cycling after sobering up. My wife made the exact comment you made above in relation to addiction. She dosent mind the time I spend cycling, reading about cycling, looking at TR forums… But it is the fact that I am angry/grumpy/irritable when NOT cycling that she brought up. I have since done some digging around on “exercise addiction” and found some of the information very interesting.
One is a podcast I can look up, where researchers looked at how the influx of Strava, FB and other social media into our lives, from an exercise standpoint may be hindering people. ie. its your scheduled rest day, but you log onto strava and see someone in your group just posted his TR workout and you MAY feel compelled to train. She went through other aspects of how social media can affect athletes in non positive ways mentally. One study found that triathletes in general tend more toward the addictive side. They just call it being “Type A” with their training.
I found that exercise addiction is a very real aspect of my life. I know that I have an addictive personality. I don’t really do anything half ass, if I decide to get into something, I go all in. Unfortunately it led me down a wrong path for awhile, but I understand how I am wired and do things accordingly. I am addicted to exercising…guilty! Ive lost 90lbs, have kept it off for a few years and get stronger and stronger each week. Im ok with it. For me if something interrupts my workout, or my scheduled workout, or I am just cranky b/c I haven’t worked out. I take a minute, I realize its happened to me, I absorb it, I sulk for a minute. Then I think of 10 reasons why Im lucky to have a life where I can work out and be fit and fast and whatever else you want to insert here.
Our agreed upon solution is that if my wife notices my grumpiness, she tells me. She dosent let it bother her. She will say “youre being an a$$hole rt now” If I can, I go for a ride and clear my mind. If I cant, at least I know it and I fix it, so as to not drag down others around me.
My name is Mike and Im addicted to exercise.
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That’s at least one easy solution 
Just treat your caloric input/output as a rolling average. The fact you work out on Sunday does not mean you have to eat less on Monday, if anything it’s better to do, say, 2500 kcal every day than 3500 on a workout day and 1800 on a rest day.
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You’ll still end up with a dramatically lower weekly calorie count on a recovery week than a hard training week. Personally I dropped from 11,178 kJ to 7,765 kJ on my latest rest week - pretty significant reduction in eating!
Oh, man I love rest days.
My absolute favourites are during summer holidays when I can just sit in the garden with a coffee, read a book and maybe enjoy watching the bees.
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Rest days are part of training. They are not meant to be easy😉
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I meant rest days, not recovery weeks. That’s a completely different cattle of fish and I agree with you 100%!
Yoga! It’s active, it aids recovery, it improves cycling on so many levels, there’s loads of cycling specific workouts on YouTube. It makes you sweat AND relaxes you. YOGA!! I love it!
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