Why take days off during base season?

Curious what others think on this - if your riding in base is low intensity / “miles build champions” type of riding, it seems to me that there’s benefit in riding every day if your schedule allows, rather than take any time off. Do folks agree, or is there value in a day completely off the bike that I’m not seeing? Thanks!

I’d say, at least for reducing the mental fatique from training, the off days are good no matter what kind of training you do. Quality over quantity! Life isn’t (or at least shouldn’t be) just about training.

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Base pace is not Active Recovery pace. If you don’t feel fatigued or the need for a break (at some point) you’re probably riding not enough or/and too slow.

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SS base is not low intensity.

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My wife will never read your post!! :shushing_face::rofl:

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:joy:

Days off at any point in the training cycle is an entirely personal choice. Some might feel they need them, some not whether this is for physical or psychological reasons.

You ‘damage’ your body on days you ride, you get stronger on days you don’t ride.

You need to take days off at some point to allow your body this recovery time. If your base phase doesn’t have either enough volume (traditional) or intensity (sweet spot) that your body needs more than 12-18 hours of recovery between rides then you aren’t doing base correctly.

Training is about adaptation, even in the base phase. Your body needs a chance to adapt to the stress you’re putting it through and that happens off the bike, not on the bike

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I definitely agree with this point that I should be looking for 12 - 18 hours of recovery, but doesn’t that line up with riding daily? Or are you saying that’s a reasonable cumulative daily debt but you should build to more than that over time?

I think the key word you missed was ‘more than 12-18 hours’.

In general - you should be wearing yourself down training and if you feel like you can keep riding every day and adding more and more volume and more and more days without wearing yourself down then I think you are setting yourself up for failure.

You need your days off, your easy days, your recovery weeks - this is when you adapt to the training stimulus and get faster

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I don’t take planned days off, but when life or recovery dictates it is time that is when I take it. Sometimes it means my easy weeks are overly easy with 1 or 2 days completely off, but it keeps me mentally in it during the on weeks. Things are a bit different for triathletes, since I am trying to work in 10 workouts a week, 1 day of full rest means 4 days of doubles and I want to keep all of my double days to be just run/swim or bike/swim, but nothing is overly long either, just consistent work.