@stacypro same here! Nutrition is a real struggle for me- I really have to THINK about eating healthy or I just fall apart and go get a pizza 
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Pizza is life LOL
Iâm glad Iâm not the only one. I swear that I just donât like a lot of the foods that are âgoodâ for me. I donât exactly eat tons of junk food either, but veggies are a definite struggle. I also work a job where Iâm in the car all day so most of my food is eaten with one hand on the steering wheel.
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Ive been doing recovery rides WRONG for many years now. Theyve been about 60-70 % of ftp 
Well, you live and learn!
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I read somewhere if you eat something 12-15 times you will develop a liking for that particular taste 
I did not like fish at all until maybe 6 years ago when i ate more for a concentrated periode. Im still not very good at making fish dishes but i have certain safe choices i can do. On restaurants i go for fish because they are usually better than what i could do myself (and i dont have to handle the raw fish and bones and skin 
)
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Iâll start with ice baths
Although popular, ice baths CAN be only slightly better than passive recovery (doing nothing). And that is for recovery - not adaptation- meaning, it can make you feel better (decrease soreness/perception of muscle soreness). But the effects seem to be marginal at best (based on the meta-analysis below). Most importantly, however, is that ice baths have been shown to be potential âdetractorsâ- meaning- having a negative effect. In one study, 15 min of icing following a hard strength workout delayed the removal of creatine kinase, a marker of muscle cell breakdown, when compared to a recovery method that was basically rest and nothing else. In another study, athletes rode 90 minutes to deplete glycogen stores. Following the workout, one leg was iced and the other was simply rested. Muscle glycogen stores were reduced by 30% on average on the iced leg. In conclusion, ice baths and icing is probably not a good idea. There is a lot of âmonkey see, monkey doâ in sports⊠people doing things just because others do, without doing their own research or talking to experts.
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Now for adaptation. Believe it or not, it is still a topic that needs a lot more research. What we know so far is that the recovery methods that I listed above can negatively interfere with adaptation. Rushing back into a hard workout that tests your limits before recovery is complete reduces the bodyâs adaptation.
In general, it takes the body about 48 hs to adapt and grow stronger after a very high-stress workout. Soreness is the bodyâs way of saying it needs some downtime. Muscle protein synthesis (when muscles repair and grow stronger) also takes about 48 hs.
Now the tricky part - this 48h window may vary from person to person, depending on their level of fitness, conditioning, age, etc. We do know older athletes generally need more time, but some older athletes are more fit than their younger counterparts. There are no precise tools available to measure adaptation.
Also recovery and adaptation do not necessarily happen in tandem. You might feel recovered, but the adaptive process might take longer.
So the best approach is to use the ânaturalâ recovery methods listed above that works with bodyâs natural recovery and adaptive process (without interfering or artificially shortening them), while being mindful of not doing very hard back-to-back workouts on an on-going basis.
That does not mean you canât workout every day. For example, I do workouts on Tue, Wed and Thu, but they are designed to work together, so that they can and should be done on consecutive days. None of them are so intense that I need a recovery day after (with the exception of Thursdayâs sometimes). Then I do workouts Sat and Sun, again, designed to work together.
The workouts we have in the Challenge require at least a day of rest afterwards.
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Thatâs an endurance ride, not recovery. I believe that 99% of amateur cyclists go hard or âmoderately hardâ all the time, which is a sure recipe for stagnation. Easy days are easy, hard days are hard. Go easy on the easy days so you can go harder on the hard days. That is not to say there is no place for medium power zones/tempo zones - they should also be trained, but as part of a workout that also has more intense intervals, and not as a stand-alone ride, as this is shown to be ineffective.
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Last year, after a very hard climb of a mountain, a friend suggested me to have a bath in very cold water (water only on legs) to recover because the day after we were going to have an other hard climb. I was freezing so I didnât like it very much immediately but right after I felt better and my legs were less heavy and tired. Anyway, Iâm not going to do that again, itâs too shocking for the body after the shock of a hard training. Why a dive in the Caribbean sea is never suggested as a recovery method?!? I would follow the tip 
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What about hot showers after a hard workout? Does heat affect recovery/adaptation at all? I seem to recall reading somewhere that heat increases the speed of glycogen replenishment. Or am I just making that up because I really love hot showers 
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I donât think I do enough recovery rides. I try to ride 3/4 times a week which can be a combination of outdoor and Zwift rides. I did workout 2.2 last night and then a 30 miles ride today (the sun was shining for a change) and legs felt tired. I plan to rest for 48hrs. The problem is everyone is so hung up about Strava segment times and how fast you can climb a hill that it always feels like a completion. I live in UK and surrounded by hills so a flat ride in the area is always about 700 metres so you cannot get away from them! I need to learn that recovery is important and not always about times.
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After the San Diego metric century where it was hot and my husband got pretty badly dehydrated (like I really thought we were going to end up in the ER dehydrated), we spent the next few hours on the beach with him sitting in the ocean while drinking electrolytes. I figured cool salt water and gentle massage from the waves couldnât be bad for his legs.
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@Jenzar yes! do you ever fall asleep in them? I have
Not yet⊠as weâre fighting about them ⊠like⊠come on 'are we there yetâ
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Haha I have and my fiancé has to wake me and take them off
More recovery questions, especially after a long ride. I finished a double metric (125 miles) yesterday and took a hot shower because Iâm always freezing after long rides, no matter the outdoor temperature. I followed that up with a warm/hot soak in Epsom salts. For the rest of the night I felt like I was just leaking heat but couldnât get comfortable. So, is there an optimal shower/soak temperature if youâre going to take one anyways?
@Stefanie and @stacypro regarding warm water/baths, itâs a better option than the cold/ice ones for recovery, for the reason Stefanie mentioned (see study below for more info and temperatures).
Having said that⊠how you react and feel by using a particular method is more important than following a recovery protocol. My guess is the water for you was too hot, @stacypro. The feeling you describe is similar to what I used to feel after a Bikram (hot) yoga class. You also need to make sure you eat well right after and again about 60 minutes later after a long ride like that.
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Another reliable resource on the topic of recovery and the myth of ice baths, NSAIDs, etc. It explains how certain measures can make you feel better the next day, but impair your performance in the long term.
@Coach_Theia interesting. only read your headline, but donât all the professional athletes do it? particularly football players.