Training Guide

            Rest is one of the most important ingredients in good training and crucial to keeping the form on an upward curve. After completing the Ardennes Classics with not quite the form I had hoped for, I felt I was missing that high-end form: the sensation that pedalling is fluid, smooth, natural, where you can dig deep into the reserves when the race is on the verge of exploding.

            This dip in my form was not from lack of training or racing and was quite the opposite. Many times missing that high-end form is a clear sign you may be in need of some good recovery time, allowing your body to recharge it’s batteries, to get that snap back in your legs and the hunger and fight back into your spirit.

I had been hoping to come into the Ardennes this year on top form, but the team needed me to jump into Volta Catalunyia after doing Paris-Nice and before doing Vuelta Pais Vasco. That may have proven to be just a bit too much for me to come into the classics with maximum freshness. Either way, I enjoy my role as a domestique and in these learning years of my career I will always give the nod when the team needs someone for a race. I think the experience gained and the hard miles will, in the years to come, pay big dividends.

That being said, there is always an IF. In this case, it’s that the work will pay big dividends someday IF you do take the time to recover properly and you don’t end up digging yourself a hole as deep as the Grand Canyon. It’s a long way up from down there.

So this is where I stood, on the edge of the Grand Canyon. Had I come off the classics thinking “Oh man, I didn’t have the form I wanted. I really need to train harder,” I would have starting digging that hole, but luckily for me, Garmin-Transitions has a good system in place to help prevent that.

First off my very experienced coach, Adrie Van Diemen, saw all the signs straight away and prescribed five days sans bike and we would reassess after that. The five days passed pretty quickly and I thought I was ready for action again and even preformed a fitness test that showed some good adaption to the racing workload and progress since team camp. But that wasn’t it. With the team doctors and team physiologists, I performed various other tests that showed my body at its core was still fatigued. Another five days easy, this time riding at low intensities that would get me outdoors and moving, but not putting heavy stress on the body and allowing it to continue to recharge itself. That brings us to today, training once again and hopefully building up the body to return stronger than before and ready to tackle the next string of races with freshness and power in the legs. I’ll let you know how it goes.

 Christian Meier is a Canadian professional rider on the Garmin-Transitions ProTour team for 2010.