I’ve written four different posts for today and in the end wasn’t happy with any of them. At the last moment I decided this topic is the most relevant since the Tour of Bright is less than 4 days away. Even if you’ve never heard of the Tour of Bright you can still get something out of this post for your next important event.
Once again, this isn’t the week you want to be trying to cram in fitness at the last moment. The week before a big event is all about recovery and sharpening of your strengths. In my last post I spoke about the sharpening aspect – tapering.
One of the most significant things you can do for your recovery this week is to treat yourself to a massage. No, I’m not talking about dim lights, the smell of incense, selection of scented oils, etc. I’m talking about a deep tissue massage that will be more excruciatingly painful than 3 Mt. Hotham’s in a row.
Four days before an event is good to get a deep tissue massage. This gives ample time to get over the legginess (heavy legs after a massage) that is typically experienced after a deep tissue treatment. A deep tissue massage is akin to having a hard workout. You’ll be soar sore, your legs will feel like lead, and you’ll most likely ride horribly the next day. This is good.
You never want to have a deep tissue massage much closer to a race than 3 days before. This won’t allow ample time to recover from the massage as well as get in the rides you need to to that will sharpen your fitness.
Tomorrow, 3 days before the race, you’ll want to go for a light pedal with a few race pace efforts (3 x 90 sec with 3 mins recovery in-between) just to blow out the legginess. Nothing too strenuous, but you want to give the legs a reminder of what’s to come. If you’ve done everything right you’ll feel like you’re floating on Saturday.
Enjoy this ride and go for a coffee afterwards with your mates. This is what you’ve been training for and it’s a great feeling when you know you’re on form!
Now, I’m off to get my deep tissue massage this morning. I’m kinda looking forward to it but I know I’ll be squealing like a pig!
{ 39 comments }
Once again CT, you timed this perfectly! I was thinking of getting a massage the day before a race would be the best thing. I guess not!
sore
–adjective
1. physically painful or sensitive, as a wound, hurt, or diseased part: a sore arm.
2. suffering bodily pain from wounds, bruises, etc., as a person: He is sore because of all that exercise.
3. suffering mental pain; grieved, distressed, or sorrowful: to be sore at heart.
4. causing great mental pain, distress, or sorrow: a sore bereavement.
5. causing very great suffering, misery, hardship, etc.: sore need.
6. Informal. annoyed; irritated; offended; angered: He was sore because he had to wait.
7. causing annoyance or irritation: a sore subject.
–noun
8. a sore spot or place on the body.
9. a source or cause of grief, distress, irritation, etc.
–adverb
10. Archaic. sorely.
——————————————————————————–
Origin:
bef. 900; ME (adj., n., and adv.); OE s?r; c. D zeer, G sehr, ON s?rr
Related forms:
soreness, noun
Synonyms:
1. tender. 3. aggrieved, hurt, pained, vexed. 4. grievous, distressing, painful, depressing. 8. infection, abscess, ulcer, wound.
soar
–verb (used without object)
1. to fly upward, as a bird.
2. to fly at a great height, without visible movements of the pinions, as a bird.
3. to glide along at a height, as an airplane.
4. to rise or ascend to a height, as a mountain.
5. to rise or aspire to a higher or more exalted level: His hopes soared.
–noun
6. an act or instance of soaring.
7. the height attained in soaring.
——————————————————————————–
Origin:
1325–75; ME soren < MF essorer < VL *exaur?re, equiv. to L ex- ex- 1 + aur(a) air + -?re inf. suffix
Related forms:
soarer, noun
soaringly, adverb
Synonyms:
1. See fly 1 . 4. tower; mount.
OK so massage makes you sore, so you can soar, we get it.
So you can cut and paste. You're a real genius.
Why the angst?
Just helping the man out, everyone loves well written prose and WW is usualy on the mark.
Would love to see you being coached!
Criticism is constructive, your comment was not.
Genius is a rather kind term, so I thankyou.
I prefer 'astute'.
Thanks @BeachroadNeoPro. I always take it as a compliment when someone points out my spelling or grammar mistakes. It means that people expect more out of me – which is good!
Your initial post was a bit overkill don't you think.. We all got the intent I think
Well it was simply a cut and paste, (which is genius apparently)..
I'll soften it up next time, no harm no foul…
Now I have some Dictionaries to go read.
Go ride a bike or something.
Can i just ask what was on the telly in the photo above?
Andy and Dom like to get their clients in the mood so they plug the $19.95 feature adult films whenever they get the chance
;-)
it could be a bit embarrassing during a massage…
“Beach” and “Road” are two separate words. Keepin it astute!
Yo Dude,
While we're correcting spelling/language etc ….
it's thank you, not thankyou – two words
shit I ahve a massage with Andy on Friday, I hope he doesn't put one of those on for me
Deep tissue massage… four days before the event?
Cutting it fine, aren't you? Or hoping the opposition goes for it…
Have a terrific weekend in Bright!!
PRO: regular massages as part of any training and recovery cycle.
NOT PRO: blatant self promotion on someone else's blog.
Need a massage?, Scooter has worked as a soigneur with some of Australia's top teams. Give him a call, 0404768067. $10 discount for all cyclingtipsblog fans (conditions apply).
sorry CT, couldnt resist.
As for the Beachroad (sic) Neopro's use of a comma before brackets (it should follow), along with two consecutive misuses of ellipsis (at the end of a sentence, there should be three “dots” followed by the full stop). Very clumsy.
Suggest Mr/Ms Neopro consult something like the The Penguin Guide to Punctuation before any more stones are thrown from inside a glass house.
No. 1 rule of CyclingTips – don't dis CT!
As always with these types of things, I should have started with the disclaimer of “this is what works for me and many others. Everyone will recover differently”. For me and what from I've always seen, 4 days of deep tissue massage has been perfect timing. The point is that you shouldn't be doing it much sooner before the event.
No worries Scooter. I can vouch for you. Your massages are the goods! No incense, fancy oils or Buddhist chant hymns. Just plain old PAIN!
Massage, $19.95 adult films?
I hope there isn't any happy endings!!!
P.S. I hpoe i speelt wrigt!!
Very PRO site, scooter!
Will keep you in mind when in melbourne next!
Good luck!
Oops…
I didn't mean to step on the toes of the PRO peloton here. Just my opinion that a “deep tissue” might do more harm than good at this stage when, what any athlete really needs is to relax and recover.
Cheers,
A.
I was trying to emphasise the noun of thankyou, as opposed to thank you the verb; but in theory I am wrong.
B grade for me next week. :(
But my name is Beachroad, not 'Beach Road'… :p
NOT being picky, but a question: Don't many pros get a massage daily? How does that fit into your timeline? (I've never had the heavy legs from one. But sure do feel wonderful the next day!)
Yes the adult videos during a massage could get awkward. You'd hate to give the wrong impression.
Hey David,
That's right – most of them get massages like it's their last day on Earth. I did a post on this quite a while back: http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2009/03/when-to-...
The therapist I go to (and a good friend) used to massage Cavendish's legs. He gave some good insight to what his and other pros routines are like.
During a tour, riders will get a massage after every day of racing. These rubs tend to be gentler than a weekly session a rider might have during a training block. Of course, there are also individual variations too, some riders feel the heavy legs the day after a deep tissue treatment and some prefer harder work and feel better for it straight away.
Daily… I would too, if I could afford them. I had them weekly when training seriously for an event, but nothing deep in the week before the competition. It is about relaxing those muscles to speed up tissue recovery, not hurting them even more… They say!!
A.
Apparently, wearing your nicks inside out makes them act like compression garments and helps the muscles rid themselves of lactic acid etc, so I'd suggest you do that when you're riding Bright.
Thanks for the older post. That really clarifies the differences. Funny thing is, I don't get the heavy legs. The next day I feel like new — all the soreness and tiredness of the hard workout is just gone.
A note for newbies … I got EXTREMELY sick after my first deep tissue massage. Puked my guts out. Had one of my toughest, longest rides ever earlier that day. The therapist (and later ones agreed) that I was detoxing. But I felt WONDERFUL the next day.
Now, if I could only afford them 2-3x a week!
And a dictionary, evidently…”usualy” ?
And a dictionary, evidently…”usualy” ?
Not if you like that sort of thing (not that there's anything wrong with that).
Andy might be a bit shocked. “Gorrrrn, are you 'avin a larf geeza?”
Scooter – where are you located?
I missed out on a Naylor special this week but I have myotherapy + chiro on Thursday (Bayside Myotherapy in Elwood, checkit, befo' you wreck i'!) which I reckon is good prep. Trigger points to release tension plus straighten my back and pelvis (my right leg is functionally shorter by about 20mm).
Definitely worth it, specially through hammies, glutes, ITBs and quads
See what happens when you rush a comment or a post?
;-)
hey tim,
im over in northcote, not far from fairfield station.
Just back from deep tissue massage with Liam at Vigor Health in Fitzroy Melbourne.
You don't realise how many aches and pains you are harboring till they get you on the table and make you squirm, its always very relaxing and nice in between the bouts of healthy torture.
Oh by the way, I am not riding ToB so don't worry that the massage will be too late ;-)
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