Build Your Way Back After an Illness

Whether it's because you're waylaid by illness, island vacation or a bout of mid-season ennui, sometimes your bike ends up sitting in the rack rather than racking up roads. Still, no matter how fast your fitness slips away, it's never too late to get it back.

Sometimes it's actually the best thing that can happen, because nobody takes the rest periods that they're supposed to. To do a a fast comeback...

Check the time

Take three of four days off, and you may actually come back faster and stronger. After a week or more, however, you lose about 2 to 4 percent of your fitness per week. If you know in advance you're in for a layoff, do short but intense efforts to forestall losses – a half hour of exercise is all it takes to maintain fitness and muscle memory on the bike.

Cut to the core

Don't burn precious time in the gym. Just hit your core muscles; they'll help you get back faster without fatigue.

Here are four moves we can recommend:

• Plank. Lay face-down on the floor and use your forearms – elbows directly beneath your shoulders – and toes to prop up your body so it forms a straight line. Hold 10 to 30 seconds. Repeat.
• Push-up. Assume the plan position, with hands on floor and arms extended. Bend you elbows, lowering your torso until your shoulders are in line with you elbows. Push up. Do two sets of 10 to 20.
• Glute bridge. Lie on your back, heels on an exercise ball, arms by your sides. Contract your glutes and raise your hips off the floor so your body forms a diagonal line. Bend your knees and roll the ball onto your feet and toward your butt. Return to start. Do two sets of 10 to 20.
• T-stand. Stand with arms out to the sides, shoulder height. Extend you right leg behind you and balance on your left leg. Hinge forward from the waist until your body is parallel to the floor and is a straight line from head to heel. Return to start. Alternate for a set of 10 on each side. Do two sets.

Build you way back

If you've been away for a week or more, start from where you left off and do an abbreviated buildup, shortening the schedule but hitting the essentials.

Speed and power are the first things lost, in that order. So intensity is what matters most for a quick comeback. Do the following drills on a 4 to 5 percent hill to increase power fast. Rebuild your endurance one day a week with a group ride or a three-hour ride with some lactate-threshold efforts and a few 10- to 30-second maximum-effort sprints thrown in.