Quick Recovery
by Joe Friel

For self-coached athletes, the most neglected aspect of training, and yet perhaps the most important, is recovery. After all, the athlete reasons, if hard training is what makes you more fit, train hard every day. Sounds logical, but there's one error with it-fitness improves during rest, not workouts. In fact, the time required for the body to spring back and improve its fitness level has been shown to be at least 36 hours after certain types of hard workouts. And the older or the less fit you are, the longer it takes to realize the gains. Repeating hard workouts day after day eventually leads to reduced fitness despite the high workload. If continued long enough, such a training philosophy will also produce chronic over training, which can take weeks of inactivity to correct while making a huge dent in your fitness and health.

On the other hand, the notion of training hard as frequently as possible is an excellent idea to boost race fitness. The trick is to speed up recovery. This is especially important for cyclists in stage races, for anyone doing back-to-back quality workouts (the reason and methods for this type of training will be described in a future issue), and for weekends when there are two or more races. There are many different modalities for shortening recovery time. Let's examine just one-post-workout/race diet for sessions lasting less than about four hours. Beyond that duration, dietary needs change a bit. The dietary aspect of recovery actually starts before the workout. Having adequate levels of carbohydrate stored away in the muscles, liver and blood helps prevent the "tank" from going empty by the workout's end. That shortens the recovery time before the first drop of sweat appears.

The same goes for taking in carbohydrate during the race or workout. If you bonk, or even come close to it, the time to recover is extended. This is one reason why sports drinks, gels, bars and other carbohydrate sources should be consumed during hard-effort workouts and races. The longer the session is, the more important carbohydrate replacement becomes for recovery.

The next phase of recovery begins as soon as you cross the finish line or stop the workout. This should begin immediately with fluid replacement, especially a fluid that has both a high concentration of carbohydrate, preferably high glycemic and protein. In liquid form, the food is more easily digested, and it also helps to replace body fluids lost during the session.

There are many commercial recovery drinks available. One of the more popular is Endurox R4. While such products are usually well designed and effective, they are also costly. A simple and inexpensive alternative is to make your own recovery drink by blending five tablespoons of sugar with 16 ounces of skim milk. The sugar in the "homebrew" recovery drink quickly replaces the spent carbohydrate while the protein in the milk stops further muscle breakdown to free-up protein for rebuilding tissues damaged by the exercise.

If you're at a race and are afraid the milk will spoil if it sits in your car for a few hours waiting for you to finish, try mixing powdered milk and sugar in a dry 16-ounce water bottle. Then all you need to do after the race is add cold water to make a passable recovery drink. The same can be done with a commercial product. Commercial drinks are probably safer when it comes to storage in the heat for extended periods.

Within two hours after the race or workout, eat a high-carbohydrate snack. This could be in the form of high glycemic fruits (for example, banana or watermelon), grains, such as bread or cereal, or starch as in potatoes or pasta. The next meal should include both carbohydrate and a quality source of protein, such as meat, fish, chicken, turkey or eggs. The protein should be low-fat.

Before bed, take in more carbohydrate, this time from a lower glycemic source such as fruit. Also take in more lean protein. The lower glycemic carbohydrate means that the energy will be released more slowly during the night. This is also a good time to take antioxidant supplements to help prevent further tissue breakdown. Effective antioxidants are vitamin C (500-1000 mg daily) and vitamin E (400-800 IU daily). Some variation of this procedure should become so common that you no longer even think about it, but immediately do what promotes recovery.

Joe Friel is the founder and President of Ultrafit and the author of The Cyclist’s Training Bible, The Triathlete’sTraining Bible, The Mountain Biker’s Training Bible, and Cycling Past 50. He is a certified Elite-level coach by USA Cycling and USA Triathlon and has been coaching endurance athletes for two decades.