article by Pav Bryan
All your hard work in training is for nothing if you don’t allow your body to recover and adapt to it. Recovery is the most fundamental point of your schedule. Some people say that without it you’re over-training but I prefer the term under-recovering.
You finish your session or race what do you do? Ideally you have a golden window of about 30-45 minutes to really help your body kick start the recovery process. During this time, you should be really focused on returning your body to a state equal to (or as close as possible) as prior to you starting training. This can include many but focus on the most important ones first.
Start with returning your actual being to normal. For me I’d suggest this includes at least 10 minutes of spinning your legs out, preferably this is turbo or rollers but not always practical so think about light gearing and low power with a high cadence. This should help flush your legs, reduce your heart rate and start to settle mind, body and organs.
Once you’ve spun your legs considering stretching, subscribe to my YouTube channel for instructional videos coming soon, this will help keep your legs from locking up later and can reduce soreness. You can also look to reduce or increase temperature. I don’t think that there are any definitive studies suggesting any of them work unanimously, some work for some and others for others. Ice baths are a tradition among many professional sports people and you have portable systems such as Aquilo Sports Cryo-Compression Suit which can help reduce the temperature of your body and specific muscle groups in order to promote recovery.
If you’ve raced and it’s been cold out, you will need to get layers on asap even if you don’t feel cold. Allow your body to focus on recovery and not having to keep warm. If you’re wet, you’ll need to get dry quickly too so I’d suggest you always pack a towel in your kit bag even during summer.
Although not strictly something that’ll promote recovery but more a preventative measure I’d recommend you treating the period immediately after racing and training like everyone around you has some form of horrible catching illness. Your body’s immune system has been weakened by the training and you are at heightened risk of catching something. Not that you should be relaxed about it at other times but pay particular attention to cleanliness, hygiene and others around you during the recovery process.
One key area will also be replenishing lost fluids and carbohydrates. You can test how heavy a sweater you are fairly easily, this can involve weighing yourself before and after a session. The easiest way is to just check the colour of your urine after training or racing, the darker the colour the more dehydrated you are. Drink sensibly until your urine is almost clear.
Working out how much energy you’ve spent isn’t as easy as most trackers make it look but as a guide they are better than nothing. Depending on how you’ve fueled during the ride you’ll be tempted to reach for the nearest sugary, fatty piece of junk you can get your hands on. I’d approach this with caution. Although at this point you’re probably at the best point to eat these types of food from the perspective of not putting weight on you’re not going to do your recovery many favours eating junk. To really boost recovery, you need an optimal amount of carbohydrates, mixed with good quality protein.
I am mainly a fan of getting a meal in straight after a session, real food beats any form of man-made or processed supplement or addition to your diet. Not always practical however and in most cases if you’ve just finished a very intense session or race the thought of eating a proper meal might make you nauseous.
My best advice for recovery drink is to make your own, easily done. First carbohydrates, this is easy by adding a mix of fruit like a banana and 80-100 grams of strawberries with about 25 grams of quality oats. Protein is a little harder to get into a shake and this is where having a ready-made powder will be useful, check out the Complete Shakes at pavbryan.juiceplus.com. If you’re not a fan of this, then try adding things like seeds to it, depending on your thoughts about adding fat to your recovery food this will satisfy that macro-nutrient too. Research is a little drawn on whether adding healthy fat to your shake when taking it as recovery will help, some say it can slow the absorption of the other nutrients thus damaging the recovery process while others argue that it’s essential to help.
How you continue to replenish spent energy after the initial period will greatly depend on what you’re doing with your nutrition, training and goals. Periodizing your nutrition to match your training will dictate a lot of how you eat after.
Your recovery will be really optimized by carefully considering your daily nutrition as well as the window after training. If you consider the carbohydrates, protein and fats (macros) as the petrol you put in your car, then the nutrients you get from plant (micros) will be the oil that makes it run smoothly. You can put the most expensive fuel in a Ferrari but if you don’t put any oil in it, it won’t drive well! Check out the Premium Capsules at pavbryan.juiceplus.com for how this can help but even think about upping you daily intake of fresh fruit and vegetables. Really consider and focus on why and what you are eating, ask yourself if the next thing you eat will add time needed to recover or reduce it, this will help motivate you to make a smart eating choice!
I’m a big fan of eating little & often, not grazing but not massive meals. Think about getting your daily requirements from 5-6 meals of approximately 500 calories but adjust this depending on your training load. This should be made up of carbohydrate, protein and fats. Experiment with the ratio of each as most people are different and depending on how you are periodizing your training and nutrition you could consider eating more fats when you’re training is low intensity and more carbohydrates when your training is harder.
Moving on from the period immediately after you should always really have your recovery in the back of your mind. Sleep is a big one, although hardly practical at all, getting a nap in after training or racing might be the biggest way to boost recovery. If sleep isn’t an option, then try to elevate your legs or reduce the amount of time using them!
Using a foam roller, although horrible, is an amazing way to help and the only better would be having very regular sports massages. A foam roller is one bit of kit I’d recommend every person have and regularly use, again subscribe to my YouTube channel for instructional videos which are coming soon.
By simply thinking about your daily life you can really see where recovery gains can be made. Take the elevator not the stairs, sit down more and minimise the amount of work your body has to do outside of actually adapting to the hard work you put in during training.
Using the rule of asking yourself whether you are adding to the time taken to recover or reducing it when going about your daily life will really open your eyes to how much more you can do. In some cases, it’s just not possible, work, family and life get in the way but consider even the smallest margins as the difference between winning a race or setting a new PB, or not…
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Pav Bryan
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