Doing More with Less ©1996 Joe Friel

What’s the single best way to improve your race fitness? More miles? Intervals? Special diet? Ergogenic aids? Special racing equipment? High altitude living?

While all of these are capable of helping you get to the finish line sooner, none is as effective in producing better fitness as recovery. I don't just mean taking it easy and little the day after a hard workout. Recovery is a whole bevy of big things you should be doing every day, none of which when done in the absence of the others amounts to much. But done together they can mean a significant difference in your race fitness. After all, race fitness is largely determined by how many quality workouts you can do in a given time, such as a week. The more quality you can handle without breaking down, the more fit you become sooner. Without incorporating effective rejuvenation methods into your daily routine, trying to do more and harder workouts will only spell doom -overtraining, injury, or burnout.

WWIII

Let's take a quick look at the effects of hard training on an endurance athlete. If you could peek inside the muscles with a microscope after a very intense workout it would took like a battle ground -- torn and jagged muscle cells, leaking fluids, and disarray. To repair this kind of damage the body needs time. The time to recover depends on your individual characteristics. Young athletes recover faster than older ones. Experienced athletes faster than novices. Highly fit people faster than those who are unfit. Low psychological stress also speeds recovery. One study found that women recover faster than men. How long it takes you depends on your mix of these variables,

It could easily take 72 hours to be ready to go again. If so, and if each of the workouts was just as intense as the first one, you would only get in five quality workouts every two weeks or risk overtraining and injury by putting them closer together. The trick is speeding up this recovery time. By getting it down to 48 hours, seven quality workouts are possible in two weeks-a 40% increase. That kind of increase can mean significantly greater fitness in a given period of time. So how is faster recovery possible?

Recovery Timing

It's all in the timing. The initial recovery period is the most critical. If things are done right immediately, down time is significantly reduced. This is where the most gains can be made. The great thing is, speeding recovery up front only requires a few minor changes in your routine to take advantage of this window of opportunity. Here's how.

Recovery actually begins when the intense workout starts. An adequate warm-up primes your body for a hard workout and one that produces less damage. A lot to 20-minute warm-up thins body fluids, increases neural transmission speed, opens capillaries, and releases fatty acids thus sparing glycogen-a precious fuel source that requires time to replenish. Within the workout, drinking 16-24 ounces of sports drink containing carbohydrate and electrolytes every hour reduces stress on the cells and maintains energy levels. Less stress at id decreased use of stored energy means less time to recover. Then a 10-15 minute, gradual cool down that mirrors the warm-up returns all systems to normal and helps to remove the waste products of exercise, again speeding the restoration process.

The first 30 minutes following the cessation of a workout is critical. Your initial needs are for fluids, carbohydrate, and protein. All were used during the workout and the body is primed to absorb them now. We tend not to think about needing protein at this time, but 8-10% of the energy expended may have come from this source. An intense hour of exercise could use 30 grams of protein-about the same as in a three-ounce can of tuna. If this protein is not provided, the body may begin cannibalizing muscle to meet its needs: Not a good situation.

A commercial recovery drink such as Metabolol will provide all of the nutrients needed if taken in within 30 minutes of finishing. Or you can make an inexpensive "homebrew" with 16 ounces of skim milk and five tablespoons or table sugar.

Within two hours of finishing the workout eat a meal also high in carbohydrate and protein. The typical salad, pasta, bread, and a beer wont do it. Add a couple of meatballs, tofu, or a side of fish to get adequate protein Your body is crying out for amino acids to rebuild cells. Don't give it just carbohydrate.

Continue getting protein in meals and snacks following your kilter workout for quick recovery. You'll be amazed what this will do for you if you're typically a carbohydrate grazer.

Recovery Tricks

During this initial restoration phase there are other ways to help the body get back to normal sooner. Sleep is the best. A nap or at least seven hours of nightly sleep are necessary. It's during this time that growth hormone is released and the repair process begins. That's why the pros take a nap every day. Cutting your sleep short means a longer recovery period between workouts and, ultimately, less fitness.

Anti-oxidants have been shown to speed the recovery process. The most common are vitamin E (400-800 IU/day) and vitamin C (300-1000 mg/day).

Other recovery boosters include 10-15 minute baths in warm water, massage, up to 10 minutes in a sauna (not steam room), stretching which improves amino acid uptake, and light activity for a few minutes such as a walk in a park or easy pedaling on a bicycle.

Recovery Signs

In the real world of training and racing, fatigue is not always totally unloaded before the next hard workout. But the more of it that is, the better the quality achieved in that workout.

How do you know when you're recovered enough to go hard again? There are several possible indicators. I say "possible" because of each of us is unique and has individual ways of responding to stress and rest. Common recovery indicators include a positive attitude, feelings of vigor, enthusiasm for training, sound sleep, normal resting and exercising heart rates, and balanced emotions. When some of these are present, it's time to get after it again.