| Work + Recovery = Peak Performance
From Ironman World Champion Cherie Gruenfeld
We athletes spend hours and hours swimming, biking, running and working in the gym hoping to train our bodies for peak performance on race day. While this work is one half of the equation, the other half, Recovery, is of equal importance and should be a vital part of any athlete's training program in several forms.
Recovery During Workouts
When doing interval work in any discipline, the objective is to follow the hard effort with recovery before starting the next work effort. If your goal is speed, the effort will be close to "all out" and the recovery long enough to get completely rested before starting the next hard effort. If endurance is what you're working on, the efforts are less intense (more sustainable) and the recovery period is shorter so that you start the next effort without being fully recovered, thereby building endurance. Short or long, proper recovery is the key to getting the maximum benefit from each work effort.
Recovery Between Workouts
As many of us do during July, I'm watching the Tour de France and admiring the biking skills of these guys. But another thing I've noticed is how quickly they go from crossing the finish line to getting inside the team trailer. Now, I realize there's an element of avoiding the press to this, but I believe, from all I've heard, that the major goal is to begin the recovery process as quickly as possible, knowing that it starts all over again in less than 24 hours.
After a hard workout day, we mere mortals have the very same issue. We have a training plan that calls for another hard workout day in less than 24 hours. Seems like we should take a cue from these biking gods and get our recovery started immediately after the workout. Although we don't have a team of people to take care of our every need as the Tour boys do, here are some thoughts on overnight recovery:
- Food and drink are of paramount importance, so start eating and drinking quickly. The body will work most efficiently in taking in the nutrients and using them for rebuilding during the first 60-90 minutes after your workout. Use that window to full advantage. A Master Amino Acid Pattern (MAP) regimen (before and after workouts) provides a protein boost that has proven to be very effective in rebuilding the body for the next day's work. (See NOTE below)
- Ice is a miracle healer. After a hard workout your, leg muscles are loaded with micro-tears. During your downtime, these small tears will heal, and that makes your legs stronger. Ice will help this process along. Sitting in an ice bath is a wonderful way to ice your entire lower body, although many athletes feel this therapy is simply too onerous. It becomes less so if you put on a sweatshirt and take some good compelling reading material with you. Ten minutes of this torture is all you need to improve your recovery.
- Make sure your meals include some protein, the building blocks for your recovery. Throw some chicken, fish, tuna or turkey into a stir-fry with some veggies added to rice or pasta and voila!. You have the perfect recovery meal.
- Get your legs up. Lying on the floor and putting them up against the wall or up on the bed is a great method for this, but sitting in a recliner also works well and is a bit more civilized. While you're elevating your legs, do some gentle stretching and self-massage as well.
- If it's available to you, take advantage of a good massage. Make sure it's a therapist who is sports oriented and understands your recovery goals.
- Napping is also a good recovery tool. All you need is 10 minutes of sleep for it to be beneficial.
- If your job takes you from the workout directly to your office, a little creativity may be required. Have your food and drink planned so you can take it to your desk with you. An ice bath, even if you're truly committed to the torture method, may not be operative, but you can fill a couple of ice packs and sit on those for 20 minutes for the hips and glutes or wrap them around your sore knees if that's a vulnerable area for you. Your work situation may not be conducive to lying on the floor to get your legs up, but you can get some benefit from self-massage and stretching.
All these recovery strategies are also appropriate if your recovery is between a "two-a-day" workout rather than overnight. Start your recovery process as soon as you finish the morning workout, which will prepare you for the evening workout.
Pre-emptive or Forced Recovery
There are times when downtime is forced on us, either to prevent injury or illness or after it's occurred. In either case, recovery time is critical to long-term good performance. The prescription for this is dependant on the circumstances, but a general guideline would be to get a proper diagnosis from a sports doc as soon as possible and understand that denial won't solve the problem. Then get to work on your recovery. And don't neglect to continue your supplement routine during these times. MAP will continue to promote strength and endurance, which will hasten the healing.
Planned work sprinkled with the proper doses of Recovery at the appropriate times will give you the performance you've been dreaming of.
Good luck and be safe,
Cherie Gruenfeld
NOTE: MAP is ideal because immediately after a hard workout the muscle repair processes are at peak work and MAP delivers the exact amino acids needed for that repair/recovery in only 23 minutes. Other proteins, in comparison, require a digestion times of 6-12 times longer than that of MAP, which means that what the muscle needs to recover are not there promptly and repair is delayed. Additionally, 99% of the MAP can be incorporated into making body proteins whereas only 16% of whey and soy protein or 33% of meat or fish protein are incorporated, which means that as protein building sources they are suboptimal. Another downside is that they add a large nitrogen waste load to the already burdened accumulations of lactic acid and cell debris from the workout itself. So the cell, in addition to repair and recovery, now has an added job of extra waste management. These facts are key in the recovery process.
Articles from Cherie:
Key Workouts for a Successful Ironman Race Part I - Part II - Key Workouts for a Successful Ironman Race - Analyzing the Last Season to Have a Better Next Season - Setting the 2006 Calendar - Breaking it Down - Something for Nothing - Work + Recovery = Peak Performance - Getting Back in the Game - To Race or Not to Race? - Kona Moments - PERIODIZATION Ð MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU - New Age Group Record at IM Arizona - Critical Success Factors for a Great Ironman - The Ironman Run: It's a Mind Game - Remain a Competitive Racer - What's This Race All About - To Every Workout There is a Purpose -
My 2008 Resolutions
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Looking Forward to the Future
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How About the Kids? -
Other Kids
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Become An Ironman
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Beware the Pitfalls
To have racing success
Back to the Future
Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3
Circling the Drain
Lessons From Beijing
From the Desk Of Cherie Gruenfeld
Ironman – Now That You've Committed
It's All About the Run
Order MAP
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