Recover FAST!
One of the clearest signs of a healthy, well-trained athlete is their recovery time. Cycling pros can make it through a grueling, three-week Tour, then come to a time trial on Day 20 — when they should be beat — and actually ride faster than they did in the prologue time trial! How do they do it?
It’s not all down to genes and years of racing at a professional level, though those things certainly don’t hurt. Part of the pros’ advantage is knowledge. They know what they need to do to recover and have learned to interpret the different clues their body gives them about fatigue.
There are different kinds of tired. There’s tired because you’ve just depleted all the glycogen in your legs and there’s tired because you’ve overtrained. You can feel beat because your innocent little 2 hour morning ride just turned into the ride-from-hell when you were hit with icy winds and hail. Or you can feel beat because you didn’t recover properly after yesterday’s ride.
Maximizing your recovery is about learning to know the different kinds of tiredness and fatigue you experience and eliminate the ones you can. Do these things to recover FAST:
- Guzzle fluids. As you know by now, the first 30 minutes after a ride is your optimal recovery window for replenishing the fluids and glycogen you’ve just hammered away on the bike. If you’re not sure if you’re drinking enough, weigh yourself before and after the ride. Then keep drinking water or recovery drinks till your weight is back to normal. Even a 1% loss of body weight can diminish your performance the next time you ride.
- Restore your glycogen. You need between 80 to 100 grams of carb immediately after your ride, depending on your weight. Eat a high-carb meal, chug down another power bar or drink a few rounds of recovery drink, but put the glycogen back. You’re going to need it tomorrow. And the minute it’s restored, you’ll feel noticeably better today.
- Get some rest. Pro racers sleep. A LOT. Even Armstrong often took a nap after a long ride. Pros tend to regularly get 9-10 hours sleep a night on top of that. It’s important to recovery, since they’re working their bodies hard. So are you.
- Have a daily massage. A daily massage is a nice recovery device too, if you can afford it. Bribery and pleading sometimes work if someone loves you, but it’s hard to get consistent service that way. The truth is, some things will always separate even the most rugged endurance athletes from the pros.
- Live like a pro. Pros hand their bikes off to the mechanic after a race for its daily check. They eat the special food their chef has prepared. Then they lay down for a nice long massage before their nap. Some of them even get to kiss the podium girls too. That’s because pros are willing to make any sacrifice at all to boost their recovery…