Saturday, November 20, 2010

Where the battle to get stronger is oft lost

“For want of the nail, the shoe was lost, for want of the shoe, the horse was lost, for want of the horse, the ride was lost, for want of the rider, the battle was lost, for want of the battle, the kingdom was lost, and all for the want of a nail the kingdom lost…..”

I find it incredibly surprising that todays athletes still struggle to understand and comprehend, that REST and proper nutrition are so integral to success, and building strength. While most have come to realize that keeping in top shape, and building towards a stronger athlete includes variety and diversity in their training, it seems as though few have come to the same conclusion about rest and recovery.

This is an often critical mistake, leaving many of those athletes going through their seasons either hurt, or under-recovered, and thus under-performing (not to mention the increased risk for serious injury!).

To keep this post short, I’m going to break down recovery into 2 “bins”:

Short-term recovery:
Within zero to 96 hours

Long term recovery: Periods that are designed to allow for recovery within a block training program (monthly and yearly)

Both are equally important in the big picture of things. Short-term recovery includes nutrition, rest, and active recovery immediately following a workout.
Active recovery includes a cool-down (this seems to elude many runners and cyclists, as they like to “go hard till the line”), allowing the body to return blood flow from the extremities at a slow to moderate pace, thus allowing more “waste” from the working muscles to be “cleaned up” to a better degree.

Nutrition should speak for itself. However, I have found more frequently than ever before, that more and more athletes are waiting LONGER than 30 minutes to eat something post-workout. Regardless of the continually growing number of research done finding that eating something within 30 min of an exercise session helps decrease recovery time.

I have had a few of my athletes say “all I have is a Cliff bar, or a bottle of sports drink.” And they decide not to eat it. SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING! But if you CAN prepare a post-workout meal, it should contain foods with complex carbs, and high-quality protein, and don’t forget the water!

Blood is technically a “connective tissue” and carries nutrients to and from the working muscles. In order to make the body as efficient as possibly, we need to ensure that the blood volume stays up. To give you an idea, for an individual exercising indoors for 1 hour, they should drink at least 16-24 oz. for that session + another 80-96 oz through the rest of the day.

Long term recovery, in my book, are those periods which are built into seasonal, and yearly training plans. When building a training plan for any athlete, this can be the most difficult part of any block to get an athlete to adhere to. Many athletes still feel strong coming off of a good series of blocks, and don’t understand why time is scheduled off when they feel strongest. It’s important to take breaks between seasons, and (especially for triathletes and cyclists) during long seasons.
Todays cyclists and triathletes are more and more frequently looking to compete in seasons lasting from April to October. For these athletes, most of whom are considered “amateur athletes”, and most of whom do NOT have a coach, or knowledge of sports training deep enough to understand season planning/ block training, this can, and often does, lead to Over-reaching to the Nth degree, and even Overtraining.

Part of this built-in recovery, should include an EARLIER bed time (by 30-60 min), especially for those who “regularly” get less than 7-8hrs of sleep a night. Personally, I consider hours of sleep before midnight to be 2x as valuable as those after midnight. There is a good bit of research out there to suggest/support the notion that our hormone levels do better to adjust in the hours of shut-eye before
midnight.

I can personally attest to the devastating effects of sleep deprivation, and its negative impact on performance, and ones abilities to recover. This April, I was coming off of my best training block to date. I was riding with some of my athletes who were CAT 2 cyclists, and were considerably stronger than myself, and I was keeping up, and even making them hurt at times (albeit short, and only on the first effort, after that first effort they hurt me). Things looked solid for the season…. Then I picked up regular 24 hour shifts on Fridays and Sundays, working on the ambulance. Over the next 2 weeks the time needed to recovery fully between sessions began to grow. And grow fast. Those intense sessions that I had been recovering within 12-18 hours, began to grow to 36+ hours. My fitness began to decline, and by the end of my 3 months on that rotation, my fitness had dropped considerably.

Think about YOUR routine. What time are you getting to bed? Are you sleeping through the night? Do you have a stressful job? Etc. etc.

A few things that can help speed up, and enhance recovery:
Cooldown!!!!!! As mentioned before, this goes a LONG way towards helping the body remove the “energy system wastes” that accrued during exercises, and allow ones heart rate to return to a normal resting rate.

Stretch! A dynamic warm-up before an exercise session can help activate the muscles and neuromuscular system. While static stretching post-exercise can help the body remove waste, and possibly even allow the muscles to move to a “longer resting length” (this is still in debate).

Massage! While I personally believe that massage can be good after hard blocks, there are those out here who strongly believe that massage on a regular basis (as often as weekly), can go a long way towards aiding circulation and helping muscles from tightening up.
I do recommend using the Foam Roller, or “The Stick” after all, if not most workouts, but am more wary about recommending paying for a personal massage on a basis beyond once a month, or twice during hard training blocks.

The big message to take out of all this: Recovery and nutrition are often overlooked/ undervalued. Listen to your body, and be smart! Gone are the days of mindlessly “going hard or go home”, and “all out every time”. By all means, give your best for each workout, BUT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE WORKOUTS GOAL!!!!! DON’T turn your Endurance training ride/run into a race-pace, balls to the walls group ride/run.

If you have a coach, you need to TRUST them. If you have concerns about the timing of your rest, or even the amount of rest, start a running dialogue with your coach! One of the biggest indicators of a good coach, is their ability to listen to each athlete, acknowledge their concerns, and explain the reasoning/ thought process behind the training plan.

But the bottom line remains: you have to be SMART.

Train SMARTER, NOT harder.


We are human beings, we are NOT machines. We need rest/recovery in order to get stronger. Be sure that you give your all for each of your workouts, and HOW they are to be executed, and then give it your all on the sofa with that Hot Choclate and bowl of oatmeal.
So go ahead, throw those feet up, and show off your Bart Simpson slippers. You deserve it.