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July Article #2: Recovery for Physiological Adaptations

Recovery

By Ryan Riell MS

How many of you have friends in endurance sports that are always going as hard as they can go? How many of you have friends in endurance sports that look at you like you are crazy when you mention “recovery week” or a day off?

The bottom line is, whether you are a runner, cyclist or triathlete, recovering from workout to workout, and making sure you have recovery weeks are the KEYS to making the physiological adaptations that we are all seeking through training!

The basic principles of physiological adaptations, in their most simple terms are:

STRESS --> STRAIN --> ADAPTATION. You apply a stress to you body (training), which creates a strain (internal challenge to homeostasis), which, over time, will lead to the adaptations you are looking for. The catch is, if you are constantly undergoing a dramatic stress-strain cycling without the proper recovery, you will not see the adaptations that you are looking for.

As you can see with the above example, the stress that is applied to the body is running, which creates an internal strain, a limited supply of ATP (the fuel for running). We then have short-term and long-term effects. The short term effect produced by the body is an increase in muscle blood flow and oxygen delivery to the muscles that are being used. The long-term effect produced by the body is increased capillary density (the micro-structures that move blood to the muscles) and increased mitochondrial density (cellular powerhouse where aerobic respiration occurs within the cells). It is these long-term effects that we are looking for when we train.

Day-To-Day/Workout-To-Workout RECOVERY:

Whether you are working out once a day or three times a day, recovering between workouts is the key having positive and good successive workouts. The keys to recovering between workouts are:

1.Make sure that you go into each workout with a fully topped off glycogen stores

2.Make sure that you go into each workout fully hydrated

3.Make sure that you are drinking either water or a sports drink while working out and that part of your cool down consists of a solid stretching routine.

4.Immediately after a workout, consume 16-20 ounces of sports drink to start replenishing your glycogen stores.

5.Within one hour of working out, eat a healthy meal with 50-65% carbohydrates and 15-20% protein.

6.If possible, take a short nap (30-45 minutes) after a workout.

7.Make sure you get a good night sleep of at least 8 hours for proper recovery.

Remember, as an endurance athletes, if you are wanting to achieve your goals and set new personal records, you are eating to train, not training to eat. While it is not really feasible for the average age-group endurance athlete to adhere to a strict diet, you should be smart when you choose to have that cheeseburger and large fries that gets washed down with a few beers.

Most athletes have a recovery day built into their schedule, if not only for a day to physically recovery from 6 days of pounding, but a mental break from training as well. The off day or recovery day is usually followed by the key workout of the week for most endurance athletes, therefore, eating that cheeseburger with fries and a few beers might not be the best thing to do on the night of your day off If you are wanting to have a high quality workout the following day.

Days OFF/ Recovery Days:

Lets take a minute to talk about days off or recovery days. There is a distinct difference between taking a day off and a recovery day. The normal age group endurance athlete will work for 6 days and take the 7th day off.

A day off is just that, a day off from exercise. The one possible exception to this would be a light stretching based yoga session. The main purpose of the day off is to let your body recover from the training it has been put through in the past 6 days. What you do on your day off is pretty much up to you, but it is recommend that you do your best to stay off your feet. Another advantage of a day off is the mental break from training- it gives you an opportunity to catch up on busy work, spend more time with family or friends or to simply just relax.

A recovery day is NOT a day off, it is still a day of working out, just at a lower intensity and duration. Once an athlete has a few years of experience and/or a sufficient number of miles put on their body, a recovery day can be put in place of a day off.

Here are a couple standard recovery workouts that I have used to guide my athletes to qualifying for the Ironman World Championships and US Age-Group National Championships.

Swim:

Warm up: 500 easy loosen

Main Set: 8x50 hard efforts on 10 seconds, rest. Rest 1 minute then 1x500 easy pull.

Cool Down: 100 easy

Bike:

1 hour easy spin, in the small chain ring. The focus is maintaining a cadence above 85 RPM while staying light on the pedals.

My athletes know to expect this type of workout after a 2-3 day block of high volume/intensity training and simply get it done since the purpose is to maintain a high level of fitness while continuing to provide an exercise stimulus to clear metabolic waste.

Whether you chose to take a day off or to add in recovery days, nutrition before, during and after each workout is a major key to achieving your goals!

Ryan Riell is recognized as one of the top triathlon, fitness and nutrition experts in the nation. Ryan has been selected by USA Triathlon to give multiple continuing education lectures to USA Triathlon certified coaches on the topic of time trialing and pacing. He was selected by USA Triathlon to attend multiple Elite Coaching Mentorship Programs at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO and the year-long webinar based program. Ryan is the Head Coach of Break Through Multisport Inc., a national triathlon and endurance sports coaching company that has locations in Chicago, IL, Tucson, AZ and Phoenix, AZ, that provides professional coaching for triathletes, swimmers, cyclists and runners of all levels and abilities. Ryan also hosts a free triathlon and endurance sports training blog (http://breakthroughmultisport.blogspot.com) that is packed full of training tips, nutritional advice and racing tactics. Ryan holds two master’s degrees, one in exercise physiology and biomechanics and the second in organic and biological chemistry. For more information, please contact Ryan Riell at (931) 220-7050 or at Ryan@BreakThroughMultisport.com.

These articles have been written by the professional coaches at Break Through Multisport and are packed full of useful training and racing information. For more information and articles similar to this, please feel free to visit the 100% FREE Break Through Multisport training and racing blog!