Road To Recovery

What is recovery?

By definition, recovery is a gradual healing or return to a natural state. As athletes, our natural state is one of rested readiness and capacity to handle training stress. Recovery, then, is a combination of carefully timed behaviors, strategies, and responses that allow us to heal from training stress in order to apply a higher level of stress.

Recovery is the one component of our training plans that we cannot predict yet it is also the one component that will make or break even the best training plans. The better and quicker you recover, the more you can benefit from your hard work. In fact, athletes do not necessarily get fitter from doing workouts, rather they get fitter during recovery from workouts.

The best athletes are capable of balancing high loads of work with adequate recovery. Adequate recovery is highly individualized and will differ depending on your fitness level, experience with sport, natural ability, and age. Regardless, the key to recovery properly is to provide your body with the opportunity to rest! Natascha Badmann is one elite athlete who seems to have mastered the purpose of recovery. She is known to have a large comfy chair in her Switzerland home for doing absolutely nothing at all. Sitting, sleeping, in other words – recovery.

But you don’t have to be an elite athlete to master recovery. Nor do you have to just lay around. While there is not quick route to recovery, there are a few helpful hints I have found along the way to improve recovery and get more from a training plan.

#1 – Sleep

Sleep is the cheapest, easiest and most reliable form of recovery. Yet it seems to be the one thing that we will skimp on when our lives get stressed. When you look at all of the hours you have in a day – daily living activities, families, jobs, and training it doesn’t leave much left. But chances are there is some way you can squeeze an extra 30 minutes of sleep on most days. Even a lunchtime nap can help you recharge. Make sleep a priority and your recovery will likely improve. Spending 30 less minutes answering e-mail, watching television, doing household chores – see if you can reorganize your week or save the small tasks each day that cut into sleep for a bigger chunk of time on the weekend.

#2 – Proper Nutrition

Like sleep, nutrition is one of the easiest ways to improve recovery. Our bodies were built for wholesome, quality nutrition. No need for fancy shakes or powders - your body recognizes natural food. A few ounces of lean chicken, whole wheat bread, a banana – these are foods that your body can easily recognize, process and use. Make the commitment to eat a diet rich with wholesome grains, lean proteins, low-fat dairy, fresh vegetables and fruit with plenty of water to wash it down. Consistently following the 30 minute window after workouts to refuel is an easy way to speed yourself along the road to recovery. Consuming nutritious meals and snacks throughout the day will also leave you more energized for workouts and capable of recovering quicker from them.

#3 – Massage

Massage is a great way to work the toxins out of your muscles and provide a gentle stretch. However not everyone can afford massage. Instead, try using a foam roller or Trigger Point Therapy products to gently and moderately roll or stretch after workouts. Moderation is key – you can do damage with the foam roller, balls, or sticks if you keep rolling away at muscles that are injured or overly sore.

#4 – Supplemental Support

While our bodies benefit most by receiving vitamins and minerals from food – a daily multivitamin can help to top off any stores that are low. Per the recommendation of Keith and Ibby – friends and naturopathic doctors - I began taking a pre-natal vitamin this year not because I am pre-natal but because the prenatal vitamin would have higher supply of what I might be missing from all of the stress on my body. I also use Papain (from papaya) and Bromelain (from pineapple) as natural inflammatories (though taken with food they are digestive enzymes). I have also found Recover-Ease by Wicked Fast to be an integral part of my recovery plan. I take 4 – 8 capsules after hard workouts or races. Keith and Ibby suggested that over time the ingredients would likely make our bodies less susceptible to the damage from workout demands.

#5 – Put Your Feet Up

Both literally and figuratively. How many times have you done a hard workout then decided to plant your entire garden? Or spend the day walking around the shopping mall? What you do in your daily life is just as stressful and damaging as what you do in a workout. Especially after long or hard workouts – put your feet up! Relax! If possible, spend some time laying around and doing nothing at all – catch up on e-mail, read, watch tv. One of the hardest things for us as athletes (and overachievers) to realize is that this “lazy” down time is just as important as the hard workouts. It also helps to put your feet and legs against a wall for 15 – 20 minutes after a hard training day.

#6 – Plan Your Training

Following a purposeful and thoughtful training plan is another way to enhance recovery. Most athletes can handle two to three weeks of training that builds in duration, intensity or frequency before requiring a week to back off. Many athletes train haphazardly by weather, time or groups which often leads to doing too much for too long – leading to later fatigue, overtraining or injury. A periodized plan with meaningful cycles and planned rest weeks may help recover better overall. During a ‘rest’ week, it is important to reduce training volume and frequency to allow your body to heal. While you may include a few short bursts of intensity in workouts, other workouts are easy enough to promote active healing throughout the week. You should find yourself feeling energized, even ‘hungry’ for hard work after a proper rest week.

#7 – Active Recovery

Using active recovery workouts – by following your prescribed heart rate zones – may help your body recover quicker from training demands. Active recovery workouts are those performed at 50 – 60 percent of your maximum heart rate (or, Zone 1). While this sounds easy, it is here that many athletes fail. Resisting the urge to go hard to keep up with a group or ignoring slower paces/speeds on your training devised are difficult for some. However, letting go of the need to see a certain number or cover a certain distance will ensure your recovery workouts are easy enough to promote recovery rather than perform yet another workout to recovery from.

#8 – Ice

Ice bath is another great way to recover from hard training demands. Inflammation is the body’s response to tissue damage. Reducing inflammation may promote quicker recovery. Fill your bathtub with icy cold water. Be sure to wear a swimsuit, hat, gloves, warm shirt and submerge yourself in the tub for 10 – 15 minutes. As an alternative, icing sore body parts may also help. You can also try alternating with 10 – 15 minutes of heat and 10 – 15 minutes of cold.

Athletes often focus on the hard work required to improve. Yet what you do for recovery and ‘no work’ are just as important as the hardest of workout days. Take the time to properly plan for and perform recovery to benefit from the training you do, to stay healthy, productive and hopefully injury-free.

A Pyramid Scheme

Building fitness and performance is like building a pyramid. The most important work is done in the beginning, the supportive structures that will allow construction and improvements towards reaching a peak. With this pyramid, the stronger the supportive structure, the stronger the performances once you reach the top or your peak.

Without the underlying structures, or base, the pyramid will not support itself. Imagine the heart rate zones of training in a pyramid structure, with Zone 1 as the base and Zone 5 at the top. Often athletes abandon training in lower heart rate zones out of frustration or boredom and move on to the higher zones. Athletes train in Zones 3 – 4 because it “feels good”, it allows us to go fast and get our competitive nature out. Or, they believe that training harder will yield faster, stronger results. Consequently, this thinking comes at the cost of performance, health, and fitness. Skipping out on training at lower heart rate zones is a sure way to watch your pyramid deconstruct into consistent injury, burn out, or never reaching your athletic peak.

Training with heart rate is one way to work towards building a solid pyramid. While perceived exertion and training by feel are useful, at times they will leave you training too hard when it’s time to go easy or going to easy when it’s time to go hard. However, knowing your heart rate is like having a window in your body. You can better understand how your body is responding to the workouts and improving over time. As such, training with heart rate is a systematic method of improving cardiovascular fitness. The body changes in respond to stress and demands. By training at sufficiently intense levels, you can appropriately stress your cardiovascular system. At rest, the body adapts to strengthen the cardiovascular system. Over time, your heart actually becomes more efficient at delivering oxygen and fuel required by muscles to maintain a higher level of performance.

Knowing your heart rate zones will allow us to better estimate and understand where to train to bring about the most cardiovascular improvements. Listed below you’ll find a description of the different heart rate zones.

Zone 1: Recovery

Zone 1 is the lowest level of training where you can still increase fitness. This zone is used for active recovery, beginners and to improve overall health. Fat is the primary source of fuel in this zone. This zone includes recovery runs, bikes, or swims. For example, flushing out the legs with a light spin after a harder run.

Zone 2: Extensive Endurance

Training in this zone develops and improves endurance and aerobic capacity. Aerobic endurance is built and production of lactic acid is low enough to allow for extensive, comfortable training. Training in this zone improves the ability of the heart to pump blood and the ability of the muscles to utilize oxygen. Training in this zone teaches the body to become more efficient at fueling muscles as they work and metabolize fat as a primary source of fuel. Slow twitch muscle fibers also become stronger and more capable of using oxygen to produce energy. In turn this allows muscles to conserve glycogen. This zone is the most commonly used in multisport training. Ironman distance training and racing takes place predominantly in this zone.

Zone 3: Intensive Endurance

Training in this zone is the most effective for improving overall cardiovascular fitness. Zone 3 training improves your body’s ability to transport oxygen to the muscle cells and carbon dioxide away from the muscle cells. Training here also improves overall muscle strength. With the increased intensity in this zone, lactic acid production also increases. As a result, fast twitch muscle fibers are recruited to support slow twitch work. Often, athletes make the mistake of doing all training in this zone. While this zone is still aerobic and training here ‘feels good’ it comes at the cost of not being easy enough to promote endurance or recovery and not being hard enough to really count towards improving performance. In other words, it becomes a dead zone. Training in this zone is often used early in the season and exchanged later for harder intensities.

Zone 4 – 5a: Threshold

Training in this zone feels hard, muscles fatigue easily and breathing is heavy. In this zone, the amount of fat used as the main source of energy is greatly decreased while stored glycogen is used instead. A by-product of burning glycogen is lactic acid. Lactate threshold is the point at which your body cannot remove lactic acid as quickly as it is produced. Training at threshold increases your anaerobic or lactate threshold which, in turn, improves performance. Through proper training, it is possible to increase your ability to tolerate lactic acid for longer periods of time and increase your anaerobic threshold. Aside from Zone 2 training, training in this zone is the most important training zone for multisport athletes. (note: Zone 4 indicates training below your LT, Zone 5a indicates efforts above your LT).

Zone 5b: Anaerobic Endurance

Training in this zone is possible only for short periods of time. Fast twitch muscle fibers are recruited for work in this zone increasing their growth and development. The body also learns to tolerate and remove lactic acid in this zone. Lactic acid develops quickly and muscles are placed into oxygen debt. High volumes of training in this zone may lead to overtraining and injury. As such, training here is used sparingly and carefully, followed by extended recovery to allow the body to rest and adapt.

Factors Influencing Heart Rate

Heart rate changes over time. It is important to test your heart rate zones throughout the year to be sure they are the most accurate for your current situation and fitness level. Other factors that may influence heart rate:

*Genetics (for example, two 30 year-olds will not necessarily have similar HR zones)
*Improvement in fitness may decrease heart rate at a given intensity
*Altitude may increase heart rate by 10 to 20%
*Age influences HR zones
*Dehydration may increase heart rate by up to 7.5%
*Humidity and heat may increase heart rate by 10 beats per minute

It’s important to remember that like any construction, building strength and fitness takes time. Training in lower heart rates is not easy – at times it requires holding back or even walking. However, the changes (improvements) that take place in the lower zones prepare your body to handle the increased workloads ahead. Again, jumping to higher zones too quickly is the quickest way to find yourself injured, fatigued, or stale. Take the time to build the base of fitness with aerobic, endurance training to train smart, train safe and train towards your potential for your best season yet.

Stretch It Out

One of my athletes recently asked about stretching. Please note I am not an authority on stretching nor do I have a physical therapy or medical degree. I do, however, have years of athletic experience that have led to my current thinking of stretching. In other words, here is what has and has not worked. Take from it what you feel will meet your needs.

When should I stretch?

There are two times when stretching is best done; after a short warm-up (before the main part of your workout) or after the entire workout.

For stretching after a warm-up (but before the main part of the workout); start with a short warm up of 5 – 10 minutes of easy effort and then do some light stretching. For example, after swimming your warm up it would be beneficial to stretch your arms and back gently before starting the mainset. The purpose of stretching would be to open up your range of motion allowing for better stroke mechanics and body comfort.

For stretching after the workout, it is best to stretch immediately after the workout when muscles are warm.

How often should I stretch?

Aim to stretch at least 3 – 4 times a week to improve flexibility and work towards staying injury-free.

When should I not stretch?

From my own experience, you should use caution when stretching directly after a hard run (ie., track workout), after a race and in the first few days after a half or full Ironman. During exercise, tiny fibers in your muscles are torn and broken down. It may not be wise to try to stretch those muscles out after an extreme effort like a race. My feeling is that stretching is best done two days after a hard effort like a track workout, running race or half Ironman and almost four – seven days done after the full Ironman.

If something is injured or strained it should not be stretched. At this point, stretching may actually delay the healing process. Think of stretching something that is overstretched – not useful.

At some point you will have to learn and listen to your own body. Personally I know that stretching after a track workout does not feel good. I know that at times my body needs time to just ‘calm down’ before I go to stretch something out.

I also do not always advise pushing into strenuous yoga poses or routines for athletes. Yoga is very restful and may improve flexibility. However, too much stretching may be just as harmful as not enough stretching. Overstretched muscles cannot perform their role.

How should I stretch?

It’s hard to say if there is a right or a wrong way to stretch. In general, hold your stretches 15 – 30 seconds. Never strain or stretch beyond what ‘feels’ right. Never bounce. Never force a stretch. Stretching should provide gentle relief to any soreness.

It is best to stretch opposing muscle groups as tightness and inflexibility are often related. For example, stretching your quads and then stretching your hamstrings. Stretching your iliopsoas and then your lower back. There are many good routines on the internet for stretching. Do a google search of “stretch routine” and you will likely find pictures and direction on what and how to stretch.

Also, it is best to mix up your stretch routine from time to time. Our bodies are very smart and always looking for the most efficient way to perform. This means that over time over muscles adapt to a stretch and what once was a stretch may not be anymore. Find new ways to stretch to keep your body responding to the change.

How important is stretching?

A lot of research has been done about whether or not stretching is effective yet I think most of us would agree that it feels good and that in itself makes it worthwhile. With that said, it should feel good after a workout to stretch. If it doesn’t feel good then it is probably not the right thing for you to do on that day.

Is stretching a part of recovery?

Recovery is anything that allows us to heal quicker from our efforts. In my opinion, stretching may help recovery in that it is quiet time after your workout. It is relaxing, calming and may help to put you in a more restful state. Think of yoga – the mindset, the quiet practice are likely just a useful for promoting recovery than the movements themselves. So, taking time to stretch may help you recover quicker because it helps you to relax.

In the bigger picture of performance, stretching should be a part of your routine to stay injury- free. Tight and overused muscles are more likely to become injured muscles. So, improving flexibility through stretching may help you stay injury-free over time.

Do you have a question about training, recovery, racing, or other tri-related things? Feel free to drop me an email at multisportmastery at comcast dot net and I'll do my best to answer.

Spend For Speed

When talking with triathletes, you get the sense that there is a need for speed. They want to get fast. Even with the most beginner of athletes, they will list speedwork as something they need. However, ask if drill work, speed skills, and efficiency are something they need – most will say no. Because it feels slow, awkward, and doesn’t really get them anywhere so they abandon it for something with more speed.

However, you cannot go fast if your form breaks down. Your body cannot achieve maximum speed if it has to expend energy correcting errors in your form. Energy is a currency and you only have so much to spend. When you improve your form, it becomes like money in the bank. All of a sudden your body has more currency saved to spend at a later point. It is spending less on correcting flaws in your form and more on moving you fast.

A common example of this is in swimming. Often, triathletes reach a plateau in swimming not because of their aerobic fitness or capacity but because of their form. As they start to go faster, the inefficiencies in their form add up and cost more. In other words, while they may be able to go fast for a 50 or 100, the inefficiencies add up and in 200’s or longer they become too fatiguing for the body to handle at that high of a speed. The body can either go fast or hold form – and those struggling with form and using so much effort to correct their form end up sacrificing speed.

As you can see, speed is something very hard to develop and maintain. Imagine doing speedwork, then, with poor form – the risk of injury becomes even more. Your body is pushing hard aerobically but also forced to correct flaws in your form at a faster rate. At some point, it can’t keep up and it breaks down. And this is hard for many triathletes to understand. Chances are they are fit – super fit – and except their aerobic capacity should allow them to do speedwork in all three sports. But this is not the case – if you are not fluid in your form, economical, and efficient then speedwork may be getting your more behind than ahead

So, then, how do you gain speed without doing speedwork? How can you really get fast? The key is to become as economical and efficient as possible so you are able to go faster with less effort. In time, when speedwork is prescribed you can push harder and get faster because your body can efficiently handle that level of stress.

What is efficiency? Efficiency is a measure of how effective your form is with each step or stroke. In other words, how much of your energy is being directed to actually swimming, biking or running or instead being consumed by errors in your form.

In the case of swimming, there are many variables for efficient form – head position, body position, balance, stroke, kick. Spending an entire week focusing on one area to perfect form as much as possible is a wise investment over time. In fact, improving inefficiencies in your form is truly free speed. If you can get faster without physically doing more work, when it is time to do more work imagine how much faster you will be able to go.

With cycling, form is often the last thing many think about. After all, who can’t pedal a bike? But how you pedal a bike is just as important as how fast. Look at your form – are you riding on your toes, pointing your knees in, bouncing, shifting from side to side? Is your core strong enough to support how you need to breathe? What about pedal stroke – a single-legged drill is an easy way to uncover discrepancies in the smoothness and power of each leg.

There are several key factors to improving run form; foot strike, stride rate, stride length, arm carry. Improvements in form lead to more energy being directed to moving forward with the least energy cost. Drills are an excellent way to improve running form as well as using a mindful approach – thinking about key words (“fluid”, “smooth”) cue your brain as to how running should feel, look, and ultimately be performed.

Once a week, a training session in each sport should be devoted entirely to form. On these days it is best to put aside the heart rate monitor, Garmin or power meter and train by feel and form. Yes, you will be moving very slow and yes you will get frustrated. It will feel awkward at first – but the point is to practice effectively and often enough to eliminate the awkwardness with a smooth swim stroke, pedal spin or run stride. And what you’ll find is you really have to slow down and concentrate in order to get the most out of this training. Again, you cannot go fast and focus on form. It must be mindful and methodical – which right now means slow. And that’s ok.

Now that we know efficiency, what is economy? Economy is the measure of how far a person can swim/bike/run using a given amount of energy. More economical triathletes can perform at a given speed with less oxygen consumed. Therefore, economy is a strong predictor of performance.

How is economy achieved? Through strength training, hill training, explosive/plyometrics training, high intensity interval training. You can see that each of these factors first requires efficient form. You cannot do effective hill training without first knowing how to properly climb a hill. At some point you will not be able to climb the hill any faster or move any faster on a track if you don’t have form that requires as little effort as possible.

The lesson learned here is that you need not keep beating yourself up with speedwork to get speed. Especially with running - as in triathlon it is the last sport of the three and will benefit most from efficiency and form improvements in the other two sports. Keep in mind that triathlon is not a single sport – those with success have mastered the ability to efficiently combine all three sports. The fastest runner will not make a fast triathlete unless they can arrive at the run fresh with energy to expend. If too much energy was spent overcoming flaws in swim form and cycling inefficiencies, there will be nothing left for the run.

Bottom line: To achieve speed and success in the sport finds that excelling at all three sports is not so much by mastery of each sport but by mastery of the overall efficiency and economy in each. Winter is the perfect time to become a master of efficiency and later economy. “Spend” time now so you can “spend” more later and get more speed.