Recovery for Better Health and Better Performance

This time of year, we are racing and threatening our limits.  Important guidelines for recovery can quicken your return to training and prevent common overtraining injuries. Recovery will obviously depend on your fitness level and your experience of racing.

Susan Paul from Runners World states;

“Recovery is the downtime between workouts and it's the time we transform into fitter athletes. Training physically stresses the body as we ask it to run longer and/or faster. In doing so, we cause microscopic tears in muscle tissue, deplete energy stores, pound bone, tax energy systems, and basically push the limits of our current fitness level. This physical stress causes a frenzy of internal activity as our body rushes to repair itself and prepares to meet this level of stress next time around. This stress and repair cycle ultimately creates a stronger version of our former selves. When the repairing and rebuilding can't keep up with the physical demands of training, then things go awry, and injuries are usually the end result”. 

The first important point is to realize what you have done.  The severity of the impact depends on the time and intensity of the event.  If you have overstepped your fitness on your training, understand you may have to adapt.  If you have raced a marathon, half ironman, or full ironman you will need to recover. 

 Recognize the fatigue.  Muscle soreness, elevated heart rate, lower HRV (the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic system).  Muscle soreness can be labeled DOMS. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is thought to be a result of microscopic tearing of the muscle fibers, resulting in intra-muscular inflammation. DOMS is therefore a normal reaction to high training intensity, which can increase the risk of injury if followed by insufficient rest. Persistent muscle soreness may indicate an increased risk of overuse injury and overtraining syndrome (OTS).  Your resting heart rate may be 7-10 beats higher than normal.  Your HRV can decrease in value.  HRV is a number that shows the balance between sympathetic (fight or flight) of parasympathetic (rest and digest.).  If your stress is high or your training level is high your sympathetic will be more influential.  Most coaches recommend following 7-day trends in resting heart rate and HRV.  If you are trending in the wrong direction, then make a change to the training load. 

The second important indicator is you can’t hit workout numbers or you have decouple your heart rate and pacing (or watts on the bike).  This simply means you are working harder to maintain a pace than you should be.  Your heart rate is higher for your pace or watts showing fatigue. If this occurs for 2-3 workouts this may be an indicator of overtraining. 

The third important point is mental fatigue.  If your partner or friends comment on you being “fussy” or mean, you may be seeing big fatigue.  Your memory or cognition can be affected as well. 

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Hopefully, you understand the signs of deep fatigue or overtraining. Several suggestions can speed your recovery or quicken your return to training. 

1. Sleep is the most important recovery tool.   Literature suggests that sleep deprivation decreases protein synthesis and increases degradation pathways, thereby favoring loss of muscle mass and hindering muscle’s ability to recover after damage induced by exercise, injury, and certain conditions associated with muscle atrophy 5. But during sleep, testosterone and growth hormone (GH) is also secreted. If you’re not getting enough sleep, specifically slow-wave sleep, GH and testosterone secretion decrease, which means your muscles aren’t getting what they need to grow and repair.

2. Hydration with electrolytes is crucial.  Replace what your body has lost and replenish what it needs.  I use several products.  Skratch is a low-sugar electrolyte.  I use LMNT because it has 1000mg of sodium most days or after big events. Liquid hydration can be effective directly after a session

3. Replenish carbohydrates to replace glycogen and protein to heal and build muscle.  The first 30 minutes after a race or big session is the most important time to refuel.  The absorption and effectiveness are the highest. 

4. Some studies suggest the use of magnesium.  I have minimal experience.  Magnesium can assist in sleep and assist in muscle relations.  The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for adults between 19-51+ years is 400-420mg for men, 310-320mg for women, and pregnant women require more — roughly 350-360mg.

Suggestions for Active Recovery
Recovery after a race or big event is not being a couch potato or Netflix binging. Here are some suggestions to flush out the toxins and improve the muscle soreness.  The idea is low-impact muscle movement.

1. Walking – walking around the town or city you raced.  Walking with your family is easy.

2. Spinning easy - higher cadence intervals can flush out toxins ( ex: 5-6 x 3 min at a cadence of 95-105 low power)

3. Swimming- easy swim, fins, buoy, enjoy the loss of gravity

4. Extras: Compression boots, Ice Bath, Yoga, Sauna, Percussion Gun

5. I did not list easy running.  If your muscles are very fatigued then all of the force of running is focused or your joints and spine.  Running is heavy impact and heavy load.  Protect your spine and joints by waiting until the muscles can dampen the impact!

These guidelines can guide you in recovery after big sessions or racing.  How do I know when I can train again? The most important point is whenever YOU want to!

1. You have been devoted to a goal for a long time and your brain just needs rest.

2. Your heart rate is not elevated or HRV has normalized.

3. Your heart rate and effort are coupled  back to normal for you

4. Your muscles are ready to roll.  

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Studies have shown that heart enzyme levels showing muscle damage are elevated after a long race.  Without adequate recovery, this damage develops scar.  This scar can change the electrical current.  This damage leads to arrhythmias that retire many older athletes. 

Suggestions of Break time (Break means no heart rate above steady - low to mid zone 2 ):

**Ironman or marathon – 2 weeks

**Half Ironman of half marathon — 1 week

**Olympic/sprint/ 10 K – 3-5 days

Stress plus rest equals success.  Training at a high level or consistently requires a thoughtful balance of stress and also recovery.  If you constantly apply stress you will plateau, become injured, or “not become the best version of yourself”.