Random thoughts from work - Part 2 - Recovery

The more I think about the ideal way to structure your week and training cycles as a distance runner, the more important recovery becomes. In the last 6 months, I have become a big proponent of the "workouts don't make you stronger, recovery does" philosophy. Physiologically, its true. The muscle fibers in our legs are weaker and broken down every Tuesday and Thursday night so that Wednesday and Friday are spent repairing cell damage, so that we're ready to go again Thursday and Saturday.

Ah, there enlies the difficulty, how to recovery optimally so that come the next workout, we're ready to safely handle a bigger and more intense load than we have in the past?

Tuesday workout ends at 6:00. Wednesday shake out isn't for another 21 and a half hours. And we don't hit the track on Thursday for 40-something hours. That's a shit-long time to nurse your body back to health. So what's the first thing you do?

1) Hydrating. Some of us are better than others about stretching, abs, drills, strides, things like that. I don't care. Whether you're out on the track stretching or shooting the shit in the locker room, you can be drinking and refueling. Without raw material to use in rebuilding thrashed muscle fiber and tissue, let's be serious, you're fucked. First thing's first, water. As soon as the last interval ends, you can be hitting agua, even before your cool down. Flooding your system with water will dilute your blood, which is probably already thickening if you're dehydrated from a workout out in the heat or an exciting Monday night as always. The more dilute your blood is over the day or two of recovery, the more circulation you can get to your broken down muscle fibers and the more nutrients that can get to the rebuilding sites in your legs.

2) Refueling. Once you've done whatever you do post-workout (stretch and ice bath or just change your shoes), we head out to do the most important training of the week, D-Training. I won't lecture about nutrition, because I honestly don't know much about it, but it's not too hard to know what's good and what isn't at Dewick. No matter what, we all need carbs, proteins, and fats.
Get some energy with good carbs (pasta or fiber-type veggies). 3 mile warm up + 5 mile tempo + 4 mile cool down = 12 miles. That's in excess of 1000 calories that you need to replace. If you replace them with shit (I'm looking at you, buff-chick fans), you're going to be refueled for the next 2 day with shit.
Get something for rebuilding. This is your raw material i.e. proteins. Hit the meat. The good meat, your Peter Browne's Choice Beef, grilled chicken, non-deepfried fish. You can't build muscle fiber out of M&M's and AppleJacks.
Get some good fats. Someone please correct me on this section, I'm probably wrong. When we get out for our runs, and especially long runs, there's only so much fuel (carbohydrates) in our blood stream. 17 mile Sunday run burns about 1500 nutritional calories, which is rarely in our system on Sunday morning (probably left somewhere in the College Ave bathroom area and/or the President's Lawn). Low intensity runs burn mostly fat, so refueling with bad fat (including deep fried everything) is not the way to go. If you need something with good fatty acids, hit the fucking peanut butter jar.

3) Sleep. Doubling at a meet generally doesn't feel that bad at the time. You might be a little tired for the second event, but you can't feel the muscle damage by then. Only by the next morning does it take effect when you feel the stiffness of partially rebuilt muscles. The rebuilding process happens mostly during sleep. GO THE FUCK TO BED. Want to know why professional athletes can workout about as hard as they can every 48 hours? It's probably because they sleep 10 hours a night and nap during the day between easy workouts. If you balance your time right (Hutch, don't worry I'm not lecturing about time management, God knows...) it's not that hard to get to bed by midnight or 1 AM for a 10:30 class. That's 5 or 6 hours after dinner if you leave Dewick at 7.

4) Staying hydrated and fueled all day the next day. Staying hydrated isn't hard, just keep a bottle on you at all times. Grab a fresh liter of Fells whenever you pass by a fountain or are in Dewick. Same story as right after the workout. More water = more circulation = more nutrients = more muscular recovery. Staying fueled is huge, too. Not all muscle rebuilding is done right after the workout i.e. fueled by dinner. The whole next day, your body is still working to get you ready for another hard effort. Once you wake up, every nutrient you consumed at dinner is gone, so haul your ass to breakfast. Or snag a breakfast at dinner the night before. Something with protein so you have a continuous supply of building materials throughout the day. PB&J. It's perfect. Quick and easy to make, cheap to buy, it has proteins and good fats in the PB, and some quick refined carbs in the J to keep your eyes open through early morning plus blocks (even though you shouldn't be tired at this point). Need an even easier way to get protein? Man the fuck up and crush some PROTEIN-RAGE!!! as Cleveland would say. Step one, red solo cup + 8 ounces of tap water + 1 scoop of protein supplement. Step 2, mix. Step 3, pound that shit. Wham, 20 grams of protein designed specifically for rebuilding muscle fiber in athletes unlike food proteins. I'll be dealing from 150A Lewis, and maybe from Baronian for right-after-workouts.

Recovery is not hard, overall, just make decisions that will leave you ready to rock for the next hard effort on the track or trails. Being recovered 45 hours later means feeling fresh and stronger for the next workout, meaning you can run it (or the race) even harder. Recover for the next workout after that, and, you get the picture. It's 6 weeks later and you're in the best shape of your life because you've felt great and ready to crank on literally every single workout and race you've run. What's the worst that can happen, you save money on not buying from Andrea's and you don't sleep through morning classes.


Love,
Common Sense.