Are you recovering well post workout?

Endurance training takes a toll on the body. And if you are like most athletes, where your long workouts occur on the weekend (after a stressful week of training, work and life), you can imagine how easy it can be for the body to carry around residual fatigue as training volume increases if you are not recovering well from your daily workouts.   

Adequate recovery is critical in the restoration of physiological and psychological processes.

From a nutrition point of view, replenishing glycogen, increasing protein synthesis and rehydrating are three critical components to maximizing your fitness but your post workout recovery nutrition also acts as nourishment to keep your immune system functioning properly. 

Consider these three reminders when it comes to post workout recovery.

1) Recovery is everything that happens between two workouts. If you want your body to consistently perform well at every workout, you  need to consider everything that happens between two workouts, which includes sleep, diet, stress management, mobility, etc.
To minimize risk for injury or illness, you may need to make some lifestyle changes (or investments) to ensure that your life allows you to recover, refuel, rejuvinate and repair between every workout but specifically after the more intense or high volume workouts. Endurance triathletes are known to squeeze in a lot into one day but sometimes you will gain more out of your workout by slowing down (and not feeling the need to rush to the next thing in life) and allowing your body to recover properly. 

2) Recovery nutrition depends on the sport duration and intensity. Therefore, there is a fueling and rehydrating strategy for every type of workout. As an athlete who seeks performance gains, it is important that you see recovery nutrition as part of your workout. Your workout is not complete until you recover with the appropriate fueling and hydration snack or meal. Keep in mind that what you eat post workout is part of your daily nutrition needs/calories (whereas what you eat before and during a workout are "extra" calories to support a workout and should not be added to your daily recommended caloric intake).
You will know if you are not recovering well if you find yourself with a run-down feeling in the 4 hours after training, you have difficulty sleeping at night (yet feel exhausted during the day), you can't give the effort that you know/think you should be giving during a workout, you are struggling to get through easy workouts, your muscles feel fatigued, exhausted or sore to the touch, your appetite seems a bit wonky or you have trouble reaching or sustaining higher intensities.

3) Recovery nutrition will not destroy your body composition goals. A common mistake for the athlete who seeks a change in body composition is not prioritizing the fueling and/or hydrating post workout all in an effort to lose weight. Keep in mind that weight loss in the form of reducing body fat (which is the kind of weight loss you want - not from water weight, muscle loss or bone loss) is dependent on expending calories or reducing calories and staying consistent with training so you can get stronger, faster and more powerful. Nail your recovery nutrition so that you can reach your full athletic potential.

Recovery days - why you need them and what you should be doing

The countdown continues. 27 days until IMWI!

Although you should always value recovery in a smart training plan, it's the 4 weeks out from your race that are the most important in terms of arriving to the start line healthy, injury free and hungry to race. 

1 month out, your goal is to recover as much as possible from every workout. It's very easy to put in random "confidence building" long or intense workouts but often times, more damage can be done if you are trying to "prove" something with your body in the last few weeks before a race. Fitness is gained over time and to race strong, you have to periodize your training so that you can build, peak and taper appropriately. 

To race strong, this doesn't mean just taking a planned or unintentional day off from working every now and then but being smart with what you do on your recovery days, when you plan them. 

Many athletes are great workout followers. They have a planned workout and at any cost, they will find a way to check it off. However, sometimes this comes at a cost. A tired, worn-down, malnourished, sore, fatigued and unmotivated body does not get stronger by just going through the motions, especially in a haphazard training plan. 

With the right yearly-plan structure, fueling strategy, workouts and focus on individual needs, you will find yourself reaching performance goals and peaking appropriately on race day.
Physiologically and psychologically, athletes need rest days!

Many athletes use Monday as a recovery or off day due to higher weekly volume occurring on the weekend. However, I am also a big fan of having a day off mid-week (ex. Wed/Thurs) for the time-crunched age group athlete who is balancing family, kids, work may find him/herself feeling more like a zombie by the end of the week as oppose to fresh and energetic at the beginning of the week. This type of athlete can greatly benefit from a 2 or 3 day workout routine followed by 1 day off (or active recovery) routine as oppose to 6 days working out and 1 day off (or even worse for the busy age group athlete, 10 days working out and 1 day off).
Bottom line, you can train as hard as you want during a workout but resting your body creates better balance between your life, family, work and fitness goals. 

It's important to consider the best days  to rejuvinate, refuel and rest your body and mind. (it's ok if there is more than one, I often plan two recovery days into my weekly routine in the few weeks leading up to my IM taper)

Keep in mind that a recovery day is not used to only help you recover from previous workouts but to better prepare for future workouts. 

You can be the toughest, strongest and most hard working athlete but continuous working out without rest is a recipe for an eventual weak body and mind. 

If you put too much stress on the body for too many days, it is nearly impossible for the body/mind to recover in just 24 hours. By training smart, you can train harder by including more recovery into your training plan and find yourself making more consistent performance gains. 

So what should you be doing on your off/recovery day? 

-Sleeping in

-Moving your body with light activity throughout the day

-Movement focused stretching (ex. yoga)

-Eating balanced carb/protein-rich meals throughout the day (emphasizing easy to digest foods)

-Staying hydrated

-Catching up on to-do's and not spending any energy on the fact that you aren't training today (enjoy it - no guilt!) 

-Reflecting on last week to see if any modifications are needed 

-Early bed time

-Making sure all your gear/gadgets are ready for another week of quality training

Could you be overtrained? 
Here are some subjective measures (in addition to blood work) measures that may tell you that you need to take action now and rest your body. If you tend to find yourself injured, burnt out or overtrained throughout or at the end of a training cycle, it's recommended to work with a professional who can help you create a plan that puts the appropriate amount of training stress on the body so that you can recover and train harder the next day:
Keep in mind that it requires a long term relationship with a coach and good communication between coach/athlete to develop the right plan to help you reach your season goals.

-tired, drained and little energy
-greater RPE for a given effort, inability to hit previous paces/efforts
-decreased appetite

-unintentional weight loss or gain
-amennorhea (females)
-unable to perform consistently
-decreased motivation
-chronic aches in muscles/joints

-inability to fall asleep (insomnia or get restful sleep) at night but feeling extremely tired during the day
-depression/mood swings
-loss of enthusiasm for the sport ("I don't want to do this anymore, I don't care about my goals")
-injuries popping up (or ones that won't heal)
-decrease immunity (increased colds, sickness, headaches, etc.)