How to Optimise Recovery in Ultra Endurance Cycling and Running

While many endurance athletes do not like to rest, they often do like to do things to the best of their ability. For this reason I thought I would share with you how you can target recovery and get as good at that as you are at doing workouts. This will enable you to optimise your training and achieve enduring fitness gains.

Treat is like a Workout

Recovery is an integral part of your training; you can argue it is when you are actually getting fitter as your body is adapting. So it should be given the same priority that you give your key workouts.

Seeing recovery as a workout to be completed can help - this is a serious task that you are about to perform, rather than something you are missing/skipping.

Plan it

If you don't plan for recovery you are at risk of not getting enough/any. So make sure that you have easy days in each training week and easy weeks in each training block of 3 to 4 weeks.

Once you have planned when you are going to recover planning what you are going to do in your recovery workout is another good way to allocate importance to it. Whatever you choose to plan is up to you and as we will see can vary; so long as it does not compromise your recovery.

Planning to do something that promotes your recovery will also mean that you protect that workout time rather than just working extra hours or doing extra household jobs.

Good Recovery Workouts

A good recovery workout is something that enhances your body's ability to rest and adapt to the training stimulus. It should be restful, fun and make you feel good. Examples include:

Watching a good film
Reading a good book
Socialising with friends/Spending time with family (if you are social)
Having some alone time (if you are more of an introvert)
Cooking a nice meal/baking
Gentle yoga/stretching
Massage
Gentle swimming
A gentle walk
Going to a spa
Going shopping (if you like that sort of thing)
Watching your favourite comedian
Having a long lie in/siesta
Spending time with animals/your pet
Playing/listening to music
Painting/colouring
Doing a puzzle
Playing your favourite computer game
Meditating
Larking about (see feature photo)

The list is not exhaustive.

Eat Well and Hydrate

It can be tempting to think that you don't need to eat and drink as well if you are not exercising for a day or a few days.

Whilst you may not be burning as many calories, your base metabolic rate (which will be higher than average if you are doing a lot of volume) will not change in a few days.

Your muscles need protein in order to build and your body needs energy to promote the adaptations you want so it's important to eat well, even if you don't need all the gels and bars you might consume when you are training.

Your body needs to be hydrated in order to work and repair effectively too. So while having some alcohol when you know you donot have a hard workout the following day is great, it's important to drink plenty of non-diarrhetic drinks like herb/fruit teas and water too.

Deal with the Demons

For some people the compunction to train is very high and they can have real psychological difficulty in 'letting go' of high volume, even for a day. This is an unhealthy attachment to exercise which often interferes with training and can lead to injury, poor performance and ultimately over-training.

If taking time off causes you unusual stress, you feel like you might be addicted to exercise or you feel like you have to train even if you are tired, injured then it might be time to get some professional help.

Recovery is integral to training, if you aren't able to recover, you aren't able to train.

Why not book a free 20 minute consultation with no commitment to see how we can help you?