So much emphasis goes into preparing for a race that sometimes it is easy to forget that recovering afterwards is critical too. The natural tendency is to finish, feed your face, and rest–in that order. You try to refill your depleted body with calories and hydrate it to no end. Then your body screams for relaxation, as it should.
But simply doing that and waiting for the pain to go away and the muscles to recover isn’t the best way to go. You should have a recovery plan in place before you actually do the race. This way you can flow right into a phase that prepares the body for further training in a reasonable, safe manner.
But before you begin planning out the race season and setting up recovery plans, consider the following factors that all play a role in your decision making. They intertwine with one another and vary, but keep them in mind and be honest. You don’t want to make it through training and race day unscathed only to get injured by failing to have a quality recovery phase.
1. Age: Your age is critical. Not that it is a perfect rule, but the older you are, the harder and longer the recovery. If you are incredibly fit at 45, you may very well recover faster than a mildly fit 37-year-old. Yet, all things considered equal, the higher the age, the greater the care needed.
2. Experience: If you are a newbie and just completed your first sprint, you’ll need more time than a seasoned veteran. If your body understands the demands because it has been there before, then you’ll feel better faster.
3. Conditioning: Seems obvious, but the better shape you are in, the easier it is for the body to regenerate and get back on track. If you are not entirely fit, be honest and adjust the recovery phase to reflect this.
4. Nutrition: Fueling your body properly over a period of time creates nutritional patterns and consistencies for the body. If your diet is suspect, your body will not have the needed material to recover.
5. Race distance: Like conditioning, this is obvious. The longer the race, the longer the recovery period. The average two-hour triathlon takes between six and ten days to recover.
6. Course type: If the course was terribly difficult, with a choppy open water swim, a hilly bike, and a tough run, then expect additional time to recover.
7. Intensity: You be the judge. Was the race used as a training day for a future, more substantial race? Was it done at a moderate level? Was it done a full speed, leaving nothing left in the tank?
In the end, if you give these seven ideas some thought, and then factor in the kind of workouts you do post race, which should be easy and short, you should be able to generate a plan to get your body recovered in optimal time.
Source:
Gale Bernhardt Consulting