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Recovery

An article by Mike Schultz CSCS of Highland Training

Hello All, Here is a little info on how to track your recovery after each event. I hope you can put this to use and have fun while doing so!

The recovery process after a long event such as an Iron Man or ultra endurance event is going to be slightly different for everyone. Age, fitness, genetics and lifestyle can all play a factor when trying to recover. The main thing to remember is that we all have a way to measure feedback from our body and mind after each event, ultra distance or sprint distance. Your perceived exertion, breath and leg feel are the simplest forms of bio feedback and can be used without batteries! When you add a heart rate monitor, you begin to see, not only feel, what is going on inside your body.

Days after my last 24 hour solo mountain bike race, a very slow responding heart rate along with a lack of power and an increase in my breathing rate was observed. As the week progressed and a few more additional days of recovery were thrown in, my heart rates were starting to respond to intensity, power was up for certain durations under ten minutes, and perceived exertion was much lower compared to earlier in the week. But my mechanics, pedaling smooth, handling the bike, were still fatigued. It is important to let every physiological system completely recover in order to seek further improvements in strength

The following is a simple question with a complex answer.

Qustion:

I just completed IM-Wisconsin on Sunday and could use some advice on post race recovery as well as advice on how much and when to ramp up activity/training again.

Answer:

Recovering from an Iron Man event will be different for everyone as your body will provide you with the feedback you need to determine your recovery status. Your age may play a role in recovery but your current fitness heading into the event may play a bigger role.

I would recommend that you study all of the feedback coming from your body the week after the race. If you use a heart rate monitor and /or a power meter, you can watch how your recovery from each of your physiological systems rebound. Heart rate and power are only two forms of feedback. Your breath, perceived exertion and actual leg feel are some of the others.

I would keep your hours for the week on the extremely low side to help the recovery process. Workout may consist of 1-1.5 hrs in length. The main goal the week after the event is to watch your recovery and check your system. So after a few days, see if your HR is responding to any intensity. If it is not, along with sore legs and a heavy breath, then a few of your systems are not recovered. A slow heart rate response may be seen as an improved cardio system but it will eventually respond to intensity. A HR that never rises no matter what you do is telling you that you are not recovered.

Mike Schultz CSCS