Recovery Please

Fort you would not have to recover if you did not fall in front of the car.

One thing I have learned is never to run the day before a competition. (Any kind of competition.) Also, if I'm not able to run at midday and end up running at night instead, I'm much slower in the practice pool the next morning. This only applies to running. More than once I have biked 25-30 miles the day before a competition without ill effect. And if I have to work late and don't bike home until midnight, I will be fine at practice in the morning.

There has been some discussion lately about the necessity of recovery during training. So how much and what recovery do we need? How do we fit in all our training, cross-training, weights, etc. and still have time for recovery? What can we do to recover faster? How much recovery is needed prior to taper? How do you balance training hard and training and recovery? Based only on what I've gleaned of you from this forum, I can virtually guarantee that you are not allowing yourself enough recovery time. Listen to your body. If you are sore, and getting tired a little more easily, you need to recover. Recovery is more important as you age because you don't recover as quickly between workouts. Remember -- I'm sure you've heard it before -- you actually get faster when you recover (ie adapt to your training). "What can we do to recover faster?" (I had to chuckle over this a little, clearly you like the training more than the recovery!) Enough sleep and good food would probably help. No cheating! For example, most serious triathletes I know don't recover enough -- I mention this b/c of your cross-training -- and view "swim only" days as their recovery. How to fit it in? I would suggest periodization, especially of your cross-training activities. With your weights, lift hard for 3-4 weeks and then lift light for one week before repeating. I usually divide the 3-4 weeks up a little too, starting with higher reps and lower weights, with less rest between sets, gradually increasing weights and decreasing reps and increasing rest before going light for a week. I'm not a runner but it is probably similar to cycling: go easy one week after about 4 weeks of harder training. More along that vein: every 4-6 weeks, spend a week working on something different that isn't as taxing but is still useful. Flexibility, for example (you can do some of that yoga you liked so well). Or work on self-pacing: pick a (relatively slow) time for a set of repeats and try to hold EXACTLY that time and pay close attention to how your body feels at that pace; vary the pace a little and do the same. Work more on your technique and stroke drills for a week and less on conditioning. Take some time to work on starts and turns. Try some new toys (eg, the snorkel), or use some that you don't use as often. Do hypoxic sets at a more relaxed pace. I'm not sure about your tapering question. I view tapering is one extended/controlled recovery process, though there are others who view it differently. So I tend to use the time just before tapering as the last time to get in some really hard training and weights. Not sure if that is ideal, though. I've heard that women should taper a little less than men, which is probably what you want to hear...! I'm not a coach so I cannot really verify that. Take a weekend off, if you need it, and even then, work your way back to full speed over 2-3 days. Your body will thank you and you'll end up faster. Don't worry, I'm sure you're in awesome shape; it took months/years for you to get there and you don't lose that in days. Overtraining is a good way to get sick (your body's way of getting you to recover if your brain isn't smart enough to do it first). Good luck.

You did not hear this from me and if anyone asks if I said it, I will deny it.... but, extract of the herb known as "Devil's Claw" works very well at reducing post-hard workout soreness. It works better than, say Aleve and the like. en.wikipedia.org/.../Harpagophytum_procumbens The local grocey store sells a drink in the health foods section called "Function Shock Sports" that contains this and works very well. http://www.functiondrinks.com/ OK, since you are a lawyer, I have to note that I am not a medical professional, nor do I play one on TV. Further, the above does not constitute an endorsement of the use of herbal products or any particular product. It is merely an anecdotal discription of an non-scientific, non-controlled personal experience and your mileage may vary. The user neither claims that the above supplement is fit for either its stated purpose or any other purpose so, if you decide, say, to use it for enemas, hey - that's your kink not mine. Not all potential side effects are known. If your breasts fall off or you suddenly decide to sing the entire score of "Cats" at work, I had nothing to do with it. Any and all use of herbal supplements should be undertaken only under the supervision of a trained medical professional or witch doctor or that strange girl who you used to know in high school who wanted you to call her "Moonflower" when, in fact, her name was really "Phyllis Glumpfenmeyer", although she always had the best pot. And, as always, do not remove mattress tags under penalty of law and a visit from the matress police. -LBJ :lmao: I see it stimulates appetites, LBJ. Just great, I already walk around starving all the time. If I just do a few wee sprints and then recover, how am I supposed to: have sufficient endorphins, de-stress and burn calories? Oh, I did stretch a lot today.

Flexibility, for example (you can do some of that yoga you liked so well). Or work on self-pacing: pick a (relatively slow) time for a set of repeats and try to hold EXACTLY that time and pay close attention to how your body feels at that pace; vary the pace a little and do the same. Work more on your technique and stroke drills for a week and less on conditioning. Take some time to work on starts and turns. I agree with Chris on this. Especially for the sprints. We can push too hard and the stroke falls apart and you get too sore. What's really happening is your body goes into a catabolic state. Relatively speaking, you're getting weaker. Instead, do the top speed work, but take more rest between each hard effort, and focus more on improving range of motion. With increased range of motion the muscle can have the same strength potential, but you'll swim faster, with equal or less effort. Just use Dara Torres meridian stretch program as an example... hehe

For what it's worth… When I was lifting to get bigger and stronger, I found my best gains were made when I lifted one day, took two days off, lifted the next day, took another two days off, and so on. My workouts were broken down like so: Back, shoulders, chest, legs, arms. So…I'd have approx. 15 days of rest for each body part. Granted, it wasn't total rest because the triceps would receive stimulus on chest and shoulder days, etc., but this allowed me to train with great intensity and I could gain muscle and keep it. I'd hit a plateau maybe 3 or 4 times a year and was able to squat 500lbs and bench 365lbs. at a bodyweight of 195. I'm guessing swimming is a bit different as even in sprints there's more aerobic issues involved. Long story short, when you train with intensity, and feel sluggish and tired when you go to swim, take a break, work on technique and give yourself time to recover. And oh yeah, eat :banana:

My girlfriend took that. Look what happened to her. Wow... it made her much better looking than I remembered. -LBJ

So how much and what recovery do we need? According to what I have read you need approx 48 hours after weightlifting for that particular muscle group to recover before you should hit it again (you can of course do chest day 1 and back day 2 without a problem) Reg swimming you can practically swim every day because it is much less impact on your muscles than weightlifting. To be fully rested you need to stay off hard training for approx a full week. How do we fit in all our training, cross-training, weights, etc. and still have time for recovery? I swim 5 times a week and do weightlifting 3 times My weightlifting is divided into legs day 1, back day 2 and chest day 3 spread evenly throughout the week. I could potentially do more weightlifting but i simply dont have the time and it is hard to fit it into my swimming schedule because I have also read it is not so good to do weightlifting the same day and prior to swimming. What can we do to recover faster? I recover faster if: -I eat directly after training (proteins and carbohydrates) -I swim down 200-300m after practice with a structured routine say 3 50s just under lactate and 3 easy on 50secs instead of just doing 100-200 easy after practice -Take a really, really cold shower directly after practice (I guess the best thing to do is to bring a tub of ice cold water, but in lack of such a cold shower is OK) How do you balance training hard and training and recovery? -Currently on a 4 month routine with recurring excercises every week...but still testing out the best routine for me on this one. my :2cents: /Per

Based only on what I've gleaned of you from this forum, I can virtually guarantee that you are not allowing yourself enough recovery time. Listen to your body. If you are sore, and getting tired a little more easily, you need to recover. Recovery is more important as you age because you don't recover as quickly between workouts. Remember -- I'm sure you've heard it before -- you actually get faster when you recover (ie adapt to your training). "What can we do to recover faster?" (I had to chuckle over this a little, clearly you like the training more than the recovery!) Enough sleep and good food would probably help. No cheating! For example, most serious triathletes I know don't recover enough -- I mention this b/c of your cross-training -- and view "swim only" days as their recovery. How to fit it in? I would suggest periodization, especially of your cross-training activities. With your weights, lift hard for 3-4 weeks and then lift light for one week before repeating. I usually divide the 3-4 weeks up a little too, starting with higher reps and lower weights, with less rest between sets, gradually increasing weights and decreasing reps and increasing rest before going light for a week. I'm not a runner but it is probably similar to cycling: go easy one week after about 4 weeks of harder training. More along that vein: every 4-6 weeks, spend a week working on something different that isn't as taxing but is still useful. Flexibility, for example (you can do some of that yoga you liked so well). Or work on self-pacing: pick a (relatively slow) time for a set of repeats and try to hold EXACTLY that time and pay close attention to how your body feels at that pace; vary the pace a little and do the same. Work more on your technique and stroke drills for a week and less on conditioning. Take some time to work on starts and turns. Try some new toys (eg, the snorkel), or use some that you don't use as often. Do hypoxic sets at a more relaxed pace. I'm not sure about your tapering question. I view tapering is one extended/controlled recovery process, though there are others who view it differently. So I tend to use the time just before tapering as the last time to get in some really hard training and weights. Not sure if that is ideal, though. I've heard that women should taper a little less than men, which is probably what you want to hear...! I'm not a coach so I cannot really verify that. Take a weekend off, if you need it, and even then, work your way back to full speed over 2-3 days. Your body will thank you and you'll end up faster. Don't worry, I'm sure you're in awesome shape; it took months/years for you to get there and you don't lose that in days. Overtraining is a good way to get sick (your body's way of getting you to recover if your brain isn't smart enough to do it first). Good luck. I'm sore from swimming, not cross training. :D I swam more this last week (6x) while waiting for my new running shoes to arrive. And I never really lift hard. I'm blaming it on excessive fly. My shoulders felt good and I overdid it. As you observed, I do have a compulsive tendency to train and tend to view recovery time as wasted training/exercise time. Although I usually take one day a week off. But I have eased off the last few days. Did a hypoxic set yesterday. What about L-Glutamine? Has anyone tried that?

I haven't noticed any appetite increase at all, but after a 2 hour straight swim I'd eat a brick if it had mayo on it, so that's not a good yardstick. Have you tried massage? That's another A+ method of recovery. -LBJ After a couple hours at the gym/pool, that's how I feel too. I did book a massage when I was so sore over the weekend. Definitely helped!! I'm not quite desperate enough to try the ice bath yet. Anyone try traumeel?