Recovery

I am gaining a whole new perspective on what it means to recover, and what is important for recovery.  When I was self coached (aka:  my entire life up until Jan 1, 2014), I read a lot of triathlon magazines, and scoured websites for information.  It seemed that every training plan cycled through various stages of training.  3 weeks building, one week recovery.  2 weeks build, 1 week recovery.  Something of the sort.  I've never been one to take an entire day off as I feel like a bear (and probably act like one!) without some type of endorphin fix, even it it's just from an easy swim.  But I religiously followed the 3 on, 1 off for years without much thought, because I didn't know any better.

By the middle of recovery week I always felt a little sluggish, a little sleepy, a little not so zippy.  I chalked it up to my body needing to rest and it was telling me I needed all the easy days and sleeping in for improvement.  Eventually the recovery week would be up,  I'd start training again and within a few days I felt "normal" again.

Since January 1, I have had one day of complete rest because I was stuck in an airport all day waiting to fly home from visiting family.  Other than that, I've been getting up early to pound the pavement before work with only an occasional recovery session thrown in.  One day I had an easy trainer ride.  One day it was a long swim with lots of pull buoy/ paddle sets to minimize leg work.  Instead of being beaten up, I find that I am making progress in leaps and bounds.

The day after my easy trainer ride I had a trail run on my schedule.  The crew I run with is a bunch of ultrarunners training for hundred milers so our usual 9 mile trail run is nothing to them.  They zip up and around the park at what I consider "race pace".  Sometimes I can hang with them, other times I am completely left in the dust.  I remember thinking 'this is not going to be pretty' because I had been hammering myself for several weeks on end.  The easy trainer day was my first real recovery day.  And when I hit the trails that next morning I felt FANTASTIC!  Better than I'd felt in months on the trails.  I ran so effortlessly and felt like I could have run for days.  I was like, WTF!?  How is this possible?

Turns out that little bit of rest allowed my body to absorb all the work I'd been doing over the previous weeks and was just enough to make me feel rested and recovered.  Who knew?  I don't need a whole week of recovery, but I do need the right amount of recovery mixed in with taking care of myself every day.

What else is important for recovery?

I've become a foam-rolling fanatic.  I have a foam roller.  I know I should use it every day.  Previously I would use it when injured, or during PT sessions.  Now, I use it every single day.  After every bike or run workout.  I roll out the glutes, IT bands, quads, calves, hamstrings.  Every.  Thing.  And every week when I report to Endurance Rehab, my PT asks me how I'm holding up... and I answer honestly... I feel great!

I am a sleep-o-holic.  When my head hits the pillow (or sometimes the sofa cushion) I am out like a light.  I sleep like the dead.  I rarely wake up to pee in the middle of the night anymore.  I no longer lie awake with stupid songs running through my head.  I am OUT.  And I feel sorry for my husband if he tries to talk to me after I've already crawled between the sheets.  Sometimes he will startle me and I do one of those whole body jerks before falling immediately back to sleep.  Sometimes I mumble incoherently... which, come to think of it, I'm pretty sure is how my older sister used to get me to let her borrow clothes when we were younger.  She used to claim I "told her last night" that it was OK for her to wear said article of clothing.  I'm beginning to see things much more clearly now...  Anyway, I digress....

I eat.  All. The. Time.  90% super healthy.  10% anything that's not nailed down.  I try to end all my workouts with a good protein shake.  If I'm at home I mix up a wonderful concoction in my Vitamix.  Kale and peaches.  Spinach with cherries.  Kale, beets with orange.  Add in a little rice milk to thin it out and a good scoop of Vega protein powder and I'm good to go.  If I'm not home, the protein powder gets mixed with water and is not quite as fun, but still effective.  We love homemade pizza.  Like three times a week love.  And I am addicted to Roasted Vegetable Romesco Sandwiches from Isa Does It.   Normally the recipe makes enough for 3 sandwiches (in my household, maybe more for a "normal" family).  This week I roasted 2 heads of cauliflower and 3 zucchini and had enough for plenty of leftovers.  When the bread starts to get a little bit stale, I just eat them open faced instead.  Seriously.  Best recipe ever.

I have my first race of the season this weekend and am ready to put my training to the test!  Today was my last hard workout of the week and now I've got 3 days of easy getting ready for Sunday.  This is by no means an "A" race, but it'll be fun to blow out the legs a bit and see what happens.  Everyone on Team HPB has been winning, and PR-ing, and I'm a little nervous that the announcement on the Team's FB page Monday will be "RunnerChick ran a half marathon yesterday and finished."  I have a good feeling about it so let's hope the chips fall into place!

Happy Training!