Everyone knows what it feels like to over do it. We have all been sore from doing something in excess or something that we hadn't worked our way into. You know what it feels like... your muscles are sore, they ache and you are stiff. Typically you are sore for about 3 - 4 days, the second day is the worst and you improve a lot on day 3 and are back to 'normal' within about 4 days total.
Well, endurance athletes are no different than anyone else but we train our bodies to be able to go for very long periods of time and to recover from that and be able to do it all over again within a few days or even over night. What I'm referring to is the day to day recovery that we experience when we are training. What is very different is the fatigue and muscle tissue damage that occurs after a race effort like the 24 Hours of ERock.
I'm not sure that I can explain what it feels like to go through a recovery after a huge race like this one but I'll attempt to give you an idea of the ordeal that all of us go through. Immediately after finishing the race I drink a 'recovery drink'. This drink isn't a cold beer but it is a special blend of protein, electrolites and carbohydrates. The idea is that your body is most receptive to this perfect mix of nutrients within 30 minutes of stopping the activity. The body will use the protein to rebuild damaged muscle and the carbohydrates will help replenish the liver and cell glycogen stores.
I use the recovery drink after nearly every ride of any intensity or duration. I look forward to it and I can tell you that it is one of the best things that I have ever discovered to help improve day over day performance. After this race, I headed home to shower and eat and then to get some much needed sleep. Dinner consisted of 2 cans of plain tuna, pasta with a bit of cheese and garlic sprinkled on it along with some fruit. I like strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, they are easy to eat and have lots of good stuff in them to help the body recover.
You may think that I'd have slept from 930pm until noon. I didn't and was up at 06oo after a fitful nights sleep. The body is still so amped up and isn't ready to shut down and rest properly. I'm careful to keep hydrating with plain water and I make a HUGE omelet type thing with broccoli, tomatoes, mushrooms, salsa, cheese and what ever else I can find to throw into it. I basically ate a full 12" skillet full of food and washed it down with about 1/2 gallon of coffee.
I then attempt to do my normal stretches which would take me about 15-20 minutes. I lay on the floor and it takes me 1.5 hrs to get this simple task done. I'm exhausted. At about 0930 I start eating again and I never really stop all day, it's a constant parade back and forth to the fridge and pantry.
According to my heart rate monitor I had burned about 16,000 calories during the race. I know that this is pretty accurate. I also know that I took in about 7 - 8,000 calories during the race. You can't replace calorie for calorie what you burn during exercise because you will bloat like a dead rodent on a hot road. Your body can only take about 1/3 of the calories that it is burning. The good news is that even the most fit athletes with the least amount of body fat still have fat reserves to go staggering distances so long as they are getting the supporting nutrition that will allow them to burn the fat and not canalize muscle tissue.
I'm sore but it isn't that 'normal' over use sore that I described above. It is a deep rooted fatigue and soreness that you can feel in your bones and in every fiber, ligament and joint. It isn't a debilitating soreness just a terrible fatigue.
So Sunday was basically a wasted day of eating and laying on the floor staring off into space. I did manage to unload my truck of most of the race gear and get things a bit sorted out and into the wash. I would normally do a 'recovery' ride which is simply a very low intensity spin while monitoring heart rate below 125 bpm but I opted not to do this and just to completely rest.
I head into see Dr Joel at Well Within Chiropractic for an adjustment and a post race battle damage assessment. I also had scheduled a massage of 1.5 hours with Alysia at Time to Heal Therapies. The outstanding work that these folks do makes my body be able to tolerate what my brain tries to force it to do. The massage really helps flush the body of all sorts of waste that has accumulated in it. The knots that she worked out were amazing and quite painful but I feel way better after they are both done with me.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were all days off the bike. Each day I feel less bad and more like myself. The interesting thing is that I keep eating like mad. Every hour or so I'm eating something else. I always feel full but never satisfied, I can not get enough food into my system to satisfy my hunger.
Finally on Thursday I get back on the road bike for a 2 hour spin, low intensity, recovery. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday are all spent with about 2 hours on the bike trying to get the blood flowing but not tax the system in any way. I took Tuesday off. By now I'm feeling like I'm about to go mad from the lack of intense riding. I feel way better and am anxious to see just how well (or poorly) I've recovered.
So, on Wednesday I head out on the road bike for a 2:15 minute 'tempo' ride. This means that I'm aggressively pushing the bike but I'm not trying to power up hills at all, I keep the gearing low (easy) and keep the spin speed up. I ride about 46 miles and went through town twice but still averaged over 20 mph. I can feel the work in my legs and I'm concerned that I've done too much too soon.
Thursday I feel pretty good and I go out and basically repeat what I just did on Wednesday but I average about 18 mph (this was on purpose). Friday was another recovery ride of a bit over an hour, I feel like I'm back to about 85% of normal. I don't have the full leg strength it will take several more days to get that back to 100%.
During training I use heart rate on the bike as an indicator of exertion. I'm pretty good at managing heart rate and I've done this long enough that I can pretty much feel what range I'm in without looking at the HRM. The other key use for the heart rate monitor is to use it to measure recovery. I do this early in the morning before I get out of bed. My normal, fully rested, resting heart rate will range somewhere in the 42 bpm range. If your body is working to fight off a cold or some illness or to recover from exertion the heart rate will be higher.
On Friday morning my resting heart rate is 60bpm!! This was terrible but I was able to use the data to guide me to only do a light recovery ride this day.
So in summary, it took me 2 weeks to get back to about 85% of my normal bike strenght. I've eaten everything in sight, tried to sleep properly, stay hydrated and allow my body to recover it self from a 24 hour effort.
The next test of my 2 weeks of recovery will be Friday and Saturday, I've got some big climbs planned... stay tuned.
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