Recovery

Recovery is almost always forgotten. You only think about it when your sore and tired. To stay sharp you have to reward you body for all the work you make it do.

So first things first....

Drink water!!!! 60% of your body weight is water, so there is buffer system to cover water loss during training. Nevertheless this water loss has a huge impact on your performance and must be replaced as soon as possible. Plain water is under normal circumstances adequate for rehydration, since solid food replaces the electrolytes lost during exercise. Thus, if you eat properly, you do not need to take any supplements to make it up for the electrolytes. Under very hot conditions it is though necessary to replace electrolytes as well as the lost water.

Eat carbohydrates!!!! Blood glucose concentration regulates the secretion of insulin, which works as an anabolic steroid for you after training. Thus, we are interested in eating carbohydrates to stimulate the secretion of insulin and get all the benefits of this natural hormone.

Eat proteins!!!!!! This is not an advice just for strength athletes and body builders only. Muscles cells are built of proteins and they are broken down during training. Endurance athletes also need proteins immediately after training to recover from their effort. Just like carbohydrates, proteins stimulate secretion of insulin, which help in building up the muscle again.

Cool down!!!! Take a short ride in small gears. It helps your muscles to recover from hard intervals or races. Removal of lactate is enhanced when you do light exercise. Depending on your overall fitness, I will recommend you do a 5-20 minutes ride after each training session.

Sleep!!!! Go to bed! Take a nap! Staying up to watch Letterman will not make you the king at the local crit. It you can squeeze in that short workout, you can squeeze in that short nap!

Relax a bit! Life's too short to stress about everything. Make time to......have a bath, get a massage or enjoy a cold beer!!