Recovery - what it's really all about

The start of the new year and many athletes (depending on their schedule) would have completed their base training; they would have laid down the infrastructure of copious amounts of miles and conditioned their bodies for the next phase of training: lactate endurance.

In this phase recovery is paramount for any athlete looking to maximise their potential. To reach the top in any sport a systematic approach to training is crucial to guarantee the most beneficial gains. "Making every day count," "pushing yourself to the limit," "breaking down the boundaries," are all concepts that every athlete employs, but the stage where a lot of athletes fall is recovery. Recovery is not about "doing" and "pushing through," it is about putting the right nutrients back in, so the body can repair and rebuild itself. It is ultimately about being elegant and gentle with yourself and simply being able to relax into your training by keeping it very light once the hard sessions have been carried out.

In single sports, like swimming and running for example, if a hard training set was carried out then the next day will normally be easy and the muscles that were used on that hard day are given plenty of time to recover. However, triathlon caters for 3 sports and getting the balance of all 3 sports is crucial for a successful season and longevity in the sport.

The understanding should begin with the notion that we all "have one heart and a pair of lungs," so no matter what sport is carried out we are always stressing these organs and thus, need to realise that they need to recover just as much as the sport specific muscles. Most athletes know that after exercise and especially anything that is maximal, a protein/carbohydrate drink is essential to have straight away. The "window of opportunity" as lot of literature points out, is approximately 30min and it is in this time that the muscles are at their highest rate of absorption. However, what needs to be emphasised a lot are the effects on the neuro muscular system and how long it takes for glycogen to actually be replenished to its full capacity. The recovery drink definitely kicks starts this process, but how long until we are fully recovered?

 With 3 sports to train means you are 3 times more likely to get recovery wrong. When it goes wrong over training syndrome, chronic fatigue and lack of motivation are a result. I believe the main reason for this is that many triathletes do not know how to train the next day following maximal efforts. After ingesting plenty of carbohydrates, proteins and good fats, many athletes will believe that this is enough and wake up the next morning and try and do it all again. It takes about 48hrs to replenish glycogen stores and about the same or more time for all hormonal responses to settle down and become aligned with the body. By going out the next day and training hard will only disrupt this process and therefore, prevent the body from fully adapting. If this is repeated on a regular basis the chance to fully adapt will not happen, athletes will not be able to give 100% and ultimately, their potential will never be realised.

A reason why this could be the case is because there maybe consistent training in zones 3/4. These two zones are the "uncomfortable" zones where the heart rate is fairly high, you can not really hold a conversation and things do not feel relaxed. In these zones glycogen will begin to be used as the body is demanding more oxygen to supplement the muscular demands. It will feel like you are not pushing yourself, but are getting a "workout" nonetheless. The physiological gains at these zones are minimal when training with maximal sessions in your programme. The key is to train at fat burning zones 1/2 on recovery days. At these zones you can hold a conversation and in theory continue for a long time. The advantages of training at this intensity is that your glycogen stores will not be used because the amount of oxygen required to support the muscular demands are met. The added bonus is that you can still keep the training volume high while pushing yourself further. In your fat burning zones, an athlete is very capable of training 5/6hours the day after a maximal effort session, but only if they train at a very low intensity and listen to how the body is responding to the demands from exercise.

By alternating max efforts and fat burning into your training and taking 36/48hrs easy coupled with plenty of food and fluid, there is no reason why you can not reach your potential. I believe this is how the top triathletes stay at the top and how others get there and fall very quickly. By knowing your body and having the confidence to listen to it, you will know when to go hard and when to go easy. By training in this elegant way and doing the basics right, success will only be a matter of time.

2012 at last!

Finally 2011 has come to an end and I felt a breath of fresh air when the clock struck 12 on new years eve. To me it was closure on a roller coaster year and the beginning of another chapter. As much as this post can be a platform for some cathartic writing, I will save that for another time and focus on what is really important: solid winter training!

As I entered Xmas I was fortunate to have covered about 10 weeks of solid base training. This type of training was focused on the "hours" and the "miles." Without becoming to OCD with these two terms I embarked on a training plan to gradually increase my training volume to a point where I was regularly churning out 28hr weeks. The focus was to make sure I ran 70miles a week and bike about 12/14hrs. Fortunately, after a lot of perseverance through the cold patch in December, this was achieved.

As I enter the second phase of training where the aim will be introducing sessions while maintainsing the volume, recovery is paramount in my development as an elite triathlete and thus, maximising my potential. Many times I have fallen short at this hurdle: pushing too hard too early, not knowing when to rest and not listening to my body. This phase of training, I believe, can make or break you as an athlete. Everyone can do the odd session well, but only a few can recover and do it again week in week out at their maximal. I believe this is where the brownlee's shine and their recovery is incredibly effective.

Pictures and information on recovery to follow!

Racing the Olympic Course

My goal for the 2011 season was to race on the Olympic course and in many ways I have achieved this. A very good friend of mine entered the Buckingham Palace route last year and due to circumstances, decided not to race and offered the place to me. I said yes immediately and once all the documents were received, I began to get incredibly excited about racing on the Olympic course. Obviously, I would have loved to race in the elite race, but it was not meant to be this year, so I made the most of this opportunity.

Leading in to the week post London Tri, I felt tired and I believed I had not recovered properly. Doing an Olympic distance the weekend before and doing another one again was quite daunting for me. I did not know how my body would hold up; had it recovered properly and was I still carrying some muscular fatigue? Anyway, I was pretty sure I would find this out come race morning. The "recovery" week after London Triathlon consisted of 20hours working at the hotel bar plus 3hours a day of landscape gardening, in other words, breaking down a shed and clearing as much rubbish as I can! With this amount of work, training was put to one side and only completed if my body was up for it.

The race began at 7am and I left my hotel in Marble Arch at a sociable hour of 5.45am! This was my first age group race since I started the sport and my first non drafting, so I was quite nervous as I did not know what to expect. We swam exactly the same swim course as the elites, but the bike and run differed. My swim time was 17.56sec, which appeared to be the fastest of the day including the elites! Once on to the bike, my first priority was to make sure I counted all the laps. It was only 4 laps, but it was so easy to miss count and ride an extra lap, so I made myself constantly aware of how many I had done. I felt strong and fast, but part of me wished I had a time trial bike and tear drop helmet as the bike course was flat and windy and suited the more aero guys. On to the run and I found my legs quickly and ran as hard as I could. I did not have a clue where I was in the race, but knew I just had to do my best all the way to the line and then I can ask no more from myself.

It turned out that I came away with fastest run, a solid bike and a WIN overall. I am delighted to win the whole age group race by 2mins and is my first win in the sport since I started. Although there was no podium, I still felt an enormous amount of pride, elation and a willingness to continue this habit from now on.

London Triathlon

My 3month break from racing finally came to an end at the London Triathlon. I have not raced for 3months as so much has happened in such a short space of time that racing was so far from my priorities. I needed to wait, be patient, get the enjoyment back and feel the energy for racing again. Thankfully it did come back and I was very excited when I was on the start line waiting for the horn to start for the 2011 London Elite Triathlon. With this long break I went into the elite race with one goal: to finish with the feeling of excitement for the sport that I had when I first started. Fortunately, this was the case and I knew I was back to my old self again.

The swim went better than I had expected. The swim is a 1 lap of 1500m and it does feel a long time in the water. I found myself at the front very early on and decided to swim it at my pace and if someone overtakes me then at least I have feet to draft off. At the halfway point I made a concious decision to be 1st out of the water; I thought with the amount of work I had put in, no way can anyone take my lead. I dug deep and probably put myself into some oxygen debt, but made it out the water first and first into transition.

Out of transition and I was straight into my cycling. The slight oxygen debt cost me Stu Hayes's wheel, but a pack of about 8 athletes were right behind, so I decided to fuel up and wait for them and hitch a lift to the front. The lead pack was formed after 5km and I decided to "hide" in the pack. I have not done enough riding to pull my turns and with a 10km run left, I was not sacrificing my race for some hard riding. The bike was over in no time and with the expected surges and failed attempted breakaways, we rolled in as a group ready to run the last stage. I hit the run as hard as I could and for a km I was flying, but the lack of race experience got to me and the last 9km was slightly slower than I had hoped for. I crossed the line in a respectable 14th place feeling satisfied and relived that I was back to enjoying it all again.

A special person

A really special special athlete that will do whatever it takes to make it to the Olympic Games in London. An example of how financial diffcultly can put on a massive strain on your dream and how, regardless of what kind of adversity there is, there is still a belief that it can happen!

Claire Kelly, Australia Beach Women's Volleyball Team. Trying to travel the world to get enough ranking points to make the Olympic Games... sounds a very similar predicament!

http://losthatsportsblog.com/2011/06/claire-kellys-unique-plan-to-make-it-to-the-london-olympic-games/

Enjoy!!

Work and my first triathlon (sort of!!)

I am two days away from what feels like my first triathlon. I feel I have done the full circle: starting brand new to the sport 3 years ago; becoming obsessive with training and pushing myself to the point where I was severely over trained and believing the notion " the more I do, the better I will be;" to competing in every race possible to fulfil a childhood dream of competing against the best athletes in the world, while getting myself into massive amount of debt; then finally ending up where I started again: fresh, full of energy and incredibly motivated to be the best triathlete I can possibly be. However, the start of this circular journey is not the same as how it started, so many things have happened in my life in such a small amount of time, but patience and timing have been the key to starting fresh again. I feel so excited about competing in the elite wave in London on sunday morning and racing against some very good athletes. I am in very good shape at the moment and although I have not raced since April, my belief in my ability is just as strong as it always has been.

This whirlwind season has provided me with the opportunity to work on many different aspects of myself that I would not have been able to work on if I had not been through these experiences. The importance of listening to my body when it is in pain, tired and run down is paramount to consistent training and progression in the sport. This skill has been particularly important in getting the balance right between work and racing. I have had to eat some humble pie and realise I can not go on living on a few quid a day, scrapping by on a dream that at times seems impossible. Without any financial support, it very hard to be a professional athlete. I want to be a professional athlete, travel the world collecting ranking points and race the best guys out there, but for this to happen I have to be patient and keep motivated.

I am currently working as a barman in a 4 star hotel on the Loughborough University Campus. It is a really good job and very chilled. Most bar jobs can be stressful, but with this it is quite the opposite. I work approximately 20 hours a week and try and do another 20 hours of training on top of this. To make it through a week successfully I have to listen to how I am feeling, know when to push myself in training and know when to back off. Quietening my mind is essential to keep my energies up. I have constant debates with myself, for example, "I should be out on my bike," "I should be doing those track reps" etc, but I keep telling myself that this is the situation I am in and above all, I must flow with it.

I am very confident that turning professional is only a matter of time for me, but at the moment I will just have to ride the wave. With London Triathlon this weekend and, thanks to a very good friend of mine, I have the opportunity to race London Hyde Park on the Olympic Course the following weekend. Who knows what magic might happen....!!!

Back on Track

It has been quite a while since I lasted posted on my blog site. A lot of things have happened over the past few months that have been life changing. I believe it has made me into a much stronger person and it can only help improve me as an athlete. During this period, I have been focusing on my running. I have always wanted to concentrate on this discipline, but in the past other external forces have been present and I have not stuck at it. However, things have changed and I am loving the "miles" in the running. Running has provided me with the feeling of freedom and excitement that I lost and I feel, for the first time, I am finally turning into a very good runner.

I have been inspired by a lot of people, most notably, the runner legend Emil Zatopek. He was a Czech athlete that achieved the impossible goal of winning gold in the 5km, 10km and the marathon at the Helsinki Olympic Games. Zatopek was the first athlete to highlight the benefits of interval running and proved his doubters wrong by breaking the 10000m world record 3 times and becoming the first athlete to run a sub 29mins. Also, I have been reading "Born to Run." This is a story about the Tarahumara who are regarded as the greatest undiscovered endurance athletes that have every lived. The book focuses on how these men and women have developed a perpetual talent for endurance running and how their love for running is their ultimate characteristic.

The reading I have done has led to me to notice one important trait that every successful athlete appears to have: Their resounding love and passion for what they do. Nothing is an effort, but pure enjoyment; there are no complaints, just constant laughter. It appears the recipe for success is as simple as the cliché line of "just simple enjoyment" for what they do. Anyway, for the first time in my life this is how I feel towards my training. I have always believed that I have had this feeling, but now I really feel that it is part of me. I feel lighter, things feel effortless, and I am not dictated by times and amounts of reps I have to do; just on how my body is feeling. I used to get really agitated when I pushed myself in training, albeit in all 3 disciplines, and mentally I struggled. But now that feeling of taming the "beast" known as exhaustion is some what exhilarating. Pushing, pushing and feeling the improvements happening is incredibly addictive. Obviously, there comes a point where enough is enough, but when I am in that moment it is truly magical.

With this new found love, I have started to get my motivation back and started racing again. I was invited to join Leicester Roadhogs Running Club after my performance at the Glooston 10km where I was 3rd. This 10km was savage with 2 laps, which included twice up a hill that was about 500m and very steep. This performance got me a start at the Hungarton 7mile mid week race. This race is notoriously known as Leicestershire hilliest road race, so was in for a treat when the race started. The first 3 and a half miles was up hill, constant climbing with out much respite for the legs. Once the first half of the race was completed, the second phase was more undulating so could get into my running better. I was around 6th at halfway, but felt strong. I opened up my stride and dug deep and finished a very respectable 4th. I felt amazing when I ran and loved every minute of it, even the laboured first 3 miles! Next stop was the British 10km in London. I was expecting a very fast race, but it turned into more of a tactical affair. A beautiful race round London encompassing all the attractions London has to offer, from running over Tower Bridge to sprinting past Downing Street. I came a creditable 13th in a very strong field and felt strong all the way to the Line.

The next stop now is speed work. I am very strong at the moment, but need to activate my fast twitch to push myself on to the next level. Time will be spent hurting myself on the track and preparing my body run at speeds that it is not used to. I am doing the London Triathlon at the end of July and I see it as my come back race... Cant wait