The “details” is a broad term to describe all the small things we do as endurance athletes that allow us to train in a highly repeatable manner. The difference between “exercise” and “training” lies in the “details”“3 C’s of recovery” (3C’s in short hand!): is a component of the”details” and basically stands for Calories, Cold and Compression.
Calories mean that the athlete consumes the proper post workout recovery in a specific time frame (usually 15-30 minutes) after strenuous training. The exact numbers are not set in stone, but the athlete should shoot for: 1.0-1.2 grams of CHO per Kg of body mass within 30 minutes of the end of the workout (roughly around 200-300 total calories). With a 4:1 ratio of CHO-PRO (approx. 0.25-0.3 grams of PRO per Kg of body mass), moderate to high glycemic CHO and 5g of Glutamine. Some examples of engineered foods might be Endurox R4, Recoverite of Clif Recovery Brew (although all might lack a bit of Glutamine). Some real world food could be Greek yogurt with some granola, chocolate milk or a bagel with almond butter and banana. If the session was particularly hard, another high CHO meal @ 2 hours post workout is recommended as well. At this meal, you would want to consume an antioxidant supplement and Omega 3 as well.
Cold simply means an ice bath, ice packs or a cold shower on the legs. While not the most fun thing to do post workout, the benefits are significant. What we are mostly doing here is reducing inflammation. Acute and chronic inflammations are killers of repeatability and athletes are highly susceptible to both. As coaches, we basically cycle O2 and then control inflammation, as an athlete, you can help with the latter!
Compression would be the wearing of compression tights or sleeves on the legs. While there is not definitive or a lot of scientific research on the benefits of compression, there is some available with encouraging findings, that plus the fact most trainers and many seasoned athletes agree it provides benefits. Most likely by helping venous return which in turn might speed up the recovery process.
Outside of the 3C’s, there are many other small, but important components to the “details”.
- Diet: a moderate to high CHO, but low glycemic diet along with good lean PRO and healthy FAT should be the cornerstone of every athletes eating habits. Meals high in Omega 3 and high in micronutrient density should also makeup the majority of your day to day eating.
- Sleep: this one is huge and often overlooked or discounted. Great athletes are lazy…and sleep a lot! I love this rule of thumb. 7 hours base sleep, plus ½ hour for every hour trained. For many folks this is unobtainable…but it should be your goal.
- Rejuvenation methods: I am talking massage, stretching and self massage. At the OTC in Co. Springs athletes have access to the “recovery lounge”, here there are steam rooms, ice tanks and hot tanks…along with a team of staff massage therapists. Unfortunately most of us are NOT at the OTC, and even weekly massage, while great, is not realistic. This doesn’t mean that you can’t do it yourself every night! An expensive purchase of massage cream is all you need. When you are watching TV or relaxing each night, sit on the floor in shorts and work from your feet towards your heart with steady, not too hard pressure making sure to work the tendons and soft tissue, along with the belly of the muscle. This 5-10 minutes each night trumps a once a month paid massage in our opinion. If you’d like more info on self massage, check out “Self Massage for Athletes” by Rick Poley.
- Stress reduction: If you have a job, or kids, or any combo of these…you have “life stressors”. Stress makes our body release a hormone called Cortisol. In small batches it’s not that bad…but training just happens to add another stressor to the list and as coaches, we at PBMC do our best to help you manage it. Reducing stress on all other fronts goes a long way towards improved training, improved recovery and improved racing.
