We can all benefit from maintaining good eating habits on our easy, rest- days as well as through the hard training days. Don’t fall into the trap of (too often) rewarding yourself with junk food because you “deserve it”. Your body really deserves high quality nutrients, and those rest days should be packed full of nutritious food because you’ll have more time to prepare the good stuff.
Eating high quality food on rest days (lots of fruits and vegetables) will help ensure that your rest day is actually doing what it’s supposed to – repairing muscle and cell damage caused by hard training.
This is especially true after hard races. The craving for junky food is always at its highest after a race, it feels like a reward for accomplishing the task at hand. Yes you crave salt, but try getting it with a V8 instead of potato chips and fries. If you’re diligent about your food intake you can turn those race days in to your best ever training sessions. Good food first, party food later!
At the risk of having this sound like a blatant plug: We will say that one of the more impressive recovery products we’ve come across is Ultragen by First Endurance. Not only does it hit the bloodstream quickly and contain all the proteins, vitamins, and minerals you’d want from a recovery drink – the stuff mixes with water to the texture of a juice. Absolutely no clumping or powdery residue. It is a pretty nice option for bringing with you post workout or post race; you can mix it on the fly and the flavour is awesome.
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I agree with good nutrition on rest days and not junk food, but I've heard also that these days should be lower in carbohydrates? Aside from not having a pre and post workout meal, should my overall diet be low in carbs for this ret day? I understand possibly why, but if I have a hard workout scheduled for the next day, won't I need that energy? Thanks!
Hi Chuck,
Thanks for the question. We've heard of a similar approach – training without carbohydrate. The thought there is that your body will then have to become very efficient at converting fat and protein into usable sugars. We've seen people try this, and we've seen the same people bonk VERY badly. Whether they then improved their bodies ability to convert fat and protein into usable energy, we have no idea. Very skeptical that it would work as intended.
The idea behind a rest day is to let your muscles recover and refuel for future workouts. In order to do that properly you will most definitely need some carbohydrates. It is, however, good to be selective on the types of carbohydrates you take in during your rest day. Make the healthy, low glycemic choices, as opposed to the simple sugars. But, definitely don't leave out the fat and protein either.
Immediately following a workout you can jump on the simple sugars. Dextrose and Glucose are the best type of post (and during) training fuels, they'll help get your recovery started right away.
Thanks a lot! Your answer was really helpful