Look at a typical Ironman taper and recovery – for us as professionals it’s two weeks on either side. Two week taper where we continue to train, but at about half the volume of our big training weeks. Then the recovery, in general we give it two weeks of easy ‘get out and move’ type training before getting back into the swing of things, building up to normal volume. After our last big race of the year we’ll use that two weeks recovery period as our off-season (no tri training required). For a Half Iron distance race the taper and recovery is even shorter – maybe a 4 day limited taper and a few days easy recovery training post race. So, if you were to do 2 Ironman races in a year – that’s already 2 MONTHS of easy training. Pretty hard to justify a long off season with that sort of downtime already incorporated into the year – at least if you’re serious about improving.

If you train consistently throughout the year, your body won’t NEED the extended off season.

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.

Beer contains 150 calories.
Beer has no fat
Beer has no cholesterol
Beer is caffeine free
Beer contains no nitrate
Beer contains 1 gram of protein and 13 grams of carbohydrates
Beer contains significant amounts of magnesium, selenium, potassium, phosphorus, and biotin
Beer is chock full of the B vitamins (as anyone who has taken brewer’s yeast as a B supplement already knows), with impressive amounts of B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxin), and B9 (folate), with smaller amounts of B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B12 inotisol and choline.
Beer is 92 percent water

The key is having ‘A’ beer, as in one! Or perhaps choosing a non-alcoholic variety like O’douls.  The time to avoid the brewskie is when you’re dehydrated, need to stay hydrated, or looking to lose weight.  Though beer has no fat, it is one of the most readily available fuels that your body could use as energy, therefore causing your body to convert and store all the other carbohydrates in your system as fat!

If we could somehow eliminate it’s inebriating and dehydrating effects we’d have the ultimate race fuel!!  What does your body do with the alcohol in your system?

• A small portion of the alcohol is converted into fat.
• Your liver then converts most of the alcohol into acetate.
• The acetate is then released into your bloodstream, and replaces fat as a source of fuel.

All of that is processed very quickly, faster than any form of gel or bar you could find.  There’s also those vitamins and minerals listed above that are sure to help your body repair and keep it healthy.

There will be variation from one beer style to another, of course. “Light beers” contain fewer calories and carbohydrates. High alcohol beers–barley wines or imperial stouts– may contain more calories and carbohydrates. Different beer styles–dark styles, wheat beers–will have different levels of trace elements from pale ales or pilsner. But, across the board, beer in moderation is a nutritious beverage, and a great companion for food.

So, grab an evening brew and feel good about it.

You also can’t forget about hydration.  Drink crazy amounts of fluid (non-alcholoic and non-caffeinated preferably) in an effort to flush your system of all the toxin build up and breakdown you’ve suffered from race day.

Third step, and probably the most difficult, is to keep your body moving.  Go swimming or hit up a 20 minute ride on the trainer the day following the race.  Try and get on an elyptical or spinning bike at the gym – anything to get the blood moving through your muscles.  Avoid running till at least the end of the week, but definitely get out for a walk or hike.  The sooner you can get yourself going again, the quicker you’ll recover and be back training with high motivation.  And when you can, keep the feet up with plenty of self massage.

Come week three post race, you may fall into the dulldrums and have an extremely hard time getting yourself out the door for training.  Get around this by training with friends, doing a local fun run or bike race.  Perhaps even another shorter distance triathlon to get your head going again.  Nothing like a solid effort to jump start the energy systems.

Training puts HUGE stress on all of the soft tissues in our bodies.  When muscles work hard, they develop microscopic tears which your body has to repair.  Massage is great way to aid in repair of muscle tissue- breaking up scar tissue where it has formed and realigning fibers in their most functional directions.  There is nothing like going to a well-trained Massage Therapist to find your trouble areas and work them out.  Your body can use this type of care after every hard workout, though for most of us time and money limits that luxury.  So here is the hard part – inflicting self therapy on your own body.

What you will need

1) styrofoam roller
2) tennis ball
OR
Trigger Point Therapy Kit

The routine I call the “Self Blender”, works systematically from feet to neck.

1) Have a warm bath or shower to ensure your muscles are warm and pliable.  Fascial tissue   is believed to behave in a toffee-like manner – being more pliable when warm
2) Use the tennis ball to work the plantar fascia on the bottom of your feet.  Do this by sitting and rolling the ball under your foot.  Stand if you can apply more pressure.
3) Use the foam roller to roll your calves, hamstrings, quads, and shins (hit both the tibialis anterior and peroneal muscle groups!).  To do this, keep the foam roller underneath your body and roll on it.  Use your arms and opposite leg (of the one being worked), to shift and adjust your body weight.
4) Use the tennis ball to further “work” any areas that you couldn’t quite get with the foam roller.
5) Now use the tennis ball to work your glutes.  Lay on one side with the tennis ball underneath the side of your hip.  Roll and adjust to work out areas you feel tension.  Finish by rolling your glutes over the foam roller.
6) Do not attempt any self massage to your low back as it is difficult.  Do stretch your back or see a therapist about any pain you are having.  I recommend yoga’s Child’s Pose as a great position.
7) Use the tennis ball to apply pressure to tight areas between your shoulder blades.  You can do this by either laying on the ball or leaning against it on the wall.
8.) Next, use the tennis ball the tackle the muscles directly on your shoulder blades.  Make sure you get the area on the outside edge of the scapula.  This is the location of some rotator cuff muscle attachments and is a common site of origin for pain felt in the upper back, shoulders, arms, and hands.
9) Even though you may feel quite sore post a hard swim or tough bike session, arms are another area best left to a therapist.  First of all, they don’t have the weight to be effective rolling.  Secondly, nerves and blood vessels in the the arms are quite superficial and easy to come in contact with.  Anything beyond some simple muscles squeezing performed by your opposite hand, this is another area best left to a therapist.
10) Finally we come to the neck.  Again, it is delicate area and best left to treatment by a knowledgeable pair of hands.
11) Post a self massage treatment, doing some gentle stretching and cryotherapy (cold treatment) is of benefit.  Stand in some cold water, ice a specific location, or even have a cool shower.  The cold will help flush away inflammation as well as encourage the realigned fibers to stay in place.

Whether you apply it yourself or see a registered therapist, massage therapy is a great way to speed up recovery, prevent injuries, and get the most out of your hard work.

First start by walking around in bare feet as much as you can to get all those feet muscles working. Wiggle your toes around while you are eating breakfast, try to move your pinkie toes independently.  Roll the underside of your feet out on a golf ball or a full water bottle that has been frozen.

An excellent thing to do after your runs, while your are stretching, is to use toe spreaders (those things that women use to paint their toenails) to separate your toes and help stretch your feet.  They feel really odd and rather uncomfortable at first, but they can really help loosen up your whole posterior chain (the fascia that run from the underside of your feet to the top of your head).  One exercise is to stand with the toe spreaders on and, with your heels and big toe still on the ground, try to raise your big toe knuckle as high as you can, repeat.

A great thing for recovery in general is to get your legs up in the air. If you do this with toe spreaders on (toes pulled towards your head), your butt as close to the wall as it can go to get a comfortable hamstring stretch, your back neutral and your arms out above your head with wrists cocked (palms up, fingers pointed away from your body) this will loosen you up nicely – from your head to your spread toes.