Post Race Recovery

Muscular recovery is extremely important. For me that is the very first. I don't care about up and coming training quality yet. I however want to continue to train. It is not about the training, but more likely being outdoors. Moving without pain and restriction. 

48 hours. The first 48 hours are crucial ! After the race immediately, I am not hungry. I use a protein shake with 30g of whey and at least 30g of hemp, 14g of creatine and 2g of taurine, 30g of vitargo too. Easy. I then hydrate up. 1 to 2 liters of salted water. I add in a pinch of salt, pinch of magnesium, lemon, spoon of apple cider vinegar and hydrate. Slowly as hours pass, my hunger starts coming. That is the time to bring out food, eat well. A full meal of something. I had 2 eggs, giant steak and a little bit of rice. 30 minutes after I was snacking on a bag of low oil, organic chips, ice cream, bread and sausages with cheese, carrot sticks, spinach leaves. Then for the night I also had a giant meal of baked potatoes with black pudding, lettuce and fennel chunks. 

Next day went the same. I had 5 x shakes of 20g of protein with 3.5g of creatine and 1g of taurine, well spread out, the last one just before bedtime. 4 full meals and a lot of snacks. Before Each meals 750mg of bitter melon with chromium for blood sugar control.  Even a tub of Ben and Jerries. 500ml Organic blue berry Skyr. Olives and cured garlic. Sausages, chards, fennel, 2 spiced up egg frotted coffees. At least 5000kcals. Probably closer to 6000. Then of course as a I keep on going with the high performance weight loss and purification, I was fasting from Monday evening to Tuesday evening (24hours )and kept on with the am intermittent fasting from Wednesday to Friday.

The effects of recovery are never immediate. Like you eat or do something and the next hours or next day you feel better. Acutally Tuesday and Thursday runs were kind of bizarre and the Wednesday run, I walked a lot in the run, especially the uphills. Then Friday afternoon at 16h10 I went out for a long run. Took 4 gels and it was epic. Controlled, great power, good motivation, quality stride. I ran a round of 27km on muddy terrain with nearly 800m of elevation gain, where the longest and hardest climbs came at the end. I finished at like 5:40/km pace and had like 3 strava PRs on certain segments.

If I did not have the post race 48 hours extremely nutritionally charged, well my recovery probably would have had been greatly prolonged. My muscles were trashed post race, due to the lack of 2 gels, so I went slightly hypo for the last hour. Dehydration and not enough calories are the major cause of post race muscle fatigue. Replacing proteins, sugars, amino acids, glucose and brutal hydration is the most important. Hydrate like a mad man. I drink a 2L bottle of water every day. I start every single day with a 1L of salted water with ACV. I drink at least one big coffee of 3dl. I also drink around 1L of tea. Well not really tea, but infusion. Thyme, Rosemary, stinging nettle, red clover, clevers, sprouce and pine needles and some medicinal mushrooms. I also drink some crappy stuff, like Red Bull, C4, Celsius or Perrier Energy, but not much maybe 1 or 2 a week. And not every week. Just to say that I am often over 4litres of fluids daily. 

Post race recovery:

• 48h ultra high calorie nutrition
• Constant top of the level hydration 4L plus for elite athletes
• Then keep on jogging till you feel the pop coming back to the legs

These articles are not really coaching, advice, council. More likely motivation. Find out what works for you. Test it, keep it up for years and decades to see the real effect. Keep on doing it !