Still Tired?
Matt from Torq concludes his article on recovery.
It's time to conclude the subject of recovery and then we're going to move on to a few subjects of a slightly lighter nature for a change. In the previous article 'Tired', I explained how to optimize your short-term recovery during periods of high training load. This week as promised, we're going to look at the longer-term approach to recovery, because it's not optimal to train really hard all the time, however many carb calories you can squeeze down your neck...
When you put your body under high levels of physical stress, you use up fuel that's for sure, and this needs to be replaced, but you also cause damage on a much deeper level and you need to take regular time out to let your body recover from this and re-build itself. Here's what happens during high load training:
- Muscular tissue damage: Intense or prolonged training results in small microscopic tears to the muscle fibers, which won't repair effectively unless you periodically ease off the throttle. If you don't, you'll start to loose muscular power as more and more cumulative damage is caused.
- Immune system suppression: Continued heavy training leaves you far more susceptible to infection from bacteria and viruses. If you don't plan some recovery time, you'll be forced to take it - probably at a time when you don't want to. It's not unusual for an athlete who picks-up a virus and continues to train to be forced to withdraw from training or competition for a prolonged period of time.
- Hormonal exhaustion: Hormones work with the nervous system in regulating our metabolism and generating homeostasis (balance) within the body. Heavy training naturally moves the body away from homeostasis and certain hormones are released to return the body to 'balance'. When heavy physical demand is ongoing, the body is continually working to restore homeostatic balance and this takes its toll. Overproduction of a hormone called 'Cortisol" and underproduction of 'Thyroxin' and 'Testosterone' are linked to over training.
- ATP outwash: ATP is the energy currency of the cell and during times of intense and prolonged training this is lost from the muscle cells for good. Under these conditions it takes days for ATP levels to return to normal, irrespective of diet. Even if your muscles didn't tear and you had a bionic immune and hormonal system, this makes ongoing quality high load training impossible. There is an amazing supplement that is now becoming available that will rapidly restore lost ATP, but it won't help your immune and hormonal systems, so is certainly not a panacea for ongoing high load training. More on this in the future...
- Motivational disruption: It goes without saying that unless you're a robot; you're not going to stay focused if there's no light at the end of the tunnel. We all need the prospect of a break if we are to perform at our best when we're supposed to be working hard. If you try to do the impossible - you'll fail.
Low load training periods mean that if you ride, you should do so gently and not for too long. It's a good opportunity to practice some technical skills, enjoy a bit of 'feet-up' time and get away from stuffing your face with carbs. Yep, you're not training hard, so you don't need to eat as much. In fact, if you continue eating as you were, you'll put on weight, so you'll naturally have to reduce calorie consumption.
The whole concept of mixing periods of heavy training with lighter ones is called 'Periodization' and is a little too complex to discuss in detail here, but here are a few examples that should help:
- Weekend Warriors: If you do all your riding at the weekend and do little or nothing during the week, you won't need to perodize your training. Monday to Friday is plenty of time to recover from the rigours of the weekend. I suggest increasing carbohydrate intake substantially on Friday and during the weekend and ease back to a more relaxed diet Monday to Thursday.
- Weekend plus two short sessions per week: Again, you should be able to get away with little emphasis on periodizing your training, but it depends upon how your body responds and how well you're eating. You may benefit from alternating a hard weekend with an easy one for motivational reasons, or two hard followed by one easy etc.
- Training/riding most days: If you have plenty of time to ride your bike and want to get really fit, you'll definitely need to periodize your training. I suggest that you buy a year planner and get yourself organized. Your plan should be progressive and incorporate set recovery weeks. How I organize this with my riders depends on past experience, ability and personal commitments - everybody's different, but suffice to say less advanced riders progress well with a simple step-loading model (low load week - medium load - high load, then back to low load and so on). My most advanced riders will work up to three high load weeks followed by a low load week and then back to three high loads. A word of warning though "Be honest with yourself". If you're a beginner, you won't benefit from following an advanced training program, you'll probably end up in hospital! Also, remember to include recovery days during high load training too - high load doesn't mean 'train hard every day'.
Matt Hart runs TORQ Fitness Training and Consultancy who have developed their range of performance nutrition products through a need to offer the highest standard of support to the athletes they work with. Matt’s philosophy is clear. His mission is for TORQ to produce the most highly effective performance nutrition on the market using natural and organic ingredients of a premium quality. He also believes that as TORQ has its roots firmly entrenched in Fitness Consultancy and cycling, this provides the company with its unique edge and integrity. For further information, visit
