Repeat Performances
When it
comes to feats of endurance, most people on the street could probably tell you
that the Tour de France, Giro D’Italia and Vuelta a Espana are among the most
demanding. Riders cover over three thousand kilometres (3,360.3 in the 2015
TdF) over the course of twenty-one stages, averaging about 40 km/hr, day in day out. Just
one stage over mountainous terrain would present an incredible challenge to the
fittest of club-level athletes, as riders typically must produce between 3 and
4 W×kg-1
for 4 hours or longer. However, what makes the athletes who compete in these
events truly astonishing is their ability to deliver world-class performances
day after day for three and a half weeks, with only two days off!
Because of this additional dimension the winners of the Grand Tours are
not necessarily the most fit individual outright, rather, they are the athlete
who is able to 1) recover between stages, and 2) save their energy for where it
matters. The latter half of the equation for success relies on tactical prowess,
thinking ahead to the unique demands of future stages and will be informed by
the experience of the athlete and their support team. However, the ability to
recover can be a multi-faceted and delicate operation. ‘Fitness’ definitely
plays a role in recovery from high intensity exercise, a high VO2Max
will mean increased ability to replenish muscular glycogen following an event
and clear debilitating metabolites during the event1. There is also
evidence to show that intense endurance exercise of just one hour can
significantly reduce cardiac function, measured as the amount of contraction,
filling and emptying the heart performs while at rest and during exercise. When
looking at the individual responses to exercise it has been shown that factors
such as aerobic fitness and training history are negatively related to the
magnitude of cardiac dysfunction (i.e. the fitter you are the less damage you
take).
Other ingredients to ensure ample recovery include Nutrition, Hydration, Therapy and most importantly – Sleep. Getting these right is the key to getting the most out of an athlete’s body for three weeks and is how cyclists like Chris Froome are able to produce over 400 Watts of power, at 90% of their maximum aerobic capacity for an hour at the end of Stage 1 and at the end of Stage 21.
Other ingredients to ensure ample recovery include Nutrition, Hydration, Therapy and most importantly – Sleep. Getting these right is the key to getting the most out of an athlete’s body for three weeks and is how cyclists like Chris Froome are able to produce over 400 Watts of power, at 90% of their maximum aerobic capacity for an hour at the end of Stage 1 and at the end of Stage 21.
On a far less impressive, but much more identifiable level, one weekend in May this year I competed in two triathlons on back-to-back days. Race one was the Nottingham Sprint Triathlon on the Saturday (750-metre Swim, 20 km bike, and 5
km run), while the second race was in Shropshire, on the Sunday, and
was an Olympic distance event: twice as long as the sprint distance (1500m
swim, 40km bike, 10km run). Saturday’s event took place at the National Water Sports
Centre at Holme Pierrepoint, Nottingham, on a flat course around the 2km long rowing lake. The field was fast across all age groups as this race
was the first qualification event for the 2017 European Sprint Distance
Championships, which meant it had attracted some of the fastest ‘age-groupers’
from across the country. The first four finishers in each age group who
expressed interest in qualification for the Europeans would be selected to
represent Great Britain at the event. Fortunately, my race went very well and I
managed to grab the 4th qualification spot in a time of 1hr 00min
50sec.
Once I had finished the race I knew that if I wanted to have a chance to
qualify in Sunday’s event I had to be methodical about my recovery routine… So
the first thing I did? Drank two pints of beer! Now before you all start
bringing a 6 pack to your next race I’m not giving you carte blanche to hit the
pub after a race. No, this was special beer – Erdinger Alkoholfrei to be precise;
an alcohol free isotonic recovery beverage. Essentially it tastes like beer
(which I like) and is loaded with water, carbohydrates, and electrolytes and
none of the alcohol which means it will rehydrate you more effectively than
water. I sipped the drinks while sitting in the shade so as not to flood my
recently traumatised and blood-deprived digestive system.
So, that was the first ingredient ticked – Hydration. Next on my list I needed to ensure that my muscle
glycogen stores would be restored, and immediately following exercise is the
best time to do this as many exercise-regulated glucose transporter enzymes
would still be active along the membrane lining of my muscles – the sarcolemma.
This meant that any glucose that found its way into my blood during this period
of about 30 minutes was far more likely to be taken up by those muscles and
converted to the long term storage molecule, glycogen – which I would need
plenty of for Sunday’s race! When it comes to how much to eat after a triathlon
I like to break down the energy demands of each leg and adjust from there based
on how much I’ve eaten the preceding days and whether I’ve had any breakfast
that day. Note: for shorter events I do not take on any carbohydrate during the
race and rely on my body stores of sugar and fat for energy. However, while I believed
it would likely negatively affect my race if I deviated from my usual routine
e.g. by taking an energy gel mid-race, it may have meant that I could have
potentially started Sunday’s race with higher glycogen stores. I would also
point out that for longer events you can massively aid your recovery by
consuming carbohydrate, as it will mean that you finish the race with higher
muscle glycogen stores and get a head start on recovery. I worked out that I
had used approximately 250 kcal during the swim, 450 kcal during the bike, and
350 kcal during the run. I started my nutrition replacement strategy with a
high carbohydrate energy bar (Clif bar, blueberry crunch) and followed shortly
with a high protein and carbohydrate energy bar (Bounce ball, coconut). This
gave me about 600 calories, mostly of high glycaemic index carbohydrate (which
would soon find its way into my quads, hamstrings and calves!) with about 10
grams of extra protein from the Bounce ball to stimulate muscle repair and
reduce my hunger levels2. Additionally, the antioxidants in the
blueberries and Bounce ball may have helped repair oxidative stress, caused by the high intensity exercise.
Following the race I had essentially replaced all the calories I
expended and needed to focus on the second 2 ingredients – Therapy and Sleep.
Fortunately, at the event were Birmingham University College’s Sports Therapy
undergraduate students, who provided free massages to competitors. I managed to
get a good, if slightly agonising, sports massage which was focused on my
quadriceps and calves, as these tend to be the most painful for me following a
race. I also had brought along my foam roller and various massage tools which I
used that evening to loosen off the stiffness that settled in during the drive
from Nottingham to Ellesmere that afternoon. I travelled over to Ellesmere with
my girlfriend, Claire, who had also competed that day in Nottingham, although
her race hadn’t started until 1:00 pm. Clearly this 4 hour wait in the sun was
not ideal in terms of recovering for Sunday, but I managed to mitigate any
potentially damaging effects by preparing my nutrition and hydration in
advance, bringing sufficiently cool clothing to wear post-event, preparing my
own sports therapy equipment and techniques, finding out if there would be
post-race massage (preferably free!), and ensuring my equipment was still in
working order for the next day’s event. This meant that for the time between
our events my main goals were to:
1)
Move as little as possible to conserve energy,
2)
Stay out of the sun to avoid overheating,
slowing recovery,
3)
Stay hydrated and well fed moving on to lower
glycemic load foods in the hours after my race. And finally…
4)
Cheer Claire on as she was also trying to
qualify! (She did!)
I must
point out that the transition between the two races is where Claire really
saved my bacon as she did all the driving from Nottingham to Ellesmere (about 2
hours down twisty country lanes), carried my bags to our hotel room, drove us
to dinner and back home! For dinner I had a high carbohydrate meal of seafood
risotto and consumed plenty of fluids. Hydration is such an important aspect of
recovery as during an event, especially a hot one, you will inevitably sweat a
lot and a large amount of this fluid comes from your blood plasma. This means
that your total blood volume is reduced. As a result, you have less fluid
available in your blood vessels to send to the skin to cool your core
temperature, and less blood to fill the ventricles during the filling phase of
heart beats. Ultimately, this results in blood flow to the major muscle groups
being reduced, insufficient oxygen delivery and usage, and diminished exercise
performance. I did NOT want this on Sunday, so I drank my water and electrolyte
drinks to make sure I maintained adequate hydration. One practical way of
checking this was, disgustingly as it may sound, to monitor urine colour – too
clear would mean that my body was excreting mostly excess water and I was over
(hyper) hydrating, too dark would mean that I was severely dehydrated. The
recommended colour is pale straw so that’s what I aimed for.
Now, I previously mentioned that
sleep was the most important aspect of recovery, you may have heard the adage
that it’s not the sleep the night before the race that’s important – it’s the
night before the night before. This claim certainly has some scientific merit
as several studies have shown that exercise performance is not diminished
following one night’s sleep deprivation, although perceived exertion may be
higher3. However, while I was well aware of this I was also keenly
aware that little research had been done on sleep quality during consecutive
events and wasn’t taking any chances. Unfortunately, our room for the night was
in a pub, above a bar, and it was karaoke night. It was a very nice room, and
the bed was very comfortably, but it offered little protection from the
onslaught of merry singers. Luckily, Claire came to the rescue again with a
pair of ear plugs for me – she had prepared a lot better than I had! I ended up
sleeping very soundly and at any rate was knackered after being up and about
since 5am. Sunday’s race started at a leisurely 10:30am, that gave me plenty of
time to get 8 hours sleep and walk 10 minutes down to transition in the
morning.
The second race went very well and I knew that I had recovered well
after exiting the swim and seeing I had swum just over 20 minutes, slightly
faster than the day before. I also managed a slightly higher average power
output on the bike, despite the distance being twice as long and actually put
in one of the quickest bike splits of the day. The run however, did not go so
well! The course was very hilly and most people found it difficult to get into
a rhythm, especially if like me you have no natural rhythm. This made the
eventual winner’s run split of 35min 00sec even more impressive, he was a solid
8 minutes ahead of the second athlete by 3km into the run and extended his lead
to 10 minutes by the end! Meanwhile, I had started the first 5km averaging close
to 3:45 min/km but soon after the halfway point of the 10km run leg something inside me died
and I could only jog to the finish at a speed of ~4:15min/km. Fortunately, the
work I had put in on the swim and bike meant that I finished 3rd in
my age group, 9th overall and bagged the first qualification spot in
my age group. So I had done it – achieved what was a bit of an overly ambitious
goal of meeting both qualification criteria on consecutive days, I will now
represent Great Britain in both the Sprint and Standard Distance European
championship events next year. I’m convinced that my strict recovery routine is
what let me get to this point as following the second race I threw that routine
out the window, had a Snickers bar, several pints of non-alcohol-free beer and
fish and chips for dinner to celebrate. Surprise surprise - I felt incredibly
rough, battered and bruised the next day. Thankfully it was a Bank Holiday
Monday and I didn’t need to do anything other than put my feet up and stuff my
face with delicious cakes made by Claire’s mum.
Thank you for reading this blog post! If you have any questions please drop me a comment or email (james.donaldson@canterbury.ac.uk).
Thank you for reading this blog post! If you have any questions please drop me a comment or email (james.donaldson@canterbury.ac.uk).
James
