How Cyclists Should Approach Post-Race Recovery

Whether you are a weekend warrior or an active racer, if you want to successfully hammer out long back to back big training rides or races, recovery will be an important part of the process.

Hard and smart training is just one part of the overall fitness equation -- the best riders are those that can recover quickly and fully to hard efforts. What you feed yourself can certainly help to make or break that recovery process.

For the purposes of this article I will assume that you have a good handle on your daily nutrition. By this I mean you are eating a diet composed of the three macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) in the right proportions.

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Let's assume the athletes in this article are starting off with a full tank of glycogen stores (carbohydrates are stored in the muscle and liver as glycogen). This rider can likely store approximately 1800-2200 calories of glycogen in their muscles and liver (varies by fitness and musculature).

Let's play this out with rider A and rider B. Both riders are males weighing 160 pounds (72.7kg). Let's assume this ride or race (I will refer to this as a race for simplicity) is full gas and aggressive with tough terrain. It's a two-day race: approximately 4 1/2 hours each day. Day one, fueled up and ready to rock!

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Rider A: Not OK!

Rider A feels good at first. He is drinking 500 milliliters an hour. One bottle has his sport drink the other has just water. He is 1:45 minutes into the race and hasn't started eating. By hour two he is feeling some fatigue and realizes he needs to eat.

He starts eating 30-50 grams of carbohydrates an hour (example: one e-load gel and half a package of Honey Stinger chews). By hour three he isn't feeling quite so strong and his legs are feeling a little "flat". Hour 3.5, he is feeling more like he is hanging on than being part of the race.

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Closing in on hour 4, his calves start to twitch. He takes another gel (30 grams of carbs). His focus is waning. He starts drinking more. But this bottle is water and only 500 ml. He didn't take a feed. His fuel stores are low; he is now looking at his odometer to see how much mileage is left. He is also drafting well to hang on, knowing he doesn't feel very powerful. He is low on glycogen, a feeling he knows too well.

He finishes OK. He burned 3,200 calories. He ate 520 calories, 2 gels (240 calories), one 500 ml sports drink (120 calories), one Honey Stinger chews (160 calories), plus one bottle of plain water. He has lost a few pounds due to dehydration.

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Be Like Rider B

Rider B, on the other hand, started fueling in hour one and kept eating/drinking properly right through the last hour of the race.

Let's say rider B was fueling with 90 grams of carbohydrates per hour and drinking 750 ml of the 4-7 percent sport drink solution every hour, right until the end of the ride (he took two bottles in the feed).

Rider B had pop at the end for the sprint points, and felt just as good at the end as when he started. He was tired, but he had power and snap. He could attack, respond and be "on top" of his gears. Rider B isn't cramping or twitching. He feels confident.

For the purpose of this article we will say that this rider burned 3,200 calories as well. He ate 96 grams of carbohydrates per hour or 384 calories per hour for a total of 1,536 calories for the 4-hour race.

If you are rider A, this is the beginning of where things go wrong. If you are rider B—nice job!

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Post-Race Recovery Nutrition

Rider A gets off the bike. He feels a bit...hammered. Rider A sits around at a caf? splayed out on his chair, has a coffee, maybe a muffin, a chocolate milk or pastry of some sort. He isn't really hungry as he is likely down on fluids. But he eats the pastries anyways.

He spends that first hour after the race sitting around with friends, just chilling and not really paying attention to recovery. The muffins are high fat, the pastries are high fat and the coffee is not helping with hydration. There are no electrolytes coming in.

This scenario is all too common. The rider then drives home, showers and eventually eats a real meal like a sandwich and maybe he has a glass of water and a beer. He snacks a little, has a normal sized dinner of steak, rice and a salad; but not in quantities required to replenish glycogen stores.

He heads to bed later that night not having replenished enough carbohydrate stores, fluids or electrolytes after burning 3,500 calories.

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Rider B hangs out with friends too (don't worry you don't have to be a total loser to recover well). However rider B brought a recovery drink. He gets off his bike, walks to his car, grabs the recovery drink from the cooler and joins his friends. Rider B composed the drink of 1.2 grams/kilogram of body weight of carbohydrates and 0.25 gr/kg of protein for optimal recovery in the first 30-60 minutes post workout.

If rider B weights 160 lbs (72.7 kg) that means he would have 72.7 x 1.2 = 87 grams of low fat high glycemic carbohydrates and 18 grams of lean protein within the first hour off the bike. Both carbohydrates and protein have four calories per gram, therefore this meal would have 420 calories (88 g carbs x 4 cal/g = 348, 18 g protein x 4cal/g =72, for a total of 420 calories).

Some examples of post-race fueling:

• 1 1/2 large baked potatoes or two cups of white rice and three ounces of grilled chicken breast.
• Alternatively, a sport drink with the same ratios. For example 1.75 scoops of EFS Ultragen plus one cup of Oceanspray cranberry juice mixed with water will give you a sports drink with 88 grams of carbohydrates and 18 grams of protein.

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Athlete B is now on the proper road to recovery. An hour later athlete B will eat this same size meal again. In each of hours two, three and four, he will repeat this macronutrient consumption. Each time the meal can be made up of different foods, or the third meal could be twice the size and it could be dinner. For recovery you want to eat 1.2 grams of carbohydrates and approximately 0.25 g/protein per kg of body weight per hour up to five hours after a hard race over 90 minutes.

The longer the race, the more times you will need to replenish. You can also have recovery meals for two hours and then have a complete dinner a little later on that is larger in size. Follow this with a carbohydrate snack before bed such as a piece of toast with jam or even some rice pudding. The rider may add a bit of fat to the third and fourth meals, adding calories. In total he will consume approximately 2100 calories after his race. What is key is that he started the recovery process within 30 to 60 minutes post-race.

The 30- to 60-minute post-race/training recovery window is often referred to as "The Window of Opportunity." As glycogen depletes in the muscles and liver, an enzyme in the body called glycogen synthase rises. This enzyme is responsible for helping to store glucose as glycogen up to 50 percent faster than normal. It is at its highest concentration 30-60 minutes after a hard training ride or race where glycogen stores will have been depleted.

Therefore by eating the proper meal at the right time after your race, you can increase your recovery time by up to 50 percent. That is significant, especially when stage racing or doing big double days. So don't waste any time—start recovering immediately.

Another reason to start your recovery within this window is to start muscle repair and hydration as quickly as possible. If you have lost a lot of fluid volume during your race, you want to rehydrate with a solution that has some sodium in it and be sure to salt your food for the rest of the day.

A good guideline to follow is for every kilogram of weight loss, consume 150 percent or more of fluid to replace it. Know your regular pre-race weight and make sure you are back at it before you go to bed. Intake of coffee and alcohol during this time isn't ideal as they will not encourage hydration. Continue drinking regularly after you have re-hydrated until you go to bed.

More: How Much Fuel Do You Need for Long Rides?

Back to our Riders

Rider A gets up, feels groggy, sleeps in and has only two hours until the race. He stops at a drive through to get a bagel (310 calories) with light cream cheese (60 calories), and a large coffee with milk and sugar. This breakfast is far too small at 475 calories. He doesn't drink any water upon waking.

He takes to the start, legs a bit heavy at first which is normal. He feels OK for the first hour. Today he improves his on-bike consumption and has sport drink in both bottles and has one gel per hour. But by hour 2.5 he is in trouble. The pace is high, there are a lot of accelerations and he finally just BLOWS. He was burning 900 calories per hour again today. He just doesn't have the power he has felt before. The pack rides away, and he rides in with the gruppetto.

Rider B gets up early. Yes, he misses a bit of sleep, but he eats and drinks 3 1/2 hours before his race to ensure good digestion. He isn't hungry. But he eats. He has two cups of orange juice mixed with maltodextrin (160 calories worth) and some whey protein (18 grams) since they are easy calories to drink. He also has a large bagel with jam (420 calories) and one medjool date. His breakfast is 950 calories. He takes his time to eat slowly. He has had this exact meal before a long weekend training ride and knows it works for him.

He times his coffee 60 minutes pre-race for it to peak at the start and he continues to sip water. HE eats a banana within the last hour leading up to the race. Rider B races hard, he suffers, he attacks, he eats and drinks a lot every hour as planned, he counters, gets in the break and he WINS!

Want to be rider B? Make a plan. Pay attention to it. Follow the post-race guidelines rider B followed. Practice your plan during hard training rides. Execute your plan on race day. And leave Rider A in the DUST!

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