The Importance of Recovery

There are times of the year that you may feel more fatigued than other times.  This may be the result of the accumulating stress of the number of races you did, travel and time changes, poor nutrition (during training or races) and other factors.  Whatever it may be it is critical to find the source.

There are three main areas I look for when this happens: 1- muscular fatigue, 2-central nervous system (CNS) fatigue, and 3- fatigue due to poor nutrition, or combination of some or all of the above, which makes the recovery process complicated.

Recovery from muscular fatigue is not too difficult with – this can happen from 2- 5 days, but recovery from CNS can be difficult and could take a longer time to overcome. Poor nutrition can throw the blood values off and can also prolong the recovery time.

Prevention and having a recovery plan along with the training plan within the yearly training plan becomes critical to control those values.

By Houshang Amiri