Intro: Talk to ten endurance athletes and you'll get ten different recovery concoctions. Should you focus on protein, vitamins, carbohydrates or simply purchase one of the many recovery products that line store shelves and appear in magazine ads? Most supplement ads tout 'maximum recovery', but it's important to maintain awareness of some key principles with solid clinical research supporting their effects. Keep in mind that no supplement will allow you to go from a sedentary lifestyle, or one with limited training, to a 20 hour per week training schedule overnight. Gradually increasing the volume and intensity of your training will allow physiological changes on the cellular level, which support strong performance increases. The following recommendations can help you stay fueled during your scheduled training program and during periods of high mileage and intense training.

Recover from what?
Before getting into the importance of additional nutrients in recovery, we need to ask the question, recover from what? Since endurance athletes are involved with such varied workouts, there is no single product or magic food that can supply what is needed for all these workouts. Workouts and races come in many different lengths and intensities, and it is your job to decide if it was a glycogen depleting workout or a maximum lactate workout. A glycogen depleting workout is one during which you have put in enough hours to deplete the glycogen stores in your working muscles and are on the brink of bonking.. A century ride or a two and a half hour run at moderate intensity are good examples of glycogen depleting workouts. On those occasions when you exceed your aerobic threshold, you are in the realm of maximum lactate workouts. Characterized by considerable lactate buildup in the working muscles, these workouts involve repeat intervals nearing your maximum heart-rate combined with a period of rest. You can see why it's important to know what you are recovering from before you decide what to use for recovery. Be wary of general recommendations that are entirely too broad to be effective.

Water, water, water:
The backbone of any recovery program is always water! Water alone can give substantial benefit in your recovery, but even greater gains can be found combining it with other nutrients. However, no other nutrient or magic pill will work without water as its backbone. All cellular reactions, including the basis of ATP production (electron transport-oxydative phosphorylation) require water and oxygen. Without water, the entire process of converting nutrients to glycogen and protein is limited. So, if you do nothing else, drink lots of water. Same thing with any other recommendation or program you choose to follow: drink lots of water!

-Average fluid loss during exercise: 1-2 liters (33.6 to 67.2 ounces) per hour. Some individuals may lose even more than that during intense workouts/races in extreme heat and humidity!

Replenish your carbs:
Following water, the second most important nutrient group to consider is not proteins, but carbohydrates. The primary fuel source for endurance athletes is glycogen, period! If you don't restore your fuel, you aren't going anywhere fast, and some carbohydrates are better than others at restoring glycogen to the working muscles. Also keep in mind that a window of opportunity exists where your depleted muscles open their acceptance to this fuel, further allowing for maximum replenishment. Depending on what data you reference, this window is somewhere between 20 minutes and two hours following exercise. To keep things simple, always try to start your recovery immediately following exercise. During this time, insulin sensitivity is at is highest. Insulin, which allows sugar to flow into your bloodstream, works most efficiently immediately following exercise. In addition, high glycemic carbohydrates are broken down easily and further increase the flow of glucose into the bloodstream. This glucose can then be converted to glycogen in your working muscles, in essence 'filling your tank.' To ensure you have refilled your glycogen fuel tank to the top, always practice using a high glycemic recovery product/food immediately following exercise. Glucose, a high glycemic carbohydrate, is twice as effective at restoring muscle glycogen as fructose, a low glycemic carbohydrate. Whether a carbohydrate is a simple sugar or complex carbohydrate makes little difference on the recovery rate -- the key is the food's glycemic index.(Gonzales, Roberts, Roy) Whether a food is a liquid or solid will not make a difference either, though some claims state that liquids offer more efficient absorption. But remember, regardless of the form, the glycemic index is a direct indicator of the breakdown of the food into your bloodstream.

High Glycemic Foods lists are available at www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

Protein demands:
Over the last ten years the media, the body building world, fad diets, and new research have made protein the magic nutrient for recovery. Proteins play many critical roles aiding in recovery, including the building of new tissue; as a primary constituent in cell membranes and internal cell material; comprising the enzymes which allow the body to function and breakdown fat, carbohydrates and other proteins; aiding in blood clotting; acting as a critical agent in muscle contraction; and aiding in regulation of acid-base balance. Though protein is critical in many aspects of recovery, it always works better when combined with carbohydrates. A high protein bar with little or no carbohydrates is relatively ineffective for any endurance athlete as a recovery product. On the other hand, protein added to high glycemic carbohydrates can actually further increase the shuttling of glycogen back into the working muscle. Protein is not a preferred fuel source for your depleted muscles, and ingesting too much protein following a workout may actually hinder the resynthesis of muscle glycogen.

Electrolyte demands:
With excessive sweat, the body may also require the replenishment of electrolytes. The primary electrolytes lost in sweat are sodium, chloride, potassium and phosphorus. Electrolyte replenishment only becomes problematic for those athletes who consume only water during a long exercise bout in heat. A 'during race' nutrition plan should always contain some electrolytes in order to keep homeostasis. With excessive sweat, body fluids can become hypotonic (low in electrolytes) when not replenished. The key here is to simply make sure what you drink and eat following exercise contains some or all of these electrolytes. Be careful not to drink plain water following exhaustive exercise. Water alone will actually dilute your electrolytes even further, and may cause additional nausea. Most sports drinks contain all of the key electrolytes in doses large enough to help you replenish your lost stores.

Notes from the Endurance Research Board

By Sally Warner MA, Ph.D.

Recommendations:
1) Your recovery starts before you start working out. Make sure you are properly fueled prior to exercise and replenish lost water, carbohydrates and electrolytes during exercise. Most athletes look at their post-exercise nutrition program as primary for recovery even though what is consumed prior to and during exercise is equally as important.

2) Water is the king of all recovery nutrients. Your first line of defense is to drink plenty of water. Plenty means 20Oz fluid for every 1 lb. of body weight lost during exercise (Gonzales)

3) As an endurance athlete, your next line of defense is carbohydrate replenishment. Always remember that carbohydrates are your preferred fuel source. Carbohydrates, not protein, are the nutrients which fuel your workouts and if not replenished will negatively impact your performance. The Glycogen depleting workout requires 1.5g/kg body weight of high glycemic carbohydrate immediately following workout. Maximum lactate workout requires 0.5g/kg body weight of high glycemic carbohydrate immediately following workout.

4) In order to repair microfiber muscle tears and rebuild what has been damaged due to a hard workout, protein is key. Approximately 8g to 12g of a quality protein should be adequate in restoring amino acid levels in the blood and nitrogen balance. However, too much protein may hinder glycogen resynthesis, so don't grab for that Body Building supplement with 50g of Protein. Glycogen depleting workout: 4:1 ratio of high glycemic carbohydrate to protein. Maximum lactate workout: 1:1 ratio of high glycemic carbohydrate to protein.

The following can be used for recovery: each has about 8-12g protein and 25-50g carbohydrates. These do not take glycemic index or electrolytes into account.

6) Improvement from hard exercise happens during sleep, not during your workout. Without proper rest between hard workouts, your body will not adapt and improve. If you are lacking proper sleep, hard workouts are useless and can actually send you into a downward spiral of increasingly worse performances.

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