Let's talk recovery

I want to talk recovery.

I have bitten off a lot this season. 3 Half Ironman races and my first marathon will define this season, not to mention a slew of running races and probably 1 or 2 smaller triathlons thrown into the mix.

This means that my training load currently is and will continue to be through the roof this year!....which means that my body is gonna be hurtin!..... A LOT!..... ALL THE TIME!

So far this year I have racked up 56,800 yards in the pool, 783 miles on the bike, and around 207 miles running. These #'s are significant to ME because last year it took me till the very end of April to reach the same yardage in the pool, the middle of April on the bike, and the very end of April to reach the same running mileage.

So I am 4-6 weeks ahead of last year, and so far my body is feeling it. Thankfully a lot of you have given me a lot of recovery tips including stretching more, foam rolling, ice baths and protein shakes. Between those 4 things and general rest, I think I am winning the battle. (famous last words!)

It really is a battle! The war is the entire season, and all of these little battles are doing a super long and hard workout or race and trying to recover in time for the next battle.

So far this is my recovery method after a long run or ride:

• Make Chocolate Banana Protein Shake
• Stretch (drink shake)
• Foam roll (drink rest of shake)
• Ice bath!
• Let legs warm up
• Shower
• Hit the water and food
• DON'T stop moving

I make the shake as soon as I get in the door to get some food into me. While drinking it, I stretch my hamstrings, calves, glutes and quads, then hit them all again on the foam roller. For the ice bath, I hop into an empty tub wearing my cycling or running shorts WITH a jersey and arm warmers. Wearing layers on my top half makes the ice bath really easy to do. The cold isn't that bad really! After getting out of the bath, I like to warm up naturally as I find turning on the hot shower immediately is too much of a shock. After I do take a shower, I hit the water pretty hard to rehydrate and to flush out the crap in my muscles, and I eat some more food.

I wrote, "DON'T stop moving" because after my 25K two weeks ago, I went to the movies and sat for 2 hours. Standing up and walking was an overstatement of what my brain wanted to do, and yet my body couldn't. Just standing or getting up and walking around to keep the blood flowing is enough I think to prevent the dreaded soreness. Good luck during the night!....ya gotta sleep at some point!!!

I'm interested in your take on my process. Should I rearrange my process? Do anything additional? Do you any of you use compression tights?

Thanks to you all for giving me the above tips. They ALL really do help.