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Cooldown Essentiality....Waseca Results...

Sunday, 23 August 2015 00:10

UPDATE: O'Connor wins in windswept WASECA. Heilman proves he still has what it takes. Fox post her second win of the weekend. More words and pics to come.  RESULTS

By Ryan Turbyfill (usatriathlon.org)

You’ve just finished a race or hard workout — now what? In order for the workout or race to help you improve as an athlete, it requires two ingredients. The first is stress to the body (check, you just did that) and then recovery to create the adaption. A lot of thought, work and pain goes into the stress, but little goes into the recovery.

During exercise, the muscles burn glucose for energy and create lactic acid as a byproduct. Lactic acid is prevalent in the muscles after a hard workout or race. If you stop right after the finish line or sit on the couch after a hard bike, the lactic acid remaining in the muscles has been shown to create delayed onset...

muscle soreness (DOMS). By doing a cooldown, such as a slow jog or easy pedaling, you’ll help the blood in the muscles flush out the lactic acid, limiting DOMS.

As said above, your muscles burn glucose for energy. The body has approximately 1,800 calories of glucose stored in the muscles and liver to use for energy during exercise. For workouts over an hour and a half or very strenuous workouts or races, calories need to be consumed to replace the glucose burned. Right after the activity or race, the muscles are still screaming for more glucose to replenish what was burned. The window to replace this is small and most believe consuming 100-300 calories within 30 minutes is crucial to replace burned energy so that the muscles can start to heal and recover. Much debate has been had over the carb-to-protein ratio of this small meal, but most are 3:1-4:1 (carb:protein).

Whether you were running a race, doing bike intervals or lifting weights, damage was done to the muscles by creating micro tears. As soon as the activity is done, the body starts to heal. More times than not, I see athletes standing around after a race in sweaty clothing, shivering with goose bumps or walking out of the warm gym into the cold air. When your body starts to repair the muscle, it is repairing the micro tears back together, making them stronger. The body’s natural response when cold is to tense up which contracts the muscles, pulling against the healing your muscles are trying to do. Next time you watch a major marathon, regardless if it is 80 degrees out, the elites all have changed out of their wet clothes and have put on long sleeve warmups within minutes of the finish. You’ll see the same thing for swimmers in the long warm jackets even when on the hot and humid pool deck after racing.

With the planning and effort that goes into workouts and racing, take a few minutes to bring warm, dry clothes and a snack to start the recovery. Together with a well-executed exercise or race, you’ll become the best athlete you can.

Resources:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-does-lactic-acid-buil/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11350780
http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/the-bodyrsquos-fuel-sources