ENDURANCE TRAINING and RECOVERY.

Dr Herman Kotzè (MBChB & MSc Sport Science)

Recovery can be divided into 3 phases;

• Replacement of energy
• Immediate recovery
• Intermediate recovery

REPLACEMENT of ENERGY.

Certainly one of the most important aspects of recovery is to replenish your depleted energy stores for the next days' effort. How do you do that?

The body is able to store approx. 600 grams of glycogen (energy available in the system without having to take any supplemental energy sources).

This amount of stored glycogen amounts to 2500 kJ of energy; 1 g of glycogen = 4.2 kJ. The glycogen is stored in the liver, bloodstream and muscles. The rest of the energy that you use during a long distance event must be consumed during the event.

The athlete needs to start filling up these stores within the first 30 minutes after finishing the days' racing and or training. During the first hour (can be called the "golden hour”) after racing or training the body has maximum ability to absorb glycogen and replenish depleted glycogen stores.

To accomplish this one can either take in the energy in liquid form or in a solid form.  One thing to keep in mind is that at this stage energy drinks or food that is HIGH in GI will be the better choice to fill up the depleted energy stores.  For me personally the method that works the best is to take a handful of jelly babies with a few sips of your energy replacement drink. This allows you to get high GI sucrose in the system without having to drink lots of liquids as these needs to be replaced in a very specific manner (more of that in my next article). The amount of jelly babies to be taken is very easy to work out - look at the back of the package and see how many you should take in to be able come close to the 2500 kJ you need. Alternatively you can eat an energy bar or a chocolate as well.

DO NOT take anything that will make you nauseas as something that you are not used to can upset your stomach. DO NOT take any alcohol. This will be explained later. DO NOT take any fizzy drinks, and happy training….