When you're finished training, you're not finished.

We're reaching critical mass in our training, but for endurance athletes, sometimes the next couple of weeks are actually harder. We want to log those last precious few miles, try to make up for anything we may have missed, and usually end up putting in the junk miles that not only do us no good, but actually harm us. Just don't do that, okay? You will regret it. In addition, we neglect our nutritional obligations for being the best we can be. When you consider that refueling properly after your workouts can improve your race day performance by as much as 3:1, you may want to consider giving it some thought.

Attending to your recovery is every bit as critical as paying attention to your workouts. If you are not refueling your body for recovery, you have just negated much of the workout that came before it. There are four primary nutritional areas to remember: rehydration, the two macronutrients (carbohydrates and protein), along with the micronutrients -- primarily antioxidants. I could bore you to death with this topic for about 150 pages, but the key things to remember are as follows:

1. Rehydrating: No brainer. Drink your water. Not just during a race, but every day. Many athletes go around chronically dehydrated. Try not to lose more than 2% of your body weight during a hard workout, and do NOT gain. A loss of more than 2% signals a decline in performance, and we want to avoid that.

2. Carbohydrate replenishmnet: The sooner, the better. You get a small window where your body is most receptive to carbohydrate uptake, and that's right after you exercise. It maximizes both glycogen synthesis and storage -- you need every bit of this on race day. Try to use high glycemic complex carbs rather than simple sugars. Consider this: A less-fit athlete who does not practice adequate refueling can have as little as 15 minutes of muscle glycogen available. An athlete who trains hard with adequate refueling/recovery on training runs can hit 90 minutes. Which group do you want to be in? Carbs also tip your body in the direction of protein synthesis (rebuilding) rather than protein catabolism (breakdown). Your goal is to get 30-60 grams of high quality carbs within 30 minutes of finishing your workout.

3. Protein: Your best choices are whole eggs or whey protein -- isolate, not concentrate. Soy proteins rate far below these items on most of the scales measuring recovery efficiency. Rule of thumb: Soy proteins BEFORE a workout, whey proteins AFTER.

4. Antioxidants: This one is complicated, but try to make sure you're getting glutathione and glutamine. (My supplements/protein powder has these. I'd have to look around to find other sources.)

One other interesting fact pertinent to this phase of our training: The old belief has always been our immune systems are at their most susceptible during the peak (highest intensity/mileage) of our training. New research is showing this to be false. We're actually more susceptible to illness and compromised immune systems during our TAPER. One of my best friends, a professional triathlete and physical trainer for an NFL team, called me last week to talk about this. He suggests increasing your Vitamin C during the taper phase, and also said rinsing your mouth with hydrogen peroxide every night/morning will help eliminate alot of germs that lead to making us sick. So.....that's what I'm doing. He's usually right, and has access to about the latest and greatest info, equipment and athletes out there, but it's up to you if you want to adopt this strategy or not?!

See you guys Saturday, and take care of yourselves!!!
GIjan