Not recovered after four days of rest.

[Globalti]

I went out with a neighbour last Sunday for a 48 miler, he is a former national hillclimb competitor who won a couple of the local stages, he is now semi-retired and rides 80 miles for fun, 2-3 times a week. Suffice to say he is well out of my league. The ride was high-intensity and after 45 miles he split off to do another 30 while I rode straight home. My legs have felt tired all week.

Went out for a shortie last night (Thursday) with my regular buddy, who is also faster than me but on our last 2 or 3 rides I've begun to be able to equal him. However last night I was hopeless, I had nothing in my legs at all, absolutely no "go". We packed after 10 miles and went home.

Now my job is in export sales and I have always found that after a two week trip, doing zero exercise and eating plenty of hotel steak and fish, my legs feel really strong. My diet at home is protein poor; I'm married to a veggie and she hates cooking so the evening meals can be rather "lacklustre", typically a meat pie or some sausages with mash and greens or some pasta with tomato sauce. Before anybody tells me to do the cooking, she is between jobs and we have a 12 y.o. who is hungry most of the time and I don't get home until 6.15 so it makes sense for her to cook the evening meal during the week.

So I've come to the conclusion that I'm not eating enough protein for recovery after rides. What do others think? I've started taking a Goodness Shakes after longer rides but I'm sure the body needs quality protein during the days after a big physical effort, not just immediately after. There's another post on here about whey protein - would this be a good idea as a supplement? How about drinking more milk and maybe a shake every day? How about eggs? Peanuts? I'm trying to think of some way of supplementing the rather protein-poor diet I have at home but I don't want to put on weight.

Any thoughts or advice gratefully accepted!

 

[amaferanga]

If your diet is actually particularly low in protein then you might benefit from some whey protein, but I would suggest you try a couple of things first. First off, did you eat properly during the ride and immediately after the ride? A protein shake and some wholemeal toast and scrambled eggs would be a good choice post-ride and is easy/quick to make. Its important that you eat this as soon as possible after the ride. Secondly, did you ride at all the following day? A gentle 30 min - 1 hour ride the day after a tough ride really does help recovery IME.

As for your diet - I'd say it'd be better and easy to improve it instead of just taking supplements. Wholemeal pasta, brown rice, chicken, oven baked fish, plenty of fruit and veg, etc. Good, healthy meals are no more difficult or time consuming to prepare than your pie/sausage and mash (e.g. Basa fillet baked in foil in the oven with brown rice and some fresh veg - takes a few mins to prepare and only 25mins to cook).

 

[Globalti]

Thanks. Funnily enough I came home last night planning to make scrambled eggs on toast but there was no bread left so I ended up having an egg fried dry on the Aga hot plate with some ham slices in a bread bun, which was pretty good and quick. This morning I've necked a pint of milk with Goodness Shakes added, this is about 25% whey and 75% maltodextrin.

What is Basa by the way?

Edit: I reckon a ham and cheese omelette ought to be pretty nutritional. Any thoughts?

 

[amaferanga]

Basa is a fish - only just discovered it in the supermarket myself, but its delicious. A bit like Cod, but better.

I'd just be a bit mindful of the calories in a pint of milk plus a For Goodness Shake if you had this in addition to your normal breakfast.

Ham and cheese omelette isn't exactly healthy - ham is processed and cheese is very high in fat. Damn tasty though

 

[Globalti]

I remember the day I finished the Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt on touring skis. As we skied on tired legs down into Zermatt having started before dawn and crossed three glaciers and three cols in a morning my overwhelming urge was to sit down and eat the biggest sloppiest cheese omelette with chips that I could find; my body was screaming for fats and protein.

 

[al78]

I used to have the same problem as you. I would do a club ride on Sunday morning and still feel residual soreness on Wednesday. What I found (accidentally) was that eating citrus fruits (in particular oranges and clementines) seemed to greatly improve my overnight recovery ability to the point that now, I can do the club ride plus five days commuting plus any other utility journeys that crop up, and I feel fresh enough to ride the next morning. I have no idea why citrus fruit would have this effect and it may well not work for you, but I thought I would mention it anyway.

 

[Globalti]

That's interesting. I'm fond of big sweet juicy navel oranges and often have one after supper. TBH I think your interest in citrus fruits might have coincided with improved overall fitness and muscle bulk but hey... why not?

 

[ayceejay]

It is odd that you have assumed the problem to be nutrition. It has to be said that your diet is far from ideal but I think you should have a look at what is nowadays referred to as muscle flushing. Although every book you read on fitness or training yalks about stretching, warming up and cooling down very few actually follow this advice. In spite of that I would suggest that you stretch before and after and spin your legs out at the end of a long hard ride. Also watch overtraining as this makes sleep difficult limiting your natural recovery cycle.

 

[ayceejay]

I seem to have killed this discussion stone dead.