Recovery Shake

The first 30 minutes post training is the most cruical time to kick start the recovery process. What you do here will have an impact on how well your body will handle the subsequent training sessions.

At this time your body is the most receptive to the nutrients you provide it, namely carbohydrate. Your body right now will absorb carbohydrates 2-3 times faster than a few hours post training. It is also primed to take in protein more effectively.

What does this mean? With the right food choices you will restock your muscles carbohydrate stores and repair muscles damaged during training/racing.

Joe Friel and Loren Cordain in their book The Paleo Diet for Athletes: A Nutritional Formula for Peak Athletic Performance say there are five goals for this small but cruical window of opportunity.

Goal #1: Replace expended carbohydrate stores

Goal #2: Rehydrate

Goal #3: Provide amino acids for protein resynthesis

Goal #4: Begin replacing lost electrolytes

Goal #5: Reduce the acidity of body fluids

To help achieve the above goals you'll need a blender, then you will use:

• Fruits: To provide slow release carbohydrates, electrolytes and reduce blood acidity
• Juice: To provide fluids to rehydrate
• Glucose: A quickly absorbed energy source
• Protein: To stop further muscular breakdown and replace what was used
• Sodium: Fruit and juice does not contain enough of this super important electrolyte

Fill a blender with between 350-700ml of juice, basically the more you weigh the more juice you need. If your around 50kg use the lower end and if you nearing 100kg use the upper end.

Good juice choices are apple, grape, orange, pineapple, and tropical as they have high glycemic loads and electrolytes.

Then add a piece of fruit (from the list below), add glucose (see list for type and amount), then a good quality protein powder (2-4 TBSP), add two or three pinches of table or sea salt. Throw in some ice cubes unless you used frozen fruit pieces.

Note: This shake is for sessions that either had a significant amount of intensity or were long endurance sessions as using this shake can add weight when used after easy or recovery sessions. When the session is short <60min or low intensity make the shake without the glucose.

Fruit list:

• 1 medium apple
• 1 medium banana
• 1 cup frozen berries
• 1.5 cups cantalope
• 1.5 cups grapes
• 1 large orange
• 1.5 cups pineapple
• 2 cups strawberries
• 2 cups watermelon

Glucose:

You will need between 2-6 scoops depending on your weight

• 45-50kg use 2 TBSP
• 45-50kg use 2 TBSP
• 50-59kg use 3 TBSP
• 60-70kg use 4 TBSP
• 71-90kg use 5 TBSP
• 90+kg use 6 TBSP

Types:

• High 5 esource
• Carbo Pro
• Poly-joule from your local chemist