Management of recovery
Ride… Recover!
In a 24 hours race, no one is exempt from a loss of energy. The length of the effort, the accumulation of the relays, management of the food, of the resting periods will be all the hard points to deal with. Here is our advice about recovery.
The first question that comes to mind is probably: what to do between the relays?
Eat? Sleep? Watch the race? In the first place the best way to recover would be to force yourself to 10 minutes of bike or home trainer but very relaxed. Before going back into the race, the same thing should be done, 10 minutes of muscular waking up. This is mostly for the teams that are planning to win.
For the rest, you have to put all the chances with you and do not leave anything to chance in terms of recovery.
-
Hydration will have to be important between the relays, especially if it’s hot (over ).
-
We mentioned it when we spoke about food: the way you will eat during these 24 hours will have an incidence on your performance.
-
Avoid massages between the relays, especially if you are not used to it. Indeed the muscular feelings could be damaged when you’ll go back on your bike. Keep this pleasure for the days after the race.
-
What of electro stimulation? Yes, of course yes! Electro stimulation session (after the 10 minutes of bicycle) is the best way to have a good muscular recovery between two relays. Opt for a program of active recovery or a warm down session depending Minimal stretching can also be interesting but be careful because the stretching must not be painful; it should be done without jerks, during 10 minutes maximum and immediately after the race. An hour after the muscle is relaxed and it is too late to start stretching.
With this bit of advice you now have all the cards in hand to manage the resting periods between the relays. Although the race will be won on the road it can also be lost in the warm-up areas. Be very careful of recovery.
In the day following the event force yourself to continue applying this advice: intensive hydration and healthy food will help you recover quickly and sleep a lot and force yourself to at least one or two electro stimulation sessions to help you eliminate the toxins. It is the same for the end of your season.
Newsletter
