Brett's Tips for Faster Recovery

Faster recovery is key to having a great time in endurance sports.  Less time in pain and on the couch means more living!  Case in point - I raced the Texas Trails Endurance 50 mile trail run on Saturday. In a day's time, I was able to have a nice jog around my neighborhood in the cool evening weather to check out all the Christmas lights.  Here's how you can do the same:

1. Don't do races that you aren't ready for. If you aren't running 50 miles in an entire week, why in the world would you try to run it in one day?  Know your limits!
2. Eat by feel for at least the next day.  If you crave it, your body is telling you that you need it.
3. Elevate your legs when you can.  This helps them feel better faster.
4. If you are driving or flying home, make sure to get up and move around every hour. Prolonged sitting stiffens you up and can even lead to blood clots.
5. Sprinkle a little extra salt on your food and drinks.  This helps water "stick" to your body better and rehydrate you.
6. Fruits and veggies are loaded with healing nutrition. Make those readily available and try to snack on them instead of other foods.
7. Put Ibuprofin in your recovery bag.  Being in less pain helps you make better decisions and able to take care of yourself.
8. Caffeine post-race will make you more alert and give you the energy boost to make better decisions about what you eat and do.
9. Don't wreck yourself in the race.  There's healthy and then there's destructive.  Races are like buses; there's another one coming along in 5 minutes.
10. Stamina takes time. Tempering steel takes thousands of strikes to change it from soft to strong.  If you aren't where you want to be yet, the only answer is "more time."  Keep at it!

When I first did a similar 50 miler several years ago, I finished in the worst pain of my life.  And I was a total wreck for many days afterwards.  The difference between now and then is amazing.  Try those tips and share your own in the comments!

Results from the race here.

HR, speed, elevation and more of my race numbers here.

How to Hack Your Bad Days into Good Ones

Some days are just terrible.  You get in a bad mood, there is not enough time, and you feel like crap.  Why?  The best way to figure out how to avoid bad days is to analyze what made your good days so good and repeat that.  What makes a day great is actually a combination of factors over the previous couple of days:

• Stress (arguing, traffic, significant other, too much to do.)
• Caffeine (gives you artificial energy that you have to pay for later.)
• Travel (causes even more stress.)
• Exercise (intensity and/or duration.)
• Food (type and volume.)
• Sleep.

Keep a daily log of these factors and you will start to see a pattern.  The pattern reveals the problem, and now you can start working of fixing the real issue.

Podcast - ZenTri 506 - Swim with Coach Brackin

Click here to download or play the show!

(Click here or on the image above to see Coach Brett's swimming video)

Former University of Texas swim coach Kim Brackin gives detailed tips on swim technique. We interview her by the side of an Endless Pool in Austin, TX. Also, we begin talking about how to train by feel.

Important links:

Brackin Elite Swim Training

Rich Roll's new podcast

Sign up for ZenTri Basecam 2013!

New Republic Brewing

Elevated Heart Rate and Rest Days

Your training plan or your habits tell you to go out for a workout, but something is off.  Just laying in bed before even sitting up, your heart seems like it's racing just a little bit.  Or maybe your heart rate feels elevated when you move around.  Walking down a hallway and putting on your workout clothes gets your pulse beating up in your throat?  Hmm...  What's going on?

Most likely, you spend a long time going at a strong effort yesterday.  Even though you slept well, ate well, did everything right, your aerobic system is still trying to catch up.  If you have an elevated heart rate when just casually moving around, you need another day off.  Working out today will not help you get faster.  In fact, it will make you slower.

Here is where we have the real problem.  Your body is telling you one thing, but your schedule and wants are telling you another.  What do you do?  Here is your answer - The body is reality.  It is what is going on.  Everything else is just a plan or a want.  Success comes with paying attention to reality and reacting accordingly. If reality is telling you to take a day off, ignore the lure of wanting to be more than what you really are.  You will get there, but only by paying attention to what is going on right here, right now.

How to Beat the Bonk

I was on a long bike ride yesterday when it happened - I bonked.  Bonking is the cyclist term for when you run out of energy during exercise or racing.  Runners call the same thing, "hitting the wall."  

Bonking can happen many ways.  Mine was because I was outpacing the calories I was taking in.  Eventually, the body reaches a minimum threshold of energy stores where it basically says, "To heck with all this, I'm going home." and throws in the towel.

This is quite common, and shouldn't really be considered a major problem.  The actual problem is if you don't handle the situation correctly.  You can either give up OR you can master a trick to get back on track and continue your workout.  Of course, the correct answer is the second option.

An inexperienced athlete will completely quit the workout and give up, feeling beaten and underqualified to be even trying this whole "endurance thing".  But, if you slow your pace way down, up your fuel intake by a good margin, you will give your body the chance to catch back up.  In about 30 to 45 minutes, you will be feeling fine again.  But this time, you will be more careful to keep your burn rate at or below your fuel intake.

This is a great trick to learn. It teaches you that you are in control of what your body does and how you feel.  It improves confidence and the experience gives you the knowledge to beat it next time.