The most important aspect (for older dudes like me) when it comes to work outs is the recovery. If you want to be able to get out and run the next day - let alone walk - the recovery has to start almost as soon as the last step. The good thing about this is that the body is cooperative. It wants to recover as well. In fact, there is this thing called the "glycogen window," which is about an hour-long period after a workout where your body will replenish its lost stores most effectively.
In other words, if you take in the right kind of food or drink as soon as you get home after that 20 miler, you can replace all the lost energy you will need for the rest of the day and beyond.
Physiology is a crazy thing, man.
Anyway, sometimes I'm asked: "How do you do it?" That question usually follows, "Why do you do it?" Both are difficult to answer, but for the how part the biggest reason is fruit. Actually, the banana is usually the first thing I eat or drink after any type of sporting activity because it's going to keep the muscles from going all wacky.
Oh, but there are other fruits, too. Nature's candy, as we like to call it. Perhaps the best way to replenish as quickly and deliciously as possible is to gather a bunch of fruits, mix them up in a blender and drink it down. In places like Colorado and California, such concoctions are big business. In some places the Smoothie joints rival the coffee bars. Sometimes they even combine the two businesses.
I call those places Xanadu.
But not everyone can make the trip to Xanadu. However, if you have a blender you can play make believe and take a special, magical trip without even leaving your couch. Here's what you'll need to do it:
- 1 banana (2 if you want to push it)
- A couple of handfuls of berries, particularly straw-, rasp- and blue-. Strawberries are a big endurance sport fruit, which I learned when reading about the training and nutritional methods of German triathletes. One fellow, in particular, noted that during the buildup for an Ironman race his main food was strawberries. Apparently he ate them all the time and all day long. It was later revealed that he also had a taste for EPO, but that's another issue.
- Two heaping spoonfuls of non-fat yogurt. Soy milk is fine, or soy yogurt is better. Don't do three spoonfuls.
- 1 cup of freshly squeezed (organic) orange juice... this is optional
- A couple of handfuls of ice - or a little water... it's the same thing
- 1 spoonful of honey... this is optional, too
Dump all of the ingredients into the blender, turn it on and mix it for two or three minutes. It will look purple. Very purple, in fact. Pour the purpleness into a cup and drink up. Tomorrow you will be fired up and ready to go.