You know you’ve had a tough ride, when you are walking gingerly down the stairs reaching for the handrail, that’s how I felt about the 50 mile race on Sunday. This weekend I had two races, a 10 mile race on Saturday afternoon and a 50 mile race on Sunday morning. Usually, I don’t take recovery drinks. I’m not keen on liquid food and generally prefer eating solid food. However, since I had two races in two days, I thought it would be good to try using recovery drinks and see if there was any difference..
The recovery drinks had a mixture of
- Protein
- Carbohydrates
- Amino Acids
- Glutamine
It is said the best recovery drinks have a combination of glucose carbohydrates like maltodextrin for replinishing glycogen stores and a whey protein for aiding muscle recovery.
The benefit of taking recovery drinks are:
- After a race or long ride, you don’t feel like eating, but, the first hour after a ride is said to be the most important time for taking on food and water.
- The alternative is often eating cakes on sale at races. These drinks are better for you in that they are not just simple sugars.
- Usually, after a race, I’m driving home. A recovery drink is easy to sip on the way home. It is better than waiting an hour or longer before starting to eat.
- Easily digestible on the stomach.
On Saturday I took a Zip Vit recovery drink because I had a free sample. It tasted OK, nothing to get excited about, but, at least it was palatable. I also tried a Science in Sport recovery drink. I didn’t particularly like taste, but, that might just be me.
Although, I don’t like drinking food, it felt good to take a recovery drink on both Saturday and Sunday. There is a psychological benefit as well. I was pretty tired after the 50 mile Time trial and it was good to take a recovery drink which helped.
The 10 mile Time trial was disappointing – 21.59. The 50 mile time trial I was quite pleased with. My time was 1.56.31 on a very windy day (the kind of day you were doing 53 kmph one way and 33 Kmph in the other direction. I think I finished about 3rd out of 80. I was pleased because in my early 50 this year I fell apart at half way and struggled round in 2.04.50. So it was nice to get that ride out of the system. I really enjoy riding 50 mile time trials – but you do have to be really fit, otherwise they can be torture!.
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2 comments ↓
I might suggest a better recovery drink than the expensive technical recovery drinks advertised in all cycling magazines. It’s called “milk”. You can probably find some in your fridge.
It is delicious and packed full of protein and carbohydrates – everything your body needs after a tough ride. And it’s a darn sight cheaper than any technical recovery drink.
I tend to drink chocolate milkshake as a recovery drink, apparently it has the right protein/carb ratio for recovery from exercise. I don’t know if thats true or not, but it seems to be better than anything else I have tried.
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