Training & Nutrition - HOw does one recover from a tough ride.

My question is prompted by last Wednesday's ride. A riding partner, on the spur of the moment encouraged us to do a really tough ride. We did a 12 mile ascent, with some grades surely over 7%. Afterwards, it felt like a great accomplisment; even if the last mile, I felt my legs were starting to cramp.
But, the problem. The next day, we went on a trip for our anniversary. My wife's thing is touring chateaus, which require lots of stair climbing.
Without the encouragement of my riding partner, I would have completed a less strenous ride the day before our anniversary trip.
The next day, I must have climbed ten story towers, Twice!. My legs felt like bricks and I had a headache. I could not believe I had the energy to walk these castles as my wife wanted to do. Should you complete an unexpected hard ride, any way to recover the next day for another strenous event.
What food, vitamins, etc? I had about 7 hours sleep and still felt my legs burn.

What I would do...

Sit or lay down
Eat lots of food (veggies and other foods high in antioxidants, and of course some carbs and protein)
Also be sure to get electrolytes and get hydrated!
Drink some tea
Sleep as much as possible
Perhaps do some gentle yoga
Get a massage :)

that's what came to mind...

Bloom. Sudden change of plans and the sudden tougher than planned Wednesday ride. It really beat me up. I did not realize how zapped I was until I started ascending the stairwell at the chateau. Did eat some bananas that AM when I woke up, because I felt tired.
Maybe when I return from a tough ride the massage idea is often unusued. I bought that gadget, "The Stick," from Performance. It makes massaging muscles easy.
I am proud I did that tough ride, one of the steepest ascents, I've ever done. But the day before our anniversary trip? Maybe I should keep recovery bars with me everywhere I go? That and asprins.
Do really super fit cyclists get over this blah feeling, when they do ever more challening rides?

Sex.

Trek. It was our anniversary trip. An afternoon nap came first. And a little vino makes the pain go away.

Do really super fit cyclists get over this blah feeling, when they do ever more challening rides?

Well, no. There definition of a hard ride gets into the realm of 'is that humanly possible?', but the pain is still there the next ay if they've really pushed.

And on the stairclimbing...most pros would never even concieve of climbing more than a couple flights of stairs a day. Pros at thier peak are so specialized that it is said that they often use elevators for single story accents.

The idea of extreme recovery is to put into your body what it needs, do as little as possible (i.e. be super lazy), and encourage circulation in the legs (massage, strething, w/e).

vos. WOnder if the stair climbing thing you mention has something to do with the pain I have felt at work. Next day , after a hard ride, I'd have to climb about 50 feet of stairs, several times in the course of my shift. So, the point is, I always wondered why stair climbing felt so tiring. ?
Climbing stairs was always a pain. Increased my breathing faster than the climb on a bike. Guess, the answer is climbing stairs uses different muscles.? I just expected my stair climbing to ease up as I got my cycling legs. ANyone else notice this.
Guess, it got a little easier, but not as much as I would have expected.

I personally notice that being in better cycling shape, partiularly since I started racing, does not make me feel in that much better shape overall.

I blame this mostly on that my legs are usualy quite tired from bike rides, but it could just be that my body is so used to pushing itself on a bike, that it doesn't like being pushed off the bike.

On stairclimbing, I too find it incredibly tiring. More so than I think it should feel. Guess there is something about cycling alot that really doesn't do it for stair limbing.

Vos. THe bottom line is the heart rate monitor. It would seem undeniable that with a low resting heart rate or lower heart rate under stress; you, must be healthier. No matter how tiring stair climbing might feel.

Testosterone patch on the boys. :)

After an especially hard ride, I drink enough water to rehydrate, then go to Denny's and order a cheeseburger and a beer. Really helps the next day (seriously)

Zinn . THink I'd go for a Grand Slam.

I know I've harped on about this before and it sounds like magnesium defficiency to me. Paticuarly the headaches. Magnesium is an important nutrient and hard exercise depletes you bodies stores of it. Apart from taking suppliments, my favorite form is chelated magnesium you can get magnesium naturaly in green vegetables and from bone stock(real bone soup). I like celery juice as its a good way of concentrating the nutrients and removing the excess fibre in celery.

Regards, Anthony

anthony. I get lots of headaches. I credit it to lack of sleep. Definitely a nite person here. Days and riding interfere with my sleeping habits, but cycling wins out. Of course, seven hours is adequate for me.

I know I've harped on about this before and it sounds like magnesium defficiency to me. Paticuarly the headaches. Magnesium is an important nutrient and hard exercise depletes you bodies stores of it.
Regards, Anthony

In what way is magnesium depleted by hard exercise?

.75g of carbs per pound of bodyweight asap after a ride, with some protein. And follow up with the same amount, every hour for 3 hours after the ride. This along with plenty of rest, proper hydration, and a solid diet will help you recover as fast as possible.

Endurox, right after the ride. Has made a real difference in the amount of leg soreness I have the next day.

Trek. It was our anniversary trip. An afternoon nap came first. And a little vino makes the pain go away.
I 'm telling you. The feel good hormones and chemicals flow all through the body. Natures magic.

Trekke. There was a special video presentation at the cognac museum, we visited. Wine used to be considered a tonic. This video said wine/cognac at one time was dispensed by the equivilant of pharmacies at a given time.

In what way is magnesium depleted by hard exercise?

Here's a good article on Magnesium, http://www.healthy.net/asp/templates/article.asp?PageType=Article&ID=541 however it doesn't directly address your question. Magnesium isn't unique in being depleted by hard exercise. Magnesium plays an important role in muscle function and I can say from experience that after hard exercise I sufer from the symptoms of magnesium defficiency and that taking magnesium releives the symptoms of defficiency.

Regards, Anthony

Here is what worked for me on a recent XC tour of average 120 miles/day for 25 days plus 2 rest days.
Immediately upon arrival a 1000 calorie Milkshake. A nap for one to two hours. Steak and potato dinner. At least 8 hours sleep. Eat lots of high energy food during the day plus energy drinks.
This regime resulted in well feeling for the whole tour. I can recommend it.

I carb load for the first couple of hours after a hard ride, starting with a few hundred calories within 15 minutes of finishing. You'll find that recommendation in many cycle training/racing books. That speeds the replenishment of muscle glycogen and makes a big difference the next day.

Then I like to walk a mile or two before going to bed. That loosens up the leg muscles plus increases my energy level for the next day.Typically I'll sleep an extra hour or two. However, I don't think anything would have helped mitigate the fatigue from all that stair climbing after a ride except some stair-climbing training starting a week or two before.

You won't deplete any electrolyte (mag., cal., sodium, Pot.) if you add some to your drinking water. ERG Hydrolyte is an excellent source.

Al

Pros at thier peak are so specialized that it is said that they often use elevators for single story accents

I'm not a pro and i do this all the time. Why walk when you can ride?

I have found that once i've reached a certain level of fitness, that an easy zone 1-2 ride for about an hour on a flat road or MUP spinning a 39x17 or a 39x19 is the best thing for me the day after an epic ride. At first i would take the next day off the bike, but after a couple of years of riding i discoved what pros already know. Active recovery is best.

This isn't scientific at all, but it's what I do, and it helps me feel functional the next day:

Long hot shower, a couple 40's + big meal (usually with lots of meats/cheeses and a large serving of salad), some stretching of the muscles that got worked out, 10+ hours of sleep.

Do really super fit cyclists get over this blah feeling, when they do ever more challening rides?

Yes and no. Your body gets used to pushing the endurance envelope, and the headaches and severe fatigue will go away. DOMS only happens when you do something different, the first few times. Mostly because if you use one fixed cadence/style/seat position/etc, and when that muscle group fatigues you shift to another group that's undertrained. Eventually you get better at rotating and changing riding habits through the day. Stand up some at very low cadence, some at higher cadence, some leaning forward, some balanced on pedals, some with torso assistance, some just 'stairmaster' style; ride some on the front of the seat TT style at very high cadence, some on the back at lower cadence, sometimes centered at various cadences, etc. But there's also a systematic fatigue that's activity-independent and is more about your body getting used to prolonged work. When you get used to going aerobically for 7-10 hours you stop feeling as crappy, and switch to sleeping maybe an hour or two longer than usual, eat a little more, feel slightly tired (unrested) the day after, and have an elevated resting HR. With enough endurance experience you pretty much have to look at the RHR to tell when you've recovered since just one day may make you feel fine, but you really need two or even three days of rest.