Hey everyone,
Since last year I've been working really hard to make sure I do well this season and hopefully come out on top of my age group (18-24) atleast once or twice. During my workouts I feel great. Right after my workouts I feel great. About an hour to 2 hours after my workout... I feel terrible. I have no energy, I'm irritable, and feel more like a blob than a person. I drink Gatorade right after my workouts, and try to eat something substantial with carbs and protein (ham sandwich, egg sandwich etc.) within an hour or 2 of finishing. So my question is, am I the only one who burns out like this? If so, are there any suggestions on how to avoid this? Recovery drinks? Or maybe other drinks for during the workout (Accelerade?)? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Joe

Joe, It sounds like you are in calorie deficit. It is great that you eat after your workout. But your metabolism is probably raging when you feel like crap. Try eating every 2-3 hours something light. Mix up your eating schedule a little and snack. It does not need to be much. The recovery drinks are more for the glycogen stores for muscle recovery. Yours sounds more like your body telling you it needs more fuel.

Take a look at your caloric intake before your workout. Make sure you eat smart!!!

Joe, It sounds like you are in calorie deficit. It is great that you eat after your workout. But your metabolism is probably raging when you feel like crap. Try eating every 2-3 hours something light. Mix up your eating schedule a little and snack. It does not need to be much. The recovery drinks are more for the glycogen stores for muscle recovery. Yours sounds more like your body telling you it needs more fuel.

Take a look at your caloric intake before your workout. Make sure you eat smart!!!

He is dead on that is a calorie definciency (sp?) most likely...

try a 15-30 minute power nap after your workout, as long as it is before 1PM

I like the Hammer products (hammer gel, HEED, Recoverite)....I used to get a real sugar crash after drinking gatorade. The Hammer products don't have a lot of simple sugars, so I don't get the same high and low.

Honestly man, don't get to hung up about all the eating.

I've talked to a good number of nutritionists involved with high performance, and they all seem to steer towards the same conclusion. That being, it's ok to eat what you feel like eating, just so long as you don't neglect any (or all) of the food groups.

That said, I should add eating healthy will definatley improve your performance and lower your weight. But I think unless you are racing elite in standard triathlons, or under 9.15'ish in an Iroman, this really isn't worth losing sleep over.

If your in the 18-24 age group, your going to have a high metabolism anyway, so with the exercise your doing there's a good chance your going to have under 10% body fat even if you eat mcdonalds every day.

At an age group level you can quite easily get up the top (or improve a hell of lot at least) by simply out training every one, worrying too much about all the other stuff will not only burn you out, but I like to compare it to the guys that use disks and aero equipment when their not cycling over 35km/h.

Mark.

Thanks for all of your suggestions and advice. I sort of had an idea in the back of my head that maybe I wasn't eating enough. My goal last season was to get lean and really improve my swimming. I guess in the process of getting lean I forgot to eat enough. Thanks again, I really appreciate everyones input.