The longer I race, the less I do. I'm pretty much to the point of doing nothing these days.

I don't cool down. I don't eat anything special or at all after short, hard races or workouts. I'll eat whatever's for lunch after a big weekend ride.

I think recovery rides are a complete waste of time for me and don't ever do any z1 rides, and do very few z2 rides except for some possible morning commutes with z3/4 on the return trip. I just try to get as much work done as I can in whatever time I have.

Sleep is 6-8 hours, usually interrupted 1-3x a night by my 2 year old that doesn't sleep more than a few hours at a time.

Contrast this to in the past where I did everything previously mentioned, including 20-30 minutes of foam rolling/massage, whey proteins, lots of vitamins, easy spins, elevated legs, etc.

I'm faster now. Eh, maybe I'd be faster still by doing the recovery stuff again, but I don't particularly care and I don't get sore and I don't train enough to get too much cumulative fatigue.

Anyway, probably quite different for everyone depending on history and background and genetics and level of concern.