Saturday, March 15, 2014

Post Ride Recovery for the Endurance Rider

Enduranceridestuff.com - Full Article

by Karen Chaton

Post ride recovery for endurance riders is not usually a topic that most of us think about. Usually after the ride is over, you just want to sit down and relax. But if you make wise use of the post ride recovery period, you will be well rewarded.

Recent studies have showed that an endurance athlete can significantly reduce the time required for post ride recovery by paying close attention to nutritional intake after a ride. What you do leading up to and during a ride is also important and I’ll go over more of that later.

The main source of energy used while riding long distances on a horse are carbohydrates that are stored as glycogen in both the liver and muscles. Our bodies can only store a limited amount of carbohydrates as glycogen, forcing us to eat during our rides to avoid glycogen depletion. At the end of a long or hard ride there is a fair chance your muscle glycogen levels will be very low.

Glycogen Repletion
It has been shown that a glycogen repletion window exists for up to 4 hours immediately after exercise. During this period the body is able to process and replace glycogen at a much faster rate than usual (up to 3 times as quick). For the endurance rider this means that by eating the right types of food as soon as you finish riding you can significantly increase the time required by your body to fully recover. This can have a major impact on performance over a multi day event or in post ride recovery after a 100 mile ride...

Read more here:
http://enduranceridestuff.com/blog/2014/03/post-ride-recovery-endurance-rider/#sthash.AxPmT7Dg.dpuf

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