Carb Loading
There are both pre and post race carb (carbohydrate) loading. The purpose for carb loading is to provide the maximum supply of carbohydrates within the body during a given period of time to meet the increased fuel needs of the body for special reasons.
Pre-race Carb Loading
The purpose for pre-race carb loading is to force the human body to store extra carbohydrates for an athletic event which requires large amounts of carbohydrates as fuel. It is normally done for events that are two hours or longer in duration.
So, how do we get the body to store more sugar than it normally does? Remember the principle of training effect (also known as overload training) which states that, if the body is stressed it will rebuild to a higher level so that, if the same stress level occurs again, your body will handle it easier with less damage? It also applies to energy storage. If you seriously deplete your body sugar levels and then consume large amounts of sugars and starches for about one to two days, your body will process and store more sugar than normal for up to three days after your last long workout.
The proper technique is to go for a long ride two to three days before your event. (Carb loading works best if started three days before your event.) Then you eat meals and snacks with large amounts of sugars and starches up until the night before the event. The workouts between the last long ride and your event must be shorter and easy to moderate or it wont work as well. Hmmmm, I wonder why Coach Carl has the second longest ride of the week three days before race day with two easy to moderate days separating the second longest ride from race day?
Think about it. I have at least one reason for everything I do. It works.
Post Race Recovery
The reason I call this post race recovery instead of post race carb loading is because there is much more that must be done to increase your rate of recovery from an event than just carb loading. During a prolonged athletic event, your body will become dehydrated, hypoglycemic, and short on electrolytes. We must meet these needs in the proper order based on science.
Dehydration causes your blood and cells to become more viscous or thicker because of the decrease in water content. This increased viscosity makes your blood and cell cytoplasm move more slowly which decreases body functions and, if slowed enough, will stop cell functions in enough of the right cells causing death of the human. Increased viscosity also causes increased stress on the heart and circulatory system. All of this slows the recovery process which means that hydration of the body should be the most significant step in helping the body recover faster.
The second most important compound we need following a sustained athletic event is sugar. Sugar is used by the body as fuel. It is used for both activity and normal metabolic functions. If your body is short on fuel, it must use most or all of that fuel for life functions and wont have the fuel required to (1) rebuild the body and (2) rebuild your fuel stores.
Finally, for events of about 1 1/2 hours or longer, your body will need to replenish electrolytes to help maintain a proper fluid balance in your body. This loss is not as crucial to the body for immediate recovery as water or sugar.
Another principle we have to consider in making this decision is diffusion of matter from the stomach into the circulatory system. Pure water diffuses into the circulatory system faster than water with anything else in it. You also have to know that water with sugar diffuses faster than water with electrolytes.
Finally, we must consider part of the body's cooling system which is the epidermis or skin. To cool yourself, your body excretes electrolytes through pours in the skin. These electrolytes help draw water through the skin faster to cool the body more quickly through evaporation. These salts remain on the skin following the event and continue to draw water through the skin or to dehydrate the body more quickly.
The Process
An athlete has just finished a race and you need to go into action to get his body to recover as quickly as possible. (You may be this athlete.) This is especially true for multistage events. How do you do it and why?
The first thing you need to do is to hand the athlete a drink of cool to cold water and a wet (very wet) cloth or sponge. The fluids are for rehydration and to decrease your body core temperature to decrease the fuel and water losses for cooling purposes. The wet cloth or sponge both removes electrolytes from the skin and adds water to the skin to cool it and indirectly cool your core temperature more quickly. (I hope you understand that you don't hand an athlete a wet cloth or sponge if it is too cool or cold outside. Use your head.)
The athlete should drink nothing but water for about 15 to 30 minutes following the event to maximize rehydration of the body. This permits the water to empty from the stomach into the circulatory system as quickly as possible. It can take the body 24 to over 36 hours to recover completely from serious dehydration but you must start it moving that way as quickly as possible. The faster you begin the hydration process, the faster the cells can recover from the damage you have done to them.
You want to follow the water with sugars while continuing the water. (Hmmm, maybe I can get an endorsement from a soda pop company.
) Soda pop is a good thing for this. Caution: make sure you give your contribution to the golden flow before you begin guzzling soda with caffeine. I personally feel there is nothing that feels as refreshing after a long hot race as a cold cola. You want to start with simple sugars to maximize the bodies absorbsion of the sugars to quickly increase the sugar content of your blood and cells. This provides a burst of energy to get the cells started towards recovery sooner.
You follow the sugars with electrolytes. You don't need excessive amounts of electrolytes because you can over do electrolytes. Your body stores very little in the way of extra electrolytes. Any excess is filtered out through the kidneys into the bladder. If you consume too many electrolytes, the electrolytic content of the bladder will increase to where the electrolytes begin to draw excessive amounts of water across the kidneys. This dehydrates the body and stresses the kidneys, bladder, and prostate gland.
I had an athlete come to my team from another team and his performance had begun to fall off. By the time I found out what was going on, he was consuming from six to eight 2 liter bottles of Gatorade per day. He had been taught to believe that he could not consume too much in electrolytes. He was drawing so much extra water into his bladder that he had stretched or distended his bladder to where he could urinate more than two liters in one urination. A pint is normal. He had been a very good road racer who could easily handle a four to five hour race on a hot day. By the time he was consuming twelve to sixteen liters of Gatorade per day, he would drop out of races after only 30 minutes from dehydration and heat exhaustion. He was on the verge of killing himself. The long term effects of this kind of behavior can cause severe damage from dehydration, heat exhaustion, kidney problems, a ruptured bladder, and prostate failure.
How much is enough with electrolytes? Take a good electrolytic fluid like Gatorade and cut it 50/50 with water. Of this diluted solution, take from 4 to 6 fluid ounces per half hour of competition. Less for a cool, dry day and more for a hot, humid day. For a two hour race on a cool, dry day, you should consume about 16 fluid ounces of the dilute solution. On a hot, humid day, use about 24 fluid ounces of the dilute (or half as much of undiluted electrolytic fluids.)
What size of person? The above would be for an average size male. A smaller person should use a little less and a larger person should consume a little more. This is close enough to meet your needs and not cause problems. Just don't down tons of the stuff.
After consuming your electrolytes, your stomach should be settled down enough to start taking in solids. Start snacking on something with some complex carbohydrates like starches. You know, breads, pasta, and such. You need to do carb loading until your next hard ride on Tuesday or Thursday, depending on how much rest you need after the event.
This system will help your body maximize its recovery from an event. Beyond this, it depends on how fit your body is. Therefore, long term fitness development is your best strategy for post event recovery. It works.
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