Taking A Cold Shower For Recovery

Cold showers aren't just for, well, you know what. They can be a keystone technique for quick recovery.

During my recent adventure racing in the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic I was almost obsessive about recovering well between stages. My first stage had more than 7000' of climbing in a 110km Circuit Race. The next stage was a 30km Time Trial with 2000' of climbing. The 3rd stage was a 125km point-to-point Road Race with more than 8000' of climbing. And the last stage was a 50 minute criterium, with a measly 30' of climbing per lap - a piece of cake compared to the rest of the stages. I stuck to my Rag Doll approach for recovery and made sure I kept eating and drinking after each stage. For added recovery insurance, I added contrast showers into the mix.

Contrast Showers Defined

My massage therapist recommends contrast showers whenever you need to boost recovery circulation, and you don't have access to a good massage therapist.

Post-race, the idea is to stand under a really hot shower, concentrating the flow of water on the target muscles. For us cyclists, this of course means our legs, front and back, including our lower backs. The water should be as hot as you can stand.

Next, once your legs are really warm, flip the shower temperature to the absolute coldest setting. This is the really hard part. When you feel the icy waters striking your muscles, they'll start to tense up. The muscles themselves will be virtually squeezing the built up metabolic toxins back into your bloodstream where your kidneys can then clean things up for you.

After a few minutes under the cold water, your legs should be covered in goosebumps and practically numb. That's when you hit them again with hot water. Allow them to get good and warm, and then hit them once more with the cold water. You're almost done.

After the final cold snap, return the water to a normal temperature and complete your clean-up shower. When you're finished and have toweled off, put on some tights, or better yet Compression Tights. These will continue to aid the circulation away from your muscles. Whenever you can, lie down and elevate your legs. Above the level of your heart is best.

After each of the Mt. Hood stages, I took this approach to my recovery. I must say I began each day feeling pretty good. Despite finishing 30 minutes down on the winners in the penultimate stage with its 8000+' of climbing, I raced a strong final criterium stage, placing 5th.

Contrast Showers Can Be Used Anytime For Recovery

You don't have to wait for stage racing to put this tip to work. Any time you need to boost your recovery, and a good massage is not an option, try a contrast shower.

Photo "Bike shower" by: The Wolf

See Yourself Winning - Right Now!

Action can follow thought.

A few years back, Dr. Blaslotto at the University Of Chicago conducted a study with the aim to examine how visualization can affect performance.

Here’s how things went:

A group of basketball players took part in the study, measuring their percentage of successful free throws vs. shots taken. They started by testing their initial free-throw success rates as a baseline for future comparison.

Next, the players were randomly assigned to one of three testing groups. Here's what they were, and how they trained:

1. This group did nothing, and were told to completely forget about playing basketball.
2. The second group spent an hour each day on the basketball court training their free throws.
3. The final group played no basketball during the study, the same as group 1, but they were told to spend time visualizing shooting successful free throws.

And now, guess what happened after 30 days of training like this (or not training if you were in group 1)?

As likely expected, group 1 showed no improvements.

Group 2, who worked on the court, did show a respectable 24% improvement in their success rate.

And most importantly, the third group who only visualized their practice, improved by 23%.

Success From Self-Confidence

I think your take home message from this study is to practice positive mental imaging along with your on-bike training.

Success grows largely from your self-confidence, as well as your physical preparations. When we've all trained ourselves to be almost equally strong, with only a few handfuls of seconds separating us in, say, Time Trial standings, then it is usually the bike racers with strong self-confidence that rise to the top.

Self-confidence certainly rises when you have actual race successes to rely on. However, as this study with basketball players proves, when on-bike success is lacking - and maybe it's just because you're new at this and don't have many races under your tires - then start seeing yourself winning races, making that decisive race move, right now, today, every day, and you could be on your way to handfuls of your own podium finishes.

Go To The Movies

Another great way to start building a race winning mindset is to watch bike racing in action. Go to your local races, especially criteriums, and watch how the elite riders make their race winning moves. And better still, pick up some bike racing videos, like any of the Tour de France volumes, and see how the pros pull off stage winning moves. (Here's a handy link to get you started at Amazon: bike racing DVDs.)

Soon you'll have the successful images in your mind. All you need to do is some mental Photoshopping, and paste yourself into the winning pictures.

How Your Recovery Rides Can Lower Your Kid's Blood Pressure

Blood pressure tracks from childhood throughout adulthood. So as a responsible parent, wouldn't you want to give your children the best chance at a healthy adulthood?

A recent British study (Leary SD, Ness AR, Smith GD, et al. Physical activity and blood pressure in childhood. Findings from a population-based study.) published in Hypertension showed that:

• High levels of physical activity in children related to lower blood pressure
• In children, the volume of activity seems to have a greater impact than the intensity of activity

Many of the cyclists I ride with are parents too. So what does this mean for us?

Get Your Children Moving

Just getting your kids more active will provide them health benefits long into their lives. Don't worry about intensity. Just get them moving a whole lot more frequently.

Don't put your kids on a diet of long steady distance workouts like you as an adult may do. Developmentally children don't have the mental stamina for something like that. Only once they hit their teens can they start handling that kind of training. But do get your kids involved in organized sports. Having them enrolled in various seasonal sports will definitely help them. They don't need to be stars. They just have to participate.

Senseless Activity

And get them involved in as much senseless activity as possible. For example, don't park so close to the door when you take them shopping. Encourage them to walk or ride their bike to school. If you must drive them, drop them off a block away so they'll still need to walk a bit. Anything that gets them off the couch, from behind their computers or game systems, and moving around will help lower their blood pressure.

How Does This Fit With Your Training Plan?

I've gone bike riding with my kids, and it never qualifies as a "workout". But such family bike outings can serve as very useful recovery rides. A proper recovery ride should be a little faster than walking pace, and put very little tension in your legs. It's the perfect pace for noodling about with your kids on the local bike path. It will stimulate your blood flow, and help to remove built up metabolic waste from your workouts. It does your body good, and it'll also do your kids' bodies good.

Ideally, get your workouts done earlier in the day, so you can take an easy ride with your kids after supper. Enjoy their smiles, enjoy yourself, and enjoy your bike.

The Rag Doll Secret To Stage Racing

The bicycle racing season in Alberta really kicks off this weekend with the Velocity Stage Race. On day 1 (Saturday) cyclists will compete in an individual time trial and a criterium. The event concludes with a road race on the second day.

Recovery Is THE Key to Stage Races

It's not the Tour de France, but it is 2 consecutive days of intense cycling that most of us don't routinely undertake. In any stage race, be it a 2 day event like this, or a multi-week event like Le Tour, recovery is the key to overall success. With that in mind, I have this simple procedure to follow:

1. If you don't have to walk, stand.
2. If you don't have to stand, sit.
3. If you don't have to sit, lie down.
4. If you don't have to be awake, take a nap.
5. And don't forget to eat and drink in between steps 1 through 4.

There, you've finally got the perfect excuse to be a sloth when you're not riding. At least while you're competing in a stage race.

It may seem simple, but many people goof up when it comes to the simple things. After Alex Stieda won that historic morning Stage 1 of the 1986 Tour de France, he told me he got so scooped up in the media scrum of the stage win, the yellow jersey, and assorted attention that he didn't eat or drink enough before the Stage 2 Team Time Trial in the afternoon. As a result, Stieda bonked big time. Imagine the yellow jersey being dragged around like a rag doll by his 7-Eleven team mates.

When It's Okay To Be A Rag Doll

The lesson? Be a rag doll between the stages, so you won't be a rag doll during the stages.

What simple things have you done, or forgotten to do? Post a comment and let us know.