Post Race Food for Recovery

Lizzie and I did a little sprint duathlon yesterday, her first race.  She did really well, the second girl to finish in a tough crowd of 11 to 14 year olds. Her 11 year old lanky body creates impressive speed. After being nervous about the transition area and about following the race course, she really excelled with no issues. It was a great experience and we both really tried our hardest...and it paid off.

So, anyway, I ended up really wiped out and they served, as expected, pretty junky post race fare.  I never quite understand why they would want to fill people up with junk after a heavy duty athletic event but that seems to be the trend from children's sports to huge triathlons.  I think the misunderstanding that recovery should involve quickly absorbed carbs is disheartening and works against the healing process that muscles, and especially the heart should begin right away.  The initial post race is a good time for the body to absorb much needed nutrients and it is not the time for empty calories.  The extreme protein content (the race was all about Muscle Milk) and the extreme carbs (fruit, bagels, Gatorade, etc.) are not the easiest to digest and absorb.

I brought one little Artisana almond butter with blue green algae and had that with a few drinks (no sugar), but it wasn't enough so I had a spoon of the peanut butter they were serving with huge bagels...it was clearly not an unprocessed just peanut variety but I had to compromise for the sake of surviving my day and waiting for Lizzie's race to start at 11:15. 

I could not wait to stop at Roots on the way back to Sherwood and pick up my real recovery foods.  I wanted seaweed salad and could not find it but bought raw kale marinated in Bragg's liquid aminos, raw kale chips (Brad's nasty hot), a wonderful Zia's raw zucchini noodles w puttenesca that I just love, a small container of local very dark raspberries, and a container of Roots guacamole...Lizzie chose a vegan sushi (cucumber, avocado and carrot with brown rice), a Zia's raw chocolate mousse, and a few other little healthy wholesome treats.

So, we brought our food out to the car and the ignition was locked!!! We have never had that happen so we struggled with the Toyota manual, but broke open our snacks because we were a half hour from home and Lizzie (and I) could not wait to eat.  So the car was boiling hot, we opened the doors while I fussed with the keys and the ridiculous security system, reading the fine print in the manual that explained the chip in the key can run out of batteries, can be damaged by intense heat, and by abuse (like dropping them, crushing them, and desensitizing them), who knew?  So the key would not turn for a good fifteen minutes, and then I just turned it as hard as I possibly could and it worked. So, always a little adventure.

At home, we made a nice meal of our goodies and I added a big scoop of dried spirulina, a prime piece of the recovery puzzle.

Ingredients / antioxidants for recovery:

• Leafy greens (replenish minerals and vitamins A and C)
• Spirulina (a complete protein, healthy omega-3 fats, vitamins B1, B2 B6 B9 and possibly B12 (many argue over this type of source of B12), an array of minerals, zeaxanthin)
• Kale (beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, sulforaphane, calcium, minerals)
• Nut & seed butters (omega 3 fats, some healthy omega 6 and saturated fats)
• Coconut oil or coconut butter (healthy saturated fat, iron)
• Drink with B vitamins and no sugar (oxylent, emergenC, etc., not perfect food but very replenishing in a pinch)
• Water (without chlorine, fluoride etc., crystal clear good water from a good source in a glass jar or from a faucet)
• Green Tea (polyphenols)