Rituals

Many times after we work out, all we want to do is just take a shower, eat, and maybe take a nap.
Nowadays, I have to pay attention to what I do afterwards because if I don’t, I’ll pay for it with lesser performance during workouts in the following days.
This was brought to the forefront 2 weeks ago when, on Friday, I ran some hard hill repeats and then the day after I went to climb Old La Honda on my bike. Both were very difficult and taxing, and the day after my bike ride I was tight but feeling not so bad. But 2 days after, my quads and hams really got tight and felt really non-recovered after 2 days. Working out was tough as the warmup loosened them up somewhat, but not as much as I liked. Each workout was harder for me to put max effort into, and I didn’t feel optimal although I did get through my workouts. It wasn’t until I hit my weekly ART and Graston treatments that the muscle knots were finally released and they felt back to normal.
I thought about this and thought about my usual post-workout ritual, which I had not been doing. After I get home from a hard workout, this consists of:
1. Down a glass of Endurox recovery drink.
2. Jump in the shower.
3. Stretch everything.
4. Foam roller.
5. Ice (optional).
6. Go eat a big meal.
The last few workouts, and especially my last hard one, I did not foam roller. This last weekend, I did one more hill repeat on the run and was planning to see if I could do Old La Honda twice (but only did 1.5 before I ran out of juice). I knew it would be hard on the bod and resolved to go through my complete ritual, even if I didn’t feel like it.
It worked like a charm.
The missing element this time was foam rolling my legs post-workout. I rolled them (it was definitely painful at points) but mostly it was good to massage the muscle and help clear out all those annoying by-products like lactic acid which will tighten up muscles the next day or the day after.
Now that it’s a day after, my legs feel amazingly good even after completing a harder workout than the previous week. It just reinforced the fact that I shouldn’t skip any steps in my post-workout ritual, or else it will result in reduced or more difficult performance in subsequent workouts in the next week. This is not a good thing for triathletes, who have to stuff 3 sports into one week and recovery is important to be able to get to the next day’s workout, which is sometimes two sports, or even all three.