Recovery supplements for Masters runners

Don’t run and lift the same day, and you’ll feel better. Unrelated to recovery, if you are lifting for building muscle mass, running every day is almost certainly killing your gains; the same is true to a lesser extent even for maintaining muscle mass with age.

Glucosamine and Chondroitin. Seems to work geat for my joints.

My current schedule is Sunday long and hard, Wednesday track workout at different speeds, tempo, 5k pace and mile pace. I run doubles about 4 days a week. I lift weights on Monday and Friday. I was doing relatively well in my recovery until I started lifting weights. I don't want to gain size, I just want to repair what I am breaking down. The reason why I feel I am not recovering is because I am so beat up between hard efforts. My easy runs are incredibly slow.

Take these for what they are worth, which could be absolutely nothing. I do enjoy this site because it discusses endurance supplements but the studies aren’t always real conclusive but it may be worth trying. I have not myself but if you do and have good results I would love an update!

p.s. this is a long read but covers about everything and seems more reputable

jissn.biomedcentral.com

ISSN exercise & sports nutrition review update: research & recommendations - Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition

Background Sports nutrition is a constantly evolving field with hundreds of research papers published annually. In the year 2017 alone, 2082 articles were published under the key words ‘sport nutrition’. Consequently, staying...

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Start with protein: 1.5g/kg of body weight is the goal, well above what the WHO recommend (0.8g/kg).

I find I need to use a protein shake to achieve that (we don't eat meat at home). If you're a typical runner with a sweet tooth, it's worth tracking this stuff for a few days here and there to remind yourself what that level of protein intake looks and feels like.

A quality probiotic makes a difference for me too, especially when volume increases -

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Four weeks of probiotic supplementation reduces GI symptoms during a marathon race - PubMed

Probiotics supplementation was associated with a lower incidence and severity of GI symptoms in marathon runners, although the exact mechanisms are yet to be elucidated. Reducing GI symptoms during marathon running may help m...

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I've also been taking magnesium - it helps regulate muscle tension.

I don't know what else to tell you. You're trying to pack too much work into too little time. As a masters runner, the only long-term sustainable option is to stop doing that. You're not recovering because you're doing hard workouts before you've recovered. What else were you expecting to happen?

You're not the first person to wish they could work harder than their body will tolerate. I wish I could! I've tried at times, and the results are awful. Realizing that you can't exceed the limits that your body imposes is rule #1 for a masters runner.

👆

I take Q10 supplements. I have the impression that muscle aches are somewhat better.

But maybe I'm fooling myself.

"I JUST WANT TO REPAIR WHAT I AM BREAKING DOWN"

Misunderstood you are. Your muscles are broken down and repairing for a considerable amount of time following the hard running days. (2-3days for me as a 41yr old.) Throwing a weight session in there is going to do the Opposite of repair, but rather break the muscles down further leading to increased time required from complete recovery.

Google image search: "recovery supercompensation theory". These timeline/graphs should help you better understand the concept of recovery & adaptation.

Further reading:

wellandgood.com

I'm a Sports Medicine Doctor, and this Is Why Giving Your Body Proper Muscle Recovery Time Is Critical for Getting Stronger

Zoe Weiner

Consider this your excuse to take that rest day.

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How about a couple of changes:

1. Move the Wed track session to Thursday

2. Move the weight sessions to the same day as the hard workouts.

This gives you an extra day of recovery between hard days and keeps your easy days all easy. Weight workouts are another form of breakdown. Doing these on easy days is inhibiting recovery.

I also take a gu when after my last hard interval before my cooldown. I feel like the best time to start recovery is when your metabolism is at its highest.

Consider an alternative to the 7-day training week. Spread that same schedule out over 9-10 days, or longer, if necessary. Manage the 95% of things that matter like schedule, sleep, diet, before reaching for the 5% of things that may or may not help.

Lots of good advice here. I would only add that you might consider adjusting your 7-day schedule to become a 10-day (or similar) schedule, increasing the amount of time between long runs and hard sessions, as Paula Radcliffe did (believe she was on a 10-day cycle). The true weekly cycle is a convenience, but ultimately is arbitrary and may not work well in terms of recovery for everyone.

DHEA is banned by all anti-doping agencies too. If you're going to go that route, might as well just go to an "anti-aging" doc and get on T and HGH. By your logic, SARMs are fine because they're technically legal, since they're not approve for human use. Might as well take those unsupervised too. If OP is having trouble recovering, it's because they're doing 4 hard days a week and they're old.

I agree. Making things illegal often has untended consequences. Doctor supervised Testosterone replacement to normal levels is much more effective and safer than jacking around blind with DHEA and SARMs.

DHEA is banned by the anti-doping agencies for those who are part of the testing pool...right? SARMs is not sold OTC as a dietary supplement. DHEA is sold as a dietary supplement at health food & grocery stores throughout the U.S. So, your logic is wrong because I'm not talking about testosterone, HGH or SARMS - but a legal, OTC dietary supplement:

The best research on DHEA is from Dennis Villareal, Professor of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism - Baylor College of Medicine. He's co-authored several studies on DHEA supplementation & is a leading authority on DHEA. His studies involve older individuals over 60 yrs who have low levels of DHEA (previous studies with younger individuals show DHEA supplementation is ineffective since younger people have optimal levels). DHEA levels drop significantly as we age:

jamanetwork.com

Effect of DHEA on Abdominal Fat and Insulin Action in Elderly Women and Men

Context Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) administration has been shown to reduce accumulation of abdominal visceral fat and protect against insulin resistance in laboratory animals, but it is not known whether DHEA decreases abd...

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3444670/

Testosterone is a controlled substance that needs to be prescribe by a physician for therapeutic use.

SARMs is a pharmaceutical that is still in clinical trials and has not been approved by the FDA nor regulated as a dietary supplement.

DHEA is legally sold in the U.S. as a dietary supplement manufactured by supplement companies that adhere to USP, NSF & GMP certifications. No different than another hormone, Melatonin, that's also sold as a dietary supplement & used by many consumers.

Facts.

1) athletic greens

2) ashwaganda, turmeric

3) NormaTec pro legs

4) sleep

1) Sleep. Tom Brady slept 9 hours/night while in training and that is part of what kept him going in the NFL to such an advanced age. Christian McCaffrey, young as he is, during off-season training periods, sleeps 9 hours/night AND takes a two-hour nap before dinner (yes, he spends about half the time asleep). While a lot of people say they can't sleep enough because they're so busy with work, these folks see sleeping a lot as PART OF their job.

2) General rest. Every body is different in how it recovers. Even in high school, I didn't recover from workouts the way my peers did. Sadly, my coaches never understood this -- even as I was always slower at the end of the season than at the start -- and just told me to work harder (compounding the problem). If you still feel it 2 or 3 days after a hard workout, then you need to be waiting 3 or four days between workouts.

3) Protein. For a 40+-year-old person who is actively training, you should crank it up to approximately 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, daily. Personally, I take 5 grams of pure leucine as a supplement daily (half before workout, half after) because it is the most important amino acid for muscle repair. 5 grams of pure leucine (of 10 grams of BCAA mix) may take the place of about 50 grams of whole protein in that 1 gram per pound allocation.

4) Creatine. Particularly if you are training for sprints, you need to be taking this. It is one of the few "wonder supplements" that actually has strong scientific evidence of effectiveness.

5) Recovery therapies. Keep a heating pad on your legs. Get massage. Soak your legs in hot water. These are all ways to drive blood flow to the affected areas so all that good leucine that do its work where you need it.