I did a hard, anaerobic workout on friday which left my legs feeling fried (from the lactic acid i presume). I took a day off on the weekend and today my legs still feel tired. I have a big race coming up this weekend, and I'm just curious as to other who have experienced this before, how long it took for your legs to recover? I'm not overtrained, rather just feeling the effects of that one workout (I think). I'm doing another workout tonite, but not as intense.
24 hours
Same thing has happened to me before.....it will probably just go away. Hopefully your legs aren't still dead for the weekend!
Usually from hard anaerobic workout, it takes 48 hours to recover; a little less for some bull-dog type guys, in some cases even longer.
With most tough workouts, you have what some call "two-day-lag". You don't feel the effect of the workout the following day; but the second day. This is why sometimes the day after a hard workout (usually a long run), you feel quite good and invincible and tackle another hard day only to find out your tendon couldn't handle it. This is why most training schedule is designed to stress different areas like; one day long and slower, the next day shorter but faster, etc. Some schedule even stresses to take a complete day recovery like; one day long and slower, the next day easy jog, then faster workout on the third day.
Everybody's different in recovery so find out how long it takes for you to recover from certain type of workout (you realized that your legs are fried the day after a hard anaerobic workout; that's a good start).
Because of this two-day-lag, some people schedule a day off before an important competition on the day before but two days before. You'll feel the effect of a complete day off (well-rested) not from the day before but two days.
I know that it is apples and oranges, but most body builder types and trainers will go by the 72 hours before stressing a body part again rule. That includes biceps on a back workout and tri's on a chest workout.
There is a difference between the recovery needed after an anaerobic workout such that you can do another without your immune and cardiovascular systems being pushed toward overtraining (for most, this is 48-72 hours), and the recovery needed such that your muscles can support a full effort without the dead leg syndrome (for this, the recovery is longer).
A peak in acidosis during a workout which lasts long enough, causes microtears in muscle fibers, which your body needs to repair in order to support a full race effort unimpeaded. There is a cycle that was originally discovered by the East Germans, which suggests that the last truly high lactate session should be not within 10 days of a marjor race effort, and that the last real anaerobic session should not be within 5 days of a race, or you will have dead legs come race day. Within the last 5 days, you should not have anything harder than a threshold session or some 150-300 repeats at race tempo pace, with enough recovery so that lactate does not rise.
If you don't do any true lactate tolerance sessions after today (Tuesday), you should be ok on race day.
also the meals and snacks that you put into your body also makes a big difference at least for me it does, but again it is different for everyone.
You can take ice baths (10-14 degrees) everyday after your workout to help decrease inflammation. In addition, I've found that warm Epsom Salt baths help speed up recovery as well.
Mayne wrote:
You can take ice baths (10-14 degrees)
Thats in Celsius of course