RLF Reference: Recovery for Masters

Introduction:

Just as pushing your bow across the line for the first time in the 50+ age category signifies entering a mature phase of your rowing career it may also mark new adventures in maintaining equilibrium in your training schedule. In this lesson we will review balancing training intensity, gauging how much recovery you need, adjusting your weekly schedule, and best of all, sleep.

Training intensity

Masters athletes need to include the same intensities of work in their race preparation as their younger counterparts. The difference for masters is how and when workouts are planned in the weekly schedule to adjust for potentially longer recovery as the body requires.

Improving your performance as you age is linked to maintaining a relatively high VO2 max. This means that high intensity intervals at race pace need to be a key elements of any master’s program in combination with the substantial endurance work that rowing demands. But, such intervals do place a lot of stress on your physiological systems so the volume and frequency needs to be approached carefully to optimize the benefits.

How much recovery do you need?

Recovery periods are when your body makes a positive adaptation to the work you did, without it break down can occur more easily and injury risk goes up. Only you can gauge how much recovery you need between the intensive sessions of the week. Monitor your morning resting heart rate on a daily basis. If the day after a hard session, your morning resting heart rate is elevated 10 beats per minute above your norm, include low intensity sessions until it returns to normal rest rate. If this typically takes two days you can schedule a total rest day, easy distance work, or low intensity cross training.

Experiment with your weekly schedule

Weekly training patterns can vary, so be creative.  You may find you feel more energized taking a total rest day after three training days. If a traditional weekly pattern is better for your schedule, resting Monday and Friday might give you the edge you need to maintain quality workouts during the between days.

Sleep

The best form of recovery as you age is sleep. Getting 40 winks, taking cat naps, or simply lying down restores your energy the fastest especially when backed up by healthy eating. Look over your weekly cycle and build your recovery days around your priority sessions of the week  and then follow it up with a good dose of rest.