How to Optimize Recovery from Triathlon Racing

Triathlon

October 28, 2024

Photography by: Adam Hodges / Shutterstock

Taking a break after major races isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s essential for your mental and physical health and longevity in the sport. Find out how to do it right.

Training, peaking, and tapering for a triathlon requires a significant amount of physical, mental, and emotional energy, effort, and investment. It’s not surprising, then, that recovery from that effort can take time. As we near the business end of the triathlon race season in the northern hemisphere, many athletes are going through this recovery process—and it can be a tricky one. Get it right and you’ll bounce into your next training block (or next season) with renewed motivation and verve—and your chances of enjoying longevity in the sport increase significantly. Get it wrong and you run a very real risk of burnout, fatigue, illness, or injury.

We spoke to two elite triathlon coaches who’ve worked with Olympians and world-class athletes, as well as scores of age groupers, to get their insights and advice on optimizing physical and mental recovery from your key race(s).

It’s A Triathlon Hangover

That feeling after you’ve raced—the heavy legs, sore muscles, a sluggishness you can’t quite shake, wanting to sleep for hours but feeling too restless to be able to—all of these things are totally normal, especially if you’ve just done an Ironman. Coach Ryan Bolton says he sees it with all types of athletes, from top pros to new age groupers, and he has a name for it: “It’s a hangover, a post-race hangover,” he says.

There is, though, much more than just physical fatigue involved. There’s an emotional component to it too, and it’s this part that can really catch people unawares.

“I’ll often tell athletes to be prepared for this or, as it’s happening, I’ll remind them that it’s a totally normal thing,” Bolton says. As the Director of High Performance for USA Triathlon, Bolton says he sees this in athletes of all calibers, and the longer or bigger the race, the more prevalent it can be. It is not uncommon for Olympians, for example, to suffer with depression or other mental health issues after the Olympics, in fact, it’s often referred to as the “post-Olympics blues” and the same can be true with Ironman and the “post-Ironman blues.”

Bolton says: “You put so much time and energy and commitment into this one big event and then when it’s over you feel this emptiness. And you might know you want a break and need a break, but there’s still this emptiness. It’s like the day after Christmas when you’ve been anticipating something for so long and then it’s done, it’s all over.”

A generally good rule is a minimum five days after a 70.3 before any real load can be brought again, and 10 days after a full.

And it’s at this point that taking a break and letting your body and mind recover is incredibly important, even though some athletes are resistant to the idea, Bolton says.

The Fitter You Are, The More Recovery You Need

Coach Jim Vance agrees. He says the more an athlete peaks for a race—as in the fitter they are for the race, and the deeper they go in the race—then the more recovery is needed. He says: “A generally good rule is a minimum five days after a 70.3 before any real load can be brought again, and 10 days after a full. Ideally, the athlete should be chomping at the bit to get back to work. If that isn't the case, then the athlete isn't mentally or physically ready for any sustainable training load and stimulus.”

If you’ve finished racing for the season then you’d be looking to take a slightly longer break. Bolton usually has his athletes take two weeks away from triathlon and structured training. He encourages them to remain active with other sports or pastimes during this time and only swim, bike, or run if they have a burning desire to—and even then activity time is capped at no more than a 3K swim, 90-minute bike, or 45-minute run. But ideally, he says, there’s no triathlon at all.

This two-week period is followed by another two weeks in which the athlete is “reestablishing a rhythm” and just getting used to getting back into training and reintroducing some structure. “We’re gradually building back so that basically after that month they feel like ‘OK, now let’s get back into a plan again.’” But, like Vance, if the athlete isn’t feeling it—mentally or physically—then it’s time for more rest.

And, of course, what an athlete does in their break will determine how well they recover—with both coaches emphasizing mental and emotional recovery and rejuvenation as much as anything.

“Athletes can be resistant to taking a break,” Bolton says. “They’re afraid of losing their hard-earned fitness and they might want to start drilling it again, but usually it’s two to three weeks later that they realize they did need that break and they now regret not taking it. I’ve seen this happen at every level.”

Physically, it’s important to really let your body relax and regenerate, and while it’s only natural to fear losing fitness, Bolton explains it’s important to lose some so that you can come back stronger the following year: “You have to lose that bit [of fitness] so you can gain that and more back, it's impossible to be redlining it all the time. It’s just not healthy to be going all the time.”

He talks about a highly successful age-group athlete he’s coached for many years who’s raced at the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii on multiple occasions. Once his race season is complete, he typically goes on a diving trip for 10 days with zero triathlon training. “His [training] numbers take a nosedive off a cliff during that time, but after a month he’s completely refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to go again—and that’s been a multi-year pattern with much success.”

You have to lose that bit [of fitness] so you can gain that and more back, it's impossible to be redlining it all the time. It’s just not healthy to be going all the time.

Reinvest in the Important People

It shouldn't be underestimated that triathlon is an all-consuming sport and most people training for an Ironman or 70.3 are highly likely to be “all in” on their training and their goals. In the midst of this, it’s very easy for important relationships and other projects to be overlooked or forgotten, so for Vance, this break is an important time to reprioritize.

“All the things which have been neglected in the build up to the race should be prioritized at this time,” he says. “This would be family time, finishing projects at work or around the house—stressors in your life that have had to be put on the backburner while the race prep became the focus. Feeling like you can relax and get satisfaction from other areas of your life is where real rest and recovery happens.”

Failing to eliminate stress in daily life is where Vance sees most athletes struggling when it comes to this recovery period. “Being organized enough to prevent things from becoming big stressors is important,” he says. “That garage stacking up as a big mess and needing to be organized needs your attention. It will just become a dark cloud hanging over you. This stress is an invisible load on athletes that many don't account for.”

Like Bolton, he also encourages athletes to reconnect and reinvest in the important relationships in their life. “Most athletes aren't aware of the toll their commitment to the sport takes on their loved ones and the relationships they have. If there has been an elephant in the room, or a deterioration of any relationships, they need to be brought back to the forefront of the athlete's life, so it can be a positive environmental foundation for allowing the training stress to be absorbed and maximized.”

Remember That Stress + Rest = Training

He says that athletes tend to forget the formula for training is Stress + Rest = Training.

“Many focus on the stress, but without the rest, so it's just stress piling up,” he says. “Most want to discount the power of rest. While they can get away with this for a while (the body is an amazing and adaptable machine), the short term gains are usually not worth the damage long term. In general, athletes should train less, and work on their relationships more, especially post-race.”

Indeed, Bolton encourages his athletes to proactively schedule time with the people they care about and the other activities they might want to enjoy in these post-race weeks.

“There will inevitably be people who you don’t see as much during the season, so I encourage athletes to preemptively plan time to see those people, go for drinks, make plans for having fun, relaxing, and taking it easy,” he says. “I’ve found that otherwise it’s pretty easy to not do those things and then regret it later.”

Letting go of your usual schedule can really help your recovery, especially that psychological and emotional recovery.

Of course, sleep and nutrition are huge factors that affect recovery, and Bolton is clear to make a distinction between acute post-race recovery and the post-race break. The days immediately following a race, especially a 70.3 or Ironman, are not the time to “let yourself go,” he says. “Those are the nights where you want to recover, get some good food and sleep, and let yourself recover from the race in that acute period, otherwise you’re going to feel like crap for even longer.”

“Let Things Slide a Little”

Then once you’re starting to feel a little more human (which can take several days or more following an Ironman), that’s the time to “start the cheat bus a bit,” Bolton says. “I know it’s tempting for athletes to want to let go immediately post-race but that’s where I say ‘no, don’t do it!’ because you’re really going to feel lousy.”

And if you’re someone who keeps a pretty strict schedule during the race season, be it with sleep and/or diet, then once you’re through those initial post-race recovery days, that’s the time to relax and let things slide a little.

“If you’re someone who’s always up at 5:30 a.m. for swim practice then sleep in, stay in bed, let go of your usual schedule,” Bolton says. Equally, if you’re someone who’s usually in bed at 8:30 p.m. then don’t be afraid to let your hair down and stay up later. “Letting go of your usual schedule can really help your recovery, especially that psychological and emotional recovery,” Bolton says. “Listen to your body, allow yourself to do what you need to do to regenerate. Quite often I find that after a month of doing this then many athletes are itching to get back to their normal early-to-bed, early-to-rise routine.”

And the consequences of doing this—and doing it right—will pay dividends not just for the following season, but for many seasons thereafter, particularly if you’re someone chasing big goals in the sport.

Bolton says: “You see this play out at the pro level, people making mistakes in not doing this [taking a break]. At the time you can think ‘how is this guy racing well from January to December?’, and you're blown away by them for one to two seasons. Then it’s that third season when it becomes incredibly evident, you look back and see they didn’t really take a break and go through that trough [rest] period. Then it all catches up.”

So as hard as it might be come the end of the season, your body and mind will thank you in the longer term for taking two to four weeks away from all things swim, bike, and run. “In the long run it’s going to make you a better, stronger athlete,” Bolton says. “In order to be successful in your next key race you’ve got to take a break and let yourself get hungry again.”

Written by

Emma-Kate Lidbury

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