Recovery in triathlon racing (and all endurance sports) has three major components/time periods in my mind: macro, meso, and micro recovery periods. This write-up attempts to address each of these three critical periods using quantitative, repeatable methods:

THE MACRO:

Each season I recommend that athletes take some time period totally off (no swim, bike or run at all) and another 2 weeks very light with no more than 2 or 3, 30 min sessions swimming, running, and biking. I feel this period is essential to year over year progress. As someone once said, “you need to get out of shape in order to get back in better shape.” When athletes start back up, they typically make more progress during the first 12 weeks than they do at any other point during the season.

The length of the off period should be adjusted to match how demanding your season was and if you have any on-going injuries to clear up. To approach this more quantitatively, this off period should be about 2-6 weeks including the light period. The rule of thumb I typically use is that an athlete should take off 1 week for every 200 hours of training. For my elite folks training 1000 hours a year, this works out to 5 weeks off at season end. What I typically do is take the last week and double it to two weeks of light training as mentioned above (2 light weeks = 1 totally off). In the case of the 1000 hour athlete, this works out to 4 weeks totally off and then two weeks very light. In the case of a 600 hour athlete, this works out to 2 weeks totally off and then 2 weeks light. I also have some athletes that may have trained 1000 hours over the past year but took a mid season week off. In this case, I subtract that week from the total at the end of the season such that they end up with 3 weeks totally off and 2 weeks light.

THE MESO:

Race recovery time is a commonly discussed topic in training circles and forums throughout the triathlon community. Here's the question you've all seen a million times (and maybe asked a few times): "how long should I wait following an XX distance race to race an YY distance race?". The answer to this question should result in the following questions back (but typically doesn't):

1) What was your training volume leading into the race?

2) How many years of triathlon experience do you have at this race distance?

What these questions address is a person's specific durability and ability to recover from an XX distance race. What most people would like to hear is a standard "you should wait at least 4 weeks between one XX distance race to do another". Unfortunately its not that easy. I can remember when I first started racing triathlons and my training volume was in the 6-10 hour range per week, I could only race about 3 half's a year with some sprints sprinkled in and still feel fresh and avoid injury. Snap to 8 years later and I can handle 4 half's and two ironman's, still feel fresh and avoid injury. This ability comes from an increase in training volume as well as additional experience, both of which improve durability. What the following set of tables do is help capture this concept of durability and make general recommendations for how long to wait after an XX distance race to race a YY distance race. They don't mean you can't race a half one week after a full but they suggest not too, due to the risk of injury, bad performance, and potential overstress.

Note that the top row is the race 1st completed and the 1st column is the race you'd like to do following the 1st race. The numbers at each intersection represent the number of weeks you should wait following the 1st race before racing the next race you'd like to do. Each table is based on an athletes specific "sustainable" volume. This is the volume you were able to turn over for at least 5 weeks at some point in the build-up to the 1st race without meeting burnout or injury. In order to account for durability acclimated from experience, 1 hour of training per week can be added to your actual sustainable for each year spent racing at the specific distance you are racing first (or longer).

Sustainable Volume of Less than 12 hours Per Week:

Sustainable Volume of Between 12 and 18 hours Per Week:

Sustainable Volume of More Than 18 hours Per Week:

Too many races, too close, without enough durability, interrupt the recovery cycle and therefore undermine long term progress. Too many races also increase the chance of injury and set you up for disappointment with race performances. I call this "race gluttony" when someone races too often and is then disappointed with the result. What's the next step they take? Well, of course race again to make up for that bad performance. And the cycle goes on until they are injured and can't race at all. Not a place you want to be given a sport where consistency is king!

THE MICRO:

Another great rule of thumb I use on a regular basis to address the short term recovery from a particular race is to take the number of days following a race off/easy without any draining or intense workouts based upon how many hours the race was. For example if a triathlon took me 4:25 to complete, I'd take 4 days following the race (rounding down) either off or easy without anything intense or overly draining. For running only races, I like to take the time spent running the race multiplied by 5. That is, a 3 hour marathon will require 15 days either off or easy without anything intense or overly draining.

The importance of each one of these periods increase as you move from the micro recommendations to the macro recommendations. Missing any one of these recovery periods can lead to injury and burnout for the obvious reason of accumulated fatigue.

I hope these long term and short term recommendations are helpful to those planning their season.

-Jesse