How long do you need to settle down after a race?

AstraMonti

After every race my blood is boiling and I can't really settle down for the next 4-5 hours. Last night I fell asleep around 2.30am. It could be a mix of endorphins and caffeine gels/energy drinks. I also tend to have bad/unsettled sleep as my mind is hyper active even while sleeping.

Do you have anything similar?

Lumen

Eat food. Stare into space. Pass out.

DirkVoodoo

Pizza. Beer. Xbox. Seems to help.

Idleater

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Pizza. Beer. Xbox. Seems to help.

I like that option.

Cycle out to the race - the cycle home after gives you a chance to ease back from race pace.

Or do more work during the race to tire yourself out more - for the team and all that!

seamus

Maybe avoid any intake involving caffeine. You should be getting enough "pep" from the adrenaline, the caffeine intake might be dragging out the effects of adrenaline for longer than needed.

AstraMonti

Hm I had enough to eat yesterday, milk with protein, 2 burgers with brown rice. Put a movie on, watched it all ( Moon - 2009, very good one, recommended) then watched some South park until i crawled myself to bed staring the ceiling.
It's not that I was not tired, but I was feeling hyper and edgy. I am not drinking any coffee so I assume that the caffeine intake is a bit more than needed for these short races.

Hungrycol

Yeah my mind it still going over the race and blood still racing through my veins. Don't get to sleep till closer to 1am the night of a race. I need to watch more telly I reckon before heading to bed, I'm normally lying there looking at my bedside clock thinking I could have seen the end of the that film that looked quite good!

bcmf

AFAIK caffeine stays in your system for up to six hours after consumption. I would imagine your metabolism will decide this. If you dont drink 'real' coffee on a regular basis and then take a gel/high 5 drink that has caffeine this maybe your prob.

kenmc

More beer. Tried and trusted solution, works. If it doesn't work, more more beer.

Diarmuid

I was wrecked last night. I think it's a case of your body getting used to cycling late. I wouldn't bother with caffeine based gels in races that start at 7:00!

doozerie

It was after 1am when I got to bed last night and later still before I finally got to sleep. In my case eating dinner around 11pm was a big part of it - my routine for the evening races is get home, have protein shake, stretch, shower, eat dinner, bed, which doesn't always work very well in terms of my getting to bed at a reasonable time. Getting food into me inevitably wakes me up and gives me an energy boost quite quickly, and if I go to bed soon afterwards I feel like I'm lying there burning my food off which is not conducive to sleeping.

kennyb3

I find at the end of your shower, turning it progressively cooler to get the boiling blood sensation out of the body. I cant sleep when im too warm esp my feet.

Then a nice chillaxing beer.

bcmf

kennyb3 wrote: »

beer

kenmc wrote: »

More beer.beer.

beer

Beasty

Doesn't bother me most of the time. I guess my body is quite used to late night cycling though, with a history of turbo sessions ending after midnight, a habit of pushing it on my homeward commute, and winter training seeions going on until 9.30 or later.

Not sure if it affects it, but I tend to eat my evening meal once I'm finished on the bike, which may help settle the body down a bit. I also steer clear of alcohol (it gives me a headache!). There have been a couple of occasions where I have had things going round my head for a while after, but it tends to be when I've done quite well, which isn't that often;).

Zorba

Option A: A bottle of good red wine

Option B: Sleeping pills

Option C: Meditation.

I had the same problem after the Wicklow, i was dog tired but my brain wasn't interested in switching off, the result was i felt even more tired the next day !