The Magic of Recovery – 8 Ways to Recover FASTER

Here’s the truth about recovery: getting fitter, faster and stronger doesn’t happen on the bike or during your run or in the gym. It happens after. And that’s why recovery is as important as your workout.

And FYI, it’s not about shuffling off to the couch… so I decided to dig into…

…what recovery is
…how to know when you need more and
…what you can do to speed it up so you can get back out there again

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#cycling #exercise #recovery

00:00 When the fitness gains happen
00:36 Surprise! Your metabolism isn’t slowing down
01:47 Chronic lack of recovery – what it means
04:01 Recovery 101: Your metabolic ceiling
06:38 Recovery 101: Dial up your parasympathetic nervous system
07:37 How to know if you need more recovery #1
08:58 #2 Know your sleep data
09:38 #3 Are you breathing faster?
10:30 #4 What’s going on with HRV?
11:09 #5 What resting heart rate tells you
12:18 How to recover faster – #1 Tip
15:38 What & when you eat
19:53 How life stress reduces fitness
22:31 How to END your ride or run
23:30 How to do a recovery workout
24:29 Box breathing: start recovering ASAP
25:31 Heat or Cold for recovery?
26:12 How to foam roll to speed recovery
28:39 Are you REALLY overtrained???
31:40 The big takeaway + my biggest fail

It is entirely possible to be the fittest version 
of yourself in your 50s and 60s if you play your cards right. But here’s the big irony. We crank 
out all these miles expecting to get faster and stronger, but we don’t really think about what 
happens when we get off the bike when the gains actually happen. I’m talking about recovery. 
But this isn’t a video about dialling it back cuz you’re getting older. No, this is about 
recognizing when you need to recover and how to recover better, even faster, so you can unlock 
the gains you expect even at our age. Here’s why. From about, you know, early 20s till about late 
50s, people’s energy expenditures, daily energy expenditures are not really, we don’t see like a 
slow down at middle age. It doesn’t have I mean again, yes, your your metabolism does not slow 
down in middle age. And look, I’m 47 and I feel like it did, too. Yeah, I said many times before, 
I’m fitter at 57 than I was at 37. But something does happen in our 40s and 50s. We start to feel 
our rides a lot more. Like, I feel everything a lot more. Go to bed too late, eating too late, 
eating the wrong things. Like, oh my god, alcohol. I can’t be the only one, right? A friend of mine 
told me recently that winter is for recovery. I’m pretty sure that he knows that that’s not how 
it works. But as I watch some of you on Strava,   I have to ask how you do these back to back 
to back mega rides. And I started to wonder, is there a tipping point? Can we actually burn 
one too many matches and actually shorten our lives? The answer might surprise you, and I’ll get 
there, but a more immediate concern is what does a chronic lack of recovery do to us right now? 
According to world-renowned trainer and heart rate variability expert Joel Jameson, overreach 
too often and bad things start to happen. The more stress we impose on ourselves, the more we have to 
be able to deal with that stress. If we can’t deal   with it in a positive way, that’s where we get 
negative adaptations and overtraining and overuse injuries. But from a longevity standpoint, it’s 
also where we get chronic inflammation. That’s   where we get all sorts of hormonal dysfunction. 
That’s where we get mitochondrial dysfunction. All these sorts of things happen if our body cannot 
cope with the stress the world is imposing on   us. And part of this is just that inflammatory 
cascade. And before you know it, you feel flat, your legs are heavy, and your rides and workouts 
feel harder. Your cortisol is elevated and your sleep quality suffers. And you may actually store 
more fat. You may be catching more colds or taking longer to heal from injuries. It’s what Dr. Andy 
Galpin calls non-functional overreaching. Now you may be thinking, “Yeah, but I’m not doing 20 
hours a week. I’m only doing like five or six   hours a week.” Well, take a listen to Dr. Inigo 
Milllan. You may recognize him as Tadej Pogacar’s coach. You can really get overtrained and fatigue 
even if you train only 6 hours a week or 7 hours a week. Uh, and I do it myself, right? I you 
know most of us are very busy with a lot going on and we try to squeeze in time from work or 
family or multiple things that we might be doing uh and we might not be able to do more than 
8 hours right but it it is the our regular   activities that might interfere with our training 
so you know it happens to me that you know when when I have for example a very stressful week 
or very busy week I might go out for an hour and   a half ride and I’m dead right and that might be 
just my second day of the week. On the other hand, if we focus on recovery skills like we do bike 
skills, we can get on the bike sooner, become more resilient because your body can better cope with 
what you throw at it, and you can actually get the gains you want. Endurance, power, speed, better 
body composition, higher VO₂ max, they all stem from proper recovery. But before we talk about how 
to recover faster, a little recovery 101 beginning with the Duke University research you just saw, 
Dr. Herman Ponzer and this hunter gatherer tribe, the Hadza. Dr. Ponzer and his team flew all the 
way to Tanzania to test the energy expended by the Hadza who walk on average 20,000 steps each day 
to compare it to us who don’t. and we get back and get the data set back um and we’re just completely 
shocked because actually it turns out the total energy burned per day was no different than folks 
in the US, Europe, you know, people sitting at their desks all day. Like what’s going on? What 
Dr. Ponzer discovered is that each of us has a finite amount of energy per day regardless of the 
number of calories we consume. He coined it the metabolic ceiling. And by the way, if you’d like 
to know what your metabolic ceiling is, it’s super easy. In fact, I recently wrote about it in my 
weekly email. And if you’re not getting that, you can join us right here. Here’s why this metabolic 
ceiling is important to active people like you and me. I’ll often look at the energy or calories I 
burn on my rides, but I don’t really think about it in the context of all the other things I need 
energy for, like basic life support, the like the energy you need just to stay alive. Our brains, 
that’s 20% or more right off the top. Energy to digest your food, hormone regulations, the steps 
you take, and all the other kinds of stress you get in your day. And wait for it, recovery. It 
takes energy to recover to repair your muscles and cells and clean out the metabolic junk that 
accumulates. So, if you don’t manage your energy budget, you aren’t going to have enough left to 
recover and you develop an energy deficit. But remember what Dr. Ponzer said earlier about aging. 
Feeling like your metabolic rate is slowing down doesn’t necessarily mean your metabolic rate is 
slowing down. around 20 to 25 somewhere in there. You hit kind of your your adult rate and then 
you’re you’re just rock steady until late 50s early 60s something like that and then it begins 
to decline again which is interesting. Mhm. If   we keep our activity level up he adds so here’s 
what this layman thinks. We feel our rides more, so we assume our energy levels are declining. But 
maybe what we need to do is get better at recovery so we could keep up our activity levels. The 
second thing I think is important to understand and related to all the recovery techniques that 
we’ll look at is your ability to dial up and dial down the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches 
of your nervous system. Sympathetic sounds all nice and nurturing, but it’s actually your fight 
or flight response. It’s like you amped up, which is the stressor that we want during our 
rides. We need stress to stress ourselves to get   fitter. But it also triggers cortisol, a stress 
hormone that can remain elevated. Cortisol peaks in the morning to wake you up and get you going. 
And then it should lower throughout the day so   at bedtime you can fall asleep. When our workouts 
are over, we want to turn up the parasympathetic nervous system. That helps to turn down cortisol 
and start the recovery process as soon as possible. But for some of us, the hardest part is 
just recognizing when you need recovery. You know who you are. You’re going to do that group ride 
if it kills you. But if you suspect you’re in an energy deficit and you’re wearing one of these, 
there are four metrics that can help assess your recovery. But even more than those four metrics is 
the first sign and that’s subjective perception or simply how do you feel? Believe it or not, this 
is at the top of the stack for athletes Dr. Andy Galpin works with. How you feel today? will stack 
up as tight as almost any other biological metric we can pick. It’s really, really important. If 
you’re feeling good, if you’re making progress and you don’t feel terrible, then I I’m not worried 
about your recovery at all. Like, we’re done. So,   if you’re making progress and you feel fine, 
you’re good. But if you don’t feel fine, listen to Inigo San Millan. Listen to your sensation. That’s 
the other thing too, you know, like I if you feel   that you’re tired or fatigued, maybe you are tired 
and fatigued and maybe you have to understand that you don’t have to train much even even if you 
if if you only are training 6 hours a week, but and then try to work on the things around why 
you’re fatigued and tired. And he goes on to talk about a more objective measure and that’s sleep 
data. Sleep is when the magic happens. Poor sleep, poor recovery. Here’s what Joel Jameson writes on 
his blog. If you chronically overload your body with stress, it can have a big impact on your 
ability to fall asleep. Impaired sleep is one of the first signs that your body isn’t recovering 
fast enough from your training. Not getting enough sleep then slows down recovery even more and 
amplifies the stress of training. The thing is, it’s really hard to know if you’re getting 
quality sleep without data. And within your sleep data is another recovery metric, and that’s 
number three, respiratory rate. Something that I wasn’t even paying much attention to. But listen 
to what Dr. Andy Galpin has to say about that. If I look at someone’s data in the morning and your 
normal respiratory rate is, say, 12 breaths per   minute overnight and you’re at 14, I’m like, whoa, 
something’s going on. If you’re at 14 for two days in a row, boom, you’re gonna get sick the next 
day or you’re already sick or some like, “Hey, it’s going on, Ron. Are you okay? Like, what’s 
going on?” Like, “No, my god.” Like, something’s   happening. And so, for me, when we’re coaching 
people, like we’re coaching them. I I don’t want to wait 6 weeks to start seeing problems happen. 
I need to go like, “Hey, this happened right now. What the heck is h what’s going on?” And for our 
opinion, HRV and respiratory rate will jump off   the charts way before resting heart rate. Like 
sleep, respiratory rate is an early sign, as is number four, HRV, when measured properly. While 
you’re likely to know your resting heart rate, your heart doesn’t beat like a metronome. And 
while resting heart rate is a good indication of fitness, it doesn’t say much about recovery. 
And that’s where HRV comes in. HRV measures the exact time between each heartbeat. In general, 
higher HRV means your parasympathetic nervous system is more active. There’s more to it than 
that, but it’s why the variability between your heartbeats is a good indicator of how well you’ve 
recovered overnight and your readiness for what’s on tap today. Because what’s harder to rely 
on is number five, your resting heart rate. Your resting heart rate is a lagging indicator. 
When resting heart rate is consistently elevated, it’s still a signal. It’s just a late one. If 
conditions are stable, if your resting heart rate becomes elevated at probably more than 3 to five 
beats per minute for more than a couple of days, that is a good sign something is happening. In 
this case, not a good thing, right? So, it’s starting to become elevated as you said earlier 
generally indicates you’re getting overcooked, right? Too much training or allostatic load, total 
stress, it’s like something not enough recovery,   not enough recovery, calories, something’s going 
on there. The issue with that is resting heart rate is incredibly unsensitive. It takes weeks for 
that to happen. You’re well into that problem. And when you start seeing changes in resting heart 
rate, you are so far down that road that you’ve   like we should have saw this weeks ago. Even first 
thing in the morning resting heart rate, you’re talking about 100%. Okay. So, in addition to how 
you feel, you’ve got four metrics to help you gauge how well your body is handling your load. 
And that’s going to help you determine what kind   of a difference good recovery skills make. Because 
recovery is more than just shuffling over to the couch after your ride. In fact, sitting around can 
actually make it worse. Movement is medicine. As Dr. Stacy Sims writes, it doesn’t even mean you 
can’t ride tomorrow. The great news is that there are all kinds of things that we can do to turn 
down the dial on our sympathetic nervous system and dial up our parasympathetic nervous system 
to kickstart recovery. But there’s no denying it. Nothing is more important than number one sleep. 
There is nothing we can do to enhance performance more than sleep. There’s no supplement. There’s 
nothing that’s even close, right? So sleep is like   the best. I mean it and it’s part of the recovery, 
right? Again, recovery is so important for performance. When you ask about recover earlier, 
that’s our first step. And if you’ve struggled   with sleep like me, you don’t need an expert to 
know it, but it is helpful to understand why in her book Next Level. Dr. Stacy Sims explains that 
deep sleep is when you produce the majority of one of your body’s greatest performance enhancers, 
human growth hormone or HGH, which helps you burn fat. It stimulates tissue growth to build muscle 
and allow you to recover faster. When you short change your sleep, getting fewer than 7 to N hours 
a night, your HGH production stalls. And get this, in the sleep solution, why your sleep is broken 
and how to fix it, W. Christopher Winter explains, the majority of your body’s HGH secretion happens 
between 11:00 p. m. and 1:00 a. m. and then starts shutting down. Oh, and it also declines with 
age. So, it’s really important for us to get to bed on time. That’s why Dr. Andy Galpin is Pro 
Sleep Tracker. Garmin, Aura, Apple, whatever. He talks about the kind of sleep athletes think 
they’re getting versus reality and it’s often   not even close. So given that recovery is when we 
actually get the gains and sleep is where a lot of that happens, inadequate sleep impacts adaptations 
and all those metrics we just talked about go in the toilet. So if you’re not sleeping well like 
me for a couple months of spring, you’ve got to figure it out as I think I have. Touch wood. Let 
me know in the comments if you’d like me to do an updated video on sleep because sleep issues are so 
common for active people like us and sleep becomes trickier with age. As we get older, older people 
need just as much sleep, but they have a harder time getting as much sleep and sleep is very much 
tied to that vagus nerve and the parasympathetic   nervous system. So again, if we get worse quality 
sleep, we get less adaptability. It’s it is chicken and egg. Fundamentally that’s why we want 
to regulate ourselves correctly and that’s where   exercise I think the biggest thing exercise does 
is improves our body’s ability to regulate itself. It improves the use of those dials because we 
are exposing the body to aerobic training that we know has some broad correlation to that and 
we’re giving the body a stress it can adapt to   in a positive way if we do it in the right amounts 
and that’s the caveat there. But what happens when you spend like 2 or 3 hours on your bike out in 
the sun in the fresh air and you’re still not sleeping well? Well, that’s where recovery tool 
number two comes into play. And that’s nutrition. As I’ve learned the hard way, what and when we 
eat plays a big role in how well we sleep and therefore how quickly we recover. So, if you’re 
not eating enough of both carbs and protein, it can mess with your sleep, like falling asleep, 
staying asleep, or both. And as we just covered, no sleep, poor recovery, poor recovery, and you’re 
not getting the returns from your exercise. And in short order, you start to go backwards. There’s 
a reason fasting and fasted training are falling out of favor with so many sports physiologists and 
doctors. First of all, as we age, muscle growth is a lot harder than when we were young. We need a 
lot of protein each day at our age. Take a listen to researcher Dr. Don Layman with Dr. Gabrielle 
Lion. And what we have slowly learned is that is more important in older adults than it is in 
younger adults. Young adults seem to be able to stimulate protein synthesis throughout the body, 
but in muscle and grow with kind of small meals. Uh we know that a 10 gram meal will trigger 
protein synthesis, a 20 gram meal. Uh but we know that in older adults, adults over 40, uh and a lot 
of the research has been done with adults over 60, uh it takes more than 30 grams uh to actually 
stimulate protein synthesis. And we also need sufficient carbs after our hard rides. Dr. Dr. 
Inigo San Milan says cyclists undercut the carbs too much because those days are typical days where 
an athletic says oh I I train aerobic I burn fat I don’t need to eat a lot of carbohydrates well well 
actually yeah you burn that day maybe 300 g of carbohydrates or 500 g of carbohydrates so there 
that that’s right there your entire likely to storage it so this is what uh nutrition has to be 
there and and I think that uh carbohydrates it’s a main problem that we see then that’s where when 
cyclists or you know athletes they get into this vicious cycle that I call because let’s say that 
um you didn’t think that you needed to replenish carbohydrate correctly today but actually you 
run out of glycogen storage or low and tomorrow you have a a big day whether it’s intensity or 
whether it’s duration that you don’t have enough carbohydrates take it to extremes it can lead 
to some chronic issues in augo also reminds us that even on a zone zone two ride, the so-called 
fat burning zone, you are still burning glycogen, not just fat. Even if you feel fine, over time, 
a glycogen deficit is going to turn into fatigue, poor sleep, mood swings, and poor recovery. And 
then there’s the whole timing aspect of nutrition, especially for 50 plus women. According to Dr. 
Stacy Sims, who specializes in athletic women our age. We need sufficient protein and carbs 
within 30 minutes of our workouts. Here’s why. Women are prone to staying in that sympathetic, 
stressed, catabolic, meaning we’re eating into our muscles. High cortisol mode after our workouts. 
So, getting protein and carbs into us quickly, helps to dial down the sympathetic and dial up the 
parasympathetic nervous system. And that allows us to begin recovering faster. You’ve probably 
heard that men have like 3 hours or more to get in their protein after a workout. But carbs are 
needed sooner than later. Unlike protein, timing matters. The faster you get that carbohydrate 
in that the faster you will replenish muscle and   liver glycogen. And what I’ve discovered is that 
in general, I needed far more calories than I was getting after my ride or gym sessions to kickstart 
my recovery. and stay asleep. And what’s really surprising me is I’m eating more and I’ve actually 
lost a couple of pounds and I’m sleeping better. If you’re like me, dialing in your nutrition may 
help unlock better sleep and you can see why it’s near the top of the recovery stack. But almost 
as important is number three, reducing the stress in your life. Like, can we all agree stress 
is the devil? It causes inflammation, but it also complicates recovery. Take a listen to Inigo 
San Millan again. As you point out, recreational riders might not put in a lot of hours, but they 
might have a lot of work in life stress that’s   going to have an impact. Absolutely. Exactly. 
And uh Yeah. And how many times I I I’ve seen a blood analysis and someone’s cortisol levels are 
off the chart, right? And uh and and obviously the first thing, oh my god, you’re training too 
much, right? And like and then you start seeing   like no actually this person is not training more 
than 5 hours a week or so but then you see like wo that person is going through enormous mental 
stress or or maybe some events right they they’re   going through some drama you know or some you know 
dramatic situation in their lives no or stressful. Yeah, sure. That that that alone, you know, it’s 
going to get cortisol off the chart and it’s going   to interfere with recovery with the the anabolic 
catabolic balance, right? And and therefore, yeah, you you’re have a lot more chances to to 
become overtraining. As I mentioned earlier, your brain needs about 20% of your total daily energy 
budget. But when you’re stressed, as Inigo says, your brain needs more. Well, the brain in a way 
tells the legs, hey, look, I I don’t care much about your legs. You know, I am I’m the boss. I’m 
the sheriff and uh I need the glucose, right? So, I don’t want you to break down so much glucose. I 
don’t want you to shut down completely, glycogen breakdown. And same thing for to the liver, right? 
I don’t want you to shut down completely because   we all die, especially me, the brain, right? But 
I want you to break down less uh glycogen. So now your brain starts diverting energy from your 
muscles for itself. And as Joel Jameson points out, people underestimate the rest of their life. 
People don’t necessarily expect that because they feel like, oh, the workout’s the most impactful 
thing. Well, it is in a way, but it’s also only   an hour, maybe 2 hours. It’s the rest of your life 
that also adds up to a huge amount of stress if you are very, very stressed. And if you’re going 
through your life, you know, in a in that kind of   type A, I’m always turned on. I can’t turn off 
my stress. that has a very big impact. He also points out that things like politics and social 
media and the stock market, all these seemingly little irritants end up negatively affecting heart 
rate variability more than your workout. And these are the stressors that are actually within our 
control. You might be surprised at how working   on the stressors impact your recovery and your 
life. But this next one is even easier. It’s number four, a proper cool down. If your rides 
end with the group sprinting, pushing to the end, or hammering out of the tough trail that you just 
finished, you’re missing out on the first part of   your recovery. In Next Level, Dr. Sims writes, 
“By continuing to move at an easy, relaxed pace, you allow your body to quickly drop your heart 
rate and start to shift your blood distribution. If you go from like full sprint to full stop, the 
blood pools in your legs, which can not only make you feel dizzy, but also stall the recovery 
process because it limits your ability to get key nutrients into your muscle cells so they can 
repair. Maintaining the blood flow back and forth from your muscles with a proper cool down enhances 
nutrient exchange and muscle repair. You know, think about it. What do the tour riders do at the 
end of every stage? they get on the trainer for   an easy spin, right? If it’s time for a rest day, 
you should probably consider a recovery workout. Just because Garmin says your recovery is 54 hours 
doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything. In fact,   you could speed up your recovery from sore muscles 
or a hard ride from the day before with a walk or a really easy spin around the neighborhood. I 
think like for me, the most challenging thing   about this is keeping it super easy. If I go 
out on my bike, it’s going to be hard to stay in heart rate zone one. That’s for sure. So, I 
usually do a brisk walk. Joel Jameson says 25 to 35 minutes for a recovery workout is the sweet 
spot and no longer than 45 minutes. And in return, you’re going to get blood flow into the muscle 
fibres without too much stress. You’re going   to turn up your parasympathetic nervous system, 
and you’re going to drive up HRV. And remember, it’s a key indicator of your readiness each 
day. And remember, getting your heart rate down quickly after your ride or workout will also help 
speed up recovery. And that’s why Dr. Andy Galpin recommends number six, box breathing. Here’s why. 
You can actually start kickstart that recovery process at the end of your current training 
session. And I guess I should say this way, I strongly suggest you start this recovery 
process immediately after the workout. You mentioned earlier about this idea of you 
got to get a really high peak of stress to cause adaptation, but I actually didn’t explain that 
correctly because what has to happen is you need   that extremely high peak, but you then you have to 
be met with an extremely sharp recovery back down. And he goes on to talk about how box breathing, 
preferably lying down for a minimum of 3 minutes. And Dr. Stacy Sims also recommends deep breathing 
exercise to lower stress throughout the day. I I do box breathing exercises when I go to bed 
each night, focusing on shorter inhales and longer exhales. I think it’s something like anyone can 
do, but a maybe a little less accessible though is number seven, heat and cold therapies. While 
Rhonda Patrick, Andy Galpin, and Joel Jameson all love heat for muscle stiffness. If you’ve 
done a super fatiguing ride, getting in a sauna may actually add too much additional stress. 
However, a jacuzzi for endurance athletes may help de-stress those muscles. On the other hand, 
Dr. Stacy Sims says women’s core temperatures take longer to return to normal. And cold plunges, 
a swim in the lake, or a cool shower can help with that. And if you’re getting in a pool or 
the tub, the compression alone from the water will also assist your muscles. And speaking 
of compression, how about number eight, a good massage? Unlike the tour riders, you 
probably don’t have a masseuse standing by for your post ride rub down. And you’re probably not 
going to invest in these compression leg thingies, which actually apparently do help. But you 
probably have a foam roller, a lacrosse ball, a golf ball, maybe even a the gun to loosen up 
those knots that can lead to the dreaded doms, delayed onset muscle soreness. Studies show that 
the benefits of massage aren’t just subjective. It speeds up the recovery process. Massage flushes 
the muscles so that you push out the fluid that carries the waste products of muscle breakdown and 
makes way for fresh nutrient-rich blood to come in and help repair and rebuild. Here’s what mobility 
expert Dr. Kelly Starret has to say about foam rolling. It’s a wonderful tool to decrease DOMS, 
delayed onset muscle soreness. So, in the evening, you blow out your quads, do a little soft tissue 
work, and what you’ll see is maybe that’s blood   flow, maybe it’s non-threatening input, maybe it’s 
just massage, maybe it’s just the parasympathetic input that massage has, touch, right? Just 
downregulates. Maybe those are the reasons I feel   better. But the bottom line is, is that a good use 
of her time? Yes. Are all techniques on the roller the same? No. Okay. So, when a muscle doesn’t feel 
great, here’s what to do. take a big inhale. So, I take a 4 secondond inhale. I want to teach 
myself that I need to be able to breathe in this position. But what we’re going to do is 
we’re going to say it’s okay to breathe here   and I’m going to contract here. And then I’m going 
to slowly relax and soften. That’s tempo. That’s moving slowly and I can handle higher loads. 
And what’ll end up happening is if I repeat that cycle two or three times, guess what? My brain 
desensitizes that. Changes range of motion. and my brain suddenly is like that’s not a problem 
anymore. So, we just move on. He also said, and I’ve had way better results with this, that when 
you find a muscle that’s tight, instead of rolling it lengthwise, find the knot and then roll side 
to side against the knot. And to paraphrase Dr. Starret, anytime we’re able to prevent DOMS is an 
opportunity to get back on the bike sooner, right? Because really, the long-term bonus of our rides 
and gym days is health span. You don’t want to be hobbling around or nursing injuries. You want to 
feel great. And that brings me back full circle to the $64,000 question I posited off the top. 
If we ignore the signs, if we chuck the recovery toolkit, how much is too much? Like if we get it 
all wrong, can we actually burn too many candles and shorten our health span? Well, it turns out 
that true overtraining is pretty rare. When we talk about overtraining, the reality of it is many 
of you probably have heard it or used that term and maybe even think you’ve experienced it. But to 
be totally honest, and I don’t mean to offend you, but it’s very, very unlikely any of you 
have really experienced true overtraining. That term is used incorrectly the majority of the 
time. We actually need to overreach to improve. Think about it. If you just like easy pedal for an 
hour each time, you’d never get any stronger. But   when you throw in some 80 or 100k rides with some 
spicy hill climbs and then give yourself a day or two to recover, chances are good you’re going 
to come back stronger. But let’s say you don’t give yourself the recovery you need and maybe you 
keep going on like this. Then you might actually get into non-functional overreaching which could 
require days or weeks of recovery just to get back to your baseline without any improvement. 
Physician researcher Dr. Mike Joiner gives some pretty straightforward advice. Dr. James 
would tell you that once people start doing   more than about five or six hard hard sessions 
every two weeks, you’re beginning to ask for some sort of load management issue. whether it’s 
orthopedics, whether it’s just you’re fatigued,   whether it’s this, whether it’s that. So, I do 
think that that um you you want to do something literally. I mean, I can’t remember the last 
day I didn’t do anything. It’s probably been, you know, years. But, but but my guess is the the 
number of times I do something hard is, you know, 120 130 times per year. And I and my guess is I I 
never go more than a week without doing something relatively intense. According to a deep dive by 
Dr. Peter’s team, sudden cardiac death happens at a rate of 1 in 100,000 marathon participants 
up to an hour after the race. More likely though is developing atrial fibrillation. Dr. IA says 
there’s about a five-fold increase in developing what he calls athlete aphib for endurance folks 
with 10,000 hours or more under their belt. And while he says that Aphib can be a real nuisance, 
it is manageable. In his membersonly content, he says even if he had the time for say 20 hours 
of cardio a week, I wouldn’t expose my pump to that. That’s interesting, right? But he added, 
“It’s the rare patient that needs to be told to exercise less. An endurance athletes overall 
risk of heart disease is lower than average.” Of course, we are all different and I don’t know your 
health situation, so you know, it’s always good to check in with your doctor. Just remember this from 
Dr. Sims. Everyone focuses on the actual training part of training, but you are not getting fitter 
and faster and stronger during these sessions. That’s the damage phase. When you’re breaking 
your body down, you’re getting fitter and faster and stronger after those sessions. During the 
adaptation phase, that’s when your body says, “Whoa, what just happened? I need to rally and 
strengthen the muscles and build the mitochondria and forge some new capillary beds so I’m ready 
to go when she wants to do that again.” So, don’t short change it. Earlier I talked about 
my biggest recovery weakness, sleep, and how, touchwood, I’ve managed to figure it out. 
But it wasn’t obvious. And figuring it out has put me on the road to where I’m at now. I 
talked about how I solved that in this video, and it’s starting right now. I’ll see you 
soon. Studies show that the benefits of m flushes your muscles. [Music] 
massage. That’s just a study show. [Music] I need water. Help me.