Ironman Recovery: A Veteran Competitor’s Suggestions

While some people prefer to spend a Saturday Netflix and chilling, for Jill Walker, there’s nothing higher than heading out for a 2.4-mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bike ride, and topped off with a 26.2-mile run—aka an Ironman triathlon.

Walker accomplished her first Ironman in 2007, and was immediately hooked. “I just, you understand, enjoyed being on the market all day,” she says. “What higher method to spend a day than swimming, biking, and running?”

Which is why, over the past 16 years, she’s accomplished 68 of those extreme endurance triathlons. That math works out to greater than 4 Ironmans per 12 months. For comparison, the typical athlete takes about 5 – 6 months to coach for this sort of race, after which one other two to 4 weeks to get well afterwards.

Walker doesn’t exactly do average, though. Earlier this 12 months, she and her husband, Dougin, accomplished six Ironman races on six continents in six weeks as a part of their quest to hitch “the club” of people that’ve done every Ironman on the earth (a club of which there are currently only five members). Last 12 months, they accomplished two Ironmans in a single weekend—one in Kalmar, Sweden, on Saturday followed by one other in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Sunday. The Tampa, Florida–based couple even got married on the bike course through the 2022 Ironman in Cozumel before ending the remainder of the race. Casual.

Walker’s number-one key to recovering well enough to compete so often

This begs the query: How on the earth does someone keep their body not only healthy, but recovered enough to compete in major endurance events so close together? (And Walker is competitive—during her six-in-six-weeks challenge, Walker won her age group within the Philippines and took second in Brazil.)

“Sleep is my superpower,” admits Walker. “I get, on average, nine to 10 hours an evening.” Even in foreign hotels, or on planes during travel days, she sleeps well, she says. “I can just lay down anywhere and fall asleep. Once my head hits the pillow, it’s like I am going right into a coma,” she jokes.

This ability to sleep helps explain how Walker can manage such high volume. As experts will let you know, sleep is probably the most powerful muscle recovery tool we’ve. “Non-REM sleep is related to the very best levels of growth hormone release during a day, allowing muscles to heal and grow,” Ben Smarr, professor at University of California San Diego in bioengineering and data science, previously told Well+Good. That human growth hormone helps repair the microscopic muscle tears that occur during exercise, helping your body bounce back and grow stronger.

And for endurance athletes like Walker, the muscle repair process that happens during sleep also helps improve your body’s stamina, in response to Jeff Monaco, Gold’s Gym director of education. “If a person is engaged in endurance training, the body will respond by increasing the oxidative capability of those muscle fibers through increases in mitochondrial density and size,” he previously told Well+Good, adding that sleep also helps to maintain your endocrine, immune, and nervous systems functioning properly in order that your body can operate at full strength. (FYI: mitochondria are your cell’s battery packs aka energy sources.)

The results of all this physiology are something Walker has long relied on. “I do know there are lots of people who are like, ‘I can sleep six hours and be nice,’ ” she says. “I’m just not one among those people.”

Her other recovery tools

Sleep would be the primary recovery technique Walker uses to get her to begin line after start line, but it surely’s not the just one. Listed below are a number of of her other non-negotiables:

1. Chocolate milk

“We’ve got chocolate milk after any form of workout, any form of race,” Walker says. Research has shown this tasty childhood treat has an optimal ratio of carbs to protein for post-workout recovery.

2. Consistent body work

Walker and Dougin go to a chiropractor and in addition get a 90-minute massage every week. “It’s not a calming massage,” Walker clarifies, with fun. “Our massage guy beats us up, but it surely’s what we’d like.”

3. Normatec boots

Hyperice’s Normatec 3 Legs use a rhythmic series of compression out of your feet as much as your hips to encourage blood flow for faster recovery. “Additionally they get me to take a seat still,” Walker admits.

4. Massage guns

Walker repeatedly uses portable massage guns, which have been proven to increase muscle strength and power, and to scale back muscle pain. In truth, having one is such a “must,” that when the couple forgot to bring their Theragun to a race, they ended up buying a Hypervolt while they were there. Additionally they own the Theragun mini for straightforward packing. “It helps refresh, and make you are feeling higher,” says Walker.