Recovery Tips From Two Experts

Chris Hickey hurdling. The Potomac Valley Track Club sprinter/hurdler is 62 years old and knows about the power of recovery in multi-day events for Geezer Jocks.

By Ray Glier

This week, in the four-day USA Track & Field Masters Indoor Championships, sometimes the best ability is availability.

Multiple teams, men and women, have multiple athletes doing multiple events Thursday through Sunday. For instance, Hélène Myers, 70, profiled in this issue of Geezer Jock, could do as many as 10 events.

It’s all about recovery.

Geezer Jock, that’s me, asked two Masters track & field veterans for tips on recovery, which are useful for any meet, or for week-to-week training. 

Chris Hickey, 62, a veteran Masters sprinter/hurdler and Potomac Valley Track Club board member and coach, and Rick Riddle, 73, a veteran 200/400 runner, a track coach at the Villages Track Club in central Florida, and author, shared some tips.

Both men are entered in events this week.

Whether you are at a four-day event, or just training week-to-week, these tips are useful. Both men took different approaches, depending on the context of my question.

For Rick, these four things are pillars to recovery for a four-day event:

1.    Sleep -- It is important if you are looking for peak performance to achieve a high efficiency of sleep to induce recovery. It's not always easy because you are usually with teammates and your event times may vary from their event times, so sleep is often put on a back burner or interrupted by activity nearby the sleeping location - even noise and clatter from a hallway of the hotel. Be prepared with a predetermined sleep schedule, maybe ear plugs, and a mask to mimic total darkness.

2.    Food -- Food is usually more difficult than you would expect during a 4 day meet, particularly where travel is involved. Pre-plan times for food and the restaurant or grocery list involved. Make the eating plans strategically around your events. Being properly fueled for your event is a strategic recovery action.

3.    Rest -- Save touring a new city for after the meet. Save your energy between events by staying in restful spots, your hotel room or other spots where it is easy to find rest. Do not aimlessly wander around the event just because you want to take it all in. I spent a lot of my career traveling with, rooming with and and competing with the remarkable world champion Charles Allie. I have lasting memories of Charlie lying in bed with headphones (or sleeping) between his scheduled events. This is a recovery strategy closely related to the sleep recovery strategy. Stay still and restful.

4.    Hydration -- Performance diminishes when athletes are dehydrated. The research is undisputed!

Chris Hickey had some tips, event to event, in the managing of your body and maintaining performance.

“Even in your normal training you need to help your body recover,” Chris said. “One of my track mentors reminded me, ‘You're not normal, you’re in the top 1% of the population of your age group of what you're doing to your body and you have to help the body recover'.”

Many tips Hickey learned came from the book The Athletes Guide to Recovery, which is in its second edition.

“A big thing I stole from the first edition was the creation of a competition plan for this upcoming week, which is four pages long,” Chris said. “I suffer from a bit of performance anxiety, and I started creating these competition plans back in ‘21 when we came out of COVID, and it's basically an itinerary.”

If he has a running event at 5 p.m., he has to be at the track at 3:00 He can then start his warm-up I list. 

“It's like a prescription, so I don't have to think,” Hickey said. “Being retired military, it kind of appeals to me that way. I don't have to fret. I don't worry. There's my plan, and I execute it.”

After the event, Chris has an immediate regimen to recover.

*He walks until he can get his heart rate under 120.

*He does a yoga pose “legs up the wall” for three to five minutes, longer if he can. 

*He does a series of five stretches.

*Last, he uses the roller for his legs, a staple for 14 years.

Here are just two more tips so you are not overloaded:

*Cut back on blue screen time, especially at night, because it impacts your ability to sleep.

*”I'm a firm believer that if you do something and you think it's positive to helping you, then it probably helps, right?,” Hickey said. “It’s sort of the placebo effect.”

One last thing. Chris is a retired Navy commander. He got a haircut last week. Trim and neat, lowering his ears with a close haircut gives him a psychological boost. He feels more athletic.

Whatever works.

Rick Riddle, a Masters track veteran, has four pillars to recovery in a multi-day event: Sleep, Rest, Food, Hydration.