Recovery Smoothies

As all endurance athletes know (or are learning), recovery is key. There’s plenty of back and forth about the benefits of ice baths, compression clothing and post-race massage, but it’s pretty well accepted that what you put in your body after a race or hard workout really matters. Of course, I haven’t always known this. After swimming or water polo in high school and college, I’d gorge on whatever the dining hall offered. When I first got into triathlons, I pretty much neglected recovery altogether. Eventually, I started using commercial recovery drinks…and now I’m all about the recovery smoothie—and I’m pretty sure I’m recovering faster than ever before.

My ingredients change with the contents of our freezer, but overall, the recipe looks something like this:

Disclaimer: I don’t measure the fruit or the juice, so the amounts listed below are just guesses.

Combine the following in a blender:

1 banana

~2 cups of organic frozen fruit (mango, pineapple, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries*, blackberries*, whatever floats your boat)

1 tbsp. hemp protein

1 tbsp. ground flaxseed

Water or cranberry-pomegranate juice** (Enough to reach about halfway up the fruit)

optional: 1 tsp. gelatinized maca and a glob of agave syrup (Maca tastes kind of burnt to me so I need the agave syrup to mask the flavor.)

1. Blend.

2. Pour.

3. Drink.

*Raspberries and blackberries can be annoyingly seedy.

**If you use pineapple, I recommend using water. If you use peaches, I recommend using juice. If you’re using pineapples and peaches, go with water.