A triathlon is three disciplines. Your body treats them as one long demand: carbohydrate stores run down, fluid and electrolytes leave with sweat, muscle fibres take damage, and inflammation goes to work. What you do in the hours after you stop decides how much of that effort turns into fitness, and how soon you can train properly again.
That is why recovery is worth treating as a discipline in its own right. It is the one most athletes train the least.
Recovery has two jobs
The first is to restore: put back the fuel, fluid and building blocks you used, so the next session is not compromised before it starts. This matters most when the next effort is close: a race weekend, a training camp, two sessions in one day.
The second is to adapt: let the body rebuild stronger than it was. Adaptation is the reason you trained in the first place, and it runs on a slower clock: hours and days, not minutes.
Most of the time the two pull in the same direction. Occasionally they do not, which is where the timing of tart cherry comes in further down.
The three R's
1. Refuel: restore glycogen
Carbohydrate is the fuel that limits you. Long or hard sessions leave glycogen low in exactly the muscles you are about to ask for more, and the muscle is most receptive to refilling in the first hours after exercise.
Aim for 1.0-1.2 g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight, per hour, for the first 4 hours. That matters most when the next session is less than roughly 8 hours away. If you have a full day before the next effort, normal meals across the day will do the same job.
Appetite is often suppressed straight after a hard effort. Liquid carbohydrate goes down when food does not, which is the practical reason a recovery drink beats a plate you cannot face.
2. Repair: support muscle protein synthesis
Protein supplies the amino acids that repair damaged muscle and build new tissue. Take 0.3-0.4 g of protein per kg of body weight soon after finishing, alongside the carbohydrate.
Repair does not stop when you go to bed. A protein-rich snack before sleep supports muscle protein synthesis overnight, which is when a large part of the rebuilding happens.
3. Rehydrate: replace fluid and electrolytes
You finish lighter than you started, and almost all of that is fluid. Drinking the same volume back is not enough, because some of it is lost again as urine.
Aim to drink about 150% of the fluid you lost, spread over the next 2-4 hours. Include sodium and other electrolytes: they keep the drive to drink going and help the body hold on to what you take in, rather than passing it straight through.
What that means in numbers
| Target | Amount | Example: 70 kg athlete |
|---|---|---|
| Carbohydrate | 1.0-1.2 g/kg per hour, first 4 hours | 70-84 g per hour |
| Protein | 0.3-0.4 g/kg soon after finishing | 21-28 g |
| Fluid | ~150% of what you lost, over 2-4 hours | 1.5 l lost → ~2.25 l |
Weigh yourself before and after a long session once or twice: every kilogram lost is roughly a litre of fluid. It turns the fluid target from a guess into a number.
Tart cherry: acute recovery versus long-term adaptation
The inflammation that follows hard training feels like damage, but it is also the signal that tells the muscle to adapt. Blunting it with antioxidants speeds up how you feel in the short term, and can dampen the training response over the long term.
So tart cherry is not an everyday supplement. It is a tool for the moments when recovering fast matters more than adapting:
- stage races and multi-day events
- race weekends with heats, or two events close together
- the taper before an important race, when the training work is already done
- periods of unusually dense training or travel
During a normal training block, where the whole point is to adapt, leave it out.
Amacx Cherry Juice+ is a 500 ml ready-to-drink bottle with a standardised 125 mg of anthocyanins and 30 g of carbohydrate in a 2:1 ratio, so it covers part of the refuel and the rehydration at the same time. Amacx Cherry Gummy+ delivers the same standardised 125 mg in three gummies, with no bottle to carry and easy to take in a hotel room or a transition bag.
Use them for 5-7 days in a row around the target event, one to two servings a day: straight after exercise and/or shortly before bed. Tart cherry naturally contains melatonin, which is why the evening dose can also help you fall asleep, and sleep is the part of recovery no supplement replaces.
The first hour after the finish
The Amacx recovery range
- Recovery Shake: carbohydrate and protein in one shake, for the window straight after training.
- Recovery Bar: the same job in solid form, easy to keep in a race bag.
- Cherry Juice+: 500 ml ready to drink, 125 mg anthocyanins, 30 g carbohydrate.
- Cherry Gummy+: 125 mg anthocyanins in three gummies.
- Protein Delux and Vegan Protein Shake: for the pre-sleep protein and on rest days.
Swim, bike, run, and recover. See the whole Recovery line.
