Laura Muir, Charlie Da’Vall Grice, Ellie Baker and Kyle Langford explain what you should do after sessions to get the most out of your training

Laura Muir says she sometimes gets strange looks from people wondering why she is carrying a bucket around with her everywhere she goes. The European champion fills it with ice and water to dip her lower legs into after training. On other occasions, she has been known to stand in frozen lakes at high altitude training camps in order to reduce inflammation.

“We do pretty intense track sessions,” she says, “and we usually ice a lot afterwards, so I usually do a 10-minute ice bath. I use a bucket that goes up to my knees so I often have my own bucket that I cart around everywhere.

“Then I often get physio treatment afterwards too in the form of a sports massage. That might last about an hour and flushes the legs out and gets rid of any tightness in the calfs, hamstrings or back.”

The 26-year-old is talking about recovery techniques with fellow middle-distance runners Ellie Baker, Charlie Da’Vall Grice and Kyle Langford, plus British Athletics head of endurance Barry Fudge, at a Nike Running event in St Moritz.

The Swiss mountain resort is where the athletes were based over the summer. The thin air at 1850m above sea level is ideal to train in, but for the training to have its best effect it is vital to employ the best recovery techniques.

Ice baths aside, eating and drinking as soon as possible after a session is recommended. “I usually make my own smoothies with things like milk, yoghurt, banana and honey,” says Muir. “So when I’m recovering I have carbs and a bit of dairy in there too.”

Grice agrees: “Recovery starts as soon as I finish my session. I usually try to get in a recovery shake as quickly as possible. They say you have a 30-minute window. Sometimes I use gels too and make sure I’m hydrated.”

Often there is the need to improvise as well. “I was doing a track session in Italy recently,” says Grice, referring to one of his group’s regular trips from St Moritz to Chiavenna, just over the Swiss-Italian border. “I ran out of my protein powder so I just bought myself a pint of milk and I got that down me.”

For Baker, recovery methods were important after her heat at the European Under-23 Championships in Sweden this summer. She took silver in the final behind fellow Brit Jemma Reekie and says: “Straight after my heat I tried to get my protein shake down as quickly as I could. Then I did my cool down jog and then physio where I can get a flush for my legs.

“Then back at the hotel in a situation like that I would typically have dinner and do a contrast shower. I’d do a minute on warm and a minute on cold repeated three times. It helps flush the lactic out so I feel ready to go again the next day. I also use Normatec – which compresses my legs and helps the recovery.”

Sleep cannot be underestimated too. “It’s massive,” says Langford. “Sometimes after a big session if I’ve had a lot of coffee then I might not sleep too great so I might sometimes struggle to get to sleep and, if so, I try to have a lie in.

“If I do a morning session I will often have a nice two-hour nap after doing all my recovery stuff. This means that if I don’t sleep too well at night then I have got this back up. Once dinner is done in the evening I start winding things down and get ready for sleep because I know it’s massively important. They say an hour before midnight is worth two after so I always try to get to sleep by 10.30-11pm although it doesn’t always work that way.”

Trying to sleep after a race is more difficult as many athletes now take caffeine before their event as a legal performance boost. “If you take caffeine and you’re racing at about 10 o’clock and then you have a drugs test and don’t get back to the hotel until about 1am then it’s horrible,” says Langford.

Muir says she struggles to take afternoon naps because she was always used to being so busy when doing her veterinary studies. But Grice says: “I always try to have an afternoon nap. It’s one of my many talents. I can sleep anywhere.

“Getting eight hours a night is very important. I think there have been studies that say if you get less than eight hours then you’re twice as likely to get injured.

“There’s a lot of money spent on gadgets and stuff but people maybe forget the real basics such as sleep.”

Grice, Langford and others in St Moritz like 800m man Elliot Giles often do a hard gym workout after their track session. They feel it is better to have a really hard day followed by a good recovery day rather than doing hard sessions every day. Given this, the pace and nature of recovery runs are important.

Grice’s assistant coach Dan Stepney has jokingly coined the phrase “sexy pace” to describe a casual, conversational pace that helps the body recover. Fudge adds that the slow recovery pace has been dubbed “the Kenyan shuffle” when the athletes do it when training at altitude in Iten.

Langford says: “Myself and Charlie pretty much go on feel if we do a recovery run together. Sometimes we just plod or go as slow as we want to go. But if one of us wants to go faster then we let them go.”

They will typically do a track session earlier in the day followed by a gym session in the afternoon and then a 20-30-minute jog to end the day. “It just gets the lactic out and stops you stiffening up,” says Langford, “otherwise you feel terrible the next day.”

Muir uses a heart rate monitor to judge her pace. “I usually run about sub-6min mile pace throughout the year but in the summer it becomes a little faster – maybe up to around 5:30min mile pace,” she says.

“I wear a heart rate monitor all the time for every run. When it comes to altitude we run to the heart rate so because we have so much data now from running over the years we know what my heart rate is at sea level when I do a run so when I come to altitude I have an alert on my watch during the first few days of altitude which tells me that if I get to a certain level then I should slow down a bit.”

Is there anything the athletes neglect? “Stretching!” says Baker. “I try to stretch after sessions but sometimes forget!”

“Sleep,” says Muir. “I get a good sleep but I never really nap during the day. It’d be good to be able to nap but I’m used to feeling so busy that it’s hard to switch off.”

“Sleep for me too,” Grice adds. “I’m rarely in bed before 11pm. So that’s why I try to nap in the day. I’m a midnight muncher too.”

“Same for me,” says Langford. “I go through stages where I’m really on it where I go to sleep at 10.30pm and nap in the day but that usually lasts about two weeks before I go back to a period of going to sleep too late.”

As for tips for ordinary athletes? Baker wears special glasses at night to block out the blue light from her phone and help her sleep, while Langford recommends Epsom salts.

Muir adds that regular physio or massage is something she has several times a week and which can help keep injuries at bay.

Going easy on supplements is Grice’s advice. “I take a multi-vitamin, probiotic, fish oils,” he says. “But I think you can take too many supplements and kind of overdose on them.

“It’s better to get all these things in your diet with real food. It all has to be Informed Sport too.”

INDIANAPOLIS – Longtime nitro tuner Mike Neff has been signed as a full-time co-crew chief of Bob Tasca III’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Funny Car, effective immediately.

Neff was already working with Tasca this season, on loan from Don Schumacher Racing as Tony Schumacher’s Top Fuel dragster team sits idle without sponsorship, prior to Tuesday afternoon’s formal acquisition.

Neff will work alongside Jon Schaffer, who joined Tasca Racing in May, as co-crew chief of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Funny Car.

Per Tasca, Neff’s deal with the team is a multi-year agreement.

“Mike Neff brings a level of experience and tone to the team that is invaluable,” Tasca said. “Neff and Jon compliment each other so well. Our success on track this year shows it. It’s so important to have the right combination of people behind you and I think we’ve done that.”

So far this season, Tasca has two wins, two runner-up finishes and three semifinal finishes on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series trail. He sits fifth in points with two playoff races to go on the year.

“I’m excited to be back working on a Funny Car,” Neff said. “And I’m excited to be back with Jon (Schaffer). Jon and I have worked together quite a bit in the past and we have a great working relationship. It’s good to be back working with Bob and his family, too. Bob worked hard to get Ford back. They have a great team over there at Ford Performance and it’s good to see them in drag racing again.”

LONG POND, Pa. – Pocono Raceway will host 1,250 miles of racing as part of the track’s 2020 NASCAR Doubleheader Week, June 25-28, 2020.

The historic event will feature five races between NASCAR and ARCA in four days, including two NASCAR Cup Series races taking place on back-to-back days – a first in NASCAR history.

The 2020 NASCAR Doubleheader week will open with ARCA Menards Series practice, qualifying and the General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible 200 on Thursday.

On-track action on Friday will include NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series practice and qualifying, along with two scheduled NASCAR Cup Series practice sessions.

Saturday’s events will feature NASCAR Xfinity Series practice, NASCAR Cup Series qualifying to set the field for that day’s race, a 150-mile Gander Trucks race and a 325-mile NASCAR Cup Series race.

Xfinity Series qualifying, the Pocono Green 225 Recycled by J.P. Mascaro & Sons Xfinity Series race and a 350-mile NASCAR Cup Series race rounds out the motorsports buffet on Sunday.

The field for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race will be set by inverting the lead-lap finishers from Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series race.

The race length for the Gander Trucks event was adjusted to allow for more access to Pit/Paddock Pass holders between the day’s events.

SOUTH BOSTON, Va. – By most standards, Bobby McCarty’s CARS Tour season has been superb.

He’s won twice in 10 starts, had eight top-five finishes and leads the series’ Late Model Stock points race headed into the AutosByNelson.com 250 season finale Saturday afternoon at South Boston Speedway.

But McCarty has pretty high standards, which means he’s not totally happy with his season, even though he takes a nine-point championship lead over JR Motorsports driver Josh Berry into the final race of the year.

“This year has kind of been up and down. We started out decent. We have had good runs, we just haven’t been able to put everything together like last year,” said McCarty. “It’s been good overall, but it should have been better.”

The 2018 season, McCarty’s first full CARS Tour campaign for Nelson Motorsports, was impressive: featuring four wins in 12 starts, 12 top-10 finishes, a 4.25 average finish and of course, the series championship.

“We set the standard for ourselves really high last year. We had four wins and never finished out of the top 10,” said McCarty. “We just set really high standards to go back and try to do better. It’s racing and some years you have a whole season where it seems you can’t do anything wrong. Last season was one of those.”

McCarty and his entire Nelson Motorsports team knew 2019 would be tougher than his debut season on the CARS Tour when he was somewhat of an unknown.

“When you have a season like we had last year, everybody is going to be coming for you … people are out to beat you,” said McCarty.

McCarty came into this event a year ago with a 12-point lead over Lee Pulliam and, despite some problems in the race, still managed to win the championship by 17 points. He will bring a nine-point lead over Berry into Saturday’s race.

“First and foremost, I want to win the race,” said McCarty. “Championships are cool, but with the season we’ve had, I feel like we need to win the race. But at the same time, if our car isn’t quite there, I just want to outrun the 88 car (Berry).”

South Boston Speedway is McCarty’s home track. He ran several full seasons at the historic venue, winning races and contending for championships. But, he says, that isn’t an advantage when the CARS Tour comes to town.

“You could say that based of my history in a full-sized car, this should be a home race for us, but running the cars tour, you get used to running different tracks,” said McCarty, who will be sponsored Saturday by Solid Rock Carriers, Autos By Nelson, Toyota, Blue Ridge Color Company, BTS Tire and Wheel, ValleyStar Credit Union and Patrick Henry Community College.

 “It is my home track and I love going there but running the CARS Tour is really different. It shows who you are as a driver. You’re never going to the same place week in and week out.

“I feel like I’ve sort of lost touch with South Boston a bit the past couple of years, but it’ll always be home.”

GAFFNEY, S.C. – JD Motorsports with Gary Keller announced Tuesday that Stefan Parsons will pilot the No. 15 Chevrolet Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway.

This weekend will mark Parson’s sixth career NASCAR Xfinity Series start, and first-ever NASCAR national series start at Texas.

Parsons, who is the son of NASCAR on FOX analyst Phil Parsons, comes from a family with a long heritage throughout the sport of NASCAR. His father, Phil, raced throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s and has two Xfinity and one NASCAR Cup Series win to his name.

Meanwhile Stefan’s uncle, Benny Parsons, recorded 21 career Cup Series wins, along with the 1973 Cup Series championship.

In five previous Xfinity Series starts this season, Parsons has a best career finish of 12th – which came at Daytona Int’l Speedway in July.

All of Stefan’s prior starts were made driving for fellow JD Motor driver B.J. McLeod at B.J. McLeod Motorsports.

Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 will mark the first time that the two will be teammates, as McLeod will be driving the team’s No. 4 Chevrolet for the fourth time this season.

“I’m really thankful to Johnny Davis and everybody involved with JD Motorsports with Gary Keller for giving me the opportunity to get behind the wheel of the No. 15 Chevrolet this weekend,” said Parsons. “Johnny and his team have come a long way in a short span of time, and I am eager to see what we can do at Texas. Hopefully, we are able to close out the season on a strong note.”

PLACERVILLE, Calif. – Matt Wood Racing has announced its driver lineup for the inaugural Elk Grove Ford Hangtown 100, Nov. 19-20 at Placerville Speedway.

Matt Wood Racing has brought on an eclectic mix of drivers to take part in the NOS Energy Drink USAC National and USAC Western States midget event, which features a $130,000 purse over two nights of racing.

The MWR/Elk Grove Ford team will be made up of Shane Golobic, Ryan Bernal, Colby Copeland, Australia’s Kaidon Brown and a fifth car to be announced.

Golobic is the full-time pilot of the Matt Wood Racing machine and has been a several-time A-main starter at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Okla., along with being a former Indiana Midget Week champion.

He swept both nights of the Louie Vermeil Classic in 2018 and is a former two-time winner of the prestigious Trophy Cup for winged 360 sprint cars in Tulare, Calif. Golobic also drove the Elk Grove Ford/ NOS Energy Drink No. 17w to his second World of Outlaws victory this season at Placerville Speedway.

Bernal, a versatile driver out of California, has made the Chili Bowl A-main twice in his career, with the highlight being an impressive charge from 24th to fifth in 2018.

He also has a third-place finish at the Turkey Night Grand Prix in the past and a fourth-place result at the Hut Hundred.

Copeland, another Northern California racer, made the A-main at the Chili Bowl for the second time in his career this year.

He has accumulated big victories in winged sprint car racing at the Howard Kaeding Classic in Watsonville and in non-winged sprint car action at the Louie Vermeil Classic in Calistoga.

Australian racer Brown will make his first start in the United States for Matt Wood Racing, beginning at the Hangtown 100. The 18-year-old has been racing midgets for three-years and in 2017 became the youngest driver to win the Australian National Championship in the event’s 78-year history.

Brown has competed in New Zealand the last two seasons during the International Series racing against the likes of Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson. Brown is also the 2018/19 New South Wales midget champion.

Brown spoke about the opportunity to join Matt Wood Racing for not only the Hangtown 100, but also the NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series event at Bakersfield Speedway and the annual Turkey Night Grand Prix at Ventura Raceway.

“I am very excited to head over to America and race for the first time,” Brown noted. “I can’t thank Matt Wood enough for this amazing opportunity and look forward to working with him, as well as Shane and Dustin Golobic.

“Although it will be tough, hopefully I can put some good results together for the team.”

Three-time Stanley Cup champion Brent Seabrook will be a healthy scratch for the second straight game, and the Chicago Blackhawks' alternate captain isn't happy about it.

"I think I've been playing good," Seabrook told reporters Tuesday from Nashville. "I've obviously been on for some goals against. Tough situation, but I feel like I'm skating better. I feel like I've got a lot to offer this team."

Seabrook, 34, was scratched for Sunday's game against the Kings, a much-needed 5-1 win that snapped a four-game winless streak. He'll now sit against the Predators. Before this week, Seabrook had been a healthy scratch only one other time in his career -- in January 2018 by then-coach Joel Quenneville.

"I don't think I need rest," Seabrook said Tuesday. "I think I feel great. I'm 34. You guys seem to want to write articles about my age and my speed. I feel like I still got a lot to offer in this league and still be a good player for somebody."

Blame for the fall of the once-mighty Blackhawks has often coalesced around Seabrook. The league has gotten faster and he's gotten a little slower. And he still gets paid like a star, carrying the third-highest salary cap hit on the team. He's in the fourth year of an eight-year deal at $6.875 million per season that has a full no-movement clause for this season and then two more. This season, Seabrook has the worst Corsi For Percentage on the team at 43.9.

It all adds up to Seabrook being virtually untradable. Not that everyone wants to see him go, however. Teammates routinely call him the heart and soul of the teams that won Cups in 2010, '13 and '15 and even today as the Blackhawks rebuild on the fly.

That fact that Seabrook added that he could be a good player "for somebody," however, speaks to a new level of frustration for the blueliner.

Coach Jeremy Colliton said that veteran players can use some rest once in a while and emphasized that Seabrook can still help the team. He vowed to keep the lines of communication open. But Seabrook said there hasn't been extensive conversation.

"There is no conversation, he just told me," Seabrook said. "That's it."

Seabrook wasn't the only Blackhawks stalwart taking a backseat Tuesday. Goalie Corey Crawford sat for the fourth time in five games, with Robin Lehner getting the call in net.

The Boston Bruins have activated David Krejci from injured reserve.

The 33-year-old forward has been sidelined with an upper-body injury since Oct. 14.

He has one assist in five games for the Bruins, who are second in the Atlantic Division, two points behind the Sabres.

Juventus and Portugal superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has likened the Ballon d'Or to the Nobel Prize as he challenges for his sixth title.

Speaking with France Football after making the 30-man shortlist for the 2019 award, the 34-year-old made the comparison when revealing that he has learned from the likes of Michael Jordan and others -- not all athletes -- and their excellence.

"I have learned from him like I have learned from all of those who have excelled," Ronaldo said on Tuesday. "I am not just talking about sport either. I like to read things on the Nobel Prize -- who has invented, generated, created or developed something.

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"The Nobel Prize for these guys is like the Ballon d'Or for me. I like to know why they invented something and how they did it -- it is important, and it helps me to get even better."

Ronaldo also said he wants to remain at the top of football's elite for as many years as possible, and that he would only play "important games" if it were up to him.

"The national team games and the Champions League games are the type of games that motivate me most," said the Portuguese captain, who has five Champions League winners' medals to his name. "Games where you are playing for something, in a difficult environment with pressure. You have to be a professional and up to the standard every day to honour your family as well as the club that you represent and that pays you."

Ronaldo recently surpassed 700 career goals and revealed he considers his goal against Juventus in Real Madrid's 3-0 Champions League quarterfinal first-leg victory in April 2018 his best.

The former Manchester United and Sporting CP man rose high before acrobatically firing the ball into the corner of the net with an incredible bicycle kick.

"It was a goal I had tried to score for many years," he said. "It came at the crucial time, in an important game, against a great team and an exceptional goalkeeper, [Gianluigi] Buffon. You have to look at the height when I strike the ball. It was more than 2.4 metres. It is incredible. For me, it is the bicycle kick [that had] never [been] scored. And I do not say it because I did it."

Now within 100 goals of Josef Bican's all-time record of 805, Ronaldo admitted it is a record he could turn his attention towards, but also claimed he will not place too much importance on it.

"Looking at it that way, it could be an objective as I am not that far off," he said. "However, beating a record should never become an obsession. Everything I have in life has come naturally. What I am saying is that it has been a consequence of my efforts, not my objectives. If you focus on one goal to achieve, it gets in your head. It is when we are enjoying ourselves that the greatest things happen.

"That said, if I could beat that record..."

When asked to describe his qualities as a player, Ronaldo called himself "a complete player, without any weaknesses" but added "perfection does not exist," even if he works to become "the perfect footballer -- or as close as possible."

Ronaldo's secret of his success is "first talent, as without it you cannot do much. However, talent without work serves for nothing. Nothing falls from the sky. I would never have become who I am without my work ethic."

Ronaldo joined Juventus back in the summer of 2018 from Madrid in a €100m transfer and is tied to the Italian giants until June 2022.

"My aim is to keep myself young as I get older," he said. "In other words, to remain competitive. Approximately 70 percent of my life is football. You have to be intelligent to last. I call it the education of a player. You have to look after your life, nutrition and sleep."

Ronaldo believes he has lasted in football's elite between 16 years of age until now because he has "done things in order," as well as his "capacity to adapt" and "leave his comfort zone to face danger."

Ronaldo describes his rivalry with Barcelona captain Lionel Messi as "healthy," as it allowed both "to be better" while in Spain, "but more than anything, my motivation does not depend on others -- I want to constantly be in top shape."

A Euro 2016 winner in France, Ronaldo says he will have time to admire his career once he hangs up his boots and spends time with his family.

"I have been sacrificing myself for 15 years. After, I will admire what I have done. More than that, though, what I will do is enjoy my friends, my family, see my children grow up and study. I savour the present. I want to transmit my life experience. Not now, though, I still have a lot to give."