An article from the New York Times: What exercise science doesn't know about women?
In brief, the article uses a specific study of cyclists - and how their performance in future workouts was affected by consuming protein (versus carbs) after a hard ride - to make the larger point that men and women are physiologically different in important ways that affect athletic performance. And further, the article states, most studies of athletic performance use men as their test subjects. This leads to results that are reported as blanket maxims for all athletes (including carbo-loading before long runs or ingesting protein immediately following a run).
Any woman, especially any woman who lives with (or has lived with/near) a man can tell you that men and women's metabolisms are vastly different. So how does it affect our performance that that commonly issued exercise guidelines may not hold true for women?
Just please, please don't take my post-long run chocolate milk recovery drink away from me.
On I went, out of the wood, passing the man leading without knowing I was going to do so. Flip-flap, flip-flap, jog-trot, jog-trot, curnchslap-crunchslap, across the middle of a broad field again, rhythmically running in my greyhound effortless fashion, knowing I had won the race though it wasn't half over, won it if I wanted it, could go on for ten or fifteen or twenty miles if I had to and drop dead at the finish of it, which would be the same, in the end, as living an honest life like the governor wanted me to. -Alan Sillitoe, "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"