What's in your bottle?

Murph100

Hmmm really need a power meter but I've a 3 week wait for the Powertap rental, so I'd like to be extracting the most from training until then, as opposed to just clocking up miles and aimless hill workouts.

As for feeling fresh after 4 hour group rides, it usually turns into KOM challenge on every climb followed by hammerfests on the flats, and into the red for the last few KMs. Might just have to do them on my own to keep it aerobic.

Lumen wrote: »

I don't really know much about HR zones. The charts I use (Coggans Power Training Levels) express HR as a % of lactate threshold rather than max HR. On those charts, the boundary between endurance and tempo is 83.5% of LT HR.

From a perceived effort p.o.v., I think the point is that if you're training most days you should come back from a 4 hour ride feeling fresh, not knackered, in order that you can go out the next day and do the higher intensity work properly.

This is all a bit irrelevant to those of us who are cycling for fun, not attempting to train at the limits of recovery, or fitting training around a busy lifestyle. Just ride your bike etc

worded

ROK ON wrote: »

I was cycling with a doctor recently. He commented that coffee was a particular no no. The initiall high is not long lasting and is followed by a low.

I really loved coffee and tea and red bull but I was convinced to give up caffeine by two medical people two weeks ago. Its a temp high. You pay for it hours later. Whats the point of that? You will feel better after another coffee though. Fcuk that, just dont take the crap and do your body a favour.

DirkVoodoo

Caffeine and Athletic Performance

Despite considerable research in this area, the role of caffeine as a performance enhancing drug is still controversial. Some of the data are conflicting, which is in part due to how the experimental studies were designed and what methods were used. However, there is general agreement in a few areas:

1. Caffeine does not appear to benefit short term, high intensity exercise (eg. sprinting)
2. Caffeine can enhance performance in endurance sports.

Glycogen is the principal fuel for muscles and exhaustion occurs when it is depleted. A secondary fuel, which is much more abundant, is fat. As long as there is still glycogen available, working muscles can utilize fat. Caffeine mobilizes fat stores and encourages working muscles to use fat as a fuel. This delays the depletion of muscle glycogen and allows for a prolongation of exercise. The critical time period in glycogen sparing appears to occur during the first 15 minutes of exercise, where caffeine has been shown to decrease glycogen utilization by as much as 50%. Glycogen saved at the beginning is thus available during the later stages of exercise. Although the exact method by which caffeine does this is still unclear, caffeine caused sparing in all of the human studies where muscle glycogen levels were measured. The effect on performance, which was observed in most experimental studies, was that subjects were able to exercise longer until exhaustion occurred.

In addition to the beneficial effects on muscle, caffeine may alter the perception of how hard you are working. During testing, athletes are asked to judge their effort, which is referred to as the rating of perceived exertion (RPE). Some studies have yielded significantly lower RPE's -- less fatigue -- when the athlete used caffeine. Other studies have not found this effect. Obviously, the RPE is very subjective, and there are many things that may influence it.

http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/caffeine.html

And:

When co-ingested with carbohydrate, caffeine increased fat use and decreased nonmuscle glycogen carbohydrate use over carbohydrate alone when participants are in negative energy balance; however, caffeine had no effect on the 20 km cycling time trial

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19088765

Although:

These findings indicate that caffeine ingestion stimulated the sympathetic nervous system but did not alter the carbohydrate or fat metabolism in the monitored leg. Other tissues must have been involved in the changes in circulating potassium, fatty acids, glucose and lactate.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11118510

I guess if you feel having a coffee before heading out for a race makes a difference, go for it.

DirkVoodoo

Murph100 wrote: »

As for feeling fresh after 4 hour group rides, it usually turns into KOM challenge on every climb followed by hammerfests on the flats, and into the red for the last few KMs. Might just have to do them on my own to keep it aerobic.

I know what you mean!

When you see Diarmuid move out into the middle of the road and make cursory glances over his shoulder, you know it's on! I have yet to develop the discipline for heading out on a cycle with the intention of staying in a specific zone, cycling is too much fun and I'm not a pro!

jimshady101

Short spins I just use water.

Over 60km I use a Reflex Nutrition The Edge.

100Km or more, two bottle of the stuff along with may a Maximuscle Boost Bar and a Powerbar Gel :-)

fenris

Water for less than an hour or Zym without caffeine

Zym with caffeine - for MTB or just days that I don't really want to go out on the road bike but know that I should


High Five - fruit flavour for longer spins

el tel

I use Zipvit Energy Drink Elite, it's nicely flavoured and seems to work well. I accidentally used Zipvit Recovery Drink Rapide (chocolate flavour) and it was rotten - like drinking dirty diswater.

But I'm intrigued by this Nuun stuff. Do you all mean Blue Nun? It has a handy screw cap!

Lumen

el tel wrote: »

But I'm intrigued by this Nuun stuff. Do you all mean Blue Nun? It has a handy screw cap!

Christ on a bike, it it the 1970s again?

I raise you...

alfalad

Lumen wrote: »

Christ on a bike, it it the 1970s again?

Ok