Your stress is killing you and your performance!

This morning as I was standing at the local gas station, filling up my car, I heard the gentleman standing on the other side of the pump mumble “These things are so slow!”  I chuckled and agreed with him since they were pumping at about half the rate of the majority of fuel pumps.  After no more than a minute he ripped the nozzle out of his car, jammed it back into the holder, jumped into his truck and slammed the door behind him speeding off out of the parking lot. As I stood there in amazement of the fact that we as a society have got to the point where we are in such a hurry that we are unable to relax while something that saves us so much time in our daily lives (your vehicle) gets the fuel it needs to do it’s job.  More importantly than that I looked back to my annual goals that I spoke about in New Years Resolution? Not for Me! and reassessed goal number 5 of “Stay Positive.”  While this gentleman chose to get frustrated he missed out on SO many things around him.  The weather was amazing this morning at below 60degrees, the sun felt really warm on my bare arms and standing there not have to think about anything or do anything for those few minutes was relaxing in itself. Now, I am by no means optimistic 100% of the time which is why that was one of my goals for 2012 but I have noticed not only a difference in the way I feel day in and day out by surrounding myself with more optimistic thoughts and people.  Most importantly for many of you though I have felt a difference in my athletic performance.  It is widely known from research that an individual’s outlook on their overall ability can drastically increase their performance and help athlete’s to cope more successfully with the stress that can come with an event.  So, next time you get in a situation that is less that what you would hope for don’t act like the frustrated guy pumping gas, instead step back, take a look at the situation  and realize the affect of it in the grand scheme of things.

Just the Jitters or Something More?

For many people a morning cup of coffee or a coke is what is required to get the motor turning for a productive day of work.  That jolt of caffeine into the blood stream is like rocket fuel that propels people into throughout the day and probably for some a 2pm cup might be just the ticket for that post lunch food coma that gets you through the final hump of the day. One thing that you might not realize is that 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine, or caffeine, that blessed stimulant in coffee, chocolate and so much more, can actually help your athletic performance!  Research shows that for more endurance based sports, longer than roughly 5 minutes, improvements in performance can be seen. These performance benefits have a wide range of possibilities.  Since caffeine is a stimulant, like a great deal of drugs out there, it’s affects are hormonal, cardiovascular, muscular and also affects the central nervous system. Each individual has varying sensitivity to caffeine and research clearly shows that.  The ranges of caffeine that was proven effective varies from as low as 68mg to as much as 204mg, which either way is significantly less than a strongly brewed cup of coffee.  Much like anything else related to training you need to test this prior to event day.  Each person responds to caffeine differently and higher quantities do not always produce greater results.  Like many other stimulants it is possible to produce a tolerance to caffeine and therefore greater amounts will be required to equal the same response.  Likewise you can also suffer from the negative side affects of suddenly decreasing your total intake. How to best utilize:

  • It is not the best idea to introduce caffeine into your training the day of a big race or event.
  • Start with the smallest amount possible
    • Excessive amounts can cause unwanted results such as feeling jittery, anxiety or headaches
  • If caffeine is a part of your normal daily intake you will need to increase the amount to receive the same results.
  • If you are unable to find desirable results stop usage

Burke L, Cort M, Cox G, Crawford R, Desbrow B, Farthing L, Minehan M, Shaw N, Warnes O. Supplements and sports foods. In: Burke L, Deakin V. Clinical Sports Nutrition. 3rd ed. McGraw-Hill, 2006;485–581.Desbrow B. Leveritt M. Well-trained endurance athletes’ knowledge, insight, and experience of caffeine use. Int J Sports Nutr Exerc Metab 2007;17:328–339.Sokmen B, Armstrong LE, Kraemer WJ, Casa DJ, Dias JC, Judelson DA, Maresh CM. Caffeine use in sports: considerations for the athlete. J Strength Conditioning Res 2008;22:978–986.

The Miracle of Massage: Unmasked

An article posted in sciencemag.org in early February has many researchers, athletes and massage therapists with the knowledge of how they feel or make individuals feel after a massage could actually be due to a change of tissue at the structural cellular level. This research that was performed at McMasterson University Located in Hamilton, Canada showed from a series of muscle tissue samples that athletes who received a massage after a bout of exercise showed less inflamatory cells in the musculature and a greater amount of PGC-1alpha which is known to help muscle cells build mitochondria, the power plant of the cell. Interested in reading more about how massage was shown to decrease inflammation and increase recovery?  Go here for the article or the research.

Congratulations Phil!

We can not begin to express how proud we are of Coach Phil Gaimon on his win at the Redlands Bicycle Classic this weekend.  Phil’s dedication to his training, racing, nutrition and recovery has yielded great results for him in previous seasons and is starting his 2012 season off with a BANG!

Find a New Peak by Adding Some Intensity in Your Training

After a long winter many cyclist and triathletes will look back at the hours of tapping out a steady rhythm on the pedals for hours at a time accumulating base miles.  With the warmer weather approaching in many regions in the U.S.  there will be races and events for each and everyone to participate in if you haven’t already.  The one thing that has been neglected for months, if not longer for some, is our high end intensity.  VO2 work is not the most pleasant thing to do and I think that is probably why many of you have been avoiding it for so long, however, the gains that you can see from it is often very eye opening to many! I have had many of my athletes log in to look at their schedules and see a solid block of VO2 work and the next thing that usually happens is my phone starts ringing.  First they tend to start off with a half serious question of, “Are you trying to kill me?!” which is then followed with, “My event doesn’t have me doing this sort of intensity, so I don’t need to do this.”  Yep, you may be right… In your century, or Ironman you probably won’t spend a great deal of time at VO2 but that does not mean that you can not see added benefits from these workouts.  Not only can you see increases in lactate threshold through these workouts but you are also raising the ceiling of your ability level both physically and mentally!  So, consider upping the intensity and increasing your power on the bike. When doing VO2 work there are several things to consider:

  1. Achieve the greatest benefit for the time you are putting in.  A perceived exertion of 10/10 achieves the greatest effort (peak and fade) as opposed to maintaining a consistently high power (plateau).
  2. Be sure to get enough time in of interval work:  15minutes of VO²max training has been shown in research to be the minimum amount of time to achieve significant results.
  3. Don’t stretch out the recovery:  Whether you are measuring on distance traveled or power don’t increase recovery when you see the numbers start to become less and less.  Keep up the maximal effort and finish strong.  1:1 recovery is optimal
  4. Don’t go off of your heart rate:  Heart rate has a lag time to it because it is your bodies response to the work being done so if you are shooting for a maximal heart rate you will more than likely not reach it.

Sample workout:

  • 10-20 minute warmup (dependent upon what you need to feel ready for a maximal effort)
  • 5x3min VO2 intervals
    • 3minutes rest between intervals
  • Cool down

Resources:Poole D.C., Gaesser G.A.Response of ventilatory and lactate thresholds to continuous and interval training, J Appl Physiol, 581985, 1115–1121 Free Full Text  Tabata I.,Nishimura K., Kouzaki M., Hirai Y., Ogita F., Miyachi M., et al.Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max, Med Sci Sports Exerc, 281996, 1327–1330 Medline

SoS in the Tallahassee Democrat

Science of Speed was in the Tallahassee Democrat Saturday the 10th as an introduction to the multisport community.  Look for future articles posted from SoS in the future to help aid you in your training, racing and nutrition.  Be sure to come by and see us!

SoS in the Tallahassee Democrat

Athlete Question

From Lori: “I ride a “hand-me-down” QRoo Kilo size medium. Do not usually get any pain at all. Recently, left shoulder radiating up my neck…” Lori, One of the things I would recommend is that you look at affecting factors other than the bike.  I recommend this because nothing is stated about making any changes to your position on the bike.  With that being considered here are several things that I would consider: changes to training (volume, frequency, intensity or type of workout),  or any injuries you might have incurred off of the bike.  If none of this has occurred I would strongly consider having someone look at your fit and if there are no glaring issues the next step would be to consult your doctor.  The later is one of those that should be consider particularly if the pain persists.  Best of luck with your riding and I hope you are soon pain free! Cheers! Brady    

The Science: Using Fat During Exercise

Background: For years there have been many people telling people in the gym, for training or for general weight loss that you need to be working in your “fat burning zone.”  A great deal of the time this is more for the weight loss crowd that they have been feeding this line but unfortunately this has been a little misconstrued and has lead to a great deal of people being mis-informed about what they can or should be doing from weight loss. 

So, you might be wondering, “how did this idea get into so many peoples minds.”  Well it all comes down to one simple little graph.  This graph is known as several different names, whether you call it the “cross-over theory” or the “fat oxidation chart, it doesn’t really matter, it is the same thing.  What this simply shows is a rough estimate of where your body begins to burn a great percentage of carbohydrates in relation to fats in relationship to your VO²max.  These two fuel sources are chosen because during exercise those are the predominent fuel sources used by the body and therefore they chose to compare them.  Sounds simple, right? Study: “Determinants of fat oxidation during exercise in healthy men and women” This study was designed to determine whether the changes in fat as a fuel source associated with increases in exercise previously observed in healthy trained men would also occur in a large group of healthy trained and untrained men and women.  An incremental step test was performed by each athlete on a treadmill and was then followed by a VO²max test.

The results show, without any of the additional data recorded (dependent variales) being taken into consideration, that their Carbohydrate (CHO) oxidation was significantly higher in males than females and that the males Maximal Fat Oxidation (MFO) per kilogram of Free Fatty Mass (FFM) was lower.  In other words… men tend to burn a greater percentage of carbohydrates at a lower intensity than women 

With all of the dependent variables (variable being measured) taken into consideration they account for over 12% of the variance.  In this study they found that the cross-over happened between 48 and 53% VO²max which is comparable to previous findings (Brooks and colleagues).  Both VO²max and Self-reported physical activity (SRPAL) can increase fat oxidation by having an increased FFM.  Or… Your activity level can have a direct impact on your fat mass which alters fuel metabolism percentages.   Practical Application: This is not telling you that you need to spend all of your time in the “fat burning zone.”  It is simply stating that individuals with a higher FFM(musculature) will have a higher overall calorie expenditure with weight being equal.  The biggest thing to keep in mind, however, is just because you are burning a higher percentage of fat does not mean that you are burning a higher total number of calories.  Yes there is a sweet spot where you are burning more calories of fat but it will be different for all.  If weight loss is your ultimate goal there is one thing to remember, “Calories out is greater than Calories in,” and to burn a high number of calories you can optimize your available time by doing a higher intensity workout.   J Appl Physiol-2005-Venables-160-7

*”THE SCIENCE:” BLOGS ARE DESIGNED TO HELP KEEP ATHLETES AWARE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING IN SCIENCE AND RESEARCH.  THE ARTICLES THAT ARE ANALYZED HERE WILL RANGE IN DATES FROM CURRENT TO SEVERAL YEARS OLD BUT ARE HERE TO GIVE YOU A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT IS GOING ON IN YOUR BODY AS AN ATHLETE.  BE WARY OF WHAT YOU READ IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, NOT ALL RESEARCH IS EQUAL AND THERE ARE CERTAIN SOURCES THAT ARE CONSIDERED MORE CREDIBLE THAN OTHERS.

Bike Racing Tactics 101

As my Twitter and Facebook followers might already be aware of, this past weekend I volunteered to help out with our local collegiate race.  I am glad I could help out because, if you have never promoted a race, there are a lot of parts to the puzzle and many of them can only be accomplished with the help of volunteers.  Everything with the race promotion was done very well and my hat is off to the crew of the Florida State cycling Club, however, as a coach and a racer there were two main things stood out to me over the weekend. The first and most frustrating was the time trial (TT) starts.  When you looked at the number of people that were starting off for the time trial I would guess that 40-50% of them were late for their start time.  Typically this would lead to a time penalty because you missed your posted time, however, since this was a smaller venue all of the riders who were late were gifted a later start time.  I have not had many of my athletes in my years of coaching miss a TT start, but if you ask the few that have they will tell you that my response to the news was not a pleasant one.  In a Time Trial often times it is a matter of seconds that can separate first and second place and if you stood a chance of winning you might have just lost that chance.  Being on time for a race is the easiest part of racing, so be responsible for yourself and if you are late take it like a man/woman, don’t hassle the official and you had better have a stellar performance to compensate for your tardiness. Road races are a thing of beauty, ability and tactics and for the road race that I followed I can say it was none of the above.  Since the race only consisted of 3 racers from the start I don’t know if you can even consider it a field, and since it was down to two riders by mile 3 I would have compared it to more of a time trial.  The one factor that kept this from happening though was the rider who took it upon himself to set the tempo for the first eight plus miles of the race.  The lesson was quickly learned though as the rider had been sitting on his wheel for the first 8 miles attacked on a longer climb as he sensed weakness in his competition.  The attack was nothing earth shattering, however, since his opponent had been pushing a strong tempo for the last 25 minutes there was not much need for a Cancellara style attack.  So what is the point I hope this young cyclist walked away with is that you do not have to set the pace and if you don’t have someone who is willing to work with you, you do not have to work with them either.  If there is a field large enough you do not have to stick with the break and can drop back and wait for another break that might suit you better.  In this case though my choice would have been to sit up and soft pedal which will either send the other rider to the front to keep the third rider from catching you or it turns into a game of cat and mouse with one attack followed by the other until the stronger rider prevails.  Think about the tactics of the day though and never feel like you are the only one doing the work if there isn’t someone you are working for.

Nutrition: The Skinny on Calorie Consumption and Exercising

Many times people begin running and cycling as a form of exercise to help with weight loss.  These are two activities that we either have fond childhood memories of, or we simply know that increasing our activity level will help reduce our statistics in the ever expanding American waistline. Unfortunately many individuals enter into this new exercise habit misinformed or unaware of what is required for the exercise time frame that they are out there for.  Many of us have heard that to lose weight calories out must be greater than calories in.  The downfall of this is that many have never been taught the timing of this calorie consumption and it leads to many people eating sparingly throughout the day, exercising after work and then gorging on the meal the last meal of the day.  This can lead to consuming far more calories than if we were to more evenly space out our actual calorie consumption taking several things into consideration:

  1. How many calories should you consume throughout the day.  There are many online calculators to figure this out
    1. One more accurate way is a Resting Metabolic Rate Test which we offer at Science of Speed
  2. What your physical activity level actually is
  3. When you tend to exercise during the day
  4. How long you exercise for

So for most people one and two make complete sense and loosely mean “Calories out are greater than Calories in.”  Now 3 and 4 are less common considerations for a great deal of people but here is why they are important.  If you are focusing on improving fitness as well as losing weight you will want to focus on fueling for your workouts.  This includes pre workout, during workout and then your post workout nutrition and is important because your body burns predominantly carbohydrates to fuel your workout for optimum performance.  Once you have this part figured out the next step is your exercise time and your total amount of calories required to lose the weight that you are shooting for. Weight loss information: 3500 Cal ~ 1lb of fat 1-2lbs of weight loss per week is considered healthy¹ To help with your long term success weight loss is not about a “diet” but about a lifestyle change To maintain weight loss, aim for at least 60-90 minutes of daily moderate physical activity¹ ¹http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/aim_hwt.pdf