Hello All,
Thought I would pop in to let you know about a study we just published out of The University of Exeter. It has some implications for how you train and race.
For a bit of background, there are two important things you need to be aware of: The critical power (CP) and the W'. You can read a bit about the CP in an article I posted here. For the sake of simplicity, think of the CP as the "threshold" you feel. It's that point at which you realize that you are near your highest sustainable power output, and beyond which you intuitively know going any harder will make you fatigue much sooner. When you proceed above the CP, you begin to use up something called the W' ("W-prime"), or what was previously called the "anaerobic work capacity". You can think of this like a battery. When you go above your CP, it the battery gets used up. When you drop below CP, it gets recharged...very, very slowly. The problem is that if you use up this battery completely, you feel terrible and end up soft pedaling...or walking...or dog paddling (the D' is the equivalent number for running or swimming). You get the idea.
What we wanted to see was what would happen during intermittent exercise. In other words, if we put athletes in a situation where they had to go above CP for some period of time, and then gave them a bit of recovery at different power outputs, would the speed of that recharge change? We also wanted to see what effect fitness had. In other words, did people with higher CP's recharge more quickly than people with lower CP's?
It turned out that the recovery happens quicker at easier power outputs, and that it also happens quicker if you have a high CP. However, the most instructive part is this: Even the fittest person we had (CP=351W) would take 26 minutes to totally recharge their "battery" of W', and that is if they spent those 26 minutes soft pedaling at 20W. For athletes who were not at such a high level, it would take longer than 31.5 minutes.
The take home message is this. If you are involved in any sort of event that is going to require you to exercise for a long time, you need to severely limit the time you spend above your critical power. Every time you use up some of the W', you are creating a debt that takes a long time to repay. You only want to go there when you absolutely have to, and then only for the minimum amount of time possible.
If you'd like to read a slightly more detailed account using the example of beer, rather than a battery, you can check out this article.
Otherwise, I hope this blurb was helpful to you, and I hope it will convince you to take extreme care when you are planning your pacing strategy on race day!
Cheers,
Phil
--
Dr. Philip Skiba
Scientific Training for Endurance Athletes now available on Amazon!
Thought I would pop in to let you know about a study we just published out of The University of Exeter. It has some implications for how you train and race.
For a bit of background, there are two important things you need to be aware of: The critical power (CP) and the W'. You can read a bit about the CP in an article I posted here. For the sake of simplicity, think of the CP as the "threshold" you feel. It's that point at which you realize that you are near your highest sustainable power output, and beyond which you intuitively know going any harder will make you fatigue much sooner. When you proceed above the CP, you begin to use up something called the W' ("W-prime"), or what was previously called the "anaerobic work capacity". You can think of this like a battery. When you go above your CP, it the battery gets used up. When you drop below CP, it gets recharged...very, very slowly. The problem is that if you use up this battery completely, you feel terrible and end up soft pedaling...or walking...or dog paddling (the D' is the equivalent number for running or swimming). You get the idea.
What we wanted to see was what would happen during intermittent exercise. In other words, if we put athletes in a situation where they had to go above CP for some period of time, and then gave them a bit of recovery at different power outputs, would the speed of that recharge change? We also wanted to see what effect fitness had. In other words, did people with higher CP's recharge more quickly than people with lower CP's?
It turned out that the recovery happens quicker at easier power outputs, and that it also happens quicker if you have a high CP. However, the most instructive part is this: Even the fittest person we had (CP=351W) would take 26 minutes to totally recharge their "battery" of W', and that is if they spent those 26 minutes soft pedaling at 20W. For athletes who were not at such a high level, it would take longer than 31.5 minutes.
The take home message is this. If you are involved in any sort of event that is going to require you to exercise for a long time, you need to severely limit the time you spend above your critical power. Every time you use up some of the W', you are creating a debt that takes a long time to repay. You only want to go there when you absolutely have to, and then only for the minimum amount of time possible.
If you'd like to read a slightly more detailed account using the example of beer, rather than a battery, you can check out this article.
Otherwise, I hope this blurb was helpful to you, and I hope it will convince you to take extreme care when you are planning your pacing strategy on race day!
Cheers,
Phil
--
Dr. Philip Skiba
Scientific Training for Endurance Athletes now available on Amazon!