01 / ACE OF PACE

We’d like to think our life values match those of ol’ Mother Theresa here on Cycling Plus, but there are times when performance improvements require a shifting of the moral compass. Cue deception and pacing strategies.

Kevin Thompson, professor of sports studies at the University of Canberra, Australia, had a group of athletes undertake a 4km turbo trainer time trial at their optimum pace. Thompson then had them race an avatar set at 102 per cent of their personal best pace, despite telling them beforehand it was just 100 per cent, and discovered that they could keep up with the avatar.

The avatar was then set to five per cent faster, but the riders tailed off halfway. “That showed us the mind’s perceived limits can be raised,” says Thompson. “It also tells us that the body has an energy reserve of two to five per cent that it can tap into, which could stem from glial cells.” These are termed as ‘supporting cells’ within the central nervous system.

That’s all well and good, you might utter, but it’s not possible for your mates or coach to constantly deceive you in a quest to generate greater speed. “They wouldn’t have to…” adds Thompson. Indiana University replicated the study and again the majority of riders beat their best by two per cent. They then told the athletes they’d been deceived and asked them to race the competition again at 102 per cent. “They knew it was higher than their original best but they still managed to beat it,” says Thompson. “They’d shifted their pacing template.”

“it tells us that the body has an energy reserve of two to five per cent that it can tap into, which could stem from glial cells”