MARGINAL GAINS 2.0
From pills that can record your temperature to the boosting benefits of chocolate, can the latest science make you faster?
Can the latest scientific advances help you become a faster rider?
The World Congress of Cycling Science brings together exercise physiologists, sports scientists and WorldTour teams to share their knowledge on cutting-edge training tools and nutrition. We flew to France to see what you can learn from the pros…
POP A PILL
Popping pills to improve performance is nothing new in cycling, but this time it’s legal. BodyCap’s e-Celsius performance pill is packed with a temperature sensor, radio frequency antennae, four batteries and a processor, all wrapped up in a biomedical PVC shell. Simply swallow and wait. Once it enters your gastrointestinal tract, it can begin sending data, wirelessly, of course, every 30 seconds to the software on your laptop. And it has to be your laptop as, due to specific frequencies, the pill can’t yet interface with a smartphone.
“Our team measured riders during stage five of last year’s Dauphiné,” says BodyCap’s Sebastian Moussay. “On average the riders’ mean temperature came in at 38.5°C and fluctuated by 2.5°C. We measured a 0.8°C rise on the last climb.”
So why is measuring your core temperature important? “Coaches can track correlations between temperature and performance, especially in extreme environments. That can result in specific clothing interventions or different hydration strategies,” explains Moussay.
The team has used the pills with French football team FC Nantes, who were interested in delivering proficient warm-up and cool-down protocols for both prime physical performance and improved recovery.
“We’ve also worked with the FDJ cycling team,” Moussay says. “We noticed that one of the guy’s core temperature was already over 39°C before the warm-up and during the race it tipped well over 40°C. Ultimately he had to quit the race.”
The pills’ true benefit is potentially to come. BodyCap has been talking with existing sports technology manufacturers to integrate the data into devices like bike computers and sports watches, so you’ll have on-the-fly temperature feedback to assist with things like pacing and hydration [see Beat The Heat overleaf].
“Another parameter we’re looking at is pH feedback,” says Moussay.
“Once the pill enters your gastrointestinal tract it can begin sending data, wirelessly, of course, to your laptop”
“Acidity is a limiter when it comes to performance, so measuring pH could provide useful information on the effect of specific training loads and sustainable power outputs.”
CHOCOLATE treat
“I make my own chocolate spread and the recipe includes dark chocolate. The Tinkoff riders used to love it,” says celebrity cycling chef Hannah Grant. Recent research suggests it’s not just the taste buds that Grant was tantalising.
“There’s clear evidence that consuming as little as 100mg of epicatechin results in higher vasodilation [dilation of blood vessels],” says Belgian professional road rider and sports scientist Lieselot Decroix, who’s currently studying the effect of dark chocolate on altitude training.
Epicatechin is a type of flavanol found in cocoa beans. Higher vasodilation stems from epicatechin ‘stimulating’ the muscles in the arterial wall to relax. Cue increased blood flow and an increased delivery of oxygen and nutrients to all organs, including muscles when cycling.
According to research by Decroix, and further studies by Rishikesh Kankesh Patel of Kingston University, epicatechin also increases levels of nitric oxide in the body by suppressing vascular enzyme activity. In one experiment involving time triallists, the distance covered increased from a baseline of 1367m to 1606m over two minutes after consuming 40g of dark chocolate for 14 days. (Patel noted this also resulted in no weight gain!)
To take advantage of the mooted benefits of dark chocolate requires more than a swift trip to your local supermarket. “Chocolate with enriched cocoa flavanols contains the highest doses of epicatechin,”
Cue increased blood flow and delivery of oxygen and nutrients to all organs, including muscles when cyclinG”
rises, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain an optimum core.
“We had a group of riders undertake a 40km time trial in an environmental chamber at 20°C and 35°C,” explains Periard. “Their average power output dropped by 39 watts when really hot, while heart rate increased by around 6bpm.”
Why is down to a fight for blood flow. Your skin’s after blood to lose heat; your muscles are equally demanding to project you faster. “This leads to a decrease in stroke volume [amount of blood pumped by the heart per beat] in the heat,” adds Periard. “In turn, the heart has to work harder. Aerobic capacity drops, dehydration increases and you just find things uncomfortable.”
What can you do to rectify the situation? Well, there are innovative ideas like sodium bicarbonate loading. Cannondale-Drapac nutritionist Nigel Mitchell says that though it can work as a lactic acid buffer to help maintain power output due to its alkaline nature, “just note that it can add 1kg to your bodyweight, so it’s not ideal for the mountains”. And bicarb loading can lead to stomach issues. Instead, Periard’s research suggests…
Your skin’s after blood to lose heat; your muscles are equally demanding to project you faster”
explains Decroix. “Acticoa Intense has 200mg of flavanols per 10g chocolate bar, while CocoaVia powder to add to milk or smoothies contains 375mg of flavanols.”
Throw in a few blended beetroots – that other ‘wonder’ drug – and watch your PB plummet...
RETURN OF PROTEIN
Carbohydrates and fat have dominated the nutritional headlines in recent times but protein, that neglected building block of life, is on the comeback trail. Professor Luc van Loon of Maastricht University specialises in protein synthesis, and is often found roaming those Dutch streets taking muscle biopsies, determined to discover the exact protein required to maximise training gains.
His recent work proposed that muscular growth is stunted at night because simply moving your muscles is one of the greatest anabolic stimulants behind muscle repair. If you’re sleeping, your skeletal muscle should be relaxed. To test his hypothesis, van Loon went to the extreme lengths of connecting an athlete to a nanogastric tube, inserted through the nose and down into the stomach, and fed them protein as they slept. By labelling the protein, van Loon could measure just how much was absorbed.
“We noticed that 20-25g of protein fed at night raised the levels of available amino acids in the blood, increasing the chances of better muscle reconditioning,” van Loon says. Only the most sadistic of cyclists would wish to be fitted with an artificial umbilical cord every evening, so a further experiment was conducted, which showed that taking in 40g of protein around 30 minutes before bed produced similar results.
While turkey, tuna and pork loin all contain high amounts of protein, you probably won’t want those directly before tucking yourself up. A cup of milk, claimed to improve sleep because of the amino acid tryptophan, contains just 8g, so you could up this by stirring in protein powder.
VARIABLE TRAINING
Among the professional peloton, many are assessing their ‘state to cycle’ via heart-rate variability, essentially the time interval between heart beats, and a gauge of your nervous system. It can be measured via a chest strap from HRV flag bearer, Omegawave, or credible apps, like HRV4Training, that detect changes in blood volume by placing your finger on your smartphone.
Simon Wegerif, founder of HRV training tool Ithlete ( myithlete.com), explains what you’re looking for.
Only the most sadistic of cyclists would wish to be fitted with an artificial umbilical cord every evening”
“The idea is that small variations in the beat-to-beat timing of the heart reflect the body’s stress levels. Each person has a characteristic amount of variation when they’re well recovered, and the variation decreases when they are stressed. A daily morning reading is compared to their own baseline and used to determine how recovered they are.”
If you wake up one morning and your HRV is very low – a sign of stress and potential overtraining – and you planned a high-intensity session, you may decide to do a recovery session instead. And vice versa. “The great thing about HRV training is that it considers myriad factors that affect stress,” continues Wegerif. “These include sleep quality, fuelling status and even jet lag.”
To maximise HRV training, you need to measure it as soon as you wake up (and before coffee) and take daily readings. Also, HRV training works best when used with other ‘ready-to-train’ tools, the primary one being Training Peaks’ power meter software and its stress score.
INTENSE AND OFTEN
Block periodisation is a complex model but essentially the rider works on specific fitness or technique goals in nominal chunks of time ahead of target events, with occasional ‘maintenance sessions’ to maintain the fitness gains from the previous block. Traditional periodisation works on endurance for a longer period, over winter, before moving onto speed in the spring, but block training features shorter, more intense periods of focus.
Author and block proponent, Vladimir Issurin, suggests the fitness gains from aerobic endurance work, strength work and technique work might last between 25 and 35 days; anaerobic and muscular endurance work 15-23 days; and top-end gains, like maximum power, five days.
With block training, the specific focus on speed, for example, will see the close proximity of speed sessions elicit greater physical and biological changes than the traditional model, so will reward the high-end athlete with greater gains. That’s key – this is one for the more experienced and performance-seeking cyclist as block training is debilitating.
Several studies support the use of block periodisation for competitive cyclists, including one by Bent Rønnestad of Lillehammer University in 2012. Rønnestad took two groups of highly-trained cyclists and, over a four-week programme, made the riders perform eight high- and low-intensity training sessions. For each group the sessions were spread out differently – the block group undertook five highintensity sessions in week one followed by three weeks of one high-intensity session compared to the traditional periodisation group’s two high-intensity sessions per week. The study concluded that the block group exhibited a 4.6 per cent improvement in VO max, 2.1 per cent quicker time trial effort and 10 per cent increase in power output.
The great thing about HRV training is that it considers myriad factors that affect stress”