Sunday, March 28

24 hours of science

Well more like 26. A while back i stuck up some info on my next research project: here. The project basically involves 20mins TT's every 8 hours (ish) at the max power output you can sustain for the 20mins. So in real world you are trying to cover as much distance as you can.

Being the scientist i am i hate getting subjects to do a study/protocol i wouldn't do myself. Being a cyclist who wants to race 24hours better i of course want the data i can get. Funny how these studies work out isn't it....ahhem.

So we started yesterday @3pm. Blood, saliva, resting lactate; HR, blood pressure, core temp, tympanic temp, USG: all taken to see what my body was doing. Then an hour of cognitive tests to get a baseline for me at normal levels, and at that time point. 10mins self selected warm up on the cycle erg, off and stretch for a min, then 20mins of pain.

Self selected time trials are hard. I feel that i can be biased from using a power meter sometimes, but it helps me pace my best efforts. Out hard for 2mins, pull in a bit, then build up to 16mins, then bin myself for 2, then step it up again. 305W for 20mins, 14.46km (42.8kph avg??). Not a bad baseline.

So 4:30 and all finished up. 11pm it starts again (296W avg). Then i was allocated an 8 hour sleep window from 1am. Managed to get 5hrs 21mins according to the Senseware armband we had to measure sleep. Not bad i suppose. Up again t 9am to start again (294W avg) for the worlds most horrible TT. Felt terrible for the warm-up, then the first 4mins i just wanted to pull the test, values lower that 280W avg. Uuugh glycogen depletion. Happy i clawed it back.

Breakfast was epic, felt so good after it. Easy afternoon, stretching, drinking, talking shite with Waggers (other subject in) and just relaxing. 3pm last bout of testing. Knew i had to get this one on the head. Cognitive tests felt slower, couldn't concentrate (lack of sleep). Felt great on the WU. Hit the first 4mins over 306W, next 4mins still at 306W, feeling very good. BOOM, power dropping very very fast, held on until 16mins to sit at 280W avg. Build up over the last 4 mins pushing as hard as i could with over 400W for the last 2 mins. 299W average. RAGING. So close.

Next week i repeat, but with no sleep. Should be fun.

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