reducing/buffering lactic acid buildup?

[ocrider]

I tried a few anti fatigue caps at WSC after I was raceing about guy for about 30 minutes and my legs felt like jello. After I took them like 30 minutes later my legs felt way better! They still felt good like 18 hours later 2!

[ohyeah89]

Originally Posted by station

so is it save to take a table spoon of baking soda? Would that do the trick? or maybe mix it into gatorade?

Haha I don't know if that would even make it taste good enough! But I do know back in the day people used to brush their teeth with baking soda... Honestly, I have NO personal experience with ingesting baking soda I just find the chemistry behind it super interesting.

After googling it though (just right now), I'm getting conflicting advise about ingesting baking soda! Some say that ingesting baking soda is large amounts can be toxic and in very rare cases lead to a build of carbon dioxide and rupture the stomach, others say its used for an antacid, so I have no idea. But one source DID say: "CAN CAUSE EXPLOSIVE DIARRHOEA" so I wouldn't recommend it, especially for a loooong ride...

I'd suggest doing your own google search and/or asking your doctor!!! Haha, I don't want to be responsible for any STR deaths! :-p



Oh and hey I just found this link this morning, very concise and easy to understand:
http://ironpower.biz/sup/sup_energy2.htm

[BrewMaster]

Originally Posted by allison

But, Cytomax has really good lactic acid buffering properties. Also, it tastes great

Cytomax works and tastes great, except for the Apple Berry flavor. It is horrendously nasty. We have a 4.5 lb jar that someone can have if they like the taste. Linda and I can't drink it.

[ocrider]

Lactic Acid not bad ? ! ? !
chck out this post on lactic acid. Also creatine will help. It short cuts the krebs cycle(turning lactic acid into energy) Ive never used it though. Has anyone here tried it?

[RidetheRAAM4]

Originally Posted by BrewMaster

Cytomax works and tastes great, except for the Apple Berry flavor. It is horrendously nasty. We have a 4.5 lb jar that someone can have if they like the taste. Linda and I can't drink it.

I will gladly take it off your hands if it will help you out

[Padre]

Not sure what Heed has to do with lactic acid or Cytomax.

The major way to increase your lactate threshold is to follow OffRoadie's advice.

Interval training "stretches" the point at which you begin producing the acid AND trains your body to recover more quickly.

Cytomax Recovery Vantage Vanilla is a tasty way to repair things after hard efforts.

[DeeZee]

Beer

[FoShizzle]

lactic acid is ghey. if you dont ride you will not have issues with it (data on file)

[DDB@OCR]

Interval training- decreases recovery time, after ATP stores are spent, between hard efforts. This is advanced training and only shuold be done with the propper fitness base already in place.

Genetics- you must use the cards you are dealt. Everyone has a different HR/LT at which mucles start to produce it. Theres a dozen or so studies and theories on this that go into great detail and break it down for you.

Cyto etc- some drinks have 'buffers' in them that reduce the pain, speed up recovery, and 'reduce perceived exertion'. Cyto used to 'work' as a buffer for me cut to 50% of recomended dosage till one day, I got 'Cyto-gut' really bad and dropped a race. I never used it after that. If you've ever had it, you''ll know what I mean. It will double you over at altitude for hours. Cyto and some others have some pretty funky chemicals in them, bothers some, don't bother others. Read all labels first.

At altitude I found Ultimate Orange worked really well. It has Ma Juang in it- ephedra, which is also a banned substance in some sanctioning bodies. It also wreaks havoc on your metabolism. It makes me recover killer fast, but one can also do a lot of damage as evident the next day.

No supliment is a substitute for fitness and propper training.

*

I suggest contacting Coach Chris Carmihcheal or Coach David Brinton (my old coach) for more and expert advice/info. These two know the drill and I recomend them highly.

Hope this helps.

-kevin.

[allison]

Originally Posted by DDB@OCR

Cyto etc- some drinks have 'buffers' in them that reduce the pain, speed up recovery, and 'reduce perceived exertion'. Cyto used to 'work' as a buffer for me cut to 50% of recomended dosage till one day, I got 'Cyto-gut' really bad and dropped a race. I never used it after that. If you've ever had it, you''ll know what I mean. It will double you over at altitude for hours. Cyto and some others have some pretty funky chemicals in them, bothers some, don't bother others. Read all labels first.


I suggest contacting Coach Chris Carmihcheal or Coach David Brinton (my old coach) for more and expert advice/info. These two know the drill and I recomend them highly.

We used Cytomax when we were in Crested Butte and I liked it. I haven't had any problems with it.

I almost had problems with mixed HEED when I left my bottles at home for the Bonelli race.. their mixture was way strong. I don't mix my drinks *too* strong and they seem to be okay.

I've got a CTS TrainRight mountain bike DVD at home for the trainer.

[DDB@OCR]

Originally Posted by allison

We used Cytomax when we were in Crested Butte and I liked it. I haven't had any problems with it.

.

Yepper-

Cyto was really a good thing and I used it often, esp on extended jaunts over 4 hours at pace and if I was not feeling on form for race day...

But one day- wham.

I've only heard a few complaints of bloating from Cyto- but man, when it hits? You think your appendix are bursting. And the 'pressure release' afterwards is quite LOUD and long. Makes the date one has that night- um, interesting as there never seems to be enough restrooms or large piles of towels to fart in to muffle it!

[guero]

cytomax has been great success.

[DDB@OCR]

Also used this with pretty good results.

http://www.stimostam.com/teams.html

For more info on what and how, give Coach Brinton a jingle. (818 area)

The dood's amazing......howz about riding a big ring wheelie in the peleton on the Simi Ride sound? Never'd of belived it unitll I saw it.

Aint yacked at him in eons, but I'm sure he's still coaching. Check out some of his bike stunt pics.

http://www.ridingtowin.com/

[Upsidedown1]

Intervals are definately the way, both short and long mixed throughout the week. I do also use Endurox R4 recovery drink before, sometime during if rides are long, and after workouts. Keeps my legs from aching the next day. Also like Cytomax, but I don't mix the two. One or the other during a ride.

[sdyeti]

it's simple bjammin...

acid + base = neutral

Originally Posted by bjammin

...you lost me at "the"

[allison]

Originally Posted by sdyeti

it's simple bjammin...

acid + base = neutral

Are you bringing some base on Saturday??

[capnsavem]

MMMM.... base.

[OffRoadie]

If you can't afford a coach, you can purchase The Cyclist's Training Bible by Joe Friel.

[D. Diamond]

1st of all: there's no short cuts.
Ride your bike as much as you can while keeping it fun. For some people "fun" means spending every waking moment thinking about riding a bike, and training until your legs feel like wood so that you can improve at the fastest possible rate and win races.
That's not "fun" for everyone, but if you want to be "successful" at XC racing, that's where it's at.
If that sounds like a good time (and of course there is no commitment, try it out and see how you like training hard if it sounds interesting... take it day to day.), then there are 3 things to consider when trying to be a faster racer/rider. A: ride your bike B: eat good food C: get lots of sleep.
If you spend your time and $ on those 3 things (generally) you will get maximum results in minimum time. If you don't, don't bother with baking soda or pills. Sports drink is kind of a no-brainer: find one that agrees with you and stick with it. It should have sugar, mineral, electrolytes, blah, blah, blah, to replace what you sweat out and supplement the glucose and glycogen that you burn while training/racing. If all it has is sugar, it's soda.
If you WANT and can afford a power-meter, get one.
If you WANT and CAN'T afford a power-meter, get a heart-rate monitor.
If DON'T want or can't afford either, that's FINE too... you can still train hard.
Either way, you should familiarize yourself with the "training zones"... different coaching methods will use different terminology, but basically the zones are based on your "threshold"... if you don't know what that is you can either test for it with an HRM (heart-rate monitor) or a power-meter OR... think of it as the fastest you can go for 1 hour. If you have ever raced for an hour, you know that it is HARD and you don't feel like you can keep it up, but maybe your competition is breathing down your neck and you push yourself harder than you thought possible? Remember how your body felt, that's (crudely) your threshold!
Once you have a concept of how your threshold feels (or you know what it is from testing) you can use it to train.
The other "zones" are: Recovery... this should be slightly harder than not riding at all. Most people ride "recovery" to hard. Grandmothers should be passing you, I'm not kidding. If you are on a hill that your Grandma couldn't ride up, you aren't riding recovery.
Next: Endurance... a good "all day" pace. Endurance and "Tempo" (we'll get to that) are IMPORTANT. It is those slower paces that enable you to build "mitochondria" which are the parts of your muscles that convert fuel into energy.
If you don't ride slow, you are selling yourself short. You need to give yourself the opportunity to build endurance if you are going to do races lasting longer than a sprint.
Next zone: Tempo... a hard pace that you can keep up for several hours: think of a competitive group ride. There might be a few attacks where you are at threshold or above, but generally it's probably a "tempo" pace. Tempo blends into Threshold.
Above threshold is VO2max. VO2max is where you are going so hard that your heart and lungs can't get your muscles the oxygen they need fast enough and you start breathing it (the oxygen) back out. If your race only lasted 5 minutes it would feel like VO2max.
Above VO2max is Anaerobic Capacity. Sprinting!!!!!! Think 30 seconds to a couple minutes.
Those are the basic zones useful to training.
If you want to teach your body to reduce lactic acid buildup there is a specific interval that is particularly useful.
Once you are good and warmed up, you should speed up to a threshold type of pace.
After 2 minutes at that pace you need to go HARD for 30 seconds.
You will be feeling some serious burn at the end of the 30 seconds and want to stop BUT you can only recover back to your original pace, not below!
Do it for about 10 minutes then recover as much as you need (10 min?) and then do it again for 10 minutes.
The rest of the ride just enjoy yourself!
When you get home, make sure that you get plenty of healthy protein... too many cyclists focus on carbs, but if you are looking for adaptation you need to have good protein or your body will start breaking itself down (at worst) or just recover back to your original condition and not adapt.
Then get a good nights sleep.
The next day, repeat (you can do different types of intervals, or skip them for a couple days)
Repeat.
Repeat.
Take a nice recovery day or two, more if you feel you need it.
Repeat.

[allison]

Originally Posted by D. Diamond

1st of all: there's no short cuts.

Wow. Now that is a first post!



Great information. Thanks for sharing it!!!