Project Creatine

drjackfrost

yes it does change a few things it means that while you are saying you riding the "big chainring" what your actually trying to say is i tried very hard to maintain a good speed but i actually kept my cadence constant,so therefore as a result maintaining my heart rate.Now thats good heart rate is important if used as part of a controlled program,it is of utmost importance to remain in your set zones.ie:if i set my zones btween 150 and 181 beats per minute and i then work at 190 it is useless to me and i may aswell be working at 120.

One more important thing i would like to mention is that if your heart rate is "high" in the morning, your body is trying to tell you that it has not fully recovered and to take it realitively easy and to perhaps set your zones for that day at a low or moderate activity level.

other than that good work, Im interested to see your results,
my guess is that you would recover quicker with the creatine and that your muscle "damage" or tearing will, adapt sooner with the extra supplement of the naturally produced creatine.

so enjoy and keep us updated

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THE GREATEST GIFT A CYCLIST HAS IS PASSION, WITHOUT PASSION CYCLING IS JUST EXCERCISE!

Guest

Thanks for the info Dr Frost.  So I shall take it to heart and work out a stricter, more specific program that I will follow next week.  I am feeling quite alot better (Flu) but I am a bit concerned for this weekend's racing.  (65km MTB on Sat and 130 road on Sunday)

We'll return to project Creatine next week from Monday.  (With a more specific training routine.)

Guest

Lab Rat
Very interesting feedback you're giving on your training . Do you think you could give us your HR and also translate that to your %HRmax? ???
(JUST HEARD LA HAS WON THE PROLOGUE TdeF IN 9:08!)

Guest

Reee---iii--ggghht. . .  I'm back, I'm motivated and my work won't hamper the project too much over the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for the input Old Timer and Dr Frost.  You live, you learn.

Okay, so here is the deal.  Since my encounter with that horrible virus, I've recovered pretty well me thinks and I have jumped up a level.  Dr Frost, thanks, I have changed my style and predominantly spin the pedals more.  My sprinting has improved and I still have plenty of energy and power in reserve for pumping it up the hills.  

I'll re-start project creatine on Monday, with a creatine loading phase of a week.  (We already have the normal scenario.)  I am in my base training phase for the 94.7 so I have developed a standard training schedule which I'll inform you of over the next few days (time permitting).

Speak to you soon.

Guest

Okay, Monday was a rest day so I did nuttin.  Had all-bran flakes for breakfast and a chicken breast on a roll for lunch.  Had chicken stir-fry for dinner.  Took 5g creatine with each meal.

Day 1 (of the new series)

Usual Tuesday morning training ride.  I felt fatigued and legs were still sore from my weekend antics.

Did a bit of work at the front of the bunch up the first few hills.  Did not feel too bad at all.

Climbed the first big tester in the second line on the bunch.  No reason for concern, maintained the pace comfortably.  Reached the second climb. Felt pretty good at first but then it all went pear shaped.  Halfway up the climb I bonked.  Completely.  Got dropped by the bunch and saw them head up the hill like there was no tomorrow.

I eventually made it to the top of the hill and had to take five minutes spinning easy gears to try and recover.  Then I knew the rest of the ride was not going to be fun.  The chase was on.

I concentrated on keeping the legs spinning and tried to keep the speed over 35 along Oxford Road.  I slowly began closing the gap which looked like it was about 1km by now.  Put my head down, gritted my teeth and kept pumping the pedals.  As we reached the Hyatt Hotel, I had closed the gap to about 60m.  Bollocks, the lights turned red for me and the bunch rode away into the distance.  I didn't accept defeat and tried in vain to catch the bunch, but no luck.  They were pushing hard on this last very fast section of the ride and I was never going to catch them solo.  I had had my chance.

Stats

Unfortunately, I misplaced my chest strap for my HR monitor and could not find it before I left so I do not have HR limits.  I know that I worked really hard through the last 20kms of the ride and the first 20 were not that easy either.

Dist : 39.8km / Ave Spd 32.2 / HR (Probably off the chart)
I would estimate that my average HR on this ride was about 150 - 155bpm which translates into about 75% of my max.

Guest

Bought the Aug edition of the Ride mag last night and saw an article there on creatine - still planning to read it. There might be some valuable info for your project in there...

Guest

Thanks Jaco.  I'm looking out for it.

Day 2 (Recovery Ride)

Same route, same time.  Wind was gusting a bit and the weather was not playing along.  Only four of us turned us for the ride.

The pace was kept very reasonable.  We put a bit of effort in on the hills but purely because we hate them so much and want to get them over and done with.

Stats

Ride distance 38km / Ave Speed 27.9km/h / Ave HR 143 (+-63% of max) / Kcals 1003 @ 40% fat util

Nutricianal Info

I drank 500ml of Octane.  Had Pasta for Lunch and grilled minute steak on w/wheat roll for dinner (X2).  I'm changing the base for my creatine from energy drink to grape juice.  Had 25g of creatine in 5 doses yesterday.  Had Hi-Fibre bran, fresh strawberries and low fat milk for breakfast.

Have I missed anything?

Guest

Days 3 and 4

Did no training    Sent bike in to have new carbon cranks fitted  ;D ;D  Hurt my knee getting dressed yesterday (Go figure) so perhaps needed a bit of a rest.

Going away to Craddock for the weekend, so no training ride.  I will do some mileage on my MTB though.

Still taking 25g Creatine per day so Monday will be start of maintenance phase.  

drjackfrost

hey lab rat
just thought id try a little test too. so i am now also on creatine and will be ending my loading stage on friday 9/8/02
i cant wait to see what will happen. just thought id let you know cheers for now
dr

__________________
THE GREATEST GIFT A CYCLIST HAS IS PASSION, WITHOUT PASSION CYCLING IS JUST EXCERCISE!

Guest

I assume you are not a climber? as i understand climbers should not even consider creating as it adds up to 2kg to your body weight.

drjackfrost

no i am but creatine is not a mass builder well atleast not the one im taking what does happen then is that you retain water with creatine very easily that is why you initially put on weight.
besides trainging with 2 more kg wont hurt especially if you can loose them as easily as you put them on... but thanks for the advice.
I only weigh 63-64kg any way and on my build of 1,78m thats pretty thin.so what ever happens im cool with it i cant wait.

__________________
THE GREATEST GIFT A CYCLIST HAS IS PASSION, WITHOUT PASSION CYCLING IS JUST EXCERCISE!

Lab_Rat

Hey Nicolas, <br /><br />You're spot on. I put on 2kg as a result of the creatine and I really felt it last week during the World Vision Cycle Relay. (We did 960km in a week at an average of over 30kmph)<br /><br />I was fine until we hit the big hills and boy oh boy did I feel that extra weight. I would recover pretty quickly, but the lactic acid would come flooding back in just as fast. (And I thought I was in pretty good shape.)<br /><br />I've stopped using the creatine as the extra weight far outweighs the recovery benefit for me. I have also learned from the Pro's that were with us that the protein replacement is far more important, apparently even more so that the carbs. I used Energy Dynamics Protein Blast (kindly supplied by the team) which certainly helped me recover for the next day's onslaught.

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GearGrinder

thanks for your report lab rat i think it saves other people trying it out and gives a good idea of its benifits/downfalls<br /><br />by the way recently iv been doing intervals/sprints and high intensity work. previously i did none of that i just rode. The difference in races is great and even in longer rides i notice the difference i did a 106k ride previously at 28.5kph and after the high intensity work i did the ride the other day at 31kph its Amazing how short speed work speeds up even the long rides. <br /><br />PS: Was there a big difference in your Heart Rate while you took creatine than before?

Vo2

Same experience here. 2kg's after starting with creatine.

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