Project Creatine

[Guest]

Day 15

Today is a public holiday (bank holiday for non-SA). Rode hard at Club ride on Saturday and did a solo 50km MTB ride yesterday.

Met some not so social MTB'ers for a "recovery ride". Turned out to be a hard, unforgiving pace and to add insult to injury I had quite a painful crash off a drop-off, so was feeling a bit sorry for myself.

Training

Started out at quite a pace up a few hills and rode along the banks of the Jukskei river near fourways. Undulating hills with quite a few testers. HR was not going high and I was obviously more fatigued from the previous two days' rides.

Stats

Dist : 55.3km (MTB) / Ave spd : 18.9kmh / Ave Hr : 159 / Kcals 3241 @ 30% Drank 1,5l Octane.

I felt weak and struggled to keep up with these monsters. Took forever to recover and could not get my HR up. Maxed out at around 185bpm. I still don't think I've recovered.

Had toasted chicken and mayo for breakfast with a Cappuchino. Was bloomin exhausted. Skipped lunch and had chicken pasta for dinner. Took 5g creatine in the afternoon, and another 5g after dinner.

 

[Guest]

Day 16

Rest day. Took 5g creatine in the morning and 5g at dinner.

 

[Guest]

Day 17

Here is where I did notice a difference. I'm not sure whether it's because I'm looking out for it, but I felt different during my rides today.

Training

I did two rides today. The usual morning ride which was meant to be a recovery ride and a ride at Kyalami, which was also meant to be at a moderate pace.

Morning ride

Got into trouble to pushing too fast especially on the hills. Used big chain-ring and pumped it up the first big hill. Recovered from 178bpm (max sighted) to 150bpm in about 45 - 50 seconds. Felt ready to go strong again but had to wait for the rest of the bunch.

Pumped it up the second hill, where the bunch split into two. 5 guys in front and the rest took the scenic, no hill route. Pace increased dramatically. Recovered from 194bpm to 168 in about 50secs but we were now working harder. and HR started rising from next short hill.

Sprinted down Oxford 83kmph. Rotated the work between the 5 of us and worked on the uphills. This group split as we turned into Sandton Drive. 2 of us left. Took a fast ride, but not a sprint down SD 88kmph. Recovered along William Nichol where we split and I rode the last hill alone. Big chain-ring again and pumped it up the hill. Recovered from 197bpm to 145 in 1min10secs. Felt fatigued now. Drank 750ml Octane

Stats

Dist : 45.92km / Ave Spe 34.5 / Ave Hr : 152 / Kcals : 1010 @ 40%. (This is a significant improvement on previous rides)

Kyalami

Rode with a friend who is less fit than I. Rode easy but worked hard on the hills. (Only got passed by Doud Ryder once). Felt very strong but I think it is due to easy pace on flat sections of track. Drank about 250ml water.

Stats

I didn't wear my HR monitor so I don't have any stats other than distance (28km) and Ave spd (30.2kmh)

Had oats for breakfast. Forgot Creatine at home.
Missed lunch. (Darn work commitments)
Had Macaroni & cheese for dinner. Took 5g creatine after Kyalami.

 

[Guest]

Days 18 - 20

Could not ride this weekend. :-[

Only took 5g of creatine each day. Pigged out a bit aswell.

 

[Guest]

Day 21

Felt awful this morning. It was cold and windy and I didn't sleep well at all last night. Rode with Douglas Ryder and the boys and they were in no playing mood this morning. A friend got dropped and didn't have a flashy tail light so I decided to wait and ride solo. Did a short cut and was re-united with the bunch a little later.

Training

The usual morning ride but this time at pace. Nearly wet myself up the Westcliff hill and started getting fuzzy and falling asleep. (This is usually how I feel at close to 100% effort.) Despite how bad I felt, I still recovered pretty quickly from 197bpm (I think I may have touched 199) to 158bpm as we waited for the bunch to consolidate. Then we hit it again.

We didn't do Jan Smuts hill but turned left past the zoo. Took the pace easy-ish at this point as we knew that if we met up with the bunch again, it'd hurt.

Bunch caught us in Rosebank and off we went. Pace was not as hard as I expected.

Stats

Dist : 40.43km / ave speed 35.2kmh /Ave HR : 156 / Kcals : 1181@35% fat use.

Diet

I had oats with Muesli for breakfast. (Yuck) 5g creatine
Chicken and Mayo roll for lunch.
Chicken stirfry for dinner.

Had 5g creatine directly after the ride this morning.

 

[drjackfrost]

hello labrat,
just a quick mention on how important this is to many athletes well done.

another note is that although it sounds impresive to say that you can grind round the track in your 52 or 53 chain ring or blade, it is actually quite dumb.let me ask you how many articles have you seen on this site alone ,of people complaining about knee trouble.Now let me ask you another thing ,how do you think they got it? they get these problems by pushing too hard in base training as well as pushing too bigger gears in training in genral, a:this is not helping you build ,develop or even improve you cadence or climbing ability.it actually inhibits you from improving.so please be clever and dont mess yourself up for your future in cycling.

 

[Guest]

who is Douglas Ryder lab rat ? some local pro? can you beat him? is that your goal ;D ;D

 

[Guest]

who is Douglas Ryder lab rat ? some local pro? can you beat him? is that your goal  ;D ;D

Douglas Ryder

Douglas was born and raised in Cape Town and at the age of 12 rode his first Argus.Douglas has represented South Africa on numerous occasions, including the 1996Olympics in Atlanta USA, as well as leading the South African National Team in Malaysialast year. Douglas is the defending champion of the Cape Argus Pick 'n Pay Cycle Tour.He balances a high profile IT career with the high demands of an international cyclist.He was recently married and currently lives in Sunninghill.

Age: 30

Achievements:

2002 Captain: Microsoft Pro Cycling Team

Captain: IBM/Lotus Supercycling Team

Captain: SA National Team
Tour de Langkawi - Malaysia
· Best national team
· Beeld Engen Series Winner
· 1st : Pick 'n Pay Argus
· 1st : Tour of Durban
· 1st : King of the Mountains Tour of Lesotho
· 2nd: Engen Pelindaba Classic
· 2nd: Continental African Championship
· 2nd: Elite 180km

2000 Captain: IBM/Lotus Cycling Team

Captain: SA National Team
· Tour de Langkawi - Malaysia
2nd out of 25 teams in overall team competition, most successful team result ever.
· 1st : Tour D'urban
· 39th: Rapport Tour
· 1st : King of the Mountains - Giro del Capo
1st : Stage 2
· 6th : Argus Cycle Tour

1999 Captain: IBM/Lotus Supercycling Team

Captain: SA National Team
· Tour de Langkawi - Malaysia
· Prudential Tour of England
· 2nd : Tour D'urban
· 2nd : EP Herald
· 9th : Rapport Cycle Tour
· 4th : Giro del Capo Tour
· 5th : Argus Cycle Tour

 

[Guest]

Dr Jack Frost,

Thanks for the heads-up, I will keep it in mind.  One thing I failed to mention is that I keep my cadence up while riding up these hills.  If I find I start labouring, I will change down.  Does this change anything?

GG, and Goat.

Yup, that's the fella, no, he chats to his mates while I'm riding at close to my max.  I think I have a few more base miles to do, (like about 10 000) before I'll be able to consider myself worthy of even trying.  Nope, I'm afraid, I'm still a relative newbie to the sport.  (I've only been riding for just over two years and half of that was as an absolute novice not knowing my backside from my elbow.)  Not that I've progressed much since then.  I now just ride early enough to start, and hopefully end a ride with the serious guys.  

ps. . . I'm riding this afternoon so I'll update details tomorrow.

 

[Guest]

Just when I thought we were getting some results, this happens.

Well, I've had to replace my daily 5g dose of creatine with a 5 drop dose of Weleda Infludo. With a big emphasis on the FLU part.

No wonder I've been feeling so horrid.

I rode at Kyalami last night and after about three laps, I was finished. Couldn't breathe, eyes started watering and HR was through the roof. To give you an indication . . . ave spd 30.2kmh ave HR 161 @ 30% fat use. On my warm-up lap which I usually take relatively easy, I saw 195 on mt HR monitor and I knew something was amiss.

I'm dosing it up at the moment so I hope I can shake it before it's full blown. Besides, I'm doing two races next weekend and I need to be better. We'll continue then.

Sorry

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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.