Calling Pursuit Physiology Geeks - MAOD?

Roadie_scum said:

I've recently heard people talk about a couple of concepts I don't really have my head around and I was wondering if someone could explain their meaning and significance in a coaching context? I think both relate to short 3-8 minute kind of events.

1. MAOD - Maximal Accumulated Oxygen Deficit. I assume this is a measure of anaerobic capacity? I have seen graphs with work (or power?) and time and a trace of MAOD, I think on Alex's killer blog. My question is, what does it all mean, and how do you measure and apply it?

2. Time to VO2max. Presumably this is about reaching VO2max quickly allowing more work to be done at that intensity in a shorter time without drawing on anaerobic capacity? Maybe not? Someone (Ron Bonham, coaching director at Cycling Australia) mentioned it might be important to pursuits and teams pursuits but didn't go into detail.

Can anyone enlighten me?

0. I'm no physiology geek but maybe just a bit of an all round geek.😉

Re 1. The blog reference on MAOD discussion is here:
alex-cycle.blogspot.comdarth vader rides teams pursuit.htmlOpen ↗

It discussed what MAOD is (essentially as Andy Coggan puts it - it's the gold standard for measuring AC).

Andy developed an excel sheet to assist in calculating/charting the cumulative O2 deficit and that is available over at wattage - links are listed in the blog item. It requires some assumptions, although it is not particularly sensitive to those assumptions being "out".

From a coaching context, in a pursuit scenario, what I'd be looking for is whether the shape of my cumulative O2 deficit line is optimal for the event and whether the absolute value of cumulative O2 deficit has been positively impacted through training (if that is what's needed to go faster).

I recently performed this analysis using Andy's sheet for another Masters pursuiter - the plot verified their RPE from the event (both qualifier and bronze ride off) - they simply did not utilise anywhere near their potential anaerobic capacity in their recent pursuit efforts when compared with a previously well paced max effort trial. In this sense it actually quantified their potential improvement through improved pacing, let alone specific training. They have potential to move up a step or two on the podium.

The discussion on its application in a team pursuit scenario is in the blog item.

2. I'm not so sure on this one. I don't think you can really isolate in a time sense the aerobic and anaerobic when you're working at such intensities, it's not like they are asynchronous but I'm no sports scientist/physiologist so I'll bump on that one....(and happy to be wrong and learn something). Maybe I better go dig about in that physiology textbook🙂

I mention time to VO2 Max power in the blog item but what I am referring to is the time taken to come down to VO2 Max power level after the start/acceleration phase of the pursuit. It varies for riders with different power profiles (assuming they pace well).

Hoping to catch up with Ron in May and share some of my experience with WKO and the PMC and maybe even MAOD!

All of which has me wondering if I should experiment with utilising my NMP more at the start to reach cruise speed earlier, perhaps buy another 1/2 - 1 second on the 1st lap. (NMP is my highest point on the power profile chart).

I'm only laying down ~ 1000W max at start of a pursuit wheras in a TT I'd be more like 1400W max. Trick is to know how much earlier to turn "off" the power than I do now (which is typically as I enter turn 3 on lap 1 on a 250m track). I suspect it would be before the 125m mark.

Roadie_scum said:

2. Time to VO2max. Presumably this is about reaching VO2max quickly allowing more work to be done at that intensity in a shorter time without drawing on anaerobic capacity? Maybe not?

In theory, faster VO2 kinetics would be advantageous for a pursuiter. In practice, however, this is probably not something worth worrying about, as 1) the impact of plausible variations in VO2 kinetics on performance time are smaller than the impact of changes in, e.g., VO2max, and 2) from a physiological perspective, VO2 kinetics are dependent upon the same factors that determine VO2max and LT, which in turn means that it isn't really something that you can train independently.

Alex Simmons said:

All of which has me wondering if I should experiment with utilising my NMP more at the start to reach cruise speed earlier, perhaps buy another 1/2 - 1 second on the 1st lap. (NMP is my highest point on the power profile chart).

I'm only laying down ~ 1000W max at start of a pursuit wheras in a TT I'd be more like 1400W max. Trick is to know how much earlier to turn "off" the power than I do now (which is typically as I enter turn 3 on lap 1 on a 250m track). I suspect it would be before the 125m mark.

A theoretical analysis of this question says sprint all-out until you're up to speed, then "chop throttle" - see

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=1428374&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum