Mar 03, 2012 at 09:01 PM
NYU is opening a High Performance Sports Laboratory next month, and they hosted a symposium on Medicine & Cycling. It counted for \"CME\" or \"continuing medical education\" so my wife got credit for attending, and I got my curiosity fed.
Few things of most interest: there are known cardiac anomalies associated with endurance athletes (cyclists in particular) that will lead to a \"funky\" ECG. Interestingly, if you do the ECG under stress (treadmill, stationary trainer) these anomalies dissapear. Basically the athletes heart gets \"normal\" when it\'s working hard.
Phil Castaldi from Park Race Sponsorship fame gave a talk on the Law around Cycling & Medicine which was informative. If you didn\'t already know this, in New York all vehicles are required by law to have 25k of no fault insurance. What does this mean?
If you have an accident on your bike and a car was at fault (you have to TOUCH the car) you can collect up to 25k. This is no fault insurance, so even if you are salmoning with your eyes closed you have access to this money. HOWEVER, you only have 30 days to file a claim with the car\'s insurer, or with the state if the car was uninsured. 30 DAYS, DROP DEAD.
This money can go to medical bills, replacement bike, even lost wages. You MUST get the car id (plates) or you\'ll be up a creek.
The only caveat to this is if you are riding your bike in the \"course and scope\" of your employment - in which case it becomes a worker\'s comp issue. (Unless you are a pro or a food deliveryman/messenger I don\'t think this would apply)
Dr. Inigo SanMilan (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/who-is-dr-inigo-san-millan) gave what to me was the most interesting talk. Quotes like \"V02 Max is the tomato sauce on the pizza of performance - yeah it\'s there, but who cares\" and \"2/3 of pro cyclists have eating disorders\" were catchy, but his in depth review of the various biological markers for training stress were much more interesting.
I found his overview of energy metabolism fascinating. How on a per cyclist basis they can chart exactly where (based on HR) you are burning the most fat, for example, or how the markers for exercise induced muscle damage can show up in what is traditionally used as a liver heath blood screen.
He aslo is pro high carbohydrate diets. The catabolism that comes with starving the body of sugar promotes muscle damage, which in turn lowers the muscles ability to store glycogen. As one example he pointed to the Kenyan runners who eat roughly 75% carb diets.
To Norms question about effects of hormones; cortisol directly counteracts the positive anabolic effects of training, so stay happy, and don\'t be stressed
Actually he referenced a study showing a significantly higher number of injuries in pro athletes in years where their contracts were up for negotiation.
This may be old news to some, but the first time I\'d groked it: Lactate is actually a huge source of glycogen; the issue is \"who converts it?\" If it\'s your liver, then it takes too long to be useful for racing, if it is done inside the cells, then you are golden. Much of training is aimed at the latter.
Given that for most (read: not the super-freaks) people FTP is at about 4.0 units of blood lactate. Check out the table below, and weep out loud... the numbers in each cell are blood lactate.
Few things of most interest: there are known cardiac anomalies associated with endurance athletes (cyclists in particular) that will lead to a \"funky\" ECG. Interestingly, if you do the ECG under stress (treadmill, stationary trainer) these anomalies dissapear. Basically the athletes heart gets \"normal\" when it\'s working hard.
Phil Castaldi from Park Race Sponsorship fame gave a talk on the Law around Cycling & Medicine which was informative. If you didn\'t already know this, in New York all vehicles are required by law to have 25k of no fault insurance. What does this mean?
If you have an accident on your bike and a car was at fault (you have to TOUCH the car) you can collect up to 25k. This is no fault insurance, so even if you are salmoning with your eyes closed you have access to this money. HOWEVER, you only have 30 days to file a claim with the car\'s insurer, or with the state if the car was uninsured. 30 DAYS, DROP DEAD.
This money can go to medical bills, replacement bike, even lost wages. You MUST get the car id (plates) or you\'ll be up a creek.
The only caveat to this is if you are riding your bike in the \"course and scope\" of your employment - in which case it becomes a worker\'s comp issue. (Unless you are a pro or a food deliveryman/messenger I don\'t think this would apply)
Dr. Inigo SanMilan (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/who-is-dr-inigo-san-millan) gave what to me was the most interesting talk. Quotes like \"V02 Max is the tomato sauce on the pizza of performance - yeah it\'s there, but who cares\" and \"2/3 of pro cyclists have eating disorders\" were catchy, but his in depth review of the various biological markers for training stress were much more interesting.
I found his overview of energy metabolism fascinating. How on a per cyclist basis they can chart exactly where (based on HR) you are burning the most fat, for example, or how the markers for exercise induced muscle damage can show up in what is traditionally used as a liver heath blood screen.
He aslo is pro high carbohydrate diets. The catabolism that comes with starving the body of sugar promotes muscle damage, which in turn lowers the muscles ability to store glycogen. As one example he pointed to the Kenyan runners who eat roughly 75% carb diets.
To Norms question about effects of hormones; cortisol directly counteracts the positive anabolic effects of training, so stay happy, and don\'t be stressed
Actually he referenced a study showing a significantly higher number of injuries in pro athletes in years where their contracts were up for negotiation.
This may be old news to some, but the first time I\'d groked it: Lactate is actually a huge source of glycogen; the issue is \"who converts it?\" If it\'s your liver, then it takes too long to be useful for racing, if it is done inside the cells, then you are golden. Much of training is aimed at the latter.
Given that for most (read: not the super-freaks) people FTP is at about 4.0 units of blood lactate. Check out the table below, and weep out loud... the numbers in each cell are blood lactate.
