Fitness and decline

I'm sure I'll look back and laugh.

I'm sure Psycho Dolan ("Calm down, calm down, eh!") has done me a favour.

I'm sure that Barrie has done the business (or will have in the next week or so).

I'm not sure what happens to me fitness, or lack thereof.

I've been bikeless for about three months now. Will I ease back to my previous fitness level with a wee bit of extra effort or am I back to square one?

Would now be a good time to sack the wheat beer? ( A meal in a glass, surely)

Can you get a pint of EPO'd blood at the Snow?

Your first few rides will be noticeably less fast. Sometimes you can be super rested, super motivated and destroy all those in your path.. maybe not after 3 months off though :)
I think you lose top conditioning after a couple of weeks but average conditioning takes much longer to disappear AND if you were already well trained, you can get back to peak again much quicker.
Don't sweat it. Better to be off the bike awaiting a new one than off the bike with broken bones or something..
I'm sure there's resources online that discuss lost condition, or maybe I read it in some training books? You're not competing at Beijing are you?

three months does seem like a long time..

I expect you'll be feeling a bit shitty during the first week or two.

after that, world domination.

RPM

after that, world domination.

and we're pinky and the brain.....brain......brain.....brain..brain..brain.

Swallow your pride and get a £30 p-o-s from gumtree. It's better than not having a bike at all right?

Seemed like an appropriate thread for this..

http://sweatscience.com/the-incredible-unaging-triathlete/

Thats fucking ace.....

If I had to order a triathlete steak, I think I'd go for 40 year old..

Past 50 you lose 3kg of muscle per 10yr.
Unless your a triathlete, evidently.

I missed todays turbo session because of my cold- seeing that has made me think I should go for an hours run to make up for it.

Ageing and exercise is a very interesting area of research.
The decline in muscle bulk with ageing is not inevitable but can be almost completely halted with exercise. I say almost as the body's sensitivity to insulin declines with age and is something you cannot stop.

(Insulin is also responsible for muscle growth as well as blood sugar control, which is why it is a banned substance in sport)

I did not know that. How does that effect a diabetic who is trying to reduce the amount of insulin he takes insofar as this is possible?

Insulin is not banned in sport if you are a type 1 diabetic, for obvious reasons. I only meant it is banned as a performance enhancing drug.

Just because the body's cells become less sensitive to the effects of insulin, doesn't mean that we all become type 2 diabetics when we get older, as it is only 'relative' resistance. Diet and lifestyle factors also play a part.

Not so long ago, type 1 diabetics were discouraged from physical activity as it would make them prone to hypos, it was thought. Regular exercise can actually reduce your insulin requirements in the long term.

Seemed like an appropriate thread for this..

http://sweatscience.com/the-incredible-unaging-triathlete/
hippy stop showing off your man boobs..

If you go to iTunes and search for BBC Discovery podcasts, there is a very interesting one dated 8th September 2010 about muscle wasting and age.

I'm feeling hungry for 70 year old human triathlete shins now.

Is that wrong of me?

For a second I thought they were the testicles. It blew my mind

I can see why you thought that, most triathletes are massive wankers.

he-hey!

I can see why you thought that, most triathletes are massive wankers.

But they make good eatin'!

It's a powerful point, but couldn't they have made it without chopping some poor fucker's legs off?

Do they count as one of your "five a day"?

Insulin is not banned in sport if you are a type 1 diabetic, for obvious reasons. I only meant it is banned as a performance enhancing drug.

Just because the body's cells become less sensitive to the effects of insulin, doesn't mean that we all become type 2 diabetics when we get older, as it is only 'relative' resistance. Diet and lifestyle factors also play a part.

Not so long ago, type 1 diabetics were discouraged from physical activity as it would make them prone to hypos, it was thought. Regular exercise can actually reduce your insulin requirements in the long term.

He's type one, using injections of insulin to balance his blood sugar.

Exercise makes his blood sugar level go down, so he can eat less "punishment bread" and other items of healthy food that he does not really like that much.

Before he was diagnosed his weight plummeted- thinnest I have ever known him to be, which is why we all nagged him to go to the docs.

There was a pro team racing in last year's Paris Tours who all had Type 1 diabetes I think or were at least riding in support of people with it.

Sanofi or Team Type 1. Not sure of specifics

http://teamtype1.org/about/default.htm

How long ago was he diagnosed?

These days, newly diagnosed type 1 diabetics (often kids or teenagers) are not given specific diets to follow, just sensible advice about healthy eating which is not really that different than for anyone else. The trick is to teach them to adjust their insulin dose according to what they've eaten, not the other way round.

It's the same with exercise. As the exercise uses up blood sugar, they don't need as much insulin during exercise. I even know one diabetic cyclist who needed no insulin during his rather hard training sessions. It is a matter of experience to learn how to balance food, insulin dose and exercise intensity to keep his blood sugar levels in the right zone.