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     Robh New member Username: Robh Post Number: 72 Registered: 12-2007 |
If I had to sum up my 12 days on the Mallorca camp and attending the level I & II courses in one word, that word would be AWESOME! I must first all thank Andrew, Ginny & Joerg for bringing this wonderful experience to Europe. All three of them did a wonderful job in creating a special 12 days I will remember for a very long time. Both my roommate Peter from Denmark and myself were truly overwhelmed by the Camp. Our main motivation to come was to learn about the FaCT ideas and both Andrew & Ginny did a grand job. They are really cool down to earth people! Our travel host Joerg from Magical Places lead us on routes through beautiful countryside with the best saved for last when we went to the north of the island to see beautiful scenery and the mountain climbs. Even the weather was great except for one day when we had some drizzle. Oh and I mustn’t forget Mel Spooner our nutrition expert who was always there to answer any questions during the rides on nutrition. It’s now Saturday 26th 2 days after leaving Mallorca and I’m sitting here in the UK enjoying our lovely weather, which is around 22 deg, but I’m suffering from flu like symptoms. I’m glad I didn’t get it on the camp like the poor 6 other people who did. I’m going to rewind back and share some of my experiences on the camp. Sunday 13th – Level 1 theory. My first time I took a blood sample with a Lactate Pro. Didn’t feel very confident especially knowing I was testing athletes the very next day and my technique was not very good on my first go. Monday 14th - Cycle LBP Test Day. Can’t remember how many athletes we tested but LBP testing was going to be done in the morning and the afternoon. The testing in the morning went smoothly with no real surprises. Although one of the athletes I was testing didn’t realise as they were bringing their HR down they were picking up somebody else’s HR whose was going up. I started to get the hang of taking blood samples with the Lactate Pro as the evening before when I was shown the first time I was not very good. The afternoon session proved more interesting. Andrew got me and Sue to perform double lactate samples on one our athletes and we were getting lactates results close to each other. We witnessed an athlete who was glycogen depleted from his 3hr ride in the morning where he was trying to hang on to the “A” group who were riding hard not steady state. During his LBP test his lactate numbers kept coming down and looked like their was no sign it was going to come up and the athlete was saying he was also very tired so to prove that he was glycogen depleted Andrew asked the athlete to go as hard as he could for a minute to see if he could get his lactate up but the sample showed it hadn’t gone up but down again. The athlete was ordered to ride with the C group for the next few days to recover. Tuesday 15th - Heart rate focus. The first ride where people rode LBP-20. I was having a hard time keeping my HR as it was very low so Andrew showed me how to keep my heart rate up by increasing my cadence! My butt was sore after this ride from bouncing off the saddle so much. Good fun though and made the ride interesting for sure! Wednesday 16th – Cadence focus. To sort out the B & C groups being ran by Andrew & Ginny we had to ride up a hill @ LBP-20. Once the groups were sorted Andrew got us to play around with cadence to ride 5mins @ various cadences @ LBP-20. We also dabbled with pace lines with the stronger riders taking turns on the front and pulling off until they hit LBP-20. Near the end of the ride Andrew got me to do a 4 x 15secs neuromuscular workout to focus on a possible weakness when I’m climbing, as I prefer to stand to create more power. Thursday 17th – Respiratory focus. Felt good this morning but I could feel the work I did in the neuromuscular workout the day before. Didn’t quite count my respiration rate as I was too busy riding up a nice 20minute climb and spent more time focussing cutting the corners and looking at the % figures on my polar. This was the first time my HR hit the 170’s and I felt good. I should have, as my Fit test scores were showing no change so I wasn’t stressing my cardio system. On the way back I took the easy group as I was having my LBP test on Friday. Friday 18th – Recovery day & my LBP test. In the morning I rode for 98mins under my ownzone to give my legs a warm up for my afternoons LBP test. In the afternoon I was feeling good on the LBP test, I remember hitting 165bpm and thinking this is easy as only the week before the perceived effort at the same hear rate was a lot more taxiing. When I got my LBP figure, which was 165bpm it proved that I had been riding, a too low hear rate for that week. This meant I now had to ride harder! Saturday 19th – First day in the Mountains. What a day, a 7 hour epic and 5 mountain climbs. At first when I got my LBP of 165bpm I initially thought the number wasn’t right. Don’t ask me why but I did. I think it’s because I know riding at 165bpm is hard. But I was usually riding at this HR when I was doing mainly functional training 3 months ago. On the first climb I started @ LBP but soon rode at +13 when a group of 5 Swiss guys came past me by the end of the climb there was only 3 of them left plus me. For the next 4 climbs I rode above LBP and felt good. I had to keep an eye on my nutrition on this rides as I was burning loads of climbs. By the end of the ride with 98miles in the tank I was feeling very fresh and still feeling good @ LBP-20. Sunday 20th – A wet day & Level II testing. Woke up feeling super fresh. I tested my pre and post breakfast lactate levels and got the following: - Resting lactate before breakfast - 0.9mmol Resting lactate after breakfast (15mins later) - 1.3mmol The weather wasn’t looking too good and we were hit with a slight drizzle of rain so the ride was cut short to 3hrs and no climbs. At the end of the ride I was feeling real good in the wind and was riding at LBP + 5. In the afternoon we tested an athlete on the bike who wanted to have his LBP tested, as he didn’t have it done earlier on in the week as he had been riding all day. So for the rest of the week he rode with no specific hear rate. On this LBP test we were shown the Level II test protocol with the use of the Bio harness. This test didn’t bold well for the athlete, as his LBP was very low @ 120BPM because he was tired from spending too much time riding hard. In the evening Andrew went through some of the Level 2 power point presentation. I had a go on the Spiropet and got a Vital Capacity of 4.5. Andrew who is of similar height and weight to me told me using the Spirotiger he had increase his Vital Capacity from 3.2 to 4.5. Monday 21st – Rest day & run LBP tests. Today we did some more Level II tests but on runners. The first runner had a very good respiration rate whilst he 2nd runner had a very high respiration rate as his HR increased. In the evening we discussed the results from the 2nd runner. Andrew was given a recent threshold test by the athlete to compare with his run LBP test. His aerobic threshold was determined based on an absolute number of 2mmol of lactate during a standard ramp test, and anaerobic threshold based on 4mmol was 180. The runner’s LBP was 167. What was interesting and showed that the standard threshold test is flawed his Zone 1 (Base Training) recommended training at HR=157-167. This is clearly in his FTFa zone, and using these numbers, the athlete was COMPLETELY spent in the first two days of the camp. I was also shown the Spirotiger and was allowed to use it. I had a 2.5L bag and respiration rate set @ 30. I did this for 5 minutes. Boy did I get a sweat. Tuesday 22nd – A warm day in the Mountains. Woke up feeling tired for the very first time during the camp. The day didn’t bold well as my stomach was acting up. For 4hrs I was like this but things improved. Rode quite hard today on the climbs and on the flats and felt very tired when I went to bed that nigh! Wednesday 23rd – Last day on the bike and one last climb. Just a 3hr ride and rode the Col de Soller. During the ride I counted my respiration rate when I was at LBP-20 and got 18. At the bottom of the Soller climb @ LBP-5 my respiration rate was 23. By the time I got to the top my LBP had hit + 13. In the last 400metres I had to ease up and loose contact with Peter who was leading on the climb as I was feeling tired from the ride the day before and my respiration rate felt out of control. Feeling tired I cut the ride short and rode back with Andrew & Joerg. |