Before reading, please heed the warnings below.
Warning: There is no entertainment value here. Just facts.
Warning #2: Ignorance is bliss. Since the info below is based on science, beware that you may learn something.
One of my favorite web sites for Sports Medicine and Nutrition is sportscience.org. One of their contributors, Will Hopkins, recently attended the 2007 American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) conference and brought back some notes. Some study results were not yet substantiated, and some results were of low significance, so no conclusions yet. The stuff I could truly understand was quite interesting. Not that it was new information, but that known and emerging information continues to be supported. Here is a synopsis:
- 4-1 carb/protein during exercise is a good thing. (6% and 1.2% solution respectively) Double the protein is not-so-good.
- Caffeine is good. You may need less than you think.
- Anti-oxidants (like Beta carotene, Vit C and E) showed no increase in performance. (They're still good though - just for other reasons.)
- NSAIDs (like ibuprofen) and mega-doses of Vit C reduce muscle soreness, but Vit C also delays recovery. ("...the reactive oxygen species in inflammation have a positive role in adaptation," which is what Vit C is trying to inhibit.)
- Q: How do you know when you are overreaching (good) and when you are overtraining(bad), when both yield performance impacts? A: "...the closest thing is a downturn in mood state, especially in the depression dimension"
To read the details, including how to use this info to be a better cyclist, go here: http://www.sportsci.org/2007/wghACSM.htm. Note that in Mr. Hopkin's notes, there are also some unsubstantiated studies that show amazing results (I did not include those in my summary),
