Archivo de July 2015

Case studies about elite performance in the heat

By Iñigo Mujika , el 17 de July de 2015

During the conference (Photo: INSEP)

“Heat stress and sport performance” was the title of an excellent conference that took place at INSEP (National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance), Paris, on June 22nd and 23rd. The Scientific Committee of the conference, including my colleagues (and friends) Christophe Hausswirth, Yann Le Meur, Rob Duffield and Aaron Coutts managed to bring together sport physiologists, medical doctors, coaches and other elite sport professionals, including athletes, to present, discuss and debate the latest developments concerning heat exposure during training and competition in hot environments.

Below you can find the written abstract of my own invited lecture, entitled “Case studies about elite performance in the heat”.

Read & comment ›››

Posted in
Tags

Another lost interview: tapering and peaking in cycling

By Iñigo Mujika , el 10 de July de 2015

Fine tuning Mikel Astarloza in the Tour the France (Photo: Iñigo Mujika)

Here’s another interview that I did a few weeks ago for a cycling magazine. Most of the contents were never published in the final article, so…

Let’s presume we’re aiming at a sportive rider who’s pretty serious about their training. Their goal event is 150km long and they’ve been training regularly for about 6-10hrs a week. Broadly speaking, how long should they taper for to be at their peak come race day?

As a general rule, research has shown that optimal tapering duration for cycle racing ranges between 8 and 14 days. However, we all know that general rules do not necessarily apply to individual athletes, who should adapt taper duration to their individual recovery-fitness profile and their level of accumulated fatigue: some cyclists recover faster than others, and they would need a shorter taper; some lose fitness faster than others, and they would need to train enough during the taper to avoid losing adaptation (i.e. detraining); some may have a more pronounced residual fatigue from their intensive training and/or other stressful lifestyle factors, and they may require a longer taper or a more pronounced reduction of their training load in the days prior to the race.

Read & comment ›››

Posted in
Tags