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Post by FinbarrL on Mar 1, 2016 21:58:40 GMT
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Post by Muller on Mar 12, 2016 16:49:50 GMT
WHY YOUR MAX HEART RATE MAY BE IRRELEVANT A Dr. Mirkin wrote two excellent columns on why the standard formula for calculating max heart rate is inaccurate, and he gave two much better formulae for athletes based on a study done in Liverpool, England: “The maximum heart rate of male athletes was calculated to be 202 – (0.55 x age), and for female athletes, 216 – (1.09 x age).” This will produce a much better estimate of your max heart rate, but it still won’t tell you how to train. Setting your training zones based on max heart rate isn’t the best way.Many riders use max heart rate to set training zones because that’s the default method used by heart rate monitors. Both Polar and Garmin heart rate monitors set the training zones based on max heart rate, which the HRM calculates. You have the option of putting in a more refined estimate of your max HR using Dr. Mirkin’s formula or even suffering through a max HR test. Max Heart Rate Doesn’t Show Cycling FitnessImagine two club riders: Joan is 41, so using Dr. Milkin’s formulae her calculated max heart rate is 171 bpm. She started riding when she was 25. Jim is 55, and his calculated max heart rate is also 171 bpm. He just started riding last year. On club rides Joan rides with the fast bunch, drops the guys on hills and holds her own in the sprints. Jim rides with the new riders’ slow group and is gradually getting fit enough to stay with the group. Max heart rate doesn’t take into account differences in fitness. Joan is much fitter than Jim, and their heart rate responses are much different. Even if Joan and Jim tested their max heart rates, training based on their individual max heart rates still wouldn’t take into account fitness. Why not? Your cycling fitness is a result of: 1. How fast your heart can beat. 2. Your heart’s stroke volume – how much blood it pumps per beat. 3. Your VO2 max – how much oxygen your muscles use out of the oxygen delivered by your lungs. 4. How hard you can ride and how fast your heart beats before you start to go anaerobic. 5. How much power your muscles can deliver. 6. Your pedaling economy, how efficiently that power moves you down the road. All six of these improve depending on how long you’ve been riding and the kind(s) of training that you do. Training based on your max HR only takes into account the first factor. Why Lactate Threshold Is A Better Measure of Fitness Although some coaches use max heart rate, the consensus is that heart rate training zones based on a rider’s lactate threshold (LT) are better. Your body has three different energy systems:1. Oxidative aerobic system (low power / long duration). 2. Glycolytic anaerobic system (moderate power / short duration) 3. ATP-PC (high power / short duration) To complicate matters further, your legs have three different types of muscle fibers: 1. Slow-twitch (low power, great endurance) 2. Fast-twitch IIb (moderate power and endurance) 3. Fast-twitch IIa (high power and shorter endurance) Each energy system and fiber type responds to different kinds of training. The key distinction for training purposes is between the oxidative aerobic system using your slow-twitch muscles and the glycolytic anaerobic system using your fast-twitch muscles. Your LT is the HR where you become increasing anaerobic. LT isn’t a fixed percentage of max heart rate but varies by fitness. Our hypothetical rider Joan is very fit, and her LT is a much higher percentage of her max heart rate than Jim’s LT, who’s just starting to ride. Lactate threshold takes into account your fitness – and that’s why it’s a better way to set your training zones. Estimating Your Own Lactate ThresholdIf you spend several hundred euro and go to a lab to measure your LT, you’ll ride an ergometer. Every few minutes the lab tech will draw blood, measure the amount of lactic acid and then increase the resistance of the ergometer. When your lactic acid reaches 4 mmol / L that’s your lactate threshold. A lab test isn’t necessary unless you’re a serious racer, and if you are a serious racer, then a power meter will provide more useful data. Your functional lactate threshold is the heart rate that you can sustain for a 1-hour time trial, but that’s a pretty painful test.
Here’s a less painful test to estimate your lactate threshold:Ride this solo rather than competing with anyone. Do the test after a very easy week when you’ve only ridden a few hours. Use a course that is flat or slightly uphill and will take you at least half an hour to ride going flat out. Do the test on a calm day. Warm up thoroughly for about half an hour. Ride as hard as you can for 20 minutes. (Use a course that takes longer so that as your fitness improves you can repeat the test on the same course.) Try to pace yourself so that your effort is pretty constant for the full 20 minutes. Record how far you rode, your average speed and average heart rate. (If your HRM doesn’t calculate average HR just eyeball it.) Your lactate threshold is about 95% of your average heart rate for the 20 minutes. Repeat the test every 4 – 6 weeks at the same time of day and under the same conditions. If you go faster and farther, then your overall fitness has improved. If your sustainable average heart rate goes up, it may be because you’re getting better at pacing yourself through the time trial, or it may be because you LT has shifted up.
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Post by Shay on Apr 7, 2016 21:43:39 GMT
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Post by Muller on Apr 14, 2016 12:05:03 GMT
OVERNIGHT FASTING TO INCREASE SPEED AND ENDURANCE
A new study from France shows that night-time fasting after intense workouts on alternate days helps athletes exercise longer and faster. This is an impeccable study in which 21 trained competitive endurance athletes were randomly divided into two groups and all followed the same training program. They all ate the same foods and the same total amount of carbohydrates per day. The only difference between the two groups was the times of day that they ate their carbohydrates. The test group ate a low-carbohydrate dinner after their intense afternoon workout and then fasted for 13 hours before their morning recovery workout, then ate larger amounts of carbohydrates after their recovery workouts. The control group ate their meals as they wished, with no fasting requirement. After just three weeks of the carbohydrate-fasting regimen, the test group was able to pedal at greater than 120 cadence for a longer time (more than 60 seconds), and run 10 kilometers (6.25 miles) faster. Neither group lost a significant amount of weight, but the fasting group lost 8 percent of their body fat, compared to the control group who lost only 2.5 percent. (8% of their body fat, not their body weight). This is very important because when you lose body fat, you lose fat in your liver so you are able to store more sugar there. Storing Sugar for Speed and EnduranceYour muscles use primarily sugar and fat for energy. You have a virtually unlimited amount of fat in your body but only enough sugar to last 70 minutes during intense exercise. When your muscles start to run out of stored sugar, they hurt and burn, and you become short of breath and have to slow down. Runners call this "hitting the wall." Your liver is the only other place where you store significant amounts of sugar. When your liver starts to run low on sugar, your blood sugar starts to drop and you feel exhausted and can even pass out. Cyclists call this "bonking." Anything that helps your liver store more sugar helps you to exercise more intensely for longer periods of time. Losing body fat takes fat out of your liver, which allows your liver to store more sugar, thus giving you greater speed and endurance. How Your Body Stores Sugar in Your Muscles You get all of your sugar from carbohydrates that are made up of sugars in singles, doubles and long chains. The most carbohydrate you can take in to increase stored muscle sugar is 90 grams per day. You cannot increase sugar stores in muscles beyond that by eating more carbohydrates, because all extra sugar is converted to fat, which increases weight and just slows you down. The extra carbohydrates that were converted to fat end up in your liver. Extra fat in your liver reduces the amount of sugar that your liver can store, so you tire earlier. That is why "carbohydrate loading" has been abandoned by all knowledgeable athletes. Various ways have been tried to increase the body's ability to store sugar:Low carbohydrate/high fat diets Training without taking in carbohydrates Withholding carbohydrates after you finish intense exercising (delayed recovery) Training twice a day to leave little time for refueling between sessions Training at reduced intensity after an overnight fast Training when muscles are low in stored sugar teaches them to burn more fat and delays using up their meager stored sugar supplies, but this method interferes with workouts. Nobody has really shown that options 1 and 2 are effective because they interfere with how fast you move during intense training, which is more important than anything else. All athletes hate the early exhaustion and tiredness they feel when they train when their muscles are low on sugar. Success with option #5, overnight fasting, was first reported seven years ago when it was shown to improve endurance in cyclists. The results from this new study are even more convincing. They suggest that athletes should eat their carbohydrates during the day and then restrict carbohydrate intake after their intense training session in the afternoon and before they go to bed at night. These athletes did their usual morning recovery workout at very low-intensity to promote muscle adaptation for metabolizing more fat. I hope that the researchers will test their theory for 3-month, 6-month or longer periods to see if the benefits accumulate. Meanwhile, I recommend that you try their program yourself. See If This Study's Regimen Makes You a Better Athlete Most top athletes train twice a day. They know that you have to damage your muscles to make them stronger. They take a very hard workout to damage their muscles in the afternoon on one day and follow that with three less-intense recovery workouts. So they take one hard workout every other day. The other three workouts are to help your muscles recover from their intense alternate-day workout. Restricting carbohydrates after your alternate-day intense workout, followed by an overnight fast, and then exercising muscles with low levels of stored sugar teaches your muscles to preserve their stored sugar by burning more fat and less sugar. This makes you faster and stronger and gives you greater endurance. Obviously, the vast majority of us are not "top athletes," and few of us have the time the pros do to work out twice a day. So in the following workout regimen, if you can only work out once a day, just cut out one of the prescribed recovery workouts per day.) On the day of your intense workout:Eat a normal breakfast and do an easy workout in the morning. (Cut this workout if you're only able to do one workout a day.) Eat a normal lunch. Before your intense workout, eat extra fruits, vegetables, cereals, whole grains, seeds and some refined carbohydrates in bakery products and pastas. Take your hard work out in the afternoon or early evening. After your hard work out, eat a supper that is very low in carbohydrates. Avoid refined carbohydrates such as foods made with flour (bakery products and pastas) and all sugar-added foods. Your meal should be based on vegetables and can include various sources of protein and fat. After supper, no snacks or any other sources of calories for 13 hours. Drink water or other non-calorie fluids as desired. The day after your intense workout: Before your morning recovery workout, drink only water, black coffee or tea (no cream or sugar) and, if your muscles feel heavy and tired, you can eat a single fruit such as an orange. Do not drink fruit juice. After your recovery workout, eat your usual meal for lunch that can include plenty of carbohydrates, protein and fat. After your afternoon recovery workout, eat your usual dinner. (Cut this workout if you're only able to do one workout a day.) What You Should Learn from This Study An overnight carbohydrate fast after your alternate-day intense workout keeps your muscles low in their stored sugar. Then exercising muscles depleted of their stored sugar teaches your muscles to burn more fat and less sugar, so you keep sugar in your muscles longer, and that makes you faster and stronger and gives you greater endurance. An overnight carbohydrate fast after your alternate-day intense workout keeps your muscles low in their stored sugar. Then exercising muscles depleted of their stored sugar teaches your muscles to burn more fat and less sugar, so you keep sugar in your muscles longer, and that makes you faster and stronger and gives you greater endurance. If you are training for competition, you will be best on two-a-day workouts with only one intense workout every other day. The other three workouts are to help your muscles recover from their intense alternate-day workout. However, if you're pressed for time and can only do one workout a day, the key is to work out intensely once every two days, eat a low-carb dinner, then fast, and follow that the next day with a recovery workout. Schedule of two-day cycles for 1-a-day and 2-a-day workouts: For Athletes Working Out 2x a Day Day 1 Normal breakfast Morning easy workout Normal lunch Afternoon Intense hard workout Very-low-carbohydrate Supper No food after that Day 2 A single fruit for breakfast Morning easy recovery workout Normal lunch Easy afternoon workout Normal supper For Athletes Working out Once a Day ------------------------------------------------------ For Athletes Working Out 1x a Day Day 1 Normal breakfast Normal lunch Afternoon Intense hard workout Very-low-carbohydrate Supper No food after that Day 2 A single fruit for breakfast Morning easy recovery workout Can snack on fruit after workout Normal lunch Normal supper RecommendationIf you decide to try this regimen (either the 1x- or 2x-a-day approach), try doing three of the 2-day cycles per week, followed the next day by a long, moderately paced depletion ride. On the day you do the long depletion ride, follow your normal diet. Repeat the regimen for three weeks. The study only reported the findings after three weeks, so nobody knows if the benefits continue with further cycles. Try following it for three weeks only, and then gauging your progress.
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Post by Muller on Jun 23, 2016 17:40:03 GMT
WHY 'NO PAIN, NO GAIN' IS WRONG "No pain, no gain" is wrong. As is the corollary “More pain, more gain.” Suppose you ride 60 km on Tuesday, 60 km on Thursday and then 100 km on the weekend. You ride nearly all the time at a conversational pace. You want to improve. What should you do? When asked the same question, Eddy “The Cannibal” Merckx famously said, “Ride more.” The Cannibal won the Tour de France five times and the Giro d’Italia five times. He won the Tour and Giro double in the same season three times. Only five riders have ever won the double. Marco Pantani was the last, in 1998. Merckx set the hour record, won the World Championships three times and won multiple spring classics. And he did all of this training without a heart rate monitor, much less a power meter—not even a speedometer! Note that the Cannibal didn’t say, “Ride harder.” Although written elsewhere that coaching science has advanced considerably since he retired in 1978 – and that his suggestion is certainly not the only thing you can do to improve – the Cannibal’s advice, “ride more,” can still help you become a better rider. Using the above example, your body has adapted to riding those 220 km a week. To improve, you need to increase the overload, i.e., ask more of your body. Done correctly and with adequate recovery, your body will adapt to the new workload and you’ll be fitter. At which point you need to increase the overload again. You can challenge your body to do more in these ways: 1.Increase the frequency you ride, i.e., ride four days a week. This amounts to decreasing the amount of recovery you get. 2.Increase the duration of your rides. 3.Increase the total volume you ride, which is the product of #1 and #2 4. Increase the difficulty of your rides, e.g., do hillier routes. 5.Increase the intensity of your riding. 6.Change the type riding, i.e., do one-leg pedaling on the trainer and/or add a few sprints. Warning: Only change one of the above at a time to avoid overtraining! Note that only #4, 5 and 6 mean riding harder, which may or may not include suffering. The first three are ways of implementing the Cannibal’s advice. Incorporating these changes one at a time will improve your endurance. Why Endurance is Important Why did Merckx emphasize endurance? Any race longer than an hour is primarily an endurance event! If a rider doesn’t have the endurance to ride many kilometers, then a powerful sprint is useless! If you don’t want to significantly increase the intensity that you ride (and I don’t blame you!), how can you improve your performance in addition to increasing your endurance? #1 Increase the tempo at which you ride. Endurance riding should be done at a comfortable conversational pace. If you increase the pace so that you can still talk in short sentences but can’t whistle you are recruiting more muscle fibers. As your body adapts to riding with more muscle fibers activated you’ll increase your cruising speed. When you start tempo riding, if you alternate tempo efforts and easier pedaling you can do more tempo volume than if you just make one longer tempo effort. More volume, of course, means more overload on your body and more adaptation. You can either do structured tempo intervals or just change the pace whenever you want to. When you climb a hill you are recruiting more muscle fibers, so riding hills is an easy and often fun way of doing a tempo workout. You don’t need to hammer. Just breathe a little harder and keep talking in shorter sentences with your buddies. #2 Increase the muscles used. Your leg has muscles in the upper and lower leg and muscles on the front and the back of each leg. Practicing pedaling with one leg will train your body to recruit different muscles in different segments of the rotation of your pedals. Although you can practice one-leg pedaling on the road, it’s easier and safer on the trainer. Put something on each side of the trainer, e.g., a box, on which you can rest one foot. Pedal with one leg for X revolutions until your pedal stroke is ragged. Then pedal with both legs for the same number of revolutions. Don’t bother to clip in the second foot, just rest it on the pedal. Repeat three times and then switch legs. Concentrate on four parts of the stroke: Top: Apply power forward, imagining that you are pushing your knee toward the handlebars or kicking a soccer ball. Front: Apply power downward. Bottom: Apply power backward, with your foot pointed slightly downward. Imagine that you are scraping your toes across the floor Back: Don’t try to pull up on the pedal (which is inefficient); rather, just lift your leg so that your other leg doesn’t need to push it up. #3 Improve the coordination of your muscles’ firing. Each muscle is composed of many muscle fibers, each of which is controlled by a different nerve. When your brain sends the message “more power,” then more nerves tell more muscle fibers to fire, but they don’t all fire at the same instant. To get more painless power you want to improve the coordination of the muscle fiber firing pattern. This is like dialing in the timing of your car engine. When you sprint, your mind sends the message, “max power,” and all your muscle fibers start firing. With repeated sprints you improve the firing pattern of the individual fibers. When you sprint just put it in a big gear, e.g., a 53 x 13, and go as hard as you can. Don’t worry about power or heart rate. The sprints don’t need to be long: 20 to 30 seconds is plenty. Get plenty of recovery between each sprint—10 to 15 minutes is fine—so that you are fully recovered and can give a maximum effort on the next sprint. Start with two or three 20-second sprints and build up to three or four 30-second sprints. Or ignore the metrics and just sprint with your buddies a few times on each long ride. #4 Increase the power. Your legs have slow-twitch endurance muscle fibers and fast-twitch power muscle fibers. (Slow and fast refer to how fast the nerves fire and the fibers contract, not to your cadence.) Endurance riding uses only slow-twitch muscle fibers. Sprinting also uses your fast-twitch muscles; however, sprints only train how your nerves fire. Sprints are too short to cause the muscle fibers themselves to adapt. Warning: Only add one of these four at a time to your riding to avoid injury! Train in the 'Sweet Spot'If you ride just a little harder than tempo riding, you start to recruit fast-twitch muscles in addition to your slow-twitch muscles. You aren’t breathless; you can still talk in short phrases. This is called riding in the Sweet Spot and is the opposite of the “more pain, more gain” approach to training. The harder you ride (the more pain) the more fast-twitch fibers you are recruiting and training, which is good. However, the harder you ride, the more recovery you need between hard efforts and between hard days, so the total volume of hard riding you can handle is less. Riding in the Sweet Spot balances the level of intensity with the volume of intensity to achieve the maximum overload on your muscles. Training in the Sweet Spot is the optimal way to improve your power. Done correctly, it’ll hurt a little, but you shouldn’t be complaining. Ride slower. Your body only adapts and improves when you allow adequate recovery. Incorporating very easy riding into your weeks will yield more improvement than just adding the above types of riding! On a recovery ride, you should be riding so slowly that you’re almost embarrassed to be seen on the bike.
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Post by Muller on Jun 30, 2016 12:35:34 GMT
HOW TO EAT AND DRINK ON THE BIKE There are many advantages to being able to eat and drink on the move. It’s essential on long rides and a great timesaver compared to stopping. But it’s harder to do than it looks. Energy bars are tough to peel when pedaling along. Reaching for food makes the bike waver, and you find yourself needing to look down each time you want to grab a bottle. Putting it back is even trickier. For proper on-bike nutrition during rides lasting longer than a couple of hours, you need to be ingesting about 250-350 calories per hour. This is the equivalent of one typical energy bar and 1-2 bottles of sports drink. This means you’ll be reaching for another bite or swig every 10-12 minutes. It pays to learn how to do it without fumbling or taking your eyes off the road. Practice all of the techniques on a traffic-free road so you can focus your attention. Tip! Anytime you need to take a hand from the bar, maximize stability by moving the other hand to the bar top next to the stem. If you leave it out on the brake hood or drop, small movements are amplified in terms of their effect on steering. Techniques for Safely Eating and DrinkingBottles. Most bikes have bottle-cage bosses on the down tube and seat tube. When riders carry just one bottle, they usually put it in the down-tube cage. So reaching to that location needs to become ingrained. It will with practice. For tall 28-ounce bottles, take hold with your thumb in the groove that separates the top section from the bottom. Small 22-ounce bottles don’t have this groove and they’re shorter, of course, so the reach is longer unless you grasp the top. Pull the bottle out and put it to the side of your mouth so it doesn’t block your forward vision. Variation: Use a backhand grip. Turn your hand so the crotch of your thumb and index finger is down instead of up. As you bring the bottle up to your mouth, rotate your wrist so your palm is up. This puts the bottle at a convenient downward angle for a swig. (One way isn't more "correct" than the other, so don't think you have to replicate a pro or a buddy; do what is most comfortable for you.) If you think about the path that your hand travels as you take out the bottle, it’s relatively easy to retrace it to replace the bottle without looking down. If necessary, use a finger or your thumb as a guide to feel for the side of the cage. A seat-tube-mounted bottle can be easier to remove and replace because it’s a bit closer. Not many riders seem to use the seat-tube cage when carrying just one bottle, but those who do may be on to something. Grasp the bottle from the front with your palm facing it and the thumb on the side. Pull the bottle up and rotate your wrist so your palm is up. The bottle will be at the proper angle at your mouth. The one difficulty using a seat-tube bottle is that you are reaching between your legs. This can initially be a bit awkward while pedaling, but practice will quickly smooth your technique. Want to switch bottles from one cage to the other? Let’s say your down-tube bottle is dry and you want to move the full seat-tube bottle to the down-tube cage. It’s easy to do this and keep one hand on the bar. Take the last swig from the down-tube bottle and hold the nozzle in your teeth. Move the full bottle to the down-tube cage. Then take the empty from your mouth and stick it in the other cage. Food. Riding no-hands enables you to sit up, reach into a jersey pocket for food, open it and start eating. Once you're chewing, put one hand back on the bar for safety. If you don’t want to gobble the whole thing, reach back and store it in a pocket. The biggest difficulty is the recalcitrant wrapper that protects some energy bars. A safecracker couldn’t get it open. If your preferred bar has this sort of wrapper, open it at home using a knife or scissors. This also gives you the option of peeling the wrapper using one hand and your teeth if no-hands riding is too risky for any reason. Opening such foods as energy chews at home is also a great idea if you're preparing for a fast, hard or no-drop ride or race where you know you will have limited (if any) stops to fiddle with your food.
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Post by Muller on Nov 3, 2016 18:04:24 GMT
Time to move on to NUTRITION Nutrition for cycling: 10 tips to get your food and drink dialled When it comes to food, there’s a wealth of information available. Some of it can be confusing, conflicting or just plain complicated. Here, provides a glossary of important nutritional terms and explains how the straightforward process of getting your nutritional needs sorted can help you become a faster, stronger and healthier cyclist. If you are keen on cycling, you’re probably interested in your diet, health and weight as well — but if you find nutrition information dry, chewy and a real headache, it’s time to go back to basics. Get these things right and the rest is just the icing on the cake. From the importance of carbohydrate and protein to when and what to eat and drink before, during and after a ride. 1. Consume the right amount of calories.The first thing to celebrate if you’ve just taken up cycling is that it increases your calorie requirement. Before you run to the fridge to indulge in your favourite treat , however, be aware that many cyclists end up rewarding themselves above and beyond the calories burnt on a ride, so although you can eat a little more, try not to abandon healthy choices or to max out on portions. A good way to estimate your additional calorie need is to multiply the distance travelled in miles by 40-50 calories. Therefore, if you’ve been out for a 30-mile ride you can estimate an extra calorie need of between 1,200-1,500 calories erring towards the bottom end of this if you’re a slower or lighter rider and toward the top end if you’re faster or heavier. Of course, having a GPS device which estimates calories burned according to the terrain of the ride will give you a more accurate indication of your additional need and you should take off any calories consumed on the ride (or any extra calories ingested in the immediate period before or afterwards). In response to your ride, although not in the immediate period afterwards, your appetite should increase above the level you are used to as your body releases hungry hormones in its mission to maintain body fat stores. If you’re seeking a little weight loss, then aim to leave a shortfall in calories replaced to create a deficit that will encourage some fat loss, but limit this to 250 calories a day deficit maximum if you want to continue to ride strong. It’s also wise to avoid cutting calories when you’re in stressful, long or high intensity training periods or close to an event.
2. Carbohydrate: the body’s fuel supplyCarbohydrate is the body’s primary energy source for cycling. Stored in the muscle, any excess in total intake above the body’s calorie needs will be stored as fat (the same is true for protein and fat). Your weekly requirement for carbohydrate will depend on how many miles per week you ride and other lifestyle demands. Sports scientists will recommend intake within a range of 5-9g of carbohydrate for each kilogram you weigh per day. The problem with this is that many of us don’t want to spend time counting grams of carbohydrate, so a practical recommendation is far more useful. As large servings of carbohydrate lead to a peak and trough of energy that can leave you feeling very lethargic, a good practical way to eat enough carbohydrate to support your training, but avoid the effect of large servings is to aim to eat a fist-sized portion of a low-glycaemic carbohydrate (‘slow-burn’ carbs such as wholegrains, fruit, vegetables) with each meal or snack. This could be cereal such as oats at breakfast, a small piece of fruit mid-morning and mid-afternoon, a wholegrain sandwich at lunch and perhaps some wholegrain rice or quinoa with your evening meal. In this way, these small servings will supply enough energy without leading to an energy drop. Another advantage of eating in this way is that 90 minutes to two hours after your meal, you are likely to have digested the smaller portion and be ready to get on your bike. It’s worth noting that all carbohydrates are not equal and will have a different impact on energy levels and health. Although many celebrate the green light to sugary carbohydrates that cycling appears to allow without showing on your waistline, indulging in too many sugary carbohydrates in the regular daily diet can have a negative impact on recovery, energy levels and health. It’s always best to opt instead for wholegrain slow-release carbohydrates and fruit and vegetables that are packed full of nutrients rather than refined sugar.
3 . Are you eating enough protein?
Protein is often thought of as muscle food and not relevant to cyclists, but getting adequate protein into your diet will support your health, immune function and recovery. Responsible for tissue maintenance in the body and playing a vital role in immune function, it follows that your recovery will be sub-optimal if you are accelerating muscle damage through training while not meeting your needs. With recent research highlighting that protein is also more filling than an equal calorie measure of carbohydrate or fat, "increasing your intake just a little" can help to keep your appetite under control too. Including beans and pulses in your diet along with lean meats, fish and low-fat dairy foods can help you meet your requirement. It’s advisable to limit your consumption of red and processed meats that are linked with a higher incidence of disease. Just like carbohydrate, a small amount of protein in each meal or snack is preferable to plonking a large, hard-to-digest piece of protein into one meal resulting in better energy levels. 4. Good fats, not bad fatsThe type of fat you select is critical to health, performance and weight maintenance. Fats are grouped into ‘good’ fats and ‘bad’ fats. Good fats include polyunsaturated fats (Omega 3 and Omega 6 fats) and monounsaturated fats (Omega 9 fats). Whereas saturated fats found in meats and processed foods are to be limited, Omega 3 and 6 fats are vital to maintaining health and are found in nuts, seeds, fish and oils such as flaxseed, borage and starflower oil.Additional benefits from these fats include a reduction of inflammation in the body, making them great for those with asthma and allergies while also providing a stimulatory benefit to the metabolism, and therefore assisting in weight loss. Good fats are known to reduce bad cholesterol (LDL) and are therefore an important part of the diet to assist in the prevention of heart disease. Aiming for around 20g of good fat per day is a great strategy for health support without the risk of adding too many calorific fats to the diet. 5. Eat the right vitamins and mineralsThere are two main types of vitamins — fat-soluble and water-soluble ones. The fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K are stored in the body. The water-soluble ones, however, are not stored in the body and therefore are needed in the diet every day. Minerals such as calcium, iron and zinc are also needed daily, but only in very small quantities. These vitamins and minerals can be found in a variety of foods. The recommendation of five pieces of fruit and vegetables per day is aimed to assist in the daily achievement of these vitamins and minerals along with sufficient fibre intake. Selecting a rainbow of colours and aiming for darker-coloured fruits and vegetables is recommended. To ensure deficiencies don’t develop, especially when training regularly, a good multivitamin is also a wise investment but avoid mega-dosing on nutrients unless used as a short-term treatment (for example in the case of vitamin C and zinc use during a cold to reduce severity and duration of symptoms). 6. Make sure you drink enough to perform at your bestDrinking enough fluid will not only support better riding, but will result in better energy levels while you’re going about your daily life. If you have experienced that foggy-head feeling after a long run it’s usually a sign to drink up. In addition to drinking 1.5-2 litres of water across the day, cyclists should ideally be drinking additional fluid to match any loss during riding.An easy way to work out your need is to weigh yourself pre and post-ride. For each kilo you have lost, you require an additional litre of water, so if a 60-minute ride leaves you 0.5kg lighter then you just require an extra 500ml of fluid in the diet to rebalance things. With just two per cent dehydration resulting in a significant reduction in performance, it’s worth paying attention to this statistic. It’s such a small simple step, but it will make a huge difference. 7. Fuel your ride properlyIf you are eating adequately across the day, easy-paced rides of less than 90 minutes don’t always need additional fuel support. Your carbohydrate stores will provide plenty of fuel over this period. If you are heading out for a longer or more intense ride, however, topping up your carbohydrate stores will support better performance so that you still have plenty of strength towards the end of your route. Studies indicate that a fuelling plan delivering between 30g and 60g of carbohydrate per hour of riding is optimum, so experimenting within this range is a good start point. You can opt for a carbohydrate drink, a mix of water and gels or bars, or a mixture of all three. Just be sure to check the carbohydrate content rather than assuming that the total declared weight is carbohydrate. The amount of carbohydrate people can take on board is very individual. Some may be able to digest 30g per hour whereas others can take on 60g without any gastrointestinal distress. Start at 30g and gradually increase this on subsequent rides to find out how much you can tolerate. If you can tolerate 60g, this will support better performance, so it’s worth trying to get your body used to this. Consider that exercise intensity will dictate what you can digest too, along with how long you have been riding. Solid foods such as bars are usually better tolerated towards the beginning of a ride and are ideal for the first half of a sportive, for example, but taking on a bar for a high-intensity race such as a time trial, would leave you struggling to digest it. As the duration or intensity goes up, switch from bars to gels to make up any extra carbohydrate in addition to your drink. When taking on carbohydrate in a gel form be sure to take on water with it too, unless you are using an ‘isotonic’ gel, with the most effective fuel delivery being achieved if your carbohydrate is taken on in a 6-8 per cent solution. This will require 125-150ml of water to be consumed with each 10g of carbohydrate delivered by a gel (this will contain some fluid, so will lower your additional need). 8. Recovery food: when and what to eat after you’ve ridden"The first 20 minutes after a ride is known to be the optimal refuelling period" where nutrients are taken up more efficiently and transported to the muscle stores. Taking on a carbohydrate-rich meal or drink in this period will improve the rate at which your energy stores refill, which will have a direct impact on how much stored energy you have available for your next ride. With research indicating that an intake of 1g of carbohydrate per kilogram you weigh during this time is perfect for refuelling, a 70g carbohydrate feed for a 70kg cyclist is perfect. Combining this with 10g of protein will reduce your likelihood of getting injured, assist muscle recovery and reduce muscle soreness and has even been shown to speed up carbohydrate muscle refuelling. A milk-based drink, a whey or soy protein-enriched smoothie, a jacket potato and beans, or a specialised recovery formula all make good, sensible options. With some of the specialised formulas you can benefit from ingredients such as glutamine and colostrum, two proteins that can provide extra immune support after strenuous training sessions or races. 9. Caffeine: good or bad?Some people avoid caffeine like the plague and others embrace it for its performance-supporting effects. If you’re a fan, you’ll find most sports physiologists are with you with studies showing that 1-3mg of caffeine per kilo of body weight can result in enhanced performance, increased power output and improved mental focus, with larger doses generally offering no additional benefit. Interestingly, caffeine’s effects appear to be negated by the heat, with studies in hotter climates showing no benefit. This may be due to fatigue being limited by thermoregulation in these conditions rather than fuel supply. If you are thinking of giving a caffeinated drink or gel a try in an event try it in training first. However, it’s not for everyone. If you suffer from high blood pressure or a heart condition, caffeine use is not recommended and if you are on any medication, it’s best to check with your doctor before giving it a try. 10. Get your pre-ride nutrition timing rightIt can be pretty difficult working out what to eat prior to a ride and I think most cyclists will have experienced both cycling hungry and trying to pedal uphill with a stomach that feels like it has a lead weight in it! Neither of these are a particularly pleasant experience. To avoid these situations, time your pre-ride meal for at least 90 minutes prior to hitting the road.
If you eat small, regular meals over the day, downsizing your three main meals to make room for a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack, it makes it easy to ensure you are fuelled before you head out. Instead, choose a low-fat, carbohydrate-dominant meal or snack with a small amount of lean protein, as this will be digested a lot more rapidly than fatty or protein dominant meals.
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Post by Muller on Nov 5, 2016 23:36:59 GMT
Nutrition: what is carb loading?
How to carb load effectively in the build-up to a sportive or race.
It’s common for cyclists to tuck into a big bowl of pasta in the build-up to a sportive or race and most riders know it can be beneficial to top-up your carbohydrate stores before a significant event.
This is known as carb loading – a term that has been bandied around endurance sports for a number of decades and is seen by many as an excuse to over indulge and dive in to a big meal.
However, carb loading involves more than simply having an extra bowl of pasta and requires a little careful planning if you are to take advantage of the benefits without feeling bloated or sluggish.
What is carb loading?
The purpose of carb loading is to maximise stores of your muscles’ primary energy store, glycogen. Your body can also draw energy from your fat reserves, but glycogen is the most easily accessible source, particularly when you’re riding hard. You can comfortably process around 60g of carbohydrate per hour (that’s why 60g is often used as a guideline for how much carbohydrate you should consume per hour during a big ride), which equates to approximately 240kcal. As cycling for the same amount of time will need about roughly 400kcal, your next source of fuel is muscle glycogen.
The idea, then, is that by boosting the amount of glycogen you have stored in the build-up to a major event, you’ll boost the amount of fuel available to your muscles. It may not help you ride faster, but it will give you a bigger store of energy to initially draw upon (before you need to top up your supplies) and by increasing stores of glycogen, it’s estimated that endurance performance can be boosted by 2-3 per cent.
When should I carb load?
Our muscles will naturally hold enough energy to fuel us for around 90 minutes of exercise, after which you risk running out or energy – hitting the wall or ‘bonking’. That’s why during a long ride you need to keep your energy reserves topped up with food, gels and bars. However, you only need to consider carb loading if your target event is longer than 90 minutes, and even then you may only want to consider altering your diet if you are targeting a significant ride in your diary.
The process of fueling should start around 48 hours before the start of your ride, with a slow build-up to ensure that you don’t become bloated and sluggish.
How do I carb load?
Having a long event coming up isn’t an excuse to reach for the biscuit tin. Fat content should be kept to a minimum in order to keep gut residue low, and low fibre is also desirable – you don’t want to be looking for a toilet halfway through your ride.
The idea behind carb loading is to increase the proportion of carbohydrate in your diet. A regular day-to-day diet should contain around 5-7g of carbohydrate per kilo of body mass for those moderately active (i.e. three hours plus of exercise a week), while for sedentary people this should go down to 3-5g. When carb loading for an endurance event this increases to 10g per kilo of body mass.
With that in mind, a typical diet for a 70kg rider aiming to carb load should look like this for the 48 hours before the event. Breakfast Three cups of low-fibre breakfast cereal with milk, one medium banana and 250ml of orange juice Snack One toasted muffin with honey and 500ml sports drink Lunch Two sandwiches (four slices of bread) with filling as desired and 200g tub low-fat fruit yoghurt Snack Banana smoothie made with low-fat milk, banana and honey cereal bar Dinner One cup of pasta sauce with two cups of cooked pasta, two slices of garlic bread and two glasses of cordial Late snack Toasted bagel with jam and 500ml sports drink
For those unable to eat bread and pasta, try swapping for oat flapjacks, wraps or rice. You need high GI carbs (those which are broken down quickly by your body and cause a quick increase in blood glucose) to create a high glyceamic load, so reach for white carb sources (like white pasta and rice) and not wholegrain ones as much as normal. This drives the insulin response which in turn drives the glycogen storage into the muscles and liver. If the volume of food above seems a lot, then energy drinks can be used to add carbohydrates without the need to eat.
Why can’t I always eat like this? Eating and refueling in this manner is likely to cause body mass to increase by around 2kg. For every extra gram of glycogen stored, the body will also store 2g of water. This maybe a concern for some, and is something to be avoided away from events, but the negatives of setting off slightly heavier are far outweighed by the potential performance benefits. After all, your body is essentially storing the extra energy to fuel your ride.
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Post by Muller on Nov 6, 2016 22:22:56 GMT
Nutrition Tips for Cyclists
Diet and nutrition is important for cyclists of every ability level, from pros in the midst of training for a race, to weekend cyclists getting ready for a sportive,or a rider preparing for an active cycling vacation. “Without the right fuel, your body simply cannot perform".
Carbs are important. You always need a foundation of grain foods to fuel the muscles and then protein to rebuild the muscles. This might come from cereal with milk or nuts and raisins. These days, people are trying to cut carbs and trying to do these rides on a chicken Caesar salad, but it’s important for cyclists of all levels to understand that carbs are what fuel the muscles. Carbs affect your performance in two ways. Some of the carbs go to your blood to feed the brain. As you’re biking, your body uses up the blood glucose, and when your brain doesn’t get fed, you bonk. When you run out of glycogen, that’s when you hit a wall. Your legs just can’t pedal anymore.
Never bike on an empty stomach. Many people think that they should exercise on an empty stomach to burn more fat, but burning fat doesn’t equate to losing body fat. Whether or not you become thinner depends on whether, at the end of the day, you create a calorie deficit. If you want to lose weight, eat a little less in the evening. Maybe knock off the dessert . Don’t try to skimp before or while you’re riding. Fuel by day and diet by night if you’re looking to lose weight. Just never overeat. What’s really fattening is excess calories at the end of the day.
The lightest cyclist is not necessarily the best cyclist. Many people think “if I’m lighter, I’ll pedal up the hills faster and won’t be the last one.” To a certain extent, if you’re lugging around lots of extra body fat, it will slow you down, but if you’re trying to be too lean for your genetics and you have to under-eat, that will hurt your performance. "The best-fueled athlete tends to be the better and more powerful cyclist".
When you eat is just as important as what you eat. If you’re doing long, slow rides, it’s easier to fuel before and during the ride because the body can easily digest the food. If you’re doing really hard spins, then you probably want to wait an hour or two after you eat to ride so the food has time to digest. When you’re working at your maximum level, blood flow to the stomach shuts down, and the food can talk back to you . If you’re racing day after day, you’ll want to eat as soon as possible after you ride so your muscles have more time to recover, but if you’re just going at a leisurely pace, you probably haven’t depleted yourself and can pay more attention to appetite rather than refueling for performance.
There is no right or wrong. Every person prefers or performs better on his or her own preferred foods. What works for me does not always work for you. It’s best to always try out and experiment on training days what works and what doesn’t. Try to stay away from sugary foods, especially before training, as this can interfere with your Glycemic Load.
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Post by PhOByrne on Nov 7, 2016 17:45:03 GMT
Nutrition: what is carb loading?
How to carb load effectively in the build-up to a sportive or race.
It’s common for cyclists to tuck into a big bowl of pasta in the build-up to a sportive or race and most riders know it can be beneficial to top-up your carbohydrate stores before a significant event.
This is known as carb loading – a term that has been bandied around endurance sports for a number of decades and is seen by many as an excuse to over indulge and dive in to a big meal.
However, carb loading involves more than simply having an extra bowl of pasta and requires a little careful planning if you are to take advantage of the benefits without feeling bloated or sluggish.
What is carb loading?
The purpose of carb loading is to maximise stores of your muscles’ primary energy store, glycogen. Your body can also draw energy from your fat reserves, but glycogen is the most easily accessible source, particularly when you’re riding hard. You can comfortably process around 60g of carbohydrate per hour (that’s why 60g is often used as a guideline for how much carbohydrate you should consume per hour during a big ride), which equates to approximately 240kcal. As cycling for the same amount of time will need about roughly 400kcal, your next source of fuel is muscle glycogen.
The idea, then, is that by boosting the amount of glycogen you have stored in the build-up to a major event, you’ll boost the amount of fuel available to your muscles. It may not help you ride faster, but it will give you a bigger store of energy to initially draw upon (before you need to top up your supplies) and by increasing stores of glycogen, it’s estimated that endurance performance can be boosted by 2-3 per cent.
When should I carb load?
Our muscles will naturally hold enough energy to fuel us for around 90 minutes of exercise, after which you risk running out or energy – hitting the wall or ‘bonking’. That’s why during a long ride you need to keep your energy reserves topped up with food, gels and bars. However, you only need to consider carb loading if your target event is longer than 90 minutes, and even then you may only want to consider altering your diet if you are targeting a significant ride in your diary.
The process of fueling should start around 48 hours before the start of your ride, with a slow build-up to ensure that you don’t become bloated and sluggish.
How do I carb load?
Having a long event coming up isn’t an excuse to reach for the biscuit tin. Fat content should be kept to a minimum in order to keep gut residue low, and low fibre is also desirable – you don’t want to be looking for a toilet halfway through your ride.
The idea behind carb loading is to increase the proportion of carbohydrate in your diet. A regular day-to-day diet should contain around 5-7g of carbohydrate per kilo of body mass for those moderately active (i.e. three hours plus of exercise a week), while for sedentary people this should go down to 3-5g. When carb loading for an endurance event this increases to 10g per kilo of body mass.
With that in mind, a typical diet for a 70kg rider aiming to carb load should look like this for the 48 hours before the event. Breakfast Three cups of low-fibre breakfast cereal with milk, one medium banana and 250ml of orange juice Snack One toasted muffin with honey and 500ml sports drink Lunch Two sandwiches (four slices of bread) with filling as desired and 200g tub low-fat fruit yoghurt Snack Banana smoothie made with low-fat milk, banana and honey cereal bar Dinner One cup of pasta sauce with two cups of cooked pasta, two slices of garlic bread and two glasses of cordial Late snack Toasted bagel with jam and 500ml sports drink
For those unable to eat bread and pasta, try swapping for oat flapjacks, wraps or rice. You need high GI carbs (those which are broken down quickly by your body and cause a quick increase in blood glucose) to create a high glyceamic load, so reach for white carb sources (like white pasta and rice) and not wholegrain ones as much as normal. This drives the insulin response which in turn drives the glycogen storage into the muscles and liver. If the volume of food above seems a lot, then energy drinks can be used to add carbohydrates without the need to eat.
Why can’t I always eat like this? Eating and refueling in this manner is likely to cause body mass to increase by around 2kg. For every extra gram of glycogen stored, the body will also store 2g of water. This maybe a concern for some, and is something to be avoided away from events, but the negatives of setting off slightly heavier are far outweighed by the potential performance benefits. After all, your body is essentially storing the extra energy to fuel your ride.
Great if you can carb load, but since being diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes carbs are a definite no...no (major blood sugar spikes) so now I have to find the energy without carbs. Not easy but still managed the ROK, The Rebel tour and the Pieta 100 without carbs or exhaustion.
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Post by Muller on Nov 8, 2016 14:22:20 GMT
Eat SmarterHabits you didn't know you had and how to change them. It's hard to break bad fueling habits if you don't even know they're problematic. That's why people repeat the same mistakes. "A lot of cyclists form bad habits because they don't think about food,". By recognizing your downfalls you can forge a routine that ensures optimum energy on every ride. Here are six common pitfalls and how to changeSkipping BreakfastSome people aren't hungry in the morning. Others, pass on breakfast to trim calories. Neither is a good strategy, because undereating in the morning usually leads to increased calorie consumption later. Plus, eating breakfast replenishes your liver glycogen stores, which typically dip while you sleep. An ample supply of liver glycogen will stabilize your blood sugar as you ride to help keep your levels from spiking and prevent you from bonking. Change it: If time is your problem, stock up on just-add-water breakfasts such as instant oatmeal. If solid foods seem unappealing in the morning, whip up a fruit-and-yogurt smoothie. Experimenting at the Wrong TimeDuring a big or hard cycle, trying new foods and drinks usually spells disaster, but during short or easier it's a great way to discover what fuels you best. "Easier rides are prime opportunities to practice eating and drinking strategies,". Once you discover a winning formula, you'll approach your next big ride with a fail-proof plan. Change it: Test new foods on shorter rides before eating them on epics. Designate one day a week as "new foods day." You'll never discover your ideal fuel combos until you mix things up a bit. Underfueling During Long RidesEating on the roll can be tricky. And drafting behind other riders can fool you into thinking you don't need to refuel. Cyclists often fail to take in enough energy to realize their potential during tough or long rides. Change it: Fill your bottle with a sports beverage rather than water and set your watch alarm to remind you to sip every 15 minutes. Make a game out of eating all the snacks you've stashed in your jersey: End the ride with uneaten food, and you lose. Missing the Recovery WindowEat within 30 to 60 minutes of ending your ride, and your body fast-tracks those nutrients to muscle repair and glycogen replacement. After that, you'll still benefit, just not as much. Put off eating, and you're more likely to feel tired from the effort, not stronger for the next one. That's a crucial difference when you're stacking big rides back to back. Change it: Prep your recovery foods beforehand so they're ready for you to eat. Far from home? Pack a cooler with a sandwich and a salad. Not Drinking after RidesToo often, cyclists stop drinking when the ride stops. But because it's almost impossible to take in enough fluids while riding to fully replace what you've lost, cyclists end rides dehydrated, which compromises recovery. Change it: Refill your bottle after your ride and down the contents within an hour. Ignoring Seasonal ChangesCome winter, fewer hours of sunlight can curtail your time on the bike. If you don't trim calories accordingly, you'll gain weight by spring. "Eat according to your activity level," Change it: Look at the duration and intensity of your winter rides: If you're cranking hard as ever, eat like it's July. If not, pass on seconds .
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Post by Muller on Nov 11, 2016 14:17:29 GMT
What to eat during cycling If your rides are over an hour in length you should consider proper hydration and refuelling strategies during your ride. Keeping up carbohydrate (muscle glycogen) levels is critical whilst riding to maintain blood glucose to supply energy to the working muscles. The dreaded feeling of ‘bonking’ can hit riders, which makes it impossible to maintain intensity, as carbohydrate stores have run out, leaving riders shaky and feeling empty. How long can I cycle for without refuelling?For rides under 1 hour there is no need to refuel on the move, if you have eaten beforehand. After this time, riders should practice taking on small amounts of high GI carbohydrates during cycling, which helps to top up blood glucose and provides ongoing fuel to the working muscles, to help maintain energy. The readily absorbed carbohydrate also provides important fuel for the brain, which allows the body to keep working harder, especially when tired. New research has shown that even using a carbohydrate sports drink as a mouth rinse, helps to activate the brain - this could be useful later in the ride, when you can’t face drinking. What are the best foods to eat on the bike to avoid feeling full?Keeping to the easily absorbed, high GI carbohydrate options (listed below), is important to avoid discomfort and nausea. Where possible, try to include some carbohydrate-electrolyte sports drinks to meet your fuel and fluid needs. - 500ml bottle of commercially available isotonic sports drink - 1 and a half carbohydrate energy gels - Small handful of jellied sweets - 1 large banana - 1 large cereal bar or carbohydrate based energy bar (low fibre) What are some different options for energy boosting during a ride?Aside from the carbohydrate options, don’t rule out the use of caffeine for an energy boost, if you habitually include caffeine within your diet. There are commercially available sports drinks and gels containing caffeine, which can be extremely useful, especially later in the ride. Should I only eat when I feel hungry or should I snack reguarly during a ride?when to eatDon’t rely on hunger as a cue to refuel during a ride. As a general rule, practice and refine your fuelling during training rides, to find a system you feel comfortable with. Taking on carbohydrate little and often, for a constant energy supply, is often the most efficient strategy.Approximately 30-60g carbohydrate an hour is the target during longer rides, as the body can absorb this amount and use it for energy on the move. Carbohydrate drinks are typically the most efficient way to reach energy targets, and stay hydrated. Carbohydrate gels will also provide readily available energy as they are rapidly absorbed. Small pieces of banana, cereal bars and jellied sweets can also help to offset hunger. I’ve heard a lot about glucose/fructose products – are these right for me?There has been a lot of research over the last few years on carbohydrate use during endurance performance. Previously the focus of many sports nutrition products was glucose. It is now known that a combination of sugars; glucose & fructose, results in better carbohydrate absorption that's more effectively broken down to produce energy during exercise. A mixture of 2:1 glucose and fructose can deliver up to 50% more energy to the working muscles, meaning up to 90g per hour can be used by the muscles as fuel (just 60g per hour with glucose alone). These are the products that elite cyclists (and triathletes) will often use during competition. Glucose and fructose are absorbed differently in the intestine, so in some cases, where carbohydrate intake is higher, products that combine these sugars can reduce gastrointestinal upsets. As a general rule, these products will only give a performance advantage for rides/events in excess of 3 hours.
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