About this episode

The episode discusses the art and science of pacing in sports, emphasizing the importance of managing effort to prevent fatigue and optimize performance.

Quick heads up before we start: this is not a brand new episode. If you are one of our Members you will have heard it in full about six weeks ago, when we released it as a Members' only Applied show. But we thought it was too interesting and relevant to stay behind the paywall, so we have cut it down into this shorter version and opened it up to everyone, partly because we want sports science to reach as many people as possible, and partly because it is a taste of exactly what supporters get every week, ad free, alongside our Discourse community ! So join now and get it early, ad-free and with post-pod chats ! The show was sparked by Gareth's admission that he paces his Zwift time trials by "trying not to die", which, as Ross points out, is already a sign the pacing has gone wrong. Pacing is not about reacting to fatigue once it arrives, but about managing effort now based on its future consequences. Using the analogy of a budget, we look at the two things it defends against, depletion of fuel like carbohydrate and creatine phosphate, and accumulation of heat, hydrogen ions, and other metabolites, and why good pacing is a skill that has to be learned. From there we get applied…

People in this episode

Hosts: Ross Tucker, Mike Finch

Topics covered

• pacing
• sports science
• effort management
• time trials
• fuel depletion
• heat accumulation

Keywords

• pacing
• sports science
• effort management
• time trials
• carbohydrate depletion
• heat accumulation
• FTP
• W'

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