The Perfect Pace

Are you new to cycling and not 100% sure how to pace yourself correctly? Get it right with these great tips.


Dr Jereon Swart |

Are you new to cycling and not 100% sure how to pace yourself correctly? Get it right with these great tips. – By Dr Jereon Swart

Dr Jereon

Pacing is a phenomenon we apply to all aspects of physical and mental exertion. Whenever we engage in a task we try to optimise our energy resources to complete the task as quickly and efficiently as possible. Pacing during exercise is a complex activity that involves both the conscious and subconscious brain, and is also dependent on learning.

The Learning Process
During the course of our lifetime, we accumulate experience of our body’s response to exercise. If you’ve ever watched an athletics day at a primary school, you will have seen this in action. The youngest children run at different speeds: some shoot off full tilt, and then walk or rest for a period before continuing; others will walk initially, only to sprint for the line when they get closer to the finish and realise that they have abundant energy remaining. By adulthood, these mechanisms are well developed.

Research into the mechanisms that regulate these complex processes is still ongoing. But in short: prior experience of exercise duration and energy requirements results in the formation of a ‘template’ for the exercise bout.

Mind Games
At the start of the exercise the subconscious brain interprets signals from various organs, such as the liver and muscle glycogen stores, core temperature, skin temperature, and other key variables. It then sets an initial exercise intensity, based on your template and the available resources that will allow you to finish the event without a catastrophic failure in any physiological system.

But motivation to perform better, the speed of the bunch, changes in terrain and other variables can cause your exercise intensity to rise above that forecasted by the brain.
The brain continually receives signals from the various organs it monitors (known as afferent feedback), and interprets these in relation to how much of the exercise is still to be performed. When the brain computes that the intensity is above what is allowed for the safe completion of the exercise, it sends a signal to the conscious mind. This takes the form of the sense of effort you perceive you are experiencing.

Definition of Effort
Effort is not linked to any physical attribute such as pain or breathlessness. Rather, it is a complex feeling based on the sum of the physical signals from your organs, and how they relate to the amount of exercise still needed and the current exercise intensity.

The greater the discrepancy between your current pace and the optimal pace, the greater your sense of effort will be. It is then up to your conscious decision-making process whether to listen to the warning signs and slow down, or to ignore them altogether and continue at your chosen pace.
Failing to listen to the signals could result in a new PB and a resetting of the ‘governor’ to allow greater speed in future events. Alternatively, it could result in the inability to complete the event, due to excessively high core temperature, glycogen depletion, or some other near-failure of homeostasis.

Research
To date, hundreds of research studies have been conducted investigating the brain’s pacing mechanisms. A research study from my own PhD thesis looked at performance during open-ended exercise to exhaustion. During this study, the subjects received either a dose of amphetamine or a placebo before each trial. After ingesting the amphetamine, subjects rode for 32% longer and at a 19% higher power output in comparison to those who had taken the placebo. But this came at an extra physiological cost: oxygen consumption was 16% higher, the subjects breathed 14% more air each minute, and – most importantly – ‘poisonous’ lactic acid concentrations were 43% higher. The amphetamines therefore unlocked some of the available resources that were not being used in the natural state.

1967: Possibly Britain's greatest racing cyclist Tommy Simpson, seen here on his final Tour de France. He was to die during a climb up to Mont Ventoux in the Alps. His death due in part to illegal stimulants. Image by: Allsport Hulton/Archive
Tommy Simpson at his final Tour de France before he died climbing Mont Ventoux in the Alps. Image by: Allsport Hulton/Archive

The late Tommy Simpson, who died tragically on Mont Ventoux during the 1967 Tour de France, regularly ingested up to 45mg of amphetamines prior to key events. One of the key effects of amphetamines is that they block the ability of the brain to perceive heat. As a result, on that extremely hot day, Simpson literally cooked himself to death.

In another recent study, subjects were asked to ride to exhaustion at a power output 20% greater than their peak power, while watching a clock marking their progress. When the clock was secretly manipulated to run faster, subjects performed better in real time, despite the fact that they’d been misled into believing that they’d ridden for a longer time. Conversely, when the clock was slowed down, they performed poorly. Depending on which illusion they were given, their self-belief either improved or degraded their performance.

So the next time you think you’re exhausted, think again. You might still have a lot left in the tank, thanks to your rather conservative brain. How motivated are you? Should you push through? Then again, if you overrule your ‘governor’ you might be heading off the edge of a physiological cliff. Only time will tell…

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