Lactic Burn Advice please

Anonymous

Hi All

Am looking for something (that I can consume, bar, liquid etc.,...) that will put off the burn in the upper legs while distance cycling.

Ride a MTB hardtail and am doing a 26mile on Sunday, when I've done a few training runs for this i've found I get the "burn" at the rear of my legs approx 16-18miles in if I push it.

Any advice?

Typically I hydrate before hand with pulp orange juice and take a electrolyte (lucozade sports) drink with the water bottle... topped upto 800ml with water

militiacore

Probably anytthing that will fuel the body so ideally a mix of fast and slow release carbs and protein/amino acids. Anything from the likes of Powerbar and High 5 would do the trick and I use the basic Powerbar Performance Powder as it's pretty well priced and I can add other goodies to it.

I'm not up on the Cycling specific drinks though as I tend to use more weight training based products which I think offer more for your money.

Bars can spoil in the heat and I'm not convinced that the ingredients stay good due to the temperatures used during the manufacturing process. The only good thing about them is that it leaves you more room for other liquids.

The Northern Monkey

There is nothing really. Its all about training to increase you body's tolerance against lactic acid.

Potassium has been said to help, so eat a banana. It always helped when we were playing in 7's tournaments for rugby.

Other than that, stay hydrated.

Stephen-Hawking

Are you sure 800ml is enough for 26 miles, I generally would get through double that for that distance this time of year.

Everyone's different thiugh.

robmanic1

Are you a "grinder" or a "spinner"? I find keeping the legs turning rather than pushing hard can help clear the lactic acid build-up.

The Northern Monkey

Stephen-Hawking wrote:

Are you sure 800ml is enough for 26 miles, I generally would get through double that for that distance this time of year.

Everyone's different thiugh.

I would agree that 800ml is a low volume of fluid.

i'm be taking 2-3l.

Anonymous

cheers all,, will try everything you guys have mentioned...

yeah 800ml is probably not enough, will take 2L and a few sweets for sugar.

punctureboy

all good advice. to increase your lactate tolerance do shorter, higher intensity rides once per week. you need to be at about 80-85% of your working heart rate, and keep going until your heart rate goes too far above this. bikes in the gym are better for this type of training.

militiacore

Well you can supplement with 3g-4g of Beta Alanine and Citrulline Malate to reduce lactic acid build up but I didn't want to get too in depth.

nferrar

I'd also add if you're getting burn/fatigue in a specific area of your legs you might need to adjust your riding position and/or increase your flexibility.

Anonymous

yeah cool nferrar, ive noted the seat post up so my legs nearly extend fully.. not the whole way....thanks, I've been used to going down with gravity and the seat has always been down. cheers

dunker

had this the other day, spinning a lower gear helped a bit but stopping for 5 mins for a quick snack and stretch cleared it up completly.

Ditch Witch

Robmanic1 wrote:

Are you a "grinder" or a "spinner"? I find keeping the legs turning rather than pushing hard can help clear the lactic acid build-up.

I agree with this. It's what Lance does Use higher gears to spin more and grind less