Food for cyclic sports

In this article we will talk about sports, which are characterized by cyclic movement: swimming, Bicycle racing, rowing and running. Of course, within each group there are some differences, which we will discus and make recommendations on the optimal diet.

Not everyone is running the same! The nature of the work of the muscles when running at different distances significantly different. If for distances up to 200 meters is speed-power load, maximum power, at ranges over 1000 meters, the body goes into almost completely aerobic mode. You ever seen an athlete showing equally good results in the sprint and the

marathon? No you won’t. Even within the same clas (sprint up to 200 m; stayers – 400 m and more) training can vary so much that the athlete is able to efficiently work on “their” range.

Similar differences occur in other cyclic species. Conditionally divide them into sprint (lasts up to 2-3 minutes) and stayers. It is believed that up to 3 minutes energy costs are covered mainly by anaerobic mechanisms – the ATP-PC and glycolysis. It is actually much more complicated, since glycolysis provides maximum power for approximately 3 minutes after the start of work and then several different mechanisms coexist simultaneously. However, during exercise lasting more than 10 minutes, the aerobic mechanism becomes the main source of energy:

Table 1. The approximate ratio of energy in aerobic and anaerobic mechanisms, kcal (1)

The duration of operation at maximum load, min