I want to touch on power and improving its rate of fatigue around the track. First off, it’s always a good idea to focus on a session of just full lap work. Do the lap, rest/recover, and do another. This is the only way you will be able to impose lactate tolerance specific to the sport of BMX racing. Doing long sprints for 30-60 seconds trying to achieve lactate is good and should be done, however we must not overlook the specific demand of turns and jump’s as this is a more dynamic elastic muscle demand. Again, full lap work is a great way to improve your power fatigue rate. Table 1 demonstrates a rider (line A) who possess a high peak power but a fast rate of fatigue due to lack of full lap work (lactate work). You can see the line starts out high but quickly decay’s due to fatigue and inhibition of lactic acid. With a few months of working on lactate work, you can see that the rider (line B) now demonstrates a more linear fatigue rate and finishes the lap on a higher rate of power (watts). He can still come out strong and perhaps have enough power to hold off riders passing him, if not, increase his lead over others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   If you have plateau on improving rate of power fatigue through lactate work, then the next step would be to simply improve peak power. Table 2 demonstrates that if the rider can improve pure peak power and still maintain the same fatigue rate, then the athlete will essentially finish the track at a higher rate of power. You can improve peak power through sub maximal or maximal strength training in the gym or bike followed by or coupled with speed work such as plyometrics and or sprints. Line A shows previous peak power and rate of fatigue. Line B shows an increase in Peak power naturally followed by an increase of finishing power because the rider is starting out at a higher wattage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    What should you improve first, lactate or peak power? Well it really depends on the athlete and where he/she is at during the season. A typical “in season” expert athlete should and can maintain full lap work by simply racing at least once or twice a week. Between races should be the time when the athlete can work on weaknesses and or improving or maintaining peak power through a means of strength training on the bike and or gym. A beginning athlete should really focus on improving rate of fatigue around the track so that he/she can also be safe attacking jumps/turns by keeping fatigue under a minimum. If you can keep fatigue out of the equation, you will decrease the likelihood of mistakes and increase your ability to learn because you can take on more work. Go do some full laps!

 

Greg Romero

April 2007