71. THE PHYSIOLOGY OF FATIGUE AT DIFFERENT EXERCISE INTENSITY
The key in endurance sports’ performance is to optimize the specific physiological mechanisms that prevent/delay fatigue during the specific kind of effort that will be performed the race-day.
It is common to have different feelings of fatigue during different rides:
‘out of breath’ and ‘burning legs’ during ~1-20 min efforts above FTP
‘general 'tiredness’ and ‘emptiness’ during long (~2-6 hrs) low intensity rides.
Even if 5-7 training zones models exist, there are only three distinct exercise intensity domains separated by physiological thresholds:
Low/Moderate Intensity Domain: below the first lactate/ventilatory threshold (zone 1-2 in a 5 zones model)
Medium/Heavy Intensity Domain: between the first threshold and second threshold/FTP/critical power (zone 3-low zone 4 in a 5 zones model)
High/Severe Intensity Domain: above second threshold/FTP/critical power (high zone 4-zone 5 in a 5 zones model)
What are the physiological underpinnings of fatigue when riding at different exercise intensities?
A study published by Black and Colleagues on Journal of Applied Physiology in 2017 tried to answer this question. (1) This can help to implement strategies (training, nutrition, supplements) to increase specific types of performance,
WHAT DID THEY DO?
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