Stent or No Stent, Which Cycle Should You Choose, Cervelo, Karma (my preference), Schwinn, or Cori?

Good Morning Folks,

Well! I need to learn about tags and categories, as mine are all screwed up, but I’ll do my entry for the day and then follow some much needed advice on blogging.

I woke up thinking about cycling, the most time consuming part of my sport, and the most mind consuming part of my current career in ‘omics‘ (btw, I found the previous linked ‘article’ whilst looking for a general reference to the omics revolution, which is a real paradigm shift in my opinion [rare though they might be], and it took me back almost ten years, so I put it in purely for nostalgia’s sake). I ride a custom Karma built by my ‘bike guy,’ Victor at Bicycle Lab , and I am very grateful for his skills (thanks, Victor), and I love that bike, but not so much as I love my Cori Cycle, which was first described by Carl and Gerty Cori many years ago.

The Cori Cycle permits your brain and blood red cells to continue to function when you run out of liver glycogen, a critical short-term storage form of glucose. Depletion of liver glycogen is what happens when your nutrition is off (for me about 4-5 hours into the IM bike segment, though chocolate-flavored Power Bars fixed that for me in 2010) and you hit the wall or bonk (in the cyclists sense of the word!). The muscles and red cells take glucose from the blood, generate energy, and return lactate to the blood which is the reconverted back to glucose by the liver (and kidneys, but that is another story), keeping your blood glucose up and your blood lactate down. Now! This is a highly dynamic process, and measuring blood lactate, as carried out for the lactate threshold test, is an important part of endurance training, and you forget it at your peril!
Prior to my AAA surprise, I had my LT test routinely at the Duke K-Lab, on the instructions of my coach, Chris Hauth of AIMP . Chris taught me a so much stuff about triathlon training it could be the subject of separate entry (thanks a million, Chris), but especially he taught me how to stop whining and suck it up. Choosing the right coach, or getting the right coach to choose you, is a really critical issue if you are serious about endurance sports, stent or no stent. However, I am yet to meet a coach who has coached an endurance athlete with an AAA-stent (let me know if you meet one).

All that said, if you have a stent (brain, heart, aorta or elsewhere), and you want to be an endurance athlete, get to know your lactate dynamics and you won’t go far wrong, as ‘overdoing’ it anaerobically is probably pretty dangerous for the stented athlete. Just think about it!

When you work to understand your biochemistry, think dynamics and you won’t go far wrong.

Happy trails and kick butt,

Kevin

Disclaimer: As a veterinarian, I do not provide medical advice for human animals. If you undertake or modify an exercise program, consult your medical advisors before doing so. Undertaking activities pursued by the author does not mean that he endorses your undertaking such activities, which is clearly your decision and responsibility. Be careful and sensible, please.