Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Physical condition Test pulse Poor 120 Fair 110 Fairly good 100 Good 90 Very good 80 Excellent pass, but at hard muscle work the required air volume increases to 100 or more. Breathing becomes troublesome. When comparing tests on a test bicycle in 1971 with Swedish Husqvama riders as test objects, a decrease in the oxy gen ab so rp tion ability could be measured. It averaged 10 ml/kg body weight/minute. The test person had been forced to sm oke a cigarette 20 minutes before the test. In a word, quit. Alc ohol consumption Alcohol gives no improvemen t of your achievemen t ability. On the contrary, the ability to make precision movements is reduced. This fact alone proves that alcohol and sp orts are incompatible. The decrease in precision ability can still be traced many days after a "good booze. " . However, this does not mean that a motocross rider must necessarily be a teetotaller. A moderate consumption of alcohol can be tolerated if it is reduced to beer with meals and if other liquors are taken with good judgement at special occasions only. Alcohol should never be consumed in big quantities on the days before a race and of course never on the very day. Lack of sleep . The number of sleeping hours per night (and day) is wholly individual: Most motocross riders have obvious sleep difficulties the night before racing day, mostly due to nerves and excitement. According to sports physiologists, these nights of no sleep cannot be traced with ordinary test methods the day after, and should therefore be of little importance to the race result. The sports physiologists also advise the motocross rider to abstain from sleeping pills the night before a race. The nervousness before a race affects everybody, more or less and is not - as many think - negative. When you are nervous the hormone p rod uc tion of, for example, ad renaline and ACTH increases. These hormones increase your capacity. That's why nervousness is no disadvantage, and sedatives are to be avoided. If you should lose two nights' sleep, a measurable change in your capacity the following day takes place, while the loss of one night's sleep, according to physiologists, cannot be noticed until two days afterwards. Lack of training The condition achieved through long and steady training can be ruined after only a couple of weeks' inactivity, and will take many times the training time to restore. You must therefore, through continued training, maintain your condition, expecially during race-free periods. . Many riders who have had the bad luck to break in the first heat get so disappoin ted that they do not start in the next heats. If this happens in many races in a row, and the rider has not trained between the races, the condition curve goes down catastrophically. Therefore you shall never give up. Also if you have not succeeded in the first heat you shall absolutely be on the startline in the following heat. Make this part of your own training. Don't ever forget the spectators; many may have come just to look at you. Stimulants Stimulants (for example fenedrin) are used to increase the mental and muscular strength. Such doping is forbidden in racing and must be considered very dangerous, as the normal "safety valves " of the body will be out of function. Among "stimulants" I do not count coffee, tea or drinks intended to restore the body fluid balance. . Yau are what you drink The important of the body fluid balance As we have mentioned before, the body is cooled down by perspiration, among other things. Your perspiration can, during a motocross race, sweat out at the rate of up to two litres/hour depending on how high the outside temperature is and how hard the track makes you work. This perspiring reduces the body fluid balance . When the body fluid is reduced by two percent of the body weight, physical capacity goes away considerably. Investigations in conne c tion wi th motocross competitions have shown that a motocross rider on an average loses 1.5 to three litres of liquid during a World Championship moto, To keep up the capacity you must compensate the liquid loss by drinking enough that the weight of the body is kept on a constan t level. Otherwise you will tire quickly in the second heat and blow the whole competition. Therefore, fmd out how much you lose in weight during a normal race, and afterwards take it as a good rule to drink the same quantity during competition. Many sportsman take sugar water, while others have discovered that there is another more suitable special mixed drink to take, namely Oatorade, Gatorade contains just the substance that the body has lost during the work. Carbonic acid drinks (soda-pop) are quite unsuitable. Intellectual capacity Physical tiredness im p airs the capacity of thinking. Therefore a rider in poor physical condition must either ride at a lower speed or else take more risks than a rider with the same competence only in better condition, especially during the later part of the race. To get the best results a very strong determination to win is demanded as motivation. Better effort of will gives, as a rule, better results - to a point. Beyond that point, the result will be the opposite. That means I have "over-motivation," which means that I want more than the capacity I have. The bad result comes from the fact that the over-motivated person works too hard and commits his energy reserves too fast. The spectators often fmd the over-motivated non chalant, apathetic, clumsy or ruthless . Over-motivation can also arise from concen tration on difficulties, unfavorable circumstances or bad condition. To get the right motivation , (a balance between will and result) you must clearly evaluate both yours and the competitors ' and realistically estimate the chances to win. Your riding tactics should be planned in detail before the start. Where shall I line up at the start gate? If I win the start, which speed shall I keep? Can I Keep this tempo all the time? One of the most important things to keep in mind is that a motocross competition is not decided until the finish of the last heat. It is not only the rider who must manage, also the motorcycle must be able to make the whole distance. Last advice Enjoy your training and do not make your program too hard. O1ange exercises now and then and have fun while training and soon you will get the reward of your training with your name in a better place in the results. . Good luck! • 25

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