Charlie Pugh

@nickowen5 @andrewwoodroffe maybe FTP/CdA?

@andrewwoodroffe This is basically the selection process for coaches in Aus - highest FTP gets the job.

“My FTP is 350 watts and so this is exactly how you should train the bike” New coaches, what works for you and what you have done won’t always work for an athlete. It’s their schedule, time and starting point. You can’t just give your training to someone and think it’s best.

1/12: A little (🧵) on my conference paper that we presented at this year’s cycling science. My PhD aims to understand what W′ is in terms of physiological underpinning and then how we can use this to develop its modelling with depletion and recovery. i.e W′BAL.

So proud of what transpired in Paris. The culmination of >8 years of fight Training for Elite Team-Pursuit Track Cyclists @IJSPPjournal: Part I A Profile of General Training Characteristics Part II A Comparison of Preparation Phases in Consecutive World-Record-Breaking Seasons

Last night saw the men's team pursuit qualifying at the #Olympics & it was a very close affair! Fast start from DEN to achieve highest peak speed out of all teams, a slightly missed change from ITA giving them the min speed at 2750m, round 1 tonight! #Paris2024 @Paris2024

Team Pursuit is as much about strategy and teamwork as it is about speed. Riders need highly developed aerobic traits to recover between lead turns. Watching the Olympics this week, keep an eye on how teams manage their rider rotations and strategies! #Paris2024 #TrackCycling

Team 2’s flat-ish strategy had Rider 4 do a 3.5-lap effort. They were fastest at the end despite a late ejection. Rider 1 delivered the first 2.5 laps and held 2nd for 3.5 laps, managing a 0.5 lap 2nd turn. If Rider 2 hadn’t recovered in positions 3&4, they might’ve fatigued too.

With the Olympic Team Pursuit this week, expect fireworks and maybe a new WR. Riders share the workload but roles are not equal. Even the best drilled teams can face chaos, and it sometimes falls apart. See pacing strategy, speed, and W′bal data below. 🧵 #Paris2024 #TrackCycling

@Ferguson_RA @RodSiegel @mattdriller Not yet but I'm working on it now 😊

Interesting at a mechanistic level. Next step, training study...

@RodSiegel @mattdriller Thanks, Rod. The intermittent performance protocol was 30s at predicted TP lead power then 1min recovery at LT1, repeated to exhaustion. So lead intensity and durations were like TP, but ⬇️ recovery power let us use sub-elite cyclists. Thesis available at: hdl.handle.net/10289/16494

@PughCycle @mattdriller Thanks for sharing, Charlie! Cool results. Wow, 55% ⬆️ in performance sounds like a lot. What did the performance trial look like if it was a TP simulation? I'd love to see the thesis chapter if you're able to share?

@RodSiegel @mattdriller Thanks for the interest! 4-week HIIT with BFR showed 55%⬆️ in intermittent cycling performance (similar format to TP), and 7%⬆️ LT1 and VO2peak vs controls. Elite TP cyclists tolerated HIIT with BFR well in a later study. Happy to share the thesis chapter (Ch.5) with more details

@mattdriller @PughCycle

@DrNathanT @magalanrioja @peter__leo The durations of metabolic stress and recovery certainly differed between groups. If I ran the study again, I would add another control group to match uncuffed recovery time. Matching metabolic stress time may need longer sessions at this intensity. This is discussed in my thesis

@magalanrioja VEGF shows some intensity dependency for example, so these sorts of study designs could really benefit from matching (as best as possible) the actual metabolic stimulus. Because as @peter__leo implied athletes already push the limits of the stimulus just in training.

This interesting study demonstrates how blood flow restriction (BFR) during the recovery phases in HIIT sessions (6x30-s/∼4.5-min rec) for ∼24-min in cyclists, can enhance physiological adaptive responses in skeletal muscle (Pugh et al., 2024).👇 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…

JUST PUBLISHED 🚨 Acute physiological responses of blood flow restriction between high-intensity interval repetitions in trained cyclists🚴 Big shoutout to my co-authors: @Ferguson_RA, @mattdriller, @BeavenMartyn, Carl Paton, participants, and reviewers doi.org/10.1002/ejsc.1…

@Gareth_Sandford @JacobTipper @peter__leo @jem_arnold It's a bold strategy. An acceleration in the final couple of laps could easily lead to separation and a slower time

@JacobTipper @peter__leo @jem_arnold @PughCycle GBR, Italy and Denmark are all surging here. I agree a surge isn't a sprint. It's not close to a maximal sprinting speed. But surges are happening.

When the finishing sprints begins in a 1500m or team pursuit, You need to accelerate with more force in shorter time, and increase energy supply to meet demand. The energy gap is primarily bridged by the anerobic glycolytic system. But what is the optimal repetition length for maximizing this aspect? Here’s a new study breakdown.

My PhD thesis, ‘Enhancing Team Pursuit Performance using Blood Flow Restriction’, is now available online on the University of Waikato’s Research Commons website: hdl.handle.net/10289/16494

@Alex_Welburn Nice work Alex! It would be interesting to see how the biexponential W'reconstitution model compares to the monoexponential model in this case.

While i love a bit of data, its use should be in the eyes of being able to answer performance questions, to have a positive impact on coaching practice and interventions. Not just a nice looking graph.

A little thread, on a few thoughts with Wʹ reconstitution, very much a n=1 with some data with a few interesting observations. Taking a little look at whether Wʹ fully recovery after exhaustive exercise in a small-time frame. We are talking within the same ride.

@jonhelge co2meter.com/collections/10…

@jonhelge Thanks Jon, I like the K30 but their diagram suggests a pump is needed and my battery would not be able to handle that. Any ideas? co2meter.com/products/k-30-…

Metabolic carts are accurate yet pricey. Can a homemade analyser come close to their performance? This open-source Arduino device measures V̇O2, V̇CO2, and V̇E. I tested "VO24U" against a Parvo cart. @ShemRodger inspired this project while we supported the Tokyo 2020 TP.