Inhaling fewer emissions, better visibility, safety in the bunch, the daily commute, the motivation to stay with the peloton on the climbs — there are loads of good reasons why people choose to train when they do. Try using your body clock to maximise the benefit to your training and performance.
Although you might consider yourself a morning or afternoon person, daily fluctuations in bodily functions — known as circadian rhythms — are largely the same for everyone. So although daily peaks and troughs are useful to know for maximising training potential, the division between so-called morning and afternoon people is almost certainly a myth.
To prove the point, a team of researchers from Liverpool John Moores University took eight well-trained cyclists who all had a preference for training in the morning, and each performed an identical time-trial at 7.30am and 5.30pm (on different days, obviously!), with and without a warm-up.
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Despite considering themselves morning people, all the riders performed significantly better in the afternoon, regardless of whether they’d done a warm-up. The reason had nothing to do with residual sleepiness or stiffness, or anything else you may be able to ‘train away’ with regular morning rides; no, the researchers believe the improved afternoon performance was down to the cyclists’ internal body temperature being consistently higher compared to the morning.
Circadian rhythms
This fluctuation in body temperature is just one of more than 100 different circadian rhythms operating inside of us. They are all controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus, a biological clock in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. Although scientists have yet to pinpoint the exact mechanism it uses to pace your body, they know that daylight, social contact and mealtimes are all factors.
“Practically every bodily function shows daily rhythmicity,” said Dr Roberto Refinetti, chief editor of the Journal of Circadian Rhythms. “So that means, in theory at least, you can improve your ability to do something simply by selecting the right time of day to do it.”
Cycling performance peaks
Why it’s important to keep your cool
Your personal temperature gauge
- Pick a day on which you’ve had good, normal sleep patterns for several days previously
- Then take your temperature every two hours
- Plot the results on a graph, connecting the points with a smooth line
- The resulting curve should give you a good idea of your daily temperature peak
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
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