TORQ UK Fitness Consultancy

Jason Le Page is a Downhill Mountain Biker who lives on Guernsey (one of the Channel Islands for those of you who may be geographically challenged). I’ve been coaching Jason for the best part of two years now and being a very sporting kind of chap, he has very boldly agreed to ‘Go-Live’ with his progress on a monthly basis as a matter of interest to all of you. Every month you’ll be able to log-on to the TORQ site to see how Jason’s getting on (ed - actually, it's been well over a month since the last report, but read on, because Jason stands to loose quite a clump of cash if he doesn't keep in touch regularly this time. Come on Mr Lepage, your groupies want you to hold on to your wad)…

Jason writes:

Mr Hart (you can tell it's serious, I'm using the mister routine!),

Carbohydrate is the key to metabolic energy. As well as providing your body with the means to release the energy stored in fat and oxygen (the so called "endurance fuels"), carbohydrate is also called upon when the going gets tough. If the pace in a race suddenly accelerates, or the intensity of exercise is so high that fat and oxygen alone can no longer sustain the energy demand, carbohydrate is used anaerobically (without oxygen) to satisfy this requirement. If your legs start burning, this is caused by a build up of lactic acid, the exhaust fumes of carbohydrate metabolism. So next time your legs burn, you'll know you're using carbo power. In short... without carbohydrate, our metabolism would grind dramatically to a crawl.