TRIATHLON PHYSIOLOGY FOR DUMMIES AND THE TENDENCY TOWARD THE MEAN

Seventh part
What is a neurological workout?

Neurons are like “plugs” that fire according to our training.  We never speak of training our neurological system but it is necessary to train our neurons as well as our muscles.  Neurons do not use fatty acids as fuel, depend entirely on glucose.  The end result of our hormones is to produce homeostasis in our body and glucose places a major role in our homeostasis.  That is why we need to have a cybernetic model to understand our body.  There is not research about it but neurons model our muscle fibers.

Rate coding of muscle force

The force produced by a single motor unit is determined in part by the number of muscle fibers in the unit. Another important determinant of force is the frequency with which the muscle fibers are stimulated by their innervating axon. The rate at which the nerve impulses arrive is known as the motor unit firing rate and may vary from frequencies low enough to produce a series of single twitch contractions to frequencies high enough to produce a fused tetanic contraction. Generally, this allows a 2 to 4-fold change in force. In general, the motor unit firing rate of each individual motor unit increases with increasing muscular effort until a maximum rate is reached. This smooths out the incremental force changes which would otherwise occur as each additional unit was recruited.[9]

Proportional control of muscle force

The distribution of motor unit size is such that there is an inverse relationship between the number of motor units and the force they generate (i.e., the number of muscle fibers per motor unit). Thus, there are many small motor units and progressively fewer larger motor units. This means that at low levels of recruitment, the force increment due to recruitment is small, whereas in forceful contractions, the force increment becomes much larger. Thus the ratio between the force increment produced by adding an additional motor unit and the force threshold at which that unit is recruited remains relatively constant.[3]

Electrodiagnostic testing

In medical electrodiagnostic testing for a patient with weakness, careful analysis of the "motor unit action potential" (MUAP) size, shape, and recruitment pattern can help in distinguishing a myopathy from a neuropathy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_unit_recruitment#Neuronal_mechanism_of_recruitment

Practicing cadence improves our “basic neurons” without searching to recruit more muscle fibers.  Improving our “basic neurons” to be stronger is done by increasing “work load (weight).”  The long distance work outs help with the neurological practice.  As long as one spins as one trains, the neurological apparatus is subject to training without involving much of the muscles.  The fastest the cadence, the better it is.  So far, we are away from the muscles.  We are talking about neurons which innervate muscles-using-fatty acids as fuel (“basic neurons”).  We train our neurons to fire “fast.”  The weight load makes the difference; as long as the weight is light we train basically our neurons to fire fast.  Once we increase the weight load we start training the muscle as well as the neurons.

I venture to say, with all the consequences: “The lactate elevated seen with high cadence (just spinning without load as mentioned by Josh Horowitz) is related to the lack of training and due mainly to neurons producing lactate and/or muscles without high rpm training.”  That is why we can have a high VO2 max but unable to run "fast" as in the case of Macca.

I give you the rpm of the world record for the hour cycling.

Chronic of the hour record

Distcance (km)	Rider	Nation.	Location	Date	Gearing	Bike Weight (g)	Crank Arm	Cadence (rpm)
35.325	Henri Desgrange	FRA	Paris	11.5.1893
38.220	Jules Dubois	FRA	Paris	31.10.1894
39.240	Marcel Van den Eynde	BEL	Paris	30.7.1897
40.781	Willie Hamilton	USA	Denver	9.7.1898
41.110	Lucien Petit-Breton	FRA	Paris	24.08.1905
41.520	Marcel Berthet	FRA	Paris	20.06.1907
42.122	Oscar Egg	ZWI	Paris	26.08.1912	34x7=7,22m(2)	8500		97,2
42.306 0	Richard Weise	WDL	Berlin	27.7.1913
42.741	Marcel Berthet	FRA	Paris	07.08.1913
43.525	Oscar Egg	ZWI	Paris	21.08.1913
43.775	Marcel Berthet	FRA	Paris	21.09.1913
44.247	Oscar Egg	ZWI	Paris	18.06.1914	24x7=7,22m			102,1
44.588	Jan Van Hout	NED	Roermond	25.08.1933
44.777	Maurice Richard	FRA	St. Truiden	29.08.1933	24x7=7,32m	8500		101,9
45.090	Giuseppe Olmo	ITA	Milano	31.10.1935	24x7=7,32m	8000		102,7
45.3983	Maurice Richard	FRA	Milano	14.10.1936	24x7=7,32m	8000	172	103,4
45.5583	Frans Slaats	NED	Milano	29.09.1937	24x7=7,32m	8000		103,7
45.8403	Maurice Archambaud	FRA	Milano	04.11.1937	24x7=7,32m		171	104,4
45.8713	Fausto Coppi	ITA	Milano	07.11.1942	52x15=7,40m	9500	171	103,3
46.159	Jacques Anquetil	FRA	Milano	29.06.1956	52x15=7,40m	7300		104,0
46.393	Ercole Baldini	ITA	Milano	19.09.1956		6450
46.924	Roger Riviere	FRA	Milano	18.09.1957	52x15=7,40m	6450	171	105,7
47.346	Roger Riviere	FRA	Milano	23.09.1958	53x15=7,54m	6850	175	104,7
47.493 1	Jaques Anquetil	FRA	Milano	27.09.1967	52x13=8,54m	6690	175	92,7
48.093	Ferdinand Bracke	BEL	Rome	30.10.1967	53x15=7,54m	5960	175	106,3
48.653	Ole Ritter	DEN	Mexico City	10.10.1968	54x15=7,69m	7000	175	105,4
49.431	Eddy Merckx	BEL	Mexico City	25.10.1972	52x14=7,93m	5750	175	103,9
50.808	Francesco Moser	ITA	Mexico City	19.01.1984	56x15=8,12m	7850	175	104,3
51.151	Francesco Moser	ITA	Mexico City	23.01.1984	57x15=8,27m	7500	175	103,1
51.596	Graeme Obree	GBR	Hamar	17.07.1993	52x12=9,25m		175	93,0
52.270	Chris Boardman	GBR	Bordeaux	23.07.1993	53x13=8,56m	7100	175	101,8
52.713	Graeme Obree	GBR	Bordeaux	27.04.1994			175
53.040	Miguel Indurain	ESP	Bordeaux	02.09.1994	59x14=8,76m	6500	190	100,9
53.832	Tony Rominger	ZWI	Bordeaux	22.10.1994	59x14=8,85m	8300	172,5	101,4
55.291	Tony Rominger	ZWI	Bordeaux	05.11.1994	60x14=9.02m	8300	172,5	102,2
56.375	Chris Boardman	GBR	Manchester	06.09.1996	56x13=8,95m		170 ?	105,0

http://www.wolfgang-menn.de/hourrec.htm

Please see part 1,2,3,4 and 5.