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Outside Magazine 2003

Bodywork: The Future Athlete
Are You Ready? (cont.)
Micromanaged Metabolism

By Brian Alexander

THE FUTURE>> BodyMedia, a Pittsburgh-based company, is developing the technology for an armband that would monitor heat stress, hydration levels, expended energy, heart rate, and other performance variables and send them via wireless connection to be analyzed instantly by a separate computer. Armed with this info during a race, a coach stationed at a computer could determine whether a cyclist has, say, enough energy to pull away from the peloton on a climb.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU>> Plunk down up to $500 for the system (expected to be available in 2005) and a coach charting your effort could tell you when to slow down or speed up and when and what to eat and drink. Postworkout, you'll have a wealth of physiological data on hand to fine-tune your race strategy. UNTIL THEN>> If you have a few thousand bucks to spare, you can be like Lance right now and buy the hardware and hire his coach at Carmichael Training Systems. The Colorado Springs-based company is run by Armstrong's coach, Chris Carmichael, and currently designs Lance's regimen with input from a $900 Power Tap wattage meter on his rear wheel and a $2,500 SRM power meter on his crank, which deliver readings to a computer. After a training ride, CTS analyzes his power output, average speed, distance, heart rate, cadence, and time, then adjusts the champ's workouts accordingly.

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