Lyndon Poskitt Racing - A blue print for Dakar 2013 - and he did it!

I believe this day was all above 10,000', Lyndon:



(that's you).

You'll be fine.

Oh yeah, and I thrashed my 950 up Pike's Peak once and then got high at the Oxygen bar at the top. Believe that's 14,000+ right. I was seriously feeling that though!

There is now

OK, I'm in. Ordered the very cool synthetic Poskitt Racing shirt and stickies for my new 690R. It will look nice in my closet next to synthetic Nicky 69, Doug Polen polo, and Team Double Barrel cottons...well, the Double Barrel's have had a suitably hard life as my gym shirts, so they are actually in my hamper all the time.

I have my Neduro Dakar art in my study, tho. (BTW, looks better now than ever!)

I'm really excited for this year's Dakar because of Lyndon and his dad; just as I was last year for Ned and his incredible decision to just go for it; Jonah before Ned, and even Andy Caldecott, my hero of the day ().

Thanks

PS: Poskitt Racing has such an interesting ring. I can hardly wait to explain it to the curious.

Psssst, rally fans get yourself over to Ebay

Signed KTM swag up for grabs on Ebay.

KTM Cap signed by Cyril Despres and Marc Coma.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290826426196&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT



Sandro Cortese Moto3 World Champion signed t-shirt.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290826428000&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

When I used to race bikes we would put flat Coke in a water bottle in our feed bag (for a long road course). That way you got the benefit of the caffeine and the sugar without the downside of the bubbles.

Quick bump for the weekend !

Would make a great Christmas gift ...................

Neil had some good advice, like he said when you get to altitude try to ease up on how hard you're going if you can, the flat coke option isn't bad either. You won't know how your body deals with altitude until you get there so no point in worrying before you start to feel the effects. Keeping fuel in your body and staying hydrated will be important and I can see how having some hard candies to suck on will be a nice and safe placebo if the altitude doesn't hit you too hard. Knowing there are stations you can hi the O2 is really nice too. Headaches are a common side effect but don't overdue anything that hides the pain too much you need to be able to feel it if your body decides it can't cope. You'll be fine, fitness helps.

A prescribed dosage of Diamox will do the trick also, tried and tested for altitude without climatisation

Here's a nice chart of oxygen concentrations at a given elevation:




I dunno - I raced DH mountainbikes pretty hard for a couple of years in the states, while living and training at ~1000ft elevation the rest of the time. We would regularly start at the top at 10-12k ft elevation, and if I didn't show up a day or so early, I would approach tunnel-vision hypoxia relatively easily on a hard sprint at the top of the run down to 7-9k ft elevation. A day seemed to make all of the difference, for me, for pushing my physical envelope. After a couple of years of racing, we developed some tricks we used to combat this when we could not show up early to a race to get acclimated:

1. Eat a lot of Garlic, starting the week before. It's no secret that garlic thins your blood a bit and affords better circulation to all part of your body(especially capillary-fed areas) and in Asian medicine, garlic is often the first defense for altitude sickness.

2. Aspirin accomplishes the same, albeit with a very distinct effect as a function of it's very short half-life. I found that 600mg with breakfast before a race at high elevation made a big difference in how hard I could push when I was approaching oxygen deficit.

3. It might sound weird, but Viagra(sildenifil) or Levitra(vardenafil) is supposed to make a HUGE difference, although I have never had a chance to try it. I don't think WADA has ever banned it at a performance-enhancing drug, but many in the DH MTB circles used it extensively and had the results to justify it, even if it was superstition. I'm sure it works on similar mechanisms as garlic - since they are both touted as sexual enhancers for the same reasons in different cultures and timeframes - but in any case it was sworn as solid(punn intended) in circles of skiiers, DH folks and mountian climbers alike.

4. Caffeine is well known as a cranial vascoconstrictor and can solve headache issues early in altitude adaptation. Certain levels of caffiene are banned or objected to by WADA, but if your tolerance is so high to the levels they object to, you've gotta be a serious coffee addict IME. In combination with aspirin(as in Excedrin, etc.) it is potentiated, and I can justify this even though I am not a caffeine-tolerant person normally.

5. Lastly, I found the combination of iron supplements and garlic ahead of time and during the event to be great for me. Iron supplements - either in the form of lots of spinach, thyme and dark chocolate OR time-release supplemental tablets etc - allow you to develop healthier and more robust red blood cells as well as more of them in a real hurry. I used to eat raw spinach religiously before a DH MTB race, and I know it made a difference in my stamina levels the following days while I was at altitude.

I grew up living in Flagstaff, AZ and played soccer(football anywhere outside the US) pretty hardcore up to age ~15. We used to drop down to 1k ft elevation and run everyone else into the ground, and I took it for granted until I lived at low elevation for a while and then climbed to 12k ft elevation skiing and got seriously lightheaded for the first time snowboarding, ever. That experience along with all the DH MTB racing(which is ultimately a sprint of pedaling and riding 2-10 minutes long that pushes the limits of physical sprint endurance) I did convinced me that something was in order to make a difference, and you might try any of the above to combat the ~14k+ ft elevation you will be encountering.

Strangely, I have expereinced similar - dunno if this is because of the ram-air effect of speed or some absorption of oxygen through the skin, or what. But when you are moving, you never feel as light-headed, whether skiing or riding or hiking.

Avoid ANYTHING carbonated at elevation, period. You'd be amazed at how much of the carbon dioxide you end up with in your bloodstream as a result of simply drinking any fizzy drink.

High-fructose corn sugar never made a difference for me, but honey did. I use Honey Stingers( http://shop.honeystinger.com/categories/Energy-Gels/ ) and they always give 10-20 minutes of boost, probably due to the sugar+B-vitamins combination. But the slower-release sugar seemed to work better - for me. Everyone is different and if you can experiment beforehand, you will know what works for you.

The air is typically so dry at elevation, that hydration becomes a 24-hour effort for most people, as it should be always - but especially so at dry elevations. There's a reason all the locals look so "dried out" - dry skin, lots of lines on their face very early, etc. Hydration is key, and peeing all the time is a good indicator of proper hydration just like it is in the dry heat of the desert.

BOTH of these are common denominators. I could come down from a DH MTB or Super-D(XC race at elevation, with a lot of DH too...) and run circles around friends at 1k ft elevation for about ~5 days afterwards. It faded drastically back to normal after that time frame, for me.

Immensely. If you can somehow document your peak heart rate at your usual living/training situation/location, it can be a good indicator of how you'll fare at extreme altitude. If somehow you can train at high elevation and live at low, it will be the best situation for you. If you can LIVE at high elevation and train at low, so much the better - hence the use of oxygen tents by triathletes, etc.

In any case, being fit and able to push hard at any elevation will behoove you substantially and better your chances of physical ability as well as mental alertness at any elevation. Plenty of amazing athletes have some combination of the two, and it can only help you immensely from your baseline to make even the most minor changes for the positive in the situations you will be in.

Live at altitude, train at low = Physiological responses from living at altitude and maximized results from training. Thats what world class endurance or triathletes do

He lives in the UK. There is no altitude.

Tough you can get pretty High..... so I've heard!

Great post Hilslamer, i already took some pointers and made it into a .pdf so next time i go on a Snowtrip i'll cope better with the altitude.
Cheers

This artist impression was created by one of my supporters Ernie Young from the United States. He has kindly created this art work in support of my Dakar campaign and is selling the prints through his web-site www.motorbikeartist.com. He will ship the prints worldwide and for every one he sells he will donate 70% of the proceeds towards my Dakar campaign. Ernie has done this because he loves to create artwork, has a love for motorcycles and wanted to help me raise funds towards my Dakar 2013 goal. He has kindly had prints made and is selling them for just $14 USD, bargain!

Direct link to buy a print is here http://www.motorbikeartist.com/#plyndon

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done!

I'll hang it right next to Ned's from the same artist.

Don't forget to sign it next time you're out this way

I will need the signed version to go with my Neduro print

Art ordered. Will hang beside the Neduro print and Jonah signed pic.

Great.