Creatine + Beta-Alanine Cyclocross Experiment Week 3

Written by Christopher Kelly

Aug. 11, 2015

It's week three of my creatine and beta-alanine for cyclocross experiment, and I think the washout period and retest (without supplements) is going to have to wait until after cross season.

Results: 60 second power up by +11.60% (from baseline)

For an explanation of why I'm doing this, see this post.

I've updated the spreadsheet and you can see this week's ride on Strava.


According to the TrainingPeaks Performance Management Chart, my form was slightly better this week (-1.9) than last week (-3.9).

I'm now totally convinced that something big has changed. Just before the start of the experiment I set a PR of 500 watts for 60 seconds. In the first interval of today's ride, I averaged 618 watts, a 24% improvement! If I were a novice cyclist, this would make sense, but I'm not. 

Today's intervals, especially the first, felt very different. Usually, it's an overwhelming feeling of suffocation that forces me to slow down, today I had leg-burn like I've never experienced before.

Tempted to try your N=1 experiment? Send me the numbers so I can publish them here.



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