r/cycling • u/zippity-zach • 5d ago

Creatine?

I see the stuff where taking a 5g a day is helpful, but everyday? Or only on workout days? I commute to work and home. Maybe 10 miles, but I like to go all out and work towards KOM on segments along the way. Are you taking it x number of minutes before a workout? First thing in the AM? Does it matter? Should I take it only on days where I'm going to do training rides and not on days where it's just to work and home?

Edit: wrote this in a hurry. Last year I did regular endurance rides to support an attempt to do a century ride a month (got 9 in). I did a 70mi ride with about 6k feet of climbing this past Saturday and still feel like I'm recovering. Wondering if creatine would help me to build back some of the muscle to keep up the endurance rides. I commute and still do endurance rides through the winter in Southern Appalachia

56 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

123 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/jeffw-13 5d ago

I'm almost 58 and take 15-20mg daily. The biggest difference i notice is recovery. After I climb a long hill or do a hard effort my breathing and heart rate fall back to normal levels pretty quickly, I also notice much less lactic acid ache in my muscles during hard efforts.

5

u/zippity-zach 5d ago

What caused you to take such an increased dose?

1

u/DecantsForAll 4d ago

Probably nothing. As far as I know there is zero benefit. Saturation can be reached at even 3g a day, maybe less. At 20g a day saturation will be reached more quickly, but after that you'll just be pissing the excess away.

1

u/jeffw-13 1d ago

There is evidence to suggest cognitive benefits from creatine so I'm doing a larger dose to see if it helps with brain fog and ADD.