Rts Nutrition 2014, 11:18 http://www.jissn.com/content/11/1/Page 4 ofdays a week with incremental increase in training amount and intensity throughout the study. Detailed content of daily and weekly training was made by coaches on each weekend. The typical daily cycling training regimen consisted of 60-200 km (even 220-250 km) road endurance cycling, 2-3 km*N (N = 2-8) timing sprint cycling on the flat road and sloping fields. Exercise intensity was monitored by HR. Eight cyclists had a weekly road cycling distance of 2840 km and 3110 km during two phases, respectively (Additional file 4). Two triathletes had an average 380-km of road cycling weekly during two phases.Limitation of the present ML240 web studyTable 2 Blood biochemistries pre-performance testsBiomarkers Antioxidant status MDA (mol/L) XOD (U/L) TAOC (U/ml) GPx (U/ml) SOD (U/ml) VE (mol/L) 3.9 ?0.15 13.3 ?0.4 16.1 ?0.5 0.41 ?0.01 58.7 ?1.4 19.8 ?1.8 3.2 ?0.5 13.1 ?0.9 12.8 ?1.0* 0.45 ?0.05 61.2 ?1.4 25.6 ?1.7 3.2 ?0.3 12.4 ?1.0 16.3 ?0.9# 0.43 ?0.05 59.5 ?1.4 28.7 ?2.5* BL COK ALMTraining, recovery and oxygen-carrying capacity CK (U/L) BUN (mmol/L) Hb (g/L) 224.2 ?32.9 6.5 ?0.5 136.6 ?2.5 354.7 ?62.9 7.3 ?0. 7 143.2 ?3.7 288.3 ?81.1 6.6 ?0.6 145.7 ?2.7*The original study design included four performance tests performed by subjects before and after each intervention phase during the study. Regretfully, subjects did not undergo VO2max test prior to the 2nd intervention phase and the performance test at the beginning of week 7 due to a modified training arrangement. Thus, baseline values of the performance test at the start of the 2nd phase were not available. However, PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27597769 the following 4 points may be helpful to support that the drawback should not affect significance of study outcomes observed at the end of the intervention phases. First, we originally had a crossover design, that is to say, when ALM or COK was compared with BL, there were 5 subjects in each group at the first intervention phase. Second, we had blood biochemistry tests at the end of washout (the end of 6th week). With the exception of a higher FFA, biochemical outcomes after washout at 6th week (MDA 3.7 ?0.4; XOD 12.5 ?0.8; TAOC 15.5 ?1.6; GPx 0.39 ?0.02; SOD 55.8 ?0.6; VE 25.2 ?2.2; CK 237.3 ?46.4; Cor 19.3 ?0.8; Hb 143.6 ?2.7; PA 0.49 ?0.07; FFA 0.20 ?0.02; arginine 0.076 ?0.003; NO 96.7 ?13.2; Ins 5.0 ?0.9) were not statistically different from the BL values (see Table 2, their units are the same as shown in Table 2 presented, n = 10). Third, half-life of some nutrients or primarily functional components present in almonds supports that the carry-over effect of the first intervention should be minimal if there was any, e.g, the half-life of -tocopherol, quercetin, diverse polyphenols and arginine is 57 h [31], 11-25 h [32,33], 1-18 h [34] and 1.5-2.0 h [35], respectively. Finally, subjects all lived and trained in the same training camp throughout the study.Statistical analysisCarbohydrate and lipid metabolism production BG (mmol/L) PA (mmol/L) FFA (mmol/L) 5.6 ?0.2 0.42 ?0.05 0.22 ?0.04 5.3 ?0.3 0.44 ?0.07 0.16 ?0.03 5.4 ?0.2 0.44 ?0.07 0.11 ?0.01*Metabolism-regulating factors Arginine (mmol/L) NO (mol/L) Ins (IU/ml) Cor (mmol/L) 0.073 ?0.005 99.6 ?10.6 5.5 ?0.9 20.3 ?0.9 0.089 ?0.011 113.1 ?15.3 5.3 ?1.6 22.3 ?2.3 0.113 ?0.031 136.0 ?18.1 9.4 ?2.3 22.0 ?1.MDA, malondialdehyde (mol/L), XOD, xanthine oxidase (U/L), TAOC, total antioxidant capacity (U/ml), GPx, glutathione peroxidise (U/ml), SOD, superoxide dismutase (U/.