Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

At first glance, the concept of altitude training for sea -level co m peti tio n seems to o ffer stamina ad va n tages. Stress the body to produce more hemoglobin and then benefit from th e incr eased a b ility to deliver o x yge n . However, blood thi ckens a s hemoglobin accu m ula tes, forcing th e heart to work harder. Thi s tends to o ffset th e advantage of in creased o xygen. Blo o d doping (or bo ostin g ) is a more rad ical approach to increasing oxygen deliv er y to th e muscl es. Extra red ce ll s a re inj ected into th e blood st ream. Blood doping is said to have the potential to in crea se end u ra nce performance from three to five per cent . As much as a qu art of blood is removed from an athlete one to tw o months before th e ' target competition . The red cell s a re isol a ted and refrigerated, th en injected for th e competition. (An experimenta l a lternative uses a bl ood transfusion from a donor with a higher hemoglobin content enhanced by altitude tra in ing. ) The h em og lo bin gain h as its costs. however. The last few weeks of train ing may be h in dered by th e blood loss. And th e re-i njected red cell s do stress the he art. Additionally, beca use of the ex per im en tal nature of the process, saf ety is a major concern, especially when working with blood. Even the acknow ledged developer of blood boosting has reserva tio n s about its use for sports. Most of the experimenta tion with blood doping tod a y is in Eastern bl oc countries. . Guidelines for aerobic training o Freq uen cy. T h ree to five days per wee k. o Intensity. Exercise from 60 to 85% o of maximum heart ra te. Duration . Maintain target pulse rate 12 to 40 m inutes. Estimating aerobic fitness One way to measure th e in ten sity of your aerobic exert io n (a t least 12 minutes of stea d y-paced ex er cise . prefer ably runnin g or statio na ry cycl ing) is to use a h eart-rate range formul a : Exe rc ise H eart Rate Resting H e-art Rat eInt en sity = -:-:-:-.~-:-:--::---=-- Maximal H eart Rat e Resting H eart Rat e Example: 20-year-old, res ting pulse of 60 , maximal heart rat e o f 200 , aerobic h eart rat e o f 160. 160-60 100 = 140 = 71.4% 200-60 In this exa m p le, the athlet e, performi ng at 'o ver 70 per cent of his heart-rate ra n ge (fr om rest to maximum ) demonstrates a hi gh aerobi c fitness level. An ea sie r- to -c o m p u te formu la (wor kin g rate divided b y maximum rat e) yie lds a h igher percentage. (For our example: 160 divided by 200, eq ua ls 80 percent. ) This simp ler lormul a, however, does no t g ive as clear a pi cture of intensity within th e heart rate range. Anot her way of measuring aerobic fitness is to ta ke a 12-m inute ru n at a steady pace, p referably on a quarter m ile track, pushing yourself to your aerobic lim i t. Provided the pace is kept steady, the distance covered is an excellent indicator o f aerobic capacity : (Don' t cheat by varyi ng the pace or sprinting a t the end.) Test ing yourself periodically wi ll indicate if you have in creased your ca paci ty. Muscular endurance En d u ra nce refer s to a n a th le te's a b ility todo a large number o f repetiti ons against lig h t res ista nce (s uc h as sq ue ezing h and grips o r cu rl in g a 10pound wei ght ) o r 10 d o an in cr ea sing number o f in ten se effort s with out rest (suc h as repeat edl y sp ringin g u p to touch a ba sketball rim ). Muscular st re n g th a nd en d u ra nce a re rel a ted, but are n ot .n ecessa r il y di rectl y proportional. An end ura nc e a th le te who is no t particularl y stro n g will o fte n o u tlas t th e stre ngth athlete wh en co nti n u ing effo rt is th e test. (Resea rc h by th e Dr. David Costill o f Ball State U n ivers ity indicat es th at muscle enzymes rea ct differ entl y to stre ngt h a nd end ura nce ex ercis es.) The streng th a th le te will use less of h is strength pot entia l to do o ne endura nce repetitio n , bu t his ox ygen uti lization may not be suffi ci ent to a II0 !'" keeping p ace with a n endurancetrained a th le te. (Th us a m otocrosser who devel ops exce lle n t muscu lar end ura nce in hi s h ands and wrists m ay o u tlast the strength a th le te who ca n crea te a gr eat er o ne -repe titio n tension in grip testing.) Severa l fa ctors li mi t muscul a r endurance: o Depleti on of muscle g lycogen , the primary muscle fuel. o R ed u ct io n of glucose (blood sugar), another m uscle fuel. (T h is is call ed hypoglycemia.) o Depletion of fat fu el. o Accumu la tion of lactic acid during anaerobic exercise. o Red ucti o n of oxygen (hypoxia ). o Increase o f h eat in the muscles (hypertherm ia) . Muscu lar end urance can be en hanced by : o Improving th e ca rd io vasc u la r system's ability to deliver o xygen to th e muscles. o Im p roving th e abili ty of th e muscles to sto re a n d burn muscl e fu el. Enduance co m pe tition is o ne a rea in wh ich a n o ld er a th le te ca n o fte n best a yo u nge r a th le te. Endurance potential p eaks at about 30 a nd th en begin s d eclin ing irreversibl y. An 18year-old 's muscular end u ra nce pot en ti a l is a bo u t th e sameas it will be at age 40. (Anaerobic a bility. o n th e other hand, begins d ecl ining a t a bo ut 20. ) G en era ll y, an a th le te of 40 will have abo ut 80 per cent of the muscula r en d u ra nce p ot ential h e had a t 30 a nd just 60 per cent a t age 50. An ag in g a th le te ca n maintain or increase his muscular end u ra nce with tr aining, but with eac hpassin g year h e w ill have to p us h him se-lf ha rd er , just to h old a level. (Stren g th poten ti al d eclines less th an end ura nce with age . It may remain as high as 80 perce nt o f p eak ca p ac i ty a t age 60 . Th e h eart 's stroke volume d ecreases a bo u t o ne percent a yea r after age 20. Rea ction timeslows with aging, but coordination isn 't altered sig n ifica nt ly.) • Championship Training, by Dean Mi ller and Le n Weed, includes Brad Lackey's comp lete year-round training program as we ll as in -depth fit n ess and training information fo r all sports. 112 pages, over 80 p hotos and illustrations. To order, sen d $9.95 plus' $1.50 postage and handling to C leansheet Enterprises ; P.O . Bo x 24IC, Tarzana , CA 91356. California residents add 65f sales" tax . Situated right in the centre of the British Isles you will find the beautiful Isle of Man. This magical holiday island welcomes thousands of motorcycling enthusiasts to its shores each year in June for the world famous Tourist Trophy Races. For over 75 years this magnificent festival of real road racing has thrilled motorcyclists of all nationalities and still boasts the same exciting atmosphere. ---=- 17

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