Triathlon and Lactate Revisited

We know many triathletes who are unable to run fast after being the best competing Ironman.  “Maca” and Natasha Badmann are examples.  Simon Lessing was the world champion for five years in a row before he faded.  They all had distance training without speed.  This is an observation that needs research to know what happened.  I said to know what happened because I believe that research should follow what we see.  I had a friend who was Professor at SUNY Potsdam, Vilma Mazetti, who ones came to Mexico on Mexicana Airline, but refused to get back on the plane because she thought that the plane was too small and was not the one offered by Mexicana when she bought the ticket.  She was convinced by a friend that it was the same plane.  She started to laugh after being convinced and told me: “I thought it was a joke what they say about Argentines.” Doubts about theories and doubts about our own theories should be present all the time and one need a Mendelian approach to continue working.  I have been doing this work my whole life that goes beyond 50 years:

Between 1856 and 1863 Mendel cultivated and tested some 29,000 pea plants (i.e., Pisum sativum). This study showed that one in four pea plants had purebred recessive alleles, two out of four were hybrid and one out of four were purebred dominant. His experiments led him to make two generalizations, the Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Assortment, which later came to be known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel

The following article helps to understand what plasticity is; how one cell is differentiated and how once it is differentiated, the cell cannot return to be a stem cell or something different.  Once a neuron is differentiated into olfactory cell it cannot be something different.  The same thing for a neuron that differentiated into slow signaling neuron, it cannot come back to be a fast signaling neuron. These changes are not seen in any athlete.  The runners evolve from short distance to long distance because they are unable to keep the same speed after years of training.  EVERYTHING IS IN OUR HEAD.

The energy requirements of the brain are amazingly high; indeed, while representing only 2% of the body mass, its oxygen and glucose utilization account for approximately 20% of those of the whole organism, almost ten times more than those predicted on a mass basis (Magistretti, 1999). A similar mismatch is observed for blood flow destined to the brain, which represents over 10% of cardiac output. In addition to these quantitative aspects, brain metabolism has other distinctive features, in particular its regional variability and the nature of its cellular determinants. At the macroscopic level, one regional variability is manifested by the difference in energy metabolism between grey and white matter (Clarke and Sokoloff, 1994). But a much finer feature of brain metabolism is that its regional variability is strongly determined by the ever-changing spatially and temporally specified levels of synaptic activity.

The coupling between synaptic activity and glucose utilization (neurometabolic coupling) is a central physiological principle of brain function that has provided the basis for 2-deoxyglucose-based functional imaging with positron emission tomography (PET). Astrocytes play a central role in neurometabolic coupling, and the basic mechanism involves glutamate-stimulated aerobic glycolysis; the sodium-coupled reuptake of glutamate by astrocytes and the ensuing activation of the Na-K-ATPase triggers glucose uptake and processing via glycolysis, resulting in the release of lactate from astrocytes. Lactate can then contribute to the activity-dependent fuelling of the neuronal energy demands associated with synaptic transmission. An operational model, the ‘astrocyte–neuron lactate shuttle’, is supported experimentally by a large body of evidence, which provides a molecular and cellular basis for interpreting data obtained from functional brain imaging studies.

The Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 2304-2311

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.133.6713&rep=rep1&type=pdf

We have mentioned on previous posts that lactate is good and the way we “word,” the grammar we use regarding lactate changes the utility of lactate.

1 avr. 2012

TRIATHLON PHYSIOLOGY FOR DUMMIES AND THE TENDENCY TOWARD THE MEAN

When speaking about lactate, I have to show you a different way of looking at it.  Another language so we can see something else helpful; like Hinojosa when speaking English.  In Medicine there are many monuments left for our heroes and at the end it is difficult to see “the real.” Lactate is the most effective transport of energy for our body in the “fight or flight” situation; when the body has an emergency, lactate is produced.  OUR BRAIN NEURONS USE LACTATE AS THE ONLY FUEL to do our daily task. I assume that neurons use it in general as the main fuel. So, lactate is “good.”  We have to produce lactate to get the neuro-fibers firing.  Around 4millimols per cc of blood allows us to finish an Olympic Distance Triathlon at our best pace.  The more tolerance we acquired to lactate the better we are.  Here, it is important to point out that sometimes the cybernetic equilibrium is lost and lactate continues to increase without being used by neurons or other cells (not in the case of Lance Armstrong as you will see below).  Anecdotally, we can say that even if we finish a marathon in “the sweet spot,” our lactate goes up above 10. It means, we have a tolerance to lactate above 4. Dr. Cheung in his article writes regarding the subject.

19 mars 2012

TRIATHLON PHYSIOLOGY FOR DUMMIES AND THE TENDENCY TOWARD THE MEAN

When stressing the body the muscles suffer change according to the amount of Growth Hormone (GH) released by the body, which also depends on the amount of cortisol released by the body.  At a certain limit cortisol inhibits the release of growth hormone but cortisol is necessary to release GH.  Too much cortisol knocks out the growth hormone production and as a consequence the changes we are looking for do not take place.  That is why the stress should be according to our objectives and level of training.  If one wants to run 30 minutes-10k; one need to increase the time on the stress zone progressively until being able to run five minutes at the same speed, in the scale of 1-10, 7-8 effort makes the trick.  Keeping technique and cadence is very important (please, read previous 1, 2 and 3 parts); as I said, training is very specific and the improvements made would be according to the training cadence and technique.   At the same time neurological training should take place.  Neurons do not use fat or proteins as fuels.  They depend on glucose. In order to keep firing as a “plug” for the muscles, neurons need training which can be gotten at the regular muscular training, but one needs specific training to increase the firing rate if one pursues a different performance level.  How can the neurons keep firing if one does no train neurons to fire at high speed for a long period of time?  If one´s pulse is high or low depends on the neurological training and this is the main player in our speed, not so much the muscles.  When one trains and the pulse remains low even when we try to increase it by increasing speed; it means that the neurons are tired, and the muscles could be o.k.

LIFE IS SPECIFIC AS WELL AS OUR TRAINING AND WE DECIDE WHAT WE WANT: “We cannot have our cake and eat it.”  The point to know here is whether or not we are informed about our training!

Triathlon and Russian Roulette

Ignorance has made us play the Russian roulette when training triathlon since the time of Scott Tinley.  

22 mars 2012

TRIATHLON PHYSIOLOGY FOR DUMMIES AND THE TENDENCY TOWARD THE MEAN

Scott Tinley, a man that started triathlon training and went beyond the limits of training in the 80’s to improve performance, gives a good recounting of what could happen if one does not follow a plan to improve.  This was an interview at the end of his career.  Inside triathlon magazine, volume 15, June: 2000:

“You have alluded that there have been a lot things going wrong with your body in the past four years.  What have they been?

 I think I compromise in number of different systems in my body—my pituitary-adrenal axis and my hormonal system. And my emotional state—because of depleted neurotransmitters. 

What are some of the signs of these depleted states?

When you exercise cortisol increases because is a parasympathetic stimulator –fight or flight.  You want your cortisol to go up…My cortisol level was already elevated.  A normal person is 8 to 9 –mine was 13 at rest…We did tests at the Olympic Training Center and found that my cortisol production dropped during an eight-mile-run (20).  

I use this name Russian roulette because what has happened in Crimea.  Putin is an expert in playing the roulette making the moves he made and the words he uses.  Putin has more information than the majority of us, but still plays the Russian roulette; triathletes do not have information and play a deathly Russian roulette when training as you can see from the interview given by Scott Tinley.  After years of following people like Tinley we have an idea of what could kill us, but we still play Russian roulette.  I remember listening to one of our team members saying that he was going to train long hours at a slow pace because he wanted to be “strong.”  He thought that training slow would make him strong; he became strong as a tractor, but unable to do a triathlon fast enough to be competitive.

Russian roulette is about betting against the odds because of ignorance.  We see the Brownlees training and Gomez training but we do not want to study what they do.  A simple exercise, to be able to run after the bike the way we do without bicycling, needs a good bicycle training; meaning more than 400 kilometers weekly training with 30% above 40k/hr. over a flat surface or the equivalent (30% above 430 watts) for a male.  To run 10k below 30 minutes needs long hours running (100K/WEEKLY) at a high cadence, 210 steps per minutes or above.  Our running is not like the regular runners running because of the weight we have as triathletes; the more weight, the less flying we can do.  That is why high cadence is important to be able to run a 10k fast for a triathlete.  Training is not about accumulating miles, but accumulating miles at a good cadence with the best efficiency possible.  This is what we call a Neurological Workout.  Neurons shape the muscles at the end and not the opposite.

29 mars 2012

TRIATHLON PHYSIOLOGY FOR DUMMIES AND THE TENDENCY TOWARD THE MEAN

Neurons are like “plugs” that fire according to our training.  We never speak of training our neurological system but it is necessary to train our neurons as well as our muscles.  Neurons do not use fatty acids as fuel, depend entirely on glucose.  The end result of our hormones is to produce homeostasis in our body and glucose places a major role in our homeostasis.  That is why we need to have a cybernetic model to understand our body.  There is not research about it but neurons model our muscle fibers.

Rate coding of muscle force

The force produced by a single motor unit is determined in part by the number of muscle fibers in the unit. Another important determinant of force is the frequency with which the muscle fibers are stimulated by their innervating axon. The rate at which the nerve impulses arrive is known as the motor unit firing rate and may vary from frequencies low enough to produce a series of single twitch contractions to frequencies high enough to produce a fused tetanic contraction. Generally, this allows a 2 to 4-fold change in force. In general, the motor unit firing rate of each individual motor unit increases with increasing muscular effort until a maximum rate is reached. This smooths out the incremental force changes which would otherwise occur as each additional unit was recruited.[9]

Proportional control of muscle force

The distribution of motor unit size is such that there is an inverse relationship between the number of motor units and the force they generate (i.e., the number of muscle fibers per motor unit). Thus, there are many small motor units and progressively fewer larger motor units. This means that at low levels of recruitment, the force increment due to recruitment is small, whereas in forceful contractions, the force increment becomes much larger. Thus the ratio between the force increment produced by adding an additional motor unit and the force threshold at which that unit is recruited remains relatively constant.[3]

The same we can say about swimming.  Practicing good technique is the only way to go fast in the water.  Most of the good swimmers learn to “feel” the water when toddlers; we need to teach our athletes to feel the water when they are adults and that is sometimes a heroic maneuver.  It is done with a good student willing to learn to “feel.”  “Feeling” is something that needs to be taught at any age to continue improving.  It is not only feeling the water and feeling falling when running; but "feeling" situations and people around us which make the difference in our training.  Athletes need to know “WHO IS WHO” to reach goals and full potential.  FEELING WITH THE HEAD.

Triathlon and Fear

I have seen many triathletes vomiting before, during or after competing.  It reminds me of a saying in Mexico after a drunk had too much the night before: “What I ate made me sick.”  Competing at a high level with high degree of responsibility made us fearful of not performing well; so fearful that sometimes it is uncontrollable.  My bulimic patients tell me that they relaxed after vomiting and use vomiting as a mechanism of overcoming excess of stress or anxiety.  Leo Messi had the same reaction when playing for Argentina this month; Oscar Pictorius vomited when listened to the medical report on his victim during trial.

Messi says that he does not worried about the vomiting because it has happened many times “La belle indifference” was a sign of hysteria at the time of Freudian psychoanalysis when patients could not walk or move a part of the body.  The patients were not concerned about the symptoms presented; the family members were more concerned.  “Tata” Martino (Barcelona´s coach) is more concerned than Leo and says that there is something wrong with the Messi´s vomiting.

Paola Espinosa, bronze medalist in the Olympics, 10 meters platform jump, says that she is afraid of jumping, but she does not vomit.  She is very conscious about her fears.  Being conscious about our conflicts/fears helps to do something about them and then we can have the possibility of managing the situation in a better way as Paolo does.  Paola says that she uses the fear on her advantage to perform better. 

In individual sports we should aim to control reactions like vomiting recognizing our conflict/fears.  Messi can have a chance to live with it because there are 11 players in the field.