Triathlon and the Super League

We have spoken about training and resistance to speed.  The Super League format let us know that speed is the first thing to acquire and resistance to speed comes later.  Jacob Birtwhistle(21) and Mathew Hauser(18) were within the first 15 athletes the third day; Britwhistle finished third at the end of the day.  The old dudes like Javier Gómez, Cameron Dye and Brent McMahon had problems keeping up with the speed.  Gómez has been working on his speed but it appears that the speed training is not enough to compete with the young ones. The ones practicing long distance triathlon were on detraining mode, including Alistair Brownlee.

26 févr. 2014

TRIATHLON AND DETRAINING EFFECT II

A post was written trying to explain the effects of detraining but we stayed short of what happens to elite athletes with high volume, high intensity training.  The effects mentioned in the previous post are for age-groupers but detraining has implications on technique and the effect of gene inductions that take place when training for years, i.e., the gene induced that helps us to go fast shut down after certain time and we need at least the same level of intensity to induce them again.  This is an empirical observation, of course, but it is backed up after looking at athletes that try to come back.  Technique does not come back as fast as we would like to, and it is like learning to walk back again after a cast in one of our lower extremities.

Swimming 200 meters at the same speed that the elite swimmer used to, takes at least two years, if we decide to work on coming back conscientiously.  The longer the swim the longer it takes to come back to the same speed per distance.  This is the reason why ironman distance elite competitors are unable to perform well at Olympic distance triathlons.  They suffer from detraining at the end, even though they swim, bike and run.

6 juin 2013

TRIATHLON AND DETRAINING EFFECT

I first heard this more formally from Paul Bergen who mentioned that he told Inge de Bruijn that she was not going to compete in 200 meters crawl because she stopped months without formal training and could not have enough training to compete in 200 meters; it was a year and half before the Athens’ Olympics.  Inge was trained for 50 meters and 100 meters and medaled in the Olympics.  Also, we know that Ian Thorpe stayed too far from being competitive after he tried to come back. Triathlon is the same thing or even worse.  I remembered Vanessa Fernandes being lapped at Huatulco when she was trying to come back.  Paula Findley did not finish at Madrid (2013) and it does not look that she is coming back.  Detraining is a reversible condition but there is a limited time in life, and the world is getting faster. Technique has improved and what somebody has as technique is obsolete even if retrained.

RECOVERING TRAINED STATES TAKES MUCH LONGER THAN IT DOES TO LOSE THEM

Hsu, K. M., & Hsu, T. G. (1999). The effects of detraining and retraining on swimming propulsive force and blood lactate. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 31(5), Supplement abstract 1400.

The effects of detraining and retraining on 50 and 400-m performance, arm stroke propulsive power, lactate, and lactate dehydrogenase in crawl stroke swimming were investigated. Male college swimmers (N = 18) detrained for 85 days by not performing any swimming. Retraining consisted of covering between 3,500-6,000 m per day for 91 days.

After detraining 50-m times regressed 3.4% and 400-m times regressed by 7%. Arm stroke propulsive power regressed by 12%. Peak lactate for the 400 swim was 22% lower. After retraining, 50-m times and arm-stroke propulsive power had not returned to the levels exhibited before detraining. Lactate dehydrogenase was unaltered by either detraining or retraining.

It was concluded that recovering lost training effects takes much longer than the period of time in which they were lost.

Implication. Recovering training effects takes much longer than losing them through detraining. It would be wise to avoid detraining.

There is another form of detraining I have seen in athletes who try to come back after practicing another sport like ironman. Macca had years of detraining when trying to come back to Olympic distance triathlon.  It looks that “cross training” is useless when competing at a high level and detraining exists significantly when comparing through performance.  Training is very specific for the sport we practice.  There is an interesting article written that deals with the gross physiological variables of detraining, but there are more subtle differences at the cells as enzymes. WE CAN SEE THE RESULTS WHEN SOMEBODY TRIES TO COME BACK FROM AN INJURY OR AFTER STOPPING:

The Super League is the best show in triathlon; the young Frenchman were the ones missing it.  They have responsibility with their clubs at the French Grand Prix and this competition rivals the Grand Prix.  The Super League is a long way from ITU triathlon.  We need to see it to believe it.