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  Technique has improved and what somebody has as technique is obsolete even if retrained.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 exist 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:

http://www.setantacollege.com/wp-content/uploads/Journal_db/detraining%20effects%20on%20young%20women.pdf

I will leave you with Andres Espinosa, to continue with the rivalry Kenyans Mexicans in the past.  He is the expert on cross training working in a Steel Mill.

Andrés Espinosa grew up in an impoverished background in northern Mexico. His hometown Monclova was proudly known as Mexico’s “Steel Capital,” but not so proudly for the pollution that belched from the town’s factory smokestacks.
Espinosa aspired to become an elite long-distance runner. He toiled during the day at his steel mill job, and then well into the night bounded 80 miles each week up and down his hometown streets.
On a Saturday morning 22 years ago at 4:00 am, Estela and baby Andrés Jr. bid their beloved 25-year old husband and father “vaya con dios,” as Espinosa set out on his improbable dream.  The destination was Dallas, and the drive took most of the day. Espinosa would run the next day in the 1988 White Rock Marathon, his maiden competitive race.  He arrived in Dallas short on sleep but long on adrenaline.

Espinosa’s audacity paid off. He triumphed in Dallas by a whopping 10 minutes…

BOSTON MARATHON 1994, AFTER THE CURRENT VIDEO (ONLY WAY TO PUT IT)

http://andresespinosa.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=1

TRIATHLON RESEARCH III: THE KENYANS

I watched the documentary on research done by Scandinavians.  This documentary tells us the mistakes that mislead us and the reason why Herb Elliot said (please refer to: 4 nov. 2012 Herb Elliot and Triathlon):

He had a suspicion of science, but at the same time he'd had terrible arthritis as a younger person, and he'd been to the doctors and done all that stuff, and his arthritis hadn't improved, and he was almost at the point of being crippled (Percy Cerutti). And at that point he thought, 'OK, well these guys aren't going to fix me, I'll have to see what I can do for myself.' And he started to read books on diet and health and so on; I don't know whether you call that science or not. But, he went for foods with the life principle and he became very conscious of carbohydrates and the various other fresh vegetables and so on. He was looking for vitality in his food and he was a student of that. But I wouldn't say it was scientific, he was really learning from other people's experiences, and he applied those to himself and found out that he got rid of his arthritis, and so with confidence, he espoused that sort of dietary practice with us. But no, it was more than just intuition, he certainly had plenty of that, but he did study successful dieticians and he went through all of the health manuals and he read the people of the day, and he was ahead of his time. He was talking about us having bran for instance, when every other Australian would feed bran to their chooks, they'd never feed it to a human being. And so he was ahead of his time. But the learning was there within our society. As we all know, things that have been invented now probably won't become popular for another 30 years, but Percy was right in at the invention stage, with an understanding of what worked and what didn't work.

http://www.coolrunning.com.au/general/2001e003.shtml

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTQVHZU4WzE

And, of course, I watched the classic: MAN ON A MISSION.

 http://vimeo.com/33808532

I was left with what O’Connell said to a British newspaper:

O'Connell has been interviewed and written about so often that there's not much else to ask. "It's all there if you Google it, or whatever it is," he says. He has also seen his fair share of scientists and academics coming to discover the secret of the Kenyan runners.

"We even had one man from Sweden who wanted to analyse the ugali," he tells me. Ugali is a simple, doughy food staple made from maize flour. "I told him to [take] some of the flour home to test it, but he said he needed to cook it at altitude, in Kenyan water, in a Kenyan pot." O'Connell is incredulous at the idea.

Did he discover anything? I ask. "Absolutely nothing," says O'Connell, almost spitting in delight.

"People come to find the secret, but you know what the secret is? That you think there's a secret. There is no secret." I haven't mentioned a secret but he's fuming now, his arms folded across his chest.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/london-2012-olympics-blog/2011/apr/26/running-with-the-kenyans

Since the time of Charles Darwin scientists have difficulties seeing their prejudices and the politics that they follow.  The Scandinavians are not the exception and O’Connell responded to them:

A Very Prejudice Charles Darwin Admits Being Wrong

Darwin, for many the father of evolution, thought certain groups of people lower on the evolutionary scale than others. He once wrote, "At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised [sic] races of the man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world." (Descent of Man, 1871)… It may come as a shock that Darwin ended up sending money to missionaries who worked among people he denounced as barbarians. A friend of his wrote of it in 1885, saying, "Darwin has often expressed to me...it was utterly useless to send Missionaries to such a set of savages as the Fuegians, probably the very lowest of the human race. I had always replied that I did not believe any human being existed too low to comprehend the simple message of the Gospel of Christ. After many years...he wrote to me that in recent accounts of the Mission proved to him that he had been wrong."

http://kimberlyraeauthor.blogspot.mx/2012/11/a-very-prejudice-charles-darwin-admits.html

O’Connell is running the program (An Irish in Kenya), it is unacceptable for the Scandinavians.  They cannot see that the “structure” designed by O’Connell and directed by him is “whiter” than the “whites.”  Because “white” is not a color or a country (region), it is a way of living.  The Anglo Saxon Canadians used to say to the French Canadians: “Speak white.”

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

There is something to recue from the project mentioned above.  They have measured children’s activity (Kenyans) and compared it to the children's activity from Scandinavia.  They assumed that the activity continued through adolescence and young adulthood, except that the results they obtained were not according to what we know from our experience.  Apparently during adolescence the activity increases for the Kenyans to the point that they are able to start training at “almost any time during young adulthood.”  Why do I have this hint?  What we have seen in our athletes is that after the years of training the maximum heart rate decreases.  I was not a high performance athlete when young (or old) but I was able to lift my pulse to 200 at the age of 40.  Most of our kids are unable to lift the pulse to that level.  The Kenyans had 5 pulses less than the Scandinavians when measured.  2 MINUTES AND 20 SECONDS FASTER THAN THE SCANDINAVIANS DOES NOT COME FROM SOMEBODY WITHOUT BASE TRAINING RUNNING.  Another assumption that cut my attention was when they mentioned that the “Kenyans did not push themselves to the limit because the lactate level did not increase before stopping the same degree as the Scandinavians did."  This is something we have learned from Lance Armstrong.  His lactate level did not go above 6 when well-trained because of his training (most of the cyclists could reach above 12 before stopping according to Dr. Coyle).  This is telling us that the Kenyans had a base training before the experiment that most likely comes from their way of living (doing chores or daily life activities).

The Scandinavians report that “A donkey is a donkey,” and they can only have fast donkeys.  Unfortunately, the Africans and the Scandinavians are humans, nothing to do with horses or donkeys.  The Scandinavians do not want to consider the Africans in the same category.  If one has the life structure, technique and work hard, he/she (HUMAN BEING) CAN KICK ASS.  Watch German Silva doing it.  He is a shorty with heavy legs.  

TRIATHLON ITU VERSUS FRENCH GRAND PRIX

Let’s do sociological research, using useful forms TO DO RESEARCH instead of the quantified research that gives very little practical information.  We have spoken about George Vaillant and his longitudinal research for decades on different populations.  We can research on these subjects longitudinally.

George Eman Vaillant, M.D. (born 1934) is an American psychiatrist and Professor at Harvard Medical School and Director of Research for the Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Vaillant has spent his research career charting adult development and the recovery process of schizophrenia, heroin addiction, alcoholism, and personality disorder. He has spent the last 30 years as Director of the Study of Adult Development at the Harvard University Health Service. The study has prospectively charted the lives of 824 men and women for over 60 years.

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

The same winners for the sprint distance triathlon are for the Olympic distance triathlon, as we pointed out on previous postings regarding speed needed to win a triathlon.  The only different between sprint and Olympic distances is that RESISTANCE TO SPEED IS NEEDED TO WIN AN OLYMPIC DISTANCE.  This is a historical approach to plan training for champions.  SPEED is the first thing to achieve; SECOND, ENDURANCE TO SPEED.  Australians were the best when they had the Australian Grand Prix where they practiced speed.  The French Grand Prix works the same for the ones who entered it at a young age like the Brownlees.

The first six at Dunkerque this last Sunday 4/26/2013.

00001   BROWNLEE JONATHA       00:55:03.80    SE      00001   M       00:08:54       00001        01m11   00:00:33       00:29:25       00002   00002   -0001   42.83   00:00:22        00:15:49       00007   00001   03m09   00001          0       GBR     00006   EC SARTROUVILLE TRI      

00002   MOLA DIAZ MARIO        00:55:17.48    SE      00002   M       00:09:20       00025        01m14   00:00:27       00:30:03       00042   00021   00004   41.93   00:00:23        00:15:04       00001   00019   03m00   00002   00:00:14       ESP     00007   EC SARTROUVILLE TRI      

00003   RAPHAEL AURELIEN       00:55:29.30    SE      00003   M       00:08:56       00002        01m11   00:00:29       00:29:27       00005   00003   -0001   42.78   00:00:26        00:16:11       00025          03m14   00003   00:00:26       FRA     00018   POISSY TRI           

00004   AUSTIN MARC            00:55:38.21    JU      00001   M       00:08:59       00007        01m11   00:00:30       00:29:24       00001   00005   00002   42.85   00:00:22        00:16:23       00028   00001   03m16   00004   00:00:35       GBR     00057        VERSAILLES TRI        

00005   PUJADES ANTHONY        00:55:45.05    SE      00004   M       00:08:58       00004        01m11   00:00:28       00:29:26       00003   00001   00003   42.80   00:00:20        00:16:33       00036   -0004   03m18   00005   00:00:42       FRA     00002   LES SABLES VENDEE T

00006   JUSTUS STEFFEN         00:55:51.25    SE      00005   M       00:09:08       00012        01m13   00:00:27       00:30:12      

FEMALES

00001   STANFORD NON                   01:00:07.55    F       SE      00001   00:09:48        00004   01m18   00:32:38       00006   00006   -0002   38.61   00:17:41       00001        00005   03m32   01:00:07       00001          0       GBR     00007   TCG79 PARTHENAY                

00002   HEWITT ANDREA                  01:01:06.80    F       SE      00002   00:09:54        00010   01m19   00:32:31       00002   00002   00008   38.74   00:18:41       00009           03m44   01:01:06       00002   00:00:59       NZL     00003   POISSY TRI             

00003   HARRISON JESSICA               01:01:06.83    F       SE      00003   00:09:46        00001   01m18   00:32:39       00008   00004   -0003   38.59   00:18:41       00010        00001   03m44   01:01:06       00003   00:00:59       FRA     00001   POISSY TRI                     

00004   BETTO ALICE                    01:01:10.22    F       SE      00004   00:09:50        00007   01m18   00:32:35       00004   00003   00004   38.67   00:18:45       00012   -0001    03m45   01:01:10       00004   00:01:03       ITA     00008   TCG79 PARTHENAY        

00005   BAZLEN SVENJA                  01:01:15.71    F       SE      00005   00:09:51        00008   01m18   00:32:33       00003   00001   00007   38.70   00:18:51       00014   -0004    03m46   01:01:15       00005   00:01:08       GER     00013   TCC 36                 

00006   OLIVEIRA PAMELA                01:01:27.02    F       SE      00006   00:09:47        00002   01m18   00:32:39       00007   00007  

We have posted something previously regarding history which should be useful. 

16 avr. 2012 WHAT A CYBERNETIC TRIATHLON HISTORY IS

History should be written to avoid falling into a trap (See Mental Fatigue, January 25, 2012, in this blog).  I went to a conference dictated by León-Portilla, Wikipedia says: Miguel León-Portilla (born in Mexico City, February 22, 1926) is a Mexican anthropologist and historian, and a prime authority on Nahuatl thought and literature.  During the conference, he mentioned: “I found an Aztec Codices in a remote village, but it was written in a “Scribe” notebook; I asked for the original and they answered: ‘We copied the old one into this scribe. It was impossible to keep the old one’…THIS IS HISTORY.” 
 

Human beings are getting faster for centuries.  In endurance sports athletes can compete for longer than an hour above 90% of their capacity.  VO2 max should be high and according to our training.  If we train slow pace, even if our VO2 max is high we compete at a slow pace (see VO2 Max and The Second Sin, February 26, 2012, in this blog).  As part of History, Victor Plata, our friend spoke about the need of teamwork in triathlon in and out of competition.  He even proofed that it works.  We have done it with our athletes since the beginning of our team.  The better the athletes understand and feel teamwork, the better the results.  Sports and live itself have become more and more tactical.  We need a good teamwork in order to achieve our dreams.  Without teamwork Cris Boardman would not break the record for the hour cycling or Armstrong would not win seven times in a row the Tour de France.  Gregory Bateson spoke about it in the 70’s, Mind and Nature, 1979.  “Too much schooling and little education” happens in sports also.  Lack of teamwork has to do with little education.

In addition to speed, we know that there is a curve followed by athletes to develop resistance to speed.  Gallen Rupp does 200 meters reps on 26; 400 meters reps in just above 52, in order to run the 5,000 meters in less than 13 minutes and the 10,000 meters in less than 27 minutes.  There are not short cuts and no possibility of running a below 27 minutes 10,000 meters if there is no speed to do 200 meters reps in 26 seconds.