Thrive in the Heat

From TriFuel

Nothing will slow you down or stop you like heat and humidity. As the temperatures rise in June and July, so does the number of heat-related problems experienced by triathletes. Most experts agree that your body will acclimatize to heat and humidity - mostly in the first two to three weeks of exposure, and maximally after about two months. However there is a genetic limit on how much you can acclimatize.

We can't all have the genetic gifts and ability that Dave Scott and Mark Allen had to tolerate the scorching heat and stifling humidity in the lava fields of Kona! But there are ways to improve the ability of the body to tolerate extreme temperatures and to move the process along by cautiously increasing your exposure to heat and humidity. The payoff will be safer and more tolerable running, swimming and cycling when training and racing. (click from link for full article)

What Affects Fatigue Resistance

From Educated Runner

If you tell an elite African runner to run as far as possible at an intensity of 90 percent of maximal aerobic capacity (VO2max), he/she will often be able to race a half-marathon at that level of effort. But, if you provide the same instructions for an elite American or European distance runner, he/she will be able to run for only six or seven miles before slowing down. The elite African has greater fatigue resistance - an enhanced capacity to perform at a high intensity for a sustained period of time without diminishing pace.

(Editor's Note: The article goes on to discuss glycogen capacity, heat disapation, stretch-shortening of the muscle, and neural drive.)

Finding the Sweet Spot

From Training Peaks

So then, how do you go about creating your own optimal training formula? It is an ongoing process which requires that you pay close attention to your training and your body with a view toward connecting cause and effect so you can then discard training patterns that yield poor results and retain training patterns that yield good results. This is easier said than done, as there are myriad factors that affect how you feel and perform in training and races, but the three most important factors by far are overall volume, volume of high-intensity training and periodization system.

No Reason to Slow Down at Fifty

From Globe and Mail

If it's acute injuries, not wear and tear, that lead to arthritis, you may expect running to be in the clear – and indeed that's what a series of recent studies have concluded. In a Stanford University study published last year in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that followed subjects for 18 years starting in 1984, researchers found that 20 per cent of the runners developed knee arthritis, compared with 32 per cent of non-runners.

Excellent Energy Cycle Summary

From Dr. Stephen Roth

Contrary to popular opinion, lactate or, as it is often called, lactic acid buildup is not responsible for the muscle soreness felt in the days following strenuous exercise. Rather, the production of lactate and other metabolites during extreme exertion results in the burning sensation often felt in active muscles, though which exact metabolites are involved remains unclear. This often painful sensation also gets us to stop overworking the body, thus forcing a recovery period in which the body clears the lactate and other metabolites.

Finding the Right Load

From Alan Couzens

The more astute coaches have recognized that different athletes respond differently to the same load and rather than adhering to "what we’ve always done" have tailored their programs to the particulars of the athlete.... With the advent of dose-response modelling techniques, these differences in the individual athlete’s rate of adaptation to a given load have for the first time been able to be quantified. This is a big part of what I do as a coach. I prescribe load, see how the individual athlete responds and then "tweak" the individual athlete’s constants so that I can come up with the best combination of load that will lead to the highest performance on a given date.

Run Till It's Time to Race

From Bobby McGee

In every endurance event, 1st race to your ability & fitness levels & then, when you have gone as far & as fast as your physiology & pacing have allowed, then race & beat everyone around you, knowing that these athletes will include many with greater capabilities. In this way precious few with less talent will finish ahead of you. And many with more ability will end behind you – those who have less fortitude than that which you forged in the fire of ownership & hard graft.