Training Articles:

To calculate a healthy weight for your height, allocate 110 pounds (49kg) for the first 5 feet (1.524m) in height and 5¹/₂ pounds (2.46kg) for every inch (0.025m) thereafter if you are a male. So, if you are 6 feet (1.82m) tall your allocation is 176 pounds (79.8kg). If you are a female, allocate 100 pounds for the first 5 feet in height, that’s 45kg for 1.524m in height, then 5 pounds (2.26kg) for every inch thereafter. If you are 5 feet 5 inches (1.651m) tall your allocation is 125 pounds (56.6kg). This is target number one.

How do you achieve this without starving to death?  The more running you can do in the morning, the better. This will elevate your metabolic rate for several hours afterwards instead of burning one calorie a minute while sitting, you may burn up to 2 calories a minute.

Next comes the complete avoidance of some high-fat foods which can be classed as killers. Here are a few that can put you in a coffin prematurely! Beef burgers, roast pork, bolognaise, frankfurters, roast beef, bacon, t-bone steak, pork sausage, cheddar cheese, cream cheese. These are made up of 30 to 60 per cent fat. Grilling does reduce this figure.

We now come to ugly oils. These are: palm, palm kernel, coconut, peanut and cottonseed. They contain from 15 to 88 per cent saturated fat. Cut the chips and dips.

We require a lot of low glycaemic carbohydrates, but we can overdo them if our calorific expenditure does not exceed or equal the intake. Mid-meal snacks have to be watched. Ice cream, dates, lemonade, cakes, sponges, pastry, sugar, pudding, biscuits. If you require a mid-meal snack, eat fruit, especially apples and oranges.

The amino acid 1-carnitine helps fat to be burned preferentially. Take a supplement of 2g a day.

Maintain chromium status. This controls sugared foods turning into fat. Insulin bursts cause fat deposits. Good sources are: brewers’ yeast, black pepper, wholewheat bread.

Eat a high fibre diet, the target is 20g daily. The following contain 10g: half a cup of All Bran, half a cup of mixed beans, two cups of raisins, one cup of rolled oats, half a cup of peas, three pears, half a cup of Fibre One, half a cup of lentils, three bananas, four Shredded Wheat, five apples, four peaches, six oranges, twenty prunes.

Maintain omega-3 fatty acid status which is found in: cold water fish (cod, tuna, salmon, halibut, shark and mackerel). Fatty acids also control insulin bursts.

Do some strength training to maintain lean mass every other day. Press ups, abdominals, squat thrusts and step ups. Start with 30sec of each and add 10sec each week.

Increase the duration of running by 5 minutes per week. Increase your longest run by 10 minutes per week.

Try this supplement combination: 400mg chromium picolinate, 200mg L-carnitine, 20g fibre.

What can you eat?  Fruit and vegetables, skimmed milk products, cod, sole, halibut, flour, lobster, crab, turkey breast, shrimp, tuna, chicken breast, sardines, herrings, lamb chops, veal, eggs (not more than four a week), riccota cheese. Cook with these oils: linseed, pumpkin seed, soyabean, walnut, canola.

Target number two: is to get 5 per cent below the medical profession’s stipulations in the first paragraph. You can do it! Watch your race performances take off. See the look of astonishment as you beat old rivals.

 

 3 Weeks - 3 Days - 3 Minutes

Surprisingly, we can go three weeks without food and live. (Ghandi went longer, but he cheated: he drank orange juice.) However, don't try it! You have a good chance of dropping dead with a heart attack. In that time the body loses 10 pounds every five days. That's a total of around 40 pounds, nearly 3 stone.

In a temperate climate we can go 3 days without water, less in hot weather. Don't try it.

We can go 3-minutes submerged under water without air. After that time you drown and if you happen to survive you may wish you had drowned - brain damage may occur.

So, in order of importance to existing it is:- 1) Oxygen. 2) Water. 3) Food.

Now, the first is of particular importance to the triathlete. When we breathe in oxygen it goes into the lungs and thence into air sacs where it's diffused into the bloodstream. When it arrives there it has to be carried around the body by special transporters made of iron called haemoglobin (Hb). One gramme of Hb conveys 1.34mls of oxygen per 100 mls of blood. Females on average possess 13g/100 mls and males 15g/100 mls.

If you go to altitude, within 7 days there is a 15 per cent increase in Hb. This increase lasts for six weeks on returning to sea level. This is one of the benefits of altitude training. If you are born and bred at altitude, the high Hb level stays with you for life. If you are one gramme below the stated average, you are in trouble as a runner and if you are two grammes down you can be classed as anaemic. A decline of 33 per cent Hb will lead to total exhaustion.

The World Health Organisation has set minimal levels of iron intake in our food at 10mg for males and 18mg for females. Now, a very strange thing happens to this intake every 24 hours. Only 10 per cent of it is used - that's 1mg for males and 1.8mg for females. The rest is discarded. But, if you were to take double the WHO figure, the body will take 10 per cent of that ie 2mg and 3.6mg respectively. These figures assume that all of the 10 per cent iron is absorbed. There is a snag here - iron on its own is practically useless. It requires five parts of vitamin C to one part of iron for starters. It also requires the presence of vitamins B6, B12, E, folic acid and the mineral zinc. A shortage of any one of these will mean poor iron absorption. But, we aren't out of the woods yet. If you are a strict vegetarian there are plenty of vegetables that contain iron but, the iron in them is not bio-available (not readily released). However, the opposite is the case with meats. To add to this tale of woe, every time your foot hits the ground when you run, the muscular pressure destroys red cells. This is not too serious because we get a complete renewal of red cells every few weeks, and if we have a diet high in vitamin E it protects red-cells from destruction.

Let's see how what little iron we absorb is used if we run for one hour a day.

We do not need to be a mathematician to realise that in order to get our 10 per cent for the above - males need an intake of 18mg of iron daily and females require 23mg. Both figures way above WHO minimums.

There are still more snags. You feel tired, you have headaches, suffer from insomnia, possibly have pins-and-needles in your feet and hands, but, above all, racing isn't going well. You are sure you're anaemic. You ask your doctor for a blood test and when the result comes back you are amazed to find that your Hb count is normal! The Hb test is only a measure of the oxygen-carrying power of your blood, it's not a true measure of your body's iron reserves. To his cost, this is what Alberto Salazar, the marathoner, discovered just before the 1984 Olympics. At that time he held the world record (2:08:13). He began to lose form, and blood tests - serum iron and haemoglobin - were normal. An accurate measure of your iron stores comes from testing serum ferritin levels. If the serum ferritin level falls too low, the bone stem cells that grow into blood cells may be permanently damaged. Always emphasize to your doctor when you want a blood test that you must have particular attention paid to your serum ferritin levels. These should be:- males: 30-160ng / 100mls, and females: 25-100ng / 100mls. Ng stands for nammogrammes. Figures of 20 and 12 respectively are serious. Some research on an American High School cross-country team who were monitored throughout the season suggested that girls who had low serum ferritin levels were three times more prone to injury because their muscles tired more easily and gave less support to tendons and ligaments.

What's the bottom line? All runners are recommended to take synergistic iron capsules made by QUEST. These contain all the pro-absorbing vitamins and minerals as well as 15mg of iron. That, plus iron in your diet should keep you well topped up. The highest concentration of iron is found in curry powder and oysters. Only cereals which are fortified with iron should be consumed.

We are conditioned to drinking water when we feel thirsty. Too late! When you do this, you are well on your way to dehydrating. Make no mistake about it, this affects performance. At a BMC training day at Aldershot in the winter, two females had a lactate threshold test (4 minutes of sub-maximal running repeated with blood tests to ascertain what running speed produced an upsurge in lactic acid.). The tests revealed a malformation of red cells caused by dehydration. And, this was after sub-maximal running efforts lasting 4 minutes only. Run the tap a few seconds in the morning in case water has been in lead or copper pipes overnight, then, knock back a pint. By the way, avoid drinking soft-water. It may be good for washing-up but it's not good for your heart. Heart troubles have now been linked with areas of soft water. Drink bottled water if you have a water-softener in the house, better still, chuck it out.

Once the temperature climbs above 70 degrees F. (20 degrees C.), make a point of drinking half-a-pint of water every hour. Assuming you are awake 16 hours, that's 8 pints of water daily. Signs of dehydration are dark-coloured urine and daily loss of weight even if minute.

Some revealing research has been done with WATER BOOSTING before a marathon. Twenty-three marathoners were asked to run the marathon with and without water-loading. ALL of them ran 20-seconds a mile faster with water-boosting.

The procedure was:-

1. Four hours before the race drink 8oz glass of water every 15 minutes.
    
2. Stop one hour before the event but drink another two glasses between 30 and 20 minutes before you start. You will pass urine in the last minutes up to the gun.
    
3. Take on water at all feeding stations.

Don't worry about urgent loo visits. You will pass 50 oz of urine during the four hours, but you will be pre-hydrated by some 40ozs and if you have carbo-loaded you will have another 46ozs. That's a total of 86ozs to combat sweat loss which can cause a 5 per cent drop in bodyweight. This method restricts weight loss to 2 per cent. Try it out in training before your long run several times before the big day.

Vitamin B6 and Red-Blooded Athletes

It's a funny business, nutrition. Sports nutrition is even funnier. While a Government scientific committee has issued a warning that taking more than 10mg of B6 a day 'may damage nerve endings', the Colgan Institute of Sports Nutrition in San Diego, California, actually recommends taking 150mg daily to boost the oxygen-carrying powers of the blood. Notice the title of the American establishment; its sole purpose is to discover what is 'optimum' sports nutrition. So what do they have to say about the allegation of 'nerve damage'?

Taken in large amounts (500mg to 5 grams) for months or years, vitamin B6 does cause severe damage to nerve endings. Some cases of nerve damage have been reported at an intake of only 117mg a day. Fortunately, most cases clear up spontaneously within six months of stopping supplementation.

That said, one wonders why the Institute still advocate 150mg of B6 a day for athletes 12 weeks before a major competition? To answer that, we must take a closer look at this vitamin. Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) is found in avocados, bananas, bran, brewer's yeast, carrots, flour (wholewheat), hazelnuts, lentils, rice, salmon, shrimp, soyabeans, sunflower seeds, tuna and wheat germ.

The reasons for ensuring an adequate intake is that B6 contributes actively to many chemical reactions of proteins and amino acids. It also helps normal brain function. But for the athlete it plays a vital role: it promotes normal red-cell formation. Athletes need to maximize their red cell count. It regulates the excretion of water. Another key factor for athletes is that B6 is concerned with energy production and resistance to stress. One of the ways it does this is to make iron in the diet more available - more iron, more haemoglobin and more oxygen available for the working muscles. Another way it produces energy is to make carbohydrates more burnable for mitochondria (furnaces within cells).

A vast range of 'magical powers'

Let's now look at the unproved and speculative benefits of B6. It is said to treat or prevent depression when used with oral contraceptives, and also to alleviate pre-menstrual tension. It has been used for the latter for about 35 years at around 100mg a day. Other magical powers attributed to B6 include: helping arthritis, curing migraines, relieving nausea, treating diabetes, helping mental retardation, improving vision, aiding weight-reduction, helping infertility and curing carpal tunnel syndrome (a painful condition of the wrist often caused by repetitive strain injury). That's quite a list! However, the vitamin does not work alone. It must have B2 (riboflavin) and magnesium alongside it in adequate amounts.

Now we come to some revealing research. Twelve male marathoners were asked to double their training load of eight miles a day for 20 days at a paltry 8½ minutes per mile. All of them showed large reductions in haemoglobin and haematocrit (the proportion of red blood cells). Over the period, their usual nutrition was unable to maintain the blood components essential for carrying oxygen to their tissues. The principal nutrients involved in making red blood cells are zinc, folic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and vitamin C.

In a double-blind crossover trial, the Colgan Institute fed athletes increased levels of these nutrients over a 12 week period, during which they increased their training levels. They were compared with a control group who were given 100 per cent of the RDAs for all nutrients. The athletes given additional nutrients maintained their red blood status, increased their VO₂ max and improved their performance. One of my own athletes on the same regime for the same period competed in a half-marathon in France; en route she ran a personal best 10km time, a personal best 10-mile time, and won the race in a new record time! She subsequently gained her first New Zealand international vest.

Are we deficient in B6?

Now, one would think that with all the foods available that contain B6 (about 18 of them), the chances of a deficiency occurring would be remote. Not so. First of all, cooking food that contains B6 in large amounts of water reduces its nutritional value by 33 per cent. Freezing vegetables with good B6 content results in a 30-56 per cent reduction in value. And if you rely on canned food for your B6 supply, there is a whopping 57-77 per cent loss. What do surveys reveal? The Nationwide Food Consumption Survey in America found that B6 intake is deficient in 33 per cent of households. In a recent study at the Colgan Institute, 58 per cent and 73 per cent of two groups of athletes were B6-deficient.

So what's the bottom line?

The Government may or may not lift its proposed limit on the free sale of B6 to 10mg daily (Food Safety Minister Jeff Rooker was due to make his decision after PP went to press). The health-food industry, of course, has challenged the limit, because the sale of B6 to women is big business. Is the Government in danger of over-reacting? For every over-dosed B6 victim, there are an estimated 12 million people in the UK who have an inadequate intake (using the US survey as a yardstick). Have you ever met a person who said: 'I'm suffering from B6 toxicity'? I've met many who have said: 'I'm suffering from alcoholic poisoning', yet the Government hasn't ordered that a person cannot be served more than one pint of beer in any one pub!

What's the best way to ensure a good intake of B6? Rely on uncooked sources. A banana chopped up with cereal for breakfast, a banana sandwich with mid-morning coffee, plus an avocado starter for dinner, will go a long way towards maintaining the status quo. If you want to try the Colgan Institute blood-boosting formula (quite legal), remember you're only meant to continue it for 12 weeks and no longer. Here it is (per day):
2.4mg of folic acid
100mcg of vitamin B12
150mg of vitamin B6
500mg of vitamin C
48mg of iron
60mg of zinc
50mg of vitamin E

That lot will cost you about £35 for a six-weeks supply.

Don't forget to train hard as well!
 

Cycle Aerobic Max Training - The 180 Rule - A simple solution

In order to improve muscle endurance (the ability to turn over a high gear for long periods of time), athletes are required to train at their "Threshold" pace or effort.  This is the point where the effort is such that the oxygen intake is sufficient enough for the demands of the muscles.  If you were to increase the pace slightly, then lactic acid would be produced resulting in fatigue and eventual break-down if sustained.  By training at Threshold or Anaerobic Maximum, we are learning the body to perform at breaking point.
After as little as 6-weeks training, it would be possible to travel faster without "trying harder".  Basically, the athlete who can travel the fastest at this intensity, will win the race.

Do not confuse anaerobic maximum (as described above) with aerobic maximum.  Aerobic maximum is a slower pace and can be best described as 'At the top of Zone 2'.  All base training sessions would be performed at this intensity.

There are many ways to skin a cat.  There are both laboratory sports tests and field tests that can be completed to ascertain an athlete's threshold.  Also, many doctors and sports scientists have produced their own formulas to predict this figure.

There are pros and cons for all methods.  Laboratory sports testing can be expensive and the conditions placed on the athlete are far from "race-like" with no wind, passing scenery, lack of balance, indoor heat etc.  Some scientists believe that 82% of an athletes maximum heart rate would give their threshold heart rate.  Others include an athletes resting heart rate in their formula to predict this magical figure.  Their are hundreds of field-based tests to confuse you even further!!

The 180 Rule

After you have spent a fortune on tests and sweated pounds on a indoor trainer, write your results down and compare them to this simple formula:

         180 - Age = Aerobic Max in beats per minute

For example - Louise is 30.   180-30 = 150bpm.

If Louise trains 5 beats above and below this target zone (145bpm - 155bpm), she would be at her aerobic max whilst still making allowances for the other factors that affect these zones (fatigue, diet, sleep, injury etc).

Try it - and see how close the results are!!!!
 

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