48º, cloudy, occasional light N wind. Today was overdistance, another hard one, 2nd day in a row.
Hoka trainers on
stretches, drills, 2x100
600m - 1:44.00 (32.26, 34.64, 37.10 / 66.90, 37.10)
8 min rest
'split 400' - 300m - 48.80 / 1 min rest / 100m - 16.97
3 x 55 yd 140 lb sled pulls
I was hoping for faster as usual. I ran a 600m 2 weeks ago a half second faster. Wanted to break 1:43 today but was off a second. Hoping to get the first 400 under 66, but no. But I got it done and it was hard. Not too far off what I was doing in Feb 2 yrs ago.
So, before I cooled down I launched into a split 300m. My heart rate was still about 124 before the 300 so, it was tough, and the 100m 1 min after, also very tough, took me to the ground for a while. Definitely pushed the HR to the max.
I was going to pack it in because I was very lactic, but decided to do some sled pulls before going home. These 55 yd sled pulls were done to failure. I took at least 5 min rest in between.
Every time I walk out there, I say to myself, 'how bad do you want it?' Sometimes that doesn't matter because despite the work, losing is always possible, actually inevitable on the world level. But again, it's about the journey and this is my last world meet in this age group and likely the last nationals I have a shot to win in M60.
139.7 lbs after workout
About improving tolerance or results in long sprints/800 meters: you may want to consider alkaline therapy and pre intense training carbohydrate doping. Acidosis is the limiter is intense activity, Lactate (La), K, Na, and Ca ions increase in the muscle cells and H ions increase in the cells and systemically. Kidneys restore acid base balance by reabsorbing bicarbonate HCO3− from the urine back to the blood and they secrete hydrogen H+ ions into the urine. By adjusting the amounts reabsorbed and secreted, they balance the bloodstream's pH . At the same time kidneys significantly contribute to gluconeogenesis (1). But these mechanisms are competitive and kidneys do not perform both roles well at the same time so pre exercise doping with simple sugars to modulate gluconeogenesis (2) will, in theory, suppress the gluconeogenesis blood sugar response and free up the kidneys for cleaning up circulating hydrogen ions. Alkaline therapy in the form of bicarbonate supplementation has been well studied (3, 4, and 5). The buffering capability the carbonate ion reduces the within cell accumulation of Lactate and other ions that limit force production and also buffers circulating hydrogen ions that generally make exercise uncomfortable. This is my simple description, there is significant detail in the studies. Of note is that there has been high variability in study result which they think is related to subjects rate of alkaline adjustment. Meaning the goal is to perform the intense efforts at peak alkalinity but the time to peak alkalinity is highly variable depending on the subject. So for elite athletes they dope you with bicarbonate and take multiple blood draws checking blood pH and other metrics to define how long before event to take the supplement.
ReplyDeleteFinally restoring blood hemoglobin levels after intense exercise is another approach. Obviously blood doping and EPO work but are considered cheating. So it looks like research is focusing on methods to restore hemoglobin levels more quickly. It looks like hypoxic therapy chambers are being used, basically lay down in a chamber for 1 to 3 hours that mimics altitude and hemoglobin levels recover faster. I assume they have also looked at training regimes that are more effective at restoring blood parameters or other lifestyle factors than a $10000 chamber (apparently some are buying these things) that isn't completely proven. Cheers...
(1) Renal gluconeogenesis: an underestimated role of the kidney in systemic glucose metabolism
https://academic.oup.com/ndt/article-abstract/37/8/1417/6008675?redirectedFrom=fulltext
(2) Glucose infusion partially attenuates glucose production and increases uptake during intense exercise”
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jappl.1998.85.2.511
(3) Mechanistic Insights into the Efficacy of Sodium Bicarbonate Supplementation to Improve Athletic Performance
https://sportsmedicine-open.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40798-016-0065-9
(4) The Effect of Sodium Bicarbonate Supplement on Lactic Acid, Ammonia and the Performance of 400 Meters Male Runners
https://www.balticsportscience.com/journal/vol4/iss2/2/
(5) Effects of sodium bicarbonate supplementation on exercise performance: an umbrella review
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1186/s12970-021-00469-7
I've experimented with baking soda, didn't notice much of an effect. I'm pretty careful with supplements due to drug testing. I recently tried creatine and got off it. The only other supplements I've used are carnitine tartrate and citrulline malate. Tried some herbals like tribulis, but it probably doesn't do much if anything. If any of these supplements were truly very effective, they'd be banned. The use of gray market T is epidemic in the over 50 from what I've seen on these fitness groups. There is no TUE for T. There are a small # of high level masters who seem to avoid drug tested meets.
ReplyDeleteCertainly if there is an effect it would be small but small differences is all that separates elites. Maybe your sodium bicarbonate dosing protocol wasn’t optimized so you weren’t at peak alkalinity. Unlikely to get your GP to go along but a sports medicine guy might be willing to run lab tests to see what the timing should be from ingesting to effort. Assume you were dosing at the recommended amount (0.2 to 0.3 g/kg).
DeleteFor reducing endogenous glucose production from intense exercise you could experiment with gel packs or healthy grains. Ingest 25 to 50 grams 15 to 30 minutes before a monster workout and test your blood sugar. Goal is to prevent the 160 to 170 spike from the physical stress induced hormones triggering glucose release from liver and kidneys. 170 is not healthy anyway. Besides some micro damage from the transitory high sugar there is a compensatory insulin response. The fewer times you call on the pancreas to subdue high glucose the better. Pancreas does not last forever. I’m pre dosing with carbs it mutes the blood sugar response quite a bit from very intense efforts, from about 170 to 130 ish, which is about what I get from a meal. I’m not eating more carbs just pulling them out of breakfast and ingesting 15 minutes before skiing or jumping on my erg. Thought it might cause digestive issues but so far so good. I’ve done the baking soda but for a different reason. Urinary diversion patients have a higher background level of acidosis due to readsorption of urea in the intestinal track that was repurposed for diversion. That and acidosis from intense exercise was causing prolonged oliguria as well as high blood urea nitrogen. Basically the thought is that kidneys are busy re establishing acid base balance so their filtration ability was reduced. Doping with bicarbonate significantly reduced the oliguria , but interestingly so does doping with carbs. So I stopped doping with bicarbonate and just doing the carbs now. Apparently not stressing the kidneys for their contribution to glucose generation frees them to do their other tasks. Mine are a little compromised anyway from the poisoning, big gutting, and extra work they have to do. I discussed these mechanisms with my urology and nephrology team and they agree in theory but there aren’t controlled studies on it to confirm. But there are lots of controlled studies on bicarbonate that substantiate mechanistic effects through blood pH shifting and cellular level ion loading and unloading. Also bicarbonate is used to treat clinical metabolic acidosis and has been studied in chronic kidney disease as a therapy and many studies are showing it slows kidney disease progression for similar reasons it should help maximize intense efforts - a combination of systemic lowering of acidosis and as well as cellular level modulation of various ions - but in this case the target is the kidneys. So it definitely does something.