UKA/London Marathon Altitude Programme ... - Fidal Lombardia

6.
CASE STUdy:
hELEN CLIThErOE,
IMpACT OF ALTITUdE TrAINING
ON hEr phySIOLOGICAL prOFILE.
Some of the physiological factors
that are known to be related to
endurance running performance
include: maximal O2 uptake (VO2max),
running economy, and the fractional
utilisation of the VO2max (which is
itself related to markers of blood
lactate accumulation during exercise,
including the lactate threshold
(LT) and lactate turn-point (LTP).
Physiological laboratory testing
measures these factors and repeated
testing provides information on
progression of these key markers
as well assessment of recent
training prescription (including the
impact of training practices such
as altitude training). This brief case
study of Helen Clitheroe is to provide
a specific example of the impact
altitude training can have on the
physiology of an athlete with particular
reference to racing performance.
Altitude training
From a physiological perspective
the main benefit of altitude training
is to increase the number of red
blood cells (haemoglobin mass).
Red blood cells are the vehicle by
which oxygen is delivered round
the body to the working muscles; in
general terms the more red blood
cells the greater the aerobic work
capacity. For example an increase in
haemoglobin concentration of 0.3 g/
dL will theoretically result in a 1%
improvement in VO2max. There are
also other physiological benefits
from living and/or exercising in a low
oxygen environment. For example
altitude training can generally
enhance many other key aerobic
elements such as increased capillary
number and length, increased
number of mitochondria, improved
blood lactate removal and improved
muscle buffer capacity to name a few.
physiology of helen Clitheroe
Helen has had physiological testing
completed for a number of years
that consists of a warm up of 10 min
followed by a multi-stage incremental
treadmill protocol, typically involving
5-7 exercise stages, each of 3 min
duration. The test is designed to
monitor progression in key variables
(see above) and also to generate
Blood (La) (mM)
10
8
6
4
2
0
Table 1: Key physiological markers over a series of tests.
UKA/London MARAthon (LM) ALtItUde tRAInIng CAMP AnnUAL RePoRt | 9
accurate training zones by measuring
blood lactate concentration, heart
rate and oxygen uptake throughout
the test. Shifting the LT and/or LTP
to a higher speed is an important
goal of endurance training. The
lactate concentration at any speed
should be lower (downward shift in
the lactate curve) and the LT and
LTP should occur at higher speeds
(rightward shift in the lactate
curve) with endurance training. In
addition, HR should be lower for a
given speed (downward shift in HR
curve). Figure 2 and Table 1 detail
(La)-Mar 11 (La)-Dec 10 (La)-Jan 08 (La)-Mar 07
HR-Mar 11 HR-Dec 10 HR-Jan 08 HR-Mar 07
13 14 15 16 17
Speed (km/h)
18 19 20 21
Figure 2: Aerobic profile over a series of tests.
Test: 1 2 3 4
date: Mar-11 dec-10 Jan-08 Mar-07
Body mass (kg): 57.4 58.4 59.0 58.9
LT (km/h): 17.0 16.5 16.0 16.0
LTP (km/h): 19.0 18.5 18.0 18.0
Economy (mL O2/kg/km): 214 207 199 199
VO2max (mL/kg/min): 76 73 70 66
200
150
100
50
0
Heart Rate (beats/min)