I received this from my awesome girlfriend Marilu after her experience at Ironman supporting myself and EVERY OTHER ATHLETE in Port Elizabeth in April. Anyone who was there will remember the ATC tent and the vibe it created.

here she goes

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If you have never gone to watch an Ironman competition, you would probably not know what the big fuss is all about. Some people confuse the Ironman competition with some body building or lets-see-who-can-pull-the-biggest truck-with-the-most-weight-on competition. This is nothing like that.

I have been a triathlete for just over 2 years with an athletic background in running. This means that I have an idea of pushing myself through the times when you don’t really want to go any further, but just have to. Since I am one of those athletes that had to learn from the beginning how to actually swim properly and it not being easy, I can almost understand how much dedication needs to be involved to attempt a race like Ironman. What I just can’t comprehend is what a long day the actual day could be. I just can’t get my head around it yet!! With the biggest hurdle for me being the 3,8km swim at the start, followed by a 180km bike and finishing with a marathon, 42,2km run. So then you do what I have done; support.

I have been present on the spectator side not just on the day, but the 12 weeks prior to IM. I have witness the deep and thorough thought process just deciding to do an IM. The intense and detailed planning that includes not only the obvious training program, but eating habit change, nutrition, habitual Vit B injections and chiropractor sessions, all the latest technology research in gear, monitors, compression clothing… and this is just for the time prior. You also have to plan for your race day on what, how and where abouts. I’ll never forget helping to calculate, working out Kilojoules burned on the day thus on the hour consumption of gels, bars, coke, vitamins needed to replace energy.
It goes without saying that in this time of preparation there is no time for much else. It’s early to bed, early out of bed and everything stands 2nd place. So no late nights with friends. IM is a big commitment with definite sacrifices, and like everything else in life that is hard, so absolutely rewarding!

I also witness the last two weeks before the race, how someone that I know as attentive become completely clueless to what is going on around him. So we labeled it as the IM syndrome, and believe you me, every other IM was like that. So the night before I can’t sleep. The person I love so much is about to put himself through something that I can only think of as painful and there is nothing I can do to make it better, than just cheer my loudest. With little sleep I wake up on race day and mission down to set up. Being early we got the best spot to witness the start of the race and where the athletes come out the water into transition. It’s raining, but I don’t care being wet so early in the morning. I know that in a few minutes the buzzing will start and then getting a good seat will be impossible. My nerves are killing me at this stage. I gave him his last kiss goodbye and off he goes into what was his own battle to fight. Just before 7am and the energy is all around. Goose bumps run down my spine as the helicopters are in place, gun goes off and there they go. All the girls are in tears, and the more you try to fight it, the more does this indescribable feeling of humbleness fills you as you know that anything can happen. It wasn’t until the sun broke through the misty clouds and a big ray of sun fell onto the swimmer that I knew for sure that God was smiling down on the Ironman 2008.

Few things that are really impressive on the day were, firstly the amount of people that entered IM. Secondly that the municipality of PE and ESKOM did not let anyone down on this day! Thirdly the shapes and sizes that actually do IM. If you have ever wanted to find encouragement in life in general, I do suggest you go watch the IM, because you realize that it doesn’t matter what your excuse is, there is just no such thing as impossible. You see people that should (by your judgment) not have even entered IM, get it done and make it look so easy. You see how athletes get to their dark stages of just wanting to give up, dig deep and somewhere find motivation to carry themselves to the end. You see how people will stay and cheer for 17 hours long until the last person come in before cut off. And then you see the tears of pain, the tears of joy and then the tears of complete thankfulness that the battle was won. Everyone understands. Especially when you walk around the next day and majority of PE is walking cripple, yet so extremely happy! Strange but so fulfilling.

So if you want to be apart of something much greater than yourself, learn something about yourself, see what humanity is positively capable of, I encourage you to book your seat in PE 2009 and come see for yourself.

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thanks love.

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Update on all the information from the series from Dr Ross Tucker…..

Part 1 B can be found here

Part 2 can be found here

Part 3 can be found here

Without a doubt right on the minds of athletes preparing for Beijing and an interesting read for us mortals who have to train through summers at times. Its quite on my mind at the moment as I prep for racing in Hawaii in October.

Heat and fatigue is right up there on my list of priorities for 11 October.

Fund raising starts soon, so dont spend all your cash, I`ll be asking for some of it.

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Have had some thought about structured training again and its definately a need of mine again, I can feel the body has slowed down completely in the last week and next week will resume the normal stuff again. Thinking of running 30 days in a row again, just 30 min a day. Always seems to set things right for running for the 4-6 months that follows. Bit of strides, bit of hills, lots of flat running around AeT.

Raoul

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It was 7:30 when I got to the office this morning. SHOCKER!!! I know……

Th Girlfriend lives otherside the boerewoes curtain and to beat traffic I need to rise at 5:30am and head back to town. This morning I went for a 40min run in the dark, got cleaned up and walked out of the gym, in the dark. Where did the sun go? It was 7:15 and it was still dark.

So I thought, lets head to work, and I have actually gotten quite a bit done here with nobody around, maybe my productivity is better when i`m less distracted.

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I have been feeling sluggish for about 4 days now, but thats probably to do with having to DJ till 3am on friday night more than anything else. I guess I am getting a little older and my recovery rate seems great, but indeed it takes me a little longer to get back into the rhythm. Too bad its so much fun spinning tunes for people.

Getting back to where you were before is the hardest thing to do, and maybe the answer is focussing on bettering things rather than getting back to where you were with all things. Could be a great life principle.

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Had a great lesson on personal healing last night. If all the current ways of thinking (the global spiritual coming together and re-awakening i.e. in tough times we are all learning we can change our own worlds) tell us that we can do whatever we want, why not start with healing yourself. Maybe not just physically, but what about the wounds of life you still carry with you every time you make a decision based on how others are treating you.

How about healing the things you do, which arent really you, but are just a product of your fears and being a victim of your own insecurities. Take control of your thought patterns and heal yourself? Sound too hard.

The guy was talking about how we all spend our time in meetings, bringing in consultants, more meetings, and never get to an actual place of turning all this information into action, something tangible.

I urge you to go out and do something today. Doesnt have to be extreme of life changing, maybe just something you have been putting off for a while. Here is a short list of what I have been putting off for whatever reason, but really, these are things I am a little overdue on:

1. Get my drivers license renewed.
2. Do something romantic & truely spontaneous.
3. Call someone and tell them I miss them.
4. Get my sponsorship proposal out there.
5. Read those books that are lying next to my bed.

I am often guilty of pushing things down the priority list. Time to stop that. You too……..

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Its going to be a weekend of personal planning for me and as such I wanted to share with you the questions that were given to me to answer in my personal planning. I have always insisted its a personal journey and that the journey changes all the time, as our needs and peer groups change.

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Key headers…

1. Big Picture (3-4 most important things)

2. Key Likes (3-4 areas that most drive my personal satisfaction)

3. Geography (where I will spend my time )

4. Body — key points for my body

5. Mind — key points for mind/knowledge/education

6. Spirit — when and how I will rest (from training, from work, from everything)

7. Places I want to visit

8. Personal Asset Allocation (today, five year, ten year)

9. Next twelve month expense projection

10. Next twelve month income projection

11. Personal Top Ten List — the ten most important things in my life that require focus, effort and time

12. Actions — what actions/habits are most important to me

13. Hazards — what items need to be watched to avoid roadblocks

The next few lines are quoted direct from Gordo about what this will (hopefully) do for you, as its done for me…

In the process of doing this review, without distractions, you’ll learn a lot about whether your effort is aligned with your goals. As well, you’ll learn if your goals are consistent with your main satisfaction drivers.

I build that out annually and review it quarterly. It’s been an immensely valuable tool for me.

Lots of folks resist the idea that we create our own reality through thinking about it. I always ask myself “how can I achieve anything without constantly thinking it about it”?

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Brings me to another point. How do we expect to achieve anything without constantly doing something about it? I hear alot of people talking about plans, ideas, dreams, visions, etc but I know a handful of people who are actually doing something about it. Only a handful.

How rough is that? All that wasted energy, emotion and effort.

Align yourself with your peer group, set time aside for action, and tie in some valuable resources. History, as it seems, waits for nobody.

Raoul

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This week I`m getting back into that thing called Structured Training. Completing a basic week over and over for a while. I am always amazed how hard this is, but what a critical success factor it actually is for going “Long”. With all the stress factors in my life, its so hard to get something as simple as a Basic Week right over and over.

I believe this is the single biggest factor why some athletes seem to race “Above their Potential”. They are the ones who have consistently put together a block of training by teaching their bodies to go at the right pace, and have been able to recover session to session and got the most out of their training, not necessarily the most training possible.

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Happiness is such a factor for doing the good miles. Nothing kills my vibe for getting up regularly at 5:30am like personal stress. It totally overwhelms the fear I have for not performing properly. When everything in my life is going smoothly i.e. family, love, work, play, friends et al, then I find training a breeze and I have the excess energy in abundance to train properly.

Clearing the mental junk food we so willingly add to our lives is super important to me and should be to you too. Another thing that`s constantly on my mind lately is “Where do my thoughts go once I`ve had them?”

I am someone who takes his stress out on himself, and I find the more regularly I exercise, the better my body becomes at getting rid of this toxic stress flowing through my core. I am a better, more patient, fun and reliable person when I`m regularly exercising. Basic Week stuff all over again…

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Great piece from Gordo on FEAR to read this week. If you dont read his blog, I recommend you do so on a regular basis. He is one of the smartest guys I deal with on what it takes to be truely great.

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Was back at gym this morning at sparrows and realised how much less power I have in the morning. I dont know if this was an isolated incident but going to read up a little on it and report back, seemed to be about 15% less than when I gym in the late afternoon.

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If you havent entered for the Metro Mojo Run Series in your area yet, go here its a blast and worth the Buffalo entry fee. goodie bag, free food, good looking company and a great experience. go now……….

adios for now.

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Since I can remember we sang in cars. Thanks mom.

I learnt to DJ a few years back and have played in clubs, bars, restaurants, houses, warehouses, open fields, cellars and just randomly as well. I have a knack for reading people and this translates with the music I play for people as well. I was lucky to be taught by a real talent, DJ extraodinaire Ryan Loader.

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The music is such a key part to any night out. It should always cater to the crowd and the few people that will get up and shake it first on the dancefloor. I love parties where everyone is on the dancefloor, hangs in the air, really letting it hang out with no shame.

I am no longer a regular DJ but here are some of the places I have rocked (loads more but these are a few key ones you might know):

115 – Johannesburg
Carfax – Johannesburg
Foreal – Pretoria
Sivva – Pretoria
Chrome – Cape Town
Opium – Cape Town

My skills are for rent, and I guarantee you will be happy with the result. Real simple:

2 hour set : R700
3 hour set : R1000
All nighter : R2000

I play a mixture of whats needed : House, Deep House, Electro, Funky House, Hip-Hop, R`n`B, Klassix & my favorite to play is that big chunky funky dirty house music variatal called Twisted Disco.

If you require a DJ, let me know. Equipment hire options also available from R850 for a complete set-up.

Go on, call me. 082 3377123

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This was such a good article I just had to re-publish it.

Dr Ross Tuckers blog can be found HERE

Here’s one of the million dollar questions in sports sciences today: How is it possible for a 10km runner to SPEED UP in the final 400m of his race? And if he had that “reserve capacity” all along, why did he not speed up 800m before the end? Or 2km? The whole way?

As you read that, you’re probably thinking “Big deal, what a ridiculous question. It’s obvious that you can’t speed up, because….um, well, you see, it’s the….why was that again?”

And now, physiologically speaking, you are stuck. Because the reality is that there is no single physiological theory that can properly explain why athletes pace themselves the way they do, why fatigue happens and what limits performance. There is no book, no proof, no all-knowing scientist who can tell you the answer to this, the most seemingly basic question in the field! As you read this, there’s a good chance you’re simply dismissing the question as obvious – “It’s experience and training, a conscious decision”. And I agree with you, but we still haven’t explained the physiology of how this decision was made.

It’s become something of a mantra here, but the truth is that if anyone tells you they KNOW the answer, they’re lying, or ignorant, or both. Because years of research has failed to answer that question definitively. There are theories, yes, and some do explain fatigue under very specific conditions quite well. But to this day, no one really knows the answer to the simple question posed above.

And before you get your hopes up, we’re not going to tell you the answer either! Because we don’t know it! But we do know is what it’s NOT, and we’ll discuss that. And as mentioned, there are theories, some new, some old, which do partly explain performance limits, and we can discuss those. And we can introduce the great unknowns, and hopefully make sense of some of the myths and fallacies that are thrown around concerning fatigue, performance and human exercise limits.

And so with that, we introduce a brand new series here on the Science of Sport. We’ll call it Fatigue, pacing strategies and the limits to performance.

It will look at the following:

Theories for fatigue – what causes fatigue and limits exercise performance?
Pacing strategies – a basic observation with a complex cause
Exercise at the “extremes” – exercise in the heat, and at altitude
Deceiving yourself – how false information about time and distance influences performance
What happens during sprint events? And how is pacing different from endurance events?
The anticipatory regulation of exercise: A proposed model for performance using the Perception of Effort
We are ultimately heading for that last installment of the series – a new model for how exercise performance is regulated. That model was actually produced as the concluding section of my (Ross’s) PhD thesis, so this series is a personal one for me, and basically a summary of my PhD. I hope it will be as interesting to read as I know it will be rewarding to write. (Incidentally, the model and review is also in review for publication in a scientific journal as you read this, so hopefully in a short while, it’ll be out as an academic text as well, for those who are interested.)

The theories – it must be anaerobic lactate production: your muscles are fatigued

There are those who’ll try to answer our “simple question” from above. Textbooks will tell you that you slow down because you run out of oxygen, you become anaerobic, lactate forms and “poisons” the muscles, or you get too hot and your brain says “stop!” The books explain how muscle becomes fatigued as a result of these chemicals that build up, caused by a lack of oxygen delivery as you get closer to the VO2max, where you can’t use any more oxygen.

And maybe this is true. . .but hang on, that doesn’t explain how you SPEED UP in the last 400m. Remember, in a 10km race, you’re running quite a lot faster than your “anaerobic threshhold”, which is always defined as the speed/intensity above which you start to accumulate lactate. So one thing we do know, is that in a 10km race, with 1km to go, there’s a lot of lactate in the system! Similarly, you can be pretty much guaranteed that with 1km to run, the calcium channels are at their most leaky, the phosphate and H+ ions are at their peak, and the body temperature is at its highest.

Now think about it for a moment – if your muscles are becoming weaker and weaker because of chemicals like lactate, or a lack of oxygen, then how is it possible to get FASTER at the end of the race? The end of the race? That’s when the lactate levels are the highest! Oxygen levels are the lowest, because for 40 minutes, you’ve been running yourself into what those textbooks call “oxygen debt,” right? Well, if that’s true, then the only thing that would happen is that you would get slower and slower and slower.

Instead, you speed up at the end. Added to this, there’s a growing body of evidence that lactate is not the “bad guy” it was once made out to be, maybe it’s even the “good guy.” We’ll look at that as well in the coming weeks.

But this, in a nutshell, is one of the theories for fatigue. It’s been called the “Peripheral fatigue model”, the “Cardiovascular/anaerobic model”, and the “Catastrophe model” (all by Prof Tim Noakes – more on that lower down), but what it is basically saying is the following:

Fatigue is the result of failure – something in the physiology fails, causing the athlete to stop or to slow down
That failure can be anywhere in the system – it might be failure to supply enough oxygen to the muscles, failure to keep lactate, phosphate or hydrogen ion levels down, a depletion of glycogen, or failure to lose heat, causing the body temperature to rise too high
Once this “failure point” is reached, exercise must slow down, or stop altogether. The fatigue is the result of the failure – it’s a “catastrophe”
The key point is that fatigue is a “limit,” and it lies in the muscles or the complete inability of the brain to activate muscle

The other extreme – there’s no muscle fatigue, it’s all in the brain

On the other end of the spectrum lies the so-called “Central Governor” theory. This theory was developed by Prof Tim Noakes, under whose supervision both Jonathan and I both did our PhDs. In fact, my PhD was titled “Anticipatory regulation of performance” and it examined the very question I asked at the beginning of this post.

Essentially, this theory, which I’ll rather called “Anticipatory Regulation” for reasons that will become clear further down, holds that:

During exercise, the brain regulates performance to balance all the body’s physiological systems
Fatigue (or the slowing down in pace) is the result of this regulation, which happens BEFORE any physiological “failure” can occur
Therefore, rather than slowing down AS A RESULT of lack of oxygen, high body temperatures, high lactate levels etc., you slow down IN ORDER TO PREVENT THEM.
Notice that key difference – performance and fatigue are regulated to prevent the potentially harmful limits from being reached. These “limits” to exercise are real. If your body temperature is above 41 degrees, you’d stop and be in serious trouble. If you did accumulate too much hydrogen, it would be bad news. But when exercise takes place, they don’t happen because the brain is in control, and it regulates the body specifically to protect against that damage. At the same time, it’s trying to balance protection with your own desire to perform as well as you can, and that produces a constant balance between two potentially conflicting goals.

In this theory, then, you get what is called a “pacing strategy,” which is the output by the muscles, as part of this regulation. Performance is regulated, not determined, by the physiology.

It’s all in the timing – when do you slow down?

If you want tangible proof of this, think of the following hypothetical situation:

Let’s say you run a 10km race at sea-level, and in cool temperatures. Your time is 40 minutes, giving you a speed of 4min/km.

Now, let’s say I transport you instantaneously to the following two places:

Halfway up Mount Everest, an altitude of about 4000 m
The middle of Beijing in the summer time, where it’s 35 degrees, and humidity is 60%.
Now, I make you run that same 10km race. What is going to happen? I’m sure that all of you are in agreement that your time of 40 minutes is under threat! You might be lucky to crack 42 minutes in these “extreme” conditions. But here’s the million dollar question (another one!):

When do you first slow down?

Do you:
a) Start off at 4 min/km, running the first 5km in 20 minutes, before you suddenly find that you’re forced to slow down, because you’re suddenly gasping for air at altitude, or because you’re incredibly hot and feel close to collapsing?; or…

b) Start off much slower than normal, because you KNOW that if you don’t, you’ll be in trouble after 5km? Within the first 30 seconds of your run, you have already “decided” to slow down. Perhaps you start off at 4:20 min/km, and manage to hold that pace for a while, then you get slower and slower, until the final kilometer, when you can speed up again?

I’m sure that everyone who has ever run in the heat or at altitude can relate to the fact that the answer is b) – you start slowly. In fact, it takes probably less than 20 seconds for your body to “decide” to run more slowly than usual. Now, you have to ask yourself:

“How do I know to adopt a different pacing strategy in these conditions?”

Remember, it happens so early that nothing is different, except for your sensation that it’s either hotter or that the air is thinner – that sensation then, seems to be key. But it can’t be that you are already overheating within the first 30 seconds, or even two minutes of your run. You can’t already be in oxygen debt at altitude? So how, then, do you “decide” to slow down? Once again, some will dismiss this as obvious, but I’d challenge you to find the answer to this question in a physiology textbook – you can’t because it doesn’t exist. The book is going to tell you that you slow down because of anaerobiosis, oxygen debt, lactate accumulation. But there’s no evidence for it.

A controversial model – but this is not a series aimed at glorifying any model

Now, the Central Governor model is highly controversial, both within the academic world, and among the public who’ve heard of it, in some form. It’s one of the most divisive theories around, because it lies so far to the extreme opposite end of the spectrum compared to the other, “textbook” model(s) for fatigue. The Model has, over the years, been twisted, mis-interpreted, bashed, criticised, hyped, glorified and dismissed in equal measure – for example, it’s the subject of a 40-page discussion thread on LetsRun.com, which would take all year to summarize! Part of the problem has been that people read Tim Noakes’ work from the late 1990′s and 2000, and don’t look at the more recent work, and the evidence that has been gathered since.

But perhaps the biggest problem is that the “governor” has been wrongly portrayed (sometimes deliberately by the people who created it, to its detriment, I might add) as a little “black box”, that ‘magically’ controls our physiology and performance. In this concept, the term “Governor” conjures up images of a school headmaster or a little green Martian enforcing control over your exercise, and represents a misunderstanding of the theory.

People have tried to personify the concept, and pinpoint its location in the brain, when in fact it’s the concept that counts, and it doesn’t need to exist as a specific location. For that reason, we’ll steer clear of the term “Governor”, and go instead with “Anticipatory Regulation”. Also, as knowledge is evolving, the term needs to be more all-encompassing. Hopefully, we can translate some of this evidence in this series…

But let me reassure all the sceptics out there – I’m not going to write this series as a one-dimensional glorification of the Central Governor theory, so don’t sharpen your knives (just yet!). For while I studied the regulation of exercise by the brain and am fully behind the concept that exercise is regulated (not limited) in anticipation of a limit, there are physiological and performance findings that the theory cannot explain. It is not, therefore, the single answer we are looking for. It needs critical and thorough analysis, and ultimately, the trick will be to balance the two extremes.

And let me say this now, with the hope of never repeating it: Fatigue is not all in the mind! This misconception, which has unfortunately been propagated by academics and media and the public, is best forgotten at this early stage. Fatigue and the limits to performance are NOT simply mental barriers, and “mind over matter” is a massive oversimplification of the truth! Having said that, mental strength and willpower are key factors, part of the answer, but they never beat physiology. We’ll look at the role of willpower, self-belief and mental strength in this series, but I repeat “It’s not all in the mind!” The analogy is that “you cannot commit suicide by holding your breath,” and the same goes for exercise: physiology wins the day, every day!

The real answer, then, is likely to lie somewhere between these two extremes – a combination of the “Anticipatory Regulation” model and the “Peripheral Fatigue Model”.

We’ll work towards that answer over the next few weeks. It is an enormously complex and detailed area to tackle, but we’ll jazz it up and try to make it entertaining as much as possible! It may take up to a month to get through it all, and we will carry on with our normal news stories and other features between installments.

As usual, comments and feedback are welcome! But bear in mind, we’re working towards the answer, so if you feel we’ve left something out of each post, it might be coming in the future!

Join us again soon!
Ross

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