| Author | Message | ||
     Juerg Moderator Username: Juerg Post Number: 3549 Registered: 03-2006 |
I got over the last few days a far too high number of mails asking some specific questions to an ongoing great race in europe. It is impossible for me to answer all mails personally so please sorry for that. I therefor decided to make a very short summary here, hoping it may answer many of the really nice and great mails. Summary: Question: What is the secret of being able to perform on a very high level over so many days. a) Basic structural developpment. The base is set not this year or last year but 10 - 15 years back. What is important in the structural training phase. It is as the words say structure. What structure. Mainly vascularization ( blood vessels ) first followed by mitochondria density second. Once this is set the muscular system is very unlikely a LIMITER any more. In fact it is this " sleeping Giant" To extreme developed structure has the risk of setting in cardio and metaboreflex, as cardio and respiratory system start to be the LIMITER. So the next step is structural change of the respiratory anatomy. : VC increase due to improvement of Costovertebral motions and proper muscle chain developpment for respiration. That's it for a base. Short term is functional control over the systems. 1. It is all about energy supply ( O2 ) and ATP level maintenance. So it is : Proper energy supply during a long event by maintaining proper intracellular extracellular water balance and proper cell membrane health . This is done over nutrition. Second it is all about recovering after the LIMITER as fast as possible. To be able to do that you have to achieve a return to homeostasis for all the systems as fast as possible. The Key word is blood gases and pH. So what system is responsible for this recovery ? Now you can add recovery nutrition to it with some very great buffer supplement ( legal ) plus a very specific way of using the Spiro Tiger. How. You simply have a recovery base line before an event and with today's tools you can super fast check , which system has to be target the most for recovery. Than you use nutritional ideas coupled with respiratory ideas to balance out pH as fast as possible. Nutritional and respiration go hand in hand. That's why we have something called RER or on the cellular level RQ. The key is to understand what the difference is to adjust the recovery plan. Than you have to look at HRV and understand, that HRV has very little to do with the cardiac system per see but it is much rather a great bio marker for a combinations of answer. Last but not least you look at refuelling of the main energy storage and ability . For that you can use markers in the morning for chrononutrition like lactate and over the period of the race something called Phase angle and trend of phase angle change. For many of the regular e-mailers this will make lot's of sense and for Spiro Tiger competency centers in europe it is a base idea of assessing as we discuss in our seminar in Switzerland a few weeks back. Have a great week and enjoy the race with an open mind. Juerg Here as a reminder a pic from our recovery template.  | ||
| Andrew Senior Member Username: Andrew Post Number: 527 Registered: 04-2006 |
For those that have been watching some of the athletes that Juerg has worked with in the past, the results of the Giro are probably no surprise. It is absolutely fantastic to watch them achieve such results, and to be inspired by their long term commitment that has lead to this exciting conclusion. Go Ryder Go!!! | ||
| Jim Junior Member Username: Jim Post Number: 10 Registered: 03-2008 |
You all might be interested in an interview with Leonard Hesjedal, Ryder's father, in today's Gazzetta dello Sport, which is the sponsor of the Giro d'Italia. The interview covers Ryder's early sporting background and his interest in the mountain bike. Leonard: "He met Jurgen Feldman, a Swiss who moved to Canada, who coached long-distance athletes from cross country skiing to cycling. Jurgen dedicated himself to Ryder and his two friends. He required them to commit to three years to learn training techniques, tactics and the rules. They already had the right attitude" Q: That is? Leonard: "Ride for fun and enjoyment. I never had to push him but only to support and accompany him. The only thing I said to Ryder, 'I don't care if you arrive last, I'm only interested that to give it everything you have.' Also, Jurgen always told him, 'Do your best.' And that's how you can sum up Ryder's attitude, give everything and you've already won. And then on the wall of his bedroom he wrote, British Columbia, Canada, Worlds. In order, become provincial champion, national and then world." Also, you might be interested in this. Q: When did you arrive in Italy. Leonard: "Last Wednesday, I was in Canada watching the stage to Cortina on TV and Seamus McGrath, ex Olympian in mountain bike and a friend of Ryder's, was with me and we said to each other, 'We have to go.' But all of our money is in savings. Luckily, a friend called and said, 'Go!' and he paid for our tickets. So, Thursday, we boarded the first plane from Victoria to Calgary, then from Calgary to Frankfurt and then to Milan. By then it was Friday afternoon and we rented a car and drove to Lecco and there we rushed into a bar to watch the end of the stage to Pampeago. Then, the Stelvio. Then, the happiness." | ||
| Juerg Moderator Username: Juerg Post Number: 3551 Registered: 03-2006 |
You know your " system" works , when you have this information and athletes understand that they never race against somebody but with some body and that you are always a winner knowing your own body and your daily limiter and compensator. The key for success is not the performance per see but the recovery after the performance. To be able to do this you have to know your limiter and compensator and you have to be able to monitor , who has done what at the workout. This is the reason for our ongoing search to combine performance assessment of each system and recovery assessments of each system daily if needed. Here to enjoy the biggest pay back of a coaches work. " "I'm just thinking about having the best ride possible. I can't control what other riders do but having said that I've won a grand tour and someday I'd like to feel that again." | ||
| Holman325 Senior Member Username: Holman325 Post Number: 124 Registered: 11-2009 |
Here a little snipit from an article the other day. Congrats Juerg and Herb, and Dave Smith on their involvement in helping instill into some of our best Canadian cyclists the skills and values it take to win at the top... Now that the field is MORE level! Ryder Hesjedal, the sleeper Canadian whose Giro d’Italia victory astonished the cycling world, does not consider himself a freak of nature. He is taller and leaner than most riders, especially the muscle-laden sprinters, but that doesn’t necessarily make him a standout. What does is hidden: his lungs. Their capacity is off the charts, whale-like, like two empty garbage bins wrapped in flesh. Lance Armstrong, the most successful bike racer of all time, with seven Tour de France wins, has a lung capacity of about seven litres. The average healthy male’s lungs clock in at a mere six litres. Mr. Hesjedal’s? Try 8.3 litres. “That’s been measured,” he said Tuesday from his apartment in Girona, just outside of Barcelona. “I obviously have the physical qualities to achieve these feats.” If that figure is not a record, it’s close to it for a bike racer. While lung capacity isn’t everything, the ability to suck in vast amounts of air means you can pump more oxygen into your blood, and that translates into enhanced performance. Some bike racers are famous for their lung capacity. Armstrong was one. Another was the Spaniard Miguel Indurain, the winner of five consecutive Tours in the 1990s (in spite of suffering from asthma, no less). With a lung capacity of eight litres, he was considered a sporting mutant. His lungs were so big that they pushed down his stomach, giving him his trademark paunch. Mr. Hesjedal said his “above average” lung capacity – talk about an understatement – is not the only asset that gives him a competitive advantage. The other is a tolerance for pain that borders on the masochistic as the lactic acid surges through his thighs during gruelling races. He credits the capacity for self-punishment – born from endless training and mental discipline – for his success more than his lung capacity. “I really think it’s more mental,” he said. “Cycling is just the ability to keep fighting and telling your body to keep moving. You decide when you think the suffering is too much. I just keep suffering and punishing myself.” Interview with Dave Smith... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPLIEYT26 zc&feature=player_embedded Great work. JH | ||
| Juerg Moderator Username: Juerg Post Number: 3552 Registered: 03-2006 |
interesting reading and here an incomplete short series of thoughts. Many athletes do not start with a 8 or 9 L vital capacity . They work on this and over the last 10 years we have now many datas and cases, where we actually have documented this. Our Italian friends showed us in our meeting cases from over 9 + L of VC.. In the above case I have a data collection over 10 years where we tracked down the changes and the ability to increase VC. Having a big VC has only partially something to do with performance. We have cases with * L VC and no performance ability at all, just a big lung to move air in and out. ( Singers, trumpet players and so on . ) The key in this and sport cases is to have the muscle responsible to move this amount of air in and out so that you can use the big bag. Next up is the question of Ventilation - Diffusion - perfusion. Than the transportation on the one side, than the utilization of the O2 on the other side. In world class athletes the phenomena long back described as the "Sleeping Giant " will work for many top athletes as a disadvantage and only the ability to move O2 in but more important to move CO2 out will allow a perfect use of a structural big lung volume. It is in no way a problem of moving Oxygen in the lungs at all. We have now many many case infos to show for us, where and what we do wrong and how respiration is a part of a overall team for performance. Here a short glimpse in the handbook for Spiro Tiger competency centers : " the respiratory system will have to compensate. This process is called compensation. Compensation may not always be complete. Complete compensation returns the pH balance to normal. There are times when the imbalance is too large for compensation to return the pH to normal. This is called incomplete compensation. System causing pH imbalance Compensating system Respiratory (pCO2) Metabolic (HCO3) Metabolic (HCO3) Respiratory (pCO2) " You make your own thoughts on this section. Last but not least the key is to assess performance properly during a tournament or a sets of races or during a multiple event sessions. You can't do performance tests but what is needed are recovery assessments. A performance test , what ever it is ( VO2 max Wingate, LT, AT, LBP tests or IPAHD and IPAHR ) are only as good, as we can find limit and compensator and therefor can track after a performance the overload or recovery of limiter and compensator. For this we have to have the ability to do recovery assessments. Here a very short glimpse into a 1 day recovery assessment after a hard day of competing followed by a 6 day over view to see, what and where we may have to look closer. Once we have the overview trend we thna go and assess each single system on its actual level of recovery or overload compared with the athlete's individual "Norm " values.   | ||
| Juerg Moderator Username: Juerg Post Number: 3553 Registered: 03-2006 |
Wowww, thanks for the many mails I got in a very short time. Can't answer all of them personal so here a short summary. 1. Any performance test may be good and certainly if you have many years of experience. We decide to make a very different approach , which may be good or it may show up later as a foolish idea. IPAHD and IPAHR IPAHD is for individual physiological assessment of homeostasis disruption. Goal : to see when and how and who " fatigues" first and when and how and who may start to compensate for the limiter. This covers the part of the question: What is endurance. The ability to avoid or at least to post phone "fatigue" IPAHR covers the second part of the question what is endurance: The ability to recover fast or faster than the competition. In the IPAHR ( individual physiological assessment of homeostasis recovery) we look how and who and when what system is able to recover and or has to keep working as it may compensate for a still not recovered LIMITER. IN ALL THIS CASES WE DO NOT LOOK ON ANY TRADITIONAL VALUES. We do not use VO2 max, max HR lactate threshold anaerobic threshold Lactate balance point CTP or any of the traditional great ideas. We very simply use the physiological baseline of individual homeostasis level compared with any pre or post workout , race or what ever situation and compare, what kind of a workout changed what kind of balance and how long does it take to regain the individual NORM. As my English is still bad I like to let some pictures talk. 1. Example of a day to day trend of a cardiac recovery assessment . 2 Picture of a phase of 6 days heavy loading including a specific day as a rest day.   | ||
| Juerg Moderator Username: Juerg Post Number: 3554 Registered: 03-2006 |
Classical performance assessments are a great tool to look at maximal performance at that specific test day. From this maximal performance ( VO2 max , max HR, lactate threshold, anaerobic threshold or any other "established" test like wingate and more ) we than establish training zoning. This zones are based on what ? What are the physiological information from this zones ? Why would 65 % of this max have any physiological base and explanations, besides , that it is 65 % from a one day specifc 100 % performance. This and many more opne questions are still here. So what could be changed ? If we look at physiological resting informations and at the same day make a performance assessment by assessing the same systems we assess at rest, we have a direct information on the resting situation prior to a load and thana " recovery " information past a performance. The advantage now is, that we can do a recovery / resting assessment as many times as we like , whether this is prior to a workout or race as well as post a work out or race and or even in between two races or games. If we have a direct comparison between resting activity levels and performance levels and post performance levels ( recovery ) we have a direct info on the amount of homeostasis disruption as well as the recovery reaction and as well the information , wheter the limiter alone was overloaded or whether we overloaded as well the compensator. The advantage we have is now , that the recovery assessment is without any additional impact on the training or racing program. In fact it is easy to talk a patient or athlets into taking a recovery test as it does not interfer with any training planning at all. Any actual performance test depends directly on the motivation and actual performance level of a person and therefor has minimal information value to correct or control effects from the trainingplan on the bodies reactions. Recovery assessment give us both. Information, whether the load was sufficient and as well whether we are ready to reload again, what system and what intensity , depending on the time we have for the workouts. Hope this makes some sense, even though it is hard to sell the idea, that people should pay for recovery assessments and recovery prorgams , rather than for a training program. | ||
| Juerg Moderator Username: Juerg Post Number: 3555 Registered: 03-2006 |
Nice to see, that 15 years after we introduced races as intense traiing to Ryder and Geoff somebody things there may be some reasons for that. Now after 15 years and some more info and assessment tools we know why and what kind of " races " have to be done . It is all about knowing who is teh Limiter and who will compensate and who recovers how fast. Here to enjoy the " NEWS" " The Dauphiné is only the fifth race Wiggins has started in 2012 as he builds for the Tour de France under the stewardship of Tim Kerrison, his Australian coach, with a training programme that has aroused considerable interest. Kerrison’s background is in swimming, and the structure he has devised for Wiggins bears many of the hallmarks of his former discipline, in particular his recommendation that the rider dispense with the idea of using races as training." |