Veckans Podcast-avsnitt! V. 7

 Fast Talk

Avsnitt: 253: The Physiology of Base Season - with Dr Inigo San Millán

Längd: 1:22:55

Släpptes: 2023-02-02

Spotify-länk: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3dAvTGWvMSfuATtxkG2e9r?si=cdb384d0034d44a8

Dr. Inigo San Millán har jag tagit upp förr. Han är en riktigt inspirerande tränare och forskare och jag gillar vad han förmedlar, och hur han uttrycker sig. Han pratar på ett enkelt sätt trots vissa komplicerade ämnen som pratas om. I detta avsnitt diskuterar Dr. Inigo och Podcast-värden basträning under vintern, när det inte är tävlingar. De går in på djupet angående både hur professionella cyklister (atleter) gör (eller bör göra) samt amatörer, vilket skiljer sig åt en del.

I detta inlägg är både citat från Dr. Inigo och podcast-värden. Inigo är "vanlig" text, medan podcast-värdens är i kursiv stil.

Avsnittet:

Inigo: Full recovery at the biological, physiological recovery on top of the recovery of the mental game. 

When a highly competitive athlete, or not even a highly competitive athlete, takes a time off, and restarts with building, there is an improvement compared to last year. Otherwise there would have been a continuum if that athlete doesn´t stop, we would not see that supercompensation. I don´t know the answers of why this is happening, nobody knows, because the mechanisms behind a supercompensation but that is the next step to the next level. That three weeks of time off is crucial, because otherwise I don't see that improvement.

At a defined time, say from january to march, there is not much competition and there is a good time to focus on the volume. But I Question that, Dr San Millán, I´m interested to see… I tend to think about base as blocks of training with a function of increased volume and the training adaptation that comes from that. But I have also in my training put those base blocks of training throughout my year and throughout my season, and even if I was competing, I would still be training in that manner and maybe I wouldn't be as sharp as possible for those competitions. How do you see the two different ways of thinking about it play out both with recreational athletes and elite athletes? Do your elite athletes go back into a base season part way through to ramp their volume, or is there a defined early thing for you?

Cyclists at the high level need to train more and compete less. That's what's happening now. 

Amateur athletes should continue and continue throughout the year. Many of the concepts shouldn't have changed. But professional athletes, they have to win the Tour on three months, which is key, and then they are gonna have a dependence in the calendar, that's why we put a lot of effort working on the calendar of the riders. 

Q: What energy systems, what physiologically should be going on in your body during the base season, what are the changes you do wanna see, and what are the changes you don´t wanna see?

A: It’s important with that oxidative capacity which is the one you utilize, especially fats as fuel as well as oxidizing glucose very well in mitochondria. Everything comes down to the fact that the energetics of mitochondria are quite robust. You want to train that fat oxidation capacity, so then that season comes and you race, utilizing more fat as fuel rather than glycogen and therefore spare the glycogen storages for later in the race. And at the same time, you train that lactate clearance capacity. Both fat and lactate are utilized in mitochondria, therefore it is important to really focus on that energy system in that part of the year. Mainly because this takes months and even years.

You brought up lactate, we often think of lactate as lactic acid which is a bad thing if you are producing it, if your blood levels are going up that means that you are going to hard, that you are not gonna last much longer. Lactate metabolism is a lot more complex than that and what you are talking about is the fact that lactate is pulled into mitochondria, so we think about mitochondria as “that's where aerobic metabolism happens”. But that first step at aerobic metabolism is to take the lactate, which is then converted to pyruvate, and that starts the whole aerobic metabolism process going. And that is where fat is used as fuel if you don't first have that lactate or pyruvate, the process can’t get going. Having your cells have access to some lactate is really important for aerobic metabolism, and we shouldn’t just think of lactate as this end product of when we are going really hard anaerobically.

Two athletes with the same VO2max, One is an okay athlete and one is much better. How can you discern or discriminate between both? The cellular adaptations. At 300 watts, one has 1 mmol/l of lactate and the other has 4 mmol/l of lactate. That shows that at an mitochondrial level the cases are completely different, even though the VO2max shows they are the same. At a given same relative exercise intensity one athlete is fully glycolytic already, there is no fat oxidation, whereas one is still oxidizing considerable amounts of fat. So you know that those athletes are metabolically different although their cardiorespiratory responses are identical. 

When we have athletes that do high intensity but don't do that base work. Just riding at a steady tempo they can have 4-5-6 mmol/l of lactate and hold that forever. They are like “this isn’t that hard”. Our explanation was he (an athlete) was doing so much high intensity work, he had overbuilt that MCT4 transporters - which are pumping the lactate out - but had not done the work that the MCT1 transporters could take in. So even if he wasn’t going all that hard he was building up all that lactate and he had nowhere to have it go.

Q: Should athletes do high intensity intervals during the base season?
A: That depends on the athlete and what goals you have for the season, and when the races start.

I like to start to do some intensity here and there, not maybe for the first month but it is important to still stimulate that glycolytic pathway, those type II muscle fibers. Like everything, it deteriorates over time. 

What sort of intensity?

I prefer longer, over shorter but that depends on the characteristics of the cyclist you know, if it’s like a punchy rider or a criterium rider or a classic rider you might wanna tailor those 4-5 minute efforts as supposed to some who is a pure climber. But it doesn’t mean that it’s one or the other one, mix both. 

What do you focus on in the base season having the athletes do?

I focus on that zone 2 training, having the athletes do lactate testing before to calibrate those intensities. My athletes have their own lactate meter and poke themselves. I engage my athletes in not just the “how” but the “why” they do these things. 

 What's the most important message for our listeners to take home with them?

My message for base training is to do that, to focus on base training and to understand what is going on in the body. And really try to target those bioenergetics of that  mitochondrial function and oxidative efforts. It’s important to know what we are targeting, at the cellular level.

Veckans Podcast-avsnitt! v. 6

 Hidden Brain

Avsnitt: Reframing Your Reality: Part 1

Längd: 48:37

Släpptes: 2022-07

Spotify-länk: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5GMKaewWQH4qnLBpxDoa6z?si=bd5fc23922cd463a

Väldigt annorlunda avsnitt där podcast-hosten ibland agerar som en berättarröst och ibland som en intervjuare. Jag tycker det var ett spännande upplägg då det kändes mer som en berättelse än en intervjupodd. Riktigt bra!

Part 1:

If you were climbing Everest, you could imagine that there would be some nights that were cold, dark, that you would feel tired or strained. But, what did you expect? Did you really expect climbing Everest would be a walk in the park? Would climbing Everest be such a great feat if it was just a walk in the park? 

The shift in perspective, in mindset: Going from this place like “uh, this stress and struggle is a sign that I’m not worthy, that something is wrong. This stress, this struggle, this cold dark night. This is part of the process. This is it. This is what makes you great. This is what makes you succeed.”

Nothing else changed, except for my mindset. I was the same person, in the same circumstances, doing the same thing, with the same meetings and tasks ahead of me. The only thing that changed was my mindset. Was my view of stress, of struggle in this process of getting a PH.D. 

Q: What are mindsets?

A: We view mindsets as core assumptions that we make about the nature of ourselves or things in the world. There are types of beliefs, it's a very powerful type of belief when it is about our own abilities or intelligence, but we also have mindsets about things, mindsets about the nature of stress, the capabilities or limitations of our own bodies. Mindsets about the enoughness of the foods that we are eating, the exercise we are doing. They are perspectives, frameworks, just assumptions about the meaning or the nature of things.

Mindsets shape our expectations. 

You start noticing the things that confirm the prediction that you had in the first place, called confirmation bias, and it tends to fulfill this self sustaining loop, because then you are getting data that feeds back to that belief or prediction.

Which version of our mindset is going to help us more in the long run?

The key is that the mindsets that you have, have an effect, they influence what you expect, they influence what you pay attention to, they influence our physiology and they influence what we actually do. And therefore they create the reality we apply. 

Mindsets influence our minds, but it’s just a piece of the puzzle. But it is a piece of the puzzle that we have not paid enough attention to. 

Reframing Your Reality - Part 2

Längd: 50:56

Släpptes: 2022-07

Spotify-länk:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4IduE9SPoLn3AmlsmzPJSy?si=7c1082fb11224dd3

This change in mindset, with the same exact treatment, doing the same exact thing. The only thing that changed was their mindset about the meaning of symptoms, and that mindset made all the difference. It made the treatment more meaningful, more enjoyable, and ultimately more effective. 

A run treadmill task. It was a very controlled treadmill task where they are on a treadmill, they run at a comfortable pace and then we gradually increased the treadmill each minute, up to a point where they can not run anymore because it was too hard. During that, we are measuring their physiological measures of their cardiovascular capacity. We are looking at their metabolic exchange rate, how quickly they are able to convert oxygen into carbon dioxide. We are also looking at their ventilation capacity, how much air can they pump through their lungs per minute. They came back 1 week later and were asked to run the same exact task... Only this time, before they started, we said we had some information from their genetic profile. We had taken samples from them and had actually figured out what their genes were. We had their actual genetic risk profile and we told them what it was. But we didn't do this honestly for everybody. Some were told the truth, some were not. Half were told they were protected and haft were told they were at risk in both groups that were indeed in risk and those who were protected. If genes were primarily responsible for how much people were able to tolerate difficult exercise, the lie should have no effect. People with the risky version of the exercise -related gene should be able to tolerate less hard workout. On the other hand, if mindsets were responsible for outcome, you would expect that the lie would make a big difference. People with the form of the gene that predisposed them to physical activity, but were lied they had the gene that allowed them to work out hard and score well on the treadmill task.... …That information changed their physiology on the same exact treadmill task in ways that conferred the risk information that was given to them. People who were told they were at risk, regardless of whether or not they were at risk, actually reduced the rate at which they were able to convert oxygen into carbon dioxide and reduced the amount of air they were able to produce through their lungs, in fact that was a reduction of 2 liters per minute which is a significant amount compared to their own baseline levels. So, the same people, doing the same task, simply based on what they were told, changed how they responded physiologically in this case.

The milkshake study

We gave the participants the same exact milkshake. At two different time points. It was about 350 kcal, a modest amount of sugar milkshake. But at one point we told people it was an indulgent shake, 620 kcal, high fat, high calorie and sugar. At the other time we told them it was 140 kcal, a light fat diet shake, we called it the sense shake. And what we found was, even though they drank the same exact milkshake both times, their bodys responded differently when measuring their gut peptide levels, in this case we were looking at Ghrelin which is a hunger and metabolism regulating hormone. What we found was that when they thought they were eating an indulgent milkshake, their Grelin levels dropped at a threefold rate compared to when they thought they were consuming this sensible shake. 

In other words, when they thought they were having an indulgent milkshake, they felt fuller compared to when they thought they were having the healthier milkshake. Physiologically they felt more full. 

What do you make of this study?

Our bodies response to foods is not merely the product of the actual objective qualities of the nutrients. It’s also a product of what we believe and expect of those nutrients. The fact that it’s the combination of those things, the objective reality of what we are eating and our beliefs about what we are eating, that alone is groundbreaking. 

A 30 % increase in vegetable consumption then labeled “healthy snack with no added sugar” instead of “carrots” or “beans”. 

Hur ser ett typiskt värmeträningspass ut för mig?

 Hej på er!

Sm många kanske redan vet om så är jag och mina kollegor på Toppfysik starka föreståndare att använda värme som ett extra träningsstimuli. Vi alla är Sveriges enda certifierade värme-coacher och arbetar tillsammans med CORE Body Temp. Jag själv har kört värmeträning sedan 2018/2019 och har experimenterat mig fram till vad som är en bra och rimlig värmebelastning för mig själv.

Jag tänkte nu ta er med genom ett vanligt värmeträningspass för mig. Observera att enstaka värme-pass inte ger den stimuli som krävs för att få en eventuell prestationsökning, utan man behöver en konsekvent period med värme, 7-14 dagar.

Men, dag kan se ut på följande sätt. Oftast kör jag mina värmepass inne på Avanti Sports Club (gymmet inne i Velodromen) på en Wattbike PRO. Givetvis utan fläkt.

Kläder: Jag sätter på mig ullstrumpor, arm- och benvärmare, vanliga cykelbyxor och cykeltröja, samt en regn/vindjacka. Man behöver inte klä på sig mer än så, då för hög kroppstemperatur INTE är optimal belastning. Man vill undvika att ha mössa på sig, då huvudet är den del av kroppen där den mesta värme försvinner, och med mössa kan det bli för varmt. Jag brukar dock börja med mössa, för att snabbare komma upp i temperatur.

Vätska: Man svettas verkligen mycket vilket gör att man lätt kan förlora 2-4 % av kroppsvikten i ren vätskeförlust. Detta kan man mäta genom att väga sig före och efter träningspasset. Vätskeförlust är ytterligare en stress för kroppen, så är man ny bör man hellre dricka mycket. Jag dricker en 500ml flaska vatten under 90 minuters värmepass vilket för mig leder till ungefär 3 % vätskeförlust under passet. Det är bra. Dock är jag noga med att dricka MER än vanligt, gärna med vätskeersättning EFTER träningen.

Träningen: Passen brukar vara 60-90 minuter långa. Nedan ser ni ett 60 minuters pass med värmestimuli.

Det gråa är min puls medan det gröna sträcket är min kärntemperatur. 

Pulsen: Ni ser att jag inledde träningspasset med ett Träningtillståndstest. 6 minuter på 60% av maxpuls, 6 minuter på 80% av maxpuls och 3 minuter på 90% av maxpuls. Man vill inleda träningen med 5-10 minuter tröskel för att snabbare få en acceleration i kärntemperaturen. Därefter kör jag lågintensivt resten av passet, på runt 65 % av maxpuls. 

Kärntemperaturen: Kärntemperaturen fortsätter att stiga upp till MIN optimala "värmetröskel" där jag får mest effekt, ca 38,6 - 36,8 C. Där stabiliseras kärntemperaturen som ni ser ute till höger, på runt 38,70 - 38,75 C. Klär man sig för varmt eller kör för hårt så stabiliseras inte kärntemperaturen utan fortsätter stiga upp ÖVER sin optimala värmetränings-zon.

I CORE Body Temps app kan man i realtid följa kärntemperaturen och vilka värmezoner man ligger i. Detta gör jag även via ett Widget-fält i min Garmin. Bilden nedan är en printscreen från COREs app från samma träningspass.

Här ser man att jag har 35 minuter i min optimala värmetränings-zon. 

Här ser ni hur jag kan följa min kärntemperatur även via min Garmin Forerunner 935:

Hoppas ni finner inlägget intressant!

Vill ni prova på värmeträning så erbjuder Toppfysik olika tjänster, bl.a. hyra av CORE, rådgivning etc.

Veckans Podcast-avsnitt! v. 5

 

The Growth Equation - With Brad Stulberg & Steve Magness

Avnitt: #154 - The Athlete's Psychology (With Stu McMillan)

Längd: 52:22

Släpptes: 2023-01-18

Spotify-länk: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0qyT8ebso4pgAptlsGCOk8?si=5571a7c6ad8a47da

Här kommer ett otroligt bra avsnitt av en podcast jag faktiskt aldrig lyssnat på tidigare, trots att jag har hört talas om den. The Growth Equation Podcast drivs av Brad Stulberg och Steve Magness (ja, samma Steve som driver On Coaching Podcast). Både Brad och Steve är väldigt inspirerande och är duktiga att uttrycka sig verbalt om komplexa saker. Gästen i det här avsnittet lockade mig till att lyssna, och det är Stu McMillan. 

Stu är en av de främsta coacherna inom friidrott och har coachat fram atleter till mängder av olympiska medaljer. Han är en otroligt kunnig människa och berättar väldigt bra om hans tankar och erfarenheter kring främst en atlets psykologi, i detta avsnitt.

Nedan har jag nästan ordagrant samlat ihop mängder av det som sades i podcasten, som jag tar med mig och tycker är oerhört intressant.

____________________________________________________________________________

"That specific arousal level of an Olympic Final, or a World Championship can not be replicated at all, in any way, physically, mentally, psychologically. However you try and replicate it, it's impossible."

They (high performance athletes) sort of require a certain level of arousal, to be able to compete, just at an average level. Andre de Grasse required a high level of arousal just to get any sort of high intensity out. 

How to prepare for arousal:

1. Do a repetition by yourself at the track. No expectations from you, no expectation from the coach, you just go for a run. It could be just a jog, it could be a 100 or a 200 meter rep. Whatever. Very little arousal there.

2. Now you are getting timed by a coach, which gives a little bit more arousal.

3. Now you do it with a couple of training partners so the level has gone up again.

4. Now you do it with a couple of training partners and a timed trial in training.

5. Now you are in a small competition.

6. Now it's a national level competition with a couple hundred people watching you.

7. Now it's an international competition, even it it’s not a hard one.

You climb this arousal level latter until you are at the olympic games. 

If you have a skill that are not stable at a really low arousal level, then we are probably not gonna put that athlete through an international competition. 

First and foremost, it’s understanding where the challenge point is, where they are on this continuum of arousal that is required of their event to challenge them appropriately and continue to push them towards the point that they eventually have to be, which is ideally an olympic final. 

(Great athletes) have such inherent confidence in their ability that they can step up when required. They don’t care. Until, it was time to care. They don’t care about small meets (competitions), they don’t care about training. They work on stuff. Extremely focused on the process. What do they need to do that is required of them to be Olympic champions? This, this, this and this. So that's what they focused on. Nothing else mattered. It wasn’t outcome KPIs, it wasn’t that, it was about technical things. They have so much confidence in their ability that they require high levels of arousal to bring that out. 

Sometimes you over try in practice, over try when it doesn't matter. It’s almost like you have to prove to yourself that you are good enough.

They focus on the wrong stuff. The metrics that don't matter. They focus on all this stuff that doesn’t matter. What matters is that race. That's it. Nothing else matters. The insecure athlete and the insecure coaches focus on that stuff at the expense of the stuff that really matters. As a coach you have to identify that and put in strategies to combat that. 

Define all the variables that you can control, and then control them. Chiropractors, performance physical therapists, coaches, mechanics on set for competitions. That makes sense, because you wanna control all the controllables. But make sure the athlete has such flexibility, that if somethings changes, so they don’t freak out if everything isn't exactly as planned.

We try to frame that first and foremost as a large complex system. And I talk to them about the

importance of understanding performance through that. You don’t need to be perfect in any of the parts within that system, you just need to be pretty good at all of them. If you are pretty good at all of them, you are gonna do really well. That’s literally our goal. Our goal is not to be perfect in any part of that system. There are four major parts. There are:

• Training. Physical training.

• There is recovery from that physical training.

• There is the fuelling.

• There is an athlete's mental health.

Those are the four earners. We just give them the goal to be an 8/10 at all of them. I don’t want them to be a 10/10 at anything. Because if you are 10/10 at any of them, chances are you are gonna be a 4/10 at one of the others. That takes away that virus that creeps in. That perfectionism virus, where they think they have to have everything dialed in. If that pressure is taken away, then that doesn’t become a problem. If they think that everything doesn’t have to be perfect, If they think that I can still do whatever I can do, then that's not an issue. Performance is complex. If you try to nail every single detail always - then you are gonna mess yourself up. 

What are your expectations of yourself to be a 8/10 at physical roam of your system?

Wilt (an old coach) wrote on the notes of his athletes training: She had gone out and did a workout when she was supposed to rest and the coach writes as a note in her training journal “This is a manifestation of insecurity”. You are fit. Just trust it. 

Q: How do you deal with your own securities and insecurities around this and not put it on the athletes?

A: It manifests generally in more work. If you see an athlete or a group of athletes doing a ton of work, that’s because of the insecurities of the coach. Generally. The more and more work, the more insecure the coach. But it is really really hard. Because that's almost human nature. The goal isn’t to do more, the goal is to do as much as I can while still being able to adapt positively from the stress. That’s the goal.

Do the things that make you anxious, but in a calm and safe environment. Make your athletes face their fears, instead of avoiding them.

Always ask: What do you want with this?