Physicals....Get them now!

If you want to participate in high school athletics, in any sport, in any state, you need to have passed a sports physical.

IF YOU WANT TO GO TO CAMP, YOU NEED A PHYSICAL

Please make an appointment for yourself or your athlete to get a sports physical ASAP.

DO NOT WAIT UNTIL SCHOOL STARTS.

If you cannot get in to see your doctor relatively quickly, there are a few places that will take appointments for physicals.

Lutes Chiropractic in Ceres

Romeo Medical Clinic in Turlock Romeo promises same day appointments.

Hughson Chiropractic

Before you go to get your physical, you need a sports physical participation form.  These should have come home in the roundup packet, but I will bring some to practice tomorrow.

Sometimes in Training, Ya Gotta Run Fast!

Anaerobic Power

This will be the 4th in our series of physiological components needed to run good cross country races.  I've saved this one for 4th because: a) Anaerobic Power doesn't take as long to develop and b) It is less important for cross country racing.

Time to fully develop: Years, but during the season this can be very well developed in a few months.

Definition: The ability to generate ATP (energy) without oxygen.

But, Wait....Coach!  I thought you said the ability to use oxygen was the most important.

It is, but you have what you can think of as an "emergency energy reserve" for racing very fast.  Think of it like this.  You're watching a cartoon or action sci-fi movie and the hero is in a battle.  The hero has a special power that can allow him to win the battle, but it will leave him exhausted afterward and if he uses the power at the wrong time, he'll be exhausted before the end of the show and the bad guy will chop his head off, or whatever.

It's kind of like that.

To put it a little more scientifically, let's say you can run at a pace aerobically (getting all your energy from oxygen) at a level.....let's call it 40.  Now, let's say the race is being run at a pace that requires a higher energy output.....lets say 55.  Since you can only produce 40 units of energy aerobically, the other 15 units will come from anaerobic (without oxygen) sources....your emergency power. 

Your ability to use this emergency reserve is limited...you'll use it up pretty quickly.  As a matter of fact, the further you go past your aerobic capacity, the more quickly you'll use up the emergency reserve.  So, imagine again that you are running at pace that requires 55 units of energy.  Your opponent is able to produce 40 of those units aerobically and you can produce 50 of those units aerobically.  For every step you guys run, your opponent is using up more of his emergency reserve and it will be gone before the end of the race....just like he will be gone from the lead pack.

How do I train my Anaerobic Power?

It's simple, you start needing a lot of anaerobic power when you are running really fast or working really hard.  So to train anaerobically, you need to run really fast or work really hard.  In reality, any high intensity exercise that lasts between 10 and 120 seconds is excellent for developing anaerobic  power. For our purposes, we will mostly use segments between 30 and 90 seconds.

Ian Brooks, NCAA All American for 800m could produce tons of Anaerobic Power

This means that some of the training we are already doing is helping you to develop your anaerobic capacity.  You know those 200s at mile race pace that we do?  In addition to helping to develop neuromuscular efficiency, they are also helping to develop your anaerobic power.  I love to use mile race pace to develop this capacity.  The pace is fast enough to require you to use a lot of anaerobic power, but not so fast that you are unable to do a good amount of work.  

If you are a 400m or 800m runner anaerobic power will supply up to 60% of the energy you use in a race, so you better be good at producing it.  For a 5k cross country race, anaerobic power provides less than 10% of the energy needed. 

A final note

When you use your anaerobic energy sources, you build up lactic acid in your blood.  Lactic acid is one of the main factors that causes you to fatigue.  You can train your body to tolerate high levels of lactic acid and therefore use your emergency power for longer periods of time.  The ability to tolerate high levels of lactic acid is known as lactate tolerance.....but that's for the next episode.