Previous | Next | 2001 Index | Newsletter Index
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2001 3:51 PM
Subject: Incline Club TH #8 LR #27
Another big group Sunday — 63 — thanks for coming out. Sometimes I get stuck in the park when everyone takes off. However this does give me the opportunity to do a form check on everyone I pass. If I had to sum up the three mistakes I see the most often it would be 1) looking down at your feet which causes you to bend over which puts a lot of stress on your back, messes up your stride and closes up your breathing. Try looking about 20 feet ahead on the trail which should help your form. 2) Running with too slow of a cadence. Sometime try timing your footsteps during a minute. I feel that the best number (regardless of ability or terrain) is around 180 if not higher. If you find yourself going much slower than 170 I would seriously consider trying a quicker cadence. 3) Running really poor tangents as in always running in the middle of the trail. Think of the amount of turns on the Barr Trail! If you run straighter lines you can pick up a lot of free time. Again looking ahead on the trail will also help solve this.
####
Thursday, May 24, 5:30 p.m. meet at Soda Springs Park.
Warm-up to Hydro Street. 30 minute tempo run up the Barr Trail. Easy down. 5
X Hydro Street hill. Cool down back to park.
Sunday, May 27, 8 a.m. meet at Soda Springs Park.
Run up the Barr Trail to the A-frame or until you reach your time limit.
Head back down Barr Trail to finish the run. 2.5-3.5 hours.
####
Paul S writes:
Running Friends,
You are cordially invited to celebrate the coming of Summer at our Memorial
Weekend get-together and BBQ.
When: Sunday, May 27, 5 p.m.
Where: 626 N. Custer, Colo. Springs, CO, Tel. 471-9447 (b/t Williamette and
Monument Sts — neighborhood NW of Memorial Hospital)
Food/sodas/beer provided. BYO-BBQ item or small food item to share. All
Family members are welcome to enjoy this event and the new playground we’ve
constructed! So skip that race in Boulder this year and do something more
meaningful!
Looking Forward to Seeing You There,
Paul & Angela
####
Tim A writes:
w.r.t donating blood and running. I tend to donate blood in the fall and
winter. It is a bad idea to donate blood within a couple weeks of a race.
For me, 6 weeks seems to be required to get back to full steam. Two weeks,
and you are mostly there, plus you have the best possible excuse for not
setting a PR.
####
Larry T writes:
Regarding donating blood and running...An adult has between five and six
liters of blood in their body. About 45% of blood is composed of cells.
94% of those cells are erythrocytes (red blood cells). RBC’s contain the
protein hemoglobin which allows RBC’s to transport oxygen in our blood. The
RBC’s release the oxygen to our tissues. In summary, the function of RBC’s
is to transport oxygen. Any loss of blood, and thus a loss in RBC’s,
results in a diminished capacity to transport oxygen.
Those of us living at altitude have more blood than our friends at sea level. We have a greater concentration of RBC’s and a higher hemoglobin concentration. This is part of how we have adjusted to living at altitude. We also produce more erythropoietin, a hormone which is produced in response to decreased oxygen pressure, which results in greater erythropoiesis (red blood cell production). Additionally, we have more DPG, a chemical which increases the unloading of our hemoglobin; thus make better use of the oxygen we do carry. Finally, we have more myoglobin too. Myoglobin is a protein that stores oxygen in our muscles. All of this shows just how far our bodies go, physiologically speaking, to adapt to the decreased oxygen levels associated with living and running at altitude.
Again, any blood loss results in a decreased ability to carry oxygen in our blood. Just how significant is the blood loss associated with donating blood? Again, we have five to six liters (5,000 to 6,000 milliliters) of blood. When donating blood one donates one pint (473 milliliters). This results in a loss of 7.88% to 9.46% of our blood (using six and five liters respectively). This would correlate to decreased oxygen carrying capacity of 7.88% to 9.46%. Is this significant? If running in the comfort zone, 60% to 75% maximum heart rate, and on flat terrain, it is probably not at all significant and not noticeable. How noticeable, or not, it is would depend on the percent intensity at which one is operating. It would definitely make a difference while running a 10 kilometer or 10 mile race because of the high level of intensity associated with such a short distance. It might not be noticeable during a 20 mile training run on the Santa Fe Trail. It would be noticeable during one of the Incline Club’s speed workouts on a Thursday. The altitude on Sunday’s runs would probably also push one to point of noticing the decreased oxygen carrying capacity. Physiologically speaking, it could take eight to ten weeks to replace the lost blood. However, training, and especially altitude training (because of increased erythropoietin) will accelerate the replacement. For all practical purposes however, one would be hard pressed to notice the blood loss after only two weeks. In summary, donating blood will result in a 8 to 9 percent decrease in oxygen carrying capacity. How much one notices this will depend directly on the intensity (speed, hills, altitude) of training or racing. I would not donate blood within one month of a race. As for training, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Having said all of this I must qualify my self. While I am a physiologist and a professor of biology, my graduate degree is actually in reproductive physiology. :-) Next week we will discuss reproduction at high altitude. Have you heard of high altitude sperm?
####
Matthew W writes:
Here’s a link... (about donating blood)
running.syr.edu/column/19980413.html
####
Randy L writes:
> Someone asked me about how donating blood effects running.
It usually causes me to limp and the scrapes on my knees really gross everyone out ;-)
####
Stephen M writes:
My father-in-law is a doctor in exercise physiology (and a long distance
runner with a few masters records--I also get him to run the peak when he
visits), so I asked him about the blood donation question (he’s done a lot
of blood research for the American College of Sports Medicine). He stated:
Donating blood will reduce both blood volume (liquid) and Red Blood Cell numbers. The liquid loss will be replaced within 48 hours, but the RBCs will take several weeks to be replaced. The exact time will vary by individual. To be on the safe side, I would plan on not attaining top endurance performance for 2-3 months following donation of a pint (500ml) of blood. It may not take this long, but this is what I would plan on.
####
Gordon B writes:
As a regular donor I did some checking with the blood donor clinic at
Memorial Hospital. They strongly advise not to resume running for 24 hours,
no lifting or weight training for at least 4 to 6 hours. I was surprised to
learn that if you are training for a marathon (or equivalent), it’s
suggested that you not donate at all! I “usually” try to schedule my
donations a day or two after our Sunday long runs, which gives me time to
replenish prior to Thursday.
I happened to donate recently the morning of our Thursday speed workout a few weeks back. This would explain why I felt slightly light-headed, but hey — we were at 7,200 feet. More importantly I had to get my “*”!
###
Sid R writes:
The TL20K is June 2, Saturday.
(Matt C adds: In the date sensitive email that went out last week the race was listed as June 3rd — sorry. However the mail was about early entry dates and those were correct:-)
####
CLUB T-SHIRT UPDATE:
Yvonne C reports:
We had an overwhelming amount of orders for a total of 248 club shirts!
Believe it or not the $$ total even WITH the unbelievable Colorado Running
Company came to right at $4,000!! So keep those checks coming so I don’t
have to sell stock to cover the shirts :-o You can give me the cash/check on
Thursday or Sunday workouts or mail them to me (36 El Paso Blvd, Manitou
Springs, CO 80829).
There were 74 cotton T-shirts and 174 coolmax/drytek BOA shirts. The BOA shirts were ordered this morning by the Colorado Running Company and the cotton T-shirts were ordered from Tri Lakes Printing which will also do the printing of all shirts. The E.T.A. for the BOA shirts is early next week, but since it is Memorial Day week, it might end up being late next week. The cotton shirts should be in much faster and as soon as they come in I will be meeting with the “printing folks” to see a test shirt (so we don’t risk messing up 248 shirts — ouch!)
Just a reminder in case you are wondering. After the shirts are printed, they are YOURS! We can not return printed shirts to CRC! We shouldn’t even return non printed shirts so we don’t mess up their inventory. Soooooooo, if you made a terrible mistake ;-) and accidentally ordered the wrong size, you need to tell me BEFORE the shirts are printed, which means by Tuesday of next week (May 29th) at most, to be safe. I can not guarantee you we can get you the correct size but we will try to at least not print the wrong size! Of course if all the people that ordered shirts decide to change shirt size then, Houston, we will have a problem that not even Dr. Rocket would be able to fix!
Thanks for the orders. Although a bit of work to put together, I think it is worth it. The shirts look great and I am sure other runners will be asking themselves after the summer races: “What on earth is the Incline Club — they pass me every race I go to!”
See you on Thursday !!!!
####
5/20/2001 Another huge group of 63 headed up the Barr Trail and what a
difference a week makes! All the snow is now gone until 75% into the first
switch-back after the bottomless pit sign. Even from there it is only patchy
to the A-frame. From there 5 of us b-lined for the summit! When we got to
the 16 Golden Stairs sign we pounded out the remaining switch-backs to the
top. The faster people start using the real trail the faster the snow will
melt! What a great day:-)
5/17/2001 The threat of rain did not stop 51 from doing 30 minutes of 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy up the Barr Trail. In fact the weather was perfect and a bunch of people reported PRs for the workout:-) That could be because we instituted rule 316L which states if you are going to pass someone you must do it on a hard minute and not an easy minute. This forced a lot of people to slow their recoveries down which resulted in a stronger 2nd half. 5 repeats on Hydro hill finished the day as always.
####
Go out hard, when it hurts speed up...
Matt Carpenter
www.skyrunner.com
Barr Trail Mountain Race
www.runpikespeak.com
Top | Previous | Next | 2001 Index | Newsletter Index