Friday January 07 2011

FIONNUALA Britton has turned down an invitation to compete in tomorrow’s Great Edinburgh Cross-Country championships in favour of travelling to South Africa this week for a month’s high-altitude training.

And she is joined there by Sligo’s Mary Cullen, another Irish athlete who knows only too well the frustration of finishing fourth in the European Cross-Countries.

While Britton was heartbroken to be just outside the medals in the Algarve before Christmas, Cullen was equally frustrated by having to sit out that event after breaking her collarbone in a fall from a bicycle.

Cullen is back training now and targeting a return in time for the European Indoors in Paris in March, a competition at which she won bronze last time out.

Both women will spend most of this month in a training camp at Potchefstroom, which also includes Ireland’s European 100m hurdles silver medallist Derval O’Rourke.

National inter-county champion Joe Sweeney (DSD) and Clonliffe’s Mark Kennelly will dominate Irish interest in Edinburgh after being selected on the European team in the inaugural men’s ‘international’ 8km race.

But recent European U-23 team gold medallist Mick Mulhare, his brother Dan, Mark Christie and Stephen Scullion are all racing in the earlier men’s 4km. The ‘international’ pits Britain’s double European track champion Mo Farah against his cross-country nemesis and European captain Sergey Lebid, while America will be skippered by Galen Rupp.

Lebid and Farah have had some cracking cross-country battles in recent years, including Edinburgh in 2007 and the 2008 European Cross Countries, both won by the Ukranian.

The men’s 4km features a host of Olympic and World medallists, including big-name Kenyans Eliud Kipchoge, Asbel Kiprop and Brimin Kipruto.

Kiprop is the reigning Olympic 1,500m champion, while Kipruto holds the same title in steeplechase.

The women’s race also has a star-studded field, which includes Kenya’s current world 5,000m and 10,000m champions Vivian Cheruiyot and Linet Masai as well as two-time world junior cross-country champion Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia and Portugal’s European champion Jessica Augusto.

Edinburgh Cross-Country

Live, tomorrow, BBC 1, 1.30

- Cliona Foley

FULL STORY

Dual international Mat Rogers was “gripped by terror” as a Gold Coast boat cruise with former rugby league teammates and friends almost ended in tragedy at the weekend.

Rogers was one of 10 people, including two children, on a 10-metre boat with former Titans teammate Greg Bird, TV personality Matt Johns and international cyclist Robbie McEwen, when passengers began losing consciousness after inhaling toxic carbon monoxide fumes.

The passengers were inhaling the undetectable gas from exhaust fumes building up in the boat and six of the nine on board, including Johns and Bird, collapsed.

He and McEwen are being hailed as heroes after rescuing a passenger who fell overboard during the drama.

“There was a time on the boat I felt terrified and powerless to do anything,” the recently retired rugby league star told AAP on Wednesday.

“I was pretty messed up for a time. I slipped off my chair and ended up on the ground but I don’t think I lost complete consciousness.

“It was frightening.

“I was standing there thinking `what’s happening, what’s happening’, it was like something out of a movie.

“I remember I had my phone in my hand and I was looking at it wondering what I was going to do with it, I couldn’t even make a phone call.”

Despite his confused state, Rogers leapt into the water to help a man who’d fallen off the back of the boat after blacking out just off Sanctuary Cove.

He and McEwen, whose high altitude training and superior oxygen levels helped him cope with the situation better than other passengers, kept the unconscious passenger’s head above water until help arrived.

FULL TEXT

by

Haider, Thomas; Casucci, Gaia; Linser, Tobias; Faulhaber, Martin; Gatterer, Hannes; Ott, Guenter; Linser, Armin; Ehrenbourg, Igor; Tkatchouk, Elena; Burtscher, Martin; Bernardi, Luciano

Abstract

GO2Altitude has a publication section which includes articles on altitude training from various magazines.

Fitness & Training

Introduction

The Australian Sports Commission or the Australian Institute of Sport does not provide personal fitness or training programs. For an individually tailored program contact a coach or fitness centre in your area. For contact details of sporting organisations that may be able to direct you to the closest coach within Australia, try our directories page . Before undertaking any training or fitness program you should first check with your physician, and also verify with a professional the appropriateness of the program for you.

http://www.ausport.gov.au/information/finding_sport_information/topic/fitness

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/7474551_VO2_responses_to_intermittent_swimming_sets_at_velocity_associated_with_VO2max

High Performance Equine Hypoxicator

Until recently, training horses at “altitude” in the same way as for humans was impractical.

However, what was once impractical is now a real option for race horse trainers with the advent of Intermittent Hypoxic Training (IHT) or simulated high altitude training.

Simulated high altitude training can vastly improve athletic performance by deliberately inducing hypoxia with the animals body producing more red blood cells, which in turn results in increased oxygen delivery to the tissues such as the heart, lungs and skeletal muscle.

There is no evidence that IHT will enhance the performance of the animal beyond its own genetic potential. But there is evidence that IHT does have a therapeutic role in minimising muscle damage associated with strenuous exercise.

Other applications of IHT include acclimatization of horses for air travel, enhance effects on fertility, and assists with the management of lung disease associated with Exercise Induced Pulmonary Haemorrhage in horses.

Please email us at vetandpetproducts@bigpond.com for sales price or other information enquiries. NB: The price for this product is not listed on the webpage, please contact us for further details.

http://www.vetandpetproducts.com/catalogue/c18/c280/c281/p1468

By Brendan Gallagher

With the next year’s Tour de France spending a significant time 2000 metres above sea level next year Dave Brailsford, the team principal at Team Sky, has asked his sports scientist to overhaul his their training schedule for riding at such altitude.

A failure to ride competitively on the very highest reaches of this year’s mountain stages was quickly identified as the root cause for Bradley Wiggins being unable to get on terms with the main yellow jersey contenders and was already being looked into by Brailsford and his team.

Although Sky trained on all of the highest climbs in this year’s Tour, unlike most teams they did not organise long camps at altitude before the three-week race, but it is something they are seriously considering for 2011.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/8075275/Tour-de-France-2011-Team-Sky-preparing-for-altitude-training-ahead-of-Alpine-endeavours.html

Authors:

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/8097717_Effects_of_hypoxic_interval_training_on_cycling_performance

Oct 06,2010 - Dubai, UAE – 6 October, 2010: For decades, spending time in high altitude conditions has been the most successful natural method to effectively enhance oxygen absorption, transport and utilisation by the body. With the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome one of the highest in the world, discoveries in molecular medicine showing the enormous potential in targeted usage of high altitude climate conditions allows for new strategies for therapy and prevention of the disease in the UAE.

According the Dr Richard Reyes, founder and medical director of the Reyes Longevity Programme, there is a well defined sequence of molecular events which result in the correction of the components of the metabolic syndrome; high cholesterol and triglycerides, high blood pressure, low HDL, type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance.

“The main difference in high altitudes compared to sea level conditions is the decreasing air pressure with increasing height,” says Dr Reyes. “As the air gets ‘thinner’ and the body absorbs less oxygen, the heart rate and breathing increases. The low oxygen saturation in the blood, also known as hypoxia, causes a chain of positive biological adaptations. An increase in red blood cell production, better utilisation of nutrients in muscles and tissues, increased economy of the cardiovascular system and the optimisation of the heart rate at rest are only a few examples of how high altitude conditions can work towards correcting the components of the metabolic syndrome.”

Dr Reyes will be speaking at the 3rd International Congress in Aesthetic, Anti-Aging Medicine & Medical Spa Middle East (ICAAM), which will be held at the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel, Dubai, UAE from 26 to 27 November 2010. Leading experts in aesthetics and anti-aging medicine will be on site to demonstrate latest techniques and showcase latest anti-aging research such as the use of high-altitude climate to correct the metabolic syndrome.

“Changes in response to high altitude can be seen after just one or two hours of training exposure per week,” says Dr Reyes. “Correcting the disrupted metabolic process can go a long way towards slowing down the aging process. Cellular aging is understood in part to be due to the accumulation of the effects of oxidative stress and free radical formation. Exposure to altitude counteracts both of these – it is well recognised that people who live in the mountains have longer lives than those at sea level.”

http://bignews.biz/?id=925256