Comrades Challenge - Candidate #1: Leonid Shvetsov

Five hours, 21 minutes for 89 km. That’s a pace of 3 minutes 36 second per km (or 5:48 per mile for our American readers). It’s a 36 minute 10-km race, run nine consecutive times! That would give a guy a place in the top 30 or so of most smaller road races, certainly around South Africa, and it’s remarkable only because it’s just so fast. But what of the physiology?

Well, Shvetsov is a sub 2:10 Marathon runner, so he has a speed pedigree that can’t be questioned. So physiologically, his performance is best looked at in terms of his marathon time, and saying that to run Comrades, he has to run back-to-back marathons in 2:32, with a short 5km to finish! Now, when you have a 2:10 marathon best, running 2:32 means you’re running about 16% slower than your best pace for the same distance.

And that 16% is critical. The key thing about the elite runner is not necessarily that they have a higher top speed, but that they can sustain a higher percentage of this than most other runners. So this performance is remarkable because it represents a sub-maximal effort that is so close to maximal that no one else in the history of the race has been able to match it. An example from the world of cycling is Miguel Indurain – he had a peak power output (this is the ‘maximum’ power output as measured in a specific lab test) of about 520 W, yet his world one hour record was averaged at 495 W! That means he’s gone at 95% of maximum for an hour. We do a lot of research on cyclists doing 40 km time-trials (also about one hour long), and most guys ride at between 70 and 80%. That’s the difference between a 5:20 for Comrades and 6 hours. Or between a 2:30 for a marathon compared to 3 hours, or 3:30 to 4, and so on.

So back to Shvetsov, what he demonstrated is a remarkable ability to run close to maximum speeds for very long periods. Most runners can’t do this, and they will go through the marathon quite substantially more slowly that the elite runner.

Now, it’s worth looking at what the adaptations are that allow this to happen, asking WHY can he do it?

The first is metabolic, or energy related. The elite athletes have a superior ability to use fat as a fuel. Very briefly, you will use predominantly carbohydrate (glycogen and glucose) and fat for energy during exercise. The problem is that the carbohydrate stores are limited, and so you have to rely on fat. As soon as you run out of carbs, you “bonk” – this is the lay term from becoming hypoglycaemic, when your blood sugar levels drop too low. Running on once this has happened is near impossible, so it’s critical to keep the blood glucose levels up. You do this by eating and drinking during the run. But back to Shvetsov, the latest scientific evidence has shown that the brain is able to pick up how much carbohydrate you are using, and then calculate whether you are in any danger of running out before the end of exercise. So let’s talk hypothetically – at the 10km mark of the Comrades (or any marathon, for that matter), your brain knows exactly how much carbohydrate is left, and also how quickly it’s being used up. A quick calculation, and it works out that at the current rate, you can go for another 34 km before running out. If you are running a marathon, that’s fine, you’d reach 44 km, and so you’d finish. But if it works out that you’d last another 20 km, then you have a problem. And what it does is slow you down so that you don’t run into trouble. So your pace right from the start is determined by an anticipatory calculation of what energy you have available, weighed up against how much you are using.

So for Shvetsov, Remarkable physiological adaptation number 1 is that his body is using fat at such high rates that he doesn’t have this danger of running out of glycogen. Most guys, running at 3:36/km, will be using glycogen heavily, but not him. That comes from many miles of endurance training – a well trained endurance runner is super-enabled to use fat as fuel.

The second adaptation is also metabolic, and has to do with lactate. Right from the beginning, let us repeat that lactate does not cause fatigue, nor does it cause muscle pain, as is so often thought. But it is associated with changes in muscle pH, and so may be involved in a very complex process of fatigue, but for high intensity exercise only. For an event like Comrades or marathons, lactate has another very important function – it is a source of energy.

What happens is that lactate gets formed in the muscle, is released into the blood, and is that taken out the blood by other muscle and used as energy! So far from being a poison, it’s actually a critical source of energy (those of you in SA can read my article “Turbo Charged” in the June Runner’s World). An elite runner, like Shvetsov, is better able to use lactate as a source of energy because he will have a greater capacity to take it into the muscle and then use it – more enzymes, and fancy molecules called transporter proteins. This is adaptation number 2.

The third adaptation is muscular. The down run of Comrades is unique because of the massive demands it makes of the muscles. They have to perform thousands of contractions that we call ‘eccentric’, which means the muscles lengthen as they contract (weird, I know!). But these eccentric contractions do a great deal of damage to muscles, causing tiny tears in the fiber, and this is ultimately what makes runners so stiff after running. You will have seen the not so fast guys shuffling in at the end of the race – that’s because the muscle has taken so much damage that it loses all its shock absorbing properties, and can simply not take the load any longer.

But not Shvetsov – he bounced from the start to the finish, and this is a remarkable adaptation that is difficult to explain. It means he has unbelievable strength, for one thing, because the muscle withstands such severe loading for so long better than in any of the other 9000 runners. That comes from a lot of strength work (you could see that he was strong in the legs) and also from massive mileage, great recovery and, I suspect, very specific training sessions that were designed to improve this ability. Research has shown for example, that repeated downhill running reduces the amount of muscle damage in future bouts, so the muscle is getting stronger.

So that’s the three main adaptations, in a nutshell. All must be unique to enable the performance you saw. All are the result of training, lots of it, and very specific types of training. The body can be trained, for example, to burn more fat through many miles of long runs, and you can play around with the energy supply to manipulate this further. You can also train the ability to use lactate, and the ability to withstand downhill running contractions. The one thing that must be pointed out here though is that few people can actually run the miles required to achieve these adaptations. So you have to a biomechanically perfect runners – any dodgy running form will be exposed pretty quickly once you do the high weekly miles. We’re talking 200km plus weeks, for months of the year!

Next time, we’ll look at an entirely different set of physiological attributes, when we discuss Calie Beneke, a 70 year-old with an 8-hour Comrades (that’s a 3h30 marathon, folks!)

Join us then!

R & J

See also: The Comrades Ultra Marathon - Greatest Performance Challenge

The Comrades Ultra Marathon - Greatest Performance Challenge

Last week, we received an email from Alan, and he asked us to look at the following three performances from this year’s Comrades Marathon:

o Leonid Shvetsov of Russia broke the course record by running 5 hours 21 minutes!

o A 70-year old man, Calie Beneke, ran 8 hours 4 minutes for the 89 km!

o A british double-amputee, Richard Whitehead, ran sub-10 hours on prosthetic limbs!

I said last week, however, that we would probably end up sitting on the fence, and stop short of ranking them, because they’re so different and can’t really be compared directly. One approach I thought of taking was to look at how the specific performance compared to a group of “matched/similar” runners. So for example, we could look at the 70-year old Calie Beneke and take his time compared to all the other 70 year olds in the race and see just how much faster he was. But the problem with this is that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to define the “normal/matched” group. So who do we compare Leonid Shvetsov to? The other 9000 runners? Because the guy who finishes Comrades is not exactly normal! So in fact, we would need to compare each performance to those of EVERYONE, including non-runners, and of course that’s impossible. So back to the drawing board!

So what I figured I would do is look at each performance in turn, one at a time. So we’ll look at the physiology and describe just why it is such a remarkable performance (this also keeps the posts shorter, better all round!). Then when it’s all done, I’ll nail my colours to the mast and rank them, and invite you to do the same, and maybe get some good debate on the topic! So here goes, and we begin with the record-breaking performance of Leonid Shvetsov.

Click here for Candidate # 1: Leonid Shvetsov

Vino and Kloden - the physiology of a bike accident

Today sees the first big mountain stage of the Tour de France, with the riders tackling the Category 1 Col de la Colombiere, 16km at 6.8%.

So far the Tour has been dominated by mass sprints and some key accidents, notably those of Andreas Kloden and Alexander Vinokourov. Both riders were among the favourites at the start of the Tour, and two days ago, both may have seen their prospects come to grief on the Tarmac of the Loire Valley.

We at Science of Sport will still give a comprehensive overview of a Tour de France rider in days to come, where we’ll look at the changes that a rider’s body can expect to undergo during the three weeks of racing. We’ll also analyse just what the best riders are going physiologically in order to ride as they do.

But for today, a short post on these two Astana riders and the physiology of a crash. Both will be hurting badly today. Kloden has a hairline fracture of the coccyx, which is reportedly making it difficult to stand on the pedals. Vinokourov has 30 stitches in his knee, so both have some enormous problems to overcome on the climbs, where they’ll have to produce power outputs in excess of 600W for short periods, and average power outputs of 400W for almost an hour!

But apart from these obvious physical injuries (and the pain they bring), there is also an unseen physiological reason why a rider struggles after crashing. And this is that the body responds to an accident in much the same way as it responds to an infection – the rider can develop a fever, display flu like symptoms, they may have elevated body temperature, and so on. This is because the human body recognizes the damage caused by an accident in the same way as it recognizes the damage caused by infection and it kicks out a ‘systemic’ response to fix the problem. So the good news - all the cuts, abrasions and bruises are being repaired by the rider’s body. The bad news, however, is that this repair process is hardly compatible with being able to ride in the mountains of the Tour.

So expect both to be hanging on, at least for a few days, assuming their physical injuries are not too painful to allow them to even ride. They’ll be limiting the losses until their “flu-like” symptoms and pain subside.

Enjoy!

How not to let doping get you down - Why you should watch le Tour

Le Tour, or the Grand Boucle, is upon us again, and, as seems only normal, with a mix of doping scandals and allegations. Many of us are no doubt depressed by this, and can become cynical and turned off by the sport. We have both heard ex-Tour Fanatics express a sense of apathy, and who can blame them? Not a single champion since 1995 has been untouched by rumour, positive tests and allegations. In fact, there isn't even a defending champion in this year's race, with last year's winner (is that Floyd Landis or Oscar Pereiro?) still being decided by a court of arbitration!

Our advice is don't let this get you down, and enjoy watching the next three weeks of the Tour for what it is - a test of physical endurance and strength. Here are two reasons why we should continue to watch and enjoy this year's tour and the sport of cycling.

First, it is quite possible (if allegations are believed, and if it is true that when there is smoke, there is likely to be fire) that more than 70% of the pro peleton is using performance-enhancing drugs. However, this should not detract from how we view the day-to-day battles, racing, and tactics. In an earlier post we talked about how doping does not guarantee a winning performance. In that discussion we described the model of how it is the training that an athlete performs that will ultimately predict performance, and that current doping techniques (such as EPO use, blood doping and growth hormone) permit an athlete to do more frequent, more intense, and longer training by decreasing the recovery time between hard training sessions. The take-home message here is that the athletes still must put in incredible amounts of hours and intense efforts to be at the top of their sport.

Doping (EPO, growth hormone, testosterone, IGF-1, steroids) likely has little effect on motivation and desire to win. So picture this. . .it is late in the Tour and the last mountain stage. Several riders are still in contention. . .as the last climb approaches they all move to the front with their lieutenants. . .and as they begin the climb the fireworks go off and the group of leaders attacks each other all the way to the finish. . .and we ask ourselves two questions:

Question 1: Are they all doping?
If they are in contention, then yes, it is possible that they are doping.

Question 2: Does doping affect their will to win?
The answer to this is less "cut and dried." However, although doping might provide a rider with the ability to do, for example, 20 W more up a climb like l'Alpe, he still must ride his guts out to do it (unless he is on amphetamines, which is unlikely as it is incredibly easy to test for these drugs, and they are an older drug of choice from the 1950's to the 1980's). He still must answer each attack with another and yet another until he cracks or wins.

So while doping with the substances mentioned above certainly enhances performances, the athlete still must exert an incredible effort to win, and the battles we see unfold on the slopes of the grand climbs are just as dramatic as ever---even though the contenders are likely using performance-enhancing drugs. At this stage, let us just stress a key point - we do not condone in any way the use of drugs. People have said that "They all do it, so it's a fair race in the end anyway." This is subtly different from what we are trying to say here. We argue that drug use or not, what you are witnessing is a man-on-man battle in the saddle to see who can win the biggest cycling test on the planet, and for the 45 minutes it takes to climb Plateau de Beille, for example, that's really all that matters. Drug use is something that must be stamped out, that's unquestionable, but you still get to watch the greatest riders in the world do battle, and that's the reason to watch the Tour.

Finally, cycling is a beautiful sport. We are attracted to cycling for different reasons. However, one dominant theme for all of us is that cycling is, indeed, a beautiful sport. There is something very special about watching the peleton roll along a country road, or shatter to bits as riders attack up a climb. The dramas and battles that the riders fight during a race all seem so human, and somehow this strikes a chord deep down in all of us who are drawn to cycling. The sport has a rich and deep history, and therefore is steeped in tradition and its own culture. Admittedly, that culture is rife with doping. But regardless of any cries of cheating (and we know cycling is rife with these, too!), it remains beautiful and majestic to watch.

So do not let it get you down. In the end it is a magical sport and carries with it all the human drama and battles that keep us coming back for more. Drugs or not, it is a spectacular sight to see riders attack each other on a legendary climb, and drugs or not, it is an incredible feat to do what these athletes do. They are all talented athletes, and to watch them perform and push themselves to the limit stirs something deep within us.

So watch with confidence, vote in our online poll on who you think will win, and try not to let the current state of the sport get you down!