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THE AGELESS ATHLETE
June 12th 2024
BY MARTIN PARNELL AND MALC KENT
Chapter 12
All or Nothing (Part 1 of 2)
“Old age is like everything
else. To make a success of it, you’ve got
to start young.”
- THEODORE ROOSEVELT, US President
Martin
The week I returned
from Afghanistan I had a chance to catch up with
Malc. I shared with him the challenges of the route
around the Band-e-Amir National Park and running
at 11,000 feet. The biggest challenge was the tightness
in my chest and trying to get enough oxygen to maintain
a reasonable pace. Malc shared with me the impact
of running at a higher elevation and why some of
the elite athletes spend time training at these
elevations. I told Malc that I was feeling good
and ready to continue with my training.
Altitude Training
The goal of altitude training is to increase an
athlete’s proficiency in the use of oxygen,
which is critical for mid-endurance events like
marathons. There are two ways to do this. The first
is do the training outdoors, at an altitude, where
the air pressure (hypobaric) drops and decreases
the oxygen percentage (hypoxic). Less oxygen can
be absorbed into the bloodstream. Oxygen reception,
in the bloodstream, tells the kidneys to produce
erythropoietin, which is a hormone that stimulates
the production of red blood cells in the bone marrow.
Extra red blood cells, if you have enough iron to
make hemoglobin to go inside them, will give you
more oxygen-carrying capacity, which makes it easier
to run and increases efficiency....
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