Tri Talk Triathlon Podcast

The audio for this podcast can be found here

The research survey mentioned in the podcast can be found here.

Heat acclimation, altitude training, and saline pools. It’s a hot, high, and somewhat salty episode, today on Tri Talk.

Welcome to Tri Talk, your podcast source for triathlon tips, training, news and more. Most new listeners this week came from London, one of Tri Talk’s earliest and strongest geographies. With the stressful events that have taken place there in the UK the last couple of days, my thoughts are with you. Also, I want to say hello to the small listening force from the Republic of Moldova. I have to admit, I had to get out the atlas for that one. My goal at Tri Talk is to help you swim, bike, and run faster, to meet your personal triathlon goals. Whether you are an elite or amateur triathlete, we cover sprint distance to Ironman distance. I’m your host, David Warden, and this is Tri Talk episode 44.

Today’s episode is heavy in the physiology, but it promises to help you define what will help you swim bike and run faster, and what may not help you swim, bike and run faster. Altitude training is a consistent question to my e-mail inbox, it turns out to be a fascinating topic. We’ll look at what research shows and does not show about altitude training. Also, one of the most under-rated training elements in all of triathlon is heat acclimation. If you plan on racing at all in any weather over 80 degrees, you will want to hear why and how this type of training is so important. Finally, I’ll take a brief look at saline pools, very brief but noteworthy.

You can send in your comments and questions to david@tri-talk.com, and don’t forget to visit the Tri Talk website at www.tri-talk.com for episode transcripts, videos, surveys, original research and archived unpublished episodes. If you have only listened to half of available Tri Talk episodes, you’ll only be half as fast.

You’ll recall my interview with Ryan Danforth of PowerTri.com from episode 43, and his remarkable improvement since incorporating the training elements discussed on Tri Talk. As you heard last episode, Ryan came in 2nd in his division at his first sprint-distance race of the season 2 weeks ago. I’m happy to report that in Ryan’s first Olympic-distance event of this year, just one week after he recorded his interview with me in episode 43, he placed 1st in his division and 4th overall at his second race of the season. And just like his first event, he managed to do that well without a taper, coming into the race with over 10 hours of training in the previous 5 days. With all due respect to Ryan and his dedication, and all due respect to me as a coach, if Ryan can do it, anybody can do it. These training and racing principles work. We’ll keep you posted on his progress.

Congratulations to Lou of Garfield Heights, Ohio who was the 5th e-mailer and picked up a free Tempo Trainer discussed in episode 43. Now I have a message for Lou of Garfield Heights, Ohio. Ryan forwarded me the e-mail you sent him which, in part, stated “I hope you beat David in a race soon”. Lou, I’m sure that you were simply trying to kiss-up to Ryan to increase your chances of winning the Tempo Trainer, but I can’t allow that kind of propaganda to go unchallenged. One of the qualities of Tri Talk, that separates it from other podcasts, it that it is rooted in reality. Fantasy has no place in my production nor coaching style, and I would hate for Ryan to begin to get delusions of events that will never take place.

Moving on. I am happy to report that the first Tri Talk research survey is now available on-line at www.tri-talk.com. I am interested in gathering some non-traditional statistics on triathletes in relation to their performance. For example, how much faster is a triathlete based on income? How much faster based on height? It is easy to get data on triathletes on age and gender, any one of us can download that from any event. What I am hoping to accomplish is to see what coorelation there is to other factors outside of age and gender. But I can’t do it without your help. If Tri Talk has been a useful tool for you there are really just 2 things I ask of you as a listener. First, to write me a review in your podcast directory of choice, such as iTunes, and second, if I can ask for your consideration in participation in helping me collect this data by taking part in the survey. Go to www.tri-talk.com and click on Research and Surveys, and you’ll be done in just a few minutes.

Let’s get on to the good stuff! The issue of altitude training has quickly risen as one of the most requested topics for Tri Talk. What should you do if you live high and race low? What about living low and racing high? Will you be faster if you schedule all of your races for sea-level? It’s a fascinating topic, and one that I am excited to discuss today.

Let’s first review a couple of facts about oxygen and altitude. The reason we as athletes care about altitude, is that we recognize that the amount of oxygen decreases as altitude increases, and oxygen is the catalyst required to burn our fuel for performance. Just like the choke on your car or lawn mower, if you restrict the amount of oxygen, power output decreases. Note that although the amount of oxygen in the air decreases as you increase in elevation, the percentage of oxygen in relation to the air we breath does not change. At any altitude, the percentage of oxygen in the air is always about 21%, with nitrogen at about 79%, and carbon dioxide at 0.03%. The air pressure is reduced as you increase in elevation, but the percentage of each gas in that thinner air stays the same. I did not know before I looked into this that carbon dioxide only represented 0.03% of the atmosphere.

Also, what you may not have known, is that not only does your body need oxygen, but you your body depends on sufficient air pressure to deliver oxygen from the blood to the muscles, effectively squeezing it from the blood to the muscles. At significantly high altitudes, there is not enough air pressure to deliver that oxygen.

The first thing to note about training and racing in regards to altitude, is something that immediately mitigates the importance of altitude in regards to endurance training. Any training, living, or racing that takes place under 5,000 feet is not significantly impacted by altitude. When we look at the impact on training and racing, anything under 5,000 feet, or about 1,500 meters is a wash. If you live like me at 4,300 feet, and race at sea-level, you will see almost no performance improvement. If you live at sea-level, and are worried about racing at 4,000 feet, there is really nothing to worry about. The discussion of the performance impact of altitude on training and racing does not become relevant until the athlete crosses over from one side to the other of that 5,000 threshold.

There are two reasons for this. First, the change in air density from sea-level to 5,000 feet is very small. There is not a significantly reduced amount of oxygen available to the athlete, nor a significantly reduced amount of air pressure to effect delivery of oxygen from the blood to the muscles. Second, because the air is less dense at higher altitudes, you are able to ventilate greater volumes of air, and get in the oxygen you need anyway. It isn’t until over 5,000 feet that the benefits of increased ventilation due to decreased air density become secondary to the impact of significantly reduced oxygen availability. And the effects are not linear. There is a sharp change in physiological response to altitude as you get higher and higher.

There are very few major metropolitan areas that are over 5,000 feet. I’m sure that there are many Tri Talk listeners who do live over 5,000 feet. Or, conversely, perhaps you live under 5,000 feet but have a race that will take place over 5,000 feet, and are concerned how it will impact you. Let’s talk about how altitude training and racing may affect an athlete who does cross from one side to the other of that 5,000 foot threshold.

There has been talk for years of the benefits of training at high altitude. What comes to mind first are those spectacular Kenyan runners, dominating distance running, and the stories of them living and running at 10,000 feet. However, there is very little other than anecdotal evidence to support this, plus, these runners spend less time training at high altitude than you think. I’ll elaborate on both of these points.

Training at high altitude, again above 5,000 feet, does provide an increase in red blood cells to improve oxygen delivery at sea levels, but that effect only lasts several days. Plus, remember that performance is not limited to your ability to process oxygen. Consistent training at high altitude limits your intensity. You simply will not be able to go as fast and develop the same slow-twitch or fast-twitch muscles. That reduced intensity at high altitude means you won’t be impacting your joints and muscles in the same way as you could at lower altitudes. The bottom line is that recent studies show that training at altitude does not improve sea-level performance more than good sea-level training does.

OK, what about the opposite. What if you live low and race over 5,000 feet? Yes, you may see a reduced performance impact under those conditions, and will definitely see them as you begin to race well over 5,000 feet. According to research, the best way to mitigate these conditions is to compete within 24 hours of arrival at those altitudes. Another option is to train at least 2 weeks after arrival at that altitude, but with better results with up to 6 weeks of training at the altitude prior to race-day.

Now, surely, altitude training must come into effect somewhere for a triathlete. There is one proven condition in which an athlete will see a benefit from altitude training on race day, and that is living high and training low.

Two fascinating articles as published in the Journal of Applied Physiology in 1997 and by the same researcher again in 2001 helped clarify how high altitude, such as used by those Kenyan runners, can improve performance. In the first study they took 39 competitive runners and divided them into 3 groups. One group lived high and trained high. One group lived high and trained low, and one group lived low and trained low. In this case high means 8,000 feet, and low means 4100 feet or less. The only group that showed an increase in running performance were those that lived high and trained low.

The second study took 22 elite runners, of which 20 were ranked in the top 50 runners in the US. These runners lived at 8,200 feet and trained at 4,100 feet. These runners were able to increase their VO2 max by 3.2% from this intervention. A 3.2% increase in VO2 max for an already elite runner is an incredible increase, similar to what you would see from taking illegal performance enhancing drugs. This is what you find with the Kenyan runners, they live high, with some training high, but most of their training actually takes place in the lower altitudes.

OK, what are the take home points for triathletes. First, if you never cross 5,000 feet for your training or racing, it is a non-issue. If you live and train high and race low, you may see a small benefit from increased red cell production for the first few days at sea-level. If you live and train low and race high, you will see some negative performance impact, which can be minimized by either racing within 24 hours of arriving at 5,000+ feet of altitude, or by training from 2-6 weeks at that elevation before the race. The best conditions for utilizing altitude training are to live high and train low, with research only indicating benefit from living at over 8,000 feet. It is possible, that if you live at over 5,000 feet, and are able to regularly train at sea level, this might be a practical solution for you. However, I am unaware of many places in the world where there is a reasonable population that can descend over 5,000 feet each day to train at sea-level. I’m sure there are, but I’m not aware of them.

Of course, the next-best thing would be to sleep in high-nitrogen tent that simulated high altitude, and then train at your regular low altitude. Both of these options seem impractical for the age-group, and even the professional triathlete.

Moving on. I was impressed to research this next topic after watching some runners come across the finish line at a race that took place on an unusually hot day. This picture that I saw of a runner crossing the finish line in the heat may be familiar to you. Slow, beet red, and a shirt caked with a salty residue. All 3 of those outward signs are classic symptoms of a triathlete who has not been acclimated to heat.

I think that many athletes, understandably, must perform their training in relatively cool conditions. If you have to train in the morning, it is usually cool. Or if you are training in a fitness center, the ambient room temperature is relatively mild. The result is often that the athlete finds themselves racing in temperatures for which they never trained.

It is almost impossible to find a half-Ironman or Ironman distance race where the athlete would not find themselves running in some moderate heat. Even an Olympic-distance race with a start time of 7:00 would find most athletes out on the run at 9:30. Throw in wave starts and start delays, and it is not uncommon for runners in an Olympic-distance race for runners to still be out running at 11:00. The cruel irony is that the slower you are, the longer you will be out running in the heat. If you plan on racing this year in an event that has the chance of you running into temperatures exceeding 80 degrees, here are the reasons why and ways you can prepare for heat.

The most obvious thing that heat acclimation does is train your body to more efficiently eliminate excess body heat. For example, less blood has to flow to the skin for body heat transfer, and so more blood is available to the muscles for performance. Those two systems, skin and muscles, literally have to compete for blood when exercising in the heat. The muscles need the blood to carry the oxygen for activity, and the skin wants the blood to facilitate cooling by bringing the blood and heat to the surface. This is why athletes who are not heat acclimated are so red in the face. All that blood is flowing to the skin in order to radiate the heat away. Second, sweat is more diluted in heat-trained athletes. Why is that important? More electrolytes remain in your system. Those of you who experience muscle cramping when racing may also benefit from heat acclimation. This is the cause of those salt-caked visors, jerseys and shorts, too much mineral loss. You can reduce this mineral loss from heat acclimation, which will dilute that sweat to contain less minerals.

Finally, probably the most important reason to train for the heat, is that it reduces the rate of muscle glycogen consumption by as much as 50% to 60%. Holy cow! What happens as your body heats up, is that your while physiology has to speed up with it. As your internal heat increases, your body has to use more energy to cool it down. It sounds crazy, but it takes a tremendous amount of energy to cool a system. The more efficient you become at eliminating excess body heat, the less energy your body has to use to regulate temperature, and the less glycogen you will use. 50-60% reduction in glycogen use is an extraordinary savings. Your entire nutrition plan for any race longer than 2 hours could be completely shot by this fact alone. Imaging training for your A race of the year, having a finely tuned nutrition plan from training, and then suddenly having your body at a certain point in the race need 50-60% more glycogen for the same performance. You could easily run out.

Another note on heat acclimation. I talked about how some systems speed up in response to heat. I discussed this in a previous Tri Talk episode, that your heart rate at the same given speed will be up to 25 beats per minute faster in the heat. If you use heart rate to measure your intensity, you could be way off your zones when training or racing in heat.

The good news is that you can become successfully acclimated to the heat, and the negative effects of heart rate, mineral loss, excess heat and glycogen use can all be mitigated through training. By simply training for about an hour a day for 5-10 days, you can become sufficiently acclimated to overcome the much of the performance impact of racing in the heat. But, please be careful! Your intensity for the first few days of heat acclimation training should be reduced considerably, and of course be aware of increased needs of fluids and electrolytes for those first few days of heat training. It is also important to note that those adaptations are fleeting, only lasting about 10 days before you would need to train for heat acclimation again.

I was discussing the topic of heat acclimation last night at home, and my wife, who is as sharp as a tack, pointed out, how can you train for heat for 5-10 days for an hour a day, and incorporate that into a taper? Good questions. For shorter races in particular, you are not going to want to train for an hour a day in the heat right up until the race. Who’s going to run for an hour in the heat the day before an important race? Fortunately, since the effects of heat acclimation remain for up to 10 days, you could end your heat acclimation training a week prior to your event, taper properly, and still be adapted for the heat on race day.

Wrapping things up, I’d like to take just a few minutes and respond to an e-mail from Bree in Kodiak, Alaska who asks about saline pools and writes “The pool at the high school was just switched from chlorine. I did not know they were making the switch, but I immediately knew something was different. I swam a 1000 yard time-trial right after the switch and improved by about 1 minute. I was stoked…until I realized that I was swimming in saline and now I want to know if my improvement is legit or just a factor of the salt.”

Bree, don’t count out the fact that maybe you just had a smokin’ swim that day. Most of you have already realized that the likely reason for any improvement in a saline pool would be some added buoyancy. Our bodies are less dense than the higher-density salt-water, and so we float. But would there be any disadvantage from the potentially increased density of the water, would that increase drag. Although I could not find anything concrete on swimming in saline, there is consensus that at least for boats, salt water means a faster trip. The benefits from buoyancy in salt water seem to outweigh any disadvantage from added density and drag. One could possibly assume that a swimmer would see the same result. However, saline pools have 2,500 ppm as opposed to 20,000 ppm of salt for the ocean, so the buoyancy for swimmers in a saline pool is low relative to the ocean.

However, chlorinated water makes a swimmer less buoyant than fresh water or salt water. The chlorine gas the pool makes the water less dense, and therefore swimmers theoretically become less buoyant in chlorinated water.

So, to answer Bree’s question, I don’t know. At first I thought that you could take the information on boats in salt water, the fact that chlorine reduces buoyancy while saline adds buoyancy, plus add your anecdotal evidence of your significantly improved time trial in saline, and there may be a case. I don’t think you could take a look at ocean swim times and determine if they were faster on average than fresh water swims, since ocean and even closed bay swims are more likely to be effected by chop and currents, and there are just too many variables.

But then I also thought, has there even been any correlation between swimming world records and chlorine or saline content in the water? Are there rules on that? So I looked up the international rules of swimming from FINA, the world governing body for swimming. It turns out that the rules state only that the pool must comply with local health regulations. It does specify that water temperature must be 25-28 degrees celcius, but it does not specifically ban or endorse saline, or even state the chlorine ratios, just that it meets local health standards. Does this mean the host of a world championship or Olympic event can choose saline over chlorine? Has that even happened? I’m going to need some help from the Tri Talk listeners on this one. Since I don’t have a competitive swimming background, can I count on one of you to educate me on the role of saline pools at world-class swim events. I am reminded of the fact that a 100-meter run world record can be nullified by more than a certain tailwind. It seems to me that with water so much more dense, that would be some sort of rule about water composition in swimming. Also, thanks to my browsing through FINA’s regulations, I learned that all competitors’ swimwear shall be non-transparent. Good to know.

What I am also interested in, is have any of you noted any significant difference in your hair or skin quality after switching to a saline pool. Or even if your swim suit has held up any longer. Sometimes that chlorine eats at my suit, and I think I may have been guilty once or twice of breaking that non-transparent swimwear rule.

Thanks again for listening to the podcast. Best of luck to all of you as we are now in the thick of racing season. A quick testimony for you that fitness is sport specific. I went wakeboarding for the first time 2 days ago, and I can still hardly move. Triathlon fitness does not automatically cross over into other sports. I am sore in every part of my body. It could be from using different stabilizer muscles, or it could be from slamming into the water at 25 miles per hour about 50 times. I’ll be back on July 15 for episode 45, see you next time.