It continues as a sick Eli Tomac perseveres to the podium at Ironman.
This reply isn't for you k01, but everyone.....
So is it the sport just too demanding, or just not resting enough? Airplane flights also contribute to this and in general are bad. Unhealthy air, change of time to the body clock ( some call it jet lag) etc. Or maybe he just caught a cold in August?
After listening to Aldon Baker today who was on the Pulp show last night, he talked a lot about heart rate. Yes, a depressed immune system would show an elevated resting morning heart rate for an individual. A depressed immune system is one of the symptoms, although not every time, of overtraining. No 2 people are the same, so you have to know what your resting heart rate is. That stuff about taking your age and subtracting your age from a number is so , so generic. It's really just a made up guideline if you do some research. It just doesn't mean AYTHING for an athlete. That stuff is for a 25 through 70 year old office worker, not an athlete. And these podcasters talking about 190 to 200 bpm for 35 minutes? No well conditioned athlete in MX, cycling or swimming can maintain that (again, there are /is someone who is an anomaly) . Your heart rate goes down as you increase your VO2 max ( Which comes from training ) and your resting heart rate goes DOWN the better you are conditioned. That means your heart pumps more volume of blood per beat and has more time to rest between beats. That is a good thing!!! It's a muscle too , remember? Your heart will have more time to rest and do the same amount of work!! So you can do more with less! Does that make sense?
These podcasters just spin a narrative about how gosh dang gnarly the sport is to get people to listen. It is gnarly, but they are so overboard! That is their job to get you to listen!
The guys down here train when they are injured/sick/raining/hot in the 100's/the day after a race because your perceived to be a sissy if you don't. C riders to pros and all in between. I've noticed Prado left here. He rode a ton here my wife said. An absolute ton! In 90 plus heat day after day after day. Wonder if that's why he's doing better in CA? Who knows, but he hasn't been here so maybe that's it or in CA, its cooler there , and Kawasaki has more bike recourses so his bike is better. Just spitballing here, I haven't a clue nor do I care. Hell, he might be riding 6 hours a day in CA for all I know. I am just happy he's showing some potential of what he CAN do..........
My wife has worked with a lot of the best. Today, the complex is doing things different here now than in the past. More isn't better, in her words. Too bad it doesn't work that way but it just doesn't for all but a few that are the anomaly in life ( HAAS/Martin/Carmichael). Dungey and Osborne will tell you that diet and resting are as much a factor as doing the physical work. Work smarter, not harder.
Diet. Oh man, that is a whole other story that none of you could believe with the fasting and how little some of these guys eat in the industry, while others eat 6,000 calories. Both work, but which is better? Carbs better than fat? Less calories and the same energy? How many calories does the body use to digest 6000 calories? Can sitting with a full stomach of pasta really be considered "resting" while digesting a 1/2 lb of pasta? Can it or does it affect recovery? Maybee, maybe not? There are some crazy answers out there now with science to back up both sides, but one seems to be better in the long run. Guess which one? Which athletic diet leads to ex athletes with higher rates of diabetes? Higher amounts of depression? WHOOOOAAAAA !!! That's another subject there!! Time will tell but the evidence is mounting in a much different way than we have been taught since the 80's...........