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Edited Date/Time
6/3/2014 9:23pm
Lakewood Colorado hosts round three of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship. Thunder Valley sits at roughly 5,480 feet, a staggering 5,360 feet above the Hangtown track.
As most of us know, the altitude has a significant detrimental affect on both the bikes and the riders. Often times MMA fighters who are scheduled for a fight in Denver conduct their entire training camp at altitude in order to prepare and acclimate.
Are pro motocross riders doing anything different to anticipate and adjust to the thin air, or are they simply treating round three like any other round? Are they showing up earlier than they normally would?
As most of us know, the altitude has a significant detrimental affect on both the bikes and the riders. Often times MMA fighters who are scheduled for a fight in Denver conduct their entire training camp at altitude in order to prepare and acclimate.
Are pro motocross riders doing anything different to anticipate and adjust to the thin air, or are they simply treating round three like any other round? Are they showing up earlier than they normally would?
When me and a buddy were planning to ride in Colorado, he showed me a mountain climber trick of taking Dymethyl Glycene (DMG). It helps the body process oxygen easier, and allows you to acclimate quicker. I don't recall getting winded or short of breath even after a few days of riding, some of it was hard single track. You have to start a couple days before, and then ease into it.
So I wonder if DMG, and over the counter supplement that you can buy at any vitamin store, is allowed by the AMA?
The Shop
Common practice if an athlete is only to spend 1-2 days max competing is to show up as late as possible to event and compete. Any longer then that and your body will start feeling the effects of the altitude.
Sleep High Train Low is the accepted formula for reaping the benefits of altitude. Research has show 2-5% increase in hematocrit which to some this could be a huge difference. The only way to get this, is to purchase an altitude tent.
When I was working with Tucker Hibbert I had suggested using the altitude tent prior to competing at Winter X Games. We started 6 months out slowly increasing altitude per company protocol. When he arrived he didn't notice the altitude and was able to test and race without complications.
http://mmatrainingbible.com/2012/08/21/the-truth-about-gas-mask-training/
Real decompression units require MEDICAL DOCTOR supervision because of the use of pure oxygen. The unit pictured about uses a bicycle pump not O2.
100 push ups a day in one of these
So you don’t go into oxygen debt and anaerobic at altitude, rather your brain just shuts down leg control and stops the power. So should any rider arrive 3 days before, it will be the worst possible time.
After 3 days your liver starts to produce lots of protein and your blood volume expands again. You also produce lots of red blood cells. After 5 days at altitude your performance will return to when you first arrived and will then improve. So its therefore recommend that you either arrive the day of the race or the evening before or stay for at least a week before the race which is often not possible with testing etc.
When you drop to lower altitude after a period of altitude training, the protein is lost again but the red blood cells stick around for about 120 days. So as a result your haematocrit goes up and you can sometimes benefit from this with improved performance. However, the low intensity that you have to sustain at altitude means that you can often lose form if you stay too long or if you do this a few weeks before a big race. This is why most of the studies on altitude training show no benefit to performance at sea level. However, that said, the best time for altitude training is 6-8 weeks before a big event.
All of this is also not a huge factor for a once off mx race with regards to adaptations due to the race being a 1 day event.
Pit Row
I heard a special herb helps at high altitude in south america, but I am not sure you will pass the PED spectator test.
Also, even though its counter-intuitive because of the elevation, I think Pourcel will do well because just watching him, it seems like he would be able to go the fastest while also having a lower heart rate than most of the other riders.
I have learned over a period of 30+ years that altitude has a different effect on young vs old, highly trained vs couch potato and what you do when you arrive at altitude. Being a skier/snowboarder we have traveled to altitude many, many times. The young kids really felt it, the teens not as much and the oldest in our groups always felt it the most. The higher your level of fitness the less overall effect it has.
I train 4-5 days per week and have a very disciplined diet and hydration program but age is catching up to me.
Last winter my 16 yr old son and I skied some backcountry hike in terrain at 12,000 - 13,500 ft elevation. We went pretty hard the first day(it was a powder day) and for one of the first times in my life I felt the effects that night. Elevated resting heart rate, sleeplessness etc. By day four I had recovered fully and felt great but those days in between were tough. We skied each day but not nearly as hard as usual.
Adjusting to 6000 +/- ft elevation is much easier than 12k + but if it were me I would have flown directly to Denver and spent the entire week at altitude to adjust as much as possible. When races are won or lost on the smallest details, it may be the difference between hero and zero.
Simon
Simon
I had to take 1 of them to the Oxygen Bar and it fixed him up real quick. He was having headaches, dizzyness, etc.
A dose of pure oxygen and he was ready to go. Great smoothies too!
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