hmmm....

Big gulps, huh? Well once i decided to restart this I knew it would be important to post every couple days on this thing. I think what I will do is post whatever is on my mind. So in honor of cross country season here is some talk about oxygen debt.

So physiologically oxygen is basically free energy, it has no cost to us. We can burn, for all intents and purposes, a limitless amount of fat (and some carbs) and when combined with oxygen create energy. Now it is a long process (takes about 2 minutes to get going) so if you need energy quickly you will not be able to use oxygen quickly enough. Your body has other energy sources however they are limited.

Alternative 1: Creatine Phosphate

Basically a molecule of creatine phosphate is held together by energy, you have alot of these molecules in your muscle (also important reason to be a meat eater) When this molecule is broken apart that energy is realeased and you use it. The only problem is these bonds can not be rebuilt until you stop moving so after 10 seconds of all out activity you will burn through most of this fuel source. Since this is such a simple process, (1 step: separate creatine from phosphate) you can get energy from this quick.

Alternative 2: Lactic Acid

Your body can also burn carbs faster if it does it without oxygen, however, the lack of oxygen creates an excess of acid (acid is just hydrogen molecules, if there is oxygen they can combine to make water, H2O) Without oxygen acid builds up and there is a burning in the muscles, electircla impulses don't travel correctly causing a lack of coordination etc. You start to feel this after about 40 seconds of all out activity.


I love analogies so I will try to make one that works here. The energy you use from only the aerobic system is your salary, the better in shape you are (harder you work) the larger your salary is. You can think of the energy demand of a workout as your expenses. If you make 500 dollars and your expenses are 500 dollars or less there are no problems. If you can run a 6 minute mile and you run at that speed or slower you are fine. Now if you decide to get a cell phone and now your expenses go up to 550 and since your salary isn't enough you need to go to the ATM and take out 50 dollars from your savings account (Creatine phosphate). So our person can run a 6:00 mile no problem but they run at 5:30 speed now to go faster. In order to get that extra energy they use some create phosphate they have stored. (savings account) however it is limited and once it is gone it will not replenish, until you work some overtime. (eat meat) Now say you decide to get premium cable too so now your expenses go up from $550 to $650 and dipping into your savings in not enough. Now you need to take out a loan unfortunantly it will need to be paid back with interest. Back to our runner think of them now running at 5:00 min/mile pace which has a higher energy demand. Now the body needs to start breaking down carbs without oxygen to get energy, even though it creates acid (interest) and anything created will need to be paid back.

When we sprint all out we go too fast to use the oxygen system but after we finish we are breathing hard... why? Remember the aerobic system is free energy so when we finish we use that system to create energy and that energy is used not for running but to rebuild creatine phosphate molecules and buffer out the lactic acid. (when we run out of money we need to go back to work)

SO back to our runner one last time: They can run a 6 min/mile no prob. (90 second laps) If they run 85 second first lap they created 5 seconds of oxygen debt. Meaning those 5 seonds were gained by using some cretine phosphate and making acid. If on the second lap they also run an 85 now they have 10 seconds of oxygen debt and guess what your body can rebuild creatine phosphate or clear out the acid until you stop (go back to work to re supply your bank account and pay back your loan) by the third lap you run a 95 becasue your body needed to use the extra seconds to clear some of the acid. Unfortunantly you can't get rid of the creatine until you stop. Then on your last lap you push your self and run a 92 and feel horrible afterward becasue you are in oxygen depb, your body is breating really hard to create energy that will rebuilt creatine phosphate and buffer out the acid.

This unfortunantly is how a lot of runners run. They think they aren't running right unless they ae pushing themselves. That sample runner ended up with a 5:57.

A more ideal strategy is go out at 90 for the first 2 laps sure you are now 10 seconds behind the first runner, but you are only half way through the race you still have all of your creatine phosphate and no acid built up (most runners can't handle feeling this good so they go too fast) now you can put in a 87 second lap and on the last lap run a 80. This will give you a 5:47. The only real difference is this when you went fast and created acid in the first race you had to pay it back in lap 3 (which is during the race, not a good thing) in the second race you went fast in lap 4 and so you had to pay back the acid after the race was over. (plenty of time to do it then)

Sorry taht this was way longer then I expected