[Alain Parent]

Hello T3 and LC athletes and families. We are now in the season of harder work. We will do more intensity training than in the summer. The slow and steady training you did in the summer building aerobic capacity will come in handy. Don’t be scared by it, we will also have some recovery periods to help “digest” the hard work. The idea is to raise your anaerobic threshold – simply put, your “race fitness”.

Anaerobic Threshold (AT): The point during exercise when your body must switch from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism. The AT is a useful measure for deciding exercise intensity for training and racing (it is the point where you switch to zone 4 on your Personal Training Zone Calculator we gave you). The anaerobic system kicks in when the exercise intensity is increased and the aerobic system can no longer keep up with the body’s energy demand. This is the point at which you cross the AT. The body then burns stored sugars to supply the additional energy needed, and lactic acid is produced faster than it can be metabolized. Muscle fatigue makes anaerobic energy expenditure difficult to sustain for longer than a few minutes. The fitter you are, the longer you can sustain this high level of effort.

Health: It is really important that you are healthy at this time of year. I would like you to get a blood test if you haven’t done so back in the spring. If certain blood parameters were out of range (especially ferritin), then please get a retest now (ideal to get the blood drawn after a rest or easy training day). It would be great if you could get a copy of the results and forward to me – paper, electronic; whatever works. Let me know via email if you need a copy of the medical letter I sent you on May 28th.

A good read on iron and the endurance athlete here: http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/nutrition/iron-and-the-endurance-athlete.aspx

Individual meetings:
LC: Please sign up for an individual meeting if we haven’t met in the last 6 weeks. I will only meet with you if your ilog is up to date. Link here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjD4IpvHy8sWdC0yYURkajVKTXNhTm9fUmtfaFpzOXc&usp=drive_web#gid=0

T3: Matt is returning to Canmore in the next few days. He will post a new meeting schedule here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aj1K2FZmEZ2NdE5LcDNSS1hxa0VSaTNpMlQwbjA4ZUE&usp=drive_web#gid=0

Let’s have a great Movember 8) 8) 8)

[Author]

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