Summing Up Detraining

Under ideal circumstances let's say we have our athlete in top form. Rigorous carefully planned training over many months has increased the volume, number and strength of muscle cells, muscle fascia hard and tight. Bone remodeling has produced true fracture resistance. The cardiovascular effects of our work, measurable: heart rate and blood pressure down, plasma volume up, max Vo2 (heart lung O2 to energy conversion) optimal, and the nervous system working efficiently. Energy producing mechanisms, ATP, aerobic and anaerobic have evolved to elite athlete status as has the horse's ability to treat muscle paralyzing lactic acid.

And then, for whatever reason, we stop. Forced layoff, planned layoff, injury, or my favorite one, trainer ignorance, we back off or cease training altogether.

The above recitation of what happens in the conditioning process is more my memory than any scientific account. Hopefully the reader will get the point. When we send the horse to the track, stuff happens physiologically to prepare the horse for the event. Conversely when we back off we go the other way.

And so, considering all this, we answer the question--how often do we send our horse to the track? I'll leave this for the next posts.

Training: Pictures tomorrow coming tomorrow with the new flashcard, hopefully, as all of KCMO currently paralyzed by a few raindrops. On the bright side, warmer than predicted, it's in the lower 30s as opposed to lower 20s. Steady rain last few hours, we'll see how it all shakes out in terms of training. They're both off today, but a little jumpy listening to tree branches snap.