During our swimming careers we have all experienced the feeling of "being in-shape" and not quite "in-shape".
My question is this; From a physiological or Kinesiological standpoint, what is happening in your body when you can so easily go from being in-shape to losing that in a matter of a week or two?
I'm an old masters swimmer now but even swimming High School, Club or College whenever I would go on a vacation or get sick for a week, it took two - three weeks to get back to where I was before the vacation or sickness?
What is happening in our body when we can swim a 1:07 BR and then two weeks later can't break 1:10???
Thanks in advance for your answers and opinions...
:confused:
Jazz Hands wasn't around in the '70s, so he hasn't heard about biorhythms like us older folks have. The biorhythm fad seems to have gone the way of earth shoes and pet rocks. :)
Jazz Hands wasn't around in the '70s, so he hasn't heard about biorhythms like us older folks have. The biorhythm fad seems to have gone the way of earth shoes and pet rocks. :)
Remember the biorhythm calculators? A college roommate had a graphing one that would print out little 4" wide colored charts of what in retrospect was probably total nonsense. The TI (Texas Instruments, not Total Immersion) programmers were probably giggling like mad when they wrote the code.
My question is this; From a physiological or Kinesiological standpoint, what is happening in your body when you can so easily go from being in-shape to losing that in a matter of a week or two? First let's agree that not everything is being lost in a matter of a week or two.
The loss in fitness that occurs in such a small period of time is mainly due to a drop in cardiac output (caused by a drop of plasma volume) as well as a drop of intramitochondrial enzyme efficiency.
Think of those enzymes as being the employees that process a large portion of metabolic functions within the mitochondria. With fitness, these employees are capable of processing more metabolic at a higher rate. With a two week brake, they just need a week or two to regain this loss efficiency.
Also, some hormones tend to overreact a bit after this sort of break. Drop in cardiac output along with increased activity of adrenalin for instance tend to increase the heart rate (sometimes considerably).
Brett,
It all comes down to adapatations. Muscular and neurological. The human body is amazing in it's ability to adapt to increased physical demands (by creating more/dense/longer muscle fiber, by adding additional neuro pathways, becoming more efficient at oxygen/energy usage, adding more red blood cells for oxygen transport, etc) but the flip side is the body is also inherently lazy so when those increased physical demands are removed, then the adaptations made are no longer required and the body no longer allocates the necessary resources to support them and so those adaptations atrophy.
Thanks again for these answers, they all make perfect sense!
I had swine flu and was sick with a high temperature for six days. I missed two weeks of training. The first two sessions back I probably wasn't fit and got bumped down from my normal lane with the coach telling me I need to give my body a chance to catch up
Fact is I wasn't ready to get back in the pool!
I think my defences were down and I got sicker than I have since I was 13. Facts is I needed a rest and my body told me to stay in bed.
Two weeks later and I'm back on it and feel better than any time in last two months. Swimming better and much more energetic than I have been for ages. Could it be that I had other sub-clincial infections which finally flourished as well?
Anyway - rest, rest, rest and worry about swimming fast when you are well.
I had swine flu and was sick with a high temperature for six days. I missed two weeks of training. The first two sessions back I probably wasn't fit and got bumped down from my normal lane with the coach telling me I need to give my body a chance to catch up
Fact is I wasn't ready to get back in the pool!
I think my defences were down and I got sicker than I have since I was 13. Facts is I needed a rest and my body told me to stay in bed.
Two weeks later and I'm back on it and feel better than any time in last two months. Swimming better and much more energetic than I have been for ages. Could it be that I had other sub-clincial infections which finally flourished as well?
Anyway - rest, rest, rest and worry about swimming fast when you are well.
Agree- prior to getting sick i was swimming two workouts a day 2000yrds/3400yards. after i got past the bad week (high fever, superball phlemn, etc) i started swimming 500 - 1200 yards a day at a slow to moderate speed so not to lose my "feel".
started feeling better yesterday (3 weeks after first getting this dam* virus) today did a short workout of 1500 yards; after a 400 yard warm-up swam a race set with alot of rest: 200 fr, 200 BR and a 50 BR.
In summary; I swam them as quick as my last swim meet and felt strong and rested!!
There is some truth to over-training for us old people and rest really helps.
It looks like i will have a 6 week taper going into Long Beach...
:cane:
Brett,
It all comes down to adapatations. Muscular and neurological. The human body is amazing in it's ability to adapt to increased physical demands (by creating more/dense/longer muscle fiber, by adding additional neuro pathways, becoming more efficient at oxygen/energy usage, adding more red blood cells for oxygen transport, etc) but the flip side is the body is also inherently lazy so when those increased physical demands are removed, then the adaptations made are no longer required and the body no longer allocates the necessary resources to support them and so those adaptations atrophy.
You know what? I've been in this business for what, little over 15y now.
These things happen quite often and it is never an issue. Especially in swimming. It would rarely take more than the period off the pool to get back to where you were.
The very nice thing though is that all little niggles here and there are gone. You are fully rested.
One other thing. I share your philosophy for myself (not for those I am responsible for). I never really stop when ill. I even try to book quality stuff anyway. Sometimes it works. Airways are fine I just cough at the end.
One exception. My last cold in September. I stopped for 3 days (I think). Difference? Quite big I found.
When I persist in training on some illness, I usually experiment a cool little peak when the bug quits my body. It didn't turn out this way last time. I could no longer book my threshold sets. And when the shape came back, there was not a slight peak.
