Nutritionist and Naturopath Cliff Harvey of FITNET writes An adaptogen is simply put, any substance that aids the body in adapting to stressors placed upon it.

Adaptogenic herbs are supposed to meet the following criteria:

• The plant must be nontoxic and totally harmless to the body. It must allow the continuing normal physiological of the individual.

• The action it exerts must be nonspecific and should maintain normal body functions despite a wide range of onslaughts to the body (i.e. stress).

• It should normalize body functions irrespective of existing pathological conditions

It is in the area of enhanced stress adaptation that adaptogens are regarded as potentially useful.

Dr. Hans Selye, the endocrinologist who first defined the stress model, described any stress response as potentially having three distinct phases:

Stage One: Alarm

Release of the stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol, occur in this stage. Valuable in the short term, these hormones become disruptive to effective cellular function over a long period of time such as prolonged exercise or intense exercise such as hyperatrophy ina gym session.. Cortisol, for example, is a hormone with wide ranging effects on tissues throughout the body. One of the most widely recognized is its immunosuppressive effect. But it also has a negative impact on energy regulation. Cortisol decreases the movement of glucose from the bloodstream into muscle cells (and several other types of cell). This is meant to be a protective response, conserving blood glucose for essential functions, such as brain activity. However, during any prolonged stress, cortisol decreases the availability of this energy to any animal.

Stage Two: Resistance

This is when adaptive changes in the athlete occur. Increased fitness is a perfect example of an adaptive response to physical stress. It is the basis of all modern training programs for endurance sport. When the adaptation occurs, the animal returns to “homeostasis” or normal equilibrium. However, each individual’s capacity to adapt is limited and completely unique, limited of course by genetically imposed margins.. Overwhelm the individual’s adaptive capacity, and you risk illness or injury. Overtraining is the classic example in this regard.

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Maybe I have been watching too much Marky Mark of late but I can’t help but feel endurance athletes snub the old school skipping rope as being gym and boxing specific and do so at their peril.

Time to think again.

Ye olde fashioned skipping rope is a cost effective, convenient and useful training device, helping to hone:

• Agility
• Speed
• Endurance

It’s an ideal cross training and wet weather tool.

Be warned though, it’s not as easy as it looks, particularly as you look to learn new skip patterns.

To kick off you need to purchase a quality rope; I snapped one up at a Kathmandu sale for $NZ10; a durable, adjustable light weight plastic speed rope. The taller you are, the longer the rope you will require.

A simple method for ascertaining the right length for you is to step one foot in the middle of the rope. The handles should reach up to your armpits.

It’s best to use a pliant rebound surface such as a wooden gym floor, carpet, grass but safe to say concrete is not a preferred option.

If you are something of a gumby, before you worry yourself about routines first learn to perfect the basic technique. If you have children in your family who skip, you could do worse than watch them for tips and ally that with a trawl through YOUTUBE for skipping hints and techniques.

A good start is to aim to skip for 20 steps without falling. Once you become more confident and competent you can look at some short interval style sessions aiming to complete 60 second skipping with 90 second breaks and building to 10 reps.

You can evolve from here to more endurance centred work-outs with 6 to 12 x 3 minutes skipping with 6- seconds between reps and 4-6 minutes between sets.

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These i-RULE TEHO ( Finnish for “power”) are wild looking out of the box seemingly more high fashion than high mileage. When I first held them I was astonished by the weight or more specifically the lack thereof. The wet-look fabric has a superfine soft matte against the skin layer which is super snug and comfortable but the shiny outer is certainly fashion-forward.

Design-wise you can see the clear DNA inherited from i-RULE’s best selling multi-sport product the MOTUS but the TEHOs have set off on a divergent path specifically adapting to the needs of runners. Although you will see the Pocketplex pockets as standard MOTUS fare what you will not see is the hitherto ever-present i-RULE nanochamois or ubiquitous leg rippers. The chamois is gone along with the centre seam design element.

The TEHOs provide a flat seam “harness” around the groin and glutes to ensure stability and support. This design works effectively for me on the track, the road, trail and beach helping retain a good running shape.

The fabric known as Revolutional GLOSS from Italian mill Carvico breathes well, dries quickly, and affords unparalleled UV protection for the runner as well as being able to keep sand and dirt out. Having had a test pair of the shorts for 4 months I have been impressed by their ability to retain their shape which given their tissue paper weight was quite surprising. . Because Revolutional incorporates a large portion of Active Lycra as used in over-hyped compression products the TEHOs do provide terrific compression-like support although i-RULE are not talking this up.

The TEHOs are available as a standard pair of “shorts” and as a full length model for cross season and ultra work. I have to say I felt my long TEHO were poured on and have become something of a second skin; the small, angled ankle zips a blessing for easy entry and exit! It’s always a relief to run-ride-paddle climb in the award-winning MOTUS bit I tell you what it’s amazing to just run in these new TEHOS without the nanochamois and to have no centre seam - bliss!! I have never run in  anything this light before you feel naked.

Who will wear these? Runners who are not shy for one They won’t be for everybody, there will be those who will continue to wear their cheap, nasty poly cotton gusseted 1970’s running shorts with the usual loud and

proud branding and there will be those who “get”i-RULE who simply want the soundest, sleekest most effective product to run in.

TEHOS product page

When looking to improve your hill climbing performance whether it be for MTB marathon racing or multi-sport events there is a need to pay attention to bio-mechanical and physiological variables when formulating the improvement program.

A key tenet of effective hill climbing draws upon the immutable universal law of gravity and accepts and understands the need to lose mass for best effect. If you want to go uphill faster, lose weight. The aim is to maximise power output in watts per kg of bodyweight.

Along with shaving your weight, we would advise booking into your nearest fitness testing service provider and measuring your VO2 max and lactate threshold so you have a baseline to work from when you are planning your overall program; one that sensibly incorporates those periodised elements meant to address improved hill climbing.

Remember, you are looking to climb hills with maximum efficiency and thereby minimal wasted energy this means adapting your physical and mental capabilities along with your technique and gearing; optimal power output comes with this.

Typically, The key to improving your climbing is to increase your maximum sustainable power output. You’re goal is to be able to maintain a higher pace from the base of the climb to its zenith. The workouts that allow you to evolve to this level of constant power output are typically based on long intervals done at just below your lactate threshold. Lactate threshold has been shown to be as high as 90% of VO2max in professional cyclists

Lactate threshold is the best predictor of endurance performance, because it considers several variables – lactate production, lactate clearance, and also exercise economy. Riding with an inefficient technique squanders energy at high rates and encroaching on aerobic limits far too early. Paying attention to technique and with it, improving economy, will push out your aerobic boundary and impede lactate production. Becoming a strong hill climber means more than just inserting and completing the right interval progression in your program, it requires you to address bike fit, gearing and pedaling as an adjunct means to greater efficiency and a higher lactate threshold.

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The fresh new  TAUPO picks up where its predecessor the PARCOURS left off.  Aimed squarely at those who prefer the green merits, comfort and thermo-regularity afforded by merino to run in. It has been used in events as diverse as parcours filming, expedition adventure racing, rogaines and medal presentations. In that sense it is a true cross training T.

The new colour way is smart and urbane, serviceable and pragmatic, being  made of the proven, surprisingly long wearing,  soft, light merino lycra. This allows the runner great supported freedom of movement.  The fabric retains its shape after washing and or running in the wet. As you would expect the  amazing natural thermo regulation quality of fine merino works wonderfully well in varied climatic conditions; it kept me at a constant temperature mid run and cooling down; no clammy chills.

The stand-out rear vent panel is a much flatter and better integrated feature of the TAUPO than the PARCOURS made of a lighter, smoother merino-lycra mesh.  This design portion acts to accelerate cooling in the hottest areas of your back that require additional venting but without over reaching moisture loss.

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Long time altDIRT readers should be familiar with the term VO2 max that describes your maximal aerobic output or maximal oxygen uptake or more specifically defined as the maximum amount of oxygen in millilitres a person can use in one minute per kg of body weight. or how well you can perform at your highest level of output. Your VO2 max is a measure of the maximal amount of oxygen your body can process to produce energy.

For many years VO2 max was considered the most reliable indicator of fitness level and race potential. That made a lot of sense when you consider that most of the energy to fuel your running is produced aerobically. Today we know that there are better indicators of your running fitness and potential. It takes more than a large engine to succeed, you also need an efficiently operating machine.

These newer indicators are Velocity at VO2 max (vVO2 max) which is,simply put, how fast you run at VO2 max. For example, if you run around 16 km/h at VO2 max, then 95% of your velocity at VO2 max would be 15.2 km/h. The other indicator being tim@vVO2 max or time limit at velocity at VO2 max and is a measure of how long your can maintain that pace. if you compare two runners with the same vVO2 max levels, the more successful runner will maintain their vVO2 max pace for the longer period of time – the runner with the superior tlim@vVO2 max.

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Clearly, anybody who has raced a 24 hour, 48 hour or expedition event will attest to the dramatic effect sleep deprivation has on performance and recovery.  The devastating effect that poor sleep has on health and well being was recently bought to the fore by the meltdown of players and coaches in the AFL who routinely take a plethora of legal uppers to get ready for night games and then prescription sedatives afterward to try and grasp somesleep. Getting the balance seems elusive.

Events to one side, quite often the juggling of exhaustive training loads with work, study and family comes at the cost of regular sleep.

Research over the past decade has looked to understand exactly what the metabolic and performance downsides are of disrupted and truncated sleep patterns.

Eve Van Cauter, Ph.D., (University of Chicago Medical School) in 1999, studied the effects of three different durations of sleep in 11 men ages 18 to 27. For the first three nights of the study, the men slept eight hours per night; for the next six nights, they slept four hours per night; for the last seven nights, they slept 12 hours per night.

Results showed that after four hours of sleep per night (the sleep deprivation period), they metabolized glucose least efficiently. Levels of the stress hormone cortisol (a by product also in abundance post heavy resistance exercise) were also higher during sleep deprivation periods.

This has been linked to memory impairment, age-related insulin resistance, and impaired recovery in athletes.

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