Altitude, heat and training: It's a topic that always attracts attention, especially in the summer. Nowadays, riders climb to altitude practically year-round, but that same altitude can also be counterproductive if not handled properly. The risk of overtraining is just around the corner.
In more or less recent times, there have been cases of riders who, after coming down from the hills, didn't perform as expected due to suspicion of overtraining. A couple of Italian riders at the last Giro, for example. Or Zalf at the U23 Giro two years ago and even the riders of the Ineos Grenadiers a few seasons ago after a long stay at high altitude and the subsequent Tour of Colombia. To delve deeper into this topic, we spoke to the coach Pino Toni.
Pine, altitude and overtraining: how is it possible that the two things coincide?
In theory, there are no conditions for overtraining at altitude. Those are physiological conditions, not performance-related ones. Today, overtrained riders don't get there at altitude, at least the top riders who are well followed, who train wisely. Then it's possible that they don't get the benefits they expected.
Yet the Ineos case of some time ago was sensational…
Attention, They didn't get the height wrong, they found someone who was faster than them. I don't know the exact numbers from that retreat, but they weren't low. It was simply that for the first time (or almost) they'd encountered someone who was faster than them.
The bar had been raised in the meantime… we were in the midst of Covid.
Exactly. I always remember the words of Inigo San Millán, the preparer of the UAE Emirates, when he said that If you don't have a baseline of 5,8 watts/kilowatt, you're not going anywhere. Over time, this threshold has risen. He said this because few had not yet done better. This year, for example, on the climbs of the Giro where they decided to race, they never dropped below 6 watts/kg, before the selection process and the attacks. Perhaps those in the lead were doing 6,2 watts/kg, and those in the covered group were doing 5.8, even in the third week: in any case, we're still talking about high values.
So, Pino, let's turn the question around: how can you perform poorly at altitude, so badly that you end up overtraining? Think, for example, of prolonged over-revving, sprinting...
Basically, you overtrain at altitude, or you work poorly, when you haven't adapted to the altitude, when you haven't respected the times and intensity. For me a great risk is given by the group. Let me explain: if there are several riders on the same program, someone who hasn't yet adapted well or is a little behind in condition might overdo it by hanging out with the others. Maybe he'll go faster. He works at an intensity that isn't his at that moment. And he doesn't recover. Another aspect is the feedback from the riders.
That?
Are we sure that riders always give the right feedback to their coaches? Athletes often tell you, "I'm fine," but maybe that's not entirely true. They may think they're fine, but these things shouldn't happen anymore today because There are physiological tools to measure these aspects.
Which?
For example the cardiac variance (the HRV) or the tools that detect the quality of sleep… This data, when cross-referenced with training data, tells you a lot about the rider's condition and their recovery in particular. And then you need to consider whether the guys are at altitude alone or with a trainer.
Does the presence of the coach change much?
Quite a lot. Net of the values reported by the instruments, which the tuner can also view remotely, The on-site coach sees his athletes face to face. He speaks to them more directly. Notice his behavior even after going out. If a guy goes down to the hotel after lunch, maybe watches a race on TV, talks and jokes with others, is active... while another stays sprawled on the bed in his room and only comes down for dinner, it means something.
We're always climbing high altitudes these days: winter and summer. Is the risk of overtraining the same?
It all depends on what you do. Usually, the winter highlands are more for construction and preparation. The summer highlands are more for catering… Except for those who aim to Return and worldwide. In most cases, those who climb in July are people who left in June, after the Line of Business, the classics…
We're still on the subject of altitude, but more from an overtraining perspective than from an effort management perspective. A few days ago Filippo Ganna, After winning the Italian time trial, he said: “I could have made the difference in the central section, but in this heat it's never easy. You have to do almost like at altitude: you have to lower your speeds a lot.” What did he mean?
The human machine is a bit like a heat engine and this works best at certain operating temperatures, precisely with the quantity of oxygen, which is lower at high altitudes. Therefore thethe lack of oxygen is comparable to a rise in temperature. There is a drop in performance.
And if Goofy had insisted, he would have been “cooked”…
And there would have been a much more noticeable drop in performance. One must consider that with a 1,5 degree increase in internal body temperature the organism goes into “standby”, with 2 degrees very serious problems arise. It's no coincidence that today we use the "Core" (the sensor attached to the heart rate monitor, ed.) which gives us this value. Personally, I don't use it much, also because I wouldn't have any way to intervene anyway.
Well, with water on, shirt open…
Mind you, we're talking about internal temperature, not external. To stick with the engine comparison, if the human body had a radiator, okay... but there isn't! Let's say that Ganna was good at managing himself, otherwise he would have "blown the engine", he would have gone into blackout and consequently slower.
