m!ndweak wrote:
rhEPO, in recent studies have shown that they SIGNIFICANTLY increase the size and number of mitochondria....now you tell me, or anyone else on here who thinks they are smarter than jonO.....what is more important in the aerobic respitory system
1) more rbcs?
or
2) more and larger mitochondria?
here is a simple explanation. with more and larger mitochondria, a greater % of the available 02 floating in the blood is absorbed into the cell for cellular function, the most important in any exercise is that of combining 02 with glucose to created ATP. the other bonus of more and larger mitochondria is the expulsion of C02 from the cell, and a greater capacity to store Calcium, which is ESSENTIAL in the contraction/extension of muscles.
Once again, BFD. That's great for middle distance. You're laboring under myth that the marathon puts any particular stress on energy production rates at all, aerobically or anaerobically. Extra mitochondria are as pointless as extra rbc's, there's nothing for them to do.
Every top elite can run at WR marathon pace for at least long enough that it's neither near their acid threshold nor their maximum O2 consumption. In fact, it's simply not possible to approach max O2 consumption without going well above acid threshold, because you need acidic muscle to have high gas exchange rates from the blood. The only way you can use all your mitochondria is at middle distance pace, even without using drugs to boost their numbers.
This is a fact that long distance runners stubbornly refuse to get. No, distance is not more "aerobic" than middle distance. It uses less energy of all kinds. Look to other forms of fatigue to find out what limits a marathoner.