One of the athlete‘s body adaptation stimulus is altitude training (from 1600 to 2000 m above sea-level), currently of rather often use. The exceptional aspect of such training is a lack of oxygen, which has a direct impact on tissues oxygen uptake. The body reaction to such lack is a more intense production of hemoglobin in erythrocytes, which gradually increases oxygen supply to muscles. Frequent attending altitude training sessions in conditions of hypoxia has a great impact on development of cyclists ‘aerobic capacity, taking into consideration the fact that lately the distance of cycling track pursuit has been changed from 3 to 4 kilometers; due to this, such abilities of an athlete as aerobic capacity and endurance became of paramount importance. Recently, Lithuanian female track cyclists have reached considerable victories in World and European championships, World cup and Olympic Games. Change of their body and functional capacities, as well as the factors having influence on them are under our deep exploration. Nevertheless, the process of elite track cyclists in altitude conditions has not been enough investigated yet. Analysis of training process, the content of different mesocycles and micro-cycles, as well as deeper investigations of impact of altitude training on athlete‘s body are still missing. The aim of the work was to analyze the impact of altitude training mesocycle on the elite female track cyclists, representatives of track pursuit athletes, body adaptation to training loads at the final stage of preparation for the European championship. Four female cyclists, the members of Lithuanian national track cycling team for 4 km track pursuit, participated in the investigation. At the time of investigation, they were preparing for 2014 European Track championships. The training camp took place in highlands (1600 m above sea-level). The programme of the athletes’ preparation in the highland camp was carried out by three microcycles: introductory, adaptation, increased training load, and average load. At Sport Science Institute of Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, investigations of the athletes’ body development, physical and functional capacity were performed twice: before the training camp and in three days having returned from it. The results demonstrated that Lithuanian elite female cyclists’ final preparatory stage for 2014 European championships, which took place in highlands, was planned correctly with appropriate organization and implementation. It can be considered as effective due to good athletes’ organism adaptation to training loads. The duration of training camp was 22 days; from them, 16 days were allocated to special training load, while 6 days – to recovery and supercompensation. In total, 24 training sessions were carried out; eight days, one session per day was carried out. Apart from those eight days, during the second daily training session, the athletes applied even method by intensity of recovery or training supporting load. Such programme of preparation and scientific approach gave preconditions for the athletes to participate rather well in European championship, which resulted in bronze medal winning in personal pursuit, as well as to demonstrate third result in team pursuit in qualifications; only unfavorable environmental conditions precluded them from entering the final of four best teams. Training camp of 22 days in highlands conditioned the increase of the female cyclists’ body development indices in body and muscle mass, altogether increasing muscle power in various energy production zones. Blood hemoglobin concentration could be the reason for greater oxygen transporting possibilities and this in turn had influence on aerobic capacity increase straight after the altitude training. Keywords: female cyclists, altitude training, training session, training loads, body and functional capacity. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/sm.2015.8
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Open Access
Sep 1, 2019
Cristian Jaque-Gallardo + 2
