For your PC needsExt User(David Clayton)
22-11-2005, 09:01 AM
From http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,17321789-23211,00.html
Pies' camp a 'high farce'
By Mark Robinson
November 22, 2005
AUSTRALIAN marathon runner Lee Troop has labelled Collingwood's altitude
training camp in Arizona a waste of time.
Troop's broadside at the two-week pre-season camp at the Centre for High
Altitude Training, 2100m above sea level, comes as Troop prepares for a
Japanese marathon in a fortnight.
While Troop supported the team-bonding aspect of an overseas trip, he said
comments the Magpies would benefit from training at altitude were
incorrect.
"For 10 days there's no effect, there's no benefit whatsoever in doing
altitude training for that long," Troop said.
"You've got to be there for at least 21 days to help increase the red
blood cell (count) ... ideally, a month. I understand they have got an
altitude chamber but there are so many variables that go into altitude
training.
"So as far as them saying they're going to altitude and this is what elite
athletes do, it was just a crock.
"If they were serious they would've been there for three weeks, if not
more."
Thirty-five players plus staff joined the pre-season camp that included
hikes to the 3850m summit of Mt Humphreys and a nine-hour trek at the
Grand Canyon.
The players were based at Northern Arizona University, near the town of
Flagstaff, where the oxygen content in the atmosphere was 15.5-16 per
cent. At sea level, it is 20.9 per cent.
While the Magpies lauded the trip, Troop suggested the club had "more
money than sense".
"I think it was a trendy thing to say: 'We're going to altitude training
and we're going to get benefits from it'. There's no benefits in 10 days
training. What baffles me is there is a place four hours by road called
Falls Creek and there's a walk there called Mt Bogong and it's a
three-hour epic to get to the top.
"It just bewilders me that people have got more money than sense. That
they can jump on a plane and go over and do these things when Australia's
best athletes in (Craig) Mottram and Benita Johnson, myself and Mona
(Steve Moneghetti) and Deeks (Rob de Castella) and Ron Clarke have all
used an altitude training base just up the road called Falls Creek."
He said Collingwood's hikes at Mt Humphreys and the Grand Canyon were
"challenging", much the same as when Hawthorn trekked the Kokoda Track
last summer.
Troop said the altitude chamber at the Lexus Centre would be beneficial
only for long-distance running midfielders.
"That will be a big catalyst for them but they will have to do it in peaks
and troughs. They couldn't do that seven days a week for the whole
football season because they'll become iron deficient, chronically
fatigued," he said.
"But you've got to be careful with the duration in there, the intensity
that you're in there ... to have to monitor that with 40 players is going
to be very tough."
Herald Sun
Pies' camp a 'high farce'
By Mark Robinson
November 22, 2005
AUSTRALIAN marathon runner Lee Troop has labelled Collingwood's altitude
training camp in Arizona a waste of time.
Troop's broadside at the two-week pre-season camp at the Centre for High
Altitude Training, 2100m above sea level, comes as Troop prepares for a
Japanese marathon in a fortnight.
While Troop supported the team-bonding aspect of an overseas trip, he said
comments the Magpies would benefit from training at altitude were
incorrect.
"For 10 days there's no effect, there's no benefit whatsoever in doing
altitude training for that long," Troop said.
"You've got to be there for at least 21 days to help increase the red
blood cell (count) ... ideally, a month. I understand they have got an
altitude chamber but there are so many variables that go into altitude
training.
"So as far as them saying they're going to altitude and this is what elite
athletes do, it was just a crock.
"If they were serious they would've been there for three weeks, if not
more."
Thirty-five players plus staff joined the pre-season camp that included
hikes to the 3850m summit of Mt Humphreys and a nine-hour trek at the
Grand Canyon.
The players were based at Northern Arizona University, near the town of
Flagstaff, where the oxygen content in the atmosphere was 15.5-16 per
cent. At sea level, it is 20.9 per cent.
While the Magpies lauded the trip, Troop suggested the club had "more
money than sense".
"I think it was a trendy thing to say: 'We're going to altitude training
and we're going to get benefits from it'. There's no benefits in 10 days
training. What baffles me is there is a place four hours by road called
Falls Creek and there's a walk there called Mt Bogong and it's a
three-hour epic to get to the top.
"It just bewilders me that people have got more money than sense. That
they can jump on a plane and go over and do these things when Australia's
best athletes in (Craig) Mottram and Benita Johnson, myself and Mona
(Steve Moneghetti) and Deeks (Rob de Castella) and Ron Clarke have all
used an altitude training base just up the road called Falls Creek."
He said Collingwood's hikes at Mt Humphreys and the Grand Canyon were
"challenging", much the same as when Hawthorn trekked the Kokoda Track
last summer.
Troop said the altitude chamber at the Lexus Centre would be beneficial
only for long-distance running midfielders.
"That will be a big catalyst for them but they will have to do it in peaks
and troughs. They couldn't do that seven days a week for the whole
football season because they'll become iron deficient, chronically
fatigued," he said.
"But you've got to be careful with the duration in there, the intensity
that you're in there ... to have to monitor that with 40 players is going
to be very tough."
Herald Sun