Bozel Beach 0°C–The Heart of the Matter

Swimming at zero degrees centigrade is probably best left to the ducks – who seem not to mind the low temperature at all. It seems like nobody has told this one here that it’s time to migrate.

Cold exposure – when only affecting the skin and not allowed to induce hypothermia – has a powerful effect on the hormonal systems within the body. Perhaps the most interesting is the production of the hormone “irisin” which converts white fat into brown fat. Brown fat has the special quality of producing heat from mitochondria without any mechanical action – but there is another hidden value. Brown fat acts as a mitochondrial safety valve – burning off excess ATP (energy molecule) and preventing excessive build up of free radicals associated with genetic mutations and aging. Rats for example don’t have this mitochondrial mechanism and they live for about four years. Pigeons, which have a similar metabolic energy need have a strong mitochondrial safety valve and can live for about 36 years.

The hypothalamus in the brain is effectively rewired through cold exposure and this alters the metabolic system considerably as it controls body temperature and the thyroid. So in addition to a ketogenic (high fat) diet cold exposure is a bit like therapy for the thyroid – though a daily drop of 15% Lugol’s solution does wonders too (15% iodine and 30% potassium iodide). Another thing that adaption to the cold brings through the nervous system is a huge reduction in pain sensitivity. All of this of course is very useful as humanity has spent most of its existence in ice. Even today we are in an Ice Age and most people don’t realise it due to political propaganda. Our current Ice Age has been on the go for 2.8 million years.

Perhaps my main interest in cold exposure however is the vagus nerve. This nerve controls a large chunk of the autonomic nervous system – that is organs over which there is no conscious control. The vagus nerve is strongly toned by the cold exposure and the surge of hormones including adrenaline – corresponding to the cold shock received. Adaptation is progressive but rapid over about 10 exposures and the effect of the vagus nerve on the heart can be measured with a simple heart rate monitor and a cardiac variability app on a phone. Nothing improves (increases) heart rate variability faster than cold exposure.

Two winters ago when just starting the ketogenic diet I noticed my maximum heart rate slowly modifying. Most of us are used to seeing it very slowly declining with age and that’s what I saw too – until then. From two months after adopting a high fat diet the max heart rate began to creep upwards. This is so ironic because for most of my life I’d heard the nonsense that fat causes cardiovascular congestion. Up it continued – from 172 to 174, to 176 and 182 to 186 and finally to 191. This was all when running sprint intervals up a steep hill . Meanwhile along with the cold exposure, ketogenic diet and exercise I added vitamin B3 (nicotinic acid) which cleans out the arteries – and vitamin k2 at a one tenth ratio to vitamin D. Today I went back to the sprint intervals for the first time in two years and gradually warmed up with the first interval at 2.1k, the second at 5.6k and the third at 9.1k. The final sprint saw a smooth peak in heart rate at 202 bpm. Well the last time I saw that was in my late 20s so that’s interesting! It wasn’t an equipment artifact – that’s very easy to spot. I know that cardiac emergency patients – with a real problem, can reach over 400 bpm and survive so the 202 is still very normal. Author Sally Edwards – the lady who effectively wrote the book on this subject for Polar states now that you have a max heart rate for life and it only reduces if you are sedentary. I’d like to offer another explanation – it only reduces if you eat inappropriately no matter how much you exercise. 

Bozel Beach–4.9 °C Water

Getting back to cold adaptation after skipping a week is slightly hard – especially with the water cooling by over 3 degrees meantime, from over 8 °C  to 4.9 °C. Christiane decided to wear a winter wooly hat – which could possibly start a new outdoor swimming fashion.

Alex On The Attack

Alex has had a rollercoaster week of race training. Initially, despite a huge fall when warming up on day one, he was dynamic in slalom, then through the bad midweek weather and new snow he just lost confidence in the gates altogether. Skiing out of the gates was always very good and Alex was able to work constructively, but there was a complete blockage emerging in the actual gates – both GS and Slalom.  Following yesterday’s technical session things began to return to normal in the gates again today – but perhaps with a deeper understanding.

Delving into the whys and wherefores of a confidence crisis could keep a team of technicians and psychologists fully employed for a lifetime – so we might just bypass all of that here. What’s more important is to just remember how the situation was successfully turned around.

Defensive skiing – around the poles – skidding – creates a vicious circle of problems and negative outcomes, both physically and emotionally.

Slalom, like a stage performance, should promote adrenaline and physical arousal – but we have to make sure the “fight or flight” state leans towards “fight” and assertion. This however also needs a clear technical vision of what to do. It’s all very well going into “fight” mode – but you need to have the skill to fight or you still end up in trouble.

Alex’s technical work over the week on angulation and timing (especially yesterday) was a good starting point – but on it’s own it was not enough to sort out the crisis. With support from this technical development what we needed to do was add the deliberate attacking attitude – but more importantly modify how this was specifically applied in the gates. The aim was to start moving the body (centre of mass) straight downhill the moment the skis were passing the current gate (apex) – not later on above the next gate. It takes half the distance to the next gate just to get out of the existing turn – and you are being slingshot cross to it anyway – so you need to get out of the turn to make sure the body crosses to the inside of the next pole, This is a “translation” motion of the body relative to both the ski at the moment it is initiated and to the slope – specifically downhill. The attacking attitude is needed because (when not understood) it’s a scary thing to do and most people instinctively hold back, become late and skid etc.

Alex was able to achieve all of this and even despite weighing only 30kg was able to easily clear full weight world cup poles like a pro – without reaching, rotation or being distracted. The long poles actually gave him the clearest reference for where to move his centre of mass and to commit to the turn early.

 

 

Alex–Timing Issues

Alex had been looking forward to Giant Slalom today but it didn’t quite turn out as he expected. The course was steep and quickly became rutted and Alex from the first run was not thinking about technique at all. It seemed that all Alex could think about was avoiding the poles and slowing himself down by drifting sideways as much as possible – which is a surefire recipe for disaster in a rutted course. We had a few chats about the psychology involved in surmounting difficulties but nothing was able to influence the overall situation much. Alex does have to get over his frustration and and realise that energy wasted on destructive emotions is just a waste. It’s better to remain objective and use your energy to fix the problems instead of throwing tantrums.

Fixing The Problem

Most of the week had been spent just trying to get Alex to recover his previous level of skiing and understanding – which he had forgotten as thoroughly as the Chinese he had been learning for two years! In the process I had taken “angulation” a bit further than before because he is constantly being assaulted with instructions to “make a banana” by other instructors. Bananas are not made – they grow on trees – but we can get close by working on “hip angulation”. However although Alex made progress he was still rotating and this amount of rotation in slalom ruts is pretty much catastrophic. Working on Bumps skiing would help here but there isn’t enough time for that – so working properly on the pivot on plastic will help that too.

The main consideration is racing is “timing” and this means loading up the skis at the apex of the turn. We have also worked on this previously and I gave Alex the analogy of a wall on the outside of each turn – that bounces of slingshots him across to the other side. He has to meanwhile face downhill – effectively skating downhill and being slingshot across the hill – not letting the body be rotated in the process. Loading up the ski later – after the apex is just putting on the brakes and causing great problems in ruts – and rotating slings you straight out of the course. I explained to Alex that if he needs to travel a bit more across the hill then that’s achieved by increasing the angulation – and that’s when the penny dropped for him and he could see the picture. The work on the angulation suddenly made sense to him. I had wanted him to get this mental picture but it is very difficult to communicate – so it’s fantastic that he got it. Immediately his skiing was greatly changed and for the first time ever he was skiing without rotation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alex–Angulation Day

Today the glacier had a 30cm coating of wet and heavy snow – so slalom training was too great a risk for Alex at the moment. Conditions such as this can be useful for strong and experienced racers but Alex needs more work on technique and on building confidence in the gates before being exposed to such difficulties. The heavy snow however was a great opportunity to give Alex necessary experience outside of the gates so he could feel how technique applies everywhere and not just in racing.

My goal for the day was to help Alex to develop a better understanding of Angulation “banana” so that he could generate hip angulation without contradicting the dynamics he was already using. Alex would have to try to continue with the movements that we had already been working on but now add more. The aim was to reduce rotation and create an angle at the hip as the turn progressed – while maintaining pressure on the front of the boot and ski – but keeping the body down and inside the turn enough with this angulation so that he couldn’t be spat out over the front of the skis.

Key Points:

• Pull the outside hip backwards from the beginning of the turn. (chi-skiing)
• Point the ski pole dowhill and the pole will be ready to plant if required.
• The pelvis faces downhill as a consequence of this action .
• The turn is tightened by this action which facilitates rapid  turn entry and exit – short turns.
• Rotation must be eliminated – the body moves across the skis out of one turn into the next.
• “Mind The Gap” get pressure on the outside ski and actively thrust the body downhill – don’t wait.
• The skis must be pulled inwards and the adductor muscles used.
• Use the downhill ski to come over it and out of the turn.

Photo 1: Alex is in a good stance prior to his turn to the right. Everything appears to be in the right place…

Photo 2: The turn initiation is being made here with a shoulder rotation instead of the body coming clean over the downhill ski. This is followed with the tails of the skis being thrust outwards to catch up with the body. This overwhelms Alex’s efforts to pull everything inwards.

Photo 3: Alex completes the turn rotated and falling on to the inside ski with no hip angulation – the initial shoulder rotation having led to the skis and the hip being swung outwards instead of pulled inwards.

Regardless of the above example Alex was making great progress and understanding the objective. He found the sensations strange and unfamiliar which indicates that he was making changes. He could feel how the turns tightened automatically and he linked the short turns very well. His improvements are what allow more accurate and constructive criticism to be possible. Alex is very responsive to input but it must be understood that what he is working at here is extremely difficult to master – so he is doing extremely well.

Alex Getting Down to Business

Alex’s main objective today was to bring the skiing mechanics worked on yesterday into the slalom course. The movement is still a bit fragile in his skiing in general but I also know from working with him that when he understands what he is meant to do and gets a small amount of practice then he is very competent. His crisis up until now was due to a complete lack of appropriate practice.

Alex managed to focus on projecting the centre of mass, down and into  the new turn with a strong uphill leg – at least when skiing in the brushes (carrots). He didn’t manage to do this all the time but when told to focus on it he was getting it to work. He still skis too far away from the poles to even mark his shin guards from the hard stubbies – so on the plastic slopes he has not even been trained to take a good line if those guards were used there.  The big poles were freaking him out completely initially.

Forest of Poles

Courage is required to project the centre of mass downhill on a steep slope – even more when you are tangling with poles and can be tripped up. When the commitment is there and that outside leg is used strongly then speed becomes your friend. Going slowly doesn’t teach you to make this commitment and it doesn’t teach you correct timing – only either knowing what you must do to actively generate dynamics – or by having your brain surgically removed and relying on Darwinian natural selection  - can make fast slalom skiing possible. Fear has to be eliminated regardless – the racer has to want to go faster – not more cautiously. Generating speed makes the skis work better – but if you don’t work the legs correctly and freeze like a rabbit in a car’s headlights – then game over! Part of “training” is learning to move faster than you can think – it’s that fast!

There are other ways to get into a turn and be even on the inside ski – but that comes from how the energy at the end of the previous turn is exploited and we are not yet ready for that here. Alex just needs to focus on his body – getting over that transition zone and generating pressure and grip early by active extension of his outside leg (moving the centre of mass – not the ski). Eliminating body rotation makes this action much faster too. Rotation blocks that fast trajectory over the transition “gap”.

The main psychological battle is about keeping focus – not letting anxiety dominate and distract. Focus stays on the body and so on technique – being focused internally makes you calm.

The only tactical detail we looked at today was for defending from poles in a verticale. You use the same arm that was used for the last turn when you hit the double poles because there is no time to change arms.

Alex was making strong progress and was starting to feel how technique and focus were overcoming the obstacles – but unfortunately the weather turned into a full blown storm and we were unable to complete the session. What is important to take away from this session is that attacking with clear technique brings both speed and security – while being unfocused and backing off lead to disaster.

Alex–Groundhog Day

This is the third time Alex has come out training after having been coached on plastic slopes in the UK. Each time on returning to snow his skiing has been reduced to  a shockingly dangerous, dismal and clueless mess. He returns here completely empty headed despite being a competent learner. Ask him what he learns in the UK and it goes no further than “make a banana shape”! This time – if we get Alex back to a reasonable performance level it has to be the last time this huge step backwards is allowed to happen. No more banana brained, senseless skiing on plastic – intelligent exercises only now when there is nothing but 50m of plastic to ski on. Forget the poles if necessary – refuse to go into them unless every move is related to the body and connects with an intelligent purpose.

 

Scene one in the video shows Alex slowing down his skiing – so that at least he can stay in control. The entire first half of the turn is missed with the skis being pushed out sideways – this being a “rush” to get the skis beneath him and the body rotating to get the skis around. We had worked through this in detail in July and gone way beyond this huge fundamental problem – but all of that was entirely forgotten. This means that absolutely nothing that we had worked on has been reinforced or repeated on plastic since – yet all of it can be. There is a very detailed blog report on every training session – all of this is available. If Alex wants to ski to a genuinely good level then he has to choose between filling his head with Pokeman and TV junk or realising that he has a phenomenal opportunity that is slipping away from him in the meantime. On a similar note – today on the mountain, due to not having a lunch break, I offered him some natural foods to eat – the sort of real food that athletes and growing children require. He said he didn’t like nuts (organic Brazil nuts – for selenium), he didn’t want cheese (organic raw unpasteurised cheese – rich in vitamin K2, probiotics and healthy fats and protein) unless it was cheddar. Didn’t want chocolate unless it was mostly sugar and wouldn’t eat natural meats (prepared by fermentation) despite never even tasting them. Junk in means junk out – and that’s Alex’s choice.

Sea of clouds in the photo filling the distant Aosta valley descending from Mont Blanc.

We went through an entire repeat of July’s exercises for pivoting on the outside ski. I don’t really want to re-write the whole lot because it annoys me to do so. Refer to July’s blog please. Amazingly Alex could not do it initially – exactly the same as in July. Why was this not practised on plastic? This is something that does work on plastic so at least try it. Pivoting allows coordination and awareness to grow while completely controlling speed. This is the true basis for skiing fast safely. The relationship between the skis (edges) feet/body/muscles and centre of mass are all developed in safety and with time to think about it. All skiing should be about what you feel in your body – not about what is going on around you – who is watching – who is fastest – who is an idiot. The same skills apply to carving and high speed skiing and the same focus is needed.

After pivoting we worked for a while on skating through the turns – particularly skating into the turn from the uphill leg. The slope was a bit steep for this exercise so I went straight for another approach – asking Alex to stand uphill from me and lean against me downhill from him extending his uphill leg to push his body first over the gap between us and then hard against me. This is how to commit to a turn. Amazingly Alex asked if he would not fall over. He’s been told since he was about 6 years old that he has to do this and that he won’t fall over – but it still hasn’t sunk in. This is why he misses the entire first half of each turn. When drilled with exercises he gets it – but then when drilled in idiotic plastic skiing everything vanished again. UNDERSTAND this Alex and you might be able to hold on to it. Going into a turn means standing on that uphill leg – the stronger the better – then more you force your centre of mass downhill the better. There is a gap – a transition – to cover before the ski engages but it will not let you down if you commit – just like I didn’t let you fall when you shoulder charged downhill against me. The longer the turning radius of your ski the bigger the transition gap before there is feedback. Just move – just do it – be active – be strong on that outside leg. The leg extends but not to shoot you upwards – to shoot your centre of mass downwards. In tight turns face downhill so that you are skating into this. You got a few turns in the final video scene where the skis were coming to life – where you were starting to work the skis – to push your body and use your legs. Until now you have just been flopping over into the turn and expecting everything to happen. It doesn’t.

Tignes Mid October

 

Gareth testing out some World Cup slalom skis – off piste – where skis are meant to be used! Still has the arms flailing around too much and weight just a bit too far back – but good basic mechanics. Great snow for this time of year.

 

 

Aprés Ski like it is meant to be…. zero degrees water! The exhilaration after leaving the water is powerful – due to adrenaline. The stress/shock of the water adapts and fortifies many aspects of the body – from the hypothalamus to the vagus nerve.

 

 

Sea of clouds in the valley – bright sunshine up high…

Gareth trying to avoid hydrocution…


Just surviving….

Cold Thermogenesis

The intention  was to go swimming at Bozel “Beach” (1400m altitude) where the the water was 6 degrees – but unfortunately the lake was half drained due to maintenance and there was only enough water for the ducks. We had to go all the way up to Champagny Le haut at 1560m where the stream water was at 0.5 degrees – seriously cold. I’d been swimming in the lake at Tignes a few days earlier at 1 degree so it wouldn’t be impossible – but fast running mountain water is even harder than swimming in a lake. The idea is to provoke a stress response through the skin – involving adrenaline. This not only adapts the body to the cold but also to stress, pain and a whole host of other positive things including increased sensitivity to insulin. The water has gone cold early this year due to weeks of clear skies allowing all the heat to radiate away from the ground.

The mountain in the background is the Grande Casse – next to Tignes.

Getting ready! Pretending to swim in a rock pool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bright lobster red from the cold – doesn’t even feel cold once getting back out. Being already well adapted (down to 8 deg) there is no shivering. The idea of cold thermogenesis is that the heat begins to come from brown fat – directly through the mitochondria and not from mechanical movement (shivering).

Cold Water Swim

Okay - I've never been able to swim front crawl - but somehow 10°C water seems to make it work - probably survival instinct! It's October the 9th and in just two weeks the water temperature has gone down from 17.5°C to 10°C and probably lower because it was colder further out and I couldn't measure it there. The skies have been clear at night and and at 1400m altitude here at the Bozel "beach" it's been close to zero at night - with no clouds to stop the heat radiation from the water. In another week it's going to be a real challenge to swim here - but by the end of October the lake will be emptied for the winter. The body adapts quickly to the cold water as long as you go in regularly.