Tennirife

[Scrap]

Qiute a few, talking about altitude Ive a feeling that most Mexican greats lived above 6,000 ft Id like to know hence there good stamina must be full off red blood cells like the Kenyan runners.

[Chris Nagel]

I remember Rafael Marquez trained at high altitude when preparing to fight Manny Pacquiao. I'm still not sold on the idea of short-term altitude training, but I wonder how high a red cell count many Mexican fighters have.

Do know if Julio Cesar Chavez trained/lived at such an altitude. He had stamina on par with Marvin Hagler, but I wonder if his red cell count was higher. I don't know it'd make a difference though.

[Scrap]

It certainly does

[md]

I wonder if there's been much recent work on finding out the optimum altitude and climate to live at and to train at for best results.

[Scrap]

md Ill try and find out Tomorrow Id be interested to know

[Scrap]

Ive noticed 1,000 ft up a rock face your attension to detail seems to get better.

[Chris Nagel]

Hey meticulous is wonderful. I'd like to know about that too. I live about 1100 ft above sea level.

[Sharla]

I spent 2 weeks in a Kenyan running camp in New Mexico. Came home fitter despite being laid off for some of that time with a massive blister, sick and spending way too much time in airports (wouldn't recommend united Airline for any internation flights). The impression I got was the higher the better and I'd do it once a year if i could afford it - just for aerobic fitness. Obviously there's a lot more to boxing than just aerobic fitness and I'm not sure how high this particular place you're talking about is but needs to be pretty high to be relevant I think.

[Chris Nagel]

That's neat in a fun running with Kenyas sort of way.

Anyways how's your knee treating you lately Shar?

[Scrap]

What were the Kenyans doing in New Mexico Im interested to know

[Chris Nagel]

I heard there's a marathon held every year in mexico city. Apparenty the Kenyens are prominent in most large marathon events. Since the altitude is high elevation it'd make sense to see them training there.

[Sharla]

My knee didn't like me last week and when I went water running I could see why since I have more muscle atrophy than I thought - left foot flops around in the water with very little control compared to the right - despite the fact that my right foot has always been 'floppy' (it waves to the crowd but isn't a problem since I have excess laxity in one of my foot ligaments.

I spent the long weekend with friend in the country getting fat and have an MRI tomorrow morning. I saw a surgeon last week who said that surgery is a last resort and often makes knees worse. He also said I've done all the right things but these things can be difficult. I've decided I'll try to combat the muscle atrophy which must be effecting my boxing anyway and hope that it'll come good then. Of course if they can see something clearly in the MRI that'll be great but I'm not holding my breath.

They didn't test me on an isokinetic machine despite guessing that my quadricep angle is 15 degrees or more (they didn't measure it but guessed it). The theory is that it's been so long that there must be more to it otherwise it would have fixed itself.

I've decided I'm not finished running yet but my knee may take a little while longer to forgive me for the way I abused it - hopefully not more than another 6 months.

The Kenyans live there since they can make more money running in the states than in Kenya. They flew all over the place and worked part time jobs to supplement their running income then they send a lot of their money home to their families. I met some of them at the gala dinner of a marathon I competed in and kept in contact and was then invited over.

It's fun running with them except your lungs bleed

(or they feel like you do and the air is cold compared to what I'm used to so you get a little minor nose bleeding)

[Chris Nagel]

There's nothing like a little blood in your lungs after a good hard day to show you that you're a warrior.

Anyways 'atrophy' doesn't sound good to me at all. It sounds like your muscle is telling you that it needs all your spare attention, and at the same time it's trying to catch up.

It's just a matter of time and you doing all the right things. You hang tough Sharla, and try not to run with any hardcore Kenyan until your knee is ripe and healthy.

It's too bad that I'm not a hotshot trainer or a lifesaving MD, but I'm here for you if you need any advice.

[Sharla]

Thanks Chris

[md]

Hey meticulous is wonderful. I'd like to know about that too. I live about 1100 ft above sea level.

I've just checked the altitude I live at 2.3m - 4.8m give or take 0.3m on a calm day depending on the tide and a wain moon.