<p>We asked the doctor last night about exercise or allergy-induced asthma. He felt it was unlikely to be the problem or else she would be having some symptoms earlier in the race too and not just at the very end. But I know I’ve been suffering lately with the molds.</p>
<p>Thursdays are work-out days. I would imagine he’d tell them how fast to run. I don’t know what the goal is besides that.</p>
<p>Golfingmom: how does exercise-asthma present itself in your D’s case?</p>
<p>Does she ever have these symptom while training or only with competition? Is it a regular thing while racing on hot days? She could certainly wear the watch while training. Watches are normally banned during all interscholastic competition, but training would be a perfect opportunity to wear the monitor/watch.</p>
<p>No, she has never had these symptoms during training on her own or with the school team. Over the summer at camp, for example, I know they went on 10 mile runs over hilly terrain and she felt fine. The problem has usually occurred on hot days, or at least on unseasonable warm days (like a 68 degree day in Nov.) I think there was just one time when it wasn’t hot that she had an issue.</p>
<p>Bye, pPeople have wondered whether there could be a cyclical hormonal connection. We haven’t noticed any pattern with regard to that either. </p>
<p>I’m thinking it’s probably that she has the heart of a champion and the mental discipline to persevere, and so she just pushes herself beyond her physical capability or beyond what her training has prepared her to do. And since she doesn’t feel like she has much warning between starting to feel bad and the point of no return, she needs some objective guidelines like target mile pace for races to avoid lactate build-up. That was what we were looking for from the sports doctor/ performance expert that we didn’t really get.</p>
<p>The doctor asked questions to determine if perhaps she had some serious performance anxiety which would close her vocal cords and restrict breathing, but that does not seem to be the case. She has the usual pre-race butterflies, but that’s all.</p>
<p>I’ve found cursory references in a lot of places to VO2 max testing and lactate threshold training, but am having difficulty making the application to a team sport. Also, I felt like I was getting mixed messages about my D’s inherent ability as indicated by this number, since the doctor said it was a measure of “God-given potential”. That, combined with other things like muscle strength and training will yield the performance results. On one hand, the doctor implied her VO2 max was nothing special and that perhaps she was just not going to be capable of running at a really high level, but on the other hand he said she’ll probably be running under 18 min. for 5K by the time she’s a senior in HS. That would put her in the “elite” category! (Except for that pesky little issue of collapsing, of course.)</p>
<p>Just found this chart : <a href=“盘锦裙澳实业有限公司”>盘锦裙澳实业有限公司;
This would seem to indicate that her number is excellent compared to the general population.</p>
<p>My D had trouble breathing during races, coughing after races, execss mucus,
problems in very cold weather, or humid weather. </p>
<p>The V02 max number looks very good. You can improve V02 max to some degree.</p>
<p>I would try keeping a log of everything… food/ sleep, training, ect.</p>
<p>She may not be fully recovered before those races and the heat is an added element that causes the problem.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/hs/coachscorner/20051215.html[/url]”>http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/hs/coachscorner/20051215.html</a> </p>
<p>I’m still beating the runner’s anemia drum. If not for you, then maybe someone else trying to sort out a performance dilemma!</p>
<p>Take care.</p>
<p>Again, thank you very much to all for your posts and wonderfully supportive PM’s. Understandably, there are people around my D and me who just don’t grasp why this is a problem worth worrying about. After all, isn’t is pretty simple? She just shouldn’t run when it’s hot, or she should quit running altogether and find another activity! Needless to say, it has been comforting to hear from folks who understand why we’d want to work hard to try to resolve this situation. None of you have put me down for caring about something as “frivolous” as sports when there are clearly more pressing issues in life, lol.</p>
<p>GFG,</p>
<p>If people are putting you down for caring about sports, then you are hanging out with the wrong crowd! 
From our family’s perspective, there are only a few things in life MORE important than sports/exercise!</p>
<p>If your daughter loves to run, then I commend you for seeking out answers to her current impediments. Girls’ bodies change alot in hs, and it could just be a matter of her adjusting, or maybe she’s really a 1600/miler (a much more exciting race, in my opinion ) or 800 runner. Cross country runners are not as heavily recruited by colleges as runners with solid track times, so perhaps she should turn her attention to the shorter distances.</p>
<p>Good luck to you and her!</p>
<p>If she doesn’t have problems under the same/similar conditions when training, but only during competition, it indicates she may have some performance anxiety issues to overcome. A physical problem will present itself at practice as well as competition. She probably pushes herself in a practice setting and should have the same problems. A good sports psychologist is another route to consider. Also I suggest that you track her diet and fluid intake regularly–day in and day out. In order to study a problem such as this, there should be as few variables as possible and diets/fluids are big! Best wishes. This kind of thing can be very frustrating.</p>
<p>It’s possible that she could be getting anxious if she’s approaching the finish line and she’s not in front. She doesn’t perceive herself to be anxious but she could be blocking out the feeling. Since she has won pretty much every conference race since freshman year because our county is weak in distance, she only encounters tough competition at the big invitationals and those are the meets when she’s had problems. So the theory would fit in that sense.</p>
<p>On the other hand, she doesn’t have to push at all to win the local dual meets. And, she has approached her coach twice already about feeling that the practice workouts he’s giving are too easy to be helpful to her. So maybe she really hasn’t pushed that hard in practice, or if she has had to strain, it’s for those shorter distance repeats not a full 5K. The rest in between them would give her body the chance to rid itself of the lactate excess. Also, the doctor did say she’s in great shape and can hold her maximum performance for a long time.</p>
<p>She has kept a log on and off, but I’ve told her she has to be more disciplined about always making entries. In the summer she did, but once school started she slacked off.</p>
<p>Back to VO2 max theory…</p>
<p>D runs comfortably at a 6 min. mile pace for a 5K, and for recent races that has been her average. Her PR (for a 5250 meter course) was a 5:53 avg. mile pace. According to the VO2 max results, her intense workouts should be at 6:07 mile pace. Does this sound right to you guys? I know the concept is to approach the threshold but not go over, so that you’re working smarter not harder and don’t get fatigued or injured. But this pace seems slow.</p>
<p>Here is a link I found:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_4/139.shtm[/url]”>http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_4/139.shtm</a></p>
<p>Looking at this, she should be running some repeats at faster than her 5K pace to improve her time. </p>
<p>My kids were not very disciplined about keeping a log. My son never really did although his coach wanted him to so they could adjust his training the next year. Using a spreadsheet facilitates analysis. One program doesn’t work for all.</p>
<p>Golfingmom: the link isn’t taking me to the specific article. Which one was it–“Repeat Performance”?</p>
<p>The article is titled the 5K and it includes training programs for beginner, advance, and intermediate levels.</p>