Dizzying heights
A lot of people are saying the Lions have a mountain to climb to win this series in South Africa and after experiencing the kind of suffocating, energy-sapping conditions they will encounter on the Highveld in the last two Tests, I know how cruelly appropriate this phrase might be.
On Wednesday I persuaded conditioning coach Craig White to let me try the altitude acclimatisation training the Lions have been doing.
Before we started I asked which of the players had coped best so far. "There are no real guidelines over who deals with it best, but we can try and maintain lean body mass - it is harder if you put too much fat on," he said.
Oh dear. Bit late for that now.
White told me to sit down at a rowing machine and then handed me a rubber mask, which was connected by tube to a plastic tank the size of a small fridge.
"This machine puts nitrogen into the air, which reduces the oxygen content," he explained. "That means the air coming through the pipe into your mask has got less oxygen saturation than normal."
The machine has a range of settings from 0.5, which equates to 162 metres above sea level, to 12, which is 3,962m. The Lions players have been using level 10, which replicates conditions at 3,420m - far tougher than they will encounter in Pretoria, which is at 1,370m.
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Other than feeling a little inhibited by the mask, I felt quite comfortable for the first couple of minutes of gentle rowing. Then things got very tough, as I suddenly felt like someone had put a plastic bag over my head.
Deep gulps of air were failing to fill my lungs, sweat was drenching my shirt and my legs ached. White told me this was the "hypoxic state" when your body starts to become deprived of oxygen.
Then he said: "Right, we're coming to the end of your warm-up now - time to step it up".
Now I was starting to realise exactly what Lawrence Dallaglio meant in 2000 when he described playing at Loftus Versfeld as "like breathing tar".
At a news conference on Wednesday, Lions assistant Shaun Edwards had said the famous venue as "the hardest place to play rugby in the world" before recounting - with some glee - "the pain on the players' faces" when they had used the altitude machines.
After only 10 minutes of pretty gentle exertion, I almost fell off the rower. White said the players tend to do at least 20-minute sessions of far greater intensity, where they intersperse a minute of fierce activity with the same period of rest, over and over again.
"The more the players use the machines the better they get at coping with the effects," he said.
Side effects of altitude include dehydration and blood thickening, so White and his team have been monitoring the players' water levels and giving them garlic and fish oil supplements to combat this.
The 37-year-old, who is also part of Wales' coaching team, is confident his players will not be unduly hampered by the Highveld on Saturday.
"They had nine days to acclimatise to altitude in Johannesburg and Bloemfontein at the start of the tour," he says "and they have been topping up on the machines since before we came out to South Africa."
Ideally, you would want at least eight days at altitude to adjust to the conditions, but Saturday's first Test in Durban followed three days later by the Emerging Boks game in Cape Town have made this impossible.
White believes the Lions have done the next best thing though. "By travelling up to Pretoria the day before the game, we have been advised that the effects of altitude won't have chance to kick in," he explained.
And he was encouraged by the fact the Lions finished the stronger of the two sides against South Africa in the first Test last weekend.
As for me, I just hope there aren't too many stairs to the press box at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
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Comments
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Great blog, more behind the scenes stuff from the BBC.
The Lions will be severely hampered by the altitude in the second test and although it was meant to have the opposite effect, this blog has convinced me of that even more so.
http://sportingchameleon.wordpress.com/
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Really liked the comment where you agreed with Dallaglio about "breathing tar".
Gives you a good perspective on how hard it is to work without oxygen.
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I'm still amazed that everyone seems to think that the Lions will suffer more than the Boks.
Effort at altitude is only made more difficult due to less oxygen in the air (as stated above). And our ability to convert what little oxygen available is down solely to fitness.
As I remember it was the Boks who were struggling heavily in the last 20 mins of the match, this despite their raft of changes for fresh legs too.
If we fall apart in the last 20 minutes it won't have anything to do with our fitness.
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Really interesting article - Shame about the glare in the video :P
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Climbing a 600m mountain with a backpack is a great workout. I can only imagine what playing a Test match at 1370m is like! C'mon the Lions!
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Climbing a 600m mountain with a backpack on your back is a great workout. I can only imagine what it's like to play a test match at 1370m! C'mon the Lions!
http://www.hillwalkireland.com
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@ Herspian:
It is not to do with fitness, but almost all to do with altitude acclimatisation. The number of Red Blood Cells in the blood is increased through altitude training allowing more oxygen to be carried per unit time. Yes this increases slightly with normal high-intensity training, but nowhere near as much if you trained at altitude.
I don't know much about the 'boks training regimes, but my bet is it includes some work at altitude, which is more than our lads do regularly.
One example of my point is the TV programme showing the celebrities who climed kilamangiro (sp?), Chris Moyles struggled far less with the altitude than the GMTV presenter and Ronan Keating, not because he was fitter, but because he used to smoke. This has damaged the internals of his lungs, such that every breath transports less oxygen to the blood, so the body adapts by upping RBC construction (or dropping the removal of older RBCs)
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@ HamchesterUnited
Agreed. I understand of course altitude acclimatisation is different.
However, the point of that training is that it increases the number of red blood cells and therefore the bodies ability to process oxygen into energy. Much like 'blood doping' of the 80's. So if the Boks were well off match fitness at sea-level they will struggle even more at altitude with only a week to prepare.
As far as I'm aware, you can't develop a 'propensity' to altitude extertion if you don't already have a high level of fitness (something they seemed short of at sea level last week).
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Hahaha, Si.
Looking at that freezeframe on the video I was expecting you to open with "Hello, Clarice..."
(Mountain) top blog.
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"By travelling up to Pretoria the day before the game, we have been advised that the effects of altitude won't have chance to kick in,"
Is anyone else a little concerned about this statement. Who advised that?...They weren't South African by any chance???
Its got all the hallmarks of a MASSIVE backfire to me!
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As I understand it there are a couple of adaptations the body makes when at altitude. In the first few hours the blood will thicken due to reduction in blood plasma volume in an effort to increase the density of red blood cells. The body will grow extra red blood cells which will take a few days. Finally there will be an increase in muscular oxygen efficiency. This adaptation takes months at altitude and the 'boks that live at altitude will have this advantage.
I think the Lions were correct not to base themselves at altitude for the tour as it becomes much more fatiguing to to high intensity workouts, thus limiting overall training load.
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#4 Bring_Back_Barnes...are you talking about the poor lighting or my forehead?!
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Gentlemen... am sure you will agree that both teams will have the same problem, half the Springbok team are from the coast. So I don't think we should use altitude as too much of an excuse. Unless of course the Springboks have been camping out in Pretoria for a while now?
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I enjoyed seeing "Richard Irvine-Brown - BBC Sport"s comment being held for moderation. Guess you can't be too careful after the RB-JR affair!
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MattieJ31, That is exactly what the pro gridiron, basketball and ice hockey teams do before playing in Denver. They learned from bitter experience.
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Haha slightly higher up from the forehead. The lighting crew have done a great job but i suppose theres only so much they can do with it :)Great Blog
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The Beast is from Durban and he'll have to hold up Adam Jones' 20st frame in the scrum. So all being well he'll be blowing out of his backside after 30 mins.
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Your technique on the rowing machine was absolutely dreadful. Not important. Just thought you'd like to know.
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I am also sceptical. Aside from the Bulls players who play in S14, they will not have trained consistently at altitude in last 6 weeks unless they have based themsleves there. (who wants to live in Pretoria anyway) 6 weeks away will negate the effect. Plus they will also have been at Durbs too so the effect is the same. The Lions fitness will be the key. But S14 training stars in Dec/Jan so its a bit of a lottery. A quick start, good kicking and opportunities taken will give the Lions what they need. Jacobs at centre and SJ at FH may be the key. The Beast is overarrated as he fouled at every scrum and AJ is better. So come on boys, come on Lions and lets bash the Boks from here to next week.
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Fair enough Coxcurrygod. Any tips?
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Thanks for the reassurance DavidT_CO! :)
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Great article..very true, I am from the Cape and always struggled when we played highveld teams. However because half the Bok team is from coastal areas, probably not such an issue as it's made to be. More importantly is the kicking practise. The Lions will only have one practise session for their kickers at altitude.
The Boks have been based in Pretoria all week, and such have been working on their kicking game. The ball travels alot further on the highveld, and the Bok game is very much based around the kicking game. Much has been made of obvious last week, Lions mid-field busts and Boks scrummaging, but not the strategy the lead to these two showings. Firstly the Bok backline was hardly used, and that is not an indication of their attacking game, just the correct strategy employed. this week, promises to be different.
For the first 60minutes, the Lions were pinned in their half by accurate Bok kicking, once the kicking went astray, the Lions were able to cause some trouble. Seeing as the Lion policy is not to kick the ball out, (Lineouts are Bok strongpoint) their kicks were aimed at Steyn, and the chasers sped up on him really quickly. This policy worked to certain extent, but needs to spot on this week, as Steyn has a massive boot.
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The game is being played at less than the height of Ben Nevis, what a load of rubbish about altitude.
1214 meters is not even 4000 feet.
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