Training and Competition Readiness in Triathlon

Triathlon is characterized by the multidisciplinary nature of the sport where swimming, cycling, and running are completed sequentially in different events, such as the sprint, Olympic, long-distance, and Ironman formats. The large number of training sessions and overall volume undertaken by triathletes to improve fitness and performance can also increase the risk of injury, illness, or excessive fatigue. Short- and medium-term individualized training plans, periodization strategies, and work/rest balance are necessary to minimize interruptions to training due to injury, illness, or maladaptation. Even in the absence of health and wellbeing concerns, it is unclear whether cellular signals triggered by multiple training stimuli that drive training adaptations each day interfere with each other. Distribution of training intensity within and between different sessions is an important aspect of training. Both internal (perceived stress) and external loads (objective metrics) should be considered when monitoring training load. Incorporating strength training to complement the large body of endurance work in triathlon can help avoid overuse injuries. We explore emerging trends and strategies from the latest literature and evidence-based knowledge for improving training readiness and performance during competition in triathlon

Running Your Best Triathlon Race

Negative or evenly paced racing strategies often lead to more favorable performance outcomes for endurance athletes. However, casual inspection of race split times and observational studies both indicate that elite triathletes competing in Olympic-distance triathlon typically implement a positive pacing strategy during the last of the 3 disciplines, the 10-km run. To address this apparent contradiction, the authors examined data from 14 International Triathlon Union elite races over 3 consecutive years involving a total of 725 male athletes. Analyses of race results confirm that triathletes typically implement a positive running pace strategy, running the first lap of the standard 4-lap circuit substantially faster than laps 2 (∼7%), 3 (∼9%), and 4 (∼12%). Interestingly, mean running pace in lap 1 had a substantially lower correlation with 10-km run time (r = .82) than both laps 2 and 3. Overall triathlon race performance (ranking) was best associated with run performance (r = .82) compared with the swim and cycle sections. Lower variability in race pace during the 10-km run was also reflective of more successful run times. Given that overall race outcome is mainly explained by the 10-km run performance, with top run performances associated with a more evenly paced strategy, triathletes (and their coaches) should reevaluate their pacing strategy during the run section

Ingesting a bitter solution: The sweet touch to increasing short-term cycling performance

Purpose: The authors investigated the potential benefit of ingesting 2 mM of quinine (bitter tastant) on a 3000-m cycling time-trial (TT) performance. Methods: Nine well-trained male cyclists (maximal aerobic power: 386 [38] W) performed a maximal incremental cycling ergometer test, three 3000-m familiarization TTs, and four 3000-m intervention TTs (∼4 min) on consecutive days. The 4 interventions were (1) 25 mL of placebo, (2) a 25-mL sweet solution, and (3) and (4) repeat 25 mL of 2-mM quinine solutions (Bitter1 and Bitter2), 30 s before each trial. Participants self-selected their gears and were only aware of distance covered. Results: Overall mean power output for the full 3000 m was similar for all 4 conditions: placebo, 348 (45) W; sweet, 355 (47) W; Bitter1, 354 (47) W; and Bitter2, 355 (48) W. However, quinine administration in Bitter1 and Bitter2 increased power output during the first kilometer by 15 ± 11 W and 21 ± 10 W (mean ± 90% confidence limits), respectively, over placebo, followed by a decay of 34 ± 32 W during Bitter1 and Bitter2 during the second kilometer. Bitter2 also induced a 11 ± 13-W increase during the first kilometer compared with the sweet condition. Conclusions: Ingesting 2 mM of quinine can improve cycling performance during the first one-third of a 3000-m TT and could be used for sporting events lasting ∼80 s to potentially improve overall performance

Study abroad: Exploring the pre-departure preparation provided to students, staff and host communities

Student pre-departure preparation has been identified as essential if study abroad programs involving work integrated learning are to deliver the numerous benefits they intend, while mitigating the many risks they involve. However, little is known about what preparation is provided to the academic and professional staff who implement these programs, and the community members who host the students. Interviews with 16 academic and professional staff involved in preparing students, staff, and host communities for Australian study abroad programs reveal inconsistencies in the preparation provided to students, and very limited preparation to staff and host communities. The limited preparation that is offered, is designed and developed in an organic (not structured) and inconsistent manner. Our findings suggest that institutions should consider implementing a more structured, consistent and institutionally driven approach to preparation for students, staff, and host communities to reduce the substantial risks associated with these programs while maximizing the benefits

Development and validation of an assessment tool for higher education learning abroad programs:A qualitative Delphi study

Background: Higher education learning abroad programs provide many benefits to healthcare students. However, inadequate preparation prior to their international travel, and misdirected motivations for their participation, can jeopardise the benefits and increase the risks. While it is pivotal to objectively evaluate pre-departure student preparation and the impact the programs have on students, existing assessment questionnaires fail to inform these aspects. Objectives: To develop an assessment tool (two surveys) to holistically evaluate learning abroad programs for higher education healthcare students. Design: A qualitative Delphi technique. Participants: A total of 24 experts who had designed, managed, participated in, hosted, funded, and/or researched Australian learning abroad programs for higher education students. Methods: The study was conducted over a 4-month period. An initial set of pre-departure and post-program questions was developed through a review of the existing literature and from a post-program survey previously used at an Australian higher education institution. Subsequently, experts provided constructive and practical feedback on the questions to be included in the two surveys. Results: The experts reached consensus on the 26 questions to be included in the pre-departure survey and the 16 questions in the post-program survey after three Delphi rounds. Key areas of interest to the experts were mitigating student risk, improving effectiveness of pre-departure briefings, gaining a better insight into student motivations for participation, and understanding the impact the programs have on students. Conclusions: The development of this valid assessment tool (two surveys) will provide higher education institutions and program leaders with the ability to better evaluate the effectiveness of the pre-departure preparation they provide to students, understand the motivations of students who participate, as well as assessing the impact these programs have on students. The insights gathered can be used to improve future program offerings and maximise the benefits to healthcare students while reducing the risks.</p

Metabolomics to study the sublethal effects of diazepam and irbesartan on glass eels (Anguilla anguilla)

Since glass eels are continuously exposed to contamination throughout their migratory journey in estuaries, to a certain extent the fall in the population of this endangered species might be attributed to this exposure, which is especially acute in estuaries under high urban pressure. In this work, metabolomics was used to address the main objective of this study, to evaluate the effects of two pharmaceuticals previously identified as potential concerning chemicals for fish (diazepam and irbesartan) on glass eels. An exposure experiment to diazepam, irbesartan and their mixture was carried out over 7 days followed by 7 days of depuration phase. After exposure, glass eels were individually sacrificed using a lethal bath of anesthesia, and then an unbiased sample extraction method was used to extract separately the polar metabolome and the lipidome. The polar metabolome was submitted to targeted and non-targeted analysis, whereas for the lipidome only the non-targeted analysis was carried out. A combined strategy using partial least squares discriminant analysis and univariate and multivariate statistical analysis (ANOVA, ASCA, t-test, and fold-change analysis) was used to identify the metabolites altered in the exposed groups with respect to the control group. The results of the polar metabolome analysis revealed that glass eels exposed to the diazepam-irbesartan mixture were the most impacted ones, with altered levels for 11 metabolites, some of them belonging to the energetic metabolism, which was confirmed to be sensitive to these contaminants. Additionally, the dysregulation of the levels of twelve lipids, most of them with energetic and structural functions, was also found after exposure to the mixture, which might be related to oxidative stress, inflammation, or alteration of the energetic metabolism.Authors acknowledge financial support from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) of Spain and the European Regional Development Fund through CTM2017–84763-C3–1-R and CTM2020–117686RB-C31 projects and the Basque Government through the financial support as a consolidated group of the Basque Research System (IT1446–22). Naroa Lopez-Herguedas is grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitivity for her predoctoral scholarship FPI 2018. Iker Alvarez-Mora is grateful to the University of the Basque Country and the Université de Pau et des Pays de L' Adour for his cotutelle predoctoral scholarship

Sprinting after having sprinted: Prior high-intensity stochastic cycling impairs the winning strike for gold

Bunch riding in closed circuit cycling courses and some track cycling events are often typified by highly variable power output and a maximal sprint to the finish. How criterium style race demands affect final sprint performance however, is unclear. We studied the effects of 1 h variable power cycling on a subsequent maximal 30 s sprint in the laboratory. Nine well-trained male cyclists/triathletes (O2peak 4.9 ± 0.4 Lmin -1 ; mean ± SD) performed two 1 h cycling trials in a randomized order with either a constant (CON) or variable (VAR) power output matched for mean power output. The VAR protocol comprised intervals of varying intensities (40-135% of maximal aerobic power) and durations (10 to 90 s). A 30 s maximal sprint was performed before and immediately after each 1 h cycling trial. When compared with CON, there was a greater reduction in peak (-5.1 ± 6.1%; mean ± 90% confidence limits) and mean (-5.9 ± 5.2%) power output during the 30 s sprint after the 1 h VAR cycle. Variable power cycling, commonly encountered during criterium and triathlon races can impair an optimal final sprint, potentially compromising race performance. Athletes, coaches, and staff should evaluate training (to improve repeat sprint-ability) and race-day strategies (minimize power variability) to optimize the final sprint

Characterization of the contamination fingerprint of wastewater treatment plant effluents in the Henares River Basin (central Spain) based on target and suspect screening analysis

The interest in contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) has increased lately due to their continued emission and potential ecotoxicological hazards. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are generally not capable of eliminating them and are considered the main pathway for CECs to the aquatic environment. The number of CECs in WWTPs effluents is often so large that complementary approaches to the conventional target analysis need to be implemented. Within this context, multitarget quantitative analysis (162 compounds) and a suspect screening (>40,000 suspects) approaches were applied to characterize the CEC fingerprint in effluents of five WWTPs in the Henares River basin (central Spain) during two sampling campaigns (summer and autumn). The results indicated that 76% of the compounds quantified corresponded to pharmaceuticals, 21% to pesticides and 3% to industrial chemicals. Apart from the 82 compounds quantified, suspect screening increased the list to 297 annotated compounds. Significant differences in the CEC fingerprint were observed between summer and autumn campaigns and between the WWTPs, being those serving the city of Alcala de Henares the ones with the largest number of compounds and concentrations. Finally, a risk prioritization approach was applied based on risk quotients (RQs) for algae, invertebrates, and fish. Azithromycin, diuron, chlortoluron, clarithromycin, sertraline and sulfamethoxazole were identified as having the largest risks to algae. As for invertebrates, the compounds having the largest RQs were carbendazim, fenoxycarb and eprosartan, and for fish acetaminophen, DEET, carbendazim, caffeine, fluconazole, and azithromycin. The two WWTPs showing higher calculated Risk Indexes had tertiary treatments, which points towards the need of increasing the removal efficiency in urban WWTPs. Furthermore, considering the complex mixtures emitted into the environment and the low dilution capacity of Mediterranean rivers, we recommend the development of detailed monitoring plans and stricter regulations to control the chemical burden created to freshwater ecosystems.Authors acknowledge financial support from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) of Spain and the European Regional Development Fund through project CTM2017-84763-C3-1-R project and the Basque Government through the financial support as consolidated group of the Basque Research System (IT1213-19). NLH is grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitivity for her predoctoral scholarship FPI 2018. BGG acknowledge an EHU/UPV postdoctoral fellowship. AR is supported by the Talented Researcher Support Programme - Plan GenT (CIDEGENT/2020/043) of the Generalitat Valenciana. Finally, the authors acknowledge support from the AEI and the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU) to support the Thematic Network of Excellence (NET4SEA) on emerging contaminants in marine settings (CTM2017-90890-REDT, MICIU/AEI/ FEDER, EU)

Comprehensive micropollutant characterization of wastewater during Covid-19 crisis in 2020: Suspect screening and environmental risk prioritization strategy

Micropollutants monitoring in wastewater can serve as a picture of what is consuming society and how it can impact the aquatic environment. In this work, a suspect screening approach was used to detect the known and unknown contaminants in wastewater samples collected from two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) located in the Basque Country (Crispijana in Alava, and Galindo in Vizcaya) during two weekly sampling campaigns, which included the months from April to July 2020, part of the confinement period caused by COVID-19. To that aim, high-resolution mass spectrometry was used to collect full-scan data-dependent tandem mass spectra from the water samples using a suspect database containing >40,000 chemical substances. The presence of > 80 contaminants was confirmed (level 1) and quantified in both WWTP samples, while at least 47 compounds were tentatively identified (2a). Among the contaminants of concern, an increase in the occurrence of some compounds used for COVID-19 disease treatment, such as lopinavir and hydroxychloroquine, was observed during the lockdown. A prioritization strategy for environmental risk assessment was carried out considering only the compounds quantified in the effluents of Crispijana and Galindo WWTPs. The compounds were scored based on the removal efficiency, estimated persistency, bioconcentration factor, mobility, toxicity potential and frequency of detection in the samples. With this approach, 33 compounds (e.g. amantadine, clozapine or lopinavir) were found to be considered key contaminants in the analyzed samples based on their concentration, occurrence and potential toxicity. Additionally, antimicrobial (RQ-AR) and antiviral (EDRP) risk of certain compounds was evaluated, where ciprofloxacin and fluconazole represented medium risk for antibiotic resistance (1 > RQ-AR > 0.1) in the aquatic ecosystems. Regarding mixture toxicity, the computed sum of toxic unit values of the different effluents (> 1) suggest that interactions between the compounds need to be considered for future environmental risk assessments.This study was funded by the Basque Government through financial support as a consolidated group of the Basque Research System (IT1446-22), the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) of Spain, the 2020 call for the generation of knowledge and scientific and technological strengthening of the R&D&i system and the R&D&i focused on society's challenges, through project PID2020-117686RB-C31 and the Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz and Fundación Vital. The authors are grateful to the Consorcio de Aguas de Bilbao and especially to Iñigo González. Naroa Lopez-Herguedas is grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitivity for her predoctoral scholarship FPI 2018. Iker Alvarez-Mora is grateful to the University of the Basque Country and the Université de Pau et des Pays de L' Adour for his cotutelle predoctoral scholarship. Finally, the authors acknowledge support from the AEI and the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU) to support the Thematic Network of Excellence (NET4SEA) on emerging contaminants in marine settings (CTM2017-90890-REDT, MICIU/AEI/FEDER, EU)

SETApp: A machine learning and image analysis based application to automate the sea urchin embryo test

[EN] Since countless xenobiotic compounds are being found in the environment, ecotoxicology faces an astounding challenge in identifying toxicants. The combination of high-throughput in vivo/in vitro bioassays with high-resolution chemical analysis is an effective way to elucidate the cause-effect relationship. However, these combined strategies imply an enormous workload that can hinder their implementation in routine analysis. The purpose of this study was to develop a new high throughput screening method that could be used as a predictive expert system that automatically quantifies the size increase and malformation of the larvae and, thus, eases the application of the sea urchin embryo test in complex toxicant identification pipelines such as effect-directed analysis. For this task, a training set of 242 images was used to calibrate the size-increase and malformation level of the larvae. Two classification models based on partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were built and compared. Moreover, Hierarchical PLS-DA shows a high proficiency in classifying the larvae, achieving a prediction accuracy of 84 % in validation. The scripts built along the work were compiled in a user-friendly standalone app (SETApp) freely accessible at https://github.com/UPV-EHU-IBeA/SETApp. The SETApp was tested in a real case scenario to fulfill the tedious requirements of a WWTP effect-directed analysis.Authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) of Spain and the European Regional Development Fund through project CTM2017–84763-C3–1-R and the Basque Government through the financial support as a consolidated group of the Basque Research System (IT1213–19). Iker Alvarez is grateful to the University of the Basque Country and the Université de Pau et des Pays de L′ Adour for his cotutelle predoctoral scholarship