City vs Country riding

[Paul J]

Alot of discussion surrounding elite athletes involves talk of VO2max. From what I can gather VO2max is fundamentally about the delivery of oxygen to the working muscles rather than the muscles utilization of O2.

In heavily populated cities in which people rely primarily upon motorised transport, the air has relatively high concentration of CO, Nitrate and SulphOxide compared with country areas or regions of low population density. The presence of these compounds would not reduce atmospheric concentration of O2, however I would imagine that they would compete for oxygen carrying sites in the blood and I assume, therefore reduce the efficiency of delivery of O2 to the muscles.

Anybody please feel free to correct me if I am misled. However, my question is this. Is there a benefit to VO2max from training in country areas as opposed to training in and around the city?

 

[tafi]

i was always taught that Haemoglobin in the blood absorbs oxygen as it diffuses across membranes in the lungs. However Haemoglobin has a greater affinity for CO (carbon monoxide) than it does for oxygen. This is why CO is such a deadly gas.

Anyway, Studies have found that those who commute to work on the bike in traffic, tend to be less affected by CO or Nitrides or Sulfides in the air as a result of vehicle emissions, than people who drive to work. This could be a result of better respiratory funnction or becasue they had adapted to it.

you should probably realise that the concentraions of any of these gases in the air (even in the city) is quite low compared to oxygen. As well as this polutants are dispersed everywhere in the atmosphere as a result of our dirty sordid little lives and their aint nothing we can do about it. So it is likely that country areas a re just as likely to contain realtive concentrations of the affore mentioned gases.

However I would agree that there needs to be some more studies done in this area.

 

[Paul J]

Thanks for the input. But wouldn't there be a higher concentration of these polutants in the middle of a large city as this is the point of origin and dispersal of the "smog" would also amount to dilution.

Another point to take into account as far as city riding versus country riding goes is the stop - start nature of city riding. On a country road a rider can just spin along for miles and maintain a constant heart rate where as around a city one is having to stop for lights and traffic, there-by creating fluctuations in the heart rate. Just some more food for thought.