In his heyday as a top class athlete Kris Akabusi broke many athletic records, wining medal after medal at numerous games. However things have changed since then. Year after year records are constantly being broken as athletes get faster, stronger and better. Ever Wondered sent Kris out to investigate why…and if there’s any limit to how fast we can be.

 

When Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile in 1954, he re-defined the limits of human possibility. He had broken through what seemed an insurmountable barrier, the Mount Everest of athletics. But since then almost 17 seconds have been shaved off Bannister’s record. Will we ever be able to break the 3 minute mile?

Kris’s first stop is The Prince Olympic Medical Centre to meet Chief Physiologist Richard Godfrey, and to be put through his paces…

Kris: Richard what are you doing to me?

Richard Godfrey: Well, we’re trying to do a test here that gets progressively harder and we’re hopefully going to be able to measure your maximal oxygen uptake, or your aerobic power.

Kris: But what will that tell us?

Richard Godfrey: Well it’s a good measure of your capacity for endurance performance. Quite often it tells us about the potential of the endurance athlete.

Kris: How important will this sort of information be to me as an athlete?

Richard Godfrey: It really depends on what sport you’re involved in. If you’re involved in any event lasting more than two minutes, then it has a relevance.

Kris: Since Roger Bannister broke his 4 minute mile, the record’s come down by nearly 17 seconds. Apart from training, how have we managed to do that sort of thing?

Richard Godfrey: Diet has improved a lot since then and we’ve learnt an awful lot more about the best way to train and how to improve over time. Today people train throughout the year, maybe even 30 hours a week. In Roger Bannister’s day they only trained for 6 months of the year, so it’s a completely different ball game.

Kris: Would you say that in the 21st century, this sort of testing regime will be compulsory for a peak performance performer?

Richard Godfrey: Without question, I think it will be a matter of leaving no stone unturned and paying more attention to detail. We know it makes a difference both in terms of health and performance, therefore if we’re not doing it then we’re going to miss out.

Kris: So attention to detail gives us the edge, but are there any limits to what the human person can do, we could never run as fast as a cheetah - so how do you get to that sort of defining edge?

Richard Godfrey: It’s very hard to say where those limits lie, it’s very important to say almost anything is possible, we don’t know where limits lie but we can help you achieve your best, your own genetic potential.

So we know that training is vital in achieving world record speeds. But it’s not the only element. What you eat is also important in achieving body power. Kris goes to meet Sports Nutritionist Dr Sarah Schenker ...

Kris: Sarah you work for the British Nutrition Foundation. Can you tell me, why is nutrition important to the athlete?

Dr Sarah Schenker: If you want to be the best you have to shave off seconds or score more goals, you have to be in the best physical condition you can be. Now that takes a lot of training, and that takes a lot of fuel, so the nutritional diet is there to fuel the training, not just the day of the event or the competition or the race.

Kris: So how’s our diet changed since fifty years ago?

Dr Sarah Schenker: Back in Roger Bannister’s day it was thought that protein was the key to performance. We now know that that’s not the case, and that it’s really a high carbohydrate diet every day, despite whether you’re having a light training day or even a rest day.

Kris: What sort of foods contain carbohydrates?

Dr Sarah Schenker: Carbohydrate is in two forms. You’ve got complex carbohydrates which are the starchy carbohydrates. These are the pastas, the rice, potato and bread. Then you have the simple carbohydrates which are your sugars, honey, sports drinks, the fizzy drinks, the soft sugary drinks, biscuits, cakes, buns. All those sorts of things contain carbohydrate. If you’re training really hard you eat somewhere between 6-10 grams per kilogram bodyweight in carbohydrate. If you weigh on average 80 kilos, that’s 800 grams of carbohydrate you need to be taking in every day. In terms of pasta that would be two big bags - that’s a lot of pasta to eat in a day!

So this is where the real challenge comes in for nutritionists and dieticians, they need to be able to come up with effective ways of giving carbohydrate in the right amount so that the timing’s right, the type is right, and the athlete is interested in eating it.

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