The Ultimate Athlete

I'm blown away by the info I hear about sled dogs. A doctor at Oklahoma State has been studying the phenomenal muscle fatigue recovery process which allows these animals to traverse 1,100 miles in arctic conditions for 9+ days at a time. Dr. Michael Davis has published his findings in a report entitled, “Metabolic Strategies for Sustained Endurance Exercise: Lessons from the Iditarod.” He claims:

Conditioned dogs display most of the metabolic changes that are found in human endurance athletes during their first day of exercise, including depletion of muscle energy reserves, increases in stress hormones, evidence of cellular injury (such as to proteins, lipids and DNA), and oxidative stress. However, with subsequent consecutive days of exercise at the same intensity, these changes are reversed. Within four days after exercise begins, the metabolic profile of the dogs returns to where it was before the race began, despite their sustained, strenuous exercise.

also

Racing sled dogs have enormous aerobic capacity. While the untrained sled dogs have an average aerobic capacity of 175 ml/kg/min VO2 max (ratio of volume of oxygen to body weight per minute), the aerobic capacity of the fully conditioned sled dogs is estimated to be about twice that (300 ml/kg/min).

Absolutely fascinating! Now I have another spirit animal to channel when i think I can go no longer. Be the sled dog!