WORKSHEET: INTERPLAY BETWEEN ENERGY SYSTEMS:

Background Information:
Obstacle courses have been used for hundreds of years for training and
assessing physical capabilities and as a competitive challenge, particularly in
the military.
Obstacle course racing (OCR) and mud runs (such as Tough Mudder, Spartan
Race, and Tough Guy) have recently become popular with the general public
and are taking place all over the world.
They require a plethora of basic, fundamental skills including running,
jumping, climbing, balancing, swimming, vaulting, crawling, and landing, along
with the ability to still carry out these movements even after fatigue has set in.
Each race varies in distance, number of obstacles, time of year, and overall
difficulty. Tough Guy is generally regarded as the hardest (its also one of the
oldest having started in 1987) and takes place at the end of January in
northern England on an old farm the race is around eight miles long, in
temperatures below freezing, includes 250 obstacles, and requires signing a
death warrant beforehand!
Physical Requirements of Obstacle course racing (OCR)
Since all courses are different distances and involve different obstacles its
difficult to give a one-size-fits-all recommendation for relative contributions of
aerobic and anaerobic metabolism. Thus the following information will be
based on a standard 5km race with around 25 obstacles (probably the most
popular distance for most people).
Of the thousands of people who take part in OCR every year, the vast majority
of them will train simply by doing runs of approximately the distance they will
cover in the race and sometimes further. This is an ineffective training method
as they will primarily be training aerobically (oxidative metabolism) for a race
that incorporates more than just that single energy system.
All three energy systems (phosphagen, glycolytic, oxidative) are required for
optimal performance in a 5km race:
phosphagen (ATP PC) for very short, intense, maximal effort bursts
glycolytic (anaerobic glycolosis) for sustained, near maximal efforts
oxidative (aerobic) for low intensity elements and for rapid recovery of the
other two systems.
The predominant system, however, is mostly likely the glycolytic system due
to the shorter distances between obstacles and the volume of obstacles
(requiring intense efforts) encountered. Concentrating the majority of training
on this system will improve lactate tolerance and removal of lactate. A byproduct of using this energy system is the hydrogen ion (H+). An
accumulation of H+ will cause a burning sensation and pain due to resulting
acidosis. By training the glycolytic system regularly you will improve the
efficiency of this system and result in less of a H+ build up.
The interplay of energy systems refers to the dominant energy system at any
given time during an event.

All energy systems make ATP from the start of physical activity. However, one
is more dominant than the others at particular times, depending on the
intensity & duration of the activity.
A Mud Run event is a cross-country obstacle course over an extended
distance. The participants have to trail-run but also have to jump, leap,
climb, crawl or wade over or through man-made and natural mudinfused obstacles set at intervals.
(a) Identify two of the acute muscular responses to exercise experienced by a
participant in the early stages of a Mud Run event.
(b) Would participants reach a steady state during a Mud Run event? Justify
your answer.
(c) What is oxygen deficit? How does this affect a participants energy
production in the early stages of a Mud Run event?
(d) What is plyometric training? Explain how this could assist a participant in a
Mud Run event.
(e) Describe the contributions of the three energy systems of a participant
who is attempting to climb the final obstacle of a Mud Run event, a rope
ladder which is five metres high.
(f) Explain the energy production process of the energy system that is utilised
most when participants are completing the long trail-running sections of a Mud
Run event.
Extension Questions:
The following graphs show the energy supply when cycling to exhaustion. The
1 graph is a 70 second cycling bout & the 2 graph is a 200 second cycling
bout.
List the time frames that the energy systems are dominant & time frames for
peak power in the table below.
st

Energy
system

nd

Time frame when the

energy system is
dominant
70
|
200

Time frame when the energy

system is producing the most
amount of ATP (peak power)
70
|
200

ATP/PC
Anaerobic
Glycolysis
Aerobic
Glycolysis
In both graphs, the amount of energy required is 110% of the VO2 maximum.
This includes 100% of the maximal oxygen uptake levels and 10% above this
value when the athlete is working anaerobically.
Answer the following questions.
1. State the role of the energy systems.
2. When do the following energy systems start to make ATP?
3. State 3 differences between the interplay of energy systems in the 2
activities using information in the table above.

4. Which is the fastest energy system to make ATP? Why can ATP be resynthesised so quickly by this energy system?
5. Explain a disadvantage of the ATP/PC system.
6. List the anaerobic energy systems and describe what the term anaerobic
means.
7. Discuss the chemical pathway of anaerobic glycolysis.
8. What would be a major cause of fatigue in the 70 second cycling activity to
exhaustion? How can this be measured?
9. At what point in time does the aerobic energy system become the dominant
provider of ATP during an event?
10. Why does it take time for oxygen supplies to meet exercise requirements?
11. List the by-products of the aerobic energy system.
12. List the major fuel source for fuelling the 200 second cycling activity.
Explain your choice.