Mitochondriacs?

[Exit Stage Left]

Having started training again in the recently improved weather, I've been considering the pathways of endurance fitness. Cardio-vascular improvements, and muscular strength are pretty obvious, but I got around to considering mytochondria, which are pretty odd things, in that they have their own independent DNA, and might even be considered as a sort of parasite.
They are responsible for metabolising fuel for muscular effort, and increase if you do a lot of endurance activity.
I was attracted by the closeness of the word to hypochondria. If there was some metabolite that made you feel good, like endorphins, I could use the term 'Mytochondriac' for someone obssessed with endurance exercise. This obviously leads to some Googling. One article I found was this.
http://sweatscience.com/brain-endurance-mitochondria-and-the-desire-to-exercise/
What it says is that mytochondria in the brain increase (in lab rats) due to endurance exercise. This means that the brain can support more exercise without having to signal fatigue to stop muscles burning off the fuel it needs. The idea of a physically-trained brain is interesting, in that it might explain some of the growth in 'cycling wisdom' needed in extreme rides. It's an appealing hypothesis, which might explain some of the deeper appeal of long distances, especially as the presence of greater brain mitochondria might be linked to a desire to exercise more.
It also takes longer to grow mitochondria than to lose them, which is one of the attractions of keeping your nose to the treadmill.

[Camrider]

I was attracted by the closeness of the word to hypochondria

Not so similar when spelled correctly though 

[Exit Stage Left]

I was attracted by the closeness of the word to hypochondria

Not so similar when spelled correctly though 

I'm not so sure I get your meaning,
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/9983.php

[Bledlow]

Having started training again in the recently improved weather, I've been considering the pathways of endurance fitness. Cardio-vascular improvements, and muscular strength are pretty obvious, but I got around to considering mytochondria, which are pretty odd things, in that they have their own independent DNA, and might even be considered as a sort of parasite.

Endomutualist smbiotes, surely?

[Exit Stage Left]

I like the idea that 'mental toughness' might be have a bio-chemical component. So that rather than having 'The Right Stuff', it's a product of the progression inherent in moving through the sequence of Audax events that will equip you to bear its rigours. So there isn't any 'right' way to approach the challenges, the challenges themselves will give you the forebearance to prevail.

[Bledlow]

I was attracted by the closeness of the word to hypochondria

Not so similar when spelled correctly though 

I'm not so sure I get your meaning,
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/9983.php

Hypochondria
Mitochondria

Sometimes my biology degree has uses.

[Pete Mas]

Very interesting theory. In passing, I was wondering what proportion of the membership aspire to ever-increasing levels of ride difficulty? I know I seem to set myself  harder and harder challenges (SR to PBP, LEL, Mille Miglia, Wessex SR (not in any particular order), but I'm not sure the average member does? Or maybe its time/career/family/finance restraints which act as a brake on that?

[mattc]

Everyone has constraints. I guess there's (broadly) 2 approaches;
1) Aim 'higher' and lower the priority of some constraints (e.g. family time) to facilitate it. Or
2) Aim 'higher' with the same constraints. (train more, suffer more, ride/train 'smarter' (whatever that means!) )
2a) try to complete the same rides, while your constraints become tougher (age/injury/wotever )

Or, of course, just keep doing similar rides to the ones you've enjoyed.

[Exit Stage Left]

I was attracted by the closeness of the word to hypochondria

Not so similar when spelled correctly though 

I'm not so sure I get your meaning,
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/9983.php

Hypochondria
Mitochondria

Sometimes my biology degree has uses.

Quite right, I had myalgia on the brain.
I was initially interested in the differing rates of detraining in different aspects of fitness. http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/detraining-1113  That's relevant to the sorts of gaps you can leave between events. There's a lot of thought about that in the year after PBP. What's an appropriate level of 'ticking over' so you can pick up again for LEL? This brain mitochondria idea may have some relevance as a sort of threshold, once you are over that barrier the desire for endurance exercise is greater.
The advice for post-event recovery will also be determined by how far along you are in a training cycle. In the early stages the main difficulties come from over-use of connective tissue, people do their knees and achilles tendons in, because their rate of training is slower than muscles. I do circuit training three times a week to sustain development in connective tissues and for the stretching. I'd view the mitochondriacal effects in the brain to be a late stage in the training cycle, requiring repeated long rides. The feeling of invincibilty when it all comes together is worth the effort, but I'm not so sure it's a state that makes people much fun to live with.