Condición física y requerimientos metabólicos en maratonianos de montaña de alto nivel

Nowadays, mountain races have become a Consolidated sport with a great number of participants and followers, which resulted in the celebration of competitions at the highest level in national and international championships, such as the World Cup and the World Championship. In our country, this sport has a great number of followers that compete in many races along our orography.The so-called "Alpino Madrileño" marathón is the most important, not only for its extreme hardness, but also because it is part of the competitions counting for the World Cup. In the present study, we evalúate the physical condition of five high level mountain marathón athletes, as well as the physiological requirements and the effort level during the above-mentioned competition. Results show that the athletes present máximum oxygen consumption valúes and percentages of cardiac frequency very cióse to the máximum valúes present in élite marathón athletes during competition.The results regarding cardiac frequency and blood concentration of lactic acid obtained during the competition aliow us to affirm that it is a sport of high energetic and metabolic requirements, even higher than in asphait races.