Greetings friends!
It's been way too long. MY BAD. I'm going to spare you my heart felt apology and delve right in to what I came here to say.....I'M OFFICIALLY REGISTERED FOR THE NIKE WOMEN'S MARATHON! Woohoo! Sorry, I'm just really excited about it :)
So the NIKE Women's Marathon will be October 16th, 2011. That means I have approximately six months to train and get my butt in shape. I've been going periodically to the gym, doing my weights and strength routine and then running on average 4 miles. It's a hell of a better start than I had last year, but I got to stick with it!
I just took my last regular anatomy exam yesterday (tear) and would like to enlighten you on how your body gets the energy to do things! So basically your body has 3 main ways of making the energy (ATP) necessary to do work. The first way, most easily accessible way is through your ATP stores, which consist of all the ATP your cells have already made. Although this is a fast method of obtaining energy, these stores run out in 2 seconds of activity. After 2 seconds, your body starts making ATP most dominantly through your ATP-PC (Phosphagen) system. This just means your body is creating ATP through the catabolism of creatine phosphate which allows ADP to become ATP. Although this is another easy and efficient way for your body to obtain energy, it only lasts 10 seconds!! What's up with that? Once that runs out, your body turns to anaerobic FAST glycolysis, which is a process that turns glucose into pyruvates and then into lactic acid. This provides your body with energy for up to 1 minute. After 1 minute, your body relies on aerobic, slow glycolysis, the Krebs Cycle, and the Electron Transport Chain to make enough ATP to run that marathon! The way in which it does this is first through slow glycolysis: one glucose molecule is turned into two pyruvic acid molecules. Then these two molecules undergo a change to become Acetyl-CoA, which then enters the Krebs Cycle to form 1 ATP each along with some additional products! Finally, the coenzymes NADH+H+ and FADH2 are taken to the membrane of the mitochondria and the hydrogens that they have pass through via enzymes number one and number two; the electrons are transferred along the chain and are not allowed through the membrane, however they eventually wind up making metabolic water! (super cool). Now back to the hydrogens that passed through the membrane....these guys are going to pass BACK through an enzyme called ATP synthase, and in doing this, they are each going to be making an ATP. One crank of the Krebs Cycle ultimately produces roughly 34-36 ATP, and the best part is, this system is indefinite, meaning it never stops! This is going to be the most dominate form of energy production after 1 minute of work. However, it's important to keep in mind that all of these systems work in conjunction with one another. They all contribute to your body's ability to produce ATP, and that is such a wonderful thing because without them, we wouldn't be able to move!
Here's a graph that visually embodies everything I've been telling you!
I hope you learned a little something from that VERY brief synopsis (it gets much more in depth). I enjoyed telling you. I'm off for a run on this beautiful, sunny day. Cheers to you!
Till next time,
Kelsey
P.S. here's my anatomy study group & I with our beautiful depiction of the Krebs Cycle! :)
