Altitude - How Important Is It?

Altitude - How Important Is It?


Moments after stepping outside of DIA the other day I was greeted to a cool, crisp Colorado evening. I was home. Yes, back in Colorado, where the air is dry and I don't end my run with soaking shorts and shoes. So happy to be back home after 8 weeks living on a tropical island at sea level. To test myself (and to deny any idea of jet lag after a 16 hour travel day), I headed right out onto the trails to see how much the altitude would impact me and to see if any of my running camp training would translate. I landed late Wednesday night, and early Thursday morning was my first run. I went up and did the usual Apex outer loop, which is 8.5 miles and 1,900' of gain. Despite traveling all the previous day (and dealing with crappy airport food) I went out with a positive attitude, if not a bit tired. I felt strong in the legs, and couldn't really tell if my lungs were working extra hard or not. When I tagged the top in :35 I was fairly surprised, as that was 30 seconds faster then my usual. I kept up a solid pace as I went back down and then up Hardscrabble and around Grubstake, pulling into the parking lot at 1:10. Wow, I was really happy with that given all of the circumstances. My average before leaving was 1:11. I thought I felt a little tightness in my chest towards the top of the run, but otherwise, I didn't feel the altitude too much. Odd? Maybe the speed work down on the island compensated for the change in altitude?

The following day I did a 9.5 mile tempo run with fartleks thrown in (4 x 60 seconds, 4 x 2:30) on North Table Mountain. The tempo portion felt great, but I really slowed on the fourth set of fartleks. I finished off with some more tempo and some bounding for a total time of 1:20. Decent, not fast, but with 1,500' gain I was happy. Still, was I feeling any effects of the altitude change? I couldn't really tell, but it didn't seem like it.

The next day I ran Bergen Peak from the rec. center doing the Bergen Peak race course. 13 miles, 2,500' of gain at 9,000' feet. I thought for sure I would feel some of the impact of the thinner air on this run, but happily pulled in back at the car right on 2 hours flat. Not a winning time by far, but considering all things, I was happy. I didn't feel any noticeable effects from the altitude.

Sunday was a track workout. My first on a real track ever! We ran the Bell school lap in Golden. After 3 miles of warmup, I did 4x400 and 4x800. I felt tired and slow, and could only manage a 1:28 for the 400 and a 3:23 for the 800. Terribly slow, but since I've never run on a track and actually tried these distances, I figured that was a good baseline to work from (and I have a LOT of work to do here). 10 miles on the day.

Monday was another go at Apex prior to work, which meant using the headlamp. Tired and sluggish, as well as running a bit slower due to the darkness. Only mustered 1:15 for 8.5 miles and 1,900' gain. I think running with the headlamp slowed me down a touch, and I was feeling the week, but no tightness in the chest like on Thursday.

Today I wanted to get up high to really see how I would do at altitude. Decided to run up Grays and Torreys from Bakersville. Running from Bakersville adds 6 miles round trip and 1,600' of gain, making the full run from Bakersville up and tagging both summits 14.5 miles and 5,300' of gain. I was sure I would get nailed on this run, struggling with the thin air. However, despite having to speed hike a large chunk as well as having to take it slow up and down the last 500' due to a thick layer of ice across the rocks from last night's rain/snow, I did a car-to-car time of 3:30 flat. I didn't really feel any extra strain in the lungs, although the legs were a bit tired from working yesterday. Still, I was expecting more difficulty from the altitude.

So, what gives? I know you loose your acclimation to altitude after two weeks, with a drop in the overall red blood cell count, and that it takes around two weeks for your body to rebuild those red blood cells, but I've only been back from sea level for 5 days. So, did all of the speed work compensate for the lack of altitude? Did my V02max go up as a result of the speed work and allow me to not notice the altitude? I don't know, as I was really expecting to have a couple weeks of re-acclimatization. Is there a time delay, and will I be dragging my feet all next week? It's interesting to me, and I do think that the speed work really helped in some way. I guess it shows just how important speed work is, no matter what kind of runner you are, or whether you train at sea level or altitude.

 

Rainbow from our condo - back in Colorado!

 Ice on Torreys from Grays.

Week in Review, Running Helps Sleep, and More on Altitude Training

Week in Review, Running Helps Sleep, and More on Altitude Training

Monday: 2 hours cross-country. Skied up Elk Creek and then along the water board road. Snow was thin, but manageable. Nice day of cross-training.

Tuesday: Telemark skiing at the resort. Nothing is open, so mostly just doing laps, practicing switch and playing in the park.

Wednesday: Longish run - 2:17, 1,300' gain, 15 miles. Givelo/Creekside/Fools Creek/Creekside/Northwest/back. Felt great all the way until about 1:45, then started to get tired and my pace slowed. First longish run in some time.

Thursday: More tele skiing at the resort.

Friday: Off - 6 hours walking and standing.

Saturday: 6 hours walking and standing. Interval/fartlek workout at night. 5x:30, 12x1:00-1:30. Really starting to enjoy these speed workouts. I run them at night, which makes them pretty fun. 8 miles, :58 minutes.

Sunday: 6 hours walking and standing. Mellow run with ~8 miles, 1,200' gain, :56 minutes.

A fun week, with some good cross-training mixed in. There is no snow, so it has been hard to mix in the cross-country, but on the other hand, running has still been good. However, the trails still have snow, especially the higher ones, so it has been a challenge to run anything that is longer then 5ish miles (without making it an out-and-back). We really need snow, as the drought conditions continue to get worse. However, the sunsets continue to be spectacular every night (see below).

Two new studies have been published. The first is some good news about running in general, and specifically running in adolescents. The study looked at whether daily running in the morning helps adolescents and their sleep patterns. Turns out it does. In the group of kids that did daily running, within 3 weeks the authors found that slow-wave sleep increased while sleep onset latency decreased. Slow-wave sleep is critical in the developing brain, as this is the time when the body recovers from the days activities, but also when short-term memories are consolidated into long-term memories. That is, the actual final process in learning takes place during slow-wave sleep. So in young kids, fostering components that help with slow-wave sleep helps them learn, as everything they "learned" during the day must be consolidated from the day's short-term memory into the longer-term memory.

The other study looked at the benefits of altitude training. Although there have been many studies on this, and the science on altitude training is still out, there are some results that point to its benefits if done correctly. The most recent study looked at whether a pre-season altitude camp would improve time-trial performance and haemoglobin mass in elite athletes. After 19 days, the authors found that most players gained benefits, and that after four weeks of returning to a lower altitude, benefits still persisted.