http://www.usaswimming.org/...d=436&ItemId=324

9600 is really high - I live at 8000. You must be in Colorado. My experience: Altitude hurts the swim and the bike and helps the run. Why? I think its 2-fold. 1st - altitude has a cachectic or muscle wasting effect on us - so we lose some muscle mass. If you want to run really fast - you need to look fairly anorexic. Bikers and swimmers do not look anorexic so this muscle wasting hurts them. Also - lower O2 = hard to go as hard = hard to do intervals/strength work on the bike = hard to do fast intervals in the pool.

Runners seem to like the altitude - look at my town - I see olympic-quality runners a couple times/day. I never see any fast bikers or swimmers....

You do adjust to altitude - some better than others - but nobody is as fast at 8-9K as sea level (in the swim/run). Bike - flat out speed may be faster at some high altitude but I don't know if its 3-5K or 5-8K....ask Lance.

Just my 2 cents....

Dave

http://www.midweekclub.com/powerFAQ.htm#Q17

Sounds like Deer Valley, UT. Or Aspen, CO. If it's DV, go down to Salt Lake City for hard workouts (or somewhere below 5000ft.). If you're in Aspen or somewhere similar where it's high everywhere within an hours drive, you'll always struggle a bit. See if you can get some supplemental oxygen for some hard indoor work if you really want to go hard. Also, you will feel a bit weird if you go down to sea level to race. You'll need to give a few days to acclimate to sea level...

To answer another posters question ~4500ft is the where you still have good power and the thinner air makes faster. This was the altitude, or close to it, when Merckx set the hour record in Mexico.

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

Thanks all.

Breckenridge, Co!

Many times over I have heard that between 5500 and 7000 is ideal for altitude training. Also when you drop from altitude to race you want to race within 3 days otherwise you will feel a bit leghargic (sp?) and you start to loose the advantages that altitude gives you, aka extra red blood cells. The advantages generally stay around for 10-14 days but you get the most benefit the sooner you race. They have also been saying for a little while to live high train low, that why you will see DeBoom and others who live around Boulder advertize for CAT and other altitude tents even though they live high they sleep even higher and then training is lower.

Hunter Kemper has trained with supplamental O2 for workouts to simulate sea level and has done workouts with air simulated to a couple thousand ft below sea level, I heard a reason behind this but don't want to try to remember the reason.


Branden

Manitou Springs,-23 yr Colorado Native

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"Here's to the finely tuned athlete on the verge of greatness"-Romeo, Tin Cup