Any suggestions, best place. Looking to do live high train low.
If you want to do that, the best place i can think of is living at Apex at around 5500 feet outside Penticton and basically head down the mountain to the Okanagan valley for your training at around 1000 feet. This is the only place that I can think of in Canada where you can pull this off. Everywhere else you have to live high and train there and freeze, or live high and not have access to roads. Calgary is not that high, but not low either and you can’t just drop down and train at sea level. I suppose you could also live at Silverstar and come down to Vernon for training
There is nothing east of the continental divide where you can live high (well, unless you move to Nunavut in which case you can go up to 8000 feet on Ellesmere Island, but no roads nor civilization)…this was taken on a flight over to Asia (Toronto and Beijing are around 180 degrees apart, so the flights pretty well aim left or right of the pole depending on wind direction).
This might work I have realitives close to penticton. Other wise where in the states? Boulder?
You might find this link entertaining:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_points_of_Canadian_provinces_and_territories
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Lots of places in the US…heck, you could move up the street from Slowman just outside of the great LA region and live at 6000 feet (I think he lives at 4500), run and ride up in the 7000 + foot range but be down to 1000 feet really quickly. PM him for more details.
Flagstaff , AZ would be a great option or somewhere around that area. Good weather all year round and access to Sedona or Phoenix area quite easily to train low. Just a though.
Nice to hear Vernon get an honourable mention from you, Dev.
I would pick Silver Star over Apex for a Live High, Train Low strategy because:
a. It’s only 30 minutes from town vs. 50 minutes with Apex. This adds up if you are frequently going down into the Valley to train, resupply, etc.
b. Plenty of big hills around Vernon to play with plus flat country to hammer on without being stuck on the only highway. Most stretches of road in that area have some sort of convenience store to replenish supplies on the bike.
c. Mountain bike park!
d. No worries about getting bored with your race scenery before you even started CP. Just pop down to Penticton a couple of times to get familiar with riding the course and you’re set.
e. Not as far to get to Calgary but a bit farther to Vancouver. No need to pass through Kelowna to get to Kelowna Airport.
f. My Grandma lives in town and bakes some mean cinnamon buns.
Isn’t the whole “live high train low” thing debunked?
My vote is for Vernon though. Silverstar/Sovereign Lake is awesome. I trained in Vernon one summer… loved it. Swimming in Kalamalka is really cool.
What do you mean by “debunked”? Is there some research?
A little bit, yes. This 2012 placebo-controlled study prompted a fair amount of response. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22033534/?i=3&from=live%20high%20train%20low%20endurance%20athletes
Like most sport science studies, the number of people tested is pretty small and as such it’s hard to draw a conclusion one way or the other. Confounding the issue further are “non-responders” who cannot physiologically adapt to lower oxygen levels. It’s really individual. I know I respond well to training at altitude (4500-7000’) but it takes more than a few headaches and lousy performances to see a short-term benefit at sea level. I’m not sure I’d be up for the time and expense to reap the small gain in performance.