Hello, I live and train at 7000 feet and am wondering how much faster I will be able to run per mile at sea level. Does anyone have rough estimates on this? I don’t know what to expect. Thanks!
There are some good charts out there, such as one in Jack Daniel’s Running Formula. It depends on the distance: The longer the event, the bigger the difference. As I recall, for running at 5500 feet v. sea level, with 5K, its only about 2% faster (20+ sec.) but with a marathon it could be 4-5% (10 min!).
I live and train at 4500ft. Most of my races are at 1200ft or below. I run and bike much faster at the lower altitudes. I can run about 20sec per mile faster (even after the swim and bike) then I do on a stand alone training run of 5k. It feels as though you’re sucking on an O2 bottle all day : )
This is not scientific data…just my experiences over the last 2 seasons of the altitude differences. It took me a full 6-8 months to get used to training at altitude. The people that say it takes 5-10 days to acclimate are nuts!!!
Cool, well, I hope I run faster. I wold much rather run 20 sec/mile faster than just 20 sec in a 5K though! Any others with experience on this out there?
Check out this website. Its a great calculator!! 
I live and run at 7000 feet. In my experience, it’s not so much the speed increase as how much more comfortable I feel running at sea level. I’m a naturally slow runner, so a more gifted runner may see a better result speed-wise. I’m just glad to not be suffering as much.