Just wondering if anyone has a review of the portable altitude simulator?
Looks like a good deal/price if it actually works.
I have a couple races at altitude next year and live at sea level, so I’m trying to help myself in that regard.
My BF met a 50+ masters cyclist a few years ago who said it was helping him kick major booty at time trials. So when we got into the Leadville 100 MTB this year we decided to do some research on it. We thought it seemed logical and worth a try, especially since we could share the cost, and just started using it last week. We live in southwest Florida so are major flatlanders! The fellow who runs the company, Andrew I think, was very helpful with our questions. We will find out in 2 weeks and 5 days just how well it works 
Thanks,
I have someone to split the cost with as well and with the deal and the extra 20% from active advantage (as much griping as that program causes, it saves me most the active.com fees for races and 20% their schwaggle deals) I think it’s worth it. Hopefully it will work and provide some benefit that I’ll see at altitude.
I am currently using this product in preperatoin for LEADVILLE MTB. TJ Tollakson turned me on to this unit.
Cheaper than I paid for my Alto Lab:
http://schwaggle.active.com/deal/13215/49-percent-off-altolab-altitude-simulator/
The guy at Alto Lab, Andrew is like Doc Brown from Back to the Future!
I have found it to assist in general preparation (ie where you arent going to be racing at altitude) as well is in preparation for altitude.
We have one. Used to use it and it seemed to do well with time trialing, but it gave me the biggest headache (I guess being hypoxic will do that to a girl).
Anyone else? Obviously interested given all the Tahoe elevation chatter. I’m a pretty big TJ Tollakson fan …smart guy… so his endorsement has me leaning towards a purchase.
It seems much more involved than the simple “gas mask” with a restrictor on it that is sold elsewhere for 90.00. But that device has been roundly debunked as being useless. Being hypoxic is not the same as being at altitude. http://trainingmask.com/categories/Shop/ Read the abstract of this article from Medline. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11950157
Just my two cents
AltoLab is back up on Schwaggle again, any more talk on this since the last time this went out?
One thing I can’t really determine from looking at this thing is what it’s true intended use is. Or I suppose I should say, I assume I understand it’s intended use but that does not really seem to make sense to me given my understanding of the more widely accepted views on altitude training.
It looks like the intended use case for this is to actually simulate training at altitude, which I have much less interest in doing than simulating living at altitude, mimicking an altitude sleeping tent system to implement a “live high, train low” approach rather than simply strapping this on to slowly asphyxiate myself while I’m on my trainer.
Anyone know if the canisters this thing uses last long enough that you could use it as a sleeping system, or is this really intended for active training only?
Not sure about the Alto, but the Alter-g will help you run a LOOOOT faster 
Guaranteed.