Altitude question

can't answer the volume, but to be acclimated:

you may not even notice much on your easy runs. For fast stuff it can take 3wks-3months. I tend to think 4wks is normal, but other people have told me it took them months. It will depend on the person.

Are you running the xc champs in Boulder? I would heed the previous poster timeframe. I would also add that you should take an iron supplment. It will improve your iron stores and help with forming new RBC and hemoglobin.

returnof10kmrunner wrote:

Are you running the xc champs in Boulder? I would heed the previous poster timeframe. I would also add that you should take an iron supplment. It will improve your iron stores and help with forming new RBC and hemoglobin.

Yes, I am. I appreciate the advice. Right now I am trying to find some short term living arrangements leading up to the champs so I can get used to it.

Looking forward to the post race parties too, I bet the increased blood volume will result in a firmer and longer soldier at attention!

Short of breath wrote:

How much does blood volume typically increase at say, 6000 to 7000 feet?

How long will it take me to acclimate?

thanks

Blood volume typical DECREASES as you go up to altitude.

Less pressure, more leak out of vessels, less blood volume.

Typical occurs within the first couple of days. This is actually why you can see in increase in hemoglobin without actually having an increasing oxygen carrying capacity initially at altitude.

There are two camps when it comes to adapting to race at altitude.

1) Travel as close to the event as possible. This would hypothetically prevent the decreased blood volume, in hopes of maintaining cardiac output and thus VO2 max.

2) Give yourself a couple of weeks. This is geared at allowing the detrimental short turn adaptations to become somewhat corrected. I have heard people that talk about adapting to altitude that they feel there are 3 phases to adjusting. First adaptation in the first 2 weeks, next at about 3 months, and then finally after 18 months or so you feel "normal". I do not know of any science to support that idea though. Hope that helps.

On a side note I will be very interested to hear how sea level athletes prepare to run in Boulder. So I will propose a question to those competing...how do you plan on preparing for the altitude of Boulder?

I noticed a lot of guys that go to altitude feel pretty good for a week or two and then feel like crap during the third week. A down week usually helps and then they were able to return to pre-crap running.

You never truly acclimate or fully adjust, after 3 weeks to 3 months it simply doesn't suck as much as it did before. Runs back at sea level suddenly become enjoyable.

I have been living at 7000ft for about 9 weeks. Initially I felt kind of tired while not running and of course I noticed my breathing while running. Didn't feel tired anymore after a week or two, but breathing still seemed pretty bad and HR was higher than normal. The turning point for me, running-wise, seemed to be at 6 weeks.