Altitude

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16 years ago 06/11/2007 2:30pm EDT

I just moved from AZ to boulder and have been here for about a week and my runs have been realy crappy lately. My question is how much will the altitude effect me? I have obviously slowed my runs down to get used to it but 45 minutes now feels like 2 hours and it feels like Im running 5 minute miles when I'm really running between 7 and 7:45 pace. I kinda expected it to effect me but not this much. When I lived in Phoenix I would stay up in Flagstaff for like 2 weeks and didnt seemed to be this bothered by it.

16 years ago 06/11/2007 2:48pm EDT

re: altituve

When I moved to altitude it took me about 2 weeks to acclimate. I also found that I had to start taking an iron supplement and drink a LOT more water in order to feel good during my workouts. Give it some time, slow the pace way down until you're used to the altitude, and you should be fine.

16 years ago 06/11/2007 5:42pm EDT

re: Last Days

Boulder is very dry. You have to stay very well hydrated, and not just water, but something a little more substantial, like Cytomax or Accerlade. Gatorade is bad bad bad for you, too much sugar, and too many calories. Anyway, if you are used to running 6 minute pace at sea level, and that pace feels comfortable -- forget it in Boulder. You can do it, but it won't feel comfortable. You have to slow down your daily runs to 7-7:30 pace if you want the benefits of recovery. As for workouts, you'll suffer in the beginning, but gradually your body adapts. The biggest mistake people make is trying to up their miles and try to maintain their usual pace/mile. It's not going to happen.

16 years ago 06/11/2007 6:02pm EDT

re: Aussie

You're telling a guy from Phoenix that Boulder is dry? That's a good one.

16 years ago 06/11/2007 6:29pm EDT

re: altituve

Someone once said that ALTITUDE IS EVERYTHING. If you have a good altitude everything else will come in time.

I spent a summer at Echo Summit behind LA to experience high altitude in preparation for the '68 Olympics in Mexico. It was a real adjustment for me too. It took about a month before I felt good about running there. Echo Summit has the advantage in that you can see the smog of LA building up through the day. About 4:30 in the afternoon the smog would reach up and over the summit causing me to caugh uncontrollably until about 2:30am. I had so much on my mind knowing that smog was coming, the altitude didn't seem like such a bad thing.

Echo Summit has a tram from the lower parking lot to the summit. I would wait for someone to board the lift and I would take off up the winding road and try to beat them to the top. Every time I had to double back under the tram those riding the lift would yell at me. It didn't take long for them to figure out I was racing them to the top. Sometimes they would get really abusive. There was one place near the summit where the tram came across the road really close to the ground. If I was fast enough I could sprint up the uphill side of the road and slap the bottom of the tram as it went above me. Oh! The comments I got for that. Sometimes I just didn't like their altitude.

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