running at altitude

I live at 8000 feet, so do most of training at altitude. Ahh. I love those days when I drive down the hill and run at 6000 feet ! As for coming up to altitude and running its pretty simple 1) drink water constantly, keeping hydrated is key. The rule of thumb is to divide your weight in pounds by half and that's how many ounces of water to drink per day - minimum. So - 180 pounds equals 90 ounces of water per day. 2) keep consumption of alcoholic beverages to a minimum - especially the first 2 days when you are acclimating. The effects of alcohol are increased at altitude ( you get buzzed on less beer) and it also dehydrates you. 3) A little known secret - if you do get altitude sickness eat about a half a roll of Rol-aids and you'll feel much better soon - and of course you can always descend in altitude if you get sick - there are several places nearby that drop in altitude rather quickly and at 8000 feet you don't have to drop too far to start feeling better. 4) Run like you feel and don't let the altitude bum you out - its harder ! You can probably run the same distances, you'll just run it slower.

breckenridge is more like 9600ft.

as mentioned, stay hydrated.

here's another trick - run from breckenridge toward dillon, then catch the free bus back to breck. The decline is very, very gradual - so, you'll be running down hill, very gently and you will not notice the altitude so much. otherwise, if you turn around and start running back up hill you will likely say "mother fvcker - this sucks" in between gasps.

depending on where you live in texas, you might fine the cooler temps and low humidity to be very refreshing and relatively speaking, the altitude will not seem so bad.

just run for time and run by feel, don't even bother with trying to go by pace.

resist the temptation to run hard during the week - many times the draining effects don't occur for a few days, mostly due to lack of recovery. that being said, make sure that you get plenty of rest while you are there.

maybe load up on ginko biloba for the week before going to altitude.

goldenboy wrote:

...2) keep consumption of alcoholic beverages to a minimum - especially the first 2 days when you are acclimating. The effects of alcohol are increased at altitude ( you get buzzed on less beer) and it also dehydrates you...

yeah, but if you buy your beer at a supermarket it will also take you longer to get drunk! don't forget Colorado supermarket liquor is 1/2% of most other places! Found out the hard way... luckily I was drinking light beer to avoid the calories

True, and as of last weekend the liquor stores are now open on Sundays. I don't think I've ever bought beer at the grocery store in Colorado .. not only is the alcohool content low (3.2%) is tastes like crap. Of course if you were in Breckenridge the only thing to drink is the local brew.

Some people adjust to altitude better than others (and it does not have anything to do with how good of shape you are in).

Taking it nice and easy on flat runs will be the primary thing to concentrate on (if you heed the other posters advice and hydrate) - two things I wanted to add: 1) hills will be the biggest challenge, you feel it much more on hills and 2) once you get "oxygen depleted" you really can't recover (similar to running in heat - once you pass the point of being overheated it is impossible to "slow down and recover").