Running at 9,000 feet

It will hurt the first week or so, but you will see enormous benefits. First couple of days will be hell, feeling like you weigh about 600 lbs.

Make your easy days very easy, just jogging like 8-9 minutes a mile.

Drink a lot of water to hydrate, more than normal.

Also make sure to eat a good amount of lean beef.

When you go to sea-level, or even moderate altitude such as 4000-5000 feet, you will just fly!

Jason

If you have a cross season too come back to after the summer; take it easy when you come back down from elevation. Cut your weekly mileage back a little. It will help you feel fresh at the end of the season.

Jason's advice is great.

During college I went from sea-level to ~8,000ft for the summer. It hurts for a week or so, then it doesn't suck quite so bad.

It might be a good idea to run plenty of 80 - 100m strides to maintain your leg turnover ... or some "decline" type 200s on grass or more likely dirt in your case.

are u talking about Frisco, CO? I live in Breckenridge, the elevation is tough but managable.

i lived at 9200' for a good part of a summer, so i'll second the advice from jason:

-drink lots of water. at 9000' you get dehydrated just breathing (no kidding).

-make sure you are getting enough iron. levine/stray-gunderson recommend iron supplementation - peferably liquid. start taking a few weeks before you leave.

-if you can get down to lower elevations, do as much of your running there as possible (live high/train low), especially tempo runs or workouts.

I've only spent a little time at altitude, but 9000' is way up there. I generally feel fine at 5, 6, even 7000'. Around 8000' though the oxygen becomes really precious. My thoughts are that spending a summer at 9000' would make you tough as a$$. Make sure to do plenty of striders (and maybe even some workouts of light 150s and 200s) to maintain your speed; you will be doing your distance runs quite a bit slower than at sea level. Also, if you can manage to drive down to lower altitude (ideally 3-4000') once in a while for a tempo run, it would help to keep your legs remembering what that pace feels like.

Where are you living this summer, I myself would like to do some altitude training.

I am in Dillon for 6th day, 9,200 feet. Still can’t run fast. Huffing and puffing the whole 5 to 8 miles. When I finish it’s a different feeling, like I just had a lung workout, not whole body.

I'm a college runner and I'll be going from sea level to Dillon CO for 2 months of the summer. Where's the closest place to do a workout at 5000ft?

How long will you be at Altitude, you want to have the wright amount of time at camp or else you're just wasting your time.

I know a coach who take kid's for about 6week's thur the summer, to get them in good shape.

Good luck!

SamKolt wrote:

I'm a college runner and I'll be going from sea level to Dillon CO for 2 months of the summer. Where's the closest place to do a workout at 5000ft?

Can't you Gen-Zers google or find anything yourselves? Is it that hard to do the work yourself instead of posting weak-ass questions on social media or other places online? How did you get into college? /rant

Golden, 5700' - 1hr

Glenwood Springs, 5700' - 1hr

Altitude training is not so much about the elevation at which you train. Living high (>7000ft) has been shown to yield good fitness gains, and for many 9000ft is the ceiling for balancing the stress and benefit to body physiology.

While some outliers, many of them altitude natives, can get an additional bump from training high, the most accepted practice is to train at altitudes that do not unreasonably tax your body. There is little point in doing your workouts at 9000ft; that’s just making things hard for the sake of being hard.

It’s not hard to find general guidelines for altitude training online. If you do it smart you can reap big rewards.

This was my experience training in Breckinridge at 9500 ft for a few weeks. It was too high, everything was way too difficult and it put so much strain on my aerobic system that it burned me out. Renato Canova says that over 7000 feet a person not from altitude risks “burning their aerobic engine” and I would agree after my experience.

Live high, train low. If possible, get down to Denver or whatever part of the state is closest to get down to 5-6,000 feet for workouts. Workouts at 9,000 ft are going to be well under your normal pacing such that you will be sacrificing speed and turnover too much. Also, the benefits of altitude do eventually fade away when you get back to sea level.

In addition to taking it easy the first week, make sure you spend one night at a lower elevation before heading up to 9,000 feet. Spend a night in Denver or somewhere that is between 5-6,000 feet. If you don't, you may have a very rough first night at altitude with bad headaches and possibly worse depending on how sensitive you are. And being in good shape does not make you immune from altitude sickness.

The most important thing is to enjoy a summer in Colorado. I got to spend a summer in the Tetons and spent way too much time being the diligent student in my program and should have spent more time hiking and having fun. Get out and see as much of CO as you can. Knock out some 14ers. If you can get to the western part, definitely go and see Telluride, Ouray, Durango and all the amazing places around there.

Here's a guy running a solo 28:48 10k @ 8200 feet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXGUNLcYEok

Don't treat elevation as this impossible idea -- you can still run fast up there. You'll just need to suffer more.

SamKolt wrote:

I'm a college runner and I'll be going from sea level to Dillon CO for 2 months of the summer. Where's the closest place to do a workout at 5000ft?

That would be East of Denver I believe.

Eagle, Co is 6,600ft

Glenwood Springs is 5,760ft

Grand Junction 4593ft

So east of Denver it is.

But why would you do that?

You have to go up to 14,000ft because you can. Get some trail running shoes and enjoy they high altitude country in front of you.

Bythebay12 wrote:

This was my experience training in Breckinridge at 9500 ft for a few weeks. It was too high, everything was way too difficult and it put so much strain on my aerobic system that it burned me out. Renato Canova says that over 7000 feet a person not from altitude risks “burning their aerobic engine” and I would agree after my experience.

Breckenridge can be a great experience if you just forget your normal running training.

Do it as the locals do. Run/hike up the mountains and enjoy the beauty of high altitude running.

You will 100% benefit from the experience.

Just don't even think of improving your speed up there.