How long does one have to live at altitude to train hard and race at altitude?
How long does one have to live at altitude to train hard and race at altitude?
Depends somewhat on the elevation, but 3 weeks to feel okay, 6 weeks to race decent, and 3-6 months for full adaptation and maybe even more.
When I moved from about 1000 feet to 6000 feet I felt like it took me 6 months to feel okay. Still was not going be running as fast as at sea level but I stopped feeling like crap on the harder runs.
I did a 3 month stint at moderate altitude, 6500 feet. I felt it didn't help at all and actually impeded my training as I was up there in summer and when I came down humidity and heat killed me.