I am getting ready to leave for a three week altitude training stint with BATC teammates Stephan Shay and Jake Schmitt. There is so much discussion about various ways to use altitude training or altitude simulation for athletic performance. I don’t like to use altitude tents or other devices to simulate altitude because I enjoy the time I get to spend in the mountains. A couple of times a year I when I prepare for a major event like the Chicago Marathon in October, I spend three or four weeks training at about 6,500 to 7,000 feet in either Lake Tahoe, CA or Flagstaff, AZ. The training is great in both Tahoe and Flagstaff.
When training at altitude I spend the entire time at that altitude and do not come down to lower altitudes for workouts. One could call this the “live high, train high” approach. Many athletes and coaches believe that you have to come down to sea level or lower altitude to do speed work, but over the years my coach Jack Daniels and I have been successful with running the faster short sprints at altitude. You can actually sprint faster at altitude than at sea level because the air is less dense, so you can prevent the common myth of “losing speed at altitude once you return to sea level” by doing a combination of short sprints, strides, and 200 meter reps.
Tempo pace or threshold pace is another type of workout that I respond very well to at altitude. My threshold pace is a little slower at altitude than at sea level, but this workout is not about pace, it is about teaching your body to clear the production of lactic acid more efficiently at a specific percentage of VO2max. If I can accomplish this goal by running 5 or 10 sec slower per mile at altitude then that’s okay with me.
Most of all, I feel that the biggest benefit I gain from altitude training is that I get so fired up about training that I end up feeling invincible at the end of the cycle. I wake up to beautiful mountain peaks, I run a lot, and I cook great meals that I share with my family and my teammates. When I return to sea level I am ready to take on the world. It isn’t necessary about training at 6,000 or 8,000 feet high, but more about fueling my sole with positive attitude, learning to hurt when I run using this great energy throughout the next few week of marathon training.
Off to train in Tahoe in less than one week!
SOURCE
ShareThis