Coloradical! - Legal Doping, AKA High Altitude Training

There is a reason many professional triathletes, cyclists, and runners train in Colorado. That reason is altitude, the most powerful legal performance booster that exists. Your ability to carry oxygen from your lungs to your muscles is directly related to endurance and performance. Oxygen is carried to the muscles by red blood cells (RBC's). RBC's contain the protein hemoglobin, which attaches to oxygen molecules as the red blood cells circulate through the lungs. The greater the number of RBC's and hemoglobin proteins linked onto the RBC's, the greater the oxygen delivered to the muscles. The greater the oxygen delivered to the muscles, the greater your endurance and tolerance for exercise.

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Oxygen bonds with hemoglobin when it is at high partial pressure, and is released when there is low partial pressure. At altitude, partial pressures are lower. This means that the body needs more red blood cells to meet the body's oxygen demands. And so, at altitude the body produces more red blood cells. This process does not result in performance gains, but rather it reduces performance losses induced by altitude. However, if timed right, when an athlete who has been training and living at a high altitude goes to race at a low altitude, they will see meaningful performance gains due to their ability to deliver more oxygen to muscles.

The key to optimizing altitude benefits is timing. Research typically shows that once an athlete leaves a high altitude environment, they will see an initial boost in RBC indices and oxygen delivery to tissues due to having more hemoglobin and red blood cells and being in an environment where more oxygen is taken in with each breath. Your body isn't going to waste the oxygen, it is going to grab every bit it can. However, due to the overabundance of oxygen, your body will begin to adapt within 48-72 hours. At about 5-6 days, athletes may see a very mild performance decline. The decline is nearly unrecognizable, but it is there. This is due to declining numbers of red blood cells as the body adapts to the highly oxygenated environment. After 8-10 days, the body has typically now adapted and is status quo with how you perform where you did your training.

Timing Your Race
In light of the above, the key to getting the most of living and training at altitude is to show up only 2-3 days before your race at lower elevations.

How to Use Altitude to Improve Your Training (if you don't live at altitude)
For those unable to live at high elevations, altitude can help catapult you into heavier training. By vacationing in a place like Colorado and staying above 9,000 feet for more than 4-5 days, your body will produce more red blood cells. If you include light training during this period, that can enhance the adaptation. Don't overdo it though, if you train too hard at altitude and your body is not accustomed to it, you can actually create excessive oxidative stress and cause a decrease in red blood cell numbers. When you return to lower elevations, you should be able to train longer and more intensely for the next 4-5 days. This can help launch you into better fitness. If you are looking for a place to stay, Keystone, Colorado (9,200 feet) is an excellent choice as it is only 1 1/2 hours from the airport. Check out my friends at www.summitcove.com to rent a condo.

The Perfect Situation: Live High, Train Low
The U.S. Olympic Training Center is located in Colorado Springs at 6,000 feet. For the most benefit, athletes would live high and train low. Specifically, they would live above 9,000 feet (ideal seems to be around 10,000 feet) and then drive down to a lower elevation to train. The perfect scenario would be to train below 2,000 feet, however very few places in the world offer this opportunity. If the Olympic Training Center wanted to take bigger advantage of being located in Colorado, they would build a dorm complex higher in the mountains and then have their athletes shuttled down for workouts. If you tried to do your training at 10,000 feet, it would be compromised. You would be lacking in speed work and quality workouts. Therefore, training at this elevation is detrimental in the long run. But living at that altitude your body will undergo the adaptations needed to thrive in such a poorly oxygenated, low partial pressure environment. Then, you drop down to below 6,000 feet to train, where you can get quality workouts in.

I consult with many professional endurance athletes each year to help them get the most out of training at altitude. If they are unable to live in a place above 9,000 feet, I initially have the athletes spend all of their non-training time above 9,000 feet, for 1-2 weeks. I then have them do their training below 6,000 feet. During the initial 1-2 weeks, training intensity is kept low in order to allow for the physiological adaptations to occur without much interference. Following the initial 2 weeks the athlete trains normally. Then, periodically, such as during the taper before a race, I have them spend 4-7 days above 9,000 feet and train low before they fly out for their race 2-3 days prior. The result...like legal doping!

So, if you are looking for an advantage, look to altitude to find it.