Can you go lower for some of your training?
As a side note, I’ve often thought that the ideal scenario would be to live at 6-7,000′ with easy access to < 5,000' and > 10,000′. Then you could go up or down as training required.
I posed this question to the folks at Uphill Athlete via the contact form and they also suggested I solicit feedback from the knowledgeable community at large ) I hadn’t explored the forums yet – what a wealth of info!
I am following the 8-week training plan in preparation for the Haute Route in April. The more articles I read on UpHill Athlete’s website, and the further I get into the training plan, I am wondering what kind of adaptations or tweaks I might need to be making to my training. I live at 10,300ft, and while I know this will only benefit me for acclimatization, it does make the workouts more tricky in regard to AeT/AnT and the longer recovery runs (because honestly, I can ski tour all day, but can’t run for an hour and no kind of run feels like a “recovery” activity up here) …
What kinds of experiences and insights do you all have?
Posted In: General Training Discussion
Can you go lower for some of your training?
As a side note, I’ve often thought that the ideal scenario would be to live at 6-7,000′ with easy access to < 5,000' and > 10,000′. Then you could go up or down as training required.
I live at 7000ft in Lake Tahoe and I assumed that the added elevation would be beneficial to training. Im waiting on the heart rate monitor I just purchased to come in a few days, but I can tell even without the gear that its difficult to do big hikes and keep my heart rate down as listed in the book/training programs.
All the hikes in this area start at 6500-7500 and go up to 10k. Scott are you saying its beneficial to go down to 5000 ft to do workouts? I think that’s about where Reno is for elevation which is easily accessible for me. Thanks in advance!
I’ve never lived at 7,000′, but it strikes me as an ideal elevation. As far as I know, it’s high enough to get some adaptation to altitude without much of a compromise on speed or recovery.
As I mentioned, I think the ideal place would also have easy access to +/- 2,000′. You can do easy base training both above and below, and all high-intensity low.
I’ll ask Scott J. for his thoughts on this as well.
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