Hi Scott – First, thanks very much for the detailed and thought-provoking response.
I probably should’ve mentioned that I only found this excellent site through a blog post on TrainingPeaks recently. I had never known Uphill Athlete existed, or else I would’ve certainly been here in my ramp-up to PPA and PPM this year. There is really a wealth of info here, I’m only just scratching the surface in reading it all.
I would like to clarify a few points in my post above:
– I didn’t actually use the product shown in the link I provided, instead a different version that operated under the same principal/methods (and like the Hypoxico product you mentioned), using a rebreather to remove Oxygen. You’re clearly familiar with these methods/products, I guess I am clarifying for any other readers here.
– While I would say I was optimistic that this training method would yield “some” results, I wouldn’t say I was expecting it to be “magic.” I still trained harder for this cycle than ever before, and doubled-down on some of the methods that worked for me previously. I only hoped that using this device/method might help me in the upper reaches of the race, above the treeline at PP (10000’+) where most suffer some, and flatlanders like myself suffer greatly. Instead, I felt worse than before, likely due to my aggressive pacing, which could’ve overwhelmed whatever benefit the IHT had provided.
– Because I doubled this year, I raced the PPM the following day, and considering those circumstances, had a borderline-excellent race result there, or at the very least salvageable. Perhaps the IHT helped? Or maybe my much more conservative approach was the difference. Obviously, there’s no way to know for sure.
– What I was also getting at with my post/query was the protocol I used for tapering off the IHT – doing so completely only 4-5 days from the race(s), but only 2 days prior to travelling to 6800′. Because there is no documentation anywhere on the proper protocol for this, I had nothing to go on but instinct. I’m wondering now if I should’ve given it more time before I traveled to high-altitude.
– Lastly, one more little tidbit of information, the talk among the racers on the day of the PPA, was that it was a “bad day for oxygen.” A combination of unusually warm temps, combined with low pressure, made the altitude feel higher than it actually was (like 16000′ vs the actual 14115′). I haven’t been able to substantiate this anywhere though, as there are no weather stations atop Pikes Peak to check the actual numbers. But there is a thread on this topic on the PPM websites message board.
Anyway, again I thank you for the response and all of the excellent information.