Altitude Training

Recently i saw the topic covered in the Ride magazine and thought i would cover it for the site. So here goes…

Altitude

First up lets clear up all the misconceptions about “altitude”

At sea level we have about 22% oxygen in the air by weight. At say 4500 feet we still have 22% oxygen in the air by weight. so why do we feel short of breathe and why is it harder to ride once we on top of the col-de-huge-hill? simply put the air pressure at altitude is lower, what this means is that we have less air, the air is thinner. So in order to get the same weight of air at altitude we need more of it. Our lungs only take a certain amount of air regardless of altitude, so we will never be able to get the same weight of air at altitude that we get at sea level. This means that with each breathe we get less oxygen. On top of mount Everest you will essentially get 33% of the oxygen in each breathe that you would normally get a sea level, but we wont be riding that high…

Ignoring weight we can say that our lungs “see” less oxygen in each breathe as we climb. effectively meaning we get less and less as we go higher and higher. This decline in oxygen makes it harder for our bodies to function. A good example of how long it takes for our bodies to adapt is evident by the months climbers spend at base camp on Everest acclimatising before they attempt a summit bid.

How does it work

Unfortunately most of us don’t have the alps outside our front door so we need to find another way to replicate altitude. Altitude training rooms are basically air tight rooms that use some fancy equipment to control the amount of oxygen in the air. The equipment basically introduces more nitrogen into the room thus decreasing the amount of oxygen. This replicates the environment we come across at the top of the alps. It could be done by sucking air out the room and making the pressure lower, but that would be more expensive and not as easy to control.

Why does this do

If any of you have climbed any of the big mountain passes in your area you will have felt the effects of oxygen loss as you clinb. The higher you go the harder it gets to breathe you get a sense that no matter how big a gulp of air you take you can’t seem to get enough. The legs begin to fill with lactic acid and you puff harder and harder.  This then forces you to slow down. So we need to train accordingly so we can go higher without having the side effects.

As we train in the oxygen starved environment our bodies look for new ways to deliver the diminished oxygen supply to the body. I will diverge here quickly
We all know what EPO is and how many cyclists have been busted using it. Why did they use it though. Epo basically increase the amount of red blood cells in your body this enables you to work harder for longer at a higher intensity. Blood doping has the same effect. More red blood cells = more oxygen to the muscles = faster.
So back on topic. Riding at altitude forces the body to adapt. The 2 biggest adaptions it makes are creating more capillaries to deliver blood and creating more red blood cells. So it’s a legal EPO in some senses.

As your body adapts to riding in lower oxygen environments it will enable it to function even better in oxygen rich environments. So we can see that the time spent building more red blood will help us perform better at altitude and perform even better at sea level.

Consult and Train

Hopefully this has cleared up the myths that surround the altitude training debate. I cant offer up any training plans for the readers as these need to be built on a case by case bases. Each person will react differently and should speak to their coach or the coach at the altitude training center nearest them.

This post is tagged altitude, cycling