Altitude advantage?

[snugtop]

Anyone know what the cardio advantage is for training (in my case running) at a high altitude? I'm training for a marathon at close to 9,000 feet. I'm curious how much advantage this would give me at sea level for a long-distance event such as a marathon. E.g: could I expect to run 20 minutes faster (or more)?

[layton]

It should help a lot living at that altitude, but you would be WAY better off training at as low of an altitude as possible. Live high train low.

[mneagle]

Your question has in fact been looked into...

 

Sports Med. 2007;37(4-5):392-5.Links

Altitude training for the marathon.

Chapman R, Levine BD.

 

Based on published mathematical models of marathon performance, a marathoner with a typical or average running economy who performed 'live high, train low' altitude training could experience an improvement of nearly 8.5 minutes (or approximately 5%) over the 26.2-mile race distance.

 

Note that the "Live High Train Low" method is really only applicable to low altitude exercise. There is another body of evidence that shows that exercise at altitude is necessary to obtain peak performance at altitude. When I was at the Telluride Bluegrass festival this year one of my buddies from Seattle dropped by our campsite for breakfast with Scott Jurek. He was helping Scott train for the Hardrock 100. I guess Scott knows what he is doing because he not only won the race he also set a new course record.

[snugtop]

Thanks for that. My only choice for training "low" would be Boulder, which isn't really that low (though I must say the flat trails are very appealing!)

 

 

[iluka]

You are better off training at low altitude than you are at high altitude. The big reason is that at high altitude, it is hard to train at the high work rates/speeds you will be hitting at sea-level. For example, suppose you do a VO2,max test on someone at sea-level. If you take them to high altitude, they will not achieve the same VO2,max and will not hit the same maximum work rate. This was recognized a long time ago. There had previously been a lot of interest in training at altitude but the cyclists and other racers found that they couldn't hit and sustain the speeds they would need to be racing at when they came back to sea-level.

 

This then led to the live high (or sleep high)/train low philosophy. The non-exercise exposure to high altitude allows for certain important adaptations such as an increase in the red blood cell content of the blood which, in turn, aids oxygen delivery to exercising muscles. Then you come out and exercise at sea-level and can work at the speeds/work rates that you would want to be competing at and get in the appropriate pre-race training at these speeds. By way of personal experience, I have spent several long periods at high altitude and, upon returning, have found that exercise seems much easier for a few weeks, as I can hit the same work rates/speeds with what seems like less effort.

 

The so-called "oxygen tents" are ways to be able to do the "sleep high" approach while living at lower elevations.