Adjusting Your Running for a Race at Altitude

Audio Transcript

Claire: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Runners Connect podcast. We have a great question today from Vicky about altitude training.

Vicky: What is the best way to train for a race at high elevation, when you live at low elevation?

Claire: Great question Vicky. If you are not from altitude, racing up in the thin air, can be very difficult, but luckily there are some ways to mitigate the effects.

The effects of altitude on endurance performance start to show up at elevations as low as about 2,000 feet above sea level.

Because of the reduced air pressure at higher altitudes, oxygen diffuses into your red blood cells more slowly.

This means that your blood passes through your lungs without being completely recharged with oxygen from the air, which means your muscles can’t perform as well.

How do you counteract those negative effects?

Well, you might be able to adjust your travel plans to take full advantage of the physiological adaptations or to optimally prepare for your race, so the research shows that going to altitude, 7 to 10 days before your race, is the optimal length of stay for a short altitude stent.

This allows the body to somewhat adapt to the demands of altitude and to begin to recover from the increased stress, and provides you with a better feeling of the effort levels required to run at your goal pace.

Maybe you can schedule a trip a week ahead of your race at altitude.

While getting there a week ahead of time is not quite as effective as one of those 25 to 30 day elite training camps that you hear about, you’ll start to see some adaptations happening in your body and in your blood that will help your race.

However, let’s be realistic here.

Most people cannot jet around the world vacationing and racing wherever they want all of the time. That will be so awesome though, right?

If acclimating at the top of the mountain is not in your travel plans or in your budget, what else can you do?

You do the opposite.

That’s right, don’t acclimate at all. Arrive as close to the race start time as possible, preferably within 18 to 47 hours.

This arrival time allows you to keep your oxygen rich sea level blood circulating, and avoid the most detrimental performance effects of altitude that typically occur within the first 48 hours.

Before you arrive, it is critical that your body be as prepared as possible for the extra demands and the physiological changes that you will go through at altitude, so here’s some things that you can do while you are at home, getting ready for the race.

You may want to consider taking an iron supplement.

Supplementing with iron before you leave will not only help prevent some of the altitude sickness, but it could maximize metabolic benefits such as increased red blood cell counts.

Now [inaudible 00:06:05] athletes training at altitude, their protocol is to supplement with a 120 to 130 milligrams of elemental iron per day, and then divide that up into two doses taken with vitamin C.

Iron is not something you want to play around with, because high iron levels can be dangerous, so you need to make sure that your iron levels are low enough; that this is a safe protocol for you.

We definitely recommend that you consult your doctor to get an iron test if you’re thinking about supplementing with iron.

Another supplement you might want to take is an antioxidant.

Most runners understand that training at attitude will be more difficult because of the thin air.

A lot of people don’t realize that recovery is harder at altitude and it’s slower at altitude because of the free radicals in the muscles.

These free radicals contribute to fatigue and the hamper recovery, so to combat this effects begin taking an antioxidant such as a multivitamin or a vitamin E, before you head to the mountains to ward off any of that free radical damage that occurs at altitude.

During the race, you will need to accept the fact that even if you take every precaution possible, your performance will be effective, so you’ll need to race a little more cautiously than normal, and start even slower than you think you should.

You might be forced to do that because the effort level required, to run at any given pace will feel much higher.

Unfortunately, I can’t give you an exact formula for how much your run will need to slow down, but for some athletes it’s considerable, so take that into your consideration when you are coming up with your goal pace for this particular race.

Fluid intake is vital when at altitude, and the thin air means that your breathing is more shallow and it’s more frequent, which creates a greater fluid last through the respiratory system, so that means that you’re losing more fluid each and every time you take a breath.

In addition, it’s not very humid at altitude, so it makes you feel that you’re not sweating because the sweat is evaporating so quickly, but that’s not the case.

You are losing fluid through evaporation, so be sure that you are hydrating well, and you’ll probably want to up that quite a bit more than what you normally do at sea level, to make sure that you are staying very well hydrated.

Otherwise, that altitude will impact you in sleep and recovery, so allow yourself plenty of time to sleep and rest and recover, both before and after your race.

I hope these tips help Vicky, and best of luck in your race.

If you’d like your question answered by one of the Runners Connect coaches, head over to runnersconnect.net/daily, click that record button and send your questions on over to us and we will answer it in a future episode.

Finally, a message from our sponsor.

As a runner, your body needs the right fuel to handle the extra demands you place on it. Antioxidants to combat oxidative stress, magnesium to lower elevated adrenaline so you can sleep, vitamin B is to supply the cells with energy and so much more.

Daily Tonic by Runners Beans has been created by runners, to help runners, to ensure that you get what you need every day to keep your body strong.

Daily Tonic only has the best ingredients, and it’s in a liquid form to enhance absorption. Daily Tonic is custom made for runners like you and me.

It includes all the micronutrients runners need, in the precise amounts you need them in, to maximize benefits.

Research has shown that the body absorbs liquid nutrients like Daily Tonic up to 88% better than tablets or capsules, and even better than that, you only need to take it once a day instead of two or three times a day like some tablets.

So far, runners are loving Daily Tonic. Some of the comments have been, “What the heck did you put in this stuff? I feel amazing.”

Being a sceptic, I didn’t expect much, but after just one week long runs started to become easier and I was recovering faster in between workouts.

Their website is easy to use and has a great and growing reference library of all things nutrition, wellbeing and running.

They promote a healthy and balanced diet as your first route to improved health, but they’re realistic that people aren’t perfect and runners especially need the extra nutrients to help them recover and come back stronger.

A bottle of Daily Tonic is a one month supply and delivery is included in the price.

You can choose to buy one or subscribe to a monthly delivery. Subscriptions are easily amended or cancelled and there’s no long-term commitment.

All Daily Tonic purchases come with a piece of mind money back guarantee, and for listeners to the Run to the Top Extra Kick podcast, go to the check out and use the code extra kick to receive a 10% discount off all your purchases.

If you have enjoyed this episode, go ahead and leave us a review. It would make us very, happy and it would help us reach a lot more runners just like you.

Have a great run today.