In the last two chapters, we explored the critical topics of race selection and race strategy. We discussed various factors crucial for making effective decisions in these areas, including body type, muscle fiber composition, and the specific nature of the race course. We also highlighted several important environmental elements related to the race course, such as its hilly terrain and the impact of wind.
However, we did not cover another significant aspect of the weather report: temperature variations and altitude. These factors can profoundly influence your race performance and are essential considerations for both race strategy and training.
Some important environmental factors to consider in your training and racing:
Environment and Pacing Strategy
How does the optimal pacing strategy that we developed in the last chapter need to adjust when the temperature rises by 20 degrees? Or when the altitude is a couple of thousand meters higher than our “home base”? Related, how should our nutrition and hydration strategy change? The answer to these questions are crucial because significantly hotter, or colder, or higher, conditions can dramatically affect your body's performance and endurance.
Preparing for Different Environmental Conditions
Equally important is understanding how to prepare for varying environmental conditions in your training. What strategies can we use to properly prepare for races in different environments to those in which we usually train? Adapting your body to these conditions *before the event* can significantly enhance your performance on race day.
Leveraging Environmental Conditions to Enhance Physiology
We will also explore how different environments can be leveraged to improve your physiology, making you a stronger athlete across all races. This includes a special focus on altitude training, which plays a critical role in enhancing endurance performance. Understanding how to incorporate altitude training into your regimen can yield significant benefits.
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So, let’s begin with the training side of the equation and progressively work our way towards some of the racing considerations. When it comes to environmental factors that can benefit your training, few are more powerful, or poorly understood, than Altitude Training…
Altitude Training
Just us and the mountain goats (Scott, Lexi, Gordo, Jeff, and myself) putting the miles in up high. Some of my favorite training memories came amidst the haze of very thin air!
Over the past few years, there has been a noticeable increase in interest in altitude training. This trend is evident from the growing number of athletes reaching out to me about the topic. As an exercise physiologist living in the highest state in the nation, with an average altitude of 2000m (6600ft), I have seen this surge firsthand. This interest extends beyond professional athletes, who have long utilized altitude training, to now include many serious amateur competitors. The increased competition at these levels, coupled with the decreasing cost of altitude tents, has made exposure to altitude more accessible and popular, for good reason…
Understanding the Mechanism of Altitude Training
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