Running at high altitudes- what's the difference?
 

I live in a mountain community located at 6,000 feet. I am doing C25K and will be running a couple of 5k races later on this year.

My question is, is there some sort of advantage to training at high altitudes? Is there anything I should be doing differently? I often find that it;s a bit hard to breathe, but I don't know if that's my asthma or the air.

Just curious! :)

The altitude definitely has an impact. I live at sea level, but I visited Colorado Springs last year, which is somewhere around 6,000-7,000 feet. I didn't notice a difference on a level surface, but even just a slight incline at a walking pace and I felt like I was trudging through mud. And I'm in pretty good shape and I do a fair amount of incline running in my regular training.

I would expect that if you train at a high altitude, when you are at lower altitudes everything will be easier. Of course, if you live at altitude and are never at lower altitudes, this won't be terribly helpful. We went on a guided hike and, during the hike, we asked the guide, who was in pretty good shape, if she noticed that everything was really easy at sea level and she said she never really spent much time exercising at sea level so she didn't know.

Not sure about the training.

if you live at altitude, you arent going to notice anything different...youre used to it! I live in Denver, and often do races/half marathons up in the mountains at 9000 to 8000 ft and even then i dont notice a difference......

actually going down to phoenix this weekend for the Rock n roll marathon! Its at 1100 feet. I will let you know if i think it made a difference ;)

Originally Posted by mkroyer:
actually going down to phoenix this weekend for the Rock n roll marathon! Its at 1100 feet. I will let you know if i think it made a difference ;)

That would be fantastic if you could! I'm doing a couple of runs at much lower altitudes starting in spring and I would be sooooo happy if it was easier than running up here.

It should be easier when you visit the low areas. Living at high altitude should give you a slight boost!

Every spring and summer we go visit 4000 feet and even that much makes a HUGE difference. I live at sea level .