Altitude Training

zakeen

I would like to know more about altitude training. I am aware that going up high increases your red blood cells etc.....

but what I what to know is, is it better to recovery after a race at sea level or altitdue??

I always thought that sleeping with less O2 would decrease the chance of recovery! Is that true??

ric_stern/RST

There's very little benefit to *training* at altitude. It's far better to train at or near sea level and sleep at altitude (e.g., in a special tent/chamber).

When you go to altitude, there's a large drop in performance (i.e., power output) because of the reduced partial pressure of air, and therefore, a decrease in actual workload.

Ric

__________________
http://www.cyclecoach.com

zakeen

Yes I a very aware of that, that is not my question through, my question is based on the live high train low. While training hard with more O2 and then living high, do you recovery better low then high?? which I am guessing????

So you can be safe to say that it is best to go to alt. for a 3 or 4 week course and then come down train hard, with your benifits and then also reward yourself with better recovery which can lead to better training??

ric_stern/RST

The research i've seen, although equivocal, does show that there's an improvement with train low, sleep high. so i'd think that the sleep issue isn't that important

Ric

__________________
http://www.cyclecoach.com

zakeen

I have an altitude tent and am using it in the process. While I am using it with races and I race two days in a row, would I be better off not using it the night after a race so I can benifit from a better recovery for the next day??

I have found nothing for the recovery of your body, I guess I am trying to think of better ways of using this tent and to gain the max out of them.

2LAP

Cool, I'd love to play with one of these for a while!



I've not seen any research on this issue; however using a tent between race days is unlikely to improve performance and may reduce recovery (particularly through reduced quality of sleep/rest).

Given that the effect of the tent will be reletivly long lived (upto 120 days), missing a few days or a week should have no adverse effect on your performance.

maarten

I actually know a guy with his bedroom designed to regualate air pressure. He used to race local vets league, impressive but kinda expensive(like his three identical bikes(Dura-ace) Train, race and a spare one)

__________________
A winner is a loser who didn't quit!

Spider1977

Are you kidding? A guy riding in a vets league that wants to win sooo much he regulates air pressure in his bedroom! Some people need to get a life!

zakeen

Thanks. Thats right on the point I was looking for. I guess I just want the most out of it. I have read so many studies on the improvements and everything.

While I race 3 times a week I wonder if I should use it when I have two days in a row of racing. I also thought the same with you.....



However the sleep quality is excellent!!! I sleep much longer and have better sleeps, I guess this is a result form little O2, but like you said with little O2 I dont beleive that you will fully recovery as much while sleeping with more O2!

So you are advising me not to use this if I want full recovery??

2LAP

I have looked on medline and sports discus with no luck. Seems that this issue hasn't been looked at with any detail; so I can't say for sure.

In favour of using the tent all the time...
*Metabolicaly, you should be able to recover fine even with low O2 due to the long time frame.
*You are able to sleep well so I can't see why it would stop you recovering.
*You haven't noticed reduced performance on day 2 after using the tent.

In favour of giving it a miss...
*You have some doubts that recovery may suffer.
*Missing a night or few nights in the tent will have little effect on your performance in the short term.
*There will be no physiological benefit from sleeping in the tent (i.e. adaptations take a long time and with regular use you should have already platauxed).

Given the amount of evidence, I think its worth you experimenting and if there are any doubts then you won't loose out by missing the tent for a few nights.

maarten

Its true and if that ain't enough he'll just pay you to let him win. He moved to the elite league where he does the same(he just pays a little more) everyone his way to happiness but thats definitely not my way.

__________________
A winner is a loser who didn't quit!