Having been at 10,000 feet of elevation for a few days once, I had a slight idea of what may be involved, although I wasn't working out at the time. Besides being out of shape, I also had caught a cold just before going, so being being weaker and heavier than I am now, even walking up a steep slope was tough.
This time around, I headed down (or up) to the Rocky mountains in South West Colorado with my kids for a family vacation / reunion with my in laws, kids, grand kids, at their new place on Wilson Mesa. Wilson Mesa so nestled between 12,000 to 14,000 foot peaks, and lies at about 9,500 feet of elevation. Being active and fit these days, I was a bit anxious, yet intrigued, to see how being at that sort of altitude / elevation would impact my exercise routines.
On the first afternoon, after a long and exhausting trip, I hauled all our suitcases up a few flights of stairs. Noticed feeling slightly light headed when I was done, but it only last a few moments. I made sure to stay well hydrated, and didn't develop any symptoms of altitude sickness, as did some other members of the family.
The following day, I hopped onto the mountain bike, for my first attempt at exercising at high altitude. There aren't any paved roads around the mesa, just hard packed dirt / gravel roads, which makes biking slightly tougher off the bat. Then, you have the constant uphill and downhill curves, as despite being sort of flat by nature, the mesa is located and laid out in some seriously steep hills. All roads leading to the mesa are very steep, so definitely not something I'd want to try on my first attempt.
The circular road around our section of the mesa is a good 5 to 6 miles long, so the perfect test ride, with only one steep hill in the mix. I ran the circle 1.5 times on my first day, and the lack of oxygen was very noticeable. On the long steep hill, I was gasping for air about halfway up, despite being in decent biking shape. I pushed though, and made it without stopping, a small victory in itself.
The following day, I was anxious to try a body weight circuit. I could already feel the difference in my warm up routine, and once I hit the core of the workout, I had to pace myself to avoid "gassing out". I was able to complete most sets, but only able to do 70% to 80% of the reps in the tougher exercises.
I followed up with some walking and hiking, which was a breeze, and by my next bike ride, I noticed a huge difference, with my body naturally acclimating to the elevation. I was able to run the circle twice, roughly 11.5 to 12 miles or so, in less than 1 hour on a clunky mountain bike, on the dirt road. I kept my riding routing the same for the rest of my 2 week trip there.
The circuit training got easier as well, by the 2nd week, I was fully able to complete my routine, tough still panting for air a lot more than I do when I'm home, and still having to pace myself between exercises.
I did one long hike up to Hope lake as well, carrying fishing gear on my back most of the way up to a small lake located at 12,000+ feet of elevation. The trail up to mountain is 2.5 miles, and gets steeper the higher you climb getting close to the lake.
Though I wasn't too tired, I gave the bag to Avi for the last 20 minutes or so, I was was pouring in sweat under the back pack, which made it very uncomfortable. Both he and I were breathing heavily by the time we reached the lake.
After fishing it for a couple hours, the descent was much easier.
When I finally returned to Montreal, I was anxious to see whether the short stint with altitude training had any effect once I was back close to sea level. For my first workout, I chose my strength training, as I didn't have any dumbells with me on my trip to Colorado. The first set was tough as expected, having not done the routine for nearly 3 weeks. By the second set, I felt a burst of energy, and even more so as the workout went on.
I followed up with my ride up Mount Royal the next day, and again, found the ride easier than normal, from a cardio standpoint. Sections of the ride that normally have me breathing heavy were a breeze in comparison, despite the heat and smog warning. Came within a minute of my all time record speed without much effort.
Finally, my body weight routine went easy as expected as well, one week after being back at normal elevation. Not sure how long the effects of my altitude training will last, I guess I'll find out.
The altitude affected most of the people I was with in different ways. Many developed sever headaches, and other were very bloated, with the altitude wreaking havoc on their digestive systems. On my end, I didn't encounter any serious issues, but did notice that my gas/flatulence was magnified exponentially. In other words, a simple beer or bowl of vegetable soup had me exploding non stop for 24 hours, much to the chagrin of my lovely / tolerant wife.
Over the course of my vacation, I ate more than I normally do, and drank a heck of a lot more alcohol as well. Surprisingly, I didn't gain any weight at all over the trip, much to my surprise.
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