Altitude Training
By
Woody Green
of
RUNNERS NICHE
There is a sort of mystique that surrounds sites like the
high plains of Kenya or the mountains of Colorado. These
locations, along with many others roughly a mile or more
above sea level, are thought to be very special places to
train. The very thin air that leaves runners gasping at
higher altitudes is thought to have magical qualities for the
runner wishing to get maximal gains from their training.
There are, however, plenty of people who feel there is no
real benefit in training at altitude, unless you are planning
on racing there. In fact, some feel that training at altitude
can actually slow a runner down.
So, who's right? All the studies on training at altitude
agree on one basic fact. When training at altitude, your
blood becomes "thicker." That is, you have a higher
concentration of red blood cells and hemoglobin. This seems
to be a way of adapting to the lower levels of oxygen
available to the lungs in the less dense air. Common belief
is that this could result in greater than "normal" endurance
when runners go to race at sea level.
This concept may sound familiar to people who have never
heard of the benefits of altitude training, but have heard of
the benefits of a friendly physician. The procedure known as
"blood doping" or "blood packing" is an attempt to accomplish
the same thing. In this procedure, an athlete will have a
unit of blood extracted and preserved. Later, when the
athlete's blood has naturally increased back to its normal
level, the old blood is reinjected into the athlete. This
provides extra red blood cells and hemoglobin for oxygen
transport. It should be noted that this method is illegal
according to the governing bodies of athletics. It should
also be pointed out that it is dangerous. Many athletes have
wound up ill as a result of this technique. Rumors are that
some have even died.
Another medical attempt to increase the oxygen capacity of
the blood is a drug called EPO which similarly increases the
blood "thickness." Again, this method is both illegal and
dangerous.
It is very well accepted in the arena of world class running
that "blood doping" and EPO work very well to increase an
athlete's endurance. Some Olympic medalists have been accused
of using this method to improve their performance.
If altitude training results in the same thing: "thicker"
blood, then shouldn't it increase performance, too? Many
runners and coaches believe it does. Certainly the
performances of athletes from areas such as Kenya, Ethiopia
and Mexico who live and train at altitude would lead many to
suspect that altitude training is a definite advantage. And,
it is not illegal, immoral or life threatening!
Common belief, though, has yet to be solidly backed by
scientific evidence. The scientific community has conducted a
good number of studies on training a high altitude.
Surprisingly, there are very few that support the notion that
altitude trained athletes will have an advantage when racing
at at sea level. Many studies have shown that athletes who
are taken to high altitude to train, then back to sea level
to race, show no improvement over their pre-altitude training
times.
Additionally, there are problems associated with running at
altitude. Since it is impossible to run as fast at altitude
as a similar distance at sea level, some coaches fear that
altitude training will actually slow their athletes down.
Some feel that interval training may be negatively impacted
by altitude, as well, making anaerobic training less
effective.
When an athlete trains at altitude, then goes to sea level,
the body begins changing. The increased levels of hemoglobin
and red blood cell density return to "normal" after several
days. Thus, any benefits in blood composition are probably
short lived.
Another problem is not so much the altitude itself, but the
climate that accompanies most high altitude locations. They
tend to be dry and relatively cool. This makes it hard for an
athlete to adapt to the heat and humidity more commonly found
when they race at sea level.
Still, advocates of altitude training provide arguments in
favor of running in "rare air."
Frank Shorter was once quoted as saying that one of the
benefits of altitude training was that it is simply not
possible to run as many miles as at sea level. This, he felt,
kept some runners from running too many miles and beating up
their legs.
Many feel there is a sort of psychological advantage as well.
Training feels harder at altitude, which can lead to a sense
of confidence and mental toughness. Mental attitude is
extremely important in any athletic endeavor. Anything that
leads to increased confidence must certainly be considered a
benefit.
Additionally, those who point only to scientific evidence
should be reminded that there were initially numerous
scientific studies which indicated that steroid use had no
effect on muscle strength or recovery from workouts. Studies
or not, unscrupulous athletes continued to use the drugs,
knowing full well that the benefits were very real. They did
not wait for science to prove what they already knew. Despite
scientific findings, perhaps the athletes training at
altitude know something the exercise physiologists have yet
to prove. And, there's nothing unscrupulous about training on
a beautiful mountain trail at 5000 feet!
