TriDot Podcast .243

Thin Air, Big Gains: Altitude Training for Triathletes

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Intro: This is the TriDot podcast. TriDot uses your training data and genetic profile, combined with predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to optimize your training, giving you better results in less time with fewer injuries. Our podcast is here to educate, inspire, and entertain. We’ll talk all things triathlon with expert coaches and special guests. Join the conversation and let’s improve together.

Andrew Harley: Welcome to the TriDot podcast. Today we will learn all about the effects of elevation on triathlon training and racing. Training in Miami, Florida at six feet above sea level is not the same as training in Colorado Springs, Colorado at 6,000 feet above sea level, and today we'll learn all about this difference and how it affects our bodies. Our first coach joining us for this conversation is TriDot Master Coach Jeff Raines. Jeff is a Certified TriDot Coach, a USA Triathlon Level 2 and IRONMAN U Certified Coach who has a Master of Science in Exercise Physiology and was a D-1 collegiate runner. He has over 60 IRONMAN event finishes to his credit, including the World Championships in Nice, and he has coached hundreds of athletes to the IRONMAN finish line. Jeff has been training and coaching with TriDot since 2015. Jeff Raines, what's up my friend?

Jeff Raines: Hey, not much, Andrew! Let's just say I'm on a high right now, and I'm super elevated and excited for today's topic.

Andrew: Sure you are, yeah. Also joining us today is the Ultraman himself, TriDot Coach Jason Verbracken. Better known as Coach Verbie, Jason lives in San Diego, California, where he works as a Pepsi sales manager, in addition to coaching TriDot athletes and motocross athletes. He has been racing tris for seven years, racking up nine IRONMAN, one Ultraman, and seven extreme triathlon finish lines in that time. And Verbie, I've noticed that recently on social media you've been mountain bike racing lately. How's that going for you?

Jason Verbracken: Thank you for having me! It's been going pretty good, except my technical skills are zero. So the very first race, it was “the trail: two, Verbie: nothing”. I crashed twice. But the second race was much better, I’m having a great time doing it. It's getting me out of my comfort zone, and just it's just a whole ‘nother level of just Zone 4, Zone 5, Zone 6 for an hour straight. I'm not used to that.

Andrew: So I imagine, Verbie, that your fitness right now is much greater than your technical skills, right? You've got the fitness to compete, but you just gotta stop crashing, huh?

Jason: Yes. Any flats or slight incline going up, I'm passing people, doing awesome. Anything where it gets technical, downhill, rocky, they're flying by me like I'm standing still.

Andrew: Well, that will have to be a different podcast episode. I know we've already chatted with you on the podcast before about trail running. That was a great conversation with me, you, and TriDot Coach Elizabeth James. We'll have to circle back maybe and talk about how things like gravel and mountain biking can play into a triathlete’s training regimen. But that's a different podcast for a different day. For today, I'm Andrew the Average Triathlete, Voice of the People and Captain of the Middle of the Pack. As always we'll roll through our warmup question, settle in for our main set conversation on elevation, and then wind things down with Vanessa taking over for our Coach Cooldown Tip of the week. Lots of good stuff, let's get to it!

Warm up theme: Time to warm up! Let’s get moving.

Andrew:  A funny thing about triathlon, no matter how much equipment and apparel you buy, there is always something else to spend money on in this sport. As our warmup question today, if you were given $1,000 U.S. and had to spend it right now on triathlon gear, what would you go buy? Verbie?

Jason: Right now I've been kind of looking at new watches, so I've been checking out the Coros Vertix 2S, which seems like it can do anything in the world, and the battery life is just crazy. Normal everyday life, 40 days. GPS mode, 118 hours. It's a watch that I don't need to worry about finishing a long multiple day-race, I'm not going to have to worry about charging it. So I’d pick up that, that's around $700. Then I was checking out the new HOKA Skyward X shoes. They are like everyday HOKA training shoes with the carbon plate.

Andrew: I've seen pictures of those, yeah.

Jason: Definitely very nice, they have my eye. They're around $225, so I’d grab those. Then with that last $75, give me a couple more entries into the mountain bike races, and I'm good.

Andrew: Good man! That's a well-spent $1,000 right there! Jeff Raines, what is this answer for you?

Jeff: Man, race entry fees are the big one, but I'm actually all signed up for my races this year, so I can't use that one.

Andrew: Hot dog!

Jeff: But my Wahoo Kickr is on the fritz, so I would get a new smart trainer for my wife and me. I also need a second one because my wife and I both train, and I switch our bikes on and off of those things two or three times a week, so I need two. But the one that we share currently is on the fritz, so that's where I would start. But I'd also get my wife some Garmin Rally power pedals that she could have on her tri bike.

Andrew: Yeah, and good on you for taking a little bit of your budget and spending some on your wife Sarah and not just you. Sarah is an amazing athlete who goes and competes herself. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to spend some of my $1,000 on my wife, I'm going to use it all for myself like Verbie did. The first thing I would get is some TriRig Scoops Ultimate aerobars. I've mentioned on the podcast before that they have the arm cups that a lot of us TriDotters use, those TriRig elbow-locking aero pads. But they have the full-on bar, where the whole carbon extension is a pad for your arms. There's just more coverage, they're more aero. Those are $750, so I would just buy those, add them to my Dimond bike, and really just aero out the front of my bike with those Ultimate aerobars. That leaves me a little bit more leftover, so kind of like you Verbie, I've got some new run shoes that have caught my eye. Mizuno just put out a new shoe, the Mizuno Neo Vista. Actually at the time we're recording this podcast, it’s coming out in a few weeks. All of my run shoes right now are kind of a lower stack and a little less cushioning, and this new Mizuno shoe is a higher stack, but it's got like a glass plate in there. They look super cool, they're getting a lot of good buzz in the running community, and Mizuno shoes I’ve had in the past have fit my foot really well, they just haven't been as performance-oriented. So I would get those new Mizunos, I think they're going to be a great fit for my foot to do a big mixture of workouts. That brings me to $930, and I'm guessing once tax gets added on, I'm at $1K. So that's the answer for me, TriRig aerobars, and my new Mizuno Neo Vista run shoes.

We're going to throw this question out to the TriDot audience. The warmup question now is posted in three places. You can answer the question on Facebook in the I AM TriDot Facebook group. Our social media team posts this on Tuesdays as an Instagram Story, so you can answer the warmup question on Instagram. And you can now answer the warmup question in our Circle Community. In the TriDot Circle Community there is a full tab for the podcast for you to interact with our episodes, and interact with the warmup question. So go find my post asking you this question – if you had $1,000 U.S. and you had to spend it today on tri gear, what are you buying? I'm curious!

Main set theme: On to the main set. Going in 3…2…1…

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All right, today on the podcast we’re talking all things training high and training low. When the elevation changes, what needs to change in our training? Coach Verbie and Coach Jeff are here to educate us all about that. Jeff, Verbie, let's start with this one. I want to hear a story from the two of you – whether it's sports related or otherwise, it doesn't have to be a sports story – what was a time that you very specifically remember being highly affected by a certain change in elevation? Coach Verbie?

Jason: Well, mine is not going to be in sport. This one I'll never forget, because my wife makes sure I always remember it. My son raced motocross, and every June there's a big race at Mammoth Mountain. The village is probably 8,500 feet above sea level, where they have week-long motocross races going on. It always starts Father's Day weekend, and my son wasn't racing till the end of the week, so of course Saturday the boys go out and have many adult beverages. And it rolled into getting up early Sunday morning, which was Father's Day, my day, and we went golfing. And of course the beverages continued a very long time past the 19th hole. We were at the 19th hole for many, many hours. And let’s just say, Monday morning was the worst hangover I have ever felt in my life. I was down probably until Tuesday evening, just being at that altitude. That's what I kept telling my wife, “It was the altitude’s fault, it wasn't the alcohol.”

Jeff: Naturally!

Jason: Yeah, it wasn't me. I didn't have too much to drink, it was the altitude. But in reality, it was the combination of both. I'll never forget that, and she'll remind me of that many times.

Andrew: Yeah, as she should. She totally has full right to do so. Jeff Raines, what is this story for you? What was a time where you were heavily impacted by a change in elevation?

Jeff: Oh gosh. I've been on multiple four- to five-day backpacking trips in Colorado, and one of those trips, a group of us drove all night – I drove, everyone else got to sleep. I drove all night, and then we arrived at the trailhead early in the morning. Then the all-nighter, we hiked all day up to the top, to high altitude. And then man, I started getting horrible headaches, chills, fever. I was in a bad place that first night. The sun was going down, it was getting cold, it was raining, and hail started. I was miserable. I went to bed early. I drank a whole ton, just got in my sleeping bag, and went to sleep. But when I woke up the next morning, I was a million bucks, I was fine. And now we're going to talk a little bit about that later, but yeah I always remember that horrible first night.

Andrew: Yeah, so this story for me – my wife and I, for our one-year anniversary years and years ago, we road-tripped from Dallas to Colorado Springs. We did the train up to Pikes Peak, we did some hiking, we did the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, we toured the Olympic training facility, Garden of the Gods. All the Colorado Springs stuff to do, we went out and did. But I'll never forget to drive there. As a kid, like a teenager, anytime I've been at a certain elevation I never really noticed being affected by it too much. But as an adult 27-year-old, driving from Dallas at 500-feet elevation to Colorado Springs at 6,000 feet elevation – when you cross the border from New Mexico into Colorado, there's this mountain pass you go up and over called the Raton Pass. It's like at 10:00 at night, we're driving up the Raton Pass, and I'm not a very experienced driver when it comes to the mountains. And the higher we're getting, going up this pass, the more I'm feeling foggy and lightheaded. I'm driving up a road, zigzagging up this mountain pass, and it felt hairy a little bit. Like at one point I actually pulled over and stopped so I could drink some water and kind of collect myself. We got up and down okay, and we got to Colorado Springs just fine. But I'll never forget, that was the first moment that I remember being like, “I am not okay. I feel off, I feel funny.” Our first day in Colorado Springs, we hiked around Garden of the Gods, and we were drinking water and felt a little light headed. By day two I think we felt like a million bucks, but to this day, when I drive in the mountains I get a little skittish, flashbacking to that moment of like, “Am I going to be okay? Can I get us to Colorado Springs?” So I'm curious guys, as we transition into our topic off of those stories – what is it that happens in our bodies at higher elevation that makes us feel the way we described in our stories, and how high do we have to go for these effects to kick in?

Jason: At the higher elevations the pressure decreases, with lower levels of oxygen, so of course, like you guys just said, you’re going to get the shortness of breath, the fatigue, the dizziness, even difficulty sleeping sometimes. Loss of appetite, all those are effects of being at the higher altitudes. And each person is going to vary. Andrew, you're feeling it at 5,000 feet, and Jeff might not feel it right away, he could be good to 8,000 feet. It varies depending on the person. The most noticeable is any time you're 8,200 feet or above, you can really start getting that feeling of altitude sickness. Then obviously when you're over 11,500 and up, it really affects you even more.

Jeff: Yeah, and I would just throw in what defines altitude or elevation. There's three different levels or ranges. Low altitude would be sea level or 0 feet, up to about 4,900 feet or 1500 meters. High altitude is considered anything in a range of 4,900 to 11,500 feet, or 1,500 to 3,500 meters. Then very high altitude – that super-high, super-intensive that Jason was referring to – is considered 11,500 to 18,000 feet, or 3,500 to 5,500 meters.

Andrew: Yeah, and I was born in Central Florida, close to ground level. I’ve lived my life in Dallas, Texas pretty close to sea level. So it makes sense that all it takes is just a little dip up, and all of a sudden Andrew is thrown for a whirl. So when we enter into a higher elevation that our body isn't used to, how long does it actually take for our bodies to begin to adjust to that elevation?

Jeff: That's a good question. At about 4,900 feet or above you can really start to see some abnormalities. When ascending too quickly, the body doesn't have enough time to adjust to the changes in air pressure and reduced oxygen. Jason referred to that partial pressure of oxygen – it decreases the higher you go, and the oxygen molecules are spread out more, so we have to breathe more. Our respiratory rate has to increase to get the same amount of oxygen in and utilized as we would at sea level. Symptoms usually appear 12 to 24 hours after arriving at high altitude, anything at 4,900 feet or above. Then symptoms start to decrease in severity after about three to four days at any given altitude. That's kind of a big piece. A lot of people go up to altitude, but then they may hike a couple thousand feet and then come back down, and they may sleep at this. We'll talk a little bit about that. But really we have both short-term and long-term acclimating remedies in our body to adapt to high altitude. In the short term, in the first 12 to 24 hours at altitude when there's that lack of oxygen, there's actually little like sensors in our carotid arteries in our neck, and they sense that you're at high altitude, and it senses those lower oxygen levels, and our breathing depth and breathing rate increases to compensate for those lower oxygen levels. This is actually called hyperpnea, and non-essential bodily functions actually are depressed as well, it's kind of a defense mechanism. One of them, for example, is food digestion. The efficiency of that is kind of put on hold, because our body is using that energy to compensate for that abnormality, being at high altitude. That's the immediate, from like zero to three days. A big chunk of the acclimation process takes about three to four, sometimes five days. So from zero to three days, physical activity soon after ascending can cause significant salt and water retention. You might feel some bloating and some weird sensations, kind of like you were sensing in that drive, kind of like I was sensing halfway up that big hike after pulling an all-nighter.

Then there's kind of the long-term, from three to four days to a number of weeks. There's actually a cool formula I'll share in just a second on how long it should take for you to fully acclimate at certain altitudes. But more long-term, you actually acclimate the most when you sleep. Sleeping at high altitude can help you acclimate to the high altitude by lowering your blood oxygen levels, which triggers the production of red blood cells and hemoglobin. After several days, maybe a few weeks, you would adjust or acclimate to that environment. But the hemoglobin – which are little proteins in our blood that transport oxygen – they increase as well, and also the blood vessel ratios to muscle mass. All of that compensates and adapts. But full acclimation is actually determined by when the increase of those red blood cells stops and it reaches a plateau. That's when you know you're at equilibrium and you're kind of caught up. But I'll end with this fun equation. Take your altitude that you're currently at, convert the feet or meters down to kilometers, then multiply that number by 11.4 days, and that's how long it takes to fully acclimate, when in doubt. So let's just say you're at 13,000 feet, or 4,000 meters. That's pretty high. Using that equation, it would take 45.6 days to fully acclimate at that given altitude. Boulder 70.3 is coming up. That's a big one, we have our Ambassador Camp, over a hundred TriDotters are racing out there. The elevation of the City of Boulder is 5,430 feet, or about 1,655 meters. So you take 1.655, multiply it by that 11.4 days, so it actually would take about 18 days to fully acclimate from sea level up to Boulder altitude.

Andrew: Wow. So if you're an age-grouper, and you're flying into town from Texas or Florida, or San Diego where Jason is, and you're planning on racing – I mean, most of us don't have 18 full days to spend in town. So pretty much everybody that travels in for the race that's not from Boulder is a little bit physically compromised without knowing it. Is that fair to say Jeff?

Jeff: Absolutely, yeah that is true. But if you're not able to arrive 18 days ahead of time, for sure at least give yourself that three to five days leading time. A big portion of your acclimation will occur in that zero to three or four days, so I would at least start there.

Andrew: For our TriDot athletes who are going to Ambassador Camp in Boulder this year, I'm curious to hear stories of anybody struggling on day one in some of those group workouts, because they just traveled in from somewhere that isn't at 5,430 feet elevation. We'll see! We'll find out, won't we?

I’m curious. This is not a question on our script, I'm totally throwing a curveball to both you guys, so we'll see if you can pull a number out of your butts on this one. In all of your swimming, biking, running, triathloning, mountain biking, trail running, ultra-whatever – whatever your physical activity is – what is the highest elevation that you have physically exerted yourselves at race effort? For me, I've done most of my racing in Texas and Florida and California and New Zealand and Greece near the beach. I haven't done any significant physical effort at an elevation, outside of just going for a run, visiting Denver or something. I've done some hiking where I've climbed Clingmans Dome in Tennessee, and Mount Mitchell, the highest point in North Carolina, but nothing where I'm like triathloning in race mode at an elevation. Jeff, what's this answer for you?

Jeff: Oh gosh, I've been all over the US. Mount Mitchell in North Carolina, Mount Lemmon in Tucson. I raced Nice, France, that's obviously a big one. I've done a lot of 12,00- and 14,00-foot hikes. Yeah, I'd say 12 to 14 at a high intensity effort or working hard is my peak.

Andrew: Jason, do you kick both of our butts on this one as Mr. Ultraman?

Jason: No, I'm kind of the same with Jeff. A lot of my XTri stuff is up in the mountains. I know when I went to Nepal and raced the Himalayan XTri, we had to basically run up a mountain then come back down, and that was the 4000 meters we ran up to, which is 13,123 feet. That's kind of my top in there, and I definitely could see the athletes that were majorly affected by it. I was running with a guy who crawled to the turnaround point, just because he just had no energy. Another guy was leaning over the trekking poles just trying to get that oxygen. Yeah, it definitely affects even more when you're pushing that effort while you're racing.

Andrew: Yeah. And if anybody wants to know why I keep asking Verbie on the podcast – one, he's a good coach. He knows a lot of stuff. But two, he's also the coolest guy I know. How many triathletes do you know who have raced in Nepal? Not many. I know one, it's Jason Verbracken, and that's why he's on the podcast as often as he is. So getting back to the training implications of elevation, does anything need to change in our training regimen when we are traveling, or we've gone to something like the Boulder Ambassador Camp, where all of a sudden we're at a higher elevation? It's new, we haven't adapted to it. What do we need to change in our training sessions to make sure we're doing our workouts correctly and not overextending ourselves in a new elevation?

Jeff: As far as athletic performance in general at high altitude, you can define that as more anaerobic explosive events, and then like an endurance athlete. But this is kind of neat actually. Explosive events – more anaerobic activities like long jump, sprints, and track races maybe up to 400 meters – they're actually kind of enhanced at high altitude and provide better outcomes, because there's that reduction in atmospheric pressure. There's thinner air, there's less resistance in the air, hence faster times and longer jumps. For example baseball players, at a given effort at sea level hitting the ball, with that same effort at altitude the ball will travel further. A cool side note, the Olympic Committee approved performances over 1,000 meters or 3,280 feet, that world records will count, but they will put an “A” next to that achievement, indicating that it was at altitude.

Andrew: Wow. That feels counterintuitive from what I would think.

Jeff: Yeah, it's really neat. But in an endurance performance, aerobic capacity is definitely reduced at high altitude. A safe range is like 12% to 16%. So if you're not acclimating, if you're not there for weeks ahead of time and you're only there that zero to three, zero to five days before a race, aerobic capacity can be reduced by about 12% to 16%. Endurance athletes can also benefit from high altitude. It's called “live high and train low”. So if you live at high altitude you can do lower intensities up there, but you're supposed to go down closer to sea level to do your super high volumes and your super high intensities. You can't do quite as much super high intensity for longer durations at high altitude. So the adaptations that help cope with that altitude can improve performance back at sea level. In the athletes’ bodies, you become acclimated to high altitude and you're able to carry more oxygen in the blood per beat of the heart. But then when they compete at lower altitudes, they get kind of a natural boost in performance. Now, if you're training at high altitude or you live there and you train low, and then you go and race an endurance event and you're pushing hard and have some anaerobic efforts inside of there, you might only see about a 1% to 2% improvement. So the average age-grouper going and training in Colorado for a month or two and then doing let's say a half-Ironman down closer to sea level, you're not just going to see an hour knocked off of your time. But there are benefits.

Andrew: I mean that's good to know, right? You see professional athletes going out of their way to train at certain elevations in certain parts of their season, and we'll talk about why they do that in a little bit. But for us age-groupers, for the amount of time we could actually do that for, that's the potential gain. We're not talking about how you're going to become a one-hour-faster Ironman athlete. That's just part of chasing those marginal gains. If you're trying to get that Kona slot or qualify for Boston, or you're trying to place on the podium at a big event coming up, maybe it's worth considering. But if you're just Andrew the Average Triathlete, just trying to go under sub-12:00 or sub-6:00 or whatever your goal is, maybe it's not worth going out of your way for that 1% or 2%. That's really interesting, Jeff.

Jeff: Yeah, and with that “live high train low”, you can't do quite as much high intensity at altitude. That's called detraining. But rest and sleep at high altitude, that's big. Long story short, you have to ease into training your first three to four days, then you slightly increase back into intensity and a little bit of volume. But lighter intensity should be completed at high altitude, and higher intensities and racing should be completed at lower altitude, in an ideal world.

Andrew: Now Verbie, I know that you have done a lot of training getting ready for events with wild elevation swings, some high elevation stuff in your Xterra’s, your ultras, and your extreme triathlons. Do you have anything to add here when you're working with your athletes? Is there anything they need to consider if they're training somewhere that's a higher elevation than what they're already used to?

Jason: Yeah, just what Jeff said, it can be a very valuable tool, especially if you're looking for that 1% or 2%, and going up to do a camp is very beneficial for those guys. And also like Jeff was saying, you just have to carefully plan it. Monitor your training. Because being at altitude, if you do a higher-intensity workout, that stress on your body is going to be more than the stress down at sea level. So you’ve got to really be watching it. You want to be there to get the best benefits, and not over-stress your body and have a negative effect on you. Even some of my professional motocross athletes, Denver is one of the places they go, and as we talked earlier, those effects don't take place for 12 to 24 hours. Well, they're lucky enough that they can fly in on Saturday morning, they practice and race on the same day, and they're flying out Saturday night. So they're just trying to completely avoid that, where other ones come up a day or two early and they're getting altitude sickness. If you are going to race at that high altitude and you have that option to get there, get it done, and get out of there, you can play those odds of not getting sick and performing the best you can still.

Andrew: Yeah, that's interesting. So for our listeners who do use TriDot for their training – obviously we have a lot of TriDot athletes in our audience, but we have some athletes who like the podcast that don't use TriDot for their training. We're welcome to have you, we’re glad you're here, but this question just doesn't apply to you. For TriDot athletes, EnviroNorm will actually adjust your training paces for you when it knows you are at a higher elevation. So it's crucial, when you are traveling, to let TriDot know where you're doing your workout. Let it know “I'm not at home”, punch in where you actually are and what time of day you're doing that workout. Jeff Raines, talk us through how this feature of TriDot works, and what we should expect to see in our paces when we're at elevation.

Jeff: If you're not accounting for environmental conditions, then there's a lot of training stress out there that is not being accounted for. But our eNorm is amazing. It takes into account the elevation above sea level of the city that you're in, the temperature, the humidity, all sorts of factors. It's really cool. Cool story, I used to live in Austin, Texas, really close to sea level at 489 feet. I moved to west Texas, Midland, Texas, which is 3,000 feet above sea level. So it's not high altitude, it's not above 4,900 feet, but that is a big difference.

Andrew: I didn't know the State of Texas had 3,000 feet above sea level, to be honest.

Jeff: I actually just hiked Guadalupe Peak, it's the highest natural point in the State of Texas at 8,700 feet.

Andrew: Hey cool! Wow!

Jeff: But anyways, so the month before I moved, I did an FTP test, and then the month after I moved to 3,000 feet higher elevation, I actually did worse by 4 watts. And I was like, “What? It's been a month or two. I've been training. Why did I disprove?” Well then I went into the eNorm of my assessment, and I actually had a 7-watt improvement on my functional threshold, even though I achieved 4 watts less on my test. Because TriDot, RunDot, and our RaceX knows the conditions at which you're doing your assessments and your daily training and your racing, and it adjusts your power and pace zones as the weather changes all day long in your city. It's really, really cool, your power and pace zones change all day long. But what if I'm in Texas at 3,000 feet, and I did a work trip in Colorado at 12,000 feet? There's an intensities tab in the app, and it knows the IP address where you're at, and it'll take all of your paces from your hometown and all that, convert it, apply it to where you're currently at, and your zones will reflect that so you don't over-train or under-train when you're traveling. Pretty cool stuff.

Andrew: Yeah, very cool stuff. And Jeff, correct me if I'm wrong, but when you moved from Austin to Midland, and you had that experience where all of a sudden you're living your life at a higher elevation, isn't it true of TriDot – and correct me if this is wrong – that it has built into the algorithm that, “Okay, this person moved there and he's now been there one week. He's been there for two weeks. He's been there three weeks. He's been there two months.” Doesn't it begin to kind of correct back to your baseline? “Okay, he's been at this elevation for this long,” and it basically takes you back to normal over time. Is that correct?

Jeff: Yes it does, to an aspect. And still, being at 3,000 feet, even if you're acclimated and have lived there relatively long-term, there are still hindrances even though you acclimate. But yes, it does take into account a lot of that, and then how long you're there over time.

Andrew: I alluded to this a minute ago, but I see on social media all the time that a lot of running pros, cycling pros, triathlon pro athletes will use elevation camps, where they'll intentionally go out of their way to live at a higher elevation from where they normally live in order to train for a specific part of their season, or to make some sort of certain adaptation. How are pros doing this? Why are pros doing this? What's the best practice for making this actually work for you in your training? Coach Verbie, talk to us about how pros use elevation camps to improve their fitness.

Jason: Yeah, it is going to vary obviously, depending on that pro athlete’s goals. Do they have an upcoming race that is at altitude? Or are they, as Jeff said, just trying to get those extra red blood cells in your body so when they race down at a lower level, they're getting more oxygen carried to their muscles? And the duration of the camp is going to vary. Most of the time it's several weeks to months before that race they’re planning for, their A race, because they're going to want to get in their gains and then get in a good taper. So they're planning it out, figuring out when they're going to peak, when they're going to get down back to regular altitude, or head to the race-day altitude somewhere. Then again, the altitude levels for them are going to vary between 5,000 and 10,000 feet. Making sure there's training facilities, if you're a triathlete – where am I going to swim? Does it have a pool? These are definitely all different things they look at for their camp, and at what altitude are those facilities at. They're trying to balance all that, and also getting in good training while not getting altitude sickness or having those effects that are going to deteriorate their training. So they're using it to get the get 1%, 2%, whatever they can get out of it. But they're being strategic about it. Figuring out how long are we going to go, how long before our race, what altitude, what do we have available? Can we do it? Is there still snow on the ground? You forget most of these places at altitude have winter climates. It's definitely a lot of moving parts, but when done right it's huge for that race at altitude, or just having those extra red blood cells in your body to race at that higher level.

Andrew: Yeah, it's funny, you talk about what that location needs to have. Like what are the certain conditions that have to come together for that training elevation camp to do what it needs to do? I think that's probably why, if you do pay attention on social media, it seems that it's the same handful of cities that everybody goes to. It's because those cities meet all those requirements, they have the weather, the elevation, and the facilities. There's one or two that come to mind that I see a lot of the European athletes go to. There's one or two that come to mind that I think a lot of the American and North American athletes go to. Very interesting stuff. Jeff Raines, do you know anything additional about how and why athletes are using this at the pro level?

Jeff: Yeah, I'll just add that you have to acclimate to sea level as well. That's something that we kind of forget about a little bit. Let’s say you have a great week of training. Even at sea level, it takes a week or two to absorb that fitness, recover from it, and give you that improvement on the back end. So if it takes arguably a week or two to really see the fitness gain from a training block, but then you go spend one to three weeks at altitude, like at a pro level training camp – being up there for that long of a time, you get the altitude benefits, but usually they're strategically placed where, “I am going to train for a week, or three weeks up there. But then when I get home, how long is it going to take me to fully acclimate back to sea level? When is my race?” So these camps are strategically placed, usually from two or three to five or six weeks out from a big A race. They're going up there, training for one to three weeks, then they're coming home and giving themselves one to three weeks or so to absorb that training and start to acclimate back to sea level. But they're able to push a lot harder down at sea level when they get back. So there's a big timing aspect, and an “it depends” aspect. But I'll also just say, you don't have to go travel and live somewhere for a month. There's other modalities. Like I said earlier, you can live or sleep at high altitude but you train low, like you drive down the mountain and do your high-intensity sessions down there. You can also mimic altitude at home. There's elevation training masks that you can wear at sea level so your body thinks you're at altitude. The hypoxia sleep chambers, I know Jason can definitely chat about those. They actually have these altitude rooms now that you can rent, go in and do a workout in there, and get that altitude experience. There's lots of different ways to get that adaptation.

Andrew: Yeah Jeff, I'm glad you very naturally brought up kind of the other side of the coin. Just like there's benefits and reasons to train at high elevations, and considerations to be made at a higher elevation, there's also a different effect on your body if you're at sea level. I think I forget that that's part of the equation, because I've always lived close to sea level, my body knows what sea level feels like. Whereas other people on that’s not necessarily the case. But I didn't know that was part of the equation for a professional using a high-altitude camp. I just thought you come down from the mountains and you do your race while your body is used to absorbing that sweet oxygen at sea level. I forgot that there is the part of the equation where you have to spend some time back at sea level before you're really primed and ready to go again. So I'm glad you brought that up. One of the things you mentioned is that athletes can use those hypoxia sleep chambers to kind of manipulate that and simulate that, and Coach Verbie, you actually sell a chamber device like that, that helps athletes simulate being closer to sea level and can manipulate oxygen levels for an athlete. So what are the benefits to being at sea level and getting your body as much oxygen as possible?

Jason: So actually, I have a hyperbaric chamber right here.

Andrew: Yeah! Right in time for us to take the podcast on video. Jason's got the Airo Recovery chamber right behind him for us to see it. Love it, perfect timing!

Jason: Yeah. So Jeff talked about it earlier, when you go up in altitude, you decrease the pressure. Well, what the chamber does back there, is it increases the pressure. I'm going to geek us out for a second

Andrew: Yeah, do it! Go there!

Jason: Henry's law states that at consistent temperature, the amount of gas dissolved in a liquid is directly proportional to the partial pressure of that gas above the liquid.

Andrew: Sure it is.

Jason: So depending on the chamber, it will fill up with 93% to 100% oxygen, and it's pressurizing. Each chamber varies by how much pressure is increasing. Well, that pressure changes that gas into a liquid, which then helps absorb in all your tissues and cells. We normally breathe 33% oxygen, that’s what’s around us right now in the air. So in that chamber, you're getting 93% to 100% oxygen. So you’re getting more oxygen in the system. Then that pressure is compressing it and turning it into a liquid, thanks to Henry. That's his law, he made the rules, so that's what it's doing. So it's getting all over that body where you usually couldn't get it. It's absorbing into the cells, into the tissues, helping you heal faster. It's mainly used a lot with recovery, healing wounds. All that helps speed up the process, because you're getting that extra oxygen to the places where your body doesn't usually get it. Or you're getting it in more abundance at a time.

Andrew: Obviously, if anybody listening – you know we talk about at the start of the episode in our warmup question if you had $1,000, what would you throw it towards? If you've got all the recovery toys, and you like the idea of having a hyperbaric chamber, if you like the idea of owning one, definitely get in touch with Coach Verbie and he'll be happy to educate you and see what can happen and if it's a good fit for you. But Jason, just on Instagram I see you in it pretty frequently because you have one yourself. How are you leveraging that in your training? Is it a daily thing? Is it every so often? Is it after hard sessions? Where does that fit into a recovery routine?

Jason: For me, since I've been doing it now for multiple years, I will kind of cycle it. I mainly try to do it two to three times a week, depending on my schedule, and I'll do it either the night before a big session, or on the weekend I'll even get up early and get in it before the session, just to have that extra oxygen in my body. It may be a placebo effect on that part. But I'll definitely try after long, hard sessions to get in there that evening. Then I'll actually stop it for a couple of weeks too, and then I'll get back in it and go four days straight. Then a day or two off, two days straight, then just kind of a day here, a day there. Just kind of just kind of cycling it.

Andrew: Yeah, very interesting. I've got two questions left, and then we'll transition into our cooldown where I'll let Vanessa take over the show for the Coach Cooldown Tip of the week. I'm curious though, when we are training or racing at a higher elevation, we haven't talked about fueling and hydration yet. Does anything need to change in our fueling and hydration needs when we're at a different elevation? Coach Verbie, what do you know?

Jason: Oh, definitely. Our body’s working harder, as Jeff said we're increasing our respiratory rate, we're sweating more. So what's going to happen is our body is trying to keep itself cooler. We're using more calories, and most of the time it's the carbs helping us cool down. And if you get up there and experience loss of appetite, you're not eating much, and now all of a sudden your body's working harder all around – we need those extra carbs, we need that extra hydration, the electrolytes. It's huge on you up there. You’ve got to really have your nutrition and carbs dialed in wherever you live, and then making sure you're upping that when you come up to altitude is going to play an effect on how good you are training.

Jeff: Yeah, going back to my earlier answer, talking about my wife’s and my trip to Colorado Springs where we drove there – especially as light-headed as we were on that drive, I remember reading, “stay hydrated”. So we were just downing water bottles like nobody's business and peeing, peeing, peeing the whole trip. Because we were freaked out like, “Oh man, the one thing it says to do is not to drink alcohol and to stay hydrated!” So we listened to that the way we responded on that drive. But Coach Jeff Raines, anything else to add here about fueling and hydrating at elevation?

Jeff: Yeah, there's a couple little “rules” on how much to drink. Like I know I need more water, I need more electrolytes, but how much? What do I do and how do I do it? A couple quick things – like Jason said, your body loses more body water through that increased respiration, and actually urination as well, you mentioned that, Andrew. But until you're fully acclimated, you should increase your daily fluid intake by about 1 to 1½ liters per day. So you kind of know what you have on a normal day at home to maintain metabolic equilibrium and functioning. Until you're fully acclimated, 1 to 1½ liters per day is how you should increase your fluids. But it shouldn't just be straight water. Too much straight water can actually boat you. So the same ratio – that delta of the increase of the fluid intake – should include the same ratio over the electrolyte replacement as well. Our bodies also use carbohydrates as the main and preferred energy source at high altitude. So when racing, you might up your carb intake per hour by about 10% or so out there on race day. But I'd say at high altitude you want to avoid eating things that disrupt digestion, because remember your digestion is kind of put on hold at first. So fatty foods, food high in excess salt and sugar, too much caffeine, and especially alcohol, you're going to want to kind of take note of those for at least those first three to five days. Just be cognizant of what you're eating, and what that main macro is in that meal.

Andrew: So I imagine there are athletes out there who are listening to this episode who have races coming up, where the elevation of the race is much higher than where they live and train. Boulder 70.3 that we talked about earlier is a prime example of this. For anybody listen to this episode who's racing Boulder, or maybe there's an athlete that has a race coming up where there will be wild changes in elevation throughout the race – a lot of those ultra trail races, you start one elevation and you go up and down and up and down and up and down throughout the course of the race – how can we prepare for these kinds of circumstances based on whatever elevation we currently live at? Jeff, we’ll let you respond to this, and Coach Verbie you can shut down our main set today after that.

Jeff: Cool. Yeah, I'll throw out something kind of unique first of all, which is the “1K rule”. You're supposed to sleep only about 1K higher each night at high altitude than the night before, anything above about 8,000 feet. So let's say you hike up to 8,000 feet, you sleep there your first night. You can hike up to 12,000, 14,000 feet the next day. But before you go to bed that first night, you're supposed to sleep at about 9K, if 8K was the night before. Think of it as like climbing Mount Everest, we've all heard of the base camp, right? They’ll hike up –

Andrew: Camp 1, Camp 2, Camp 3, Camp 4. Yeah, it's a whole system.

Jeff: Exactly, that's what they're doing. They're acclimating from low, to high, to super-high altitude. Again, it's that “sleep high, train low”. But you don't want to climb too high and then sleep there that night. That 1K rule is kind of neat. But anyways, as the race fluctuates – so maybe you sleep at 5K, but your race goes up to 8K or 10K – it’s okay to do that in a day in a race, you're just going to want to take note of your respiratory rate. A lot of times people think their heart rate is actually a lot higher than it is, they might be hyperventilating a little bit. But sometimes your heart rate might be riding a lot lower than what you actually think it is, so that rate of perceived exertion, you're just going to want to watch the heart rate, and how it responds that first day or two. Then you're going to want to adjust mid-race, “Okay, I feel like I'm in Zone 4,” but you look down, your respiratory rate is a little high, but your heart rate might be one zone lower than you think, so maybe you can push a little harder. You’re just going to have to play that game a little bit as the race goes on.

Andrew: Yeah, and speaking to that rule, if you are an athlete and you're flying into Boulder for Boulder 70.3 and you have three nights in a hotel before the race – obviously, at that point you can't necessarily adopt the 1K rule like you could in different circumstance, but you can adopt what Jeff was just talking about there, with just having that knowledge. On race day, keep an extra eye on your heart rate, and be a little more mindful of how you're breathing at whatever RP you're currently at. Because there might be a disconnect between the two of what you're used to. Really good, tangible take-away there for all of our athletes. Coach Verbie, what do you have to add here about elevation changes for race day?

Jason: Yeah, your biggest thing is, if you're going to be doing this stuff at home – Jeff mentioned many things. I personally have an altitude tent also, of course. Don’t just think, because you have an altitude tent, “Oh, I can jump up to 8,000 feet cause I'm already sleeping in it.” I love the whole theory of “sleep high, train low”. Obviously you have to do that if you're at home using a tent. But don't be like, “Well, I'm spending most of my day at sea level, I'm going to start on at 10,000 feet the first night sleeping.” For me personally, I start at like 5,000 feet, and I go up every night by 500. I'm even more cautious than Jeff’s 1K rule, because the sleep's interrupted, I'm waking up very dehydrated. All the symptoms we talked about happen, because I'm spending eight hours in that tent during the night. You're tossing and turning, you're not used to it, the sleep isn't good for a while. It takes me a few weeks before I'm sleeping good in there. So I'll slowly increase, and a lot of times I'll even stay at an altitude for a certain time just because I'm still not getting a good night’s sleep. So I want to stay there before I stress my body more by adding more feet of elevation that I'm sleeping at. Again, the training masks are a good thing. There's even breathing techniques. I'm not telling everybody to go try and do this, but there's breathing techniques. For example swimming, instead of taking a breath every stroke, try to go every two strokes. Then bump it to every three strokes every four. That little bit more is making your body put the stress on your system like you're at altitude. It's giving you that hypoxic feeling, and keeping more carbon dioxide in your body. You could even be out for a walk, a Zone 2 run, and you see a light pole – well, hold your breath. I’m telling you to be cautious with it –

Andrew: Yeah, yeah, don't get yourself in trouble! Don't be driving down the road doing this!

Jeff: Disclaimer!

Jason: Yeah, disclaimer. Don't be doing it driving. Don’t say, “Well, I'm going to set a record and hold my breath for three minutes,” and you're passing out on the side of the road. But these are all ways to put your body into that feeling of getting hypoxic. One good thing too is getting an oxygen sensor to see where your body is at, especially if you're going to have an altitude tent. Using the training mask, you can measure how much oxygen is in your body, and you definitely don't want to see it below 80%. Most of the time you put it in, you're at 95% or 98%. Getting that sensor is another key tool to help you track everything. As Coach Jeff was saying, watch your heart rate monitor, write it down, see where you're sitting at. Definitely use all that stuff to your advantage, taking good notes, and seeing how your body is responding to it.

Andrew: Yeah, and don't go to the 19th Hole bar like Coach Verbie and have a lot of adult beverages the night before your race.

Jason: Exactly. No, do not do that.

Cool down theme: Great set everyone! Let’s cool down.

Vanessa Ronksley: Hello there everyone! I'm Vanessa, your Average Triathlete with Elite-Level Enthusiasm, and I am pumped to bring you the Coach Cooldown Tip. With me today is Julie McPhilomy. She began coaching with TriDot in 2022, and she is excited to help people reach their goals and cross those finish lines. Julie is a well-seasoned athlete herself. She has run countless half-marathons, 12 marathons, she is a three-time 70.3 finisher and a two-time full-distance finisher, and she is no stranger to the TriDot platform, as she has been using it since 2016. On the coaching side of things, Julie specializes in coaching athletes who are new to the sport, those ready to cross their first short-course finish line, and intermediate long-course athletes as well. She has a soft spot for the 40-plus female crowd, because this is when she actually started doing triathlon herself. Julie's line of work as a flight attendant comes along with a very non-traditional schedule, and part of her knowledge base is working with athletes who have complicated work hours, but still want to fit all the training in. A fun fact about Julie is that she used to be a tennis player, and finally got to attend Wimbledon in ‘22, which has been on her bucket list forever. Welcome to the show, Julie, and tell us about your adventure at Wimbledon!

Julie McPhilomy: Thanks, Vanessa! I got to go to Wimbledon, it was the best experience! I had a layover in London, and I was working with one of my best friends, and we decided to both go, and then a couple of the people in the crew were like, “Hey, can we come too?” So there was a big group of us. We got to sit on the lawn, we brought food and drinks, and just hung out all day. And it was the beginning of it, so all the seeds were still there, and all the matches were going on. So we walked around and got to see a ton of different people play, and it just was a perfect day. No rain, nothing that happens in London usually. I was just so excited to see them play on a grass court, which I have never seen before. It's pretty rare here in the States to see. All in all it was just such a cool experience. I am so thankful that my job allowed me to do it.

Vanessa: I'm so happy that you got to do something that you've been wanting to do since probably you were a small kid.

Julie: Yeah, I was very young, and I used to like it.

Vanessa: That’s great! I'm really excited to hear what tip you have for us today!

Julie: My tip today is “don't sweat the schedule”. I am no stranger to having a different and unconventional schedule, and that was one of the reasons I went with TriDot in the first place, was the flexibility of being able to move things around. Back in my marathon days, in my first one, I took the schedule and I followed it to a T. And that was simply for fear of failure. I mean, if it told me to do a certain run on a certain day, there was no way I was skipping it. I would never move it to a different day. And TriDot gives the flexibility to move things around. There's plenty of things that you have to do, like prioritize your sleep, your nutrition, all those different things, and if you have a non-traditional schedule like myself, some of those have to be put on the forefront before the actual workout itself. You might have to take a nap, you may have to eat something before, and plan all those little things out. One other thing that is good, if you have a coach with TriDot, they can go into your schedule and dial it back. So if you have a specific workout for the day – there's levels 1 through 10, and let’s say it was supposed to be at a Level 8 – you can say, “Hey, I'm pretty tired today,” or, “I've had XYZ things going on.” They can dial it back, and it'll just dial back the intensity of that workout. You'll still get some benefits from it, but it won't put you to be too tired, or overwork you, or potentially injure you. That's a great thing that the coach or the mentor side of TriDot allows. So don't sweat that schedule. You can make these things fit in, and adjust to what you have going on in your life. There's a lot of flexibility.

Vanessa: I think that most triathletes need to hear this message over and over again. I know that I certainly do. Because we often feel that the only way forward is to do exactly what's prescribed to us. I know that for myself, I've really benefited from the coaching aspect of TriDot in having someone be able to say to me, “You've had a tough week,” or “You're working through a niggle. Let's just dial back your training session for that day.” Prior to having a coach, I would have gone and done that workout as it was laid out, just because I wanted to make sure that I was doing everything exactly as it was prescribed. Because like yourself, I was afraid of failing and not reaching all of the goals that I wanted. When in reality, it would have been better for me to take a rest day. So I think that what you're saying in not sweating the schedule is, it's okay to listen to your body, and to miss or move a session around, because we all have lives to live. We have things to do, and we have family opportunities and engagements that we want to participate in, and that's what's most important. So I really appreciate you sharing this tip with us today about the schedule and being flexible. I think that is really, really valuable.

Julie: Thank you, I appreciate that! And just remember, TriDot will adjust to you. So if you move that schedule and it's a little too close to another one, it will adjust again. Your long bike or run on the weekend may be adjusted because you did something too close to it. It almost knows you better than you know yourself, and that's really helpful in the long run.

Outro: Thanks for joining us. Make sure to subscribe and share the TriDot podcast with your triathlon crew. For more great tri content and community, connect with us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Ready to optimize your training? Head to tridot.com and start your free trial today! TriDot – the obvious and automatic choice for triathlon training.

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