|   When does elevation start to affect the body??? | sea level rider.
Sep 19, 2003 8:42 AM | | I live at sea level. 99% of my rides are between sea level and 2000 feet.
Generally speaking...when does elevation start to affect the body??
At what elevation do you start to feel the affect of lower oxygen levels.
thanks. |
| my experience from last weekend... | World B. Free
Sep 19, 2003 8:49 AM | | Went to Downieville last weekend, usually ride at same els you do.
The climbing section there is around 4500 feet. I definitely noticed the thinner air, but it wasnt really debilitating. But, I also enjoy copius amounts of "ride analgesic" which probably effects my oxygen transfer.
So, if youre anything like me, Id say it starts making a difference around 3500 feet, but really starts hammering you around 5-6K.. |
| depends | cw
Sep 19, 2003 9:44 AM | | As part of my job I've done "high altitude training" in one of those altitude simulators (the reason for the quotation marks is that it isn't training, it's silliness). Anyway, at what altitude the symptoms of hypoxia begin to show, and what those symptoms are, very from person to person.
That said, if you're young (or youngish) and in reasonable shape, and don't smoke, you really shouldn't experience much (if any) symptoms below 5000 feet pressure altitude. From 5 to 8 thousand, common symptoms are fatigue, lightheadedness, headache, tingling fingertips or toes, reduction of visual acuity (especially in darkness, or the transition from light to dark). Between 8 and 10 thousand you should be very careful about over exertion, and stop any activity if you feel any breathlessness, dizziness, or drowsiness. Another common symptom is euphoria, or impared judgement - obviously, you should try not to let it get this far. And unless you're a sherpa, don't exert yourself at all at altitudes of 10 thousand and above.
It is possible to acclimatize yourself to high altitudes, though.
If you smoke (even the occasional herb), you can knock at least 2000 feet off of those numbers (maybe even as much as 5000 if you're a pack a day man). |
| Mountain bike for sale | Bmateo
Sep 19, 2003 9:53 AM | | "If you smoke (even the occasional herb), you can knock at least 2000 feet off of those numbers"
Sorry folks, looks like I'm gonna have to take up Scuba, or live with constant fatigue. I should be good for negative 2000ft up to sea level...
Seriously, I'd agree with the above poster. Never had a problem with altitude on east coast (below 5k), but felt kinda nauseous and got a hedache in CO at 9500+.
Take off 8000ft for the more than occasional (4x) herb, and I'm moving to the coast baby.... :-) |
| LOL | cw
Sep 19, 2003 10:15 AM | | So that's why 4:20 comes several times a day out here!
Yeah, the problem with smoking (anything) is that carbon monoxide is something like 20 times more "attractive" to your hemoglobin than oxygen, so when you've got CO in your blood from smoking, it doesn't want to take up the oxygen in your lungs.
Kinda makes you think twice about living in the city too. |
| A bigger influence is ... | TruckeeLocal
Sep 19, 2003 9:57 AM | | I don't think a fairly fit cyclist is negatively impacted by altitude (upto 10,000' say). I think that as you get to higher altitudes you get to bigger mountains, and steeper mountain, and different trail conditions. We're very good at blaming our performance on external conditions or silly stuff we did the night before like eating a steak rather than pasta. But the biggest thing with altitude is the effect of alcohol to those unused to it. Hence you can ride just fine on a Saturday, party that night, and are a gibbering idiot next morning. Us locals drink heavily on Fridays, rather than driving up, so we can even the playing field ! Thinking about it, today is Friday. The ski resorts have noticed this behaviour 'cause Sundays are so quiet on the slopes and some even recognize Sundays as 'mid-week'. |
| yep.. | cw
Sep 19, 2003 10:09 AM | | My post was with regard to the "average" or "norm". If you're a fit cyclist, up to 10k might be fine. I never notice anything below 8 for sure, but I'm also used to it (as I suspect you are).
As for alcohol, even at sea level it causes its own form of oxygen deprevation called "Histotoxic Hypoxia", so you're right about that (man, do I know you're right about that!) |
| Depends were you come from... | Chann
Sep 19, 2003 11:11 AM | | Dude I live at 9300 feet above sea level. 10K means absolutely nothing for me. I ride regulary at 15K without problems, but if you go over 16.5K you can start feeling the lack of air. |
| Like I said... | cw
Sep 19, 2003 11:19 AM | | acclimatization |
| Depends were you come from... | gixxer750
Sep 19, 2003 12:46 PM | | Chann,
Where are you from? Surely not the United States? Where does one ride at over 15,000'? |
| re: For you, it will be noticable by 5K feet or less | Walt Dizzy
Sep 19, 2003 1:06 PM | | Probably. Doesn't mean you are going to fall over and start gasping like a fish out of water, but you asked when elevation would "start to affect the body?" It depends on what you are doing. I use a lot of air when I bike.
Like you, I live at low elevation, about 900 ft here in southern Wisconsin. I've been a runner since high school. Dad paid for me to go out to altitude training camp one summer. I was in pretty good condition, and did not smoke anything. I noticed that I was sucking a lot more air in Denver (at about 5000 ft). Training camp was about 7500 ft. and I really noticed it just walking across the parking lot the first day. By the end of the week, I had adjusted significantly. At least I could get across that parking lot without stopping to catch my breath :^)
Walt |
| My Two Cents | Fisherrocks
Sep 19, 2003 7:59 PM | | Im an east coaster, and all of my riding is under 2500 feet, I did go out the the Wind River Range climbing this summer, and base camp at 10000 feet was a challenge in itself. When I would summit around 12.5 K, it was amazing how hard just a simple movement is, but when I came back, riding was so much easier just due to my accimization.
Peace
JOhn
p.s. the highest point in conti US is 14.6 K. |
| If I remember correctly | iceaxe
Sep 20, 2003 9:10 PM | | It varies with latitude. At the equator, the conc. of 02 is halved at 9,500 ft. I think, in mainland US it's around 5,500 ft. But, your body is still capable of maintaing 98% and greater 02 saturation in the blood at those levels. You will notice dramatic decreases in performance when blood 02 sat falls below 95%- this can occur as low as 6,000 ft, (US). I live in MI, I also do almost all of my riding at or around sea level. I start to notice performance decreases around 7,000 ft. Everyone's different, drink tons of water before you and stay away from caffeine and alcohol for the first couple of days. |
| re: When does elevation start to affect the body??? | rokklym
Sep 21, 2003 8:27 AM | | O.K., I'm no pro at telling you how elevation will affect you but here is what I've noticed from my past experiences. I live in Wisconsin, which has elevations from 600 to 1300 ft above sea level. I've never done any biking at altitude, but I have done hiking and rock climbing. At the local climbing areas we have hills to hike up that are between 250 to 500 feet gain and they totally kill me in the cardio sense, and thats with a 30 to 50 pound backpack.
I've been to colorado, wyoming and south dakota and tested the air there. I've drove straight from wisconsin to south dakota and ran up a trail in the needles ( about 6000 ft ) and thought I was going to tip over dead, but that was with no aclimization. this last july we drove from here to the wind river mountains in Wyoming and climbed at Wild Iris which is at 9000 feet. We noticed very little in the way of altitude affecting us. We did run out of gas a little earlier, but it was pretty much the same as around here, and I am not in good shape. the highest I've been is 12,500 in Colorado and you do notice that, but I think you'd be fine there after a few days to get used to it. The main thing is that you have to drink LOTS of water..much more than normal, and I'm not kidding. I also heard that regular aspirin helps too. |
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