|   Altitude | El Matador
Mar 9, 2002 12:39 PM | | Living at 80 ft altitude; at what altitude should I be noticing a difference?
Reason is that my rides have typically been starting at ~ 400 ft and climb no higher than 2800 ft. I have been doing well at these heights except that today I started at 2000 ft and got winded VERY FAST by the 3000 ft mark! I had to take a couple of breaks when typically I don't on equal climbs.
Is it me or should it have affected me?
El Matador |
| re: Altitude | Laura
Mar 9, 2002 6:45 PM | | Although some people are more affected by altitude than others, it may have just been a bad day for you today. If you're normally ok at 2800', I can't see the extra 200' of going to 3000' making that much of a difference.
I live at 200' and rode in Sedona (4500'), & was affected, but I attribute that much more to it being March and I'd been off my bike since Nov. (live in Mich.). We'd had a bad winter. This year I've been riding year 'round.
Now when I went to Beaver Creek, Colorado (base=8200' summit-11,200') I noticed a BIG difference in how I felt. The highest I've ever been was 14,500 at the top of Pike's Peak, Colorado. I puked..not fun. :-) |
| re: Altitude | swany
Mar 11, 2002 7:42 AM | | I agree. This was probably just a bad day.
I live at 4000 ft and ride/race between 3000 and 9000 ft. For me, I definitely notice the lack of oxygen at elevation, but once I scale back my expectations on how fast I can go, rides usually go OK. Since I don't lose any places in races by easing back to my lung capacity, I guess this is normal.
The problem with altitude is sleeping there. On the second or third day, I'm definitely weaker. So for high races, I try to sleep low. Of course, sometimes camping out at elevation is too nice to pass up. At that point, you have to conceed race results for quality of life. |
| Me, too... | Bogus
Mar 10, 2002 9:37 AM | | I live at 50-60 ft and don't really notice the altitude until 3000 ft or so and it's pretty mild at that level (only when I'm hammering). It gets bad for me over about 6000.
When feeling bad on a 2-3000 ft ride (for me) I might just chalk it up to a bad day, but everyone is different when it comes to altitude. |
| I used to live in Colorado | daveIT
Mar 13, 2002 12:14 AM | | I used to ride at altitude from 6,000-12,000 feet almost everyday and up to 14,000+ often. I got in great shape riding there for 3.5 years. Coming here to Italy is funny...there's mountains but the are no where close to what Colorado was...I'm fast over here. Big thing is acclimation...read some books on people climbing Everest! |
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