Training at altitude

Adelante

According to Graham Souness England have got this totally wrong and are now paying for it on the pitch. What are the facts about training at altitude and how long do you need to climatise.

Is it a case of you training as normal at sea level and venture to altitude to play for 90 /120 mins and come back to sea level or is that just as bad. Just curious, I mean how does a cyclist in the Tour de France cope with altitude say on the likes of Aple D'Heuz or similiar a mountain climb
Thanks in advance


If this is the wrong forum mods please feel free to move thanks, ps this is about training preparation and not world cup/ england / et al

amacachi

I think we'd need someone working in a chinese chemical laboratory to explain how Tour de France cyclists manage it.

Adelante

Yeah something about "turtle soup" or something comes to mind when you mention that

backspacer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altitude_training

Its an interesting article on Altitude Training, might answer a few questions.

Barry.Oglesby

Adelante wrote: »

Just curious, I mean how does a cyclist in the Tour de France cope with altitude say on the likes of Aple D'Heuz or similiar a mountain climb

Presumably they go to Floyd Landis for some advice.

flywheel

I have trained at altitude depending on my routine using an hypoxia chamber (CAT Exercise Room)...

Here is an interesting article by Edmund R. Burke (he focuses more on the 'Live High, Train Low' approach):
A Practical Approach to Altitude Training


Exercise Physiology: Energy, Nutrition & Human Performance also has a good chapter about Altiude Training in Section 5: Exercise Performance and Environmental Stress

taz70

The basics of altitude training are the following:

• At altitude, the air is thinner - less oxygen. This means that your body has to work harder to transport oxygen around the body to working muscles.
  
• The longer you spend at altitude, the more red blood cells are produced, which means your body's capacity to transport oxygen to the working muscles is enhanced.
  
• When you return to sea level, your body benefits from having the additional red blood cells, which means your body is super efficient at transporting oxygen.

Training at sea level and playing at altitude has the whole system arse about face - if this is what England is doing, then they are have been badly misadvised.

I spent time climbing in the Himalayas - the difference in aerobic capacity after being at altitude is notable. On the way up, by around 3000m, my body felt completely lethargic and it was a real effort to get from A to B. A week later after having climbed to 5500m and back down to 3000m, I was like a mountain goat running all over the place with no problem. The effect for me lasted around a month. I felt completely energised back at sea level.

(Some) Tour de France cyclists typically have sought the same benefits by increasing red blood cell production by taking EPO (banned) or using altitude chambers (on WADA's hit list). Back in the 70s and 80s, blood doping created the same effect (a legitimate training procedure referred to in textbooks until it was banned).