Altitude can have many effects on athletes’ bodies. It can take time for our bodies to adjust and acclimate to high-altitude areas for many reasons. Understanding how to prepare ourselves best is essential to ensure we still perform to our best in these conditions. VIS Mentor and Professional Runner, Aaliyah Miller, shares her experience and how she manages exposure to high altitudes, while VIS Expert Stacy Sims shares some tips on best adjusting in these situations.
An Athlete’s Experiences at Altitude
Miller was approached by On Running’s Athlete Manager about joining Team Boss, a pro running group based out of Boulder, Colorado. “I always heard about people talking about altitude, but I never really knew what it meant,” Miller says. “I always saw that people go out to do camps so I was like, OK, we are gonna be like full send it.”
Within hours of arriving in Boulder, she began to realize what she had gotten herself into: 5,000 feet above sea level was no joke. Carrying a box of her belongings up a few flights of stairs left her winded. It was definitely a precursor of things to come. “Even when I started training, it took a little more of an adjustment just to start getting back into running,” she says. “My heart rate was spiking. It was so much work to even just run at an easy pace.”
Her teammates told her it would take her a year to get fully acclimated to living and training at altitude. Yet with traveling around the country, she felt like she never fully adjusted. “I didn’t realize how tired I was until I was at sea level,” Miller says. “My body just wasn’t used to living at altitude, let alone training at altitude. I didn’t realize what a toll it was taking on my body.”
Miller’s Challenges Adapting to Altitude Living
For a while, Miller continued pushing her body through the fatigue in hopes that her teammates were right and she would eventually emerge stronger than before. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. When things felt difficult, it was so easy to jump to “Oh it’s just the altitude making me feel like that.” In reality, there were several other factors that led to her fatigue. After backtracking to determine what was going wrong, and several blood tests later, Miller realized she was low on iron and vitamin D - two important nutrients that are especially vital when living and training at altitude.
“I was running on E,” she says. “Now I am focused on making sure I’m fueling right and doing everything in my power to make my body 100% because I have to fuel my tank to the best of my ability if I want to perform better and train at a high level.”
Now in her second year living at altitude, Miller feels in a much better place with her health and training. She is now training consistently and has already noticed the difference she feels when running at sea level. “It’s little, but running at the same pace at sea level feels more comfortable than running at altitude,” Miller says.
Living at altitude is an adjustment, but after weathering the storm of her first year, Miller sees the truth of what her manager told her before her move. “It will be different and it will be beneficial in the end, but you just have to do a little more now to make sure you see the benefits,” Miller said.
“I was running on E. Now I am focused on making sure I’m fueling right and doing everything in my power to make my body 100%”
Expert Advice for Living at Altitude
VIS expert Stacy Sims SIMS, MSC, PHD breaks down altitude training and how women athletes raise performance at high levels of air resistance, according to her own blog Dr.StacySims. “Oxygen levels are lower at high altitudes, so your cardiorespiratory system has to work harder to deliver oxygen to your working muscles than it does at sea level.” says Sims.
Sims also reveals that our menstrual and hormonal status can also have an affect on our body’s response to altitude. “Research shows that premenopausal women who aren’t on hormonal contraception have a higher hypoxic ventilatory response at exercise (HVRe), which is the ability to increase breathing to help meet your oxygen needs during their early luteal/mid-luteal phase than in the early follicular phase,” Sims said.
How to Adjust to These Conditions
“Ideally, get out there early—like really early. Fourteen to 21 days is ideal,” Sims said. “If you’re in a position where you have to hit the ground running at high altitudes, you’re at risk for developing altitude sickness, which can happen when you exercise at high altitudes when you’re not adapted. Mild forms cause headache, fatigue, and lack of appetite.” Sims says.
Sims also suggests some quick altitude performance strategies:
Stay hydrated. “Increasing your fluid intake by about a liter a day will help you stay hydrated as you acclimate and help increase that ever-so-important plasma volume. Avoid plain water; you need some salt in your fluid! Instead sip on a functional hydration beverage (~7g sugar with 190 mg sodium per 8oz) and increase your intake of watery foods.”
Eat more carbs. “When at altitude, the body uses less exogenous carbohydrates (carbs you eat!) as a fuel during exercise, and relies more on liver glycogen; regardless of menstrual cycle phase. The additional carbon dioxide that carbs produce kicks up your breathing response and notch and helps prevent altitude sickness.”
Open your vessels. “Some athletes say they have success with using beetroot juice before events at altitude, which can help blood vessels relax and widen.”
Avoid alcohol “Alcohol is a dehydrating diuretic, and it depresses the normal breathing response to high altitude. Overall, alcohol increases the risk of altitude sickness and can exacerbate symptoms.”
It takes time to adjust to the altitude, so we should remember to give ourselves some grace in this transition. By learning from Miller’s experience and Sim’s advice, we can be our best selves at high altitude.
