Altitude thoughts

Park city version

You might have picked up on my recent eureka moment of maturity if you read my last blog. To build upon my recent maturity and to give a little background to this camp's mindset, a few of us aren’t necessarily altitude lovers. Speaking for myself here - although I did grow up in Colorado, I would much rather train at sea level. However, we recognize the physiological benefits of an altitude block and that we often race at altitude.

This year I’ve put a lot of thought into why my body doesn’t particularly respond to the altitude as well as I would like it to. Alyana, Lina, and I all feel similarly hesitant about altitude, and we listened to the Is there a Benefit to Altitude Training Training on Fast Talk Laboratories. After listening to this podcast, we know that the science behind altitude training is very complicated. The podcast notes that there is an ideal amount of time spent (no less than two weeks but ideally 3+), a minimum altitude of 6,000ft, if possible, sleep high and train lower, and to ensure ferritin levels of the athlete are 50+. Finally, the first few days are extremely easy. There is much more to the podcast; it’s worth a listen! 

The major takeaways from listening to this podcast include: working on my ferritin, intentionally training significantly slower than my sea-level pace, and taking the first few days at altitude, extremely chill! I feel we’ve done a good job not getting caught up in going too fast and doing too much, especially with the hustle and bustle of camp. Fall camp is always such a fun time because it’s often the first time seeing everyone since the end of the season or Bend camp. But that can induce a ~ competitive ~ environment. Thankfully, the work on maturing, normalizing the self-drop, and listening to my body was all in my back pocket.  As I did get my cake and eat it too; it has been so fun to catch up with skiers from all over the country - keeping the easy workouts at a conversational pace :)

The weather here in Park City has been impeccable; the mornings are a brisk 42 degrees, but the sun's warmth allows for layers to be quickly shedded. The aspen leaves are absolutely firing right now, so buckle up for lots of foliage pictures. We started the camp with a true Park City classic - a town loop. We’ve gone to Soldier Hollow twice so far, once for a classic speed workout and another for the 5km pace project. The 5km project day was fun because we did it two times classic, and then we switched to skate gear for the last two. The 5km pace project is often a workout where I’ve felt the effects of not training quite as smart at altitude, especially because it is easy not to be conservative enough in level three. I went into the workout with a conservative plan, and I can definitely say it was hard, but I did a good job executing my plan to start conservatively. It’s incredible how much better the workout feels when you actually stay in level three when you are supposed to.

Besides the roller-skiing, we’ve taken advantage of Park City's wonderful trails. I flew my mountain bike out here, so I’ve ridden a bunch on the trails here at Park City Mountain Resort. The riding has been a great way to explore the area! We rode from the base of PCMR to the Crest trail and down to Kimball junction, which was absolutely worth the two hours of climbing. The trails are a bit blown out with the dirt bumps, but the views and leaves are incredible. I’ve also loved having my bike out here so much because it’s allowed me to ride with a bunch of my friends who live in Park City, like Foreste Peterson, my former alpine teammate at Dartmouth, and a handful of other non-nordies. The past two years at Park City camp, Covid has still been a bit more restricting for social activities, and this year I was able to socialize more within those bike rides and attending my other Dartmouth friend, Alice Merryweather’s, birthday party. This honestly small amount of socialization was so fulfilling after a few years of not seeing some of these friends! This Park City camp, so far, has checked all the boxes for me :)