Training in Colorado Springs

I got up here a few days ago. The last place I did altitude training was YEARS ago in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Albuquerque has a pretty mild winter in comparison to most places over 5,000 feet in elevation. Since the city sits at the base of a mountain, you can easily get up there and do higher altitude runs. But it was a real pill driving around everywhere to get to trails or the track.

Since I’m over my illness, I decided to do something different this year. I know altitude helps me quite a bit. It’s noticeable even in the 800m (1-2 seconds improvement is usually noted). I will be racing the 1500m and 800m and perhaps even the 400m. I decided to go high this year so I can race the 1500m with comfort. I’m no distance runner, but I could race the 5000m if I wanted too.

I had a classmate from West Point who is stationed in Colorado Springs, so I decided to give it a try. Colorado Springs is 6,400 feet, with plenty of trails, nice tracks and it’s really easy to go higher just about anywhere to run at a higher altitude.  Not to mention the Olympic Training Center is here also.  Co Springs is where cowboys, soldiers and athletes merge. Even Fort Carson has loads of dirt trails to run on around the base (so it’s athlete-friendly).

I never run on pavement and I do a good 80% of my miles barefoot (when it’s permitable).  And I’ve never had any kind of injury because of this. So having natural trails is important.

It took me two days to drive from South Carolina here.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but I did drive all day everyday. I passed my Metropolis..home of Superman, but it looked more like a corn field.

I’ve never driven through Missouri, Kansas or Colorado until now.

After I drove into Colorado Springs that night down route 94 (which is super scary at night…no people, no cars, no signs, no cell phone signal and no cows..just a few deer I almost hit and some other fury thing running across the road I had to swerve to miss), I woke up and did The Incline (google it) with Kerrie (my friend from West Point).

The Incline is this mile that goes straight up (60% grade) from around 7,400 feet to 9,400 feet. It’s steep and impossible to run in parts.  I figured that I would shock myself into dealing with the elevation. Although it sounds stupid it worked.

The Incline was bad, but only because of the altitude change (personally coming from South Carolina (zero elevation to 6,400 and racing up to 9,400 feet was brutal). I did pass people who actually had fluid in their lungs!

After 33 minutes I was done. I think the record is 21 minutes for a woman and something close to that for the men.

I didn’t feel so bad at all and thought the end of the trail were these rocks much further up. Oops

I took a days rest before I ran today and I ran a very fast 55 minutes.  It’s still pretty amazing that I could acclimate so quickly, but I’m thinking that doing The Incline was a good, quick way to introduce myself. The introduction has been a success because I shouldn’t of been able to run so fast today and with such ease. I will rest again (one day on, one day off, this first week). This is very different than the previous training I did at altitude where I was running everyday (usually twice a day). My entire training is going to be FULL OF REST this year.

I know my only real obstacle is my health and making sure that is my priority. I could probably train a month or so and be the top dog just by staying healthy. Right now everything is looking really good. I’m thrilled.

…seriously, I can’t believe how fast I ran today.