MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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I was above 3500m for 3 days over the weekend - in Switzerland - up around the Jungfrau/Monch etc.
I've a 10k run on Saturday in London which I entered partly in the hope of a residual effect of being at altitude giving me an advantage.
We came back down on Monday afternoon and I've obviously re-acclimatised to sea level but based on your experience of being at altitude, is there likely to be much of an effect on Saturday or is it too long since I came down?
IME, no more than a week, and that's after more than a couple of days at altitude.
As I understand it, you weren't at altitude long enough for any significant gain, sorry... if you'd been there for weeks or months, there would be an increase in red blood cells and that reverses gradually, but I'd be really surprised if it would make any significant difference to your sea level performance, even if you'd come straight down from 3,500m and run the next day. In my experience, you want to be high for a couple of weeks for any proper acclimatisation.
For longer trips, it's a gradual tail-off. I did an Andes/Himalaya double trip a while back with around three weeks in between and I definitely retained some acclimatisation.
That's just my experience though and this being STW, I reserve the right to be completely wrong...
I always thought (post Lance) that 'training at altitude' was just a euphemism for visiting a dodgy Dr who may be of Italian or Spanish nationality 😆
After 10 days at altitude (Skiing in Colorado), I found that the benefit lasted a week, maybe two.
3 days won't be enough for any significant benefit, unfortunately.
Reading something about the Brownlees training, they said that altitude training was misunderstood. What you have to do is come down and then train really hard for a couple of weeks, and it is the hard training that gives most benefits come race day, rather than the extra red blood cells from an individual altitude session.
I rode in the Mendips on Sunday and I got a KOM on my commute to work today. Co-incidence? I think not!
So by my reckoning, 3 days.
3 days 😆
You could try staying upstairs as much as possible to boost the effect, or get some high heels...
What MSP says makes sense - use the extra oxygen in your blood for harder training = greater long term fitness.
I spent 3 weeks at 4000 - 5250m (cycling), felt like a god for 3 days at 3000m, got home, rested a week, back to normal 🙄
In freefall, the benefit of altitude seems to wear off really quickly...