Oxygen would be Nice!

Haven't written in quite a while - -life just go too busy (mostly work) and something had to go.  I am now embarking on a new experiment and want to share it.
There is a new facility in Portland:  Evolution Healthcare and Fitness.  They have combined a fitness facility and several healthcare providers that are all definitely fitness minded.  One of the owners is Brad Farra, who we have been friends with for many years--basically back to when he started his chiropractic practice.  One of the interesting things that they have at this facility is an altitude training room.  They have a bunch of cardio equipment in it -- but you could also bring your own bike.  A couple weeks ago Eric approached me about possibly becoming one of their sponsored athletes.  I was very intrigued by the  science behind the whole altitude training concept and I also am completely in line with their overall philosophy for training and healthcare, so its a natural fit.

So--now I start the experiment of applying the research to a sample size of n=1 (me) and seeing what incorporating regular altitude training into my schedule will do for my overall performance.  I am going to share this journey so that all of you can determine if this could be of benefit in your training. 

So today was day 1.  I walked into the facility this morning to be greeting with this:

So--now I start the experiment of applying the research to a sample size of n=1 (me) and seeing what incorporating regular altitude training into my schedule will do for my overall performance.  I am going to share this journey so that all of you can determine if this could be of benefit in your training. 

So today was day 1.  I walked into the facility this morning to be greeting with the room set at 14,700 ft.  I started to wonder if starting out your first day of altitude training at almost 15,000 ft was optimal or not - -but ready to see what happens.  When you get there they give you an oximeter that monitors your oxygen saturation.  If you are at sea level it will read very close to 100.  As you go up in altitude it will drop.  For training you want to monitor your oxygen and not let it get below 75  (gee—they don’t want us fainting).  So now there is one more dimension that you need to monitor during your workout.

So what did I experience today? - -well, I am totally not acclimated to altitude. The best I could manage was walking 3 mph on the treadmill - -and after 30 minutes of that my oximeter dropped below 75 and even slowing down more didn’t get a response very fast.  You can definitely feel the effect—you head feels kind of funny and I can see where they talk about mountain climbers having trouble thinking clearly when they are oxygen deprived.  I got off the treadmill and went over and spent some time doing stretching, yoga and core work—my oxygen numbers recovered to about 85.

It was interesting – I did a bunch of push-ups and assumed that when I stopped by number would be really low—but it wasn’t - -that was probably the hardest I worked all day.  So for now—when I go over there, I am not going to really count the time spent in there as a ‘workout’—at least until I can actually break a sweat.  Most of the days through the week they have the room set at a lower altitude so it will be interesting to see what the difference is when I am way down at 9000ft!  Until then I am going to keep some notes on each session so that I can see how things are progressing.  #weare evolution  #zerolimits #gfhfbn