Training at altitude/racing at sea level

From my man Bryan Scott in Facebook group. I thought this would be a great discussion and possible podcast topic for the fellas. They’ve looked at racing high but I don’t remember them looking at racing low. I think there can be some negative effects if you come down from altitude too close to race date as well (?) I’m also intrigued about training in heat and racing in cooler conditions. Amy percentages we can plan on for a bump? These are our questions. :)TL;DR how do I adjust power targets at decreasing altitude?

Been catching up on a few months of podcasts lately. Lots of talk about performance vs. altitude. But mostly going up in altitude (Leadville, Hawaii, etc). It all makes sense, but I happen to live at 8000’, do trainer rides (inc. FTP tests) at 8000’, most outdoor rides at 5000’, with some IM triathlon races near sea level. How should I adjust race day or even outdoor training power targets for altitude? I don’t think I can simply reverse Basset et. al. or Peronnet et. al. correlations for decreasing elevation, especially given that muscle endurance is a limiter for me (at least at lower elevations). Friel contemplated this on his blog years ago, but I feel TR folks are in a unique position to shed light on this given their experience at similar elevations. FWIW, it’s rare that I get to experiment at elevations below 5000’. Thoughts? Sweet spot base to improve muscle endurance? Additional thoughts? Thanks!

Hey there!

Sadly I don’t have an answer for you on this subject, but thisis another thread that may interest you:

Pretty similar subject, and currently there’s not much in the way of answers, but it may potentially grow in the future. And along with that, the more popular a topic is in the forum, the more likely we are to cover it, so it doesn’t hurt to drop a comment in there and increase the overall visibility of this topic :slight_smile:

Cheers!

Hi, have you managed to find any answers on this?

I live at 1,600m but I’ll be racing at sea level in 2.5 weeks time. Wondering if I should be aiming for an IF of more than 0.75 based on the drop in altitude.

(Race is a HIM / 70.3)