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comment by WanderingEng
WanderingEng  ·  2378 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hiking the Pecos Wilderness, NM

    The experience was very similar to attempting to run at 7200 feet having been acclimated to sea level.

I used to bike to work a few times a week, an easy five mile ride to my old office. One year after giving blood (not the same day but definitely the same week), the ride was awful. It was almost painful. I'm at about 900-1000' above sea level here, and that memory is surprisingly similar to how I felt hiking at 10,000' after living my whole life at 1000'.





kleinbl00  ·  2377 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It stands to reason. Give a pint of blood, knock out 12% of your oxygen transport capability. Go from 1000 feet to 4000 feet, you go from 20.1% oxygen to 17.9%. a thousand feet to ten thousand feet is taking you from 20% oxygen to 14%... that's a 30% hit. Probably not quite like giving up three pints of blood, but also not like shotgunning a Red Bull either.

Had you driven there you would have noticed your car sucks, too. We knew from dyno tests that a normally-aspirated motor makes about 75-80% of the power it would at sea level. I built a full-roller V8 and drove it to school. It broke in about Utah and went from "satisfying" to "fun." Coming down out of Snoqualmie pass it went from "fun" to "oh holy shit I've built a monster." I probably gained 200 HP in 1500 miles.

ButterflyEffect  ·  2377 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yup, those numbers look about right. Can't wait to run a 50k at 6,000ft...

kleinbl00  ·  2377 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You are neither divorced nor over 40. Cut that ultramarathon shit out until you're age-appropriate . ;-)

(said the guy who has been idolizing the Leadville 100 for 20 years)