With the Vallnord cross-country race being held at 1,900m above sea level. some riders take extra steps to prepare for the effects of altitude. Maja Włoszczowska has already spent three weeks training at altitude to prepare herself for the Andorra race. Below she explains how she readies her body for a high-altitude race.
Using high-altitude training
I use high-altitude training every year, usually in preparation for the most important races of the season, like the opening World Cup, World Champs and the Olympic Games. Even if they're at low altitude, I feel really great when I come from high-altitude training to a normal altitude. But it's definitely not easy training. You need to be very careful, racing at high altitude can be tricky.
Two ways to prepare for a high race
I guess most of the riders would agree that there are only two good ways to prepare for a race at high altitude:
- Stay at low altitude and come up to high ground ONLY for the race, staying at high altitude for as short a time as possible.
- Adapt to high altitude. That takes a minimum of 10 days. If you want to have more benefits from high altitude in the longer term, then it's better to stay high for between 20–24 days. This year's calendar made it possible for me to use this option.
Where to stay at altitude?
There are a few places in Europe where you can go to train at high altitude. The most popular places are the Sierra Nevada in Spain, Livigno in Italy, St Moritz in Switzerland and Tenerife. I chose Andorra, where you can stay at 2,100m above sea level at Pas de la Casa on the French border. I decided on this location for a few reasons:
- Weather – The Sierra Nevada is extremely hot right now and Livigno still has risky weather in June.
- Logistics – There's no travelling for the World Cup race.
- Opportunity – I could train on the race course.
- New place – It's positive for your head. Exploring new roads and trails is really exciting.
I decided on three weeks for this training camp, allowing enough time to have few days of easy acclimatisation, one-and-a-half weeks of good training and few days to recover before the race. I also think that this preparation will be really good for Lenzerheide, which is a bit lower (1,500m), later for the National Champs and maybe even for European Championships, which are four weeks later.
Things to be aware of
It's important to be careful with training, especially during the first week of your stay at high altitude. Your body isn't yet able to work properly with less oxygen in the air and you can really feel it. The worst is usually days four and five.
For first few days I do easy rides for endurance, but with low intensity. I don't do any intervals or hard training. For the first few days I also try to train at slightly lower altitude, where there's more oxygen. Staying in Pas de la Casa is quite good for that because within a 30 minute drive you can drop down to 1,000–1,200m, either in Andorra, France or Spain.
Top five altitude training tips
- Be careful for the first week!
- Consider doing the hardest training at a slightly lower altitude. And remember the rule: it's better to do too little than too much.
- Pay more attention to your heart rate than watts. Training with a power meter is really hard at altitude. You're used to see certain watts while doing intervals and it's easy to get panicked when you can't achieve the same numbers at high altitude. Then you try to push harder and you destroy yourself. Be aware that you may produce 20 watts fewer.
- Watch your diet. You need more carbohydrates at altitude, because your metabolism works faster, and you need more salt because at high altitude it's easy to get dehydrated.
- Take care of your health. If your immune system is weak then it's easier to get sick at high altitude, especially if you stay in the Alps or Pyrenees, where the weather is changeable and it's often very windy.