Running at 9000 ft... Sorta

Today, I ran at 9,060 ft... simulated. With a Hypoxico generator that set the oxygen output and wearing a tight mask, I hopped on the treadmill with, as almost always, the movie "Unbreakable" about the 2010 Western States 100 on (best treadmill movie EVER!).

Hannibal Lechter, runner-style!

I have 3 weeks to Bighorn 50K, and while I'm a little late on starting this phase of training, with the upcoming race having a max elevation of about 8900 feet, I hope to avoid some of the altitude sickness potential effects (headaches, shortness of breath), so that what remains is ME and my training, and not those altitude conditions.

Making sure my heart rate reads on my Garmin before starting

So a handful of times a week, I'll be doing altitude workouts for 30-45 minutes. For this first one, I did 12:15 pace. Normally on a treadmill this would be a super easy pace, but there was definitely some effort on this.

Not breathing while you run is FUN!

Steve would pop in and check that I hadn't fallen off the back and passed out every handful of minutes. I even wore the emergency stop switch, which I don't normally click on. At one point, I went to yell something to him when he walked in, and just about passed on. I went suddenly super dizzy. Yeah, that's a lot less oxygen than I'm used to running and talking with!

This doesn't feel awkward at all! :-/

Note again that any workouts with the Hypoxico altitude generator will be on top of the usual training my coach assigns. The altitude workouts aren't meant to replace training but to supplement training to hopefully make race day slightly less painful. Will it work? I don't know. Worth a shot? Yeah, why the hell not!! My iron levels have been fixed since my last altitude experience a year ago, so I'm ready to go race in altitude and BREATHE strong!