IM Boulder Watt Adjustment for Altitude
IM Boulder is at 5000-5600ft altitude for the bike course. I live at 1000ft (Kansas). I'm trained for the heat, humidity and wind living KS, but, wondering what should my wattage adjustment should I consider for the bike course taking place at this altitude? My target wattage is approx. 170w
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More here, just one item I found via a quick search using the search bar above.
I routinely travel from sea level to altitude (terrain varies from 5800-10,000+ feet) for multi week "training camps". The science says that your FTP is about 5% lower at 5,000 feet than at sea level. Keep in mind you get a little bonus from the altitude: the air is thinner, so less wind resistance. As an example of what is possible coming directly from a lower altitude - last month, my second day there, with about 8 weeks to go before IM LP (so not yet fully trained), I did a 5 hour/80 mile/4600' climbing ride @ an overall IF of 0.67. That was one of those Saturday rides where we go intervals @ 0.75-0.8; I usually aim for the lower end of that range. My intervals on that ride were: 0.71, 0.74, 0.76, 0.74, 0.74, 0.84, and 0.76. My point is, if your desired IM IF range in KS would be 0.7-0.71, I'd think about trying to get 0.695-0.7. Further advice (copied from a post I made in that thread Rich linked to):
"...my experience from training and racing at altitude tells me the major impact of lower O2 comes into play only if one tries to go at or close to (or even over) one's anaerobic threshold. This is usually seen when folks try to go out hard at the start of the swim. It is VERY hard to recover from that. Similar issues come into play if you try to go up a hill at 90+% of your FTP....that is actually close to an altitude adjusted IF of 1.0 and recovering from that WILL slow you down somewhere along the way.
"As long as you bike at or below your proper IF with NO spikes, you should be OK . Again, the problems will be staying sufficiently hydrated on the second half of the bike and first half of the run, and going slow enough to account for the probable 90+ temps. Dry heat is a sneaky dehydrator.
"Oh, and did I mention the probability of afternoon thunderstorms?"
Universal advice for an IM @ altitude emphasizes NOT going hard during the first 400 meters of the swim. Do that, and you'll start yourself on a 12 hour death march.