News

April 23, 2009 - Running High at 7,000ft (2100m) in Flagstaff

Guys running in Buffalo Park in Flagstaff.

After a week in Phoenix, Arizona at a training camp with the Canadian Team, I've started my altitude training camp in Flagstaff and have to say I much prefer it up here compared to Phoenix. I've been here four days and it's been absolutely perfect - about 20C, sunny and little wind, which is great considering they had snow a week ago!

We have a great group of Canadians out here from Halifax, Calgary, Toronto and Guelph and we've been meeting up for most of the training. Getting together with other elite athletes with similar goals to myself is one of my favourite aspects of training camp - it really motivated me and makes me grateful for these experiences as an athlete.

Some fellow Canadians/young athletes we met while eating lunch in Sedona.

In terms of adjusting to the altitude - it's been pretty normal in the sense that I feel like I'm breathing through a straw when I'm literally jogging and I'm more tired, hungry and thirsty up here. All normal stuff when coming to altitude that I expect will calm down in a few days once I acclimatize. I've basically be doing easy running, combined with weights, plyometrics and short strides. I actually got pretty sore from doing my normal strength routine of weights and plyos but I expect that is due to having less oxygen and therefore recovery is more difficult. At least I know I'm getting a good stimulous!

Tomorrow a group of us are doing down to Sedona, which is a 45 minute drive from Flag and at 4500ft (~1400m) for a hard track session. This will start off my hard training here, being my first workout. As for the guys - Eric Gillis, Dylan Wykes and Richard Mosley, who are racing at Stanford next week, it will probably be their last major track workout. They've been training hard up here for the last month so it will be exciting to see how they race!

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