training at altitude, sea level performance

[whoawhoa]

I had a question about a statement Dr. Coggan made in a thread I started about racing the track nat'ls at altitude 10 days before my main goal of the time trial/road race at Road Nationals (which are at sea level.

That long of stay means that you'll be more fully acclimatized for the pursuit, but you run the risk of losing some of the fitness/abilities that you'll need upon return to sea level. So, in addition to all of the usual caveats about staying hydrated, not overdoing things when you first arrive, paying careful attention to recovery, yada, yada, yada, the other thing you need to consider is to how best minimize the reduction in absolute training intensity that is likely to occur.

Would Dr. Coggan or anyone else with experience in this area mind clarifying for me what specific fitness/abilities I would run a risk of losing while at altitude? I'm especially focused on the tt, so losing any FT wattage would be bad. For some reason I kind of thought the altitude training might help?

Thanks

 

[daveryanwyoming]

...Would Dr. Coggan or anyone else with experience in this area mind clarifying for me what specific fitness/abilities I would run a risk of losing while at altitude? I'm especially focused on the tt, so losing any FT wattage would be bad. For some reason I kind of thought the altitude training might help? ...

Here's a piece that discusses altitude, training and performance wrt cyclists: http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/altitude.html