you should know (maybe you already do) that pulse ox's are pretty easy to fake out.

i used to do a bunch of high altitude mountaineering (>20,000') and we used to kill time by playing around with them. was pretty normal to be ~60% @ 20k, but there are some breathing tricks to bump you up really high, really quick.

I don't know about that range. What where you doing to acclimate?

I went to boarding school at 7800 ft. Mt Kenya and Kilimanjaro were regular climbs and we'd get visitors starting their training. When we would compete in Rugby at sea level we had little advantage. When they can up to play us it was silly.

it's possible some may define steer differently

hill repeats this morning. solid reminder of how lucky i am to have a park with an awesome 4-5' climb in it with very little car traffic (it's open to cars but the road doesn't go anywhere so traffic is light) right next to my office. strava iphone app didn't record my ride...again. might just pony up and buy a garmin.

I have these segments literally a block from my place, thinking of doing some repeats on it, although considering I'll be racing Sat, I may not go nuts

https://www.strava.com/segments/1277271
https://www.strava.com/segments/1277286

I didn't feel like doing another Z2 ride last night, so I borrowed a teammate's MTB and rode over to do the local short track XC series, about 9 miles from my house. Entered the 2/3 race ('B'), won it, rode home. I mean, not to make light of winning it. It was rad, and hard. Fun, too. I am not very good at mountain bikes but I was good enough last night. Also I learned that the time needed for my HR to go from 128 (start line nerves) to 181 is 25 seconds.

Anyway I had been considering buying this bike that I borrowed, she's trying to sell it. Price is good, too. I'm now pretty convinced that I won't do it. It was fun and all, and I've had a MTB in the past and I miss it, but it was a good reality check. I have enough going on right now. Adding another discipline will just be too much.

I supposedly have a Z3 workout tonight but I might have to skip it and do some openers tomorrow. I am cooked and I don't want to be totally useless at the Harvard RR on Saturday.

Yeah, of all things, getting a kid interested in a particular sport and helping them excel at it seems like pretty normal parenting. I mean, if the kid hates it, it's probably a good idea to back off and find a hobby that appeals more to them. But if they enjoy it, what's wrong with a little steering and a little pushing?

Prospect? Nice little climb.

^I've never hit those, but waltham street just a bit to the west is good fun.

You guys and your hills. I have, at best, a 1 minute "hill". So flat.

3k feet of climbing (per iphone strava, which is usually quite a bit less than garmin) in 20 miles.

I had 666ft of climbing last night doing ~45 second intervals on the "hills" here, 27.5 miles . Im sure its off but I don't want to correct the elevation.

"Fun."

If you want to continue the fun, head north on Bedford St. once you reach Lincoln center. That was a serious "WTF!?" moment the first time I found that.

These days all those roads are a bit out of the way for me.

With respect to racing and training at altitude and improving performance at sea level, many times major races are held at altitude and altitude is where records are set. I wanted to learn more about how to train to be competitive for races at altitude and what impact do the various technologies and training protocols offer.

USA Cycling offers webinars on various topics and a couple of years ago offered a webinar on altitude training.

The Ups and Downs of Altitude Training and Using Altitude Chambers

by

Sean M Wilson, PhD
Level 1 Coach USACycling
SafeSport & TrueSport Certified
Former Professional Cyclist
Category 1 road cyclist
Parent of two Junior racers (11 & 13 YO)

BS & MS in Exercise Physiology, UC Davis
PhD in Integrative Physiology, UC Davis
Fellowship in Pharmacology, U. Nevada, Reno

Research on the impact of high altitude on lung vascular development and function

Assistant Professor, Division of Pharmacology
Technical Director, Advanced Imaging and Microscopy Facility
Center for Perinatal Biology
Loma Linda University School of Medicine

The webinar and handouts were very well done and informative and covered my areas of interest. I would highly recommend anyone who wants information and effectiveness about altitude training, tents, and other devices to go to the USA cycling website and pay up for the webinar and learn what works. The webinar is archived.

Well, sure. In this case I asked because what Doge is doing is more than helping getting a kid interested, he's treating his kid as a science experiment. A video was posted of Daniel at 11 undergoing the Ivan Drago treatment, and we were talking about him sleeping in an altitude tent; both of those things struck me as a bit extreme. It sounds like he's happy so I'm not about to call bull****, I know that at that age I would've loved that type of support for anything I did, especially cycling. My parents didn't even care if I did my homework.

i'm honestly surprised puppy doge isn't home schooled so that he can spend more time in the altitude tent.

My kid is a musician, not an athlete. He has loads of family support. Great instructors, audition only summer programs, great instruments. In fact a level of investment that has my roll my eyes at doge whining about the lack of support his kid gets from others. I've yet to lock him in a closet with the guitar though. Goddamn it don't come out until your write a hit. Maybe Doge is on to soemthing.

That dude lives 4 blocks from me, I'm going to have to ask him about this stuff next time I see him.

Good elevation. Wonder how your fitness level is now.

Race ride last night ... legs destroyed and had to cut some of the ride out. Really feeling the hurt today.

It is not a standup conversation per se but he may offer to send you handouts that you can read. He has a great power point discussing the matter complete with training protocols.

How long was the webinar and what did it cost? Is it all stuff that I'm not likely to do, like sleep in an altitude tent? Or is there real cyclist stuff in there too? I have that big climbing ride at altitude in July, I think its 120 miles and something like 12 or 14,000 ft of climbing. Not timed but you know I'm going to try to get a good Garmin time. I guess I should start wrapping my head around that ride a little bit.

Puppy Doge is home schooled, or doesn't go to a regular school. Doge has posted his strava rides here before, and they are during the day, so clearly he's in some special program, probably the west coast equivalent of the Vermont ski schools for trust fund babies.

I know things are different now, even though it's only been 15 years since I graduated high school, but I don't know how boys would/will fare if people knew they shaved their legs in high school.

made fun of by other boys but would be fondled by girls. win.

We actually have those too: Squaw Valley Academy | Boarding School With 100% College Acceptance

There are a couple up there. We had to use the Sugar Bowl Academy for a work related emergency staging area many years ago. Nice place:

Sugar Bowl Academy

30 years ago it was accepted and even applauded. We had 3 kids in our high school at any one time that had a license: me, a friend Kevin, and either Ken (my mentor if you will) or Tom. One kid named Rob sometimes rode but I don't think he raced after I got my license. 1200 kids in 9-12. White bread town (okay the epitome of white bread - the town inspired the author of Stepford Wives to write the book) so maybe more tolerant of such things.

Also the swim team was a big deal and everyone did the full body shave thing so it wasn't foreign to the kids.

Heck, athletics was big (after actual schooling), so if a kid did something weird for athletics it was okay.