Featured Country of the Month: USA

The United States has been our featured country for April and May (it got two months because there is so much on offer there), and over the last 8 weeks or so we've shared photos, facts and information about some of America's top altitude training venues.  This blog post aims to bring some of that information together, and to provide further insight into my experiences training at altitude there.

Trails

For me, one of the great advantages to training in the US, is the trails.  The country is covered with national and state parks, national and state forests, wilderness areas, and other federal lands. This means that there are large areas of lands which have free access to the public which are crossed by well marked multi-use trails, fire-roads and unpaved roads.  Towns such as Flagstaff and Boulder have a network of well-groomed trails, while towns such as Mammoth Lakes have access to a range of more rural tracks and trails. Whether your a trail runner looking for challenging single-track routes, or a speedy track runner looking for fast, flat, traffic-free roads for your sessions, there are usually plenty of options no matter where you are in the States.

Local trail maps can be purchased in most running shops and outdoor stores, or downloaded from the National Park Service website. Details of good trails for running can be found on the localeikki website, or through the websites of local trail providers (e.g. Flagstaff Urban Trail System, or City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks).

Racing

Many British athletes combine a stint of altitude training in the US, with early season track races on the US circuit.  The invitational and open meets in California (e.g. Stanford Invitational, Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational, Mt Sac Relays, Oxy High Performance Meet) are particularly popular, and easily accessed from any of America's top altitude training destinations.  If you want an extra special racing experience, why not spend some time acclimatising before racing at altitude.  Good options include BolderBOULDER 10km and the Leadville 100 Trail in Colorado, the Sedona Marathon and Flagstaff Summer Series in Arizona, or the Duke City Marathon in Albuquerque.

Variety

There are a large number of towns and cities at altitude in the West and South Western states, and you shouldn't have too much difficulty finding somewhere at altitude to suit your needs.  If living in a large city is important to you, Albuquerque (NM) should be to your liking, while on the other end of the scale, Mt Laguna (CA), with a population of less than 100, is the perfect retreat for those looking for isolation.

Colorado, as the highest state, has a particularly large number of venues suitable for altitude training, including Boulder (1,655 m), which is probably the most popular, Colorado Springs (1,823 m), which is home to the USOC Altitude Training Centre, Mancos (2,137 m) and Estes Park (2,293 m).  California, too has good variety with the ski resorts of Mammoth Lakes (2,400 m), Lake Tahoe (1,897 m) and Big Bear Lake (2,058 m) offering good facilities and a choice of accommodation in the summer months, and Mt Laguna (1,749 m), a mostly snow-free getaway.  Flagstaff (2,100 m) is Arizona's premier altitude training spot; Park City (2,100 m) in Utah is growing in popularity; and New Mexico's offer includes Albuquerque (1,619 m), Santa Fe (2,134 m), Los Alamos (2,231 m) and Taos (2,124 m).

Outsider magazine recently reviewed their top 10 US altitude training sites.  Their feature can be found here.

I have visited Mammoth Lakes, Flagstaff, Boulder and Albuquerque, and while each has its merits, Flagstaff shone brightest for me.  The town is small enough that you can get by without a car, and you are never more than 50 metres from a trail.  The running community are very friendly, and there are many opportunities to run with the local athletes.  Albuquerque was, for me, the most over-rated, but I'm sure it would have been more appealing if I had stayed in the foothills and had had access to a car.

Mount Laguna is such a top secret training venue that it didn't even get a mention in Notes from Higher Grounds.  However, British steeplechase international Luke Gunn, gave us the low-down during his recent training stint there.

Drawbacks

Cost of living, particularly in ski resorts like Mammoth Lakes, or trendy towns like Boulder, can be high. Accommodation is of a high standard, but can be expensive.  Groceries are a lot more expensive than in Europe, and though eating out is cheap, finding restaurants selling good, healthy food can sometimes be difficult.  Sports massage and gum access can also work out more expensive than back home.

It's very difficult to survive in the US without a car.  Even if there are public transport links, few people know about them, so getting directions by bus or train can be difficult.  The cost of car hire should be factored into your budget.

Athletes planning to race after returning to Europe from the US will have jet lag to overcome.  Travelling east results in more greater jet lag in most people than travelling west, so care should be taken when putting together your race plan.

If you would like to hear more about travelling to and training in Boulder, Albuquerque, Flagstaff or Mammoth Lakes, get yourself a copy of my book, Notes from Higher Grounds: an altitude training guide for endurance athletes here:

Guest Blog 4 - Vinnie Van Puyvelde from Flagstaff

The latest guest post comes from Belgian athlete Vinnie Van Puyvelde, who has recently spent three weeks in Flagstaff.  Vinnie is nineteen year old, and has 800m and 1500m personal bests of 1:53.72, and 3:57.12 respectively.  He was a member of the Belgian Championship winning 4x1500m team.  He aims to qualify for the European junior championships in Rieti on the 5k.  Flagstaff was one of my favourite venues, so it’s always interesting to hear other people’s views on the area.  

After a long travel from Brussels to Phoenix, I could finally smell the American air.  It took me about 24 hours to get to my destination, but when I saw the Flagstaff sign I understood it was all worth it. I would be spending three weeks in one of the most mythical training places in the world.

Flagstaff is a very outstretched city at an altitude of 7000ft (2130 meters), located in Northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States.  Because it’s so outstretched, the first thing you need in Flagstaff (beside your running stuff) is a car.  There are a lot of long, nice running trails, but for most of them you have to drive some miles to reach them. Most of the time I ran at the walnut canyon road because it wasn’t that far from our house and I could easily combine it with a strength workout in the Flagstaff Athletic Club East.

Another place where I did some endurance runs was Buffalo park.  Buffalo park is located just outside town at an altitude of about 7300ft (2225 meters).  The park has nice paths, and beautiful sights. But there are also some negative points about the place. It’s for example always windy up there, the circuit is just 2 miles and there is a pretty hard climb at the end of the circuit. But things like the wind and that hill make you so much stronger, so maybe they can be seen as an advantage. 

Fort Tuthill trail was also a nice trail. You can park at WalMart, where the trail begins. The path isn’t that good in the first mile, but once you’re in the woods, it’s a pleasure to run. I could go on for hours with telling about other trails and roads in Flagstaff like Lake Mary Road, but there are a lot of other things to talk about like where to do your track sessions and how are the locals…

In Flagstaff you have a lot of options to go to for your track sessions. One of those places is the Sinagua Middle School, located at East Butler Avenue. This is a good track where everybody can come to do a workout. The only problem can again be the wind, but this a problem you will always have in Flagstaff. Another option to do your track session is The Lumberjack Stadium of the Northern Arizona University. This is a brand new track with a big stand combined with a huge sports complex next to it. The only problem here is getting in… When you’re not an elite athlete, but you still want to do your training on the NAU track, you can take the south gate, which is normally always opened, because you won’t get in through the main entrance.

 

Of course there are other tracks in Flagstaff, but when you want to live high and train low, you can go to Sedona. Sedona is a little cowboy city at an altitude of 4,326ft (1319 meters).  Here you have the Sedona Red Rock High School. This school has a pretty good track, and is a perfect place to do your most heavy workouts. The weather is good here most of the time, and there’s far less wind than in Flagstaff. To get in Sedona, you will have to be on the way for a little hour.  During that hour you can admire the beauty of nature with the slide rocks and the Oak Creek canyon.

If the weather is very bad, you can do your session in the Skydome, a huge indoor training complex with a capacity of 10000 people. But don’t be too sure about doing your training there because the complex is also used for other sports.

The locals are very kind in Flagstaff. They are really athletics minded, they start taking to you about running, they would do everything for you if they hear you’re an athlete and they even encourage you while you’re doing an endurance run. It’s a sort of runners’ heaven, the only problem can be that there aren’t a lot of possibilities to eat healthy. You can find some stuff in supermarkets, but if you had a heavy day and you don’t want to make a meal by yourself, it will be hard to find a healthy restaurant.

A place to go on a recovery day or a day with one workout is definitely the Grand Canyon (1 hr 30 mins from Flag).  It isn’t that far and it’s really amazing - something that you must have seen when you’ve been in Flagstaff. Another possibility to go to is Las Vegas, but then you have to stay there for at least one night because the trip will take 3 hr 30 mins each way.   But it is a nice break in between the heavy work.

So Flagstaff is an awesome place to go to for a training camp. Great people, great trails, great facilities and it’s cheaper than St. Moritz where I’ve been two times before.  There’s also a great atmosphere that makes you feel like you can handle anyone.

Thanks to Vinnie for taking the time away from his training and school work to write this piece for us.  To qualify for the European Championships he’ll need to run 14:25.00.  His first attempt will be on the nineteenth of May, and we wish him every success.

Fabulous Flagstaff

This morning was the first morning where I woke up not wanting to leave my current destination. Not even the excitement of seeing a new place could get me over the sadness of leaving Flagstaff behind. Maybe it had something to do with my trip nearing an end, or maybe it was the dread of repacking the suitcase yet again, but mostly I think it was because I genuinely enjoyed my stay here.

Unfortunately, an otherwise perfect week, has just been slightly flawed by a taxi-driver. No strange there, but not for the usual reason of being over charged. For most of the trip thus far, I have managed to avoid those Americans who give the country a bad name. You know the type. The ones who hear that you're from Ireland manage to get every stereotypical point that they have ever heard about Ireland into a conversation (well, monologue). Thankfully the journey from hotel to airport was only 5 minutes long, but none the less I got to hear about snakes, St. Patrick, Catholicism, that there are more Irish in America than there are in Ireland, that the Irish hate the English (can't imagine where he got that idea from!) and that Clint Eastwood has Irish heritage. Oh and of course that he, the taxi driver that is, is Welsh, despite speaking with an American accent, and from what I could gather, has never even been in Wales. I think I prefer the ones who have never even heard of Ireland (yes I have meet a few of those too!)

But, in fairness, that was the only downside.

Of course there was the trip to the Grand Canyon, but there was so much more to enjoy about Flagstaff. It's an amazing place for training, with miles, and miles, and miles of trails, most of them through the forest that surrounds the town. They say that no matter where you are in Flagstaff you are no more than 3 minutes from a trail (I prefer that statistic to the rat one).

I've always believed that a little bit of sunshine, and an endless supply of beautiful trails are good motivators for training. Well that was definitely true here. After a poor week of training in Albuquerque, I managed to clock up 73 miles in a week here. Lets just hope I can keep it up!

Of course no week's training is perfect, and you'll be glad to know that after the ecstasy of clocking up such an impressive mileage tally (well by my standards), I was brought crashing down to earth yesterday. Literally! Once again, after tripping on a stone, I again managed the face-plant which I am now becoming an expert at. This time there was no grazing to my now perfectly tanned legs, but I did but a big gash in my hand, and got covered head to toe in dust and dirt. I should have been doing a little less looking at the beautiful scenery, and a little more looking at where I was going.

Everybody here has been very helpful too, and it has been really nice to get some more positive feedback about the book idea.

The spotting of unusual animals in the wild count has also gone up. I saw some Elk in the Grand Canyon National Park, and then, when out for a run on Saturday evening I saw a skunk. I'm just scared that sooner or later I'll come across a snake. I won't, however, need to blog about that, because I'm pretty sure that you will all hear me scream. And there definitely won't be time for photos!

Well just about to board the plane on my last pair of flights before the home trip. Rocky Mountains, here I come!