Altitude Training Camp

April is normally the month that skiers take to relax and recover from a long year of training and racing. It isn’t generally a time to go out for a training camp. But with vacation time burning a hole in my pocket that’s what I set out to do this week.

For those not in the know, I live on Marsh Island in Old Town. As the name suggests, it is flat. And wet. Nary a hill to be found. So for my training camp I decided to head to some mountainous terrain.

Somes Sound

There are two very good reasons to go to altitude. One, of course, is to increase red blood cell count and the body’s ability to use oxygen efficiently. This is why some athletes sleep in altitude tents or travel to high mountain glaciers. For someone living on Marsh Island, another reason to head to the mountains is to build leg strength on the steep ascents and descents.

Those reasons sounded good enough to me, so on Monday I headed off to the mountains. My destination: Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park. 

With my faithful training partner Sadie by my side, I spent a few days tackling the island’s many trails and carriage roads. This was a volume camp; lots of long, slow distance. And it wasn’t slow because I am slow; it was slow because it was supposed to be slow. Obviously.

Ahhh...spring sunshine.

Our hikes took us above the tree line, to really take advantage of the altitude benefits. Acadia Mountain, St. Saveur Mountain, Gilmore Peak, Sargent Mountain, and Paradise Hill, the ascents really stacked up. And like good athletes we followed the edict of, “train high, sleep low.” The house we stayed in is very close to Somes Sound, the only fjord in the eastern United States depending on your definition of fjord. And because the trees haven’t budded out yet you can even just see the ocean from the kitchen window. Perfect. Pepa would be so proud. 

Of course rest and recovery are important aspects of any training camp, and I took this into account while planning my week. I watched “Spaceballs” and read “Dispatches from Maine,” by John Gould. The former I would recommend to anyone, the latter I would recommend to people from Maine. I don’t think it would be as funny to folks from away.

So much fresh water on MDI.

Keeping well hydrated is extremely important and I took this very seriously. And, no, that is not a euphemism for drinking beer. You know me – it is a euphemism for drinking coffee. Considerable testing during the camp revealed that I am, indeed, able to fall asleep immediately after consuming a two-shot Americano. Hydration and napping, again, Pepa would be so proud.

View of Sand Beach through the fog.

This camp even brought me to snow and ice-covered terrain. Granted it was inside a cave, so I couldn’t exactly stand up and ski around, but I still got to slide around a bit. In my training log I wrote, “ski-like slipping and sliding in cave – 0.5 minutes.”

It was a great camp and I now feel capable of heading back down to Marsh Island to continue training. Volume camps at altitude can negatively effect foot speed, so I’ll be sure to work on that when I return home.

Snow!