DancenMacabre said:....I have more specific questions.Let's start with the basics: present altitude = sea level, new altitude as of next month = 1750m, length of stay is > 1 year...
I've recently gone the other way with a move to sea level after a decade at roughly 1800 meters I don't have power data from back in the day when I also lived at sea level, but I have plenty of data from the last several years before my move back to the lowlands. Yes, sustainable metabolic power is typically lower at the kind of altitude you're talking about. But you're not so far along your development curve that you're likely to see a big drop, more likely the growth rate will slow for a while as you're adjusting but I seriously doubt you're anywhere near your potential at either sea level or altitude after half a season of structured training.
FWIW, when I returned to cycling after more than a decade away from the sport (with no spectacular performances back in the day either) I was living up high and I struggled to complete 20 minute intervals at 220 watts, three seasons of structured training later I broke 300 watts regularly and topped out at 313 watts for the same duration at the same altitude. With my move to sea level I went up roughly another 10 watts and hit those numbers more frequently but the difference is only a few percent at most. The point is that you're just starting down a very long path in terms of building sustainable power, the move to altitude may affect the numbers a bit but probably not as dramatically as you might think given that you're still near the steep end of the development curve and have lots of room to grow.
Quoted post said:...If you were moving from 0 to 1750m in 4 weeks, would you do anything different/unusual with your current sea level training mix and regimen????...
No, just keep training
Quoted post said:...Now once you start living at 1750m, would you emphasize anything special in the training mix?...
No, except paying attention to hydration especially when you first arrive, expect to feel decent on arrival and then pretty lousy during your workouts for the first couple of weeks and then a return to more normal energy levels after you adjust. Rest well, pay attention to nutrition and hydration, maybe lighten the training load a bit during the adjustment period but then get back on the program with possible adjustments to power levels but still in an 'alls you can do is alls you can do' sort of way.
Quoted post said:...Vo2max is lowerer at altitude because of less oxygen, so you workout at a relatively lower intensity. Does that mean you ought to due more level 5 (or 6) work to raise the absolute intensity + trying to boost vo2max?..
Well, there's actually plenty of O2, just less air pressure but it comes to more or less the same thing. But no, I wouldn't shift to a VO2 Max focus or a 'pull up' strategy based on the move to altitude. Personally other than an occasional L5 block to break up the monotony and to challenge yourself a bit I'd suggest focusing far more on L4/SST work for quite some time. It's very unlikely you're anywhere near your VO2 Max induced ceiling at this point in your training and I'd strongly suggest riding the L4/SST train an awful lot further before shifting to high end work. Three weeks does not an FTP plateau make...
Quoted post said:...I read about the live high-train low idea. Sounds great in theory but not so easy in real life. What kind of difference in altitude would you need betwen the live high part and the train low part to achieve some benefit? Would traveling somewhere lower every so often and doing a Level 5 or 4 workout do the trick??...
I'd want to drop 1000 meters or so for substantially different training environment, but that may or may not be practical. During the time I lived in Wyoming I did a fair amount of work travel to lower elevations and always jumped on training opportunities while down low even if it was just hotel gym bikes. I always felt those helped and I could push myself pretty hard on those short trips.
Quoted post said:...Also read that lean muscle mass decreases when you live high. I know, I know, weights don't make you faster on a bike (for enduro stuff). But does that change if you are living at 1700, 1800m and trying to preserve your lean muscle mass???...
No
Quoted post said:...Should you expect to have to lower CTL since recovery feels so slow at altitude? Or maintain a lower CTL? Does that make sense? I know FTP is gonna have to be lowered by some amount right off the bat....
No, CTL is determined more than anything else by available training time and your overall training philosophy in terms of typical ride IF. Altitude shouldn't really change that and as you pointed out your FTP adjustment with altitude more or less normalizes TSS and CTL targets. I've held higher CTL at altitude than I currently do at sea level but that has more to do with available training time and the high quality training venues (translate lots of low traffic roads sans intersections and long sustained climbs) that minimized junk miles that I had back in Wyoming.
Quoted post said:... Living up high + racing locally, can you expect racers to have lower w/kg than the power profile charts from the book say?
That's the good news, whether the charts change much, the local racers are in the same boat, if you're competitive at sea level then you'll typically be competitive at altitude once you acclimate. Realistically once I got my power up a bit and my race tactics dusted off I did pretty well even when I traveled to races at lower elevations even if I was at a theoretical disadvantage. IOW, train and develop your racing skills but don't worry about losing ground when you return to the lowlands. If anything an acclimated racer living and training at altitude has a bigger advantage over visiting lowland racers than the lowland racers have over them at sea level.
Good luck,
-Dave
