The Sonya Looney Show

If you're an endurance athlete, you've probably thought about altitude.  I grew up in Albuquerque, NM and lived in Colorado for my 20s. I never thought about altitude training until I did the highest mountain bike race in the world in 2011.  The race was a 10 day race in Nepal called the Yak Attack that topped out at 17,769'.  I admit I still wasn't fully acquainted with the data of training at altitude.  I knew how dangerous the symptoms of acute mountain sickness or altitude sickness could be.  In fact, it was my primary fear for tackling this race and wanting to be the first woman to ever finish.  You can watch my TED Talk about it.  I started spending a lot of time in BC in 2013 and eventually moved in 2014.  That also meant I moved from living at altitude my entire life to 1,000' where I still live.  Racing in Colorado became a problem- I could only race in third gear.  It was frustrating.  I took it upon myself to learn as much as I could about potentially prepping for altitude and used myself as a guin