Altitude acclimatization, Terrain and Climate

I usually run for Adventure Explorers from Denmark, but for the Worlds I have teamed up with Terra Aventura Ecuador.  The team consists of Joaquin Lopez, Felipe Münchmeyer, Gonzalo Espinosa MB and me – Sanne Elidsbo Hansen.

I have arrived in Ecuador in good time before the race to get used to the altitude, climate, terrain and to get to know the team.

Here Is How We Handle Pre Race Training  - The First Week

The big word for this World Championships has been alitude and how to train? For altitude acclimatization it is important to go up and then down again until you are fully acclimatized to the altitude. It can also be a good idea to take an overnight at high altitude.

Terrain and climate?  Highlands, amazones, rain, cold, heat and beaches. The teams should be prepared for every condition. So this is what our team had been doing for the first week. The weather in the highlands can change from one moment to the next. Rain and thunderstorms are common. In addition, there will be rapid changes, as it does not take very long time to get from one biosystem to another.

There are, for example only 40 km between the highlands and the amazones. The terrain here can vary greatly depending on whether you are above the tree line, jungle, etc. The maps are available in 1: 50,000 and 1: 25,000 if you're lucky!

So here is how the first week has been spent, and a lot of data about terrain, climate, maps and altitude training!

Altitude Acclimatization Below Cotopaxi 3300 M – MTB Race Vuelta Al Cotopaxi

On the first day after arriving in Ecuador we went up to 3300m to trek around. On this occasion we cheered for all participants MTB Race Vuelta al Cotopaxi, which is one of the biggest MTB races in Ecuador. The important thing was just to be at high altitude for a good while. I still had jet lag, because I have traveled all the way from Denmark. Denmark is 6 hours ahead of time in Ecuador. So I will both get used to the altitude and time. After 4 hours we went down to 2800 m, so my body can ajust.

Heat and Altitude - MTB Nayon

The terrain for the MTB stages? What type of road can the teams expect? Joaquin took me out on an MTB trip so that we could test my MTB after the flight and to show me some roads which are quite common in Ecuador. These are roads with large and small stones which are the ancient trading routes of the Inca Indians. Additionally  you expect big gravel roads and some muddy roads.

This training was also good because it showed a very good example of how the weather can be in Ecuador. Typically, it is good weather and hot around 25-30 degrees in the morning to the afternoon. Then it starts to rain and thunder. The weather changes very quickly.  Recently however the weather has been a little different and it has been raining a lot. The race organization nevertheless hopes that it will be more normal otherwise it will be a very tough race.

Next training day! Kayak training! Me and Felipe from my team went into Quito to train and test the kayaks. Most teams from Ecuador do not have very good workout options when it comes to kayaking. Therefore, most local teams are not strong kayakers and it will be interesting to see what happens when they reach the long kayak stage at the end of the race. I'm used to good kayak training opportunities, but in Denmark we don’t have huge mountains, so every nationality has its strengths and weaknesses.

After kayaking we went up to Pichincha at 4392 m (if you go all the way it should be 4700m) again to get me up in the heights. We trekked almost all the way up and sat for a while. Then we ran down, so I came back down and my body can acclimatize slowly.  It was very foggy and it can be very difficult to orient in and it also started to rain and thunder on the way down from there.