Premanon France 2010

I arrived in Premanon France on the morning of August 29th after an 8 hour flight from Washington DC to Geneva, and a 40 minute drive from the airport.  This is the beginning of my participation in a 2 month long research study on the effects of live high - train low on performance of cyclists.  This study is taking place at the Ecole Nationale de Ski de Fond, a one of a kind facility that has an entire floor of rooms set up as hypoxic chambers.  For the first 2 weeks, we will be doing baseline tests with no altitude simulation, then 3 weeks of hypoxia for 16 hours a day, then 3 more weeks of 8 hours per day hypoxia.  It is a double blind study, and only half of the 20 participants will be in hypoxia.

First round of testing- Wingate

The head of the study is Dr. Carsten Lundby from the University of Zurich.  He is a very nice guy and has been enjoyable to work with so far!


I was a bit late starting this blog, so I will backtrack to the first few days:

August 29th

I arrived safely in Geneva at 7:45 this morning after an 8 hour non-stop flight from Dulles.  All is good, bikes are in good shape, and it is beautiful here in France!  It is a bit chilly.. maybe 60 degrees or so, but should be warmer in the next few days.  

The flight wasn't bad, I got a little bit of sleep, watched some movies, did some reading, and no crying babies!  I am heading out for a road ride in a little while with one of the other riders who is here now, Gordon Smith.  There are only 2 other cyclists and a few of the researchers here so far, everyone else will be arriving tomorrow.  

The altitude study is taking place at Ecole Nationale de Ski de Fond - National Cross Country Ski School, normally reserved only for elite cross country skiers from the French ski team.  Carsten arranged to use the center for this study, and I think it is the first time something of this type has been done.  For the first 2 weeks we are staying on the 3rd and 4th floors, which are not connected to the altitude simulation system, and will be doing baseline CO rebreathing, VO2 Max, and submaximal output tests.  After that, we move up to the 5th floor for simulated altitude, where they pump nitrogen into the rooms to lower the amount of oxygen in the air.  It is a double blind study, with half the participants being at altitude and half not.

Our accommodations for the next 2 months

It is nice to be here before the whole crew comes in, but nothing is here at the center yet, everything (food, towels, cooks etc) coming tomorrow, so for now we are eating at a small hotel down the street.  The food is great!  Bread croissants coffee and cheese for breakfast, lasagne for lunch, I might get fat here!  The bathroom is strange... The shower head is in a corner, no curtain or anything, linoleum floor, and there is a big squeegee to wipe the floor afterwards... its wierd, but guess it keeps everything clean!

Heading out for a ride now, au revoir!

Gordon Smith coming into Morez