Cycling at altitude

raleigh bicycles

I’ve lived most of my life at sea level.  Or close to it.  Now I’m living at a little over an altitude of 3000 feet.  And there are many more hills in Calgary than there are in Tampa Bay.  At first I thought I was just a lot more out of shape than I really am.  The level ground has not been too bad but the hills kill me.

I did a little research to see if there would be that much difference in oxygen in the air at 3000 plus feet.  It is not a lot but somewhere between 10 and 12 percent less oxygen.  I’m not sure that it is actually less oxygen or the air pressure at higher altitudes make it ‘effectively’ less.  I did some research and found one site with a chart that gives some pretty interesting data on altitude vs oxygen.

http://www.higherpeak.com/altitudechart.html

In addition, is that fact that in Florida I didn’t get to work that many hills.  A few bridges and that is about it.  The plus is that next time I ride in Florida it should be very easy.

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