Being high in Colorado can be a problem. Colorado Springs is in the high plains region and the town is above 6000 feet. Meg’s house is even a little higher than that. At that altitude you get winded just climbing a single flight of stairs as I can attest. I even had trouble sleeping the first night and I would wake up short of breath. From what we hear, it can take up to 3 days to get accustomed to the high altitude and things were better the second night.
Colorado Springs wasn’t high enough for us so this morning we drove to the top of Pikes Peak. The sign at the top lists the altitude at 14,110 feet. That tops the 11,388 feet I was at in the Alps. It is a challenging drive as there are no guard rails and you are looking out into space frequently. Needless to say I was watching the road all the time. The other scary part is coming down and you to use a low gear and conserve your brakes so they don’t fail. They even have a mandatory checkpoint on the way down where they measure your brake temperature and you have to stop if it is too high.
After Pikes Peak, we headed to the USOC training center for a tour. It is one of about 3 centers in the U.S., but the Olympic athletes who rely on endurance all train there. Many sports require mandatory training there after you qualify for the Olympics, such as swimming and men’s gymnastics to name a few.
We both had a great time with Meg and Rick, but especially with their kids.
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