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Hilary McNamee

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Home!
October 15, 2011

I'm HOME! After two leg-stiffening days of airplane and car travel, I've made it home.

On the way up from Portland we stopped at Colby College for lunch with our summer training partner John Dixon. He seems to be enjoying school, and balancing both training and academics well.

I've got until Tuesday to rest my body, then it's back into the swing of things. I think I am going to work on some of the sewing projects I've put off... maybe get a jump on my Christmas presents. Then I've got to work on our dinner fundraiser promotion stuff. Mark your calendars! Oct. 29th at the PI Inn and Convention Center. Buffet, silent auction, and dance!

Work at 21st Century After-school program starts up again tomorrow. Monday through Thursday I work with 4th graders at Fort Fairfield Elementary School as a recreational instructor. It's a great job; I'm getting paid to play games! Perfect! Plus those kids are a hoot! I'll admit somedays, even after a post-workout nap, it takes all the caffeine my body can handle to be awake for the three hours! Anyway, I'm glad to be home!!

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Park City, Utah
October 1, 2011

Finally, on the 6th day at altitude, I started to feel alive again. I've never been a great responder to altitude. Our condo sits at about 6,570 feet and I'm on the second floor, so I figure I've been sleeping at about 6,582 ft... which makes even sleeping a chore. Those poor boys on the top floor-not only are they sleeping higher, but they've got to climb 4 flights of stairs.

Training has taken us up to 10,000 ft. and down as low as 5,600 ft. at Soldier Hollow. The basic premise of altitude training for us sea level creatures (as I understand it) is to naturally increase erythropoietin (EPO) production. The liver produces EPO which controls red blood cell production. What important function do red blood cells serve? Carrying oxygen! Oxygen binds to hemoglobin in the blood cells and shuttles around to all of your other cells. Without oxygen, our cells cannot utilize the energy from the food we in take. So, the more hemoglobin you have, the more oxygen your cells can carry and more energy you can utilize.

When we get home to sea level, we'll have more hemoglobin, can carry more oxygen to cells and have the capacity to burn more energy. Thus enabling our bodies to tolerate more intense and taxing training than normal. So we can hit it hard when we get home and hopefully teach our neuromuscular system to send signals faster than ever before.
Be on the lookout for shorter, more frequent updates!

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