Jeanette Ottesen Gray is heading up to an altitude training camp in Sierra Nevada, Spain (3,478 m or 11,411 ft) for the next two weeks ahead of the Mare Nostrum competition in Monaco, which goes from June 8th-9th.
“It will be nice to get away from home, because one has to do many things and focus more places when you are at home,” said Ottesen Gray when being interviewed by Anna Birkbak of Danish Swimming.
“At training camp, I can focus only on my training and it is super cool.”
Ottesen Gray, who is currently ranked number one in the world in the 50 butterfly (25.76) and third in the world in the 100 butterfly (57.94), has been training well with her new coach Shannon Rollason, “”Shannon has simply tackled everything as well. Both in terms of my swimming and myself, but also all sorts of other things. He has also taught me a lot.”
“Our relationship is really good, and it is also relaxed both around the pool and outside. I respect him and be myself, it’s really cool.”
Rollason took over as the Head Coach of the Danish National Training Centre in January.
Pretty much all published studies show NO benefit from altitude training unless you rest at a much lower altitude from where you train. “Train high, sleep low”. Perhaps her base camp is at the foot of the mountains and she travels up to altitude every day to train, but I doubt that’s the case.
I think you got it the other way around, most studies show that ‘Live high, train low’ is the best way to do altitude training.
It is also the idea behind the altitude tent which for instance Maarten van der Weijden used in the year before the 2008 Olympics (10k open water gold).
That said, the results differ a lot for each person and the best amount of time between the camp and the mayor meet is also open for discussion.
Yeah, the elevation noted in the article is the highest point in Spain, not the altitude of the pool.
I already forgot Shannon Rollason is training the Danish now.
Ottesen will be the darkhorse in the sprints, if that’s even possible for defending world champion.
The SN swim facilities are on 2320M, as far ad i know.