I moved to Denver 1 year ago and still haven't quite adjusted to running at altitude. My mile pace is about 10-15 seconds slower than it was at sea level and I CANNOT go as long as I used to. Long runs used to be 20-24 miles and now they are only 16-18 miles. Seems that is the longest I can go.
My question is:
Do some runners never adjust to the altitude?
I moved to Boulder from sea level so I am in the same boat. But You never really "get used" to it. Things just start to feel more normal but your always going to deal with it in someway. But yeah I used to do the long ass runs like you and when I moved here I could barely get 10 without feeling like sh**! But 6 months later I feel normal except on hills and can run well over 2 hours at an actual faster pace then I used to at sea level. But it does take a lot more time to recover. Some people just take longer then others to get used to it, but you will eventually.
So are you back to running your normal distance for long runs? Or do you still have to cut them short?
Does anyone know of runners or athletes that had to moved back down to sea level because they were having problems with altitude?
Ritzenhein moved to sea level from Boulder. He claimed he wasn't recovering well enough, but that was also due to the surfaces he was running on in Colorado.