Altitude Complaining

I realize that this is the second post in a row that starts off with complaining…but I promise that I will finish it on a more positive note!
I HATE ALTITUDE!! I was only at sea level for 1 week in Japan at World Champs but now I have to go through all the readjustments back in Colorado Springs! I’m at swim practice and I’m DYING for oxygen…it is short course but I’m breathing off the walls and almost every stroke in between walls…I feel like an age-grouper (nothing against age-groupers:)! They say that you notice the altitude the most in the sport that you are best at (duh…no wonder I’m dying in the pool) and only notice it a little bit in the other sports.
Yesterday I had a great bike ride, on my own, in the middle of the day…I climbed my LEAST favorite hill/mountain in Colorado Springs: Cheyenne Mountain…but I climbed it slow and at my own pace instead of the breakneck pace that we always do when we climb it in a group. At the top, we usually just turn around and go down the same way we came up…but I took the gravel trail at the top that goes along the edge of the mountain to the top of my MOST favorite climb: Gold Camp…so I did a little off roading in the middle of my ride!
After struggling through practice this morning and a short refreshing nap…I am about to get ready for a little bike/run/bike group workout. We are dropping our run stuff off with our coaches…biking for 1.5 hours to Bear Creek Park…our coaches are meeting us there with our run stuff…we run for 40 HARD min at the park…then ride home easy to cool down! I’ve got to go get ready to train! Later Gators(