Running at elevation and the differences it means for me

So I'm visiting my parents at the moment and the live quite a ways away from me far away from Chicago, which is almost entirely at sea level. The benefit of visiting them (other than obvious things like how nice it is to see my mom and dad) is that they live at elevation and because of this it is dramatically cooler there.

I have never really tried cardio at elevation other than that one time I got winded just walking down the street in colorado years ago. So after my walk with my mama I mentioned to her that I wanted to have a go at doing a 5-10k at my pace and I would do this on my own because I don't want her to try to keep up with me. She had absolutely zero problem with this.

So as you can see here there isn't much variation in the height as you go along but I am starting at a full kilometer above sea level, which is where I live and spend almost 100% of the year. I expected to have some difficulties because my body hasn't acclimated to it after just a few days. It wasn't as tough as I expected but I also made a few mistakes as far as my heart rate was concerned.

I tend to not notice when my heart rate is getting really high and this is not because I am some sort of elite athlete, I am not that. I am a stubborn and consistent athlete though and while I was doing this 5k I didn't really realize that my heart rate was higher than I like it to be. I did notice however, that I was breathing a lot more heavily that I normally would and I am quite certain that this is mostly because of the thinner air at altitude.

I plan to go do another run but this time will pay more attention to my heart rate and try to keep it lower even by doing so that means that I will be walking some of the time.

While it certainly wasn't effortless, it didn't seem as hard as it does when I am in Chicago, because up here in the mountains it was more shaded and I wasn't overheating. I was still sweating, but it was cool enough that it didn't bother me as much as it does in the open sun along the lake in Chi-town.

my pace was a little bit better than it normally would be, but not by much.

I don't need to be pushing my heart rate this high but I suppose you could say that I am glad that I can do so without feeling like I am going to die. It's just normal to me and I wish that rather than not feeling the effects of it, that my cardio system would instead get stronger and it wouldn't get this high to begin with. Maybe that takes more than 18 months for that to happen. All i know about this whole running thing is what I read and have experience myself in the past year and a half.

I intend to go for another run today, still at altitude, but with the objective being to keep my heart rate at a nominal level and mostly in zone 3 or the bottom of zone 4 the entire time, the same as I do at home.

It is interesting to me that in my runs at sea level my heart rate is also high but my breathing is normally quite relaxed. here, my breathing is borderline labored at times, but my body temperature is significantly lower.

I guess they are all interconnected. I'll look that up at a later time.

If you have any experience running at both elevated and non-elevated locations, I'd like to hear your personal experiences about this..