San Diego FC trains at Singing Hills east of San Diego. The club plays at Snapdragon Stadium, located 363 feet above sea level. Hills are not mountains. Snapdragon Stadium isn’t a mile high. And while San Diego FC players are doing all they can to prepare for Saturday’s road match against the Colorado Rapids, consuming nitrate-rich beet-root juice and greens to help them adapt once they touch down at Denver International Airport, there’s very little else they can do to prepare for soccer at elevation. Dick’s Sporting Goods Park is located 5,200 lung-searing feet above sea level, making it the highest point in Major League Soccer. San Diego FC will be making its first trip there. “The only thing that’s going to prepare you is to train at elevation,” SDFC midfielder Jasper Löffelsend said. “We don’t have, like, an oxygen chamber or anything where we can train (for) that.” Coach Mikey Varas and his team will instead focus on extending a run of success that’s practically unprecedented among expansion teams. Since suffering its first loss on March 23, SDFC has defeated LAFC 3-2 and the Seattle Sounders 3-0. At 4-1-2, San Diego FC sits tied for second place in the 15-team Western Conference. “One of our opportunities we have this week is to keep a streak going, and that takes a lot of focus and energy,” Varas said Thursday. “Controlling the things we can control, which is a commitment to our effort, our principles, our training habits … We’re learning about ourselves in this month, and it’s a great opportunity.” SDFC can lean on its only previous experience at elevation as it travels to Colorado. Last month, the club trekked to Real Salt Lake’s America First Field — elevation: 4,500 feet — for its second-ever road trip. San Diego scored twice in injury time to capture a 3-1 win. “You saw how we went to Salt Lake, which is a little bit similar with the elevation,” Löffelsend said. “We had a good game there and took our lessons from it as well — how we want to play, how we need to play to manage our fitness level.” Deep breath At the end of Thursday’s practice, Varas gathered his team under a pair of tents at the team’s practice facility. Players removed their shoes, stretched out, closed their eyes and focused on their breathing. Varas calls it “performance breath,” and his commitment to the mental side of the game sets him apart from many other coaches in MLS. Breathing controls emotions, Varas says, and “to be able to be comfortable with (emotions) and understand them and where they’re coming from is really important to us.” The breath work is optional, though a handful of players polled Thursday said they’re using it both on and off the field. “I think it’s a very, very unique thing to do,” Löffelsend said. “I’ve never experienced it before in my life, but I’m all in on it.” Varas is a certified yoga instructor who draws from eastern philosophy and literature. But he is foremost a soccer coach, and the breath work is, he says, just one of a number of tools the club uses in search of an edge. “Everything is No. 1 about winning,” he said. “And in order to win, you need your players to perform well.” Lozano’s impact Hirving “Chucky” Lozano will have no physical limitations when the club heads to Colorado. Lozano has played in just one road match this year, the team’s season-opening win over the Galaxy in Carson. He suffered a leg injury in the club’s March 1 home opener and was out for four weeks before returning March 29. Lozano played the best game of his SDFC career last weekend, scoring his first MLS goal, assisting on another and having an indirect hand in a third. “When you have a player who in one half can help you create three goals,” Varas said, “it’s pretty clear how important that player is.”