RIDING THE WIND: Dec 16

Monday, December 23, 2013

Dec 16 - 22

12/16/2013
Mon-AM: 1:31, 1300' ~ Collinsville out and back
Ran the roads from Joel's Dad's house in Connecticut. Really enjoyed this run for some reason even though it was cold and 100% on pavement. Nice climbs in and out of the Farmington River valley.

12/17/2013
Tue-AM: 0:31, 200' ~ Avon, CT
About +10F and snowing. Just a quick road spin in the morning before we drove down to NYC for the film screening that evening.

12/18/2013
Wed-PM: 1:55, 4300' ~ Bear & Green
Had an early morning flight back from NYC, so when I got back to Boulder I immediately headed to Chautauqua with Joe to revel in the stunning +60F weather. So good to be back in the mountains, grunting up steep hills, in the evening light.

12/19/2013
Thu-AM: 2:15, 4500' ~ Bear & Green
From my apartment, then the usual loop up Fern, down the West Ridge, and then up and over Green. Still nice and warm in the morning.

12/20/2013
Fri-AM: 2:18, 4500' ~ Bear & Green
Same exact run as yesterday except that I finished by descending Flagstaff. Also, there was an awesome inversion layer of clouds that I climbed out of at approximately the Nebelhorn in Fern Canyon and then descended back into while coming back down Flagstaff Mt. Flew to Seattle in the afternoon.

12/21/2013
Sat-AM: 3:07, 5600' ~ Mt. Teneriffe & Mt. Si
With Martin. Parked at the schoolbus turnaround (I think) and ran up to the Kamikaze Waterfalls and then marched up the super-aesthetic SW ridge of Teneriffe on a fantastic goat path. Such a perfect line. The last couple thousand feet of vert had snow on it with some real postholing near the ~4800' summit. I was surprised at how sweet the summit was; big drops in all directions. Descended pretty blindly down through the snow and trees and fog trying to hit a certain logging road. Eventually found it and commenced the shin-deep snow slog over towards Si. We ended up missing a turn and descending the logging road an extra 500' of vert (and 25min or so) but eventually realized our mistake and made our way back up and over to Si, another surprisingly aesthetic summit, but not much to see in all the clouds. The descent down the super-popular Mt. Si trail back to the road was a total shred-fest, so smooth and a perfect grade for running hard. Ran the extra mile+ on the road back to our car to finish off the outing. Longest run I've done since UTMB and I came away with a much greater appreciation for the Seattle area's mountain offerings.

12/22/2013
Sun-AM: 2:08, 1500' ~ Seattle urban trails
Group run from the Fleet Feet store. Went all over the city, connecting all sorts of great little pieces of trail and hitting Pioneer Park, Volunteer Park, and the Arboretum. I think. Classic foggy/misty weather. I had an extra 30min or so of running getting to and from the store from my hotel.

Hours: 13h45min
Vert: 21,900'

Really solid week, especially considering all the traveling. I'm still just trying to find a rhythm in my training again, but it's great feeling that at least the energy is there to do it. I'll admit, I ended up being a bit surprised by Seattle. I was treated to the classic misty/foggy gloom of winter there, but I was very impressed with the mountains that are available not unreasonably far from the city center. Back when I was first inspired by ultras (the late 90s and early 2000s), Seattle was this almost mythical place in my mind where it seemed all the sport's best lived and trained. Jurker, Hal, Torrence, McCoubrey, Uli, Kochik, the whole Seattle Running Company scene, etc., etc., etc….in high school I would read about Scott doing repeats on Mt. Si or traversing the summits of Tiger in preparation for Western States and it would fuel my curiosity for the sport. What could it be like to do a 35mi/10,000' training run? As such, it was pretty cool to finally get out there and see some of the hills and paths myself. It seems like the Cascades themselves really deserve some attention during the summer season as well, at some point.