Hmmm...May. In a way, this was my "worst" month of running of 2010 so far. The first two weeks were consumed by recovering from Miwok and getting my knee back to a place where it was comfortable with doing a bunch of running again. Surprisingly, thanks mostly to a lot of acupuncture work with Allison Suddard in Erie, CO, it made a very solid recovery in the second half of the month, to the point where it now feels as good or even better than it did going into Miwok. I was doing a lot of acupuncture with Allison back in February and March, too, so maybe it's something that I just need to remain consistent with if I want to keep running healthy.
Leading into Western States, less than four weeks from now, I'll be looking to hit two more key long runs interspersed among a whole bunch more 2hr-ish trips up and down Green Mountain. So, basically, just more of the same stuff that I've been doing all year. But, this stuff A) is motivating and inspiring for me, and B) seems to work, I think. At its heart, running is pretty simple, so I try to keep it that way.
05-24-2010 Mon-AM: 30 miles (4:40) Green-Bear-SoBo-Chat-Green, 7500' Ran 34:50 up the front of Green and then after tagging Bear and SoBo dropped down Shadow Canyon and took Mesa back to Chautauqua to climb Green one more time via Gregory-Ranger in 38:40. Finished up with 3mi of barefoot at Kitt. Knee was encouragingly good all day except for the 2000'/1.5mi descent off the top of SoBo and down Shadow. Ridiculously steep and technical stuff there. Great quad-crusher, though. Soaked in Boulder Creek afterwards.
05-25-2010 Tue-AM: 16 miles (2:19) Green Mt up Flatirons down Bear Cyn, 3300' Legs actually felt good today, but I went easy. That Flatiron trail is a nice find that I wish I'd explored sooner. Knee was pretty tight today. PM: 8 miles (1:01) Creek Path+4mi barefoot at Kitt
05-26-2010 Wed-AM: 15 miles (2:10) Green Mt. up Back down Bear Cyn, 3000' Ran early (5:30am) for no good reason other than that it's a great time of day. Legs felt more recovered but I just took it easy and enjoyed the swirling clouds on the summit. Knee felt a lot better. PM: 7 miles (:55) Creek Path+North Boulder Park After an acupuncture session with Allison, I ventured up to North Boulder Park to explore some new scenery for my barefooting. However, NoBo Park is too busy and the surface isn't as nice as Kitt Field, so I abandoned it after only one lap. I forgot what madness the Creek Path is in the summertime. It's so busy that it's nearly unrunnable. It's inspiring that Boulder is that active, but it's not exactly my ideal running environment. Kind of a dissatisfactory run, especially since my stomach was significantly jacked-up for the first time in a long while.
05-27-2010 Thu-AM: 25 miles (3:38) Mt. Evans (14,264'), 3700' vertical Started from Echo Lake (~10,500') with Jeff and Brandon. On the long traverse over to Summit Lake the wind was so absurdly strong that it was stopping me in my tracks quite often--pretty miserable running conditions. On all the switchbacks to the top the wind would alternate between throwing me up the hill and almost knocking me over backwards. Struggled to the top in a very casual, just-keep-moving-forward-without-the-wind-hurtling-me-to-Kansas 2:17. Descended directly off the top on a ~0.5mile/1300'-drop snowface with Jeff that happily cut off about four miles of downhill road and then jogged easy with Jeff back down to the car, chatting the whole way. Much much more pleasant with the wind at our backs. PM: 8 miles (1:00) Creek Path+4mi barefoot at Kitt Decided to take advantage of the 90F temps to get in a little heat training. Legs felt good and knee was rock-solid all day today, which is very encouraging.
05-28-2010 Fri-AM: 15 miles (2:11) Green Mt. up Back down Bear Cyn, 3000' Took it relaxed and easy. Knee felt good. Hot (90F+) later in the day.
05-29-2010 Sat-AM: 43 miles (6:20) 2xGreen-Walker-Eldo-Green, 11,000' Two laps up Green were 34:30 (Amp-SR-Greenman) and 37:45 (Gregory-Ranger), and the third ascent was via Bear Canyon in 36:30 (from Mesa). Nice hot-ish weather all day (80s) was a step in the right direction in terms of acclimation. From the beginning I didn't have great climbing legs, but my quads were rock-solid all day, still feeling plenty fresh on the final descent off Green. That is very encouraging. Also, my knee never hurt the entire day. No barefoot, but soaked for 10min in Boulder Creek afterwards.
05-30-2010 Sun-AM: 15 miles (2:12) Green Mt. up Back down Bear Cyn, 3000' Nice easy run; super casual 38:50 ascent. Slightly sore quads and glutes. Nice to see that no one's out on the trails at 6:00am on a Sunday morning. PM: 15 miles (2:12) Green Mt. up Front down Long Cyn, 3000' Ran up the hill in 32:41 (6:30, 18:50). I wasn't planning on going very hard, so I just kind of eased into the climb with no expectations. By time I got to Greenman, though, I could see that I had a decent time going so I kept the pace steady and then really pushed the last 3min (from the top of the log stairs) to make sure I got under 33min. Descended Long Canyon and then Flagstaff to Viewpoint and the Creek Path. For some reason my quads were incredibly tired on the downhill--not pounded or sore just really really weak and tired. Which, I guess, is why you put in back-to-back big days--to beat down your body like the second half of a 100 miler. Long Canyon is a gem of a trail that I haven't been on since last fall. Beautiful singletrack without another soul on it. Soaked in Boulder Creek afterwards.
Total -Miles: 197 -Hours: 28h 38min -Vertical: 37,500'
2010 Summits (Day 150) Green: 153 Bear: 8 SoBo: 3
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This week ended up being a bit bigger than I'd planned because of last week's long run being bumped up to Monday and because of the Mt. Evans run on Thursday. Right now, though, if I want to do any running at high altitude, it's going to be on the Mt. Evans road, which is long. This is actually the biggest week I've had since the last time I was preparing for Western States, two years ago. I need to be sure to not get carried away these next two weeks and just focus on maintaining a reasonable schedule of running.
The second half of the week also saw a marked improvement in the health of my knee. Right now I'm very hopeful that I'll be able to race 100 miles on it without needing to take a ton of time off afterwards. In the next month I'll continue to look to get a fair bit of running above 10,000' while still getting plenty of time in Boulder in hot weather.
Today was an encouraging outing on Boulder's trails. The past ten days have still left a fair number of questions/reservations in my mind about the relative wisdom in deciding to race at Western States. Will my knee recover afterwards? Will my knee allow me to prepare the way I'd like? Will my knee even allow me to get to the starting line?
The past few days--and especially today--set a lot of those questions to rest, and in a positive way. Thursday's nearly four hour run up and down Mt. Evans went flawlessly despite my doubts about my knee's ability to withstand an hour-plus of pounding downhill on pavement. And then today's romp through the mountains and canyons of Boulder reaffirmed that things are definitely headed in the right direction.
Today I completed a route that, since my build-up for Miwok, has become somewhat of my default long run: log a lap or two on Green Mt.; head out to Walker Ranch and cruise around its relentlessly hilly loop; trundle my way through maybe the scenic highlight of the run, Eldorado Canyon; and then make my way back to Boulder along the Mesa Trail for a final lap or two on Green again. These trails offer borderline absurd amounts of vertical gain and an engaging mix of fast, smooth singletrack and steep, technical ascents and descents that while certainly very very tough, all remain runnable.
(Two laps of Green, the bumps of Walker, and then another ascent of Green.)
Today, my knee handled it all with aplomb. Not a single whinny from down there. Which is more than I can say for any of the long runs I did in the lead-up to Miwok. At some point in each of the major long runs before that race I would get at least a short stretch where the knee would become a bit achey and twingy before returning to a pain-free state. Maybe the hip strengthening exercises and Allison's acupuncture are working?
It was legitimately warm out today. Days like today are why I'm not living in Leadville this summer. It doesn't get hot in Leadville. (And by the time heat is no longer a priority for me (post-WS) Jocelyn will have returned from Peru and I'll always choose her, even over the high mountains.) Yesterday the mercury hit 92F here in Boulder and for most of the run today the temps had to be in the 80s. I knew I would be riding the hydration edge a bit by only taking one bottle with me from the base of Green to get me the two and half hours of running back up the mountain, around Walker, and through Eldorado Canyon to the visitor center's fountain, but I was kind of hoping to shock the body a little, too, to train it to hold onto it's water a little better (hmmm...I wonder if that's even physiologically feasible?).
I ran out of water about 30min out from the Eldo trailhead (right when I was standing around gabbing with Nick, Justin, and Nick P, out on a good, long excursion of their own today. There were lots of friends out today--saw Brandon and Jim, too, doing a Skyline Traverse. I had about another 22min of chat-stops, mountain-top gazing, etc. in addition to the 6h20 of running time), and when I made it to the fountain I got to work filling the ol' fashioned Camelbak--my stomach. I'm pretty sure the first 22oz bottle was absorbed directly into my bloodstream with nary a pause in my belly, and the second and third took only slightly more work to get down. After 70oz of water and a gel, the remaining uphills back over to Bear Canyon sure were a lot easier.
This morning I had vague intentions of trying to get four laps on Green today, but when I hit the steep sections of the Green-Bear Trail (the two Nicks and Justin were witness to pretty much the apex of my suffering on that little climb) I knew that three would have to do. I was worked. And, I was out of gels. However, despite not really having very solid climbing legs all day (in the morning I hit ascents of 34:30 up Amp-SR-Greenman and 37:45 up Gregory-Ranger--I was expecting a minute or so faster on each of those), my downhill chops were definitely there. Even on the final 3mi/2500' descent off of Green Mt. my quads felt as fresh as they did at the beginning of the run. So, things are coming along.
In a fairly informal (at least it felt that way when Duncan was conducting it) interview for competitor.com, I was asked what I think about for all those solo hours on the trail without an iPod to keep me company. Although part of my answer astonishingly made Letsrun.com's Quote of the Day (truly, the absolute zenith of any runner's career), I failed to mention that there is often plenty of music playing when I'm out running. It's just all stuck in my head.
Today, this rousing track was on repeat, which I was quite fine with:
05-17-2010 Mon-AM: 13 miles (2:00) Green Mt. up and down Back, 2800' Unexpectedly quick 35:55 trip up Gregory-Ranger. 1mi barefoot
05-18-2010 Tue-AM: 13 miles (2:00) Green Mt. up and down Back, 2800' Got this in early before hopping a plane to CT. 1mi barefoot.
05-19-2010 Wed-AM: 9 miles (1:03) Roads in Connecticut After doing the NB group run, tacked on some easy miles with Greg T. All the humidity, oxygen and foliage made me nostalgic for Nebraska.
05-20-2010 Thu-AM: 9 miles (1:07) Roads in Connecticut Easy shakeout before flying back home. PM: 15 miles (2:07) Green Mt. up Front down Back, 2800' 31:29 PR with splits of 6:05 and 17:55. Stomach was off, which slowed me down a bit. First time I've run this route in a while, so it was good to get back on it. Yesterday's easy day really helped out the knee, too. 3mi barefoot.
05-21-2010 Fri-AM: 14 miles (2:03) Green Mt. up and down Back, 2800' Pretty sluggish after the late run last night. 2mi barefoot. PM: 14 miles (2:01) Green Mt. up and down Back, 2800' Ran at 2pm to start getting some heat training in, ~80F. Didn't eat enough between runs and I was really bonking the last 20min or so.
05-22-2010 Sat-AM: 15 miles (2:12) Green Mt. up Back down Bear Cyn, 3000' Legs tired as expected after yesterday. Already over 80F in the AM. PM: 8 miles (1:06) Goose Creek+2mi barefoot at Kitt Ran at 2pm to get some almost 90F heat.
05-23-2010 Sun-AM: 15 miles (2:06) Green Mt. up Front down Bear Cyn, 3000' Went up the mountain in a surprisingly casual 34:50. Legs still tired. PM: 8 miles (1:03) Public Library+5mi barefoot at Kitt
Total -Miles: 133 -Hours: 18h 48min -Vertical: 20,000'
It felt really good this week to get back into some respectable schedule of mountain running again. At some point this week I was descending Green Mt and the distinct feeling that I was in the right place, doing the right thing, living the right way hit me hard and I realized that it's been a long time--almost four weeks--since I've been back in the rhythm of daily running.
(Cruisin' some of the new-ishly-constructed buffed singletrack in Bear Cyn this morning.)
Speaking of rhythm, last week someone asked me in the comments section whether or not I have a coach, especially in light of the fact there he couldn't make out any discernible "rhythm" in my day-to-day and week-to-week running. The two weeks preceding this one certainly had no such rhythm. It was all about listening to my body (my knee, specifically) and doing what I thought it could reasonably handle. Which, come to think about it, is really all that limits my running most of the time. I can definitely feel a rhythm in my day-to-day running when the training is going really well.
During the build-up for Miwok my running generally fell into a pattern of: Monday & Tuesday, go easy and recover from the weekend; Wednesday and Thursday, hit a little bit more vertical and push the climbs if my body was feeling like it; Friday, easy day; Saturday and Sunday, big volume days with tons of vertical and an especially long run on Saturday. Repeat. Of course, this was all in the context of running up Green Mt every day--even easy days--but my fitness has progressed to the point where I can maintain volume and vertical while twiddling with the intensity knob on any given day to produce variability in the day-to-day output.
However, the most important thing is that there is no set "pattern" in my running, by design. That is intentional. I would rather let each new day's conditions and unique levels of fatigue dictate what I do than begin each and every week with a set-in-stone idea of what I want to accomplish. Keep it simple. Cultivate the activities that make you tick. Don't overthink the details or the highs and lows, because tomorrow the mountain will always still be there, just waiting to be run up again.
Unlike my running, I think this has a rhythm that can be appreciated:
A full three weeks have passed without me making regular trips up Green Mt. This week, thankfully, my knee has been allowing me to make myself a familiar figure up there once again.
Yesterday I arrived back home in Boulder after nearly 12 hours of travel from Connecticut where I was attending a meeting with the kind folks at New Balance. In the morning I'd put in a leisurely nine miles exploring the hills and hollows of the Thames River, but after sitting on an airplane for most of the day I knew I needed to get out and stretch the legs.
Off to Green Mt. then.
In those intervening, largely Green-less weeks, the mountain had become much more aligned with its name. Finally, the last vestiges of snow are gone and the foliage is in full force. I felt a surprising bounce in my legs as I made my way through the two miles of streets to Chautauqua, so I decided it was time to see if my fitness has been eroding or not with the lowered mileage. A focused effort of Green's frontside route would fit the bill.
My legs felt in control as I cranked my way up the almost dishearteningly steep steps of the Amphitheater trail, but my stomach was off as a result of three days of travel, odd meals, and irregular hours. Even so, I came through the Saddle Rock junction in 6:05, 15 seconds under my previous best time for that stretch of trail. Above here I focused on getting into an efficient rhythm and not wasting unnecessary energy by trying to go too fast through sections of exceedingly technical trail. For much of this winter, this route was mostly a perfectly-packed trench of snow with the abundant rocks and roots smoothed out and filled in. Now, with the snow gone, trying to run it fast is a much different experience. What one gains in marginally-improved traction (Microspikes do an amazingly good job during the winter) is almost certainly lost in having to keep a constant tension in one's leg muscles just to stay upright on the variable terrain.
I passed the Flatiron Turn-off in 11:50--30 seconds under PR pace--and then was sure to not overdo it on the very steep section leading up to the overlook. After an almost-not-there downhill, I reached the Greenman Trail junction in 17:55. From here, the trail becomes much more forgiving for about two minutes. There are almost no rocks and even a short downhill section on which you can catch your breath before hopping over a spring and beginning the struggle through endless talus and rock and log steps that define the final 10 minutes of this mountain.
The last three minutes on this route are always a signifier of what kind of effort you've put in. If you've been sand-bagging up until this point, you can draw on your abundant energy reserves to dance through the rocks with exhilerating aplomb. If, however, you've been operating on a razor's edge for the majority of the climb, this final section will likely send you over the brink and you'll probably trip, stumble, even turn an ankle, and feel mostly like a hypoxic, bumbling idiot as you struggle towards the summit. Which is probably what Green has temporarily turned you into.
Thankfully, my stomach woes had forced me to keep the effort slightly conservative up until this point, and I was able to sprint to the top nearly as quickly as when snow has smoothed it into a more uniform surface. I reached the summit in 31:29, a satisfactory 50 seconds faster than my previous best, clocked this winter.
Sitting on the summit rock I was rewarded with a most outstanding sunset: storm clouds were beginning to swirl over the Indian Peaks as the last rays of light shone through, creating a breathtaking (no pun intended) natural light show. What's more, it was nearly eight o'clock at night and I was on the summit with nothing more than a pair of shorts and a pair of shoes. No shirt or headlamp needed. And later, running barefoot on Kittredge Field in near complete darkness, the air still held plenty of warmth to keep me comfortable. Man, I love summer.
It's been a while since I've had an update on here, but that's mostly because I was consumed with finishing out the school year and also because Miwok caused my knee to suffer a bit of a relapse. I was afraid of that going into the race, but I felt like I was in a bit of a Catch-22 situation--if I wanted to have an opportunity to race at Western States, I had to race Miwok, even though doing so might set me back physically.
With that in mind, I've taken the subsequent two weeks quite easy in terms of training load. When I registered for Miwok last December I felt that it would be key to be sure to fully recover from Miwok before launching into any theoretical final preparations for Western States, and I feel like I've been successful (rare for me) in doing that.
After deciding that I do indeed want to race there (a more in-depth exploration of this topic here), I now feel ready to embark on another period of high-volume running before the taper for Western States, and, with the advent of the summer season, can't wait to start making regular forays into thinner air. Now some snow just needs to melt!
Here are the past three weeks of "training", i.e. just lots of tapering and recovery with a single 62 mile effort interjected into the middle of it all:
04-26-2010 Mon-AM: 16 miles (2:21) Green Mt. up Back down Bear Canyon, 3000'
04-27-2010 Tue-AM: 8 miles (1:01) Creek Path+4mi barefoot at Kitt
04-28-2010 Wed-AM: 8 miles (1:03) Creek Path+1mi barefoot at Kitt
04-29-2010 Thu-AM: 8 miles (1:00) Creek Path in the rain
04-30-2010 Fri-AM: 8 miles (1:04) Creek Path+2mi barefoot at Kitt
05-01-2010 Sat-AM: 62 miles (8:02:51) Miwok 100K, 10,400' vertical
05-02-2010 Sun-PM: 1 mile (:10) Barefoot at Kitt with Jocelyn Sore, but not too bad. Knee is definitely the worst thing.
Total -Miles: 111
-Hours: 14h 42min -Vertical: 13,400'
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05-03-2010 Mon-AM: 1.5 miles (:13) Barefoot at Scott Carpenter Park
05-04-2010 Tue-AM: 3.5 miles (:30) Creek Path with Jocelyn Everything in my body feels recovered except for the knee.
05-05-2010 Wed-AM: 4 miles (:33) Barefoot at Kitt with Jocelyn
05-06-2010 Thu-AM: 7 miles (:54) Creek Path+2mi barefoot at Kitt
05-07-2010 Fri-AM: 6 miles (:48) Creek Path
05-08-2010 Sat-AM: 5 miles (:42) Creek Path with Jocelyn
05-09-2010 Sun-AM: 6 miles (:47) Creek Path to Chat and home
Total -Miles: 33 -Hours: 4h 27min -Vertical: nada
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05-10-2010 Mon-AM: 9 miles (1:22) Green Mt. up Back down Front, 2800' Knee was decidedly unhappy with this test. Hitchhiked home.
05-12-2010 Wed-AM: 12 miles (1:30) Creek Path Definite progress here. Knee was 100% until the last 15min.
05-13-2010 Thu-AM: 13 miles (2:00) Green Mt. up and down Back, 2800' Effortless 39:35 through 6-8" of new snow on Ranger. Felt great to be back up on the mountain and knee was surprisingly tolerable on the downhill, especially considering how bad it was Monday.
05-14-2010 Fri-AM: 4 miles (:31) Campus
05-15-2010 Sat-AM: 13 miles (1:33) SoBo Creek out past Bobolink and back Knee felt great and I got in some steady, easy flat running at sub-7s.
05-16-2010 Sun-AM: 14 miles (2:00) Green Mt. up and down Back, 2800' Best run I've had since before Miwok. 34:41 up Gregory-Ranger despite not really feeling any exceptional energy in my legs--just felt like a normal day but with a bit higher exertion. Really excited to get back into a solid daily training routine.
Total
-Miles: 73
-Hours: 9h 58min
-Vertical: 8400'
2010 Summits (Day 136)
-Green: 136 (I've now exhausted the +16 advantage I'd built up)
-Bear: 7
-SoBo: 2
Here are a few photos from the race on Saturday (from various folks) that I thought captured my day particularly well. Thanks all for taking the time to snap a few shots!
.
(Final preparations at the hotel on race morning. Photo: Martin Mudry.)
(Heading up the Rodeo Valley Trail--I think--early in the morning, at the base of the first big climb, ~6.5mi. Photo: Luis Escobar)
(Charging along Bolinas Ridge somwhere on the Coastal Trail, ~25mi. Photo: Luis Escobar)
(Jenn and Renn cruising back on the Coastal Trail, ~45mi. Photo: Luis Escobar)
(If only I'd been going as fast as this photo looks. Descending Deer Park Road at ~51mi. Photo: Shane Wolf)
(NOT making it look easy--and probably cursing the downhill asphalt--with only a few hundred yards to go. Photo: Shane Wolf)
(Mere yards from the finish line. Photo: Nico Vera)
(Man, there is seriously nothing so beautiful as finally sitting down and peeling off the shoes...Photo: Martin Mudry)
I posted my race report for Miwok over at Running Times. So, go ahead and click here to see it.
Also, Jim from Hydrapak was industrious enough to take some fairly intimate footage of some of the back-and-forth that Mike Wardian and I engaged in for the first 35 miles of the race. Check it out:
April was obviously an excellent month of running. My right knee held together all month even as I methodically increased the duration of my long run each weekend, starting with a 4xGreen/5hr effort the first weekend of the month and ending with a 7h30/50mi/13k' vert outing two weeks ago. Although I still get the odd twinge in that joint every now and then, the fact that it survived such a rigorous 50 miler with essentially no issues gives me a lot of confidence and joy in the fact that I've finally made it back to a place where I can engage in ultra adventures with a measure of peace of mind. It's been a while.
Overall, this month I made it to the tops of some peaks a bunch of times (42 times, actually) and ran a bunch of miles, all while tapering the final week of the month, i.e. no summits, no runs/days of more than an hour, and no vertical. That's cutting back for me. Enough to make me slightly cranky, bored, unmotivated, and rested. Must be time to race. I can't wait to see what May holds for me.
(The last time I took a competitive stride: leaving Winfield, CO August, 2009.)
Finally, starting next week, I'll be posting some additional content (once a week or so) on a new blog over at Running Times, for those that are interested.
This morning was my final ascent of Green Mt before taking it easy these last few days leading into Miwok this weekend.
Mother Nature, though, made sure to make it a scenic one. Last night Jocelyn and I were sequestered in the CU Law Library--she outlining for finals, me tapping out a project proposal--when we'd had enough and decided to make a break for the mountains. Unfortunately, within minutes the threatening clouds had opened up and by the end of our little 50 minute sojourn on the trails we were thoroughly soaked.
As I found out this morning, though, it had been snowing up high. After jogging through the streets to the trailhead my legs felt nice and peppy and I ad libbed a quasi-tempo of the bottom half of the mountain at PR pace (despite slick conditions) before just jogging to the top through the nearly six inches of new fluff. I've been fortunate enough to make it to the top 132 times now in the last 116 days, but Saturday's race means it will be at least a week before I see the summit again. I'm not worried; she's not going anywhere.
Some snow-flavored scenes from this morning's Rocky Mountain Spring romp:
04-19-2010 Mon-AM: 16 miles (2:25) Green Mt., up Back down Bear Cyn, 3000' Very easy, relaxed effort; ended with a mile of barefoot. PM: 8 miles (1:02) McClintock-Mesa-Kitt w/ Jocelyn, 1000' Ran 3mi of barefoot at the end.
04-20-2010 Tue-AM: 16 miles (2:20) Green Mt., up Back down Bear Cyn, 3000' Nice and easy. Incredible clouds. PM: 8 miles (1:03) Creek Path+4mi barefoot at Kitt
04-21-2010 Wed-AM: 20 miles (3:00) Green Mt.-Bear Pk-SoBo Pk, 5000' 33:38 up front of Green; had to hike the last 5min because of ice and snow. Lovely morning to be up high with the clouds at my feet. PM: 8 miles (1:02) Creek Path+Kitt Lunch run with Jocelyn. 4 miles barefoot.
04-22-2010 Thu-AM: 15 miles (2:11) Green Mt., up Back down Bear Cyn, 3000' Nice easy run with Joe. Creek crossings were epic with all this rain. PM: 4 miles (:35) Stanford Campus from Zombie Runner in CA Super easy group run around Stanford goofing off with Erik and Jenn the whole time. It was borderline hot...need to start working on some acclimation maybe?
04-23-2010 Fri-AM: 21+ miles (3:14) Santa Cruz Mts, Woodside, CA, 3800' Early easy effort run with Gary Gellin before catching a plane back home. He had devised an excellent loop through Huddart Park, Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space, and a bunch of other stuff I don't even know. Had two decent climbs to Skyline Blvd at 2000' where we were treated to inspiring (but fogged in) views of Half Moon and San Francisco Bays. All of the trails were ridiculously perfect cushiony singletrack through groves of redwoods, which was awesome. I will say that by the end, however, I was a bit tired of running through the forest and was craving some sense of topography and wide open views. Great run, though, and afterwards I had the most gigantic piece of delicious blueberry pie for brunch, courtesy of Main St. Coffee in Redwood City.
(Map of Gary's redwoods-dominated run up and over the spine of the Santa Cruz Mts outside Woodside, CA.)
04-24-2010 Sat-AM: 30 miles (4:31) Green-Eldo-Mesa-Bear Cyn-Green, 7000' There was ~6" of very heavy, slushy snow above 6800', plus I got snowed on the first time up Green. The snow slowed down the climbs and almost all of the trails were ridiculously wet, often fully-flowing streams. Even so, it was a good run with exceptional scenery given the fresh snow. I couldn't help but compare this run to yesterday's in California. The trails here are often exceedingly technical, but for whatever reason I absolutely prefer their ruggedness to the soft perfection of CA...I guess home is just home and can't be beat. Especially the wide-open views and thin air. Two gels.
04-25-2010 Sun-AM: 16 miles (2:22) Green Mt., up Back down Bear Cyn, 3000' Relaxed effort. Snow is almost all gone already. 1mi barefoot. PM: 6 miles (:50) Mesa-Enchanted-Kohler from Law School, 700' Crazy run with Jocelyn. Decided we needed a break from the library at about 7pm so headed out into threatening clouds. Within minutes it started sprinkling then eventually pouring on us as we charged, underdressed through the wet trails. Pretty miserable, but it made my headache go away, which is what I was shooting for.
Total -Miles: 168 -Hours: 24h 35min -Vertical: 29,500'
2010 Summits (Day 115) -Green: 131 -Bear: 7 -SoBo: 2
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Some photos from the week:
(Deep in the redwoods, on Friday morning. Photo: Gary Gellin)
(Just another empty suit: strange, I know. Photo: Gary Gellin)
(Post-blueberry gorging, with Jim Moyles. Photo: Gary Gellin)
(New snow high on the Ranger Trail, Green Mt.)
(Higher-than-usual creek crossings in Bear Canyon this morning.)
This was the last week of real training before Miwok. The last six weeks have seen tallies of 152, 168, 170, 170, 189, and 168. This has left me feeling pretty good going into the taper week, which happens to coincide nicely with the fact that I really need to devote some extra time this week to finishing up end-of-the-semester academic assignments. But then it's summer! At Miwok, my goal will be to enjoy the fact that I've gotten myself to a place where I'm healthy and fit enough to line up at the start of a 62 mile voyage with confidence after months and months of not racing and feeling uncertain in my health. It's time to go out and have some fun running some new trails in a beautiful location.
Additionally, it was a treat to get the opportunity to briefly visit northern California this week. New Balance was hosting an event at Zombie Runner in Palo Alto where folks had the chance to see some exciting new proto-types of NB minimalist footwear, chat with the product manager of NB's Outdoor line, and go on a group run from the still relatively-new, brick-and-mortar Zombie Runner store (they've been selling stuff for ultrarunners on-line for a number of years now). Although just a casual jog around Stanford's historic campus, I was thankful to go on a run with Erik where he didn't drop the hammer from the get-go, like usual, and we could actually get in some quality gossiping.
I was up and out the door at 5:30 this morning so that I could complete a tour of the local peaks before class. A dense layer of grey clouds formed a dreary, low blanket over Boulder, but based on yesterday morning's run, I knew that once atop the mountains I'd be treated to expansive, airplane-like views above the cloud ceiling. This ended up being exactly the case, so I was thankful that I'd thought to bring Jocelyn's camera along to capture a pictorial record of the morning's stunning, yet ephemeral, beauty.
(Looking west toward the Indian Peaks Wilderness, from my 127th summit of Green Mt. this year.)
(The sun rising over the ocean of clouds, from Green Mt.)
(Looking back at Green, from Bear Peak summit.)
(Looking east, from Bear.)
(Next up: South Boulder Peak. Can you find the trail?)
(More of the same, from the top of SoBo.)
(And to the west, clouds already retreating.)
(And back through the fog to Chautauqua via the Mesa Trail, to complete the loop.)
(The green grass is starting to make it look like Spring!)
Three hours, three summits, 20 miles, and 5000' of climbing all before 9AM. How's the rest of the day supposed to compete with that?
04-12-2010 Mon-AM: 15 miles (2:19) Green Mt. up Back down Bear Cyn, 3000' Started really slow with Jocelyn and Martin. Felt better by the end. PM: 8 miles (1:04) Creek Path+4mi barefoot at Kitt
04-13-2010 Tue-AM: 15 miles (2:12) Green Mt. up Front down Bear Cyn, 3000' Climbed in 35:50 despite tired legs and losing at least two minutes to the glacier ice on the Greenman trail. 1mi barefoot. PM: 8 miles (1:03) McClintock-Mesa-Skunk Cyn with Jocelyn, 1000' Ran from the Law School between classes. Finished with some barefoot.
04-14-2010 Wed-AM: 17 miles (2:30) Bear Peak and Green Mt. up Fern, 4000' 27:25 from Mesa trail to summit post (5:10, 9:45, 12:30) and then 14:05 from Bear Creek to top of Green. Lots of ice above the Saddle on Fern probably cost me ~1min. Fern is ridiculous--2100' in probably only 1.5 miles or so. Although historical comparison will be lost, I'm looking forward to OSMP re-routing this trail this summer and maybe making it reasonably runnable. Felt okay on the uphills this morning, awkward on the downhills. PM: 6 miles (:47) Creek Path Took it nice and easy, but legs felt good.
04-15-2010 Thu-AM: 17 miles (2:26) Green Mt. and Bear Peak, 4000' Bascially ended up tempoing the whole loop Chat-to-Chat (up Front of Green, down Green-Bear to Bear West Ridge, down Fern and back on Mesa) in 1:46. Climbed Green in 32:58 and was on PR pace before having to hike significant sections of ice on Greenman. West Ridge of Bear in 23:15. Fern above the saddle was pretty slow descending with ice/snow, too. This run reminded me of a conversation I was having with my buddy Martin last week. One morning we ran up the back of Green together in 41ish minutes and he asked how that compared to my "100 mile race-pace" to which I replied that it mattered what part of the 100 miler we were talking about. In the first 60 miles of a 100 I would probably run up Green in 37 or 38 minutes. The last 40 miles it would probably be more like 40-45 minutes, depending on how the day is going. So, in that vein, while I was cruising faster-than-usual this morning I realized that I was really just running ~50K-50 miler intensity, maybe a bit harder on the steepest portions of the climbs. All in all, a pleasant way to get in some up-tempo, race-terrain-specific running. PM: 8 miles (1:00) Creek Path-Skunk Creek-Kitt with Jocelyn Legs felt great and the 4mi of barefoot was at a relaxed 7-flat pace.
04-16-2010 Fri-AM: 15 miles (2:15) Green Mt. up and down Back, 2800' Cool morning with low clouds. Took it very relaxed up in 38:55 and then tacked on 3mi of barefoot at Kitt at the end. My right VMO is a bit sore/tight, so I got a couple twinges in the knee now and then.
04-17-2010 Sat-AM: 50 miles (7:30) 2xGreen-Walker CCW-Eldo-Old Mesa-Bear
Canyon-2xGreen-Flag, 13,000' Green #1: (36:40) 16:15, 17:15, 3:10; Green #2: (35:35) 16:00, 16:40, 2:55; Green via Bear Cyn: (35:10) 20:50, 11:00, 3:20; Green #4: (38:30) 16:40, 18:25, 3:25. Green ascents 1,2, and 4 were all via the standard Gregory-Ranger route. Great day of running. Felt very solid all day except for the last 1000' of the last time up Green. Eight gels. Got drenched in a downpour in Bear Cyn. Soaked in Boulder Creek afterwards.
04-18-2010 Sun-AM: 16 miles (2:24) Green Mt., up Back down Bear Cyn, 3000' Gorgeous morning. Super relaxed 39:35 climb. Quads not sore, just tired on the downhills. 1mi barefoot at the end. PM: 14 miles (2:00) Green Mt., up Back down Bear Cyn, 3000' Huge (~2min) PR of 33:39 up the Gregory-Ranger route. Bonked hard coming down Bear Cyn (still operating on a pretty big calorie deficit from yesterday, I think), but came out of it and finished the run off nicely on a beautiful evening.
Total -Miles: 189 -Hours: 27h 30min -Vertical: 36,800'
2010 Summits (Day 108) -Green: 124 -Bear: 6 -SoBo: 1
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Just a great week all around. As usual, by Wednesday I was recovered from the previous weekend and was able to put in a solid climb up Fern Canyon. As the snow melts out above the saddle on that trail I'll definitely be looking to get back there regularly (once a week?) and hopefully get a decently quick time in eventually. I was going to say something about how solid Thursday's run was then, too, but I've generally just been climbing extremely well all week long. To the point where I have to start thinking that a 33min ascent up the Front side of Green is pretty typical, as is 36 or 37min up the Back side.
My run this evening, though, was certainly notable in my eyes. Jocelyn and I were at the public library putting in a standard Sunday afternoon study session, but I couldn't resist the incredible weather outside so I slipped on my 5oz. hot orange slippers, shucked my jeans and shirt, and bolted out the doors for a late afternoon voyage up my favorite local peak. On the warm-up to the trailhead via 6th St. I could feel some surprisingly good bounce in my legs (considering 50 miles yesterday and the run up Green I'd already completed this morning), so was excited to hit the uphill trails.
(Forget training, shoes this hot will take 2min off your PR all by themselves!)
I chose my standard Gregory-Ranger route because I knew it would have the best footing with just one significant section of slippery, slushy, packed snow remaining on the upper switchbacks. My custom configuration of New Balance's MT100s are certainly extremely light and low-profile, but the featherweight outsole doesn't always offer the greatest purchase on non-dirt surfaces. Once headed up the mountain, I could tell right away that the legs were there. This was confirmed by my time-checks on the bottom half of the climb: 5:35 to the 2nd Bridge, 12:40 to my-rock-at-the-beginning-of-the-flat-section-before-the-creek-crossing, and a PR 15:25 to the Ranger Cabin.
Above here I wasn't sure how my legs and aggressive pace would respond to the stubborn patches of snow on the steep ridge section, so I just focused on dialing in the effort and was very careful to not overstep the boundary between sustainable oxygen debt and an unsustainable accrual of lactic acid. I've found that striking this delicate balance is the essential aspect to attaining one's absolute best effort in a hill-climbing test. Because, once that line is crossed, the mountain rarely offers any sort of opportunity for recovery and one is forced to slow down significantly in order to get back on the right side of things.
.
Fortunately, I did a fairly good job of keeping the effort reasonable and hit the Crest in 23:20 and the last-log-before-the-final-switchbacks-start in 28:00. From there to the 4-way junction, I was certainly slowed by slick slush and snow and was forced to hike a few steps, but still hit the final time-check in 30:52. The remainder of the climb was a hypoxia-induced haze of gasping, grunting, and high-knee stepping up the rocks until I reached the summit (but not the summit rock cairn...people were in the way) in 33:39.
I would definitely be interested in knowing what the FKT is on this route. With a completely snow-free trail and rested legs (as in, not the day after a 50 miler), I think I could maybe shave another full minute off this evening's time. My best empirical guesstimate is that the Gregory-Ranger route is ~3min longer than the shorter, steeper Amp-Saddle-Greenman route. Considering that Rickey Gates has slayed that in a stunning sub-29min time, I would bet that he could do something in the sub-32 range on the backside route.
However, tonight's sprint up the hill only makes me even more excited at the prospect of being able to some day soon have a legitimate shot at breaking 30min up the front. We'll see. We need to organize a reprisal of last Spring's 8er Time Trial series, don't you think, Jeff?
Finally, TV On The Radio is without a doubt at the top of my list of Bands I Still Want To See Live (okay, The Kills might give them a little competition), especially given videos portraying such peformances as this:
"Damn, dude, you're killin' it! Two laps today?" This man was noticing that we'd already passed each other once on the Gregory Canyon trail, maybe twenty minutes earlier.
"This is four, actually."
"Four?!?!"
Of course, seeing as I was about a third of the way up my fourth ascent of Green Mountain today, I hardly possessed the energy nor inclination to further avail this man of the fact that I had taken the time--in between the 2nd and 3rd reps--to interject an additional 3000' of climbing and 18 miles of running out in Walker Ranch and Eldorado Canyon. Plus, within another mile or so, the day caught up to me and I was most definitely not "killin' it" anymore and was just doing whatever I could to get to the top at something faster than what felt like a snail's pace.
.
(A reprisal of last weekend, plus a couple extra ascents of Green Mt.)
On the whole, though, today was probably the best day I've had in the mountains since before Leadville last summer. I knew I wanted a final long run before the Miwok 100K in two weeks, but was unsure about what form I wanted it to take. A double-crossing of the Grand Canyon? Pressing academic projects precluded the amount of travel time such an excursion necessitates. A 50 mile race? Maybe Leona Divide? Spring Desert Ultra? My competitive nature would almost certainly drive me to run too hard and jeopardize my subsequent effort at Miwok. I've learned that I can't run "training races" (an oxymoron if ever there was one). So, I turned to my backyard--Boulder County Open Space.
(50 miles, 7h30min, 4 x Green Mt., 13,000' vertical.)
After jogging up to the trailhead with Jocelyn, I kicked off the day with two ascents of Green Mt. The first one passed in a snappy 36:40 that was surprisingly effortless. It's always nice to see the benefits of taking Friday relatively easy. Thanks to being warmed up, round two felt similar to the first, except I climbed a full minute faster for a completely unexpected five second PR on the Gregory-Ranger route of 35:35. Clearly, I'm in shape to go a lot faster than that if I ever get around to time trialing it.
(Fog on the Ranger trail.)
(Summit #122.)
The circuit around Walker Ranch was a joy. I'd taken my first gel at 1h30 and one every hour after that, and the earlier fuel seemed to be allowing me to maintain a higher intensity deeper into the run. From the Ethel Harrold trailhead I cruised around the loop to the Eldorado Canyon singletrack in 56 minutes, and then 28 minutes later was chugging water at the State Park visitor center. High on the Eldo trail, I enjoyed maybe the best views of the day: low, misty clouds had been draping the mountains all morning, and, with it's summit obscured, Eldorado Mountain on the other side of the canyon looked gigantic.
(The stairs down to South Boulder Creek in Walker. Photo: Lucho)
Descending off the Fowler trail down into Eldorado Springs, I anticipated the Old Mesa climb with trepidation. This extremely skinny, rocky, somewhat overgrown half-track generally hurts. I'd been running a quick pace for more than four hours at this point, had already ascended over 7000', and rain was beginning to spit from the heavy clouds. Instead, I ran up the 700' rise with little effort. At the top, my extra energy allowed me to maintain a fast pace that would keep me warm in the rain, and by time the Mesa trail reached Bear Canyon I'd decided I was going to turn up it for a bonus ascent of Green.
Once back down at the Gregory Trailhead, I dropped my bottle and turned around for one more climb of the mountain. Finally, on the ridge above the Ranger Cabin, my day-long euphoria came shuffling to a bit of a stilted halt. The increased gradient exploited my slowly-eroded caloric advantage, and I had to reach into my pocket not once but twice for a gel in order to stimulate some kind of peppy response from my legs. Fortunately, three GUs in the span of only 30 minutes seemed to put me back in the game and above the 4-way junction, my legs again felt curiously sprightly. On the descent I spontaneously bopped over the top of Flagstaff and descended down to Eben G. Fine before running the Creek Path home for a (quick) soak in the creek itself.
Running isn't always this easy. But, on the days that it is, it's a pleasant reminder of the exquisite awards that can be reaped by consistently perservering through the long winter months, injuries, and other detractors. It's been a long, long time since I could just go tearing off through the rocks and woods with daylight and fuel being the only limiting factors to my voyage. I am equally grateful to have the arena for such opportunities exist quite literally in my backyard.
The 1972 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Wallace Stegner Angle of Repose is partly located in what I feel to be my second home of Leadville, CO. (Of all the "second homes" that exist in and around the Leadville region, I would bet that mine is likely the only one that consists merely of a small, trampled patch of oxygen-deprived, grass-like vegetation that lies betwixt a few pine trees and random piles of discarded trash (not mine), and could only be vaguely designated "mine" by an extremely loose adherence to some sort of probably quasi-illegal Squatter's Rights. I'll say no more for fear of legal action.)
However, the "angle of repose" I have been thinking of today is even more metaphorical than Stegner's title. I'm talking about resting. You see, it is Tuesday, which means I'm tired. Or rather, still tired. It is not as bad this week as last (because, ostensibly, my fitness is improving), but for the past three or four weeks, the weekend's serving of mountains and miles has left me predictably stymied for the first two days of the next week. By Wednesday, my stride usually regains most of its bounce and vigor, and come Thursday morning I'm ready to take on anything the peaks can throw at me yet again.
In Leadville this past summer, though, it was often different. The difference was that instead of the steep slopes of Green Mountain, Monday mornings each and every week consisted of Hagerman Pass. I loved running up to Hagerman Pass. The route was simple, symmetrical, and perfectly fit everything I was looking for in a Monday recovery run: a shallow, forgiving grade (i.e., an "angle of repose" in the sense that the road was at an angle which allowed me to rest), fantastic scenery to distract and inspire my typically weary mind, and a worthy summit.
(Curiously, probably my favorite run in Leadville.)
From where the dirt road started off of the paved road on Turquoise Lake's south shore to the 12,000' summit on the Continental Divide, it was exactly 8 miles. Another 0.4 miles of jogging up the ridge to the south offered a couple hundred extra feet of altitude and, more importantly, a seat on a rock overlooking a nearly 1000' drop into a magnificent glacial cirque forming the face of the Divide. I would sit on this rock forever, just soaking up the sun, gazing at the view, feeling the breeze on my face, chomping idly on a snowball. Eventually, though, I would stand up, take one last look west, and pad back down the hill, exactly the way I'd come.
(The pass itself is fairly unremarkable.)
These 17 mile jaunts would start gloriously slowly. Easing into the effort was paramount. In fact, despite the 2000' of gain, the goal for the morning was always to feel essentially no effort. Without fail, though, by the end, and aided by the gentle 3-4% downhill, my legs would feel alive, awake, and better than when I'd started. A summit view, two and a half hours of getting the heart pumping, mission accomplished. Tuesday morning the legs were rarin' and ready again to run up a 14er, usually Massive or Elbert.
(Looking back east towards Turquoise Lake, the venerable Mosquito Range and Leadville, from high on the road.)
It was weird, though. I mean, the route was a road (albeit, an exceedingly narrow, rocky one after the first four miles) and I'm always seeking the perfect ribbon of singletrack. A friend stopped in town for a couple days, and--of all the incredible trails in the Leadville area--what run do I take him on? Hagerman Pass. By the end of the summer, it was maybe the run I looked forward to most. When I head back up there for the first time this summer, it might be the first run I do.
(Headed up to Hagerman Pass for the last time this past summer. Photo: Rob O'Dea)
I know that the grades of Green Mountain here in Boulder don't offer me the same chance at recovery as Hagerman Pass Road did in Leadville, but it's still tough for me to stay away. The pull of the summit is too strong. The desire to leave behind the streets and concrete and crowds too great. So, I'll probably just stick to my now-familiar rhythm of weekend energy and long runs and weekday fatigue, recovery, and 8000' peaks, instead of finding a new Monday route with a more appropriate angle of repose.
