Sunday, November 11, 2012

Week Summary: Nov 5 - 11

11-05-2012
Mon-AM: 2:11, 3200' ~ Third Flatiron+Green Mt.
Really nice cruise up the mountain with a descent of Bear Cyn. More energy than expected.
PM: 1:04, 1600' ~ First Flatiron
Started this in the dark after a late-afternoon massage with Jeff Staron, who worked on my fibula/peroneals.  Climbing the First in the dark by headlamp was more than a little spooky, especially with the strong winds that I found on the North Arete.  For some reason not having a sense of scale for the exposure (due to my sight being limited to the cone of my headlamp) was more unnerving than scrambling it in broad daylight.  Pretty sure I won't make this a regular practice. Really slow, tentative run back down to Chat after the downclimb.

11-06-2012
Tue-AM: 2:32, 5300' ~ 2xGreen Mt.
Went up Gregory-Ranger and down the front both times. First lap was with Dakota and I think this, unfortunately, pushed me to go a little harder than I should've and I ended up running the second climb slower, which is really rare for me.  Good to start reintegrating some running ascents of the mountain (as opposed to my now-usual running/scrambling/grunting/hiking affairs) back into the routine. Race specificity.
PM: 1:00, 2000' ~ First Flatiron+
Joe and I led Dakota on a casual scramble of the First from Chautauqua. We'd had hopes of getting in a couple other objectives, too--and even thrashed around looking for the base of the Spy in the dark--but the dynamics of group scrambling had us moving a little slower than usual and darkness came too quickly to get on anything else without headlamps.

11-07-2012
Wed-AM: 2:10, 3200' ~ Third Flatiron+Green Mt.
Up the Third and then down Bear Canyon and back on Mesa.  I really like this loop...a nice mix of scrambling, steep hiking, and cruiser scenic singletrack.  My legs were fairly tired this morning--I've been going at it hard non-stop for the last 10 days or so with no easy day--so I just took things mellow. Try to rest up today for either a legit long run tomorrow or another lap on Longs Peak.

11-08-2012
Thu-AM: 4:43, 8100' ~ Green-Walker Ranch-Eldo Cyn-Green
Started out by heading up Amp-SR-Greeman on the frontside of Green and then ran down to Walker Ranch for a CCW loop before heading back through Eldorado Canyon and back up to Bear Canyon via the Old Mesa Trail. Finished by descending the frontside of Green and running home.  This loop is my standard race-prep long run, and I'll add an extra lap on Green (so another ~5mi/2500'/1hr) each of the next two weeks as progression. This is the longest continuous run (other than the first 42mi of the LT100) that I've done in the past two years, so it was really good to get it in.  I wasn't climbing particularly well, but not badly either, and overall kept a pretty high pace, definitely not just jogging around...this is somewhere in the 30-32mi range. Really fun day out; I've missed being healthy enough to do these kinds of runs.

11-09-2012
Fri-AM: 2:06, 3800' ~ 2nd+3rd Flatirons+Green Mt.
Didn't have shoes with sticky enough rubber to comfortably negotiate the first few hundred feet of the First Flatiron so I scrambled both the Second and Third instead before heading to the top of the mountain and descending Gregory-Ranger.
PM: 1:32, 3000' ~ Flatiron Trifecta
Was originally planning on just heading up the First Flatiron and then to the summit of Green but after I felt really good on that original scramble I made the on-the-fly decision to link-up the Second and Third as well. I did the First downclimb and the full scramble of the Second before having to finally switch on  my headlamp and then enjoyed a fully-in-the-dark scaling of the Third.  I must say, it was much less nerve-wracking than my headlamp ascent of the First earlier in the week.  Should've been well under 1h30 for my Chat-to-Chat time, but I was lazy on the final techy descent in the dark.

11-10-2012
Sat-AM: 2:13, 3200' ~ Third Flatiron+Green Mt.
Still had some tired legs, so just jogged up the hill and was happy to sneak in a final scramble on the Third before the snowstorm---flakes started falling about half-way up the face and I started worrying a bit about wet rock, but I made it up and then down the SW Chimney with no issues. Descended Bear Canyon.
PM: 1:01 ~ Creek Paths
Wow, first run I've done like this in a long, long time.  Didn't feel like mucking around in the drizzle and dark up on the mountain so just cruised around the flatlands. Too many runs like this and I'll have to start tracking miles again...

11-11-2012
Sun-AM: 2:00, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Up Gregory-Ranger and down Bear Canyon. the new, crusty shellacking of snow on everything made for a nice change, but the wind on the ridge was pretty biting. Legs finally felt "back" after Thu's long run.
PM: 1:02, 2700' ~ Green Mt.
From Chat went up ASG and down the NE ridge. Didn't have to employ the headlamp until the downhill, which was nice. Arctic frigid wind ripping on the summit.

Hours: 23h34min
Vert: 39,100'

Kind of an up-and-down week for me in the lowlands of Boulder.  Fatigue finally caught up with me mid-week after ten days straight w/o much rest, so an easy day there set me up for my first legitimate long run in a long, long time on Thursday.  It went well enough and reminded me of the joys of moving continuously and quickly over easy terrain...a different kind of kinesthetic experience from all the scrambling and off-trail travel that I've spent much of the last six months pursuing.  Races demand specificity, however, which is probably a good thing for my fitness.  Weather shut down any weekend plans for high peaks, so I'll likely make an effort to get out tomorrow before I visit Nashville for a Fleet Feet speaking visit on Tue/Wednesday.  I'm still only very fleetingly confident in my trail running fitness, so hope I can increasingly bolster that over the next two weeks.  We'll see, this time of year feels so unnatural for having any kind of killer competitive ambitions.

All five Flatirons set in stark relief this morning.
Summit of Green, with Bear Peak in the background (the West Ridge trail is finally open!).
Dinosaur Mt (at the mouth of Bear Cyn) always looks to offer so many promising scrambling opportunities.

13 comments:

Tom said...

Tony,
Any good suggestions on finding old mesa trail? I haven't found any maps online. Any points of reference that indicate access from Eldo or mesa?

David Hill said...

Solid week TK. From the top of Green is there a trail down to Walker Ranch or do you have to run Flagstaff Rd there? Thanks

Brad Williams said...

Thanks for sharing Tony. Quick shoe question: I've been a big fan of the MT100 trail line. I see that pretty much everywhere online/storefront has the MT110s on a liquidation sale which makes sense but I've yet to see/hear anything about a direct replacement.

Is it time to stock up on a shoe that I love or is new and improved update coming out?

Thanks for any info that you can share.

Brad

Bradley said...

Anton, I'm re-posting this from last week's update, as I'm still curious: have you considered heading to the UK for some fell races? Seems they've got something going on every weekend there, year round. Would satisfy your longing for competition, steep hills, but without the potential injuries that seem to result from longer distances.

jun said...

Where in Nashville are you speaking? I am heading there tomorrow and Wed, as well and would love to hear you speak if it's open to the public.

Anton said...

Tom - Old Mesa is maybe a couple tenths of a mile southeast of the mouth of Shadow Canyon on the Mesa trail. It's just a skinny little singletrack that heads south down that valley directly to Eldo Spgs. The last little bit of it is on private land.

David - Flagstaff Rd is the best legal way to get to Walker Ranch.

Brad - The 110 is receiving basically a color-update this year with an adjustment to the lateral forefoot to make the forefoot platform more level/neutral. 110v2 won't be coming out until 2014, as I understand it.

Bradley - The fell scene interests me, but I probably wouldn't make a dedicated trip to the UK for just the races...I'd be more interested in experiencing something like the Bob Graham Round, I think.

jun - I'll be speaking at the Nashville Fleet Feet Tuesday night at 6:30pm and then some sort of meet and greet event over lunch the next day.

Unknown said...

Hey Tony. I see that you are doing more doubles. 2 hours in am and 1 hour in pm. Would you say that running doubles is better for injury prevention than just running 3 hours?
Thanks
Greg

Anonymous said...

Hi Tony, If you are seriously considering a UK adventure at some point, I think the Greater Traverse of the Black Cuillin ridge on the Isle of Skye would definitely be of interest. It's the best scrambling on the most hardcore mountains in the UK. Imagine running through Mordor and you will get the idea of what it's like, I've never been anywhere like it.

This link describes the standard route, the greater traverse is quite a bit longer http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP19/newswire-cuillin-ridge-record-tresidder

Bradley said...

runtothehills- "Imagine running through Mordor..."

Great description! I think I got it.

Cheers,

Bradley

AndyC said...

Hi Anton
Having read your blog for a while now and reading the comments to your most recent entry, I feel the challenge you'd most appreciate and which I feel illustrates the beauty and brutality of the high country in Scotland has to be the Charlie Ramsey Round. 24hrs to run 56 miles and 28,500ft of ascent. Since 1978 only 65 people have completed it. I myself am in training for an attempt in 2013 or 2014. Here's a link to the website. Hope you consider it, would be great to see you tackling some of the biggest mountains Scotland has to offer!
http://www.ramsaysround.com/
Thanks
Andrew

Rain said...

Glad you enjoyed your longer run, hope there is many more of those to come.

I can't imagine scrambling up rocks in the dark!

Court5km said...

Love the cartoon of you & the crew: http://desbossesetdesbulles.blogspot.fr/2012/06/transvulcania-2012.html

You all rock :)

Unknown said...

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