Sunday, April 12, 2015

April 5 - April 12

4/5, Sunday - Easy - 4 miles, 200', 0:39
Really, really slow recovery from the "Sanitascides". I've found its super helpful to get out and just move around a bit after big days. It was a nice quiet run around campus, plodding at 9:30 pace.

4/6, Monday - Green Mtn - 10 miles, 3000', 1:40
RMR Monday run up Green went surprisingly well, I was able to maintain a total run aside from the stone steps in Gregory and at the top of Ranger. Sage Canaday and Josh Arthur both showed up, which meant the guys up front were totally out of sight. Sage can climb a hill pretty darn fast without much visible effort; of course, he was filming for his YouTube channel again (video below).
Sage coming down Saddle Rock
Josh Arthur "getting his running legs back" or something, out of shape pros still keep up pretty handily though.

4/7, Tuesday - Flagstaff Mtn - 15 miles, 2600', 2:02
Met up with some friends and did 4 x 10min intervals on Flagstaff Rd with 2 minutes rest. Got my butt kicked, but they were able to drag me for an 8:10 min/mile average on a tough route.

4/8, Wednesday - 1st Flatiron + 2nd Flatiron - 10 miles, 3000', 1:50
Super sore legs today I so took it relatively easy. After jogging to Chautauqua, the quads couldn't quite handle the 15% grade on the trail so I hiked a lot getting to the 1st before a lazy 34 minute scramble. The trail seemed pretty crowded tonight so I downclimbed the 2nd in a PR 10:24, which is getting dangerously close to my ascent time on that route.

4/9, Thursday - 2nd Flatiron x 3, 1st Flatiron, W. Face - 5 miles, 3600', 2:16
I drove to Chautauqua today since I desperately needed to get some groceries after, so I missed out on the free 3.5 miles there. Met Jack and we did a one easy lap of the Freeway. He took the trail and I downclimbed in a PR 8:56 before we did one slightly quicker lap in 10:44. Our friend Kory was going to meet us then but ended up being stuck in line at the DMV. So we ran back up and I scrambled the 1st in a PR 18:40 ascent and PR 3:47 descent. I was only able to downclimb a tiny bit of the Freeway before Jack's head popped up and we finished up with the Dodge Block route then the W. Face. Fantastic morning of surprisingly speedy scrambling.

4/10, Friday - 1st Flatiron + Green Mtn - 7.9 miles, 3200, 2:10
I don't normally record such significant figures, but after I had taken just about every shortcut I knew about to get on Green, it sort of became my goal to see how little ground I could cover. Generally an easier effort today.
Looking down to Boulder from the North Arete of the First Flatiron.
4/11, Saturday - Stairway to Heaven, Hillbilly Rock, Regency, Royal Arch, 5th Flatiron, Lost Sentinels, 2nd Flatiron, 1st Flatiron, 2nd Flatiron - 8 miles, 4600', 3:58
Big outing of scrambling this morning. I started off by  heading right into Skunk Canyon and enjoying the super long Stairway to Heaven. Hillbilly Rock went reasonably quick thereafter. The shwack to the Regency isn't so nice, it might actually be faster to take a roundabout on-trail route. I breezed past the crowds from the Regency and Royal Arch and took a route up the center of the 5th. It felt about the same as my usual South side route but with an easier approach (thus superior). I really don't know how you assign grades for half this stuff, its just "flatiron rock". I reluctantly took the keyhole off the back for the descent. I was going for the hammerhead next, but I wound up on a parallel slab just north that is about half as long. It was a bit harder, characterized by a few bulgy step-overs that Roach deems as 5.4. From there I did a slog up Freeway before dodging ropes up the first. I elected to simply downclimb Freeway rather than slog up to Green to keep it under 4 hours (I hadn't brought any water or food).
Slabby slabs are slabby. From Stairway looking at Satan's Slab, the Rainbow, and Archaen Pronouncement (I think).
4/12, Sunday - Trails - 8 miles, 1700, 1:29
I felt super tired this morning so I did a super easy jog/hike around Gregory Canyon. Apparently I wasn't the only one going easy this morning as I saw Tony walking....going downhill.

Week Totals:
60 Miles
20,600ft
15:22

Just about where I want to be heading into a race. I think. I race so infrequently that I really have no idea what I'm doing, but this seems right. Saturday was one of the best scramble linkups I've done in terms of efficiency on all of the rock. 50k next Saturday!

1 comment:

  1. Dude that's a solid week right there. Still super jealous you run into Sage out there. I can't imagine how quick he gets up the mountain, it has to be a true sight to see. I'm stoked for your 50k man, I know your going to kill it.

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