2/22, Sunday - Eldora Skiing
Easy with friends in great snow. By the end I was pretty wobbly legged and ready to fall asleep. Unfortunately, I ended up in the lab working on homework until 10PM. Granted ten is not actually too late, but given my current state, I would have liked to hit the hay much earlier.
2/23, Monday - Green Mtn - 10 miles, 3,000', 2:10
I was iffy on even going tonight with my post-tib acting up a little bit, nothing serious now but it needs some rest. Its hard to pass up an RMR Green with knee deep snow so up I went. Somehow I ended up as the pace setter out front for a majority of mushy ascent. The descent was a powdery rollercoaster, so fun! Once back at Chat, my fellow Buffalo Jack and I raced back to campus where his evening dining opportunities were minutes from closing. Glad I went, the post-tib seemed to warm-up well but certainly retained some fatigue throughout.
Short video someone took.
2/24, Tuesday - ClimbingReasons for no running today: one, a day of recovery for my post-tib, and two, I have no remotely clean tights for the Siberian temperatures. Stuck to bouldering again today. I was able to pull myself a V3 on the third try which was very encouraging. I then spent a while trying to get a V2 before realizing my foothold was spinning on the wall. Classic.
2/25, Wednesday - Climbing
Put off laundry and felt another day of rest (obviously) couldn't hurt. I ended up cleaning up several V4's and putting a good bit of work into a few V5's, but with no success.
2/26, Thursday - Green Mtn - 9 miles, 3,000', 2:52
More snow compelled me to resume running today. Though, running wasn't even an option today as the snow was often thigh deep, sometimes even deeper. Going up was a textbook slog taking a full half hour longer than normal. Descending I was able to take all sorts of shortcuts including triggering a miniature avalanche while dropping straight down a talus field.
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| The 3rd standing proud in a brief reprieve from the snow. |
After seeing some friends successfully ski Green yesterday night I didn't have the willpower for another 3 hour escapade that would yield a measly nine or ten miles for what amounts to a massive effort. Maybe I'm even tiring of Green, but most of all I'm tired of needing every article clothing and gear I own. So, I did 15 minutes of running, 40 minutes of climbing and another 20 to 25 minutes of running - sort of like a summer Green I suppose.
2/28, Saturday -AM: Eldora Skiing - PM: Rec
After some some turns in the trees in the morning with friends I headed straight to the rec to put in some more time bouldering. I've cleaned all of the routes I'm super capable on and am now stuck on some real tough (for me) routes in the V4-V5 range. I then tacked on an easy 15 minute run before doing a few minutes on the stairmill at max speed. Then I did weights - for the first time in maybe a year.
Week Totals:
Miles: 27
Vert: 7,300'
Time: 6:02
Definitely a low key week - which was nice - but I did ski twice and climb four times along with the minimal running miles, so I still got some training in. I certainly needed some easy time, so it worked out nicely. The biggest gain from this week is definitely in climbing. I'm unsure as to whether this will translate to more efficient summer scrambling, but I'm definitely sensing an improving efficiency in the vertical domain.
3/1, Sunday - Treadmill + Climbing - 7 miles, 100', 2:00
Really good run on the treadmill today - I can't believe I just said that - 3 by 1 mile repeats, 5:50 at 1% grade, then a 5:40 and a 5:30 at 0%. 10 minutes of 8 to 10 minute pace running before/after/between the repeats. Finished with some more climbing.
3/2, Monday - AM: Climbing - PM: Green Mtn - 10 miles, 3,000', 2:30
More bouldering in the morning, I got about 5 inches from cleaning my first V5. Close doesn't count though, so I'll keep working. In the evening I joined the RMR for another headtorch run up the hill. Uphill conditions are pretty terrible, downhill conditions are wicked fast.
3/3, Tuesday - Green Mtn - 10 miles, 3,000', 2:00
Up and down Gregory/Ranger. Last night's soft snow had frozen with a newly fallen layer of powder on top making footing frustratingly insecure, so I hiked quite a bit and even took the excess time to call my mom. I tried going for Sage's downhill record on the way down (again) but was still depressingly far away from it. I was averaging 6:50's, in the snow, downhill - I thought that would be enough - but apparently he was averaging 6:10's. The Gregory/Ranger route is far less steep and technical than the Amphitheater so it might be faster with a dry trail. Whatever, I love downhill running and will try again another day.
3/4, Wednesday - Green Mtn, 9 miles, 3,000', 1:51
After good deal of mental debate I chose Green over a treadmill workout with bouldering. I passed 5 skiers this morning. The amount of snow right now is truly epic. I managed a ~47min ascent today which I was decently pleased with, considering the slipping, sliding and falling that took place, then descended in the easiest effort sub-20min possible. Basically just skiing on my shoes.
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| Good. |
4 by 500' repeats, each in about 6:30 which amounts to 4,600ft/hr pace. Feet per hour is the stat I use most when it comes to vertical speed. The treadmill only got to 18% grade; I think the optimal grade for vertical gain is power hiking 25% to 30% grade (for me). Good workout.
3/6, Friday - Off
Seemingly impossible homework all day.
3/7, Saturday - Mt Sanitas, Flagstaff Mtn, Green Mtn, Bear Pk, South Boulder Pk, Bear Pk, Green Mtn, Flagstaff Mtn, Mt Sanitas- 32 miles, 10,400', 7:54
Started from home and ran purposefully very slowly down the creek path to where the line really starts. Sanitas went - as expected - pretty quick on round one and I was off to Flagstaff and Green. Flagstaff is essentially a sub-peak of Green, a very, very easy tick in my summit count for sure. Grabbed Ranger up to Green before winding down, over and up to Bear and shortly thereafter, South Boulder. Most of the backside of Bear (and all of Sobo) were untouched and thus pretty horrible knee deep wet snow. This convinced me to skip the down n' up from S. Mesa and just head on back as that would have put me closer to 40 miles, which would actually be too much. I slid back down from Bear and found a good rhythm running almost all the way to the top of Green aside from the final stone steps. Flagstaff fell with ease. Then after a highly over-switchbacked descent - its bad - I was one grunt up Sanitas away from knocking out 10k' for the day. It was a struggle, but it just took some extra effort. Brought three peanut-butter/nutella tortillas and used 2 bottles of scratch energy drink with added salt. Not sure if it was the added salt or the extra calories (I normally only bring 2 "nutelladillas") but I was able to comfortably hold low 8's on the run back home. What a day!
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| Still a lot of (now melting) snow, but it was great weather! |
Miles: 76
Vert: 22,100
Time: 16:18
Though I planned on doing a week focused on vertical gain (hoping for 30k'), I was simply not willing to do that in the current volume of snow. But in the end I just did a day focused on vert, so I guess its cool. So things worked out well. Someone actually skied the 1st Flatiron this week apparently, Yeah, normally that is a rock climb. Here is a short article. These pictures are too crazy not to show:
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| The gully he is in goes at about 5.3 or 5.4 as a rock climb |
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| I'd say its a bit on the steep side for ski. |
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