Still recovering
3/8, Tuesday - Bike: Boulder Res - 18 miles, 700', 1:11
Generally just rolling around and getting outside. Only pushed the pedals hard enough to maintain forward progress, nothing more.
3/9, Wednesday - Bike: Nelson Rd - 28 miles, 1100', 1:38
Easy with Hillary.
3/10. Thursday - Bike: Hygeine Rd - 34 miles, 1100', 1:49
A little longer today and my butt is not ready for long rides yet, but I'm happy to be out of the MS50 pressures to log all my activities as runs.
3/11, Friday - 1st Flatiron & Green Mtn - 5 miles, 2700', 1:37
Tried to pace off of Hillary to the summit while she took the trail and got crushed. The scramble was 17min but to match a time of someone on the trail you probably need to split like 13min on the face and a 1:45 downclimb. Energy is still quite low.
3/12, Saturday - 2nd Flatiron, 1st Flatiron, 2nd Flatiron, Morning After, Challenger, Fist, Green Mtn - 11 miles, 5400', 4:49
First up was a jaunt to the true summit of the 2nd (rather than Freeway), before the usual direct route on the 1st. Downclimbed the 2nd for a more direct route to the Royal Arch trail which I left once it turned south to head up to Morning After. It was a fairly miserable bushwhack, hopefully there exists a more elegant back there somewhere. I sat at the 5.7 overhang for a bit until I finally figured out the right sequence and it was cake; the fist crack to the top was great but then it took me a good 15min to figure out how to get off the back. I wimped out on the GMP chimney, again. I was able to find a nice line up Challenger climbing a bit of slab before enjoying handcrack and then arete all the way to the summit. Getting the Fist was a massive chore but the scramble and 3rd crack climb of the day was well worth it, the crimp-y downclimb was sort of fun too. Ran into Hillary and Eric on top so I ran back down Bear Canyon with them. Well, my ITB decided to tighten to the point where I couldn't bend my knee at all so I had to walk in extreme pain the last mile. Hillary drove me to my bike at Chautauqua, even biking was teeth grinding pain to get my knee bending at all.
3/13, Sunday - Off
ITB crap. Hopefully, this thing cools off quick. Definitely better than yesterday.
Week Totals:
some running
some scrambling
some biking
Week of recovery ending abruptly with some ITB issues -- gah!
3/15, Tuesday- 3 x 2nd Flatiron - 7 miles, 3000', 1:45:53
Definitely not on this rock for the quality of scrambling, but for a workout. Ran from campus for a warm-up then did three all out laps in 7:40, 7:44 and 7:34. Ran into Jack and his buddy on the last two so I hung out for a couple minutes with them when I was done. ITB tightened up a bit but it was tolerable, seems to be slowly releasing.
3/16, Wednesday - Bear Pk, South Boulder Pk, Green Mtn, 13 miles, 4700', 3:30
With Hillary, my ITB felt shaky at the start but seemed to respond alright until the descent down Bear's west ridge. I barely made it up Green and getting back to my bike was a mostly-walk. Bad.
3/17 - Off
Woke up unable to bend my knee. I tried acupuncture with Ginna in the afternoon as a last ditch effort to salvage spring break plans and oh-my goodness did it work. After a series of stabs, shocks and suctions she was able to really get to the underlying issue(s).
3/18 - Off
3/19, Saturday - Hidden Valley - 8 miles, 1600', 1:26
Easy shake out run with Hillary after the drive over to Moab. Nice to escape the ice in Boulder and run unencumbered by excessive warmth and traction gear. ITB felt okay, fragile descending.
3/20, Sunday - Amasa/Cliffhanger - 12 miles, 2000', 2:05
The first 4 miles had me really getting worried as we made our way to pothole arch, but somehow while on the jeep-packed 4x4 road, Cliffhanger, I figured out how to run painlessly again and we had blast running alongside the cliffs then back down some winding slickrock trails back to the car.
Week Totals:
39 miles
11,400'
9:10
3/21, Monday - Druid Arch - 19 miles, 2800', 5:01
Yesterday's outing gave me some excessive confidence and I paid for it today. The first 8 miles we wound up through Lost Canyon alternating between sandy washes and sandstone bluffs with incredible views of the Needles District, Islands in the Sky and in the fat distance, the La Sal Mountains. We made the turn to Druid Arch 10 miles in, more than our map suggested (thus lower on water than planned); the trail up was essentially a very sandy wash that really took a toll on my ITB. When we turned back down I had terrifying realization that I couldn't run anymore, 7 miles from the car with a lot of sand, rocks and canyon in between. It was a very long, painful and frustrating walk back that was only made tolerable not being alone and the incredible terrain I so wished I could have enjoyed even more.
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| Hillary looking back at the winding canyons we finished up with. |
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| Druid Arch |
The ITB felt a bit better by the afternoon so rather than sit inside all day I figured to see if at least the bike didn't hurt. It didn't hurt, but it was super windy so anything eastbound I could easily hold 30mph while going west I was pedaling hard just to get down hills.
3/23, Wednesday - Off
Tons of snow here, the only person I know that ran was going to get food from the store.
3/24, Thursday - Roads - 8 miles, 500', 1:10
Easy with Hillary and Phil.
3/25, Friday - Flagstaff Road - 8 miles, 1400', 1:03
4 x 5min hard with 2m30s rest up Flagstaff road. The trails are almost impassable with out heavy the snowfall was. Good (though short) workout but I didn't feel too strong cranking uphill.
3/26, Satuday - 2 x Mt Sanitas - 6 miles, 3100', 1:51
With Hillary and Leonard. Conditions were better than expected but we expected it to be really bad. Thought about going for a 3rd but at this stage of winter snow is more annoying than fun to deal with. Easy pace with poles hiking everything.
3/27, Sunday - AM: Longs Peak Bailout - 7 miles, 2900', 3:31 || PM: Creek - 4.5 miles, 30:15
Was hopeful I could squeek this in but, oh well. I made good time (35min) to treeline then getting to Granite Pass took 90 minutes (in the summer I can almost go TH to summit in that time!). This mostly due to horribly unpredictable snow conditions: alternating between wind-slab, then the wheel-of-fortune for ankle-, knee- and hip-deep punchy postholing. The wind-chill was also around -33F so that was pretty miserable too. I'm just not that hardened of a mountain man; I miss summer! Got home and went for run on the creek path to let out the frustration of turning around.
Week Totals (running):
53 miles
11,100'
13:09
Weird few weeks with weather, vacation, injury, recovery, etc. Lots of fun and some tough breaks too. I did become an ambassador athlete for Salomon though and I'm excited to use and help promote their vast and expanding arsenal of alpine running products. Last, with that Salomon thing I was able to enter the Quad Rock 50 in mid-may so I'm getting right back into training mode.
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