Jan 25 - Jan 31

1/25, Monday - AM: Creek Path - 6 miles, 200', 0:44 || PM: Green Mtn - 10 miles, 2900', 1:43
Easy run in the morning around town and RMR run in the evening where I ran from home. On the way home my right calf which was already pretty sore really started to hurt so I walked the last mile or so home.

1/26, Tuesday - Creek Path - 9 miles, 200', 1:01
4 x 10min hard, 3:30 rest with Jack. Kept the intervals at about 6 flat each with a couple miles splits coming in sub-6, something I haven't done in a very long time. By the end of the fourth interval my calf was so shredded I couldn't even jog easy, so I was walking home again. Hopefully, tomorrow's cross-training on the bike will ease the tightness.

1/27, Wednesday - Bike: Boulder Reservoir Loop - 21 miles, 1:12, 700'
Kept the gears low hoping to flush out my calf, it felt a little twitchy on the ride home but never fully flared up.

1/28, Thursday - AM: 1st Flatiron, 3rd Flatiron, Green Mtn, 2nd Flatiron - 9 miles, 3900', 2:36 || PM: 1st Flatiron, 3rd Flatiron, Green Mtn, 2nd Flatiron - 5 miles, 3700', 2:15
Same run twice today, except in the morning I ran from home on icy trails and in the evening I biked to Chautauqua to run on slushy trails (60F today!). I felt fantastic on the 1st clocking a 16min and a 14min ascent then skipped down to the 3rd where everyone was out getting in final climbs before it closes on Monday. The route up to Green from the 3rd is less obvious and a bit more technical; oddly, I did it better in the morning. Downclimbed the 2nd (in a PR 7:37 in the morning) to avoid the ice on the trails; my microspikes broke and are so dull they hardly do anything anyways. Calf felt great today, which is why I felt okay doubling.

1/29, Friday - AM: Logan Mill - 22 miles, 2600', 3:12 || PM: 1st Flatiron, 2nd Flatiron - 2 miles, 1600', 0:50
Tried out a new loop today, Creek/Fourmile/Logan-Mill/Sugarloaf/Creek. The upper mile or so of the creek path was glassy ice so I got slowed down a lot there, but running up Fourmile is always as good as road running gets. Logan Mill is a steep, dirt and switch-backed road connecting Fourmile Canyon to Sugarloaf; it was nice and quiet this morning, I only saw two cars on the 4 miles of winding dirt. Running down the shoulder of Sugarloaf Rd I slipped on some ice and fell...on the road...embarrassing. Taking the Betasso Link back down to Boulder Canyon, I just had to carefully scoot over a bit more ice before striding out the last couple miles. Calf felt 8.5/10, that's a good sign. In the evening I did an easy lap up the 1st (13:44, fastest in a long while) then descended by downclimbing the 2nd (7:25, PR), oddly I felt quite strong on the climb.

A photo posted by Cordis Hall (@cordisimo) on Jan 29, 2016 at 3:51pm PST

1/30, Saturday - Gold Hill - 24 miles, 3300', 4:06
I ended up flipping over the handlebars last night on my bike (tightened the front brake too much) so I had descent bruise on my hip. Between that and yesterday's run, I was hurting start to finish. As yesterday I felt I could just float up the climbs, today every step was a concerted effort. Near the top of the Sunshine Canyon climb, the wind hit in full force which thrashed me about. I descended super slowly with my hip bruise hurting with each step (it never got worse so I'm not too concerned). About halfway down the sheriff stopped me to tell me to watch out for the wind uprooting and blowing burnt trees into the road off hillside. That's like saying "this area is under siege by catapults, keep an eye out," you can't dodge a flying tree trunk and thankfully I didn't see any!

A photo posted by Cordis Hall (@cordisimo) on Jan 30, 2016 at 12:56pm PST

1/31, Sunday - AM: Mt Sanitas - 11 miles, 1600, 1:38 || PM: Streets - 4 miles, 0:34
BRC group run. Last night's pathetic snowfall gave just enough of a dusting to suppress the ice, legs felt pretty good after the first 20 minutes, but energy was a little low. The hike up the ridge definitely loosened my hip bruise up so I was able to actually run a steady clip back home. The actual snow arrived in the evening so I enjoyed a rather peaceful trot to get the mileage to three digits.

Week Totals:
102 miles
20.200ft
18:40

Good first week of honest training for long and flat but still managed 20k' of vert as a result of squeezing in 6 flatties on Thursday. Hope to keep building the volume for another 1-2 weeks before toning it down. Who knew all this flat mileage could be fun?

First Flatiron

After months of cowering in fear and disappointment, I conquered Boulder's iconic first flatiron. I've been searching for the downclimb for literally months, and I wasn't going up unless I was sure I could get back down. Yesterday (after guiding my sister up her first climb on the 2nd) I decided to search yet again and what do you know! Really wasn't so bad....at all.

Catching some air on the 2nd yesterday, photo cred to the sister

I had checked out the base of the first before, and what always stood out to me was: steep and smooth. Especially given that I'm climbing in my running shoes, grip seemed like an issue. I arrived at the base of the rock this afternoon nervous, but excited. Two other guys were putting on their climbing shoes and wore no gear otherwise. We decided that I would join up with their group and they would lead me on the route. Sweet, now I only have to get to the top.

Googled "first flatiron", this is it!

My first steps were poorly placed and not holding at all. I lost friction and slid 4 ft back to the dirt. "What am I doing I asked myself?", my answer came to me quickly "Well for a start, we're not falling". I regathered myself and pressed my toes hard to the water eroded sandstone. I went up a bit, looked up, looked back down, this is happening I said to myself. After a certain point you get high enough, where your confidence increases if only because at this point there is no going back. And so I went on. After the first pitch of pressing the top digits of my fingers over pebble sized holds with my feet sticking to what footholds would manage, I was anxious. "I'm buying rock shoes tomorrow!" I announced to my partners. They laughed and did remark on how they were impressed with my courage to wear what I had. After this point, the washed away rock transformed into not the obvious, exposure-less, shallow incline of the 2nd, but a much more manageable texture. In all honesty, the rest felt almost a blur. We passed 2 or 3 roped parties, but really took no breaks. Hardly took pictures, due to the continuous motion - and frankly, there aren't too many spots I'd feel super comfortable whipping out the camera.

The pitch is deceivingly steep, the scale is hard to photograph as well.

Gaining the North Arete, It was "easy" 5th class scrambling to the summit, passing in and out of three or four notches. In retrospect, running shoes are totally sufficient, provided a certain degree of comfort exists on the initial 200ft or so. Summit views were brilliant of course, though its become commonplace over the last year of Chautauqua outings. Shouldn't take beautiful things like this for granted, even more so when it is your home.

Several false summits proceed downwards along the Arete (look at the climbing vocab!)

Downclimbed a wrong and awkward, body width gully, but made it back down without any drama. Super stoked at this point, this has been on my list of goals since last summer. Feels so good to accomplish goals like that especially when paired with the rush of a challenging climb. Feeling good I did the West face of the 2nd, lounged about in my tranquil solitude for a bit, then meandered my way down.

Top o' the 2nd, via the west face

I downclimbed the entirety of the 2nd again, and could feel the weight of my weeks now unfamiliar efforts taking their toll on my performance, my mind was slow to find lines, and my calves ached after a very "supportive" week on their part. I also ran the approaches (up and down) as a short 1 mile (half mile up, half down) hip test on some techy terrain. Not bad, going up feels better than down, but I won't be doing any distance intensive trips for at least 2 more weeks. I think I'll be up on these flatirons quite a bit in the future, they are a great workout without the injury prone antics of running. Oh, and my arms and legs are Sunburnt with a capitle S, haven't been outside enough lately.

2.3 miles, 1800ft up, and a pace of about 13 minutes per mile (all things considered its not that bad!)

The route.