2015 Year Review

I keep pretty meticulous track of all of my data and with my spreadsheet getting its final formatting at the beginning of the year, I now have a (my first ever complete) documentation of a years worth of uniformly formatted and logged data. In other words, the opportunities are endless.

First off, some general volume totals for running,
     2,489 miles
     878,514 feet of climbing
     720:37 (30 days) time on feet

for biking,
     1391 miles
     feet of climbing
     time in the saddle

For summits,
     246 summits, 46 unique
     37 Fourteeners, 15 unique
     13 Thirteeners, 12 unique
     11 Twelvers, 11 unique
     126 Green,
     19 Bear
     4 South Boulder
     5 Flagstaff
     27 Sanitas

For scrambling.
     261 total routes, 46 unique
     5.3 average difficulty rating

In comparison to last year, I believe every single statistic is better excluding South Boulder Peak summits. I climbed over 500,000 more feet, ran 1,100 more miles and was out for 240 more hours. It would be silly to go through the improvement in each facet, but I'm very proud of the year I had. The performance I would say is my best would be my all-out effort up and down Longs in 2:35 (although, I know I can still take 5-10min off), hardest day would be Achonee to Navajo traverse (purely due to a serious absence of calories). The worst day (where I was actually going for something better, not just a training day) would be when I tried the Double Quinfecta, again largely due to a lack of nutrition/hydration. It seems I need to work on my nutrition and hydration strategies, which often simply means bringing them.

The Little Bear-Blanca traverse was absolutely one of my favorite days this year.

Looking back I also feel like I sort of lost a sense of direction or any goal to work specifically towards. I was very set on giving a go at the Chicago Basin in-a-day route, but when I got down there, reported snow conditions forced me to change my plans and I never established a new goal. I'm all for getting out and simply enjoying myself, but I feel like I could have done something really cool this year, and instead sort of squandered it on several kind-of cool things. That being said, I'm starting to plan out next year from a high level view. I'm thinking only 1 or 2 races, but a few bigger objectives to always keep in mind. Without giving away the whole plan, I 'd like to do a big birthday run (which will be mostly hiking, big surprise), a flat, low-landed and swampy long actual run (Mississippi 50), then spend most summer weekends memorizing routes in the Sawatch to put together one hopefully successful Nolan's 14 effort in late August or early September, after which a Tour de Flatirons would end things nicely. Lastly would be another go at a 100 miler, of course, in the form of a fun-run.

A basin to someday be traversed, but hopefully a bit higher by a more direct route.

Dec 7 - Dec 20

12/7, Monday - Green Mtn - 6 miles, 2500'
Got out for a quick study break for a fun trip up the hill. I used spikes going up but I enjoy I nice sloppy downhill so I wore my worn and lug-less Salomon Ultra Sense Pro for a more exhilarating way down.

12/8 - 12/10 -  Finals
Minimal sleeping; maximal coding, writing and reading.

12/11, Friday - 2nd-1st-3rd-2nd Flatirons - 6 miles, 3700', 2:44
Snow was predicted for the evening so I felt even more compelled to scramble aside from not being outside for the last four days. Free for All on the 2nd, Direct on the 1st then the North side on the 3rd. I had planned on meeting Eric over at the Regency but his work lasted longer than expected. Instead, I went over to the 2nd and did a tempo effort up the Freeway. I clocked it at 7:12, 45 seconds off PR pace. Yikes!

12/12, Saturday - Green Mtn & Bear Pk - 14 miles, 4700', 3:11
From home (I've been biking to Chautauqua a lot lately) up the 1st/2nd trail to Green. While on my down Bear Canyon I slipped on some ice and fell on my back. The impact ended up destroying the water bottle I had in my back waistband, in effect detonating a water balloon in my trousers. Great, now I'm wet and thirsty. Coming off of Bear without traction was quite the spectacle, I fell probably 10 to 15 times, guiding my slide from hitting trees and rocks, fun stuff. Not wanting to freeze running home I picked up the pace (20:50 5k, which for me, is fast) which in the falling snow gathered quite the accumulation of ice on my eye-lashes and hair.

12/13, Sunday - Aborted Green - 6 miles, 1100', 1:02
Started heading up Saddle Rock feeling terribly so I turned around for a pleasant jog home. The day was brightened, however, by a fantastic session of bouldering in the evening.

Week Totals:
32 miles
12,000ft
8:09

Good grades or good training, some weeks you have to make a choice. Allegedly, I'll be a fully functioning human being after just one more semester of school. Terrifying.

12/14, Monday - AM: Quandary Pk - 7 miles, 3400', 2:47 || PM: Green Mtn - 6 miles, 2500', 1:20
Got up to the high country in the morning with Ford and Jack for a blustery ascent in the high mountains.My gear choice was generally good, I would have liked poles for balance and a face covering in the 35-40mph winds but with a bit of perseverance we made the summit just fine. RMR Green in the evening to top things off.

A photo posted by Cordis Hall (@cordisimo) on Dec 14, 2015 at 11:25am PST

12/15, Tuesday - Green Mtn - 10 miles, 3000', 2:55
A mammoth dumping of snow fell over the night -- enough to cancel finals -- so I headed up to Green. I was breaking trail most of the way up in the knee deep snow, so the going was insanely slow. A few minutes after I got to the top Ryan showed up following my vaguely broken trail, so we enjoyed the sugary fall back down, but the snow still provided plenty of resistance even with gravity on our side.

A photo posted by Ryan Lassen (@rlassen) on Dec 15, 2015 at 12:12pm PST

12/16, Wednesday - Green Mtn - 10 miles, 3100', 2:48
Surprisingly, conditions were worse than yesterday. The wind had destroyed any broken trail and replaced it with a crunchier more consolidated drift system that seemed to follow the trail. Somehow, even leaving at 9AM I was the first tracks again so I was swimming up and down again. I've learned to just take it easy with bad conditions like this though, there isn't much you can do to go faster.

12/17, Thursday - Green Mtn - 9 miles, 3000', 1:48
Looks like I'm stuck in this groove again. Good. The trench was a little better today, so I was able to make the climb in ~50min, as opposed to the miserable 1:20 it took the previous couple days. The improved conditions are most apparent comparing to yesterday's time! Went for a quick downhill, but didn't quite PR, nor get any closer to Jeff's CR down (I found out later from Jeff that TK went sub-14min pre-flood!). Snowy downhills bombs are too fun to pass up, though.

12/18, Friday - 4 x Green Mtn - 17 miles, 9300', 5:21
I started off pretty frustrated that the wind had destroyed yet another perfectly good trench and that it was I once again who first to arrive and do the dirty work (come on Boulder!). Anyways after the first lap a bunch more people came through and generally cleared things out. Also after lap one, I dropped my car key inside my spare tire on the back of my car, so I wasted a good 10 to 15 minutes delicately extracting the key with twig I fixed into a hook. On good pace vert-wise, hoping to top 10k', but I definitely didn't want to do a fifth lap nor did I care enough to do another 30 minute loop for the extra 700ft.

12/19, Saturday - 4 x Bear Pk - 17 miles, 10000', 5:41
Although I felt horrible on the first lap, it ended up being the fastest lap. The approach from Cragmoor is quite horrible being around 8% grade I feel compelled to run all of it, but its quite hard for me to maintain a run on that with tired legs. Today's fuel was a jar of nutella and a spoon I stashed at the bottom.

12/20, Sunday - 5 x Mt Sanitas - 15 miles, 6100', 4:19
Finished off a tough week with repeats on Sanitas until the BRC group run caught me on lap 5, then I finished off with them so I could get some free breakfast back at the store. Trails were pretty icy, but I still resisted wearing spikes. Only fell once -- which was before sunrise -- so I call that a success.

Week Totals:
92 miles
40,500ft
27:01

Well, that's 8 Green's, 4 Bear's, 6 Sanitas and 1 Quandary in a hard week. I'm pleased.

Nov 30 - Dec 6

A few recovery days out, along with one slightly bigger day to bag a bunch of scrambling before the first big snow which would drape the flatirons in snow much of which will stay put for the season.

11/20, Friday - Third Flatiron - 4 miles, 1800', 1:48
Snow was predicted for this evening so Jack and I headed up for an easy scramble. Finding the true base of the 3rd on its south side far damp to gain traction, we skirted around to the standard east bench start and found a drier surface to ascend. Afterwards, we made a quick mounting of Tomato Rock.

A photo posted by Cordis Hall (@cordisimo) on Nov 20, 2015 at 1:11pm PST

11/22, Sunday - 4th Flatiron, Green Mtn, 2nd Flatiron - 5 miles, 2600', 2:51
The snow that did fall ended up being rather pathetic, so Jack and I set out for the 4th. Jack had never been up the 4th before and he was welcomed with rather treacherous conditions. The first piece was dry enough, but the entrance to the hanging garden on the second piece was guarded by veneer of ice. The third piece was essentially unclimbable, we ended up wallowing up a small trench on the north side filled with powdery snow. We finished up to Green and split for myself to downclimb the 2nd and Jack to take the trail.

A photo posted by Cordis Hall (@cordisimo) on Nov 22, 2015 at 1:37pm PST

A photo posted by Cordis Hall (@cordisimo) on Nov 22, 2015 at 1:08pm PST

11/25, Wednesday - Achean Pronouncement, Primal Rib, Regency, Royal Arch, Hammerhead, Third Flatiron, Chase the Sun, 2nd Flatiron - 9 miles, 4500', 4:40
Anton had told me a month or so ago that something was wrong with me since I said I didn't like Achean Pronouncement (AP) and Primal Rib (PR). Today I trialed his recommendation of switching the order to AP-PR. The start to AP is a bit tricky for me but the remaining scramble was pleasant. The main difference was the short connecting schwack to PR which made the sharp arete all the more enjoyable. Coming off PR I blindly followed Porch Alley out to the Mesa trail so rather than ascending Satan's Slab and the Fist I resigned to loop around to the main Flatirons rather than retrace my steps. The next scrambles of the Regency, Royal Arch, Hammerhead the temperature began to sharply drop; the final loop of the 3rd, Chase the Sun and a downclimb of the second was very cold.

A photo posted by Cordis Hall (@cordisimo) on Nov 25, 2015 at 12:37pm PST

11/28, Saturday - Flatiron Loop - 3 miles, 1500', 0:52
I met Kory at Chautauqua and he dragged me up to behind the 1st where I then lead then descent down to the Amphitheater. As is typical when I run with Kory, I'm displeased with focus on speed of ascent and he is displeased with the technicality and trail (or lack thereof) quality I select.

A photo posted by Cordis Hall (@cordisimo) on Nov 28, 2015 at 8:06am PST

Recovery had generally gone well, sleep deprivation long compensated for as well as energy. The only ailment I currently had was some tightness in my right knee where the quadriceps connect. I was planning on taking more time easy. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), I don't do well with time off nor following plans.

11/30, Monday - Green Mtn - 8 miles, 3,000', 1:45
RMR Green night and I decided to work harder on the up than my usual Monday effort. Downhills were perfect without spikes in the ice-free packed snow.

12/1, Tuesday - Off
Went bouldering at the rec, but felt like a sack of rocks so I headed home early.

12/2, Wednesday - Green Mtn - 7 miles, 3,600', 2:02
Planning on meeting Jack, Kory and Joe on Green, I opted to start early and bag more vert rather than lag behind the speedsters. Took the 1st/2nd trail up, descended to the Amphitheater, ascended Saddle Rock, descended EM Greenman then finished up Ranger where after one extra down and up repeat they joined me on top. Another fun descent.

A photo posted by Cordis Hall (@cordisimo) on Dec 2, 2015 at 7:42am PST

12/3, Thursday - 2 x Green Mtn - 10 miles, 4,800', 2:20
Two laps up and down Saddle Rock. An early start meant I was descending off lap 1 before the sun even rose. Second lap felt too hard.

12/4, Friday - Off

12/5, Saturday - 4 x Bear Pk - 21 miles, 11,100ft, 6:47
Parked at Cragmoor and ran/hiked 4 laps up and down Fern Canyon. I crossed paths with Bill and Mark and then a slew of RMR on the 1st lap. On the second I did the summit ridge with Simon which we hit way too hard for a long effort. The final two laps were a long blur only memorable by getting Ryan Smith's TNF50 update texts. Jack was heading to Bear and tried to convince me to do a 5th, but I was all out of food and quite tired. Definitely not in shape right now.

12/6, Sunday - Climbing
Went sport climbing in Boulder Canyon with Jack. Jack had been telling me about "The Young and the Rackless" for a while now and with him not training for a race, my ankles working and the weather prime, we took advantage of the rare opporunity. My arm strength (which isn't anything to be proud of normally) is terrible right now after betting a bit ambitious on a friendly monthly push-up challenge, so I was frustrated-ly stuck on the first crux, but otherwise made it through alright.

A photo posted by Jack Daly (@jdalyy) on Dec 6, 2015 at 11:57am PST

Week Totals:
45 miles
22,500ft
17:38

Slowly getting back to the rhythm of training. Time to move focus from present objectives to those many, many weeks away. I'll likely have a slightly lighter volume until after Christmas with family, finals and so forth; looking forward to get properly back in training mode. The more hard and terrible the winter the more glorious the summer. Hopefully, otherwise I'll be putting myself through a lot of unnecessary misery.

November 2 - November 8

11/2, Monday - Green Mtn - 6 miles, 2500', 1:22
Daylight savings meant that it was headlamps from the get-go. I much prefer using my headlamp in snow, especially with a big group so I can use not only my own light but all of the other lights reflected off of the crystals, the white should be here soon. Tonight also happened to be my 100th summit of the year, it was nice to get that with RMR friends who have been there for at 30 or so of them, and supplied much of the motivation of staying motivated all year.

Cool group a folks, not sure who it is that felt they needed to compensate for the moon not being in the picture! :)

11/3, Tuesday - Regency & Royal Arch - 8 miles, 2100', 1:51
Ran up to Four Pines and over to the Regency. The Regency is notorious for offering one 4th class route hidden among a web of dead-ends and higher difficulty scrambling. Today I suddenly found myself on a tapering flake which required a sloping mantle maneuver that I couldn't commit to, so I had to downclimb and traverse a bit. Next I went up the trivial east face of the royal arch and downclimbed the trickier 5.6 west face. I'd done this a couple times before, but never without sticky rubber, so it took some extra time. With all my slow scrambling I was forced to skip my planned ascent of the 5th.

11/4, Wednesday - Last Flatironette & Green Mtn - 9 miles, 2900', 1:41
Met Ford and Jack on campus and I huffed and puffed to keep up on the runnable terrain -- Jack has imposed a rule of no hiking east of the mesa trail. From the Woods Quarry we marched straight up and accidentally onto the Last Flatironette. I had no idea what slab we were on but the difficulty was easy (which was important for Ford, a relatively new but enthusiastic scrambler). The downclimb ended up being an easy hang-off. We finished up to Green and took an odd combination of trails back down to finish off a great outing. Pretty chilly, a few flakes up top!

11/5, Thursday - Green Mtn - 9 miles, 3000', 1:52
The precipitation that fell last night turned to snow around 6,500ft so I went up and down the  Amphitheater trail. Maybe 2 or 3 inches of snow on the summit and a slippery descent. I can tell I haven't dealt with cold temps in a while as I was way over dressed.

11/6, Friday - 1st Flatiron & Green Mtn - 9 miles, 3100', 1:58
On the run up I wasn't sure exactly my plan but I hadn't been on the 1st for a while and it looked free of snow. The scramble wasn't particularly fast without sticky rubber and 3 weeks absent from the rock, but all my cruxes felt fine. Finished up to Green and jogged back down. There was an unnerving amount of ice lingering on the upper 800ft of the mountain and a blanket of clouds obscuring all views, winter is here.

11/7, Saturday - Mt Lady Washington (13,281') - 9 miles, 3900', 3:10
Jack, Joe and I started at the Longs Peak trailhead and jog-slogged up to the Chasm Junction from which we began the steep hike up Mt Lady Washington. Perfect blue skies and surprisingly non-violent wind made for a perfect summit with the panoramic view of Longs' east face which Lady Washington is notorious for. I was surprised how well I was able to navigate my typical route in the trees with unbroken snow, though I definitely missed a few turns.

Longs looking as freakin' awesome as always

11/8 - Torreys Pk (14,267') & Grays Pk (14,270') - 14 miles, 5000', 5:07
Although the dirt road up to the trailhead was hardpacked snow with tire tracks, I decided not to push my luck and started running from the highway. First thing I see when I get to the actual trailhead was the same exact car I drove, nice. The overly popular and thus eroded standard trail had a layer of trodden snow which made the going much nicer up to the Kelso turnoff. Kelso Ridge proved to be an exciting ascent with all of the difficult class 3/4 sections getting a 5th class upgrade due to the snow. The final technical section had my usual holds covered in loose snow so I was forced into a sketchy crimp and edge. Amazingly, I never even put on my spikes the whole day. Getting over to Grays was a forced effort, but I can't pass up such an easy tick on a 14er summit. The descent was glorious, plowing through snow then bombing down that snowy, car-tire packed road back to the car. Weather was beautiful as well, comfortable in a t-shirt and clear skies enabled views from Pikes to Longs to the southern Sawatch.

Reasonably exposed

This short move from the leading man to where I took the picture stumped one of the guys in this party I passed, it was by far the technical crux of the day.

View of Kelso Ridge while descending Grays

Week Totals:
63 miles
22,500'
17:02

So that marks one week of trail running without any horrific ankle ligament destruction, which is good. Happy to getting back to schedule that feels consistent and sustainable.

October 12 - November 1

10/12, Monday - Green Mtn - 6 miles, 2600', 1:28
With RMR. Getting my heartrate up too high makes my teeth throb still, so I was really conservative. It doesn't cause damage (or so the doctor told me), but it can be quite painful so I kept it quite relaxed. On the bright-side, my ankle felt much stronger than it did a couple weeks ago.

10/13, Tuesday - Off
Teeth hurt a ton, school stuff, other crap.

10/14, Wednesday - TdF #5: 1st Flatiron - 3 miles, 1600', 0:57
As I should expect for these things, this was another disaster on my part. Felt pretty tired from the beginning then I could easily tell I hadn't scrambled in a couple weeks when I got on the rock. I split ~14:30 on the face, 3:30 off PR pace. Downclimbed in 2:30, 1 minute off PR pace. Took 10 steps then rolled my ankle really badly, I heard pops. I was on enough Advil for my teeth that the pain didn't set in right away, but I knew the damage was done so I humbly walked back down. I would have been happier just scrambling up to the arete and watching Matthias obliterate the FKT by a full minute, 32:14.

Even a slow and disappointing day can still be quite thrilling on the 1st. Photo: Dan Mottinger

10/15, Thursday - Bike: SuperFlag - 20 miles, 500', 1:20
Since I'm back on the injury machine, I took a casual jaunt up the hill and ended up PR-ing the ascent (barely, but I did). Some nice autumn colors are showing in Boulder now, which made the ride a real pick me up from all the injury n' surgery annoyances.

10/16, Friday - Bike -Poorman Loop - 13 miles, 1200', 0:54
Easy cruise up the creek path and over Poorman Dr for a quick loop before dark. Comparing my splits from similar efforts from today and when I road this climb on my road bike is completely lopsided. Road bikes can just crank out miles so fast!

10/17, Saturday - Bike: North Boulder/Longmont - 34 miles, 1300', 1:41
Took the road bike out for a quicker loop out on the farm country northeast of Boulder. Tried to keep the pace somewhat tempo-ish, but since I'm still pretty new to this biking stuff, I'm not sure exactly what pacing is for me. Heading back into Boulder I thought I was moving alright at 22 mph on the flats, then some lady wheeled around me with ease! Only in Boulder!

10/18, Sunday - South Boulder - 15 miles, 500', 1:51
Met Jack on the creek path and we ran steady mile splits at 6:55 - 7:05 min/mi for the first 8 miles, then he wanted to throw in a faster 4 miles. He really broke away from me after the first 2 miles as he kept getting faster and I did the opposite. I circled back around (we were on a 2mi loop at this point), and met him on the backside after some recovery minutes and tried to hold on for dear life for another half mile or so before we ran an "easy" (for him) pace back to campus/home.

Week Totals: Running
24 miles
4,400ft
4:04

Week Totals: Cycling
61 miles
4,900ft
3:41

Has to be one of my lightest weeks in a long time. I've been averaging 17.5 hours cumulatively this year, so 7:45 is quite a step down. Then again, its reasonably warranted considering I had a surgery and an injury. I've also come to the realization that the short season of big alpine adventures is over, and the much longer season of grinding out miles, vert and workouts between homework is here. Its definitely the more miserable season, but I say that with endearment!

For the next week I rolled my right ankle on Monday prompting me to take a full week of rest and start really evaluating my downhill running technique as I'm obviously doing something wrong.

10/26, Monday - Treadmill/Track/Spin - 4 miles, 1:00
Messed around on the treadmill, indoor track and spin bike at the rec center for a couple hours. I wound up running about 4 miles. Good workout.

10/27, Tuesday -  AM & PM Creek Path - 10 miles, 500', 1:20
4 miles in the morning at a slow lethargic pace then 6 miles in the evening feeling much better, weirdly.

10/28, Wednesday - Boulder Resevoir - 7 miles, 300', 0:50
With Jack and Kory, we did a lap around Boulder Res. I was feeling very tired which was bad because Jack and Kory usually run ~6:30 pace and today I was struggling to stay at 7:00 pace. I may have got back to the car last, but it was a fun time complimented with breakfast at Einstein Bagels afterwards.

10/29, Thursday - Boulder Canyon - 8 miles, 500', 1:02
Good ol' creek path to its western terminus. I was surprised to not see Sage since he's running this path twice a day right now. I checked Strava when I got home and I actually did just narrowly miss seeing him. Effort felt much easier than yesterday, easily held 7:20 pace average.

10/30, Friday - Creek Path - 8 miles, 300', 1:04
Cruise on the South Boulder bike paths.

10/31, Saturday - 2nd Flatiron, Sunset Flatironette, Green Mtn, Bear Pk, South Boulder Pk - 15 miles, 5900', 3:59
I hadn't planned on returning to trails yet, but it was a holiday and I wanted to enjoy it. I didn't have a big plan, so I headed for the default 2nd Flatiron. I scrambled easy in 12 minutes then decided to tack on Chase the Sun before the march up to Green. I took Bear Canyon all the way down the Mesa Trail, which winds a relatively flat path down for dropping 2500ft. Next, I enjoyed the 3000ft climb up Fern Canyon to Bear Pk and bop to South Boulder Pk. Descended Shadow Canyon for the first time in a long while then took the Mesa Trail back to Chautauqua.

Clouds pouring over the Continental Divide, unfortunately my iPhone camera can't quite capture a lot of the expansive, but far away peaks.

11/1, Sunday - Challenger, Green Mtn, 2nd Flatiron, Chase the Sun, 2 x Green Mtn - 15 miles, 7500', 5:14
I started off heading up to Morning After, but after sitting at the 5.7 overhanging crux I couldn't find a sequence I felt comfortable doing without sticky rubber (I usually like wearing my re-soled shoes for anything over 5.4 excluding the 1st since I have every hold and sequence memorized). After a rather involved traverse back to dirt I romped up to Challenger which I scrambled before hiking up to Green. For the descent I chose Gregory Ridge a variant of the standard Gregory-Ranger route, which I essentially never go down since its so indirect. Up next I took on the Free for All route on the 2nd Flatiron, which although technically being 5.6, I've done enough times and the 5.6 is literally 5 or 8 feet long I felt fine in my running shoes. I tacked on Chase the Sun again, its a fun little addition after the 2nd. After summitting Green for the second time I was trying to convince myself to skip the 3rd lap, but I really was intent on getting to 99 summits of Green for 2015 today so I could do the 100th with my friends tomorrow night. So, after descending to the Amphitheater I did a u-turn and slowly hiked back up for summit number 99. I had almost forgotten how early sunset is with daylight savings last night, but I thankfully made it back to my bike before things really got dark.

I'm a big fan of Challenger

Looking to Bear on the hike from Challenger to Green

Mountains are looking white nowadays.

Week Totals:
68 miles
16,500'
14:31

Got some good distance throughout the week and capitalized on barely healthy enough ankles to enjoy the best Boulder has to offer on the weekend. Not even sure what I'm trying to do looking forwards, Nolans or something of the like is certainly the objective for next summer, but I'd like to put a race or other objective on the schedule for the period of February - April to maintain motivation in the coming cold and dark months. Currently I'm thinking about the Mississippi 50 or Behind the Rocks 50M/50k but I normally throw all my plans in the trash and do something else.

September 21 - October 11

General lack of structure lately, but here is the coming and goings as of late.

9/21, Monday - AM: Bike: Flagstaff Mtn - 18 miles, 1900', 1:21 - PM: 1st Flatiron - 3 miles, 1900', 1:36
Opted for another morning ride up Flagstaff road, I'd really like to get faster at the climb, but this morning I was just enjoying the cool mountain breezes. For RMR Monday I decided to take a demo pair of Hoka's up the direct route on the 1st. The traction isn't so bad, but you cannot feel in any way if your foot is secure. Thus, it took me a lot longer than usual. Marched up to the ridge then down to Saddle Rock for some extra vert. Turned my ankle running back down, which I should have known would happen wearing Hoka's, ugh.

9/22. Tuesday - The Slab - 3 miles, 1400', 1:12
Met Eric at the Craigmoor trailhead to go scout tomorrow's route, Syzygy. the face itself is definitely a choose-your-own-adventure sort of thing, lots of options ranging from 4th class to 5.5. I was practicing the downclimb a few times when Matthias practically leaped to the ground doing his run of the course early.

9/23, Wednesday - TdF 2: The Slab - 4 miles, 1500', 0:36
Took the approach much more conservative this time, maybe too conservative. I was 4th to the rock, but immediately passed David on the scramble. Nearing the top, I was momentarily happy as I believed I was in front of Stefan, but then he appeared on the skyline taking whatever route he pleased. Such is the luxury when you can practically solo 5.11b! I came off the downclimb in 4th and timidly made my to the trail and maintained my place to the finish. Apparently I was only 15 seconds behind Stefan, but I never realized with the winding trail in the trees, otherwise I may have pushed a bit more. Then again, I was pretty satisfied to have finished without re-tweaking my ankle. Dang ankles have been made of glass for the past couple months!

Working my way up. Photo: Stuart Paul

9/24, Thursday - Bike: Gold Hill - 25 miles, 3000', 2:10

In an effort to get into the hills and heal my ankle I was back on the bike. I hurried up Boulder Canyon and hopped over to Sunshine Canyon via Poorman Dr. The climb up to Gold Hill ended up being way further than I thought, which wouldn't have been an issue had light not been waning. Coming down Fourmile Canyon, I was having some chain issues and ended up losing traction on a turn and flipping over the bars. I was wearing my helmet and proudly somersaulted across the dirt road, but still ended up with a good bit of road rash. I remember back when I used to skateboard a lot falling was a learned skill, however silly that sounds. I'm happy to have come out relatively unscathed. Overall though, it was an incredibly beautiful evening with yellowing aspens and subtly pink sunset and the wreck only composed a couple minutes of what otherwise was great ride.

9/25, Friday - Sick

9/26, Saturday - Sick

9/27, Sunday - Sick

9/28, Monday - Green Mtn - 10 miles, 2900', 1:59
Standard RMR Monday. I was happy to have a headlamp for the jog home. That along with the weather forecast of ten inches of snow on Longs Friday night are depressing signs of summer's end.

9/29, Tuesday - 2nd Flatiron + Green Mtn - 9 miles, 2900', 1:50
Kept the pace easy and steady. A light drizzle meant I was restricted to the Freeway, especially without sticky rubber. Hiked up to Green passing Hillary and Josh; tagged the summit and skipped down (only one ankle turn, its getting annoying) to catch up then finished back to the trailhead with them. Felt good to get a couple Green summits from home the last couple days, back to basics.

9/30, Wednesday - TdF 3: Regency, Royal Arch, 5th Flatiron - 4 miles, 1900', 1:14
Not necessarily a high placing today, but I had a good ascent topping out in 5th, which seems to be where I belong (now that Anton is back, I'm pushed out of 4th). Felt good on the Regency tailing Anton till he blitzed the downclimb faster than I could blink, he was gone. I managed to on-sight the downclimb on the west face of Royal Arch reasonable well, with only one quick pause to find a hold. I put some space between me and Darren on the 5th, but I downclimbed too far and had to reascend to the correct ledge. I took the downhill easy with Jason and we took the wrong trail down, and of course snuck in a little ankle roll farther down Skunk Canyon. I didn't really place too well but it was grand old time.

Figuring out the downclimb off the Royal Arch with Darren closing above. Photo: David Glennon

Nearing the top of the Regency, Eric Lee (who took this pic) has been getting some fantastic pictures thus far!

10/1, Thursday - 1st Flatiron - 7 miles, 2000', 1:30ish?
Jogged up to Chat feeling tired but that lack of energy double on the hike. Ended up spending some 37 minutes on the rock with stops and and so forth. My ankle felt extremely fragile so I walked most of the descent before jogging home. Elapsed time was 2hrs, but I spent so much time walking or flat out stopped I'm calling it 90min. Time to take a break from running.

10/2, Friday - Off
Spent the afternoon figuring out how to actually tune up my bike, which involved completely un-tuning both derailleurs.

10/3, Saturday - Bike: Sunshine-Sugarloaf - 37 miles, 5100', 3:21
Boulder was under a dense veil of clouds and I've learned how cold you can get on a bike so I donned tights and a long sleeve shirt to complement my usual lycra-lizard biking kit. I took Sunshine Canyon (with a little loop through Seven Hills) to Poorman where I could descend to Fourmile Canyon. I had planned on taking the trails of the Betasso Preserve to Sugarloaf, but I had forgotten its closed to bikers on Saturdays. So I continued up the canyon, finding Logan Mill Rd, which I'd seen Anton riding on his barely trail capable rig so I granny-geared up the steep climb. At this point I had fully risen above the clouds and was burning up in my tights and sleeves, I paused to strip down to shorts and a jersey. From the end of Logan Mill, it was a short climb up Sugarloaf before winding down the beautiful Switzerland trail to Sunset and back to Fourmile. I started climbing up to Gold Hill, but then decided I was done so I threw on a windbreaker and headed home.

Looking back to Boulder from the Switzerland Trail to Sunset

10/4, Sunday - Bike: Blue Sky Marathon Spectating - 28 miles, 3100', 3:20

I headed down to Fort Collins watch Jack run the Blue Sky Marathon and brought my bike along to get some biking in on their sweet trails

10/5 Monday - Bike: Ward-Nederland - 49 miles, 6100', 2:58
I took my usual "shortcut" over Lee-Hill and dispatched the the steep grades with surprising ease. The following climb to Ward felt unreasonably easy. Cranked right through Ward up to Peak to Peak HW which took me on a longer than expected but beautiful route to Nederland, yellow aspens all the way. I bombed down Boulder Canyon, passing Jack who was climbing near Boulder Falls and then Sage who was predictably running the creek path. I'm usually happy with a 16.5mph average for a flat ride, so I was ecstatic to maintain that on a hilly route that got up to 9000ft+.

10/6, Tuesday - Bike: Flagstaff + NCAR - 25 miles, 3400', 1:44
I was lazy with the route this morning and simply did out and backs on a couple local climbs, Super-Flagstaff then the much shorter and easier NCAR. NCAR is the cycling equivalent of the Freeway route, fun, short and relatively easy (or you can hammer the whole thing and get your heart rate to max out).

10/7, Wednesday - Bike: Flagstaff - Coal Creek Canyon - 38 miles, 4600', 2:39
Started off with Super-Flagstaff and descended the west side towards Gross Reservoir. I'm always for some reason surprised at just how pretty the 7000ft to 8000ft elevations can be and thus just how unappreciated they are. The road around the reservoir, I knew was dirt and road-bike-able, but after last nights rain, traction was especially tricky descending to South Boulder Creek. The subsequent climb up to Crescent however was a smooth and hardpacked delight even on the roadie. I had forgotten just how much elevation I had gained so the long and speedy ride out of Coal Creek Canyon was a blast on the wide curves. I'm not good at descending (specifically high-speed cornering), so I felt much better on the slight bends rather than the 180 degree hairpins down Flagstaff. Pushed the rollers on 93 to make it class on time. Got in some climbing with Jack in the afternoon, barely made it up (one fall at the crux on both attempts) "Twilight Time" a 5,10a or 5.9+ depending on where you look.

10/8, Thursday - Bike: 2 x Flagstaff - 21 miles, 3600', 1:40
Started off with a relatively relaxed climb of Super-Flag (38min), then did a loop around the Chautauqua parking lot before starting a hard lap up the Amphitheater. My chain fell off within the first minute, so the effort ended being just from Gregory Canyon to the Amphitheater turnoff, and with my tired legs I wasn't able to achieve much in the way of time.

10/9, Friday to 10/11, Sunday - Wisdom Teeth Surgery
Buncha days off for getting my wisdom teeth out. Hopefully, my ankle has gotten some good healing time from all the biking and days off. Then again, I'm on enough pain killers right now from the surgery that I can't tell if it is healed or not!

September 7 - September 20

9/7, Monday - 1st Flatiron - 3 miles, 1400', 2:00
Scrambled the 1st with Rush and his friend from Chicago. Walking everything, 40 minute scramble, super easy. Definitely recovery mode.

9/8, Tuesday - Off

9/9, Wednesday - Off

9/10, Thursday - Anemone Ridge & Mt Sanitas - 11 miles, 2200', 1:37
With RMR, we first tackled the newly opened Anemone Ridge which was super fun, before zipping (past a bear, no less) up the backside of Sanitas. Three scoops of gelato for dinner afterwards. Great idea, but limiting myself to two is likely more sensible.

9/11, Friday - Climbing
Well, the streak of never using a rope is over. Jack took me up Boulder Canyon for some sport climbing. I first top roped a 5.8, Edges and Ledges, then lead a 5.9, Brand New Bosch. Awesome to climb something where falling is actually possible but death isn't. My mind still isn't quite all back from the sleep deprivation yet so I stupidly forgot my rock shoes and was wearing Jack's one size too small shoes. As a result, my toes were squeezed lifeless and on my last rappel down I was wincing with each bump into the rock.

9/12, Saturday - Flatiron Quinfecta, 5th Flatiron, 4th Flatiron - 7 miles, 6200', 3:58
Ugh. Set out to do the Double Quinfecta but made the mistake of bringing no water despite the hot temps. I made it through the trifecta in my usual hour, then my experimental line from the 3rd to the Royal Arch trail was a bust. I hopped on the Northeast Buttress on the 5th for a change and found it to be an amazing route with a couple super thin 5.5/6 sections in the typical 5.who-cares slab. I then found a way better downclimb off the south side of the 5th that shaves off several minutes, the 5th turned out to be the one highlight of the day. After finishing the 4th I had already eaten both the gels I brought and was feeling pretty dehydrated. Lap 2 on the 5th I perfected the line, but my split was nearly 14min (versus 9min on lap one). Things really started unraveling with a bunch of hip cramps and more slow movement on the 4th with a nearly 30min scramble. I started heading up to the 3rd but I was fading pretty badly and expecting a pretty miserable time for the last 3, so I called it and jogged back down. Still a good day on paper, just not what I was hoping for.

9/13 Sunday - Campus Loop
Slept through my alarm then found out I'll be doing a little scramble shindig on Wednesday so rather then battle the heat (again) I did an easy loop around campus.

Week Totals:
24 miles
10,000'
8:06

9/14, Monday - AM: 3rd Flatiron Tour - 5 miles, 2800', 2:21 - PM: Green Mtn + Dome Rappel - 6 miles, 2500', 1:30
In the morning I met Kendrick and Stuart for some scrambling, we did the 3rd Flatironette, then walked back down to the true bottom of the 3rd (standard start is 200' higher at the East Bench), then scrambled up to the "U" before I cut over and checked out the North side. Its more fun (difficult) but the rock is sort of crumbly and with the 50ft drop a few feet away I won't frequent it. RMR Green in the evening, followed by a quick session in Boulder Canyon learning how to rappel, just in case that skill comes in handy over the next few days.

9/15, Tuesday - Off
Boy, its hard getting into the groove of running and school again, super inconsistent.

9/16, Wednesday - Tour de Flatirons, Stage 1 (Freeway, 1st Flatiron, 3rd Flatiron) - 4 miles, 2600', 1:15
Eh, not sure how I felt about my performance, but it was pretty cool to compete against some guys I really look up to. My first mistake was running with Anton and Matthias way too hard to the 2nd (not like I kept up too well anyways), had I gone even 30 seconds slower here I think I could have held a much better pace later in the course. The big mishap was having my rope super tangled coming down the 3rd, which wasted 10 minutes and dropped me two places. I finished 7th.

Beginning the rappel of the 3rd. Photo: Eric Lee

Working my way up the face of the 3rd Flatiron, trying to hold onto my 5th place position.

9/17, Thursday - AM: Bike: 16 miles, 300', 0:50 - PM: Mt Sanitas - 9 miles, 1500', 1:20
Quick ride to pick up a circuit component for lab in the morning. RMR Sanitas in the evening.

9/18, Friday - Bike: Flagstaff Mtn - 14 miles, 2400', 1:07
I had biked Flag before, but never as just a standalone road bike ride, but its really fun! You gain a ton of elevation pretty quickly and are rewarded with some great views. Maybe the best part is not having to throw yourself down the mountain, but instead coasting down in the cool breeze without smashing your joints on rocks. Nice change of pace.

9/19, Saturday - Little-Bear Pk (14,037'), Blanca Pk (14,345'), Ellingwood Pt (14,042') - 15 miles, 6700', 5:24
Jack and I made the long haul across the near longitudinal length of the state and made it up to 8800' in his jeep. Lake Como Rd is one of the worst roads in America (like actually, its a thing). A more accurate description than "road" would be "Class 2 trail cars can drive on". We leisurely began at 7:30AM and hike/jogged the loose rubble road up to Lake Como, its not only a technical road its also steep. The standard route of Little Bear is the most dangerous standard route on a Colorado 14er due to rockfall. So instead we took the NW Face, a more technical route, but being mostly 3rd/4th and maybe one or two 5.easy moves it was the obvious choice (especially without helmets). The face turned out to be great fun on its own. We quickly darted out and back on the ridge to tag Little Bear before embarking on the greatest ridge run I can imagine. All of the rock was solid, and it mostly alternated between short 3rd/4th class and extended sections of 2ft (or less!) wide ridge that you could run across. The greatest. Blanca would be the high point of the day, and the views back to Little Bear with the backdrop of the San Luis Valley were near perfect. Last we dropped down and up to Ellingwood Point, our final summit. We descended a talus gully directly off the summit and made our way to the standard trail to Lake Como. Jack didn't want to re-re-re-re-sprain his ankle (its a vicious cycle), so I took the road much quicker slaloming between boulders and baby-heads to stay on dirt for a fun descent back to the heat of the valley. Might be the most fun route I've ever done, its a quintessential mountain run!

Jack standing high above the San Luis Valley, with the traverse from Little Bear dominating the view.

Charging to the first peak of the day, Little Bear, with the next two Blanca (right) and Ellingwood (left) 

Standing on the summit of Blanca looking back to Little Bear. Not sure why I'm frowning, I was loving it! Photo: Jack

9/20, Sunday - Tomato Rock, Hammerhead, Royal Arch, 5th Flatiron, Stairway to Heaven, Primal Rib, Achean Pronouncement, Satan's Slab, Fist, Green Mtn - 10 miles, 5600', 5:34
I finally tried scrambling with a pack and water. I hate to abandon UD (a local Boulder company), but the Salomon packs are on a whole other level in terms of comfort and utility. With a liter of water (in soft flasks, rather than bottles another great purchase) I jogged up to Tomato Rock and quickly mounted the 5.8 sphere. I followed a well defined trail up to the Hammerhead for Yodeling Moves then zipped over to the Royal Arch. The west face of the arch is rated 5.6, but it felt very easy -- I would be comfortable downclimbing it. Next was the south side of 5th, I hugged the far edge and found the climbing much more fun than my slightly less south route I've taken before. I shwacked over and then proceeded to downclimb (like a bumbling idiot) Stairway to Heaven. Being a virgin to the depths of Skunk Canyon it took me a bit to navigate the flood debris and hop on the razor sharp ridge of Primal Rib which uneventfully passed. I descended down in front of Achean Pronouncement to scout my downclimb then jogged all the way to the bottom. The first couple moves are 5.7, but it gradually eases in difficulty until the end is 4th class. Downclimbing was easy since I didn't finish to the 5.6 pinnacle. There were 2 groups on Satan's Slab (I've never seen anyone in Skunk Canyon before), but they were taking the 5.8 direct route. The bottom of the slab is so insanely polished it makes the 1st look quite featured. I eventually found a very thin fault in the rock which angled back left across the face directly to the 5.8 roof, then took a 5.5/6 slab route around the roof and romped up the slab. There were several bulges and notches that felt between 5.5 and 5.7, its a sustained route! I picked up a faint trail which lead me to the south edge of the Fist and followed ledges and fist cracks to the summit. The downclimb off the back isn't particularly hard but the holds are extremely thin, so it takes quite awhile to identify the route, especially on-site. Out of water, I finished up to Green and took a relaxed jaunt completely on trail back down.

The Norther Slabs of Skunk Canyon, From left, Mohling Arete, Angel's Way, Satan's Slab, Stairway to Heaven, Hillbilly Rock.

Looking back up the super crimpy downclimb off the Fist. Keep in mind this is at about 70 degrees!

Week Totals (Run):
48 miles
21,000'
17:57

Week Totals (Bike):
48 miles
4,100'
3:39

Now there is a week of training I can be happy about. Even more, throw in a math test -- which I believe -- I did great on, and its an even better week.