June 15 - June 27

6/15, Monday - 2nd Flatiron + Green Mtn - 8 miles, 2900', 1:35

The RMR group was sort of broken tonight with everyone doing their own thing. A bunch of people are doing the Bighorn 100 this weekend, other had just ran Quadrock 50, others were normal and Jack and I scrambled the 2nd to meet them on top. Jack and I maintained a great pace standing on the summit 47 minutes after leaving Chautauqua (a 9:30 scramble). What was most encouraging was that we both didn't feel like we were really pushing that hard. Ran into Kendrick who is finally back in CO coming down, so Eric and I chatted with him for a while before getting back to the TH.

6/16, Tuesday - AM: Locomotion Lab - 4 miles, 0', 0:30 - PM: 2nd Flatiron + Spyronette - 4 miles, 2100', 2:00

Another AM session as a lab rat doing my 3km time trial. I felt really strong on this one, curious to know how it compared to last week (when my times are revealed to me next week). In the evening I got in some low key scrambling with Kendrick and his friend Max who is here from Chile for the Bighorn 100 on Friday.

6/17, Wednesday - AM: 2nd Flatiron, 1st Flatiron, Chase the Sun, 1st Flatiron - 8 miles, 3100', 3:05 - PM: 1st Flatiron - 3 miles, 1600', 4:40
First day to meet up with Satan's Minions for scrambling. We first tackled the Dodge Block route on the 2nd, finishing with the tunnel varation. From there we moved over to Atalanta (not a typo) on the 1st Flatiron, new to me but a super mellow route to get up the 1st. Next was Chase the Sun, a route I've debated for the last year but been to lazy to explore. It was generally straight forward with a couple tricky notches. Last, I did an easy ascent of the 1st with Peter Bakwin. After being home for a few minutes I was invited to do an easy ascent of the 1st so after a quick breakfast I headed back out with Logan and Yves. Logan and I soloed up then Logan belayed Yves on top rope. Longer than expected so I was (literally) burnt by the end.

6/18, Thursday - 1st Flatiron + 2nd Flatiron - 7 miles, 2000', 2:23
Should have seen this sluggish day coming with how long I've been out lately. That being said I jogged easy to Chautauqua, hiked to the 1st then scrambled like a slug with several stops. I downclimbed the Freeway and jogged home. I'll maybe try and take tomorrow easier so I have a better weekend. Maybe.

6/19, Friday - Off
First true rest day in about a month, so it was warranted.

6/20, Satuday - Mt Elbert (14,433') & S. Elbert (14,134') - 11 miles, 5300', 3:01
A good effort up to S. Elbert from Black Cloud Creek, then it was feeling my way around the snow patches up to Elbert proper. I ran into Peter Bakwin coming down the West ridge of Elbert (heading to Bull Hill) as he prepares for backpacking the entire Sawatch Range next week (essentially, Nolan's 14 +1 in 7 days).

Week Totals:
52 miles
21,700'
21:39

The massive amount of time I spent on the 1st on Wednesday really had me burnt on energy (thus the slow and miserable Thurs and Fri off). Thankfully, the off day made a big difference for a productive three days up high. I'm ready for the snow to meet its demise so as to not be spending 20-30 minutes trying to navigate through the knee deep snow, then once in the snow fear that I'll hit a rock and break my leg.

6/21, Sunday - La Plata Pk (14,336') - 10 miles, 4500', 3:31
Jack and I started 30-40 minutes after his dad and brothers and caught them just below the Northwest ridge. I was probably stopped for 30 minutes-ish of the time as I would often get too far ahead then wait. We hiked together then I descended quickly alone (I hadn't brought water and it was clear it would be a while otherwise) and met them back at the trailhead.

6/22, Monday - Mt Princeton (14,197') - 12 miles, 5400', 3:48
My CR-V could have easily made it up to the radio tower, but it was fine adding on some honest running and bonus vert with the 2000ft/3mi forest road up to the second parking lot. Since I was traveling especially light today I decided I would turn around regardless at 2h30m so I wouldn't get too dehydrated or calorie depleted. Conveniently, I summitted in 2:27, which I was very pleased with given the vert and conditions. The descent was soft wet snow and talus (similar to the ascent, really) until I was back on the forest road. Instead of wasting my time and legs with the <5% grade downhill, I opted to just take the forested ridge back down.

6/23, Tuesday - Locomotion Lab - 3 miles, 0', 0:30
Another 3km time trial, I got to learn my times today, and they are highly unimpressive. Some conciliation was learning that even most of the CU track athletes run dramatically slower on our antiquated indoor track.

6/24, Wednesday - Torreys Pk (14,267'), Grays Pk (14,270'), Kelso Mtn (13,164'), Torreys Pk, Grays Pk - 16 miles, 7900', 5:13
Big day. Started on the Steven's Gulch road 1.5 miles from the TH which I felt phenomenal on all the way past the TH to the turnoff for Kelso Ridge. From there I enjoyed the snow free scramble until the last 25ft of kick in steps up snow. After a quick tag of Grays I wallowed through some snow field and on the fly decided to head up Kelso's south slope. Might as well do the whole loop again. The full ridge from Kelso to Torreys was fantastic, aside from really losing my lungs on the final push to Torreys. I somehow found plenty of energy to march up Grays before descending back down ~4000ft to the car.

6/25, Thursday - Mt Sanitas - 6 miles, 1500', 1:11
Easy group run with RMR

6/26, Friday- The Slab & Harmon Flatironette - 5 miles, 2100', 2:48
Morning with the minions. We first took "Syzygy" up The Slab as an easy cruise before some went up to Bear and I, along with Kendrick and Stuart went out to find something else to scramble. Somehow we ended up on Harmon Flatironette (known only after later conferring with my guidebook), which was also cruiser before jog/hiking back down.

6/27, Saturday- Steven's Gulch Traverse - 11 miles, 6000', 4:49
I was celebrating my friend Elliot's 21st Friday night and I arrived home at 3:45AM before a painful 5:30AM alarm clock - bring on the coffee! Logan and I parked right at the foot of Kelso Mtn and stormed across the stream for a casual meander to the summit. Kelso Ridge was certainly the highlight of the day, so we gave a bit more effort in surmounting Torreys. Grays was disposed of quickly and soon we were on the far less traveled route to Mt Edwards (13,850'), McClellan Mtn (13,587') and Ganley Mtn (12,902'). These relatively small peaks were a lot further away than we initially thought, but offered the greatest views I've seen of Grays and Torreys. We descended arguably prematurely down a ridiculously steep scree field which terminated in an unsettled graveyard of microwave size rocks. Then it was a mile-ish jog down the road to the car.

Week Totals:
62 miles
27,300ft
21:53

A strong week with eight 14er summits, four 13er summits and some Boulder area tally marks. While Kelso Ridge is open, I'm still a bit hesitant on other alpine scrambles; maybe one more week of class 2's before I can settle into some more engaging peaks (Elks, IPW, Longs, etc). I finally went and submitted a pair of used (~110 miles on them) Inov-8 RocLite 255 to be resoled with climbing rubber; they are scheduled to be done by July 7th and I'm very excited to try and improve my scramble times in them (especially on the 1st).

Top of the 1st with Max (right) and Kendrick (photo cred: Kendrick)

On top of Elbert with the snow spotted ridge to S. Elbert behind

La Plata Pk (right) from Black Cloud Creek

Stevens Gulch Traverse was in top shape! Linked up Kelso, Torreys, Grays, Edwards, McClellan, and Ganley with @cordisimo . If you're comfortable with avalanche gulley's, I couldn't recommend this enough. #14ers #13ers

A photo posted by Logan Polfuss | 19 (@polfuss) on Jun 28, 2015 at 9:37am PDT

June 7 - June 14

6/7, Sunday - Bike - 29 miles, 3000', 2:05
From home up Old Stage to Lefthand Canyon, then up Lee Hill and back home.

6/8, Monday - Mt Ida (12,880') - 9 miles, 2800', 3:20
Fun day with Yves and Victor in RMNP. Lots and lots of snow in the trees made for a non-ideal descent, but we got in some fantastic ridge running at 12,000ft on reasonably clear trails.

Victor & Yves trotting across some snow just below the summit.

6/9, Tuesday - AM: Locomotion Lab - 5 miles, 0', 0:45 - PM: Mt Sanitas - 3 miles, 1300', 1:15
20 minute warm-up, 3km time trial, run home. I always forget how fun it is to move that fast. Easy hike/run with Daniel in the afternoon.

6/10, Wednesday - Freeway, 2 x 1st Flatiron - 5 miles, 2,800', 2:32
Started off with tagging the Freeway with a big RMR group, some people new to scrambling so it was a relaxed pace. Afterwards, Logan and I went and did a lap on 1st. At this point I was well warmed up (or tired, who knows) so I went for an all out ascent which I completed in 12:59. I really didn't feel that fast aside from nailing the first pitch in ~1:30. Given I normally do that pitch in 4:00, the few minutes I took off my previous PR of 15:40 probably came all from that. I think sub-12 is doable.

6/11, Thursday - Brainard Lake Bike - 59 miles, 5800', 4:16
From home, I started off with the relatively short but far more steep Lee Hill. Grinding up this sharp incline makes the subsequent ascent of Lefthand Canyon feel far less steep. I felt terrific on the final climb to Ward but started to feel heavy legs on the final stretch to Brainard Lake. I had thought about going around to Nederland and Coal Creek Canyon for the way back, but the sky looked overwhelmingly threatening. I was able to outrace most of the storms back, but did get rained on a few times.

Not sure why I brought 2 bottles, guess I haven't figured out what I need for biking yet.

6/12, Friday - Bear Pk - 6 miles, 2800', 2:00
Easy up and down Fern Canyon with Andrea.

6/13, Saturday - Mt Elbert (14,433') - 12 miles, 4900, 3:43
Spent the night at the trailhead to acclimate. I started a little farther back since I didn't want to deal with the super narrow 4x4 road and the annoyances it would entail which gave my a couple miles on the Colorado trail to warm up. From there I took the East ridge where snow started about 300ft after treeline. Only a few soft patches and the rest was solid. Brilliant sky and weather.

On top of Elbert looking towards the technically less massive Mt Massive

6/14, Sunday - Bull Hill (13,761') - 7 miles, 4000', 3:47
What a disaster. I had planned on taking the less used Black Cloud Creek trail up to Elbert and its unranked brother to the south, but I ended up taking a social trail for some sport climbing on Monitor Rock by mistake. This trail ended way below treeline and I was marching off-trail up unreasonably steep mud and thick foliage until I hit treeline where it was post-holing to Bull Hill. With the undoubted knee deep snow that would accompany the extra 1.5 miles over to Elbert I turned back for an equally miserable descent. The whole thing was probably closer to 6 miles since the GPS considered my meandering about on top as honest progress. On the bright side were some good views, a goat (I think goat) skeleton, mining ruins and a massive bighorn sheep.

The rest of the bones were scattered over a few hundred feet in the center of Monitor Gulch.

Mt Massive (left) and Mt Elbert (right) from Bull Hill. Summer down low, winter up high.

A while back to now

5/17, Sunday - Mt Sanitas - 11 miles, 1400', 1:40
BRC was demoing some new Inov-8's so I joined what amounted to be just RMR's on a Sanitas jaunt. I wore an old pair of socks that did not do well with the demo shoes and formed a blister (I almost never get blisters) which forced me to a near walk on the streets back to the store. I ended up getting hooked up with a free pair of smart-wool socks in the end though, so it was cool.

5/18, Monday - AM: Beark Pk - 6 miles, 2900', 3:09 - MM(?): Flat - 5 miles, 300', 0:45 - PM: 6 miles, 2500', 1:30
Weird day. Elliot is back in town so we hiked up Bear Peak in the mucky rain and clouds. Not sure how he seemed so much faster from last Fall after being at sea level for the last 5 months, but I was pleased to make descent time for a hike. Around lunch I got messaged that some high school XC guys were meeting up so I ran with them for a few miles before biking straight to Chautauqua for the RMR ascent of Green, then to Southern Sun for food and drinks with them.

Top of Bear. Photo: Elliot

5/19, Tuesday - Green Mtn - 6 miles, 2500', 1:51
XC teammate said he wanted to try a mountain run, so we made a quick climb of Green in the mud before an excruciatingly slow descent (like 45 minutes, which was slower than our ascent). I guess he doesn't like downhills much, but it was fun to get out with an old friend.

Snow in May!?

5/20, Wednesday - Green Mtn - 6 miles, 2500', 1:17
Met up with Kory early before leaving Boulder. I told him to go his normal speed (i.e. fast) so I could try and keep up. Well, I didn't keep up, but I'd like to think that the 45,000' over the last 10 days handicapped me a bit. We had talked about doing a double Green, but we are both born in CO and can't tolerate the rain so we decided going home was a better option.

5/21, Thursday - Hidden Valley - 5 miles, 1000', 0:45
Arrived in Moab with a few hours of daylight so I took Kendrick's advice and went to Hidden Valley, which is probably the closest trail to town. I was expecting a "meh" sort of run, but frankly it was one of the prettiest runs I've been on.

Hidden Valley TH, getting behind the ridge is literally a hidden valley which looks much nicer than the usual desert dirt.

5/22, Friday - Amasa - 5 miles, 600', 0:42
I was told an early start to the day, but I guess to rafters that means we leave at like 10AM. So I had an hour to kill. Fun trail.

Amasa TH, I really don't know what its called, but it was cool

Week Totals:
50 miles
13,800'
11:25

5/23 to 5/30 - Grand Canyon Rafting
Pretty fun and tame aside from maybe 5 cumulative minutes of losing-your-mind-insane-rapids. Particularly Hanse rapid (which we ran completely wrong and ended up backwards for a bit); massive 8 foot waves would instantaneously fill the raft with water (thankfully we had self-bailing rafts). Anyways, it was super duper and I can't wait to get out on a raft again, even if I never get back to the GC.

5/31, Sunday - Bright Angel - 10 miles, 4700', 3:11
I was only rafting the first half of the trip, so I hiked out at Phantom Ranch with an overstuffed old swimming backpack, which translated to very sore shoulders.

6/1, Monday - AM: Pritchett Canyon - 4 miles, 700', 1:06 - PM: Spyronette - 3 miles, 1400', 1:56
Made it to Moab late (tried making better time, but after a speeding ticket on a completely empty road in the middle of nowhere...argh). I slept at the trailhead in the car and then sort of picked a random trail, then scrambled up some sandstone mound which featured a spicy downclimb. Found a 4x4 road and took it back to the TH. RMR was demoing Hoka's tonight, then Rush and Guy wanted to scramble instead, so I took a pair of Hokas up Spyronette which we disposed of quite casually. Cut down to the Amphitheater and ran back to Chat with the gang.

On top of one of them sandstone mounds.

6/2, Tuesday - Free For All & Freeway - 3 miles, 1400', 1:35
I hadn't investigated the legitimate route on the second since my Quinfecta, and I couldn't remember too much. I got off of the Freeway ridge too early, then attacked the Pullman too early which put me in some uber exposed and near vertical hand crack. After much trial and error I found a more efficient way around to the South gully where I found the remaining moves to go much easier. Just a 30ft section I need to figure out. Downclimbed Freeway super slow to get back.

6/3, Wednesday - AM: Freeway - 3 miles, 1400', 1:51 - PM: Lab Rat - 4ish miles, 200'ish, 0:30ish
Yves and Victor are returning to mother Europe soon and had to yet to scramble a flatty. The start was rough to say the least. Yves quickly figured out that you don't want to lay down on the rock, but rather keep you mass vertical to utilize the rubber on your shoes. Victor on the other hand would for some reason assume a completely prone position anytime he felt unsure, which always made his position magnitudes worse. Despite the adversity they predictably reached the top unscathed. The whole thing ended up being more humorous than anything, as a fall about anywhere on the 2nd would only be something like skinned knees and elbows.

In the evening I participated in a study at the CU locomotion lab. I ran a few easy intervals at increasing speeds before taking a VO2 Max test. They said I was at about 53 or something, I have no idea what that means, but I heard Kilian is at like 93. Part of the study is that I can't know time or distance, so numbers are estimates.

Demoing a harder sequence for Victor. Photo: Yves

6/4, Thursday - 1st Flatiron, Free For All, GMP, Challenger, Green Mtn - 8 miles, 4500', 3:45
Good to get a nice long effort for the first time in a long while. Started off with an efficient climb of the 1st. I tried out a new route by going up the middle of the slot variation and standard route, which added a couple minutes. Descended down to the 2nd and was slightly more on route on Free For All, though I somehow entered the South gully super low. Took the talus north of the 3rd down to Royal Arch and on the fly descided to head up to Green Mountain Pinnacle which is way off the trail. Finding the right entrance to the chimney went poorly, then once I was finally at the bottom I was immediately sure I would not be soloing the chimney in running shoes - yikes! Took the East Face route instead, which Roach calls 4th class but I call at least 5.4. Challenger is rated at 5.4, but it feels more like the 5.6 pitch on the 1st than anything. I think I just picked a bad line though. The top half is super smooth, but its an unreal position that puts you soaring seemingly miles above the other flatirons. Hiked up to Green and descended to the 1st then down to the Amphitheater. Long, hot and humid without water!

Finding some exposure atop Challenger. The formation below is Green Mountain Pinnacle, the chimney separates the far left and right chunks.

6/5, Friday - AM: 2nd Flatiron - 6 miles, 1700', 1:18 - PM: 1st Flatiron  - 3 miles, 1600', 2:01
Ran from home rather than biked since I wasn't sure if the weather would hold. As I was heading up there was only a light drizzle and the skies didn't look too bad so I figured the Freeway would be fine. About a third up, the sky broke into torrential rain and uncomfortably close lightning. The quickest way off the rock was off the top, so I charged up through the water pouring down the rock and rocketed back home. In the evening I convinced Jack to climb the 1st (he had yet to go up). I used my climbing shoes for the first time in a while, and good heavens are they stickier than my massively overworn Inov-8's. Maybe I'll actually get around to resoling an old pair of shoes sometime soon.

6/6, Saturday - South Arapaho Pk (13,397') - 6 miles, 
Jack and I originally planned on taking the approach from Rainbow Lakes, but we found the road closed. Rather than add 3 miles of pavement each way we went over to the more standard 4th of July TH. We left the trail at about 11k' when snow started to get deeper and kicked steps up intermittent snow to the Old Baldy ridge. The snow had certainly froze the night before making for slick conditions; thankfully an old snowshoe trail left some now frozen steps for us to make it to the top. The traverse looked way too snowy so we headed back down the ridge further and then dropped straight down to the TH with some fun glissades.

Slowly melting. The foreground of this photo is actually a permanent glacier, so its not the best example.

Week Totals:
48 miles
20,700'
20:04

Decent week to get things going again. Still a good amount of snow up high, but its definitely manageable without snowshoes and ice-axes in select places now, and more should be opening everyday!

May 10 - May 16

I sort of got tired of these weekly things with how repetitive it gets when I'm always in Boulder, and always just doing Green. Well, the high country has been buried under another helping of white; even though school is out and I have the time I'm still confined to Boulder (not that its too shabby of a running/climbing/mountain locale). Anyways, with the newly opened time whilst I continue my summer job search I figured I might as well crank up the training this week since I will be on a boat for a week and half starting next week. As a friend said, "You need to overtrain and get as close to injured as possible if you know you'll have 10 days to recover".

As a quick aside before the week update, last weekend the Quadrock 50 was canceled due to the torrential precipitation the Front Range received. With over half of the Rocky Mountain Runners signed up to race or volunteer, we scrambled to set up our own alternative. We decided on loops around Walker Ranch a nearby 7.5 mile loop with 1700' of climbing. I figured I join in the misery, but after nearly freezing on lap 1, I locked my keys in the car while retrieving some food and warmer clothes. So it was only one lap for me. Instead, I helped man our aid station for those that continued (after a quick trip back to Boulder to retrieve my spare key). Those that were initially signed up for the 50 were quite set on doing 50 miles at the beginning but after 5 laps and 38 miles, everyone bailed. On this day, I was thankful to quit, but the resent I felt from only managing 8 miles while others soared to 38 lit a fire to go out harder on Sunday. And then...oh, what the heck, all week!

5/10, Sunday - Green Mtn plus - 14 miles, 5300', 3:05
The rain and snow (in May!?) had stopped falling, but the trails were sodden at best; cascading falls of flood waters at worst. Upon seeing Gregory-Ranger was shut down due to flooding, I splashed up the Amphitheater, eventually breaking trail in ankle deep snow. Descended the same way before making a U-turn right back up. Apparently spectating in the freezing wind and rain had tired me out yesterday because even with a gel and water and only at 2 hours I felt terrible. So, at the saddle junction I turned back down, hoping OSMP was lazy and didn't close Gregory from the top. They did, so I figured they must have forgotten Crown Rock since no one hardly uses that anyways. It was closed too. I ran down a quarter-million switchbacks on Flagstaff before taking the streets home.

5/11, Monday - 1st Flatiron x 3, 2nd Flatiron x 2, Green Mtn - 13 miles, 6200', 4:45
Somehow essentially all of the 3 inches of snow disappeared by noon today, so I left the house super early hoping to get some extra before meeting RMR's for the group run up Green. Upon arriving at Chautauqua I couldn't help but notice the rocks looking exceptionally dry. Change of plans, up the 1st. That was fun, lets do it again. And again. At 4:45 I still had more time than I could kill by just running back down to meet the group. Downclimbing the 2nd Flatiron filled this time nicely. By a stroke of luck, a Cliff Bar rep was in the parking giving samples to a group planning to go up the 1st, so I was able to sneak in some extra calories aside from the gel I had brought. An RMR sub-group was planning on scrambling the 2nd; I ended up going up with them and then grunting up to Green with another guy (coincidentally, actually named Guy). Good day; able to keep all of the scrambles at good paces (1st in ~22min, down 2nd in ~10min), and to top it off, fantastic weather.

5/12, Tuesday - Green Mtn x 2 - 8 miles, 4700', 2:36
Biked to Chat before taking an all dirt route up the frontside. I slithered through a crowded summit boulder and tagged the pinnacle before dropping down to the Amphitheater (and all on trail!). I turned back up a little early so as to not have to romp through the flooded bottom and took the ridge which has some of the best relentlessly steep hiking I've found. Looks like it averages about 40% from my GPS.

5/13, Wednesday - Green Mtn - 5 miles, 2700', 2:00
I felt horrible immediately on the bike ride up, and after running the first 200ft I hoisted a white flag and decided to forgo my plans for another double and just do a single hike. I went up the North ridge and found an empty summit - my 100th lifetime summit of Green, 73rd of 2015. I sat up there for a while to enjoy the arbitrarily significant century mark. I descended down to behind the 1st and found some antiquated trail that lead me down to Saddle Rock. Neat, a new one to learn!

100th time up this guy

5/14, Thursday - 2nd Flatiron x 10 - 8 miles, 6600', 4:18
I met Kory early at Chautauqua, I was bogged down with some water and calories so it was even harder keeping up with the speedster than usual. Kory's PR is something in the 19 minute range which we easily shattered on both of the laps he joined me for. I proceeded to do the next 8 laps alone. Up until lap 6 I felt fine, then I began to get fried on rock which at this point was perfectly perpendicular to the solar projection. My pace fell back from ~12min ascents to ~16-17min. Thankfully, I didn't slow down from there, and was able to maintain constant progress aside from stopping at my stashed aid station at the base.

Looking up the 2nd from the base.

5/15 - 1st Flatiron x 3 - 4 miles - 3100', 2:25
Biked up to Chat and briskly hiked to the base. It was all blue skies at this point and I had to wipe sweat off my hands a few times on the first lap which I lackadaisically bumbled up in 29min. On lap two I was dodging ropes for the first pitch, then ended up doing the rest with another soloist in a slightly better 22min. In typical Colorado style, the blue skies had transformed to an ominous grey, but I figured I could squeeze in one more lap. I felt a few sprinkles while on the face, then the spit turned to drops when I started the downclimb. It ended up being totally fine (but certainly would have been "not so good" 10 minutes later), I even PR'ed the face in 15:51 and immediately downclimbed in 2:49 (3sec behind my PR). Fun one.

Dark clouds thundering in over Green

5/16, Saturday - AM: Bear Pk x 3 - 10 miles, 6300', 3:14 - PM: Easy - 5 miles, 180', 0:49
I hadn't been up Fern Canyon at all this year, which is a huge shame. It is one of the finest climbs around, boasting 1700ft in just one mile. After running into Ryan and Ryan I had a short ascent to the base of Fern (one of which is returning from an injury and now has 5 weeks to prepare for WS100, where he was predicted to be a top 10 contender - yikes!). From there I tried to be very efficient by limiting stoppage time on the summits, conservative pacing and strategically planning my calorie and water timing. The whole outing went really well, until the last ~400ft on lap 3 where I started to really fall off pace. Ripped the final downhill (but felt just short of the CR a friend set this week, otherwise I would have gotten it!) then took a roundabout way back to the car to ensure I got to 35,000ft for the week. My friend Xiang messaged me right when I got home (he is just starting to run himself), so I joined him for what amounted to be an easy, and finally flat warmdown.

Week Totals:

Miles: 67

Vert: 35,200ft

Time: 23:15

Well that got out of hand, in a good way. Lots of vert and lots of time (which doesn't include the 4x25min bike rides to and from the TH). I almost feel angry at myself for neglecting Fern Canyon all spring, its exactly the type of line I've been looking for on Green. I'm on pace for just under 1,000,000ft of climbing for the year, which would be a super cool objective to shoot for. With my current daily average I would get 961k; I would need to average about 2,800ft a day for the rest of the year for 1M - seems doable.

Recovery, Reflections and Plans

Apparently, a week has passed since I raced last weekend? Huh, the days have been blurring together with the culmination of finals. I felt basically normal on Tuesday aside from slightly lower energy levels. I took Sunday and Tuesday completely off; I did do Green with RMR on Monday, but since Sage was in Boston and Smith is on his taper, there was no race-horse leading the charge. Looking back, I guess I'm somewhat bitter that I didn't go faster. I was able to give the last mile a 7 minute-ish effort without too much resistance. Its hard to grapple with mentally, but at miles 22 through 28, I need to understand that there isn't that much ground left and I get give more gas. Not to say I'm disappointed at all though, just thinking.

Before I slowed down to 2nd

Oddly, the race has left me feeling somewhat empty. I don't have anything (running/scrambling/hiking-wise) on my schedule until the high peaks melt. The past few days I've gone back to the typical schedule of a flatiron and Green a day. On a shorter day last week I managed the 1st Flatiron car-to-car in 47 minutes, taking the downhill casually. I split 17:30 on the rock with a 2:45 downclimb. In a true concerted effort I want to break 40 minutes, maybe I could manage that by the end of 2015. I'm not sure what the rules are for Satan's Minions (besides no falling), but I do admit I use some tricksy routes to eliminate some switchbacks.

This morning I did a longer effort doing two full laps of Green via the 1st Flatiron and downclimbing the 2nd in a huge PR of 8:08 on lap two. Its fun, really fun actually. The only thing missing is a sense of adventure and remoteness that I really can't feel in Boulder much anymore. Bear Peak and its surrounding scrambles are definitely less trafficked and quieter but they are just far enough away that running from home is about 14 miles minimum so its much easier physically and logistically to just go to Green. I generally refuse to drive unless I'm running errands after or taking people. No need to add to the smog or waste money on gas (don't even get me started on parking in Boulder). These are also the easiest miles I get on my routes, so they are a nice warm up/down.

CU and Boulder from the slabs

Races in the end are most significant as an evaluation of the training. Well, sort of. I view my training as for fun. If I really wanted to get fast I wouldn't eat family size boxes of cinnamon toast crunch and mac n' cheese so often. I do eat a lot of fruits and veggies too, but I binge on the junk all too often. What's life without fun? I could do intervals and fartleks a few times a week and get noticeably better, but I'd rather go on group runs and spend my mornings negotiating flatirons than puking in a track-side trashcan to save 10 seconds in a race I paid too much for.

The last few months have been the best of my life with respect to running. There is as much value in repetition as there is exploration and experimentation. On a singular mountain this translates to an understanding of topology and therefore a greater ability to navigate to anywhere desired. Conditions can change a 1:45 run into a 3 hour slog. Dark nights, early mornings, blizzards, heat, ice and snow all become so interesting.

On the road for mountains last summer

So, summer? That's right around the corner, huh? I suppose, firstly, I need a job or something. Other than that, the world (or state more realistically) is open. I'm still set on Chicago Basin, having instantly convinced my friend Jack to join me when I brought up the subject. Other than that, some ideas are the Grand Teton (Owen-Spalding, 5.4), Bells/Crestone/Little-Bear-Blanca Traverse (all 4th or easy 5th), Vestal Peak (Wham, 5.4), Glacier Gorge or Wild Basin (easy besides Pagoda West Ridge, massively exposed 5.6), Cables on Longs (5.4). So that's "some" ideas. No way I'll do all of those, but they're all on my radar right now.

The Tetons

I found a 100 miler I'm interested in. It has a 50 too, but I feel a big draw from a 100. I really have know idea, and I'll need to get some advice from those more experienced before I jump into something like that. I just remember being at 40 or so miles in the 50, its a unique place mentally (and of course physically too, but that's just predictably painful). Really the main drawback is cost. It would be in September on labor day weekend, just before school really starts. Its on my mind.

Trails in the area of the "maybe" hundo

Rattler 50km

Since the snow has melted, my runs have included less and less running as my routes of choice gravitate towards rock scrambling and speed hiking up steeper than reasonable running grades. I ran around 10 times a legitimate run where I didn't have to downshift to a lower gear to spin up hills. Still, I'd put in a ton of miles and vert over the last 4 months. I had more than enough fitness for a 50km distance, but did I have the physical and mental fortitude to push for 4 to 5 hours?

The weather report was looking terrible, or fun depending upon your perspective. 50 degrees and raining; which I thought played into my favor remembering a great run I had on Pawnee-Buchanan in similar conditions (which may be the best run of my life). The race setting was Palmer Park which is sort of a peculiar area as it is a full on mountain environment with super technical trails, but its in the middle of Colorado Springs, a decently large city.

View of Pikes Peak from the park, unfortunately we did not run on this nice smooth dirt road.

Race morning came and it was thankfully a perfectly cool and dry morning - shorts and a t-shirt with gloves and arm sleeves which I took off an hour in. The start was super informal, no one even got out of the warmth of their cars until 3 minutes before the start. I think a lady just said "3-2-1...go!" and off we went. I ended up taking the lead for the first couple miles, going a bit fast with a 7:50 first mile which included a 200ft climb. Oops!

The very small start...and oh my god, a heel strike. Shame. First place was the guy in the grey tank on the right.

After the first aid at 5 miles we a hit some pretty bad mud which supplemented your shoes with a couple extra pounds. At this point we had a group of 3 (or 4, but the fourth fell off at some point). Even about this early, I could tell that the guy in front of me was running very strong and the guy behind me was just hanging on to the back. Some miles on and we began climbing what allegedly is referred to as the "mini-incline". I hiked half of this, which felt finally natural versus all the actual running. From here it is a net downhill to finish the first 25km lap so we let gravity take hold as the three of us exchanged leading.

Getting more spread out heading into lap 2.

Heading into lap 2, two of us ended up getting a decent gap between us and third. 5 miles in I was 15 seconds back. My second trip through the mud took a huge toll on my hamstrings and I slowed considerably. 6 miles later I was 7 or 8 minutes back. I still couldn't see 3rd behind me, but I didn't want to risk it, so I focused on picking up my pace any time I felt it faltering.

Coke, chips and get out. I ended up not carrying any water (which was awesome) due to the cold temps.

I came into the finish at 4:34:10, good enough for 2nd place. I was 8 minutes behind 1st (I think). 3rd came in another 8 to 10 minutes later, followed closely by 4th. Strava says 30.1 miles with 4,300ft, This was by far the hardest I've ever pushed a long run (something longer than 10 miles). I think I could have maybe pushed a little harder (but when isn't that true), but I'm not sure I quite had enough to have had a chance at getting first. From the brief conversation I had with 1st place, he will be running Western and Hardrock, which are two weeks apart. Yikes!

Finishing up.

Chatting with 1st and catching my breathe just after the finish.

It was a small race without an overly competitive field for sure, but I'm pretty happy with the results. The course, while not having a lot of vert on paper, is almost always going up or down short rocky steps in the bluffs, making for a tougher course than one would initially believe.

Hooray for sodium!

Example of a safe, reliable and responsible way to transport a mattress heading back to Boulder.

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!