Run Camp

Day 1 was pretty great.  We ran right at 26 miles I think.  It was a nice little climb over Sugar Loaf, and then a screaming down hill on the back side (Powerline).  This section is wide enough that you can really fly if you trust yourself.  Lots of people talk about downhill being more taxing than uphill, but I just let go.  I give very little effort on downhills (basically just enough to keep myself from injury).  

After the downhill, it was a  lot of exposed road running over to the Fish Hatchery, and then some country road running over to the Treeline area.  A lot of people did not like the "heat" or all the road running, but being as I had been training in heat, and on roads before I got here, this spot was particularly suited for my skills.

From there it was on to the Colorado Trail (finally), and this is a very scenic portion of the course.  The first part of it is lots of long slow ascents that are not very steep.  Then there is a pretty good ways of downhill on rocky terrain to the bottom.

By the time we reached the end, many of had run out of water, and we were all glad to reach the end.

Day 2 starts off as a walk through the woods (we did not cross the stream as we will during the race).  Then it quickly becomes a multiple hour hike up the side of the mountain to Hope Pass.  This is clearly my weak spot, but I made it to the top, and started my forte (the descent).

I made it about 3/4 of the way down the backside when I noticed a man coming up the trail.  I picked my eyes up just long enough to not notice my ankle rolling off a ledge.  I tweaked it pretty good.  So I tightened my shoes, and made my way to the bottom.  I stayed at the aid station for about 15 minutes trying to decide if I should continue on.  

I decided to test it out on the way to Winfield, and it didn't feel awful, but I was disgusted that it had happened.  Then as I was about ready to call it a day one of the ladies in the camp, Christine, came in to the aid station and talked me in to giving it a shot.

The ankle didn't really bother me on the way back up Hope, but I still stuggled climbing so Christine coached me to the top.  

Once we got to the top I figured out quickly that going down slow with resistance hurt my ankle a lot more than going down fast.  Eventually, I got to some areas where the rocks were too much, and I had to slow down.  At this point I felt the most pain, but it was not intolerable.

I made it down, ate, and got on the bus.  Once I got home, and took my shoe off, it started to swell some.  I started ice baths, elevation, and compression immediately.  It should be good in a couple of days hopefully.

Overall, it was a lot of fun to see the parts of the course I had not seen yet, and to meet a lot of people who will be around on race day.  I will not be taking part in the night run that begins in a few minutes, but I will be volunteering at the dinner.

The Last Few and Next Few Days

I have been running some routes that are basically repeats of things I have already done.  Sorry there aren't any interesting updates or pictures to share.

I will knock out a 2-2.5 hour night run tonight, probably on something easy to plan like the mineral belt around town.  Then run camp starts on Saturday.  Packet Pick Up and a dinner are tomorrow night, so we'll all have a chance to get to know one another before taking off down the trail on Saturday morning.

You can take a look at the map that is attached (the first one has Day 1 and Day 3 on it).  We are basically knocking out the first leg of the race.  There are 13.5 miles from town, around Turquoise Lake to the Mayqueen campground.  That part is a lot of road, and the lake trail is mostly rolling to flat area.

So we will start at Mayqueen, run up the road less than a mile I think, and hop on the Timberline Trail. We will run over Sugarloaf, then hit some dirt roads, then we will get on the Pipeline, and eventually follow the Colorado Trail all the way to Twin Lakes.  This will effectively be a marathon on the trail.

Day 2 is set up to be a 20 mile from Twin Lakes, up and over Hope Pass, to the Winfield aid station, and then back to Twin Lakes.  It really will be whatever you want it to be.  Some people will choose not to run all the way to Winfield since is basically 4 miles of dirt road running.  As of now, I want to get the miles in for training, so I will probably do the whole thing, unless I just feel like total crap after coming up and over Hope Pass (12,260 feet).  See the attachment below.

Day 3 is a night run on Monday night.  It is only 10 miles, and it is basically to get some practice on the actual course running at night.  We will run from Twin Lakes to Treeline at night.  This will be a nice day since we will have all day Monday to rest.

It should be some good on course training, and hopefully there will be some interesting folks to meet along the way.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

There are a million different circumstances in life that lead to the very point where you currently find yourself.  Just the other day I was thinking about all of the things that have allowed me to be here in Leadville.  I could look at having the Summer off, which would lead to thinking about how I became a teacher, and we could keep going back down the line, and that may or may not make an interesting post at some other time.

Today, I want to wish my Mom and Dad a happy 37th anniversary.  Without them I'd never be able to do anything, and not just because they gave me life.  These two wonderful people have always supported me no matter how much of a pain I may have been at different times in my life.  I haven't always made the decisions that they would have made for me, but they have always been there.

So Mom and Dad, thanks for being the greatest parents and examples a young man could have growing up.  I love you.

a>

Breathing Better

On Saturday night my neighbor invited me to a little get together at the hostel a couple of blocks away. The guy running the show over there goes by "Crazy."  It turns out he is from somewhere in Mississippi originally.  The dinner was really good.  We ate in the backyard which looked like this.

































Two of the guests for dinner were some older guys.  I am not sure what made them act the way they did, but I was not a fan.  One of them had done the 100 mile bike race a bunch of times, and the other had done the 100 run several times (I think this is correct, I never actually asked them, since I was mostly trying to avoid any real conversation while they were talking about the races).  It seemed as if their whole point was to talk me out of running for some bizarre reason.  They were the first people I have met that haven't been completely supportive.  I just stayed quiet for the most part (hard to believe, I know).  During conversation on any other topics they were just fine to talk to, but their attempts at discouragement will just serve as added motivation during training and during the race.


I find that if I walk fast for about 5 minutes to start the run, and then only gradually increase my pass to cruising speed, I don't have the breathing issues.  I also think part of the problem, at least when I ran with Christy, is that we're competitive, so the pace was too quick for me.

This morning I parked at Lodgepole again, but instead of turning left immediately, and heading down Pipeline, I went straight to hook up with the Colorado trail (part of the race course).  As usual, I missed the turn early, and retraced my steps after turning around at the hour mark.  I found something that look pretty good, and ran down it for a while, and then eventually found the Colorado trail.

I ran fairly decently, and did not have as much trouble breathing as the past few days.  I will try a similar distance (5hrs) tomorrow.  Then I need to take it fairly easy until run camp this upcoming weekend.  We are running 25, 20, and 10 in consecutvie days.  All of these days will be on the race course, and day 2 is over Hope Pass and back.

Check out the pictures below from today's run.  I came across 3 antelope while running, but could not get  a good picture of them with my phone.  Maybe next time.

(I always wanted to know where those Bob Ross trees grew that were just a line up with a few sparse dabs of the end of a paint brush coming off of them, then there it was, "a happy little accident, no mistakes.")

Altitude Relapse

So after my good runs on Sunday and Monday, I took Tuesday off.  On Wednesday I did some more running in the Hokas on the east side trails near the house, and of course got lost again, and ended up on the mineral belt as usual.

While I was working on Thursday, a local girl named Christy stopped by.  She had recently completed her first 50K, and was going straight to the 100 as well.  So I talked her into taking me on a night run around Turquoise Lake later that evening when she got off work.  She ended up having to stay late, and we didn't get started until sometime after midnight I think.  This is a portion of the race that I will do in the dark at the beginning, and hopefully in the dark at the end as well, so I needed the practice there, and did not want to go alone.

Based on the fact that she had just done her first 50K (like me), and hqs signed up to do her first 100 (like me), I thought she would be a good training partner.  I was thinking we were on a similar level.  Nope.  She is apparently a pretty great mountain biker, and she waxed me out on the trail.  To my defense, I could not breathe.  I am having some sort of relapse into getting acclimated.  Even if that weren't the case, there is no way I could hang with her.  Afterwards she tells me that she is getting some help from Carmichael training (Chris Carmichael was Lance Armstrong's trainer).  This only made me feel minimally better.

On Friday, Peter (another new guy at work) and I went out to run Lodgepole.  Again I could not breathe very well.

So on Saturday morning Christy picks me up at 6:30 AM to hike Mt. Sherman.  This is a 14,000ft peak in Leadville.  She says that this is an easy and fast one.  I had to stop a lot to breathe, but we did eventually make it to the top.

I looked up just in time to realize she was taking a picture of me sucking wind.

It is pretty awesome up there, but I had to be at work, so we hustled down.

This is basically 2 1/3 miles up from sea level.

Going down was great.  Many people talk about coming down hurting more than going up, but I disagree.  Use what mother nature gives you, and just go.

This guy is using what mother nature gave him:

This is Christy's dog Crush.  This is how he decided to eat the snow, by straddling it.

I am hoping this acclimation issue subsides overnight, and I can get out there tomorrow and  Monday and lay down some long runs.

Long Run...Long Post

So I needed to run a pretty good distance today, but it is still early on so I bought a forest service trail map, talked to Marge, and settled on the Turquoise Lake Trail.  It is part of the race course (near the beginning and the end.  It is relatively flat, so that is why I chose it.

That video was what the trail looks like.  I wish you could see the mountains in the background better.

I ran on some more, and came to this crossing that I thought someone might like a picture of:

The trail is about 12 miles if you do the out and back.  I knew I needed to do more, so I thought I would drive somewhere else afterwards, or just tack on some side trails.

I got to Mayqueen (the turnaround spot) in about an hour and a half, and was feeling really good.  I had researched a place called Hagerman Pass, and knew it was close by, so I decided to go for it.  The Lake Trail is between 9500 and 10000 ft, but not Hagerman Pass ("this one goes to 11).

I ran on some paved road uphill, and then turned on the pass road that was dirt, and went up hill for a really long time.

Check out this video  and photo on the way up Hagerman.  There is a cool creek in the bottom, and huge mountains everywhere.

I had changed my mind from the first video where you heard me mention I was on about a 4 hour run.  I was feeling so good, I decided to go for more.  I was going to turn around at 3 hours.  I checked my watch, and just about 2 minutes before 3 hours I saw something up ahead.  Right at 3 hours exactly I came upon...

That is right, I ran to the snow.  It was totally unplanned, but a really cool way to mark my turn around.

They way back would be easier because I had climbed so much, so I probably should have gone further to make it a full 6 hours.

I started back down the mountain, got to Mayqueen, and got back on the Lake Trail.  I was getting hungry, was out of food, and almost out of Gu.  Then I noticed something that I had not noticed on the way out:

This picture shows it a little better:

I finished up in exactly 5 hours and 35 minutes.  It took 3 hours to get to the top of Hagerman, and only 2 hours and 35 minutes to get back to my truck.  It was an awesome day, and a great run.  I can't believe I acclimated in 5 days, and ran about 22 miles over 5.5 hours on my 7th day.  I am beyond happy, and look forward to more runs in the mountains.

Peace

PS...I should probably replace some electrolytes, since I took off my visor, and it looked like this:

First "Real" Run

Sunday morning was awesome. After my mild success on Saturday's run, I was feeling very confident. Not to mention I was hitting the trails with Marge Hickman and her husband Michael. They are both very experienced runners up here, and I knew this was an opportunity not to miss. If you want to read more about Marge, go here, or just Google her name, she is pretty well known in the ultra community.

Since it was my first day of feeling really good, they took me to Lodgepole Flats. This is a place where the race course crosses for a bit on a section called "Pipeline." It is named so because of the underground pipeline that carries water from Turquoise Lake to one of the bigger cities (sidenote: In the mountains, there are places where other cities own the land and the water rights in a valley, then they come in, dam it up, and ship the water to themselves for their municipal supply...boo...at least in this instance they put the pipeline underground, and didn't run the water along the valley floor to erode the valley.) The place is called "Lodgepole" because this is where Lodgepole Pines grown, and the state/county issues permits to go cut your own firewood here. In Colorado they don't have many hardwoods, so they have to cut Pine, let it dry for a long time, and then burn it in the fireplaces. Luckily stuff dries faster here. At home, we would never use Pine because it would clog the chimney, but they either have to use Pine, or a fast burning Aspen, so they use Pine, and just clean the chimney more often.


So now to the run. It was great. We started out just hiking, and then Marge and I took off for a bit since Michael is coming off of a knee replacement. Their dog Oskar (named for the local brewery Oskar Blues, who happens to be the new beer sponsor of the race) came with us too. Once I sort of got my bearings Marge suggested that I leg it out a bit since she was also recovering from a hamstring tweak. So I did, and it was awesome. The last couple of miles were mostly downhill, and I was flying. I don't think I have ever felt so good running. When I got to the turn around spot that they had described, I ate a Clif Bar, and turned around to meet Marge. Oskar was not used to such a distance, so she decided to stay there, and I was to catch up with Michael who had turned around, and tell him to come get them.

I was sorry to see Oskar suffering, but this gave me an excuse to hammer on it a little bit. So Marge gave me some tips on going fast, and long climbs that aren't too steep, and it worked out great. In no time, I was back on the ridge and running mostly flats for a while at a pretty good clip. In my mind, I had made it very important to catch Michael, so I was pushing it. The situation was not dire, and I caught Michael about a mile and half before the cars, and thanked him for the advice and showing me the route.

I gave them a canister of PureSport, which is the company that Kirk works for. I have been very graciously supplied with several canisters of this product, and have already told several of the runners about it, and how it has helped me recover after long runs.

All in all it was a great day. I came home, got cleaned up, and headed down to James and June Gober's house in Nathrop. James is my dad's first cousin. June was my math teacher in the 6th grade. They have always been amazing hosts. It was nice to spend a day with them, and just relax. Now, I am about to do dishes, eat breakfast, and head over to the forestry service to pick up a map of the trail system, and pick a long route for the day (probably 4 hours or so).

Breathe Easy

I made my first full run today without having to stop for lightheadedness (is that really a word?) or for lack of breath. Now it was only 4 miles, but it is a good sign having only been here at 10,200 feet for 5 days exactly at the time of this post.

I made it up all of the uphills (thought none were extreme), and flew down the downhills and straightaways with no issues at all.

My route mostly followed the mineral belt trail.  It is a mostly paved trail that winds around town, and up the mountain to the east of town.  If you follow the link above, and zoom in on the map, my house is basically at 8th and the railroad tracks that are parallel to Hazel Street.  I ran about 50% on pavement and 50% on trail.

Overall I am very satisfied.  I'll try to get picture of town and the mountains over Sunday and Monday because those are my days off, but also the days for my longer runs.

I am running in the morning with a lady from work named Marge.  She is a 14 time 100 mile trail run finisher.  I am pretty sure she will have some good advice.

Attempts at Running, First Day of Work, and New Shoe Report

Yesterday morning I attempted a 3 mile jog/hike here on the east side of town.  It turned out to be mostly a meandering power hike.

I made a route on favoriterun.com that was about 3 miles long. Due to the fact that there are so many trails east of town, I got a bit turned around, and made a rough approximation of the route I had created.

I showered up, and headed to work.  All of the new merchandise for this year is just getting put out, so we are mostly getting organized.  I installed a big grid system on one wall that will be used for selling hats.

I learned some cool history about the building where the shop is located.  It used to be 2 store fronts, a saloon, and a cigar shop.  More interestingly, Doc Holiday supposedly shot his last man right outside our front window ("...but it was a fair fight, we was legal").  If you remember the end of "Tombstone" Doc was in Colorado due to his TB at the end, so this makes some sense.

After work I attempted the same hike/jog again, but this time wearing my new Hoka One Ones.

Here is what they look like vs my normal Brooks Cascadia 6 trail running shoes:




I won't go into the full description of the benefits of these shoes, you can read that here .

I was really surprised to find that there is no adjustment period for feeling stable up on the high perch of the Mafate 2.  Also, I could not feel the twinge in my shin either (though that could be because I am rolling it out everyday too).  Another nice feature is the ridiculous way in which you can run on rocks and not feel a thing.  This is not natural, but very incredible.  After noticing that a misstep by landing on a rock did not have the normal pain associated with it, I started having my foot fall on a few just to test this out, even some sharp ones...NOTHING!  I am not sure of the long term impact of doing such a thing, but needless to say these shoes are pretty incredible.

I did notice that there is the propensity for some hot spots to develop.  Being that my afternoon run left me equally "lost" and hiking half the time, I cannot say for sure yet if the hot spots for blisters will be a problem or not.

For now, I would have to be presented with some compelling evidence to not wear these for a majority of the distance on my long runs, and during the race.

Here is what they look like in comparison to my normal Mizuno Wave Precision road shoes:

The Good News!!

So the possible good news from yesterday came to fruition this morning.

Yesterday morning during my walk around town, one of the things I did was stop in to the Lifetime Fitness Leadville Race Series offices to volunteer.  As I started talking to them, and telling them about my job down the mountain in Buena Vista at the raft shop, they asked if I would rather just stay in Leadville and work for them.  They had a spot open in the retail shop on the main drag here in Leadville.  However, the hiring manager was off that day, and so they couldn't tell me 100% that I would be hired, and that is why I had to go to my first day down at the rafting shop in Buena Vista.

This morning I stopped by there again, and they basically hired me on the spot.  There are tons of benefits associated with this new gig.  To start with I will not be driving 80 miles a day back and forth to work.  This will mean big savings on gas (plus they are paying me 50 cents more/hr).  So those are the monetary benefits, but more importantly I will be around the race non-stop.  I will be able to get advice from people who have finished, I will help with the other races that the company puts on, and there are so many more things that I can't even imagine right now that will be a huge benefit to me being able to finish the race.  I couldn't be happier about this development.

I did hate the fact that I had to call down to the raft shop, and tell them that I would not be working there any more.  They were very accommodating, and landing the job with them initially gave me the confidence to make the move up here, and I am thankful to them for that fact.  This opportunity is just one that is too good to pass up.

Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow.

First Full Day in Leadville -- Nice!

When I first rolled out of bed this morning, I was a bit concerned about my dehydration and stiffness level, but things loosened up quickly. With my bowl of cereal, I found that some folks had made their way to the blog already, so I hope the momentum picks up for us all soon.

Before we go too far, here are some pictures of the house I have rented for the Summer. The Front Living Room with Wood Burning Stove (good thing I brought firewood for those 30 degree nights in the Summer) .


I took the advice of several folks, and filled up my CamelBack for a walk through town.  I am not sure of the physiology behind it yet, but staying hydrated seems to help with the altitude issues. I felt much better walking around today than last night, and made a loop around downtown. Messed up the lighting, but this is what my morning walk looked like. It was 42 degrees when I walked out in shorts, and not a problem at all.

Something really good may come out of what happened next, so I will hold off on letting that out of the bag until tomorrow (when I will know more about the situation).  It could be a game changing move for the whole Summer in a very good way.

I headed back to the house, and made my way to Buena (pronounced like Buna with a long "E" sound on the end by the locals) Vista for my first day of work.  I am happy to have this job, even if it is really just taking reservations for rafting trips over the phone.  The view on the drive everyday is beautiful, so it will be nice. Colorado Lunch Break

When I got home, I met the neighbor Herman who has live here his whole life.  He has a garden going of mostly roots vegetables (think potatoes and carrots).

Until tomorrow, with hopefully some really good news.

Finally in Leadville

After knocking out 15 Sunday morning on Town Lake, I met Travis for lunch at Chuy's then hit the road. That was about 1:30PM on Sunday. I drove all night until I got tired, and pulled over in between Clayton and Raton, NM. I could only sleep for about an hour, and then got back on the road. Then when I crossed over into Colorado, I had to pull over between Trinidad and Pueblo, and got 2-3 hrs sleep. I was on my way to Colorado Spring to pick up a pair of Hoka One One Mafates. I will post a picture of these ridiculous looking things soon, but you can go to the link for now. Since I was in The Springs, I got in touch with Randall because his parents live there. I then proceeded to have Mexican food again, and it actually wasn't bad. You can always count on some Texans to know where the good mexican food is. Finally, I was on the road over towards Leadville. There is a lot of talk about the altitude and thin air before you get to Leadville, but it is legit. I won't say that I felt bad, just oddly lightheaded. I had to very slowly unload my truck, and even then my heart rate would occasionally accelerate. It is hard to fathom at this point that in a matter of days (hopefully), I will be running around as if this is normal. Tomorrow morning I plan to walk around town with my CamelBack just getting used to being at this elevation. I may try to run by Friday or Saturday. Oh, and it is 49 degrees and raining right now, and I had to walk home from the restaurant I went to to have dinner and watch the OKC game. Time to get to bed...work starts tomorrow.