And I'm Off

Sayonara.

I'm off to Leadville for the night before the race tomorrow!

Primary Goal: 4:15
Secondary Goal: 4:30
Tertiary Goal: My time from last year: 4:46.

Given my vastly superior fitness this year, I should be able to manage at least #3, probably #2 as well.

James Peak Dreams

With Boulder smashing several heat records in the past few days, and a large portion of the state on fire, it seemed like a good weekend to get up high. This being Colorado, everybody had the same idea, and the high country was packed with people of all ages, and abilities, all weekend. 

After an excellent day on Saturday (finally) experiencing the Georgetown Loop narrow gauge railroad (picture above), I decided to head up to the James Peak Wilderness Area on Sunday. In July, I will have lived in Boulder for a full 7 years, and yet somehow I have never been up to the James Peak area. I can only claim ignorance on my part, and possibly I was deterred by the 8 mile dirt road to the trailhead. I had naturally assumed this might be a road similar to the road to the Fourth of July trailhead, but I could average 45 on this road without worrying about my car. 

Once there, I had no idea what trail to take. I only knew I did not want to go too crazy with the marathon coming up in under a week now. Luckily I ran into a couple friendly former trail runners (I did not ask about the "former" designation), who directed me up Rogers Pass trail to Heart Lake. 

The runners had warned me that this was a steep trail, but I found it to be a very relaxed grade, rising only 2000 feet or so in the 4 miles to the lake. The run itself is gorgeous, crossing South Boulder Creek and its tributaries numerous times as it winds its way up towards Rogers Lake and the (eventual) path. At no point did the grade feel steep to the point that it would be more efficient to walk. 

About a mile (rough estimate: I didn't wear a watch) from Heart Lake, the trail takes a marked turn upwards, alongside a many-channeled cascade, which at the time I ran it was full of wildflowers. 

As you can see, it was actually cloudy. I was not complaining.

Half a mile later, it came alongside Rogers (Pass?) Lake, through a boggy patch, reminiscent of Minnesota, and I noticed something surprising: several miles in, and almost 2000 feet up, my legs felt fresh. There was no feeling of effort the entire way up, and I crushed the last half mile or so up to Heart Lake (startling a couple unsuspecting hikers along the way).

From Heart Lake, the trail continues up the side of a mountain up to the Divide. 

The clouds don't look bad, but they were rumbling.

I opted out of running to the ridge this particular day. Between the marathon next Saturday, and the rumbling clouds, I decided it wasn't a good idea. Either on its own might not have deterred me, but the last thing I wanted to do was race down the side of a mountain in a thunderstorm and risk messing up my ankle this week. So instead, I stopped, took a few pictures of the area, and the peaks I want to tag next time, and turned around for a leisurely run back to the car. 

The view around Heart Lake.

Unidentified "to be tagged" peak #1

Unidentified "to be tagged" peak #2

Unidentified "to be tagged" peak #3 and 4

 I actually felt a few drops of rain on my way down, good news for a state that seems to be on fire.

Round trip, this run took me about 2 hours, but as I said, I was not pushing it. Now that I've seen James Peak Wilderness, I am astounded that I have not been up there before. Between Leadville and Pikes, I fully plan to grab a map, take off early some Sunday morning, and tag James Peak and several of these other peaks. They are just begging for it.

Meanwhile, the taper for Leadville is in full force. I think I might be able to throw down a bit on Saturday.

June 20, 2012: An interesting week so far.

It has indeed been an interesting week so far, both in running and in the rest of my life, and it's only just Wednesday.

Let's begin at the beginning. As was my plan, I ran High Lonesome again this week, to acclimatize further for my race in Leadville in a week and a half. This time, though, I got the pleasure of running with another Boulder Trail Runner. He had emailed the BTR group earlier in the week, and on a whim I responded saying I was going to run it on Sunday if he wanted to come. So I picked him up and off we went.

It turns out he was a little tired from running 9000' so far that week. I was feeling pretty decent, so I ended up waiting more than usual. But that was fine with me, since I was not interested in pushing too hard in any case. Once we got up to the divide, though, there was no option but to push hard. The wind was blowing at a good 20mph constantly with much stronger gusts, and it was an effort just to keep going and not fall over. King Lake trail was still a bit of a mess, but somebody had been up with an axe and taken care of some of the trees that had been across the trail last time. And even with the slow pace, the wind, and the trees, we hit the bridge at 3:12, a full 12 minutes faster than last week.

With that run behind me, I planned on a short run Monday, followed by a run up Flagstaff on Tuesday morning. The high for both days was in the upper 90s, so I hit the trail early on Monday and put in 4 miles. At the end, though, I was dismayed to look down at my shoes and find that I had busted through the sidewalls. I had only put 220 miles on them, but off to the BRC I went. There, of course, I ran into a couple friends who were heading for Flagstaff from the store.

Naturally, I opted to go with them on Monday rather than by myself on Tuesday. These two particular runners are fast (one was an Olympic Marathon alternate four years ago) so it ended up being a bit of a tempo run for me. Nonetheless, I set the pace on the way up, and kept up the whole run, for a good 10 mile, 80+ min, 1500'+ run.

With that, I opted to take Tuesday off, knowing that I would get a good run in on Wednesday. And sure enough, when I showed up today, there were Jason Hartmann and Tyler McCandless, along with the regular crowd. We had a group of 25 or so go out at 6:45, and negative split the whole way.

To my astonishment, not only did I keep up the whole distance, but I didn't even feel like I was pushing hard. For comparison, I went at a 6:50 pace last week and felt like I was pushing it. I think I've arrived at just the right time.

Now, for the not so fun bit. My home town of Duluth, MN, home of Grandma's Marathon was hit by severe flooding today. They got upwards of 9 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. Flash floods took out part of a hotel, caused streets to drop by 4 feet plus, and causes sinkholes to open up. My parents' house was spared any damage, thankfully. The zoo was not so lucky, however. Two seals got out and ended up flopping and swimming down a nearby (busy) street. One of the polar bears made a (short) dash for freedom. And sadly, 11 of their animals drowned.

More info is here. I am considering going back to volunteer and help clean up. Even more info here.

High Lonesome Loop

While out on a run this past week, as I often do, I started thinking about this blog and, specifically, how I have neglected it lately. Even more so, I have neglected to focus on the primary topic: running. Thinking a little further, I realized that I had neglected to mention my goal race for the current training period. 

Without further ado: in two and a half weeks I will be a repeat offender at the Leadville Marathon. I ran this last year with very satisfactory results, finding it to be a well run race with excellent spectatorship (for a trail race). It may not compare to the trail races in Europe, but then there are few to no races here that do. This year, I am going into the race with several hundred more miles of training under my legs, a higher weekly mileage, and after this weekend, a good proxy run. 

With that in mind, a week ago, I opted to head up to Indian Peaks for the classic: the High Lonesome loop to get some time in at altitude. This time last year, the trails were still choked with snow low on the King Lake trail. This year I made it up to Jasper Lake before the snowfields hit. 

I had known from the start that I was not going to come near to the FKT of Koski (2:28) but I thought the old FKT of 3:11 would be well within my reach. My legs were feeling good, after a week off from running. Those ideas were quickly thrown out, however, with the first patch of downed trees. I realized early on that there would be a little route-scouting involved in this run. 

As I said, I got up to Jasper before I encountered the first snow patches. Quickly, though, I found my way increasingly blocked by extensive snowfields, as well as the trees that would be the main obstacle of the day. It took me less than an hour to get to Jasper, but the stretch from Jasper up to Devils Thumb Lake took a good half hour or more, at times wandering in the general direction I thought the trail might go. Few enough people had been there before me (and apparently none that weekend) that there were no footprints to follow. 

At Devils Thumb Lake, the trees cleared out, and most of the snow was gone. This had led to a meadow full of little yellow and white flowers. Somehow, the picture just doesn't do the scene justice. 

This was also the first dose of wildlife, other than deer, I've gotten on my runs so far this year. The marmots were out and about, staking out territory and making their presence known. I'm pretty sure this is the same one that ate through some of my food the last time I was backpacking up here.

The last press up to the pass up to the pass was, as ever, a bit of a slog. Thankfully, though, this east-facing slope was free and clear of snow. Free, that is, save for the inevitable snowfield at the top, which somehow seems steeper and more intimidating when you're out there on your own.

You can see in the picture where people had been up and over before me, though certainly I was the first one to cross it today. Again, the picture doesn't do the scene justice, but believe me when I say it was steep. I made it to the pass at 1:45 on the dot

Once on to the High Lonesome Trail (a part of the Continental Divide Trail) the going was open and easy. Easy at 12000 feet means something entirely different than easy at sea level, but still, for the location, it was easy. I made the 2.5 mile or so crossing in 20 minutes, hitting the King Lake Trail at 2:05. Then I got to see what was in front of me.

Hard to see, but there's a trail between those two snow fields. 

Those snowfields were deceptive. For the most part, the snow crust was thick enough to easily bear my weight (thank you big feet!). Every fourth or fifth step, though, the crust would give way, plunging you up to your knee in snow, and abrading your shin in the process. By the time I made it through the first field, my shins were scratched and a bit bloody, and I was dreading the next. 

Footsteps

I made it through well enough, and the next several miles were punctuated by the ubiquitous downed trees, and their corresponding delays. There were points where I would lose the trail in the trees, and end up down-slope of the deadfall scouting to find just where the trail had gone. 

Eventually, of course, I made it to the section where the trail maintenance crew had already been hard at work, and the winter's deadfall was cut away from the trail. Still, the damage had been done, and my final time back at the bridge was 3:25. Decently respectable, given the conditions. My plan as of now is to head back up on Sunday and see what sort of time I can post.

(As a follow up, I ran a 21 mile loop, from my apartment, of Sanitas, Flagstaff, and Green Mountain here in Boulder in 3:45 this past weekend. And not once did my legs even feel mediocre. If I can run like that on tired legs, I think I'm ready for Leadville.)

Grand Canyon Pics

As I mentioned in my last post, almost two weeks ago now my girlfriend and I headed out to the Grand Canyon for a much needed vacation. On telling anybody this, the first question I inevitably got was: "Are you going to do a Rim to Rim to Rim Run?"

My answer, for this trip, was no. Since I was going with my girlfriend, and she is not a runner, I thought it would be poor form to take a full day to run across the Canyon and back, and then be wrecked for the rest of the trip. Instead I treated this trips as two things: first, a much needed break in running mileage and second, a scouting trip.

The view from our 2nd and 3rd night campsite

That said, I did run a few miles, and hike a significant amount. We hit the North Rim, which is much more pleasant (in my humble opinion) than the South Rim. The Kaibab Plateau drops off precipitously into the canyon at its edge, but until you get to that edge, you are in a wide open ponderosa pine forest, with little indication that as little as a few yards away the land drops thousands of feet into one of the most spectacularly scenic areas in the country.

We were fortunate enough the second and third night to get one of the prime campsites on the very edge of the canyon. As many of the people walking by said, sleepwalking, or even wandering around at night without a headlamp, could be fatal.

As I mentioned, I did not run much at all while we were there. I took a couple early morning runs along the transept trail, leading from our campsite to the Grand Canyon Lodge, but aside from that G and I went hiking, and took a mule ride. Initially I was a bit frustrated with not getting a chance to run as much as I would have liked, but as it turns out, I think the break, and relatively mild hiking we did throughout the trip, helped my legs recover significantly from the miles I have been putting in this year.

We took several hikes, along the Cape Final trail (where the prickly pears were in bloom), as well as along the Wildforss Trail and a few other smaller trails. We were lucky enough to get the Cliff Springs trail to ourselves. This particular trail leads from one of the most popular areas on the North Rim, Cape Royal, to a secluded smaller offshoot of the canyon where a seep spring has carved out a ledge from the rock.


I think that's enough talk from me for a while. Here are some pictures from the rest of the trip.

Yours truly, the first night at the canyon watching the sun set from Bright Angel Point.

Prickly Pear, and a happy insect.

G at the edge of Cape Final. Helicopters were flying by below us.

Cliff Springs Canyon

My mule. Her name was Smurf. Mules, FYI, are smelly, but Smurf was an extremely obedient mule.