Solid workout yesterday at White Ranch State Park, outside of Golden as Matt Kempton and I tried to get in our long run with a bit more vertical than usual. Doing the full loop of the park in the clockwise direction, it begins with a 4.5mi climb that gains 1,751ft vertical topping out at about 7,850ft elevation (7.2% incline) and absolutely destroys me as I try to chase Matt up it.
We had some great weather (~50 deg F) though and the trails were finally clear of the snow/ice that had plagued them for the past month or more. I won't lie, this loop totally kicked my ass, but... I still ran many of the parts that I had run before at P.B. paces and finished the loop with the 4th fastest time to-date on the 14mi long Strava segment.
This week we had some great weather and I tried to take advantage of it. Climbed almost 7,000ft so far and should end up at about 45miles. Hoping for one or two more like this before I potentially get back to work and the relentless work-travel begins again.
Ahh, January in Colorado. From 60 degrees with dry, clear trails to 10 degrees with 6-8 inches of snow in just 24hours, January's here can be a rollercoaster and this one has been just that.
My goals as I headed into January this year were 1. to start gaining fitness back after a 3-week break from running in December 2. to kick this strange lingering injury that I have had going on on the outside of my left foot and 3. to try and average somewhere around 40-miles of running with 10-15k of swimming each week.
Two out of three ain't bad, right?! Of the above goals, the one that I didn't achieve is possibly the scariest... I still haven't kicked this injury in my left foot. I am finding balance in getting in my trail runs with vertical and then hitting the elliptical/treadmill the next day, but am beginning to get frustrated by the lack of healing going on as I continually, ice, heat, stretch, ultrasound this foot but still have no idea what the problem is. The pain, which is coming from just below my ankle bone, on the outside of my left foot is excruciating for the first .5 mile of a run or so and then fades away to almost non-existent. Stop running, feels fine. Give it a couple hours and it comes back. Almost like something is getting tight there, but since I am not currently working and don't have great benefits, I'll be skipping the expensive trip to UHC's sports Medicine group to see my old friend Dr. Glowney.
To highlight the brighter aspects of training though, I'm happy to report that I am definitely getting stronger and that the benefits from all of the hours in the pool (10-15k/week) seem to be becoming more and more apparent in my cardiovascular system as I labor far less (aerobically) on long, steep climbs now than before I added the swimming back in. I have been shooting for 4-5,000ft vertical each week in my running with at least one run over 1,500ft and my long run at the end of the week coming in close to/over 2,000ft vertical. Lately, I've found that as I come into a stretch with a long climb, I am mentally telling myself that there's NO WAY that I'll be able to run the whole thing, but then as I get into it, the legs keep moving and the heartrate stays low enough, that I've been able to push through and set new Strava PB's on segments that I've run dozens of times. Assuming I can beat this injury, I'm excited to see how this will continue to progress and where I'll be in a few months!
It hasn't been all fun though... as I said above the weather has been all over the place this month in Colorado and there has been A LOT of running in snow, on ice and through frigid temps. Mid-month, there was 4-5 days straight of running at under 10 degrees F, and often with a blizzard going on around me, like here:
Luckily, through the changes in weather, injury, etc. I have been fortunate to be able to train with my friend Matt Kempton quite a bit and with him being a very high caliber runner, he has helped drag me up many climbs and through some of the tougher days of training. Here's a pic from about two weeks ago up on S. Table mountain (on Castle Rock) above Golden.
So, now February has begun and once again the temps are all over the place... earlier this week it was in the upper 50's on Tuesday night for our 'Golden Mountain Runners' meetup and by the next morning it was in the Mid-20's! It is great for breaking up the monotony that sometimes can come with training though, so I'll take it.
To anyone reading this, I hope that your training is also going well.... Happy Training!
Cyrus
About 7 months ago thru a simple post on Facebook I first learned about the TransRockies race and it's been in the back of my mind ever since. In mid-June, one of my old training buddies had posted that he had a spot open for the Solo-6 race coming up in August. I had just recently moved from downtown Denver to Golden and had been bitten by the trail running bug due to the huge number of trails now just out my door. That said, the post got my interest and I started seriously thinking about whether I could survive the race (in '16) given my shape at the time, heavy work schedule and cost. After about two weeks of thinking it over, I also got injured and had to turn him down; things happen for a reason...
During the time when I was debating it, I spent a lot of time watching video's online, looking at the website, Facebook page, etc. and saw that not only did I love what the race was all about but I also loved that there were so many people training for it all over the world and that they were sharing their training journeys!
So, all of that said, I am now officially signed up for the 2017 race, uninjured and ready to try to tackle 8 months of training for one of the biggest challenges that I've ever faced!!
6 Days/ 120 Miles/ 20,000ft Vertical/7-12,000ft Elevation
Holy shit! What was I thinking?!?
Seriously, I don't know about you, but I've never run 120 miles in a week... I topped out at 92 during college cross-country. Add to that the beating of doing this up and down mountain passes with challenging footing and extreme elevation and it'd be a lie to say that I'm not nervous. Although, if you're reading this and also doing the race for the first time this year at least we can both rest assured, that we're not in this alone. :) Whether you're like me and training at some elevation, or you're training at sea-level, on flat terrain, or in a completely different climate than Colorado, it's safe to say that we've all got our challenges ahead of us and that collectively, we'll all be putting in work all year to survive this adventure come August!
So, this Blog will hopefully serve, as a place to document my training and thoughts along the way both for those of you who will be racing alongside me in August, and those of you who, like me last summer, may be looking to see what it takes in order to decide if you'd like to do it yourself in the future.
Either way, I'd love to hear from you to hear how your training is going and to share in the trials and tribulations of training for a massive undertaking like this. If you've already run TransRockies in the past... your tips are welcome!
Let's Roll!!
