Chaos Sees Few Results

The past couple of weeks have been kind of a shambles. At best I've been able to run a couple of days here and there, racking up no more than 20-ish miles each week for the last two weeks. I had hopes of getting some real miles in this week, but life was against me. Things are just too busy and crazy right now. That being said, I not only got in a couple of good runs today, but also a great ski day today with my son, Tyler. Tuesday I went out with Scott and attempted to hike/run Grandeur Peak twice. We started at 4:30am and were quickly heading up the trail. We lasted about a quarter miles before we needed our spikes and luckily I brought my trekking poles. To give you an idea about how steep this trail is, it rises 3200 vertical feet in just 2.3 miles. Within the first half mile your calves are burning and you constantly wonder if you can continue at the pace you are trying to push. To make matters worse, there was about 4 inches of crusty snow to move through. And then within .3 of the summit the trail disappeared under wind drift snow. Since I was in the lead I was now breaking trail, post-holing through drifts up to two feet deep. By the time we hit the top my feet and ankles were frozen and I was just ready to be off of there. As Scott reached the summit less than a minute behind me we both knew we weren't going to be trying for another lap. We'd have to come up with something else. Running down the steep slope was fun, but pounds on the quads. We had a great time though, laughing and chatting the whole way.

As we hit the bottom of the trail Scott offered up that we drive over and hit Wire Peak, a much easier, if not any less steep peak near the zoo; something we have both climbed more times than I can count. So we drove over, parked at the zoo, and expected to feel the fatigue of that 3200 ft of vert in just over two miles. However, as I pressed up the steep starting trail I found my legs were strong and willing to run. Wire Peak gains 2200+ feet in 2.2 miles. The first mile is still runnable, which means that the last 1.2 miles is extremely steep and technical. I pressed pretty hard and summitted in a somewhat respectable time considering the condition. However, instead of waiting for Scott who was obviously feeling the fatigue and was several minutes back I chose to cruise down as it was now snowing and windy. I made the round trip in 1:09:something, which is pretty fast on any day. And that time took into account the fact that I slipped and fell on the way down. Ha. On the whole we did 8.9 miles and 5500 feet of vert in 4.4 of those miles. My legs were tired after that, I can assure you.

I did run the next day, nothing special, just 8 miles in the Dimple Dell gully, but then didn't get to run again for the rest of the week. I did, however, get to spend an entire day skiing at Alta with my oldest son Tyler. He's starting to get really good and we had an awesome time all day long. I telemark ski, so while I didn't get to run I probably did do about the equivalent of 3000 or so lunges. Yeah, my legs are a little, but the memories will help them heal quick.

Next up, 30+ miles in the San Rafael Swell on Monday. Bring it!