Went up to Denver after work on Friday, the late flight out of San Antonio. It's like a dream come true. I laid out my training plans for the Hardrock 100 - 2014 after the TIR 200 in late March; this weekend was my first weekend in CO to start getting acclimated. Gina picked me up from the airport, but there was a slight delay leaving SA due to an airplane problem. I arrived in Denver about 10PM.
We woke up around 5:00AM, hit the Starbucks, and headed up to the shuttle bus area which took us to the start line. My friend and fellow Hardrocker Megan is the RD for the Golden Gate Dirty 30 50K, not real sure the origin of the name, but it is in Golden Gate Canyon state park. The race according to my garmin was 32 miles. Rumor has it, it ranges between 7500 and 9500 ft of elevation with 8000ft of gain. I haven't checked the garmin on this yet. It's a pretty dammed tuff 50K. I ended up running 7:02:55. I had hoped for sub 6, but it was not in the cards for me.
Even though I did not run the time I had hoped, a few good indicators were positive. I was able to run quite of bit of uphill, granted if it was not too steep. The steeper sections, I did a run walk interval. My legs felt strong. I used Tailwind for fuel and as far as calories and fueling goes, that was positive. The only bit of trouble I had was when I drank some coke that was still to fizzy. Also, I am not a fan of the UltraSpire handheld water bottle. I sat down on a rock, squeezing the bottle and the lid popped right off. Not good, especially since the next aid station was 5 miles away. I really only felt limited by lack of acclimatization. I figure for just arriving the night before, I did pretty good. After the race, there was some local beer and burgers. I also handed out samples of Trail Toes. I waited at the start/finish line for Gina to come in and was able to spend some time chatting with Darcy, one of the toughest lady ultra runners around.
Saturday evening, Gina's roommate made ribs and some folks were over socializing and having some brews. I went to bed around 10PM to try and rest up for Sunday's workout. If you're going to spend money to go up to the mountains to train, I suggest you do some research. Ha!Ha! I didn't really have a plan on what we'd do on Sunday, but we ended up going up and over Mt. Sanitas, then back up and over to the car, skipping the flat sections. This was pretty light work, about 1:45:xx and we were taking it easy. After that, we drove over to the trail head for Bear Peak, however we cut in on this trail around Bear Mountain Dr. And took the most direct route to the top, Bear Canyon trail, to Fern Canyon trail and up. It was 3 hours up and down, so maybe 8ish miles, not 13.
After both days, we treated ourselves to margaritas and Mexican food, so life is okay! I estimate that this weekend was 43-45 miles and 13K of gain at altitude. I'll take it. The training was very good and big huge shout out to Gina for supporting me this weekend and the next two coming weekends. We'll be heading down to Pike's Peak this weekend for some big air and to hang with JT and 100$ bill! Of course we'll hit The Incline, and Sunday we will be running the Garden of the God's 10 miler for some turnover work. Planning on a trip up Pike's each day.
I've got a few things I'll need to work out during the week for this last month leading up to Hardrock, but I'm feeling pretty good about where I am at. I'll be getting in some yoga and using the AltoLabs hypoxic breather. I need to get strong in my core, mostly abs. And more work on my posterior chain. Expect lots of Kettlebell swings and deadlifts. My downhills are sucking, so going for squats and jump rope. Of course while still averaging 80+ miles a week. I need to get tough. And I gotta get 10lbs off. Let's go for it.
Always aim for the ultimate, never look back, be mindful of others at all times, and keep the mind forever set on the Way. - Marathon Monks of Mt. Hiei
We woke up around 5:00AM, hit the Starbucks, and headed up to the shuttle bus area which took us to the start line. My friend and fellow Hardrocker Megan is the RD for the Golden Gate Dirty 30 50K, not real sure the origin of the name, but it is in Golden Gate Canyon state park. The race according to my garmin was 32 miles. Rumor has it, it ranges between 7500 and 9500 ft of elevation with 8000ft of gain. I haven't checked the garmin on this yet. It's a pretty dammed tuff 50K. I ended up running 7:02:55. I had hoped for sub 6, but it was not in the cards for me.
Even though I did not run the time I had hoped, a few good indicators were positive. I was able to run quite of bit of uphill, granted if it was not too steep. The steeper sections, I did a run walk interval. My legs felt strong. I used Tailwind for fuel and as far as calories and fueling goes, that was positive. The only bit of trouble I had was when I drank some coke that was still to fizzy. Also, I am not a fan of the UltraSpire handheld water bottle. I sat down on a rock, squeezing the bottle and the lid popped right off. Not good, especially since the next aid station was 5 miles away. I really only felt limited by lack of acclimatization. I figure for just arriving the night before, I did pretty good. After the race, there was some local beer and burgers. I also handed out samples of Trail Toes. I waited at the start/finish line for Gina to come in and was able to spend some time chatting with Darcy, one of the toughest lady ultra runners around.
Saturday evening, Gina's roommate made ribs and some folks were over socializing and having some brews. I went to bed around 10PM to try and rest up for Sunday's workout. If you're going to spend money to go up to the mountains to train, I suggest you do some research. Ha!Ha! I didn't really have a plan on what we'd do on Sunday, but we ended up going up and over Mt. Sanitas, then back up and over to the car, skipping the flat sections. This was pretty light work, about 1:45:xx and we were taking it easy. After that, we drove over to the trail head for Bear Peak, however we cut in on this trail around Bear Mountain Dr. And took the most direct route to the top, Bear Canyon trail, to Fern Canyon trail and up. It was 3 hours up and down, so maybe 8ish miles, not 13.
After both days, we treated ourselves to margaritas and Mexican food, so life is okay! I estimate that this weekend was 43-45 miles and 13K of gain at altitude. I'll take it. The training was very good and big huge shout out to Gina for supporting me this weekend and the next two coming weekends. We'll be heading down to Pike's Peak this weekend for some big air and to hang with JT and 100$ bill! Of course we'll hit The Incline, and Sunday we will be running the Garden of the God's 10 miler for some turnover work. Planning on a trip up Pike's each day.
I've got a few things I'll need to work out during the week for this last month leading up to Hardrock, but I'm feeling pretty good about where I am at. I'll be getting in some yoga and using the AltoLabs hypoxic breather. I need to get strong in my core, mostly abs. And more work on my posterior chain. Expect lots of Kettlebell swings and deadlifts. My downhills are sucking, so going for squats and jump rope. Of course while still averaging 80+ miles a week. I need to get tough. And I gotta get 10lbs off. Let's go for it.
Always aim for the ultimate, never look back, be mindful of others at all times, and keep the mind forever set on the Way. - Marathon Monks of Mt. Hiei
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