Race the Train!

I can't wait for midnight tonight when the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic opens for registration.  I will be riding in the citizens tour of this 42nd edition of this amazing ride. Citizens 50 mile tour from Durango to Silverton through the stunning San Juan Mountains has 6,700 ft of  total climbing over two 10,000ft mountain passes, thin air, and fast descents. Riders take off with the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad train with the goal of beating it to Silverton.  The citizens race takes place on Saturday May 25, but there are cycling events all weekend long in Durango.  No cyclist should miss this race.

Enjoy this virtual ride!

Minimalist Running

Being inspired by the book Born to Run and having dealt with frustrating tendonitis the past two years, I decided to give minimalist running a try. I had had some limited experience with it earlier this year with the marathon training plan that I followed, but it was limited and only intended to build up foot strength.  I want to make this my primary way of running but it hasn't been easy. When I first started, I wasn't quite sure where on the fore foot to strike and kept my foot so tense that I ended up running almost on my tip-toes. After a few days, the soles of my feet were killing me. After a bit of experimentation, I found that if I relaxed the foot and landed on the balls of my feet that I could run without any pain or discomfort.  In fact, it felt so good that I ran a fast 6 or 7 miles almost immediately after figuring this out. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered my calves were not ready for that kind of workout. Once again, I spent the next several days in great discomfort. I've since been building my calf strength and stretching them like crazy and am now starting to really enjoy minimalist running.  I've definitely noticed less pounding on my knees.  The next step will be to build up my mileage.  Hopefully, all will go smoothly.

Late November climb of Huron Peak.

Huron Peak is a shy but shapely peak in Sawatch Range of Colorado.  It barely peeks above 14,000 ft and isn't particularly difficult but it is one of my favorite 14ers.  On Saturday November 24, I met some friends at the edge of Denver at 4:30AM and carpooled up I-70 toward Leadville.  After a finishing stretch on a dirt road to the ghost town of Winfield, we started our climb of Huron Peak near the standard trail head but instead to an old logging or mining road to north of the standard route.  Our path is shown below:

It was fun to try an non-standard route, particularly in winter.  The popularity of climbing 14ers in Colorado has made solitude a bit hard to find, so often times a non-standard route is you best bet.  We ascended the road and wrapped around a north facing ridge line into a basin north of Brown's Peak.  While there is still not a lot of snow in the mountains right now because of the warm, dry fall, we did encounter some deeper snow in this area.  On the west side of the basin, we saw a shallow snow filled couloir leading to a ridge the looked like it would take us where we wanted to go.

 Once we reached the ridge, it was a fairly simple hike to the higher intersection ridge line leading to Browns Peak.  We were initial concerned about the jagged appearance of the ridge but it turn out the these jagged features we actually slightly below the actual ridge top.

 Upon reaching the ridge, Huron Peak finally can into view.  we contoured along the ridge and across the west face of Brown's Peak, crossing the upper end of the bowl leading to Huron Peak.  We were now at 13,500 ft. and have little more than a quarter mile to go to reach the summit.

 The trail was steep and covered in packed snow but was pretty easy with microspikes on.  The trail zig-zag its way across the north face until it emerged on the fairly small, pointed summit.

 

 The weather on the top was glorious and the views amazing.  You could see all the giants of the Sawatch neatly lined up to the east and the rugged Ice Mountain and Apostles to the south. After resting and refueling at the top, we finally began our uneventful descent of the standard route to conclude a spectacular day in the mountains.

Tour of the Moon

 
This past Saturday, I wrapped up my riding season with a spectacular ride in the inaugural Icon LASIK TOUR of the MOON, Hell of the West Cycling Classic, in Grand Junction / Colorado National Monument, CO.  The Tour of the Moon was made famous in the 1980's Coors Classic and later in the 80's film American Flyers starring Kevin Costner.  This ride was the second stage in the film's fictious Hell of the West Bicycle Classic.  The weather was perfect, especially in comparison to the frigid weather that had rolled into the Front Range the day before, and the scenery may have been the most beautiful I'd ever experienced.

 

I rode the 62 mile route (~3,500 of climbing) from Grand Junction, up through the monument, down through Fruita and then back into Grand Junction.  My goal was to ride a sub-4 hour time even though this wasn't at all a competitive event.  I was quite pleased with my ride (I've posted my data from TrainingPeaks.com).  I felt strong climbing and cruising and very comfortable letting it roll in the descents.  It was a great day all around on the road and I am already looking forward to doing this event next year.

 

Another cool thing about this ride was that I got to ride 10 or so miles with Tom Danielson, a professional road racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI ProTour team Garmin-Sharp.  He rode in the 2011 Tour de France, riding well and finishing as the highest placed America in 8th place and placed 3rd in the 2011 USA Pro Cycling Challenge.  He is a great guy and an amazing rider.  I won't soon forget this experience.

We can rebuild him. We have the technology.

I've decided to take an even more scientific approach to training with a visit with Dr. Iñigo San Millán, PhD at  The Human Performance Lab at The Anschutz Health and Wellness Center.  Dr. San Millán is considered one of the top and most experienced applied physiologists in the world, and has worked with many elite and world class athletes and teams in sports including track and field, running, cycling, triathlon, rowing and basketball, including six Pro Tour Cycling Teams, a Tour de France winner and 16 Grand Tours podium finishers.  I figured if it was good enough for elite athletes, then it was good enough for me.  I spent the better part of an afternoon working one on one with  Dr. San Millán, suffering in the name of science.  After explaining the biological basis of athletic successes and failures,  Dr. San Millán put me on a bike and pushed my to my limits to get a good understanding of how my body works.  I got detailed information on my VO2Max (Maximal Oxygen Consumption), Lactate Profile and Metabolism and my Individual Excercise Metabolic Profile and Metabolic Crossover Point.  He then tailored a training and nutritional plan exactly for my needs.    Dr. San Millán is awesome!  I highly recommend a session with him for any athlete looking to take there performance to the next level.

Raising the Bar

After my most recent marathon, the urge to take on bigger challenges grew considerably. I am hardly a dominant marathon runner and I certain can still get much faster, but I didn't feel particular challenged nor was there any uncertainty as to whether or not not I would finish.  I have already signed up to run the Greenland 50K on May 4, 2013 but the additional six miles seems to be a fairly modest step up.  I really want to go out and tackle a 50 mile or 100 mile run.  These would be a whole new ballgame and would once again bring the uncertainty as to whether or not not I would finish back into the equation.  Fifty miles sounds more pleasant to me but I'd like to knock of 100 miles at some point even if it does sound like a death march.  The question now is how do I get ready for something like this without over-training and/or hurting myself and what event should I pick.  Colorado has several options but most of them sound kind of brutal but I'm always a bit reluctant to leave my normal training environment for I'm found that heat and humidity sometimes hit me harder than altitude.  The Leadville 100 would be awesome eventually.  I think that the Leadville 50, Run Rabbit Run 50 or Bear Chase 50 are the races I will target in 2013 (one not all three).  We'll see how it goes.

Practice?

I just completed the Sports Authority Rock ‘n’ Roll Denver Marathon this past Saturday, yet I hadn't planned to run it. I spent my summer climbing, cycling and traveling and had done little running in preparation of a marathon. I did run a marathon in May 2012 and I figured it was going to be it for the year. Nonetheless, when Team Refuel offed me the opportunity to run the marathon for free, I signed up. I'd run seven previous marathons and figured I'd find a way to get through it. My goal was simply to finish before the course closed and figured even that might be a challenge given that I'd run less than 26.2 miles cumulatively in the previous 3 months. Amazingly, I finished well ahead of the course closure with a time of 4hrs 43mins and never had to walk once. Moreover, the marathon felt much easier than past marathons and I never felt sorry and fatigued in the days that followed. At first, I started to think that Allen Iverson may have been on to something (practice?!?!). After have more time to ruminate on my performance, I've come to realize that my cross-training over the summer had kept me fit, I never over-trained and I stuck to my race day plan. I thinks these things had been problems for me during previous marathons, especially the sticking to my race day plan. It seemed like I'd do too much the day before, eat the wrong things the night before or morning of the race, or would forget to eat and drink at every aid station. I definitely plan to train for my next marathon, but I think I spend more time listening to my body during my training and will keep to my plan.