Cold but HOT!!!

Today was an important day in that it was my last scheduled Long run before the Salida Run Through Time Marathon in a couple weeks. It was also key because this week is a stretch week. Normally, I do 3 weeks good hard training and one week "rest" where I greatly reduce the volume. In order to line up with a nice taper for the race, I went 4 weeks this time before the rest. Anyhow, forecasts this morning were similar to normal.... COLD. I was looking at upper teens for the Manitou area to start a run between 5 and 7 pm and get 22ish miles. I was looking to possibly repeat some or all of the Frozen Foggy Bonanza 28 mile route I did last year which was a reverse course of last year's Fatass but adding in sect 16 and taking out Rocky Mtn. and Mt. Manitou. Waking up this morning, I did a last weather check to discover that the temps were much lower than forecasted. They were 4 degrees. Crap. I can do a handful of miles in that kind of cold but didn't want to enjoy a day in it. I started to wonder if I was going to finally breakdown and hit the treadmill or else just have a shorter run. I also started to wonder how packed some of the trails on my selected route were and did not desire to run in deep snow. I needed distance, speed, and climbing so I decided to go where I knew I could get all of those. I went to do laps of the incline returning all of the way back to Memorial park each time. Doing this, I could swap for dry clothes at the car, warm up, drink some broth get food and water refills etc. This would make the cold easier. I secretly wanted 4 laps but knew I didn't probably have that long of a kitchen pass. While my wife would have let me do it, I know she wouldn't have been happy because Saturdays I have to get a nap in so I can start my night shifts. Being gone too late and taking a later nap meant no family time. That sucks for me too. Anyhow... I did take some pics the first lap but I need to upload from my cam so maybe I will drop them later this week. First lap started just after seven am, I tried to keep it at MAF or nearly at MAF. The goal was to keep each lap at 90 minutes or less including the pit stop in between etc. After a 5 min walking warmup, I began to jog up Ruxton and did the first lap at a 157 HR. I felt slow given the effort and was indeed with a 37:17 first to last step time. It was pretty cold to start but by the time I got to the incline, I had my jacket off and was rocking my purple PPM shirt and sweating my arse off. There is still tons of snow up there and dudes were actually shoveling a bit of it which was pretty cool. The descent was pretty fast which was what I wanted. I was hitting in the low sevens for pace down Barr Trail and back into town. After a quick stop to drop off some Habanero chili from yesterday's breakfast after the incline, I was at the car grabbing a new water bottle and heading back out. The goal was to drink at least 24 oz each lap to stay properly hydrated. I took off for lap 2 around 1:35 into the run so I was a bit behind but feeling great. Lap one I had never put my jacket back on because I let my shirt dry on the chilly descent so I left it in the car along with my Mountain Hardware Guide gloves and went with thin cotton gloves with hand warmers for lap 2 and no jacket. I quickly jogged back to the incline at MAF pace and then took off for my next lap. New territory as I have never gotten to do this beast more than once in a day although I had always talked about it. The legs felt great and once again, the goal was to stay at MAF in fat burning mode so I would have energy to do this whole escapade and finish feeling good. I made this lap also at a 157 HR avg and the time was 35:45 so was about 90 seconds faster at the same effort. Both laps I was so hot in the cold temps so far. With the incline facing east, the sun was directly at my back and I was soaked with sweat. This time my descent was about 30 seconds slower but roughly the same but my avg HR was 150 vs. 155 the first time. I think I went slower because my shirt was literally freezing solid and it was weird. Total round trip time must have been about 1:23 because I was back to the car with 2:58 on my watch so that lap was a bit faster all around between no potty stops and no jacket swaps while moving. Getting back to the car, I grabbed yet another bottle of water, ate a banana, and headed out for a third lap deciding this would be my last but that maybe I would add some extra credit for not getting to do number 4. Heading up Ruxton, my pace was a bit slower at MAF effort but I was still feeling great. This time, I had dropped my frozen shirt and went with the jacket sans shirt. Upon starting the incline, I just went shirtless which seemed weird in the still sub 15 degree temps. I did get some funny looks but even then I sweated so much and stayed warm enough. I remember steam coming off my body as I climbed. Since this was my last lap, I decided to push a little harder as I didn't need to save energy for anything. This time at avg. HR 162 tor the whole thing, I was up in 32:51. Only 5 BPM higher avg and almost 3 minutes faster with the legs not worse for the wear. I know for sure had I had the time and taken this lap at MAF, a 4th lap at same efforts would have been totally possible. Anyhow, after putting the jacket back on at the top, I decided to keep hiking up. This trail was much less packed than the connector trail but was still alright. In no hurry, I made the up stuff a breeze and started heading down. I decided if there was a cut trail up Rocky Mtn. that I would take it but there was not a recent one and I wasn't into post holing so I continued down to Barr. Once I hit it, I took the extra credit of going up a lil further to the french creek turnoff. Although, I had energy to make another hasty descent, I decided to take this one easy and be glad I am not injured. I maintained HR around 130 for this descent and walked the last half mile back to the car to cool down. This wrapped up the day with 4:37 moving time and 4:55 total time still feeling pretty good. I then proceeded to try and get a growler at Manitou Brewing but apparently they don't sell them yet. It seemed they had them and sometimes sell them but apparently I did not look cool enough in my tights to warrant one. All in all, another successful day in the mountains with just over 7K total elevation gain as my final "long" run for Salida.

Until Next time...

See you at the top!