Just one workout today.... Just six and a half hours. Ran the 50K fatass between Loveland and FOCO this morning. I woke up at 3:30 hoping to beat the storm and hauled booty up to Loveland to start on the Blue Sky trail. I was wanting to get an early start and beat the heaviness of the storm back home so as not to get stuck in traffic. My other goal was to run with folks and and meet some new friends and see old friends. Starting that early, I had not made plans to meet anyone certain. I was just going to run with whomever was there at that time. Kicking it off at about 6:15, I took off on the trail north with a handful of other runners. I was wearing 2 lightweight jackets and mountaineering Black diamond guide gloves as it was snowing hard at that point and I wanted to stay dry. Within less than half a mile, I realized the poor decision of the jackets and quickly stripped them off down to my unmistakable purple pikes peak marathon shirt and rocked that not caring if I was wet as long as I was warm. After less than a couple miles at a very easy effort, the group we started with was dwindled and there was only one female behind me. After some chit chat, I learned that her name was Simone (I think) and she was an exchange student from Singapore. Wild that a Singaporean would be running ultras and more wild mountain ultras. Who would have thought. Being that I have been to Singapore, we had fun chatting. Since it was just the two of us, I waited up for her and purposefully controlled my pace. The point of a Fatass is not to just go fast you know. In no time at all (Just over 2 hours) we made the aid station. I was expecting it to be further so at around 10.7ish miles, it was a pleasant surprise.
For a fatass, this aid station was more stocked and better manned than most actual races. After eating some calories, taking a shot of whiskey with the aid crew, and refilling liquids, we continued on the journey. I carried way too much today in prep for the storm. I was carrying 3 X 24 oz bottles and honestly could have gotten away with just one all day. After drinking less than one to the aid, I chugged the remainder and decided not to refill and still have 2. Here is the whiskey shot...
I didn't even realize I had an Ice beard at 8:30 this morning. My shirt was wet and I was getting cold so we decided to continue on. After making our way around the res, we headed up the nasty hill. Simone told me I didn't have to wait if I wanted to go faster. I was fine with walking as I didn't want to blow out my hammies for the rest of the day. We made our way up, up, up the hill (It can't be a Sherpa John FA without some major hills). At some point, we missed the Harrison turnoff for horsetooth mountain and just kept going up the steep road. We ended up at the top at 15.7 miles and decided that was good enough and we would still get our 50k despite not getting on horsetooth mountain. We took the obligatory selfie up top. With her mostly behind me and beside me all day I didn't realize how young she was. I changed to my dry jacket here for the colder descent
I wasn't about to backtrack several miles so we headed down, down, down back to the aid as we saw the string of other FA'ers heading up the hill. After greeting familiar faces and passing Sherpa shortly before arriving back at the aid at just shy of 21 miles the day was flying by. With a jello shot at the aid followed by another whiskey shot with Robbie Pike, my running partner for the day decided to get a ride back to the car. She had been huffing and puffing on some of hills so I can only imagine she was cooked and a bit tired but I wished she wold have gone for it. Fun to run with new peeps as always though. I decided to pick up the pace a bit on the final leg back to the car. Just kept a steady effort and made it back in no time at all. About halfway back, I was so hot, I took off the jacket and balaclava and heavy gloves and rocked the t-shirt, thin gloves, and headband the final miles. Felt great throughout. Never gassed, never exhausted. Nice to go slow up front. Only energy product I took was some GU Chomps about 4 mi to the end. I probably didn't need them but the little bit of sugar was a nice boost for the final few miles. Kind of a blurry pic but this ridge was picturesque,
After a yummy Milk Stout on Nitro at the car and some dry clothes, I chowed down on tons of food and made quick work of the drive back. I didn't encounter bad roads until coming down into Castle Rock where they got progressively worse by monument. I went from doing 85 MPH south of Denver to stopped for a while. Eventually, I made it home and all was good. All in all, A successful day with a full 31 miles and 4,500K of gain. With all the snow today, I probably won't run tomorrow so the week will be wrapped up at 60 miles. Great to peak the mileage here before the Salida Run Through Time Marathon in 3 weeks. Normally, my mileage would be higher but biking time naturally takes away from that and that is ok. Next week, I will be looking for a faster long run and then an easy week prior to the marathon. Getting excited hoping to break the 4:00 mark this year with a goal of 3:45. Seems like the fitness is right on point for Leadman at this point if I can stay consistent. Thanks Sherpa John for another successful event.
Until next time...
See you at the top!
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