5/31/2008 Pt. 12,088, 12,567, 12783, Whale Peak (13,078), Glacier Peak (12,853)

Pt. 12,088, 12,567, 12783, Whale Peak (13,078), Glacier Peak (12,853)
5/31/08
~10 miles/4,300 vertical (including a bit of extra credit vert.)
From Jefferson Lake
7 hours RT
Jeff and Allison Valliere, John Prater, Pete Krzanowsky and Sierra

Failing to come up with a “local” plan to get up high for Saturday, I sent out an e-mail to a bunch of people on my e-mail list and Pete quickly indicated that he was planning Whale and some other nearby 12ers. Having wanted to climb Whale for quite some time, I was immediately in (pending approval from Allison of course…..). John was also on the same page and the group was set.

After a minor disagreement with the Jefferson Lake authorities over what passes work there and which don’t, we started from Wellington Lake around 7:50ish and headed due East up the hillside over some minor patches of still frozen snow up to the saddle between 11718 and 12,088. The going here was surprisingly easy and got us to the ridge quickly and efficiently. From the ridge, the views opened up and I was in absolute heaven. It was warm, no wind, no snow, clear….. just the day I have been patiently waiting all winter for.

We casually strolled North along the grassy undulations, picking up every ranked and unranked bump along the way, taking the occasional break to eat, photograph and chat. At the start of the final push up Whale, Sierra caught scent of what I figured to be some sort of ungulate and started to sniff all over, perk up and show too much interest. Fortunately I noticed this immediately and put her on leash. This turned out to be great as she towed me all the way up Whale, I was literally putting in half the effort as normal (maybe I can recruit her for Pikes…. Would that be cheating?).

We took a long break on Whale, then moseyed over to Glacier. The views were awesome and we were picking out nearby peaks to climb soon. John was quite bummed to not pick up Sheep along the way and we all teased him for wanting to drop down the wrong side to nab such a lowly peak. He strongly contemplated it, but figured he would save that one for another day.

The trip down was uneventful, until we came to the final pinnacle on the ridge at 12,000 feet. From here we got a great view of the lake and surrounding area. We noticed that there seemed to be too much snow to efficiently go around the West side of the lake, but there was a little ridge dropping to the East that looked like easier passage to the lake, which would then be easy street along the East side where there was no snow along the shoreline.

A few class 3 moves got us down through the worst section, then it was just steep going all the way down with the occasional patch of deep snow. We worked our way through the valley hopping over all the runoff as the day was warming significantly. The trip out along the East side of the lake went by quick and we were back at the cars about 2:50.

What an awesome day up high, super casual, great partners, great weather, great views.

Pictures: http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r296/jeffvalliere/Whale/

Green Mountain

5 miles
2,400 vertical
33:50up/56:30 RT

Had an awesome run this morning up Green via Amphitheater/Saddle Rock/Greenman, sticking to the main trail and no shortcutting whatsoever. My goal was to go quick enough to beat my time of 37:56 from yesterday and to maintain quick turnover and avoid any big step ups (just focus on efficiency). I was not at all serious this morning.

As I went along, I noticed that my time checks were not too shabby, but was not paying too close attention. The upcoming trail was passing in review quickly and I knew I was moving really well despite not giving it 100%. About 2/3rds of the way up, I realized that my time was 4-5 minutes faster than the previous day! I could not believe my eyes and started to bump up the pace a bit knowing that I could PR. I THINK my previous best is 35:35 on that route sticking to the trail, but I would have to research that number. Also the trail has changed a bit since, but I don’t think it is a 1:45 difference, maybe 30 seconds max? I think it helped to start at a reasonable pace and maintain/increase as I went, vs. burning myself too soon which I have been guilty of in the past.

(As an aside, I was wearing clunky road shoes, hiking shorts and had not yet sat in the bathroom.)

Green Mountain

5 miles
2,400 vertical
37:56up
1:01 RT

Had an awesome run up Green this morning, mainly because of the conditions.... fog over the plains, sun and warm a few hundred feet up the trail, clear to the West. It was the perfect temperature for running and the trail was a bit damp. It is always a nice treat when you climb up out of the clouds and gloom into a perfectly sunny morning.

Started off feeling like absolute crap and was completely winded for the first 5+ minutes even though I was going "easy". Started getting into a bit of a groove, but this meant feeling mildly crappy. At about 27 minutes, I bumped up the effort a bit to somewhere short of hard and made it to the top in 37:56. I was somewhat surprised by this given the lack of effort and overall lack of snap in my legs.

Sanitas

3.5 miles
1,300 vertical
19:45 up/17 down

Felt good walking around today, but the moment I started running I knew I was not recovered from Monday and felt pretty sluggish. Figured it would take me 23 or 24 at the rate I was going. Put in seemingly high effort even though I was not pushing if that makes any sense. Did not even bother to look at the watch until the summit and was surprised to see that I was under 20. Went down East side/valley super easy, felt like I had 2 left feet.

S. Boulder, Bear and Green

~15.5 miles
~4,500 vertical
2:28:02

Had a great run this morning over the 3 peaks going up Towee, Shadow, over to Bear, down W. Ridge to Bear Canyon, up Green, down Bear Canyon to Mesa, Mesa to Bluestem and back to S. Mesa TH.

Despite the rainy weather, it turned out to be a great morning for a run. Today I was hoping to go fairly hard, but keep things reasonable and just run a fast, but sustainable pace. I felt like I did a great job pacing myself and felt awesome the whole run. The footing in spots was a bit slick, especially on the summits of S. Boulder and Bear, where it was raining steadily and visibility was nil. Running down W. Ridge of Bear was a highlight, perfect rolling singletrack, everything was green and moist, foggy, quiet. Just me, running fast and feeling completely focused.

Pushed the pace hard on the ups, but being very careful not to build lactic acid and then pushed beyond my comfort zone on the downhills and flats where footing was good. The trip back to S. Mesa TH always seems to drag on over the final mile +. I was hoping to beat 2:45 (an arbitrary estimate), but was discovering as the run progressed that I might beat 2:30. I layed it on for all I was worth at the end, sprinting as if I were neck and neck with somebody, trying to come in at 2:27:??, but missed it by two seconds. Oh well, I was quite happy with my time either way.

Headed into Boulder to watch the Bolder Boulder pro race. Rode my bike and followed the racers for the first 20 minutes. They were really flying, I was in disbelief. Really made me feel like a slowpoke.

Splits:

13:59 end of Towee (where it meets "dirt road")
21:30 mouth of Shadow
46:20 saddle
52:40 S. Boulder summit
1:03 Bear Peak
1:21 Bear Canyon Jct
1:34 4 way on W. side of Green
1:38 Green summit
1:40 back at 4 way on W. side of Green
2:03 Mesa trail
2:15 Bluestem jct.
2:28:02 Finish

Buffalo Peak Attempt

3.5 miles
2,350 vertical
5.5 hours

Attempted Buffalo Peak in Lost Creek Wilderness. The going up the ridge from Stoney Pass was amazingly tedious, lots of nasty deadfall, steep. Then around 10,000 feet, we started to encounter lots of snow that would sometimes support our weight, but usually collapse like a trap door. Lots of balancing along rotten logs to avoid snow, clamboring up and over rocks, under over trees. We got to within a mile of the summit and the snow just got progressively worse. Had to turn, as there was no way we could summit and make it back in time for holiday festivities. Not to mention it really sucks wallowing in this type of snow, especially on Memorial Day weekend when all I wanted was dry trails.

S. Boulder, Bear, Green

~16 miles
~4,800 vertical
4hrs 37 minutes

Allison, Sierra and I got out for a great hike today, as the weather in Boulder was too tempting to resist. Started at S. Mesa, took our time heading to Shadow. At the mouth of Shadow, I ran ahead to the summit. Went on the mellow side of moderate, made the saddle in 24, summit in another 5, then ran back down to meet Allison and Sierra at the saddle. Went back up, then over to Bear. Spent some time lounging on each summit. Headed down W. Ridge, got in trouble by a ranger for not having the dog on leash, we honestly did not know it was a leash only trail as our choice of routes at the summit of Bear bypassed all signage.

Went up Green, then back down Bear Canyon to Mesa and then S. to Bluestem. My 20 oz. bottle ran out way too soon and I was quite parched. Got harrassed by another butch ranger near the TH, but we were totally legit. The heat is on for the holiday weekend.

Green Mountain

8 miles
2,800 vertical
1hr 27ish minutes

Got out with GZ and Claude. Started from Chautauqua, went up Amphitheater/Saddle/Greenman at an easyish pace, shooting the breeze. ~39up from Gregory TH. It was super humid and socked in, raining a bit in spots. Went down West Ridge and Long Canyon to Gregory. My legs are still feeling it from last weekend, especially when Claude got out front, as he is really a downhill speed demon. The down was way tougher than the up in my opinion.

My recovery this week has been lousy. Sunday and Monday I could barely walk. Tuesday I felt good on the up and terrible on the down. The last two days felt lousy on the up and down. I hope to take it easy for the next few days (hiking or biking), then start fresh next week to get ready for Mt. Evans. I might even set foot on a track.....

Green

5.5 miles
2,400 vertical
47up/31down

Went up Gregory/Ranger, still feeling tired so I went super easy, even spent a good bit of time walking. Same on the way down. Perfect morning, quiet except for a few guys on top of Green dumping out water as they were training for Denali. I of course filled up, since they carried water all that ways.

Green via Super Flag

7 miles
2,700 vertical
54up/30down

After an all time abysmal day at work, I just had to get out. My legs are feeling a bit better from the race, but still not 100%. If I were feeling better physically, I would have poured out all my frustrations on the trail and probably set a crazy PR, but instead I went the opposite direction and just focused on keeping it moderate and steady. It did my head a world of good to just be out there on the trails by myself and completely absord such a nice day. Went up Gregory, made the ranger shack in 17, Super Flag in 36, summit of Green via W. ridge at 54, back down via NE ridge in 30. Slacked bad on the descent as it is my downhill muscles that are most sore. I also got pretty darn hungry, need to start carrying a gel.

Jemez Half Marathon
5/17/08
2,743 vertical
1:58:33
5th place overall/3rd 30-39 age division

We arrived at the race start/finish line at 5:40am after a fairly good night’s sleep, as Kevin was running the 50k starting at 6am. I watched he and the Roachs start, then had ample time to pace around and get ready for my race. Eating before an intense race for me is always difficult, but this morning I had no problem, perhaps eating too much? (2 packets of oatmeal, a few chunks of banana, a serving or so of Perpetuem and a few swigs of Hammer Gel in addition to water and Heed).I had a mellow warm up, maybe a mile+, but some of that were just trips back and forth from the car to the start/finish. Going into the race, I had no idea what to really expect, but Jason and Bill were thinking that I could do pretty well here. Jason gave me a heads up on one of the guys in my race, a successful runner from Albuquerque who runs for Team Inov-8 named Greg Feucht, so I stood on the line and made note of his whereabouts and was also sizing up everyone else who looked fast.The horn sounds the race start and we are off at a quick pace. Greg takes the lead, followed by a collegiate runner named Ben Fletcher who runs for Penn State I think. The first mile or so is on pavement/sidewalk and we form a tight group and continue to put distance on those behind us (I would guess a 5:30ish pace). I can’t wait to get to the trail, as I feel like such a klunker on the road.Greg and Ben start to slowly drift away on the downhill, but not by much and I keep them in sight most of the time, maybe 10-15 seconds back for a while. 2 or 3 miles into it, I am now only catching occasional glimpses of them and realize that they are much better runners and I will be fighting to hang onto 3rd, unless I can make up some time on the upcoming climb of around 1,800 feet or so. As the real climbing begins, I start to catch glimpses of Ben and it seems as though I am gaining on him. This keeps me motivated and although he is walking at times, he is digging deep and still moving quick up the steep hillside.I see that Greg is making great progress up the hill and he is clearly the strongest of us. It takes me most of the climb, but I eventually pass Ben with a few switchbacks to go until the high point/junction/aid station and move into second place and am happy with my placing at this point. However, also at this point, a guy named Hans is creeping up on my heels. I blaze through the aid station, as I have a mostly full hand bottle, but they both slow to swig water.I am now cruising down the somewhat technical downhill as fast as I can go, but Hans races past and is quickly out of sight. Ben also cruises past and I think he is long gone, but I quickly discover that although he passed me quickly, he only gains about 40 seconds. As the trail rolls and switchbacks it’s way down the ridge, I can tell that I am slowly gaining time back on Ben. I get the gap down to maybe 25-30 seconds and think that I have a chance to catch him, especially on the series of small climbs to the finish as I know that I am a stronger climber. My legs feel great and although the downhill is not my forte, I am holding my own.I make a right at the key junction I was warned of, but somehow missed the flags that marks an immediate sharp turn to the right after that (that I too was warned of, but in my haste passed it by) and ended up going straight on a well worn trail. Because of the topography here, I failed to notice Ben make that key turn and later noticed that he was not ahead of me on the trail. That was the first red flag, but then I notice a lack of flagging (not entirely unusual when the trail is good), then I notice that there are no fresh footprints. Oops. I cuss myself and hesitantly trot along in limbo and disbelief. I pull out my map and think that I might be able to cross country back to the course, but after a hundred + feet of trying this, I realize it would be hopeless to make reasonable time across the scorched earth and downed trees. All kinds of stupid things go through my mind at this point, including quitting, but unless I was severely injured, there is just no way I could do it. Quick! Quick!, gotta decide something NOW one way or the other.I begrudgingly backtrack to the trail and have to do a good bit of climbing up steep and loose sandy trail and go back over some rollers to regain the course. Back at the junction, I notice the flags that I missed and am spitting a few choice words with steam coming out my ears “how the F&*#!! could I have missed this!??”. I lost a full 10 minutes here floundering and now my already taxed legs are starting to cramp from all the additional stress. I pass a hiker and she informs me I am now in 6th place. Not as bad as I thought, but I am terribly upset with myself over the blunder. I push down the canyon as hard as possible to salvage what I could. At the bottom, I pass a guy to move into 5th and explain my blunder as he was a bit confused as to where I came from so quickly. He tells me 4th place (the race winner from two years ago) is 4 minutes ahead. I push and push, but my quads are fried and don’t have much left. The last 2 miles seem to drag on forever and I finally roll in to the finish at 1:58:33 and hang onto 5th.I guess in the long run, it does not really matter as I did not miss out on a prize, but I was sure I could have pulled off 3rd place which was a big goal of mine. I also hoped to break 1:50, and would have for sure if it were not for the 10 minutes of extra credit exploration, so I was pleased with that. I was also encouraged by the fact that I was 2nd over the big climb which is what I have been focusing on.Despite the blunder, it felt good to be in the mix for most of the race and I feel my training is coming along on target. This was also the first real test for my knee in a race situation in quite some time and it felt absolutely perfect on the ups/downs and after the race. I actually never thought of it once until somebody asked how it was afterwards.This was a very well run race and I really enjoyed myself. The pre-race dinner was great, they gave out an awesome tech race T, the course was awesome, aid stations were great (although I never used one), the people were amazing (the race organization and competitors) and there was so much good food to eat afterwards. There was just a really friendly and laid back feel to the entire day despite it being a race and I would highly recommend going next year. I certainly hope to go again.A few side notes:14erworld was very well represented at this race by Jason Halladay, Bill Geist, Gerry and Jennifer Roach, Kevin Lund, Bill Blazek, Sean Cunniff who all ran quite well and seemed to have a great time.It was awesome to finally go visit Jason and Bill in Los Alamos and see where they live. Los Alamos seems to be a really great town and I can’t wait to go back and spend more time there.Thanks to Kevin for driving us down there, Jason and Bill for their huge contributions to the race and to Bill Geist for providing lodging and great breakfast burritos.Race web site with results and pictures:http://www.highaltitudeathletics.org/JemezMt.htm

Sanitas

3.5 miles
1,300 vertical
23:49up/37:56 total

Got out for a whirl up Sanitas today. Went up Dakota Ridge trail, then up the East side. Went fairly mellow at first as I was feeling like crap from eating too much pepperoni pizza during our lunch time meeting at work.... ugggg. I have made this mistake in the past and even specifically remember a day in high school when I went out for a hard ride after gorging myself on pizza and really feeling bogged down and low on energy. After about 10 minutes I started to feel at least semi good, then soon after I looked high up the trail and saw two guys running up above, maybe 4+ minutes ahead. I stepped on the gas a bit trying to catch them, but all the while remembering that during my upcoming race, it will not matter who won up Sanitas after work on Wednesday. Oh well, sometimes I just need a little motivation. I caught them as one was catching the other just past the narrow rock squeeze through. One guy beelined it straight up the hillside to cut the big swichback and the other one picked up the pace on the trail, oblivious to my presence. He was wearing headphones and I said "hi" and "on your left", but he either could not hear me or was ignoring me, so I was forced to pull off a surprise pass. Shocked by my passing, I think it woke him up and lit a bit of a fire under his a$$. He stuck for a minute or so, but he blew hard just as I passed the other guy who had just snuck onto the trail after cutting the switchback. I put about 40 seconds on them in the last 150 vertical and felt good that I had a bit of zip. Got back down to the car in 14. I think that I will be in great shape for my upcoming race, just as long as I don't eat pizza beforehand ;).

Sanitas 5/13/08

3.5 miles
1,300 vertical
24:31 up/about that down

The weather today was terrible, steady rain with a few flakes mixed in, snow above 6,500ft, temps in the 30's. I was convinced that I would blow off the planned workout, run some errands and go laze around at home. Just before leaving work though, the sun came out and it warmed up a bit. What the heck, Sanitas would be fun. We took it super easy, a walk really with a few bits of jogging thrown in as Sierra is still pooped from Sunday I think. I was not all that motivated either, so I did not mind one bit. It was really just a great day to take it all in and enjoy the fresh air. We made the top in 24:31 which felt extremely leisurely, barely a notch above couch level really. To spice it up, we went down the East side and the valley. This was unfortunately the much muddier option, as the S. Ridge was damp, but not muddy at all. Gotta love Spring in Colorado.

Monday 5/12/08 Flagstaff

~5 miles
~1,800 vertical
61 minutes

George and I met up for an easy run up Flag, sneaking it in before the crappy weather that has now moved in over Colorado. Went pretty casual the entire time, I think we made it up Flag in 20 or 21? Did not really look. Headed around the back side of Flag, over to Ranger, Greenman and then down Saddle/Amphi. As always great conversation about Pikes, racing, training and the superhuman runners we know/know of (Dave, Scott, Matt etc...).