Flagstaff

Flagstaff
~4.5 miles
~1,500 vertical
19:50 up/15 down

Chipping away at my Flagstaff time. 24:44 on Feb 6th, 20:53 on Feb 13th, 20:06 last week and now I did a 19:50. I was pretty happy with todays effort, as the conditions were probably the worst of all 4 trips. I started off doing my best to avoid the big patches of sticky mud, but even so, managed to accumulate several extra pounds of mud per shoe. I felt like a fly on fly paper. I was sure that I would not have a PR for the month, but I just kept plugging along. I felt pretty good despite the poor condtions and things quickly started to shape up. The trail turned from mud and slush to all snow after the first road crossing. Even though I did not have studded shoes, the snow for the most part provided a somewhat solid grip. At each "toe off", I would lose a bit of traction, so efficiency was not the greatest, but I never felt as though I was going to slip and bust a$$ like on recent trips. The snow was a real hinderance for the final few hundred feet from the last trail junction to the top, but I managed to keep a good tempo and made it to the finish in 19:50. Still not a time to be proud of, but I worked for this one and I am happy that I am starting to see progress. Can't wait for the trails to fully dry out so I don't have any excuses.