~9.5 miles/~3,350 vertical
1:17 up (154bpm ave on the ascent)/42 down
Listened to some great Phil Liggett interviews today on the mp3 player that I downloaded from the Competitors http://www.competitorradio.com/. I never thought I would be one of "those guys" who would do such a thing, but after downloading something like 50 podcasts from the Competitors, I am hooked like crack. It is so cool listening to friends/acquaintences such as Andy Hampsten, Tyler Hamilton, Greg Lemond, Matt Reed, Hunter Kemper and others who I have raced with, or met in the past (like Phil Liggett, Dave Scott, Alexi Grewal, Lance etc...), the list goes on and on.
The mp3 player makes 2 hours of running go by in a flash and I am wishing for more time so I can run another 2 hours and listen to more shows. I enjoy the entertainment while I run, but I have noticed a few things. 1st, I get so distracted, I have trouble focusing on maintaining a steady effort and truly focusing on the task at hand and my surroundings. I also tend to not pay close attention to my body's needs, whether I need food, water etc....
Oh yeah, I also had a bit of a taxing run today up Green. Parked at Chautauqua and on a whim decided to go up Green via Bear Canyon. The Mesa trail is a complete mess, mud, slush, packed snow, loose snow.... you name it. Once I turned into Bear Canyon, there were a few sets of old footprints for a short ways, but soon I was breaking trail in shin deep snow. Knowing the trail well was quite helpful, as it would have been easy to stray. I did not see another person from NCAR to the Gregory TH, and the only tracks I saw on the ascent were a rather large set of tracks made by a huge cat, maybe a few hours old. This had me turning down the volume and looking over my shoulder a few times. I was going an OK pace on the ascent, nothing too demanding, but the trail breaking made things slow and a bit tiring. Made it to the top in a very slow 1:17. The descent was even more of a mess. The studs on my shoes were of little help and I took it slow and cautious (42 minutes back to the car). For some reason, my quads were really cramping toward the end, must have been the deep snow.
