James Peak from Moffet Tunnel

It does not get much better than this.  13.5ish miles round trip with about 4300ft of gain, topping out at 13,300ft.  David Ponak joined me for today's fun.  Next up:  Pacing JT at Hardrock, leaving on Thursday.

UPDATE 7/10/13:  I have had a number of emails asking about this route.  Here is the GPS data, hopefully that will answer any questions.  Have fun!  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/339084626

Photos are not in order, they are a combination of David's and mine.

June Numbers

Finally a SOLID month in both the training and in racing this month.  It feels good to get back to normal (knock on wood) in the training department.

Here is how the numbers shook out.  You can click on the photo to enlarge it.

Right where I wanted to be mileage and vertical wise.  I even took off the last 2 days of the month just to make sure that I don't go over that so called "line" and recover a little from the month.

Positives of the month-  Got in 3 races listed below and I also got in 7 14er summits with 4 of them being new mountains that I needed for my 14ers quest.  Only 13 out 58 left to do.

1. Dirty Thirty 12miler 6/1 (2:01 9th overall, 3rd age group)
2. Mount Evans Ascent 6/15 (2:12:15 18th overall, 4th age group)- HUGE PR for me at this race
3. Estes Trail Ascent 6/22 (44:41 for 3rd overall, 1st in age group)

So overall I it was a great month and I seem to be moving my fitness forward.  The ankle seems to be holding up just fine but still recovering.  I did do the Scartop Mountain 12K yesterday which was another big PR at that race for me.  That report will be coming later today or Monday. 

Next up-  Pacing one of the seven dwarfs "Sleepy" at Hardrock.  Nothing but good times.

Leadville weekend

After my long day of 14ers and stuffing my face I took off to Leadville to do some easier repeats of 14ers and just to be at altitude that was higher than Lake City at 9,000ft.  I drove straight to Mount Elbert trailhead where once again I slept in the back of the 4runner, I love this car!  Anyways in the morning I ran into both Fred Ecks (one of my pacers at Leadville and a 100 mile monster) and his wife Ann.  As I was chatting with them who pulls up looking for me, the man himself  Bob Sweeney and the plan forms.  I was going to run suffer up Elbert with Sweeney while Fred hiked with his wife and we would meetup on the way down.  It was another awesome day in the hills!  Here are the GPS tracks for this run. This gave me about 17,000 feet of climbing in 3 days, I was wasted after this run.

Photos:

The rest of the day was hanging out at "The Compound" (Bob's place) shooting guns and drinking beer!  Just like being back in Nebraska, love it.  Here are the views out of the front window of "The Compound", doesn't get much better than that, right in the middle of the Leadville 100 course.

Saturday morning after waking up from a late night of drinking, we bagged our plans of doing Elbert again and I just hung out in town watching friends and family kick ass at the Leadville Marathon.  I needed a day off, I was pretty wiped.

Photos of the Marathon:

Wyatt Hornsby

Tim Long

Brandon Fuller

Stacy Wilkins

Drove home Saturday night getting home about 11pm, what a weekend.  Now I am laying on the couch Sunday trying to make myself go out for a jog.  Motivation is low, I am tired but in a good way.

Only 2 more weeks until pacing at Hardrock 100!  Hopefully the last few days did me some good to get ready for that upcoming adventure.

Scartop 12K in 4 days, that will be a fun/hard race with about 1000ft of climbing if anyone else is looking for a quick race the morning of the 4th, I highly recommend and it is in Lucho's hood so maybe there will be a rare siting, who knows.  The link to the race's website is on the sidebar of my blog if your interested.

Wetterhorn/Uncompahgre Combo

After sleeping at the trailhead last night after doing Redcloud/Sunshine I got up early to knock out this route of Wetterhorn/Uncompahgre in one shot.  These 2 peaks are about 4 miles a part with a trail that connects them all above 12,000ft.  This route is not on 14ers.com and got the idea and all the details from Eric Lee, it did not disappoint!  I did the route backwards from how Eric did it though, I did Wetterhorn first then Uncompahgre last.  My thought on doing this was that I wanted to do the hard technical climb first while I was fresh and the weather was good.  This ended up being a wise choice.  On the way back across the high valley a storm moved in and I had to haul ass to get down below treeline before my luck with lightening ran out.  Nothing like a storm to make you from dragging ass to being able to knock out some fast miles.  At the end of the day the route ended up being about 18 miles with about 7,000 feet of vertical with about 17 miles of the route above 12,000ft.

Here is the GPS track for the day, it was a big day!  After finishing I drove back into Lake City to chug a beer or two and stuff my face.  Number 44 and 45 out of 58 14ers.  Only 13 left!

Next stop-- Leadville  that night!

Photos: