Hours on Mount Elbert

With the upcoming trip to Bolivia and shooting for 20,000ft I figured it was a good idea to go spend a bunch of time up high the weekend before leaving.  Now physically it most likely did not make a difference but I think mentally it will.  Called up Bob and he let me have access to the compound.  Decided to hit up Mount Elbert and just chill on the summit as long as I could, hell I even downloaded a Netflix movie on my phone to watch up there.  After about an hour nap on the summit Kari came cruising up.  She is training for Hardrock and was doing mile repeats on the top mile of the mountain, what a great idea instead of napping.  Joining her we would head down a mile then turn around and go back up repeating this for a total of 4 summit touches.  Of course people out hike thought we were nuts.  Ended up spending over 7 hours playing around on Elbert.  What a great day in the mountains!

Look at this jack hole!!!!

 

Lost Rat Couloir

So with the upcoming trip that we have planned and the fact that we both got a bunch of new gear for the trip that we have not used yet, Bob and I decided to hit up Lost Rat Couloir on Gray's Peak.  This was Bob's first "real" snow climb of this nature and it has been years since I have done this.  Damn this was fun!  Funny how I forgot over the years how much I enjoy this type of mountaineering.  After topping out on the couloir at 13,600ft we of course headed to the summit of Gray's Peak and over to tag Torry's as well.  Great day in the mountains!  Looking forward to some more couloir climbs in the near future.

Bolder Boulder and Murph.. That was Dumb....

So in the past years I usually run the Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day, sometimes I race it and other years I run with friends.  In 2015 when I was training for Leadman I thought it would be a good idea to run it hard in the A wave then jump straight into my car, drive over to the gym and do the workout Murph with the guys.  It destroyed me that year but had a solid time doing both in under 40 minutes. 

If you don't know what the Murph workout is, it is:
1 mile run
100 pullups
200 pushups
300 air squats
1 mile run

Yep it is a killer especially after doing a 10k hard.  Well this year I decided to up the challenge for myself a little bit more and wear a 20lb weight vest for both the Bolder Boulder and Murph.  Man that was a killer, my quads and arms were sore for a week.  I was able to finish both the 10k and Murph around 45mins each which is not bad considering the weight vest.  Of course the people at my gym think I'm nuts for running the 10k before hand, yes I have a small ego and wanted to know if I could do this. 

Miwok 100k

To make sure that I can keep my qualifier for Western States in 2018 I put in for the Miwok 100k lottery last year not expecting to get in, much to my surprise I did get in.  No real plans to race this hard since it was so close to my blow up at Boston and since I finished Hurt 100 January there was no pressure to finish for a qualifier.  With that said I just went to San Fran and ran this for pure enjoyment and man was it an awesome race.  I would highly recommend Miwok to anyone.  The trails are awesome, the town is great, and the race organization is even better.  Just cruised at an easy pace all day finishing the 62.2 miles with 12,000ft of vertical in 12:16.  What an awesome day!  I think if I focused on this race that a 10 hour race is within reach.  Even though there is 12,000ft of climbing you can run every step if you are in good enough shape which is unusual.  This was also my first 100k (62 mile) race and I enjoyed the distance a lot.  I will be looking for more 100k's in the future.  Now for the good stuff, trail and travel porn..... Enjoy......

Fruita Mountain Bike Camp

The next weekend after returning from the Boston Marathon I had mountain bike camp out in Fruita with the S:6 MTB team that I am on this year.  I know weird that I am on a team and not even racing my bike this year.  I was planning on bike racing a lot until I started getting into Hurt, Boston, and Miwok and did not make it into the Leadville 100 bike, I really want to do Leadville again and get the big buckle, someday.  Oh well it will come around this fall when Cyclocross season starts back up.

Great time with great people.  Spent 3 days and 2 nights in Fruita, even got to use the new setup in the back of the truck to sleep and it worked out well.  We road on Friday and Saturday for a total of around 60 miles then did a sweet 12 mile trail run on Sunday before driving home.  Awesome time!  I have never spent anytime in Fruita, always just drove right through on my way to Moab.  I will be stopping here in the future now and again.  Much recommended.