Weekly Run Log - Feb. 20-26, 2011

02/20/2011: Ran Harriskat, Cadot, Old Dublin Rd, Kings Hwy again with some reconing to the West of the Cadot Trail on a snowshoe trail someone had left behind. Still not sure about the exact location of the Cadot Trail. Beautiful weather again; sunny, 20 or so degrees and a light breeze. 1:17, 6.0 miles, 1,100' vert (conservative estimates)

02/22/2011:  Ran up Skatutakee by the Harriskat Trail. The snow has packed down nicely with snowshoes and some melt-freeze cycles. I felt it is the closest that New England gets to creamy, windy singletrack. 0:39, 3.0 miles, 650' vert.

Weekly Summary: 9.0 miles, 1750' vert.

I am feeling the need to start training. Especially with the realization that I would like to be attempting the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim in a month and a half. I know I have kept a good base so now I need to start putting in the time to build up to some mileage again with a small taper before the big run. I think it will be tight but I do have the time off coming up (this is my last week at Mt. Sunapee and I am shooting to leave the Northeast on March 14th).

Weekly Run Log - Feb. 13-19, 2011

02/15/2011: Skatutakee by Harriskat, Cadot, Old Dublin Road, Kings Highway. Windy and temps in the teens. Cadot trail was not packed well by whoever snowshoed it. Felt like I was following Bigfoot because I needed to hop from footprint to footprint. Who snowshoes like that? The South side of Skatutakee is open (worth checking out on skis!) and much sunnier today. Between yesterday and today the sun has my vitamin d production up. 0:56, 4.8 miles, 1,000' vert.

02/19/2011: Ran my second race in the Winter Wild series. This time we ran up Pats Peak where I learned to alpine ski in middle school. It has been a long while. We ran up Puff to the peak of the Valley Chair and then cut up onto Twister (a black diamond trail) to the summer. We ran down Zepher And breeze to the bottom. It was fun and fast. I was passed by one runner on the descent but got my place back on the short climb back to the finish. I don't think I placed in my age group but I am waiting for the results to see if they even counted me properly. 0:19:11, 2.25 miles, 700' vert.

Weekly Summary: 7.05 miles, 1,700' vert.

Well not my longest week. Both times I ran I had it in my head that the runs were longer in distance, but when I went to the maps and double checked I was slightly disappointed. My running times, though, are more accurately in tune with the real distances and not the "distances in my head."

Regardless, I am happy with this week's running. The results are in and I placed well in the third race of the four race series Winter Wild: 16th overall out 121 racers, 4th in the 19-29 age group in the "Open" class. The races are composed of four classes (Open, Track Skis, Telemark Skis, Heavy Metal) that use the same course that is one lap up the ski area and back down. The uphill is generally done on a steep trail and the descent is generally done on lower angle trail. I am very happy that I was able to compete this week as it is the start of Massachusetts vacation week and working at a ski area needs almost all hands on deck.

It has been a long week mentally, emotionally but not so much physically. It was actually a good week soak up some of the sun's rays. It is the mark that Spring is coming. I am looking forward to much more running and starting to plan my trip back west. Financially, I am in pretty good shape but I do not yet have a cap on my truck. I will need one before I leave so we shall see what happens with that.

Cheers!

A Decision

This week I made the decision to run the Bear 100 mile endurance run for my 100 mile race of the 2011 summer. I am pretty excited for it now that I have something to train for. I will be even more excited when I can stop working every day and actually start running.

On a related note the Pat's Peak uphill/downhill race is Saturday morning at 7 am. I am probably going to be asked to work and I think I will be showing up to work late on that particular day if I am asked to work before 8 am. I have not asked for any days off this year so if I am not granted the liberty of running one race and showing up for 8 (or 9) I will be mysteriously "sick" for several hours. It's a ski area and not a hospital. No one is going to die.

Happy trails!

Snowmaking Pictures

Here are some pictures from Snowmaking this week. I am still working on getting the color correction right but here they are:

Weekly Run Log - Feb. 06-12, 2011

02/09/2011: Skatutakee by the Harriskat Trail, out and back. Brisk temps (in the single digits) led to some beautiful views at the top. Was hoping to do the full loop but I was at the mercy of whoever broke trail last weekend and they only climbed Skatutakee. Some trouble with the Microspikes made me unhappy. I'll keep an eye on it. If the rubber is stretching they will be found in the garbage soon. 0:50, 3.0 miles, 650' vert.

02/11/2011: Crotched Mountain Town Forest, Bullard Hill out-and-back by the Link and Snowmobile Trail (Bullard Hill Trail). Packed down fairly well - especially on the snowmobile trail. Good running in my Microspikes. I am starting to think that it is deeper powder and denser snow - like wind slab or a slightly packed trail - that causes the toe of the Microspikes to slide off to the outside of my foot. 0:52, 4.5 miles, 400' vert.

Weekly Summary: 7.5 miles, 1,050' vert.

Better mileage this week. Didn't have many days off and we made snow during two of the nights. The schedule was less than ideal. Looking forward to time off this spring and a proper training schedule. Still though, it was nice to get out this week as much as I did!

Getting close to time that I started training for this year's 100. I have had a good base all winter long so I should be starting in better condition than last year. To train for Leadville, I started training March 25th with some really low mileage weeks that slowly increased in length. This year I will be starting earlier with more mileage. Should be pretty good this spring.

 

The Next 100?

The weekend of February 5th is over and I found out that I lost both the Wasatch 100's and Hardrock's lotteries. I am okay with this because I now have proper time to recon the Hardrock course route and perhaps even volunteer at an aid station. I would have been hard to fit reconning the route into a proper build-up and taper training program because the race is so early. With the race being July 8th if one were to factor in a three week taper it would be mid-June at the latest that I could recon the route and the San Juans are still under a fair amount of snow at that point. I would have to recon the route on skis and hope that it is not a bad dust year. But now I do not have to worry about it! I have another full summer to check it out!

So that leaves me with the question of what race to enter now. I have narrowed it down to two open races but I continue to look around daily. The two choices I see are Cascade Crest 100 and The Bear 100. Of course I would like to do a 50 miler or two. I plan on running the Collegiate Peaks 50 in Buena Vista in May. I am also planning on running the Grand Canyon from Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim by the Bright Angel Trail (a total of about 48 miles with 11,000' vert or so). I have been running this winter to keep maintenance miles so my training will be able to take off soon after seriously starting (I am planning on late Feb to early March). So, I am planning on it being a busy summer runningwise. Here are the factors I am taking into account in my decision of the 100 of the summer (this is a little "thinking aloud"):

Cascade Crest 100, August 27-28, 2011, Easton, Washington - I have an article in the book A Step Beyond: A Definitive Guide to Ultrarunning that ranks (very subjectively) the leading 100s by difficulty. It places Cascade Crest on the same plane as Leadville at a 7.0 out of 10.0 on the difficulty scale. In addition an article in Trail Running Magazine in the October 2010 edition has Cascade Crest as the classic 100 of the future. Both articles have me raising one eyebrow. Both articles say that it is scenic and that the 2.6 mile long Snoqualamie Tunnel is something to be experienced. Sadly, this year is the first year that they are closing the tunnel so the draw for me is not so great anymore.
I have never run in the Pacific Northwest but I am looking forward to doing so. This race would be a great introduction to a part of the world I would like to run more but I am afraid that being so far from Leadville and being so close to the Leadville Trail 100 it would be difficult to make it there with time to acclimate and see the sights and enjoy the days leading up to the race. I would prefer to recon it on my own time some year and then run it the following year. However it would provide me as an immediate escape from the traditional post-Leadville 100 depression that affects me each year. Once Leadville was done I would beat feet for Washington, have two or three days to run a little and experience the weather and recon aid station locations.. Maybe it would be worth not having the time to recon it like I had with Leadville (knew every inch of trail)

The Bear 100, September 23-24, 2011, Logan, UT - The Bear is a Point-to-Point race just north of Salt Lake City. It is about a 9 hour drive thus it would be less of a financial commitment and higher likelihood of being able to recon it before the race and having Brenden as a crew for me. The article in A Step Beyond rates it as an 8.0 out of 10.0.  The pictures I have seen from past races and topographic maps show that much of it is above treeline so the esthetic value will be high. The race will be held later in the season, which is a good thing and a bad thing wrapped in one. While it would give me more time to train it would also mean more time to wait after Leadville before running.

There are a lot of points to consider for each race. I continually lean in toward one to change my mind and want to run the other. I am just not sure which I want to commit to at this point. At least I know that I am young and have a lot of time to run many races in my life. Which ever race I do not choose I can run next year...

Weekly Run Log - Jan. 30-Feb. 05, 2011

Winter Wild at Ragged Mountain

02/05/2011: Winter Wild race at Ragged Mountain. We ran/skied up Flying Yankee and down Cardigan ski strails. I ran in the open class but the other classes were track skis, telemark skis, and heavy metal (snowboard, AT). Ran 3rd place in the 30 to 39 age group despite being 29 still. I think I would have placed better if I were in the 19-29 age group. My dad was there and thought that I placed between 15 and 20th overall out of 80 racers maybe over all classes. 0:24:56, 3.0 miles, 1,000' vert.

Weekly Run Summary: 3.0 miles, 1,000'

The results have been posted for the race. I came in 19th place out of 114 people over the four classes. I look better as third in the 30-39 age group with more than 10 entrants than I would as second in the 19-29 age group with three entrants. So I am going to leave it as it is. Now I am looking forward to Pat's Peak (if I don't have to work) and Sunapee (signed up for it today).


I was pretty impressed with this whole event. The timing was good and the atmosphere was awesome. There were a bunch of people there with the right attitude (there to have fun) and it only cost 20 bucks!

Winter Wild

Video Clip of Winter Wild on New Hampshire Chronicle