Powder Day

I can tell you exactly how many people summited Horsetooth Rock today.  The snow was still flying up there at 6pm.  It finally did let up as the full moon started to shine through before I was done with this trudge.  Someone had better start breaking some more trails over the next few days.

Winter Wonderland!  Here are some current trail conditions.

A Post

Seems this blog has been quiet lately.  At least that's what I've been told.  Less blogging more running?  Maybe.  What's really "blogworthy" anyway?  I don't know.  Return to a weekly training report?  No.  Post a bunch of random and unrelated observations, thoughts, and questions passing through my head at the moment that might be relevant to the trail running community?  Why not?

Can you claim an FKT if you're the only one that knows about it?

Quad Rock 50 got about a mile longer since last year but I expect all of the course records to go down anyway.

4500 feet of climbing in 1 hour is a hell of a workout.

Does anyone else do over 90% of their running by headlamp? 

Could I get a Petzl sponsorship?

Peach Cobbler Vi fuel is delicious!

I'm now on page 21 of Born to Run which I started 3 years ago.

How many times have I been asked if I've read Born to Run?

How many times have I been asked if I've run Leadville?

Will I ever read Born to Run or run Leadville?

I don't think I will run a single race this year. 

Hardrock is not a "race".

Is sleep deprivation good 100-mile training?

Can an ostrich really run a marathon in 46 minutes?

Now hit the "Publish" button before reading any of this mess you just wrote.

Oh, and don't forget the obligatory scenic Colorado trail running photo.

2012 The Numbers

Total Miles 2744
Total Vertical Miles 105 (553,945 feet)
Total Training Hours 654

2011: 2400 miles, 83 vertical
2010: 2281 miles, 65 vertical

By Month:
January 232 miles, 9.3 vertical miles, 50 training hours
February 191, 5.9, 46
March 199, 6.5, 42
April 198, 6.6, 43
May 207, 7.3, 46
June 220, 9.0, 58
July 162, 8.1, 44
August 297, 13.2, 69
September 311, 12.1, 74
October 191, 6.7, 50
November 247, 9.2, 61
December 288, 11.0, 72

The Breakdown:
Trail (185 runs), 2366 miles, 100.6 vertical miles, 535 hours
Road (15), 91 miles, 0 vertical (I don't even measure road vertical), 13 hours
Track (29), 197 miles, 0 vertical, 29 hours
Treadmill (15), 90 miles, 4.3 vertical, 15 hours
Cross-train (Weightlifting/Crossfit) (94), 61 hours
Rest Days (129)

Named Peaks Summitted:
Horsetooth Rock (7255ft), 52 times
Round (Sheep) Mountain (8450ft), 10
Arthurs Rock (6780 feet), 9
Longs Peak (14,255ft), 3
Crosier Mountain (9250ft), 3
Mount Meeker (13,911ft), 2
Pikes Peak (14,115ft), 1
Chiefs Head Peak (13,579ft), 1
Mount Lady Washington (13,281ft), 1
Stormy Peak (12,148ft), 1
East Stormy Peak (12,020ft), 1
Mount Orton (11,724ft), 1
Signal Mountain (11,262ft), 1
South Signal Mountain (11,248ft), 1
Peak 10572 (10,572ft), 1
Red Mountain (7361ft), 1

Hardrock 2013 Odds

I wasn't going to bother this year with the new lottery system, but Blake gave us the data so I couldn't resist.  Besides, it seemed to bring me luck last year when I only had a 23% chance of getting in.

The math is provided in last year's post here.  This year I will conservatively assume that only 5 get in the race off from the first-timers' and veterans' wait lists, and only 10 off the "everyone else" wait list.

First-timers:
1801 tickets, 619 applicants, 35 spots (plus 5 off wait list)

1 ticket = 2.3% chance of getting into Hardrock
2 tickets = 4.5%
4 tickets = 8.8%
8 tickets = 16.8%
16 tickets = 30.8%
32 tickets = 52.3%
64 tickets = 77.6%


Veterans (5-time finishers):
356 tickets, 44 applicants, 35 spots (plus 5)

5 tickets = 76.7% (fewest tickets held by a vet)
18 tickets = 99.7% (18-time finisher Kirk Apt should be in)


Everyone else (started a Hardrock, but less than 5 finishes):
638 tickets, 191 applicants, 70 spots (plus 10)

1 ticket = 15.0%
2 tickets = 27.7%
3 tickets = 38.6%
4 tickets = 47.8%
5 tickets = 55.7%
6 tickets = 62.4%

Good luck!

Chubby Cheeks 2012

Another great Chubby Cheeks Fat Ass event is in the books, hopefully with everyone back safe and sound before the weather turned ugly late Saturday afternoon.  A perfect day for running and, unlike last year's trudge, snow-free trails.  A huge turnout with Boulder, Denver, Estes Park, plenty of CRUD from the Springs area, and who knows where else along the Front Range and beyond showing up.  Of course, the FCTR represented strong as well.  It's hard to beat a long day on the trails with friends.

Huge thanks to Nick and family for hosting this every year.  Next installment of the Front Range Fat Ass series on January 19th down in Manitou Springs, where the Ponderous Posterier will take on a brand new course.  See you there!

44 miles and 9K of climbing on the day!

Some photos from the 3rd annual El Chubbo Grande:

7am start wave climbing with the rising sun.

Audra Culver Trail

Approaching the Horsetooth Rock summit.

Horsetooth Rock.  First summit of the day.

A nice spot to "chill" on Mill Creek Trail.

Climbing up the Howard Trail.

Arthur's Rock.  Summit #2.

Towers Road.  Always "fun" with 30 plus miles already on the legs.

Sunrise from Granite Pass

I took advantage of the lack of snow in the area to run one of my favorite loops over Granite Pass and Storm Pass in RMNP.  Yes the trails were easily passable in trail running shoes (no extra traction required), but the elements above timberline this morning were a reminder that it is late November.  I did make myself a temporary shelter between some boulders on Granite Pass so I could at least enjoy the sunrise.  A bit blustery up there above 12000 feet.  The weather was actually quite pleasant once I dropped back down below the trees on North Longs Peak Trail.  As expected, I didn't see too many people.

The 16-mile Loop (clockwise): East Longs Peak/North Longs Peak/Boulder Brook/Storm Pass, starting and finishing at the Longs Peak Ranger Station trailhead.

GPS data here

Some photos from the morning



Fern Lake fire still burning below.

Giving Thanks

Thanks for family, friends, good health, and open grocery stores on Thanksgiving morning so I could buy the pumpkin pie I promised Maddy but couldn't win at this year's Fort Collins Thanksgiving Day Run.

Sharing a four mile loop around the Old Town and City Park with thousands of others has become a Thanksgiving morning tradition here in Fort Collins.  Some years I even try to do it painfully fast, including this year.  Based on some recent track workouts and generally feeling pretty good about my current fitness, I made the bold prediction to my family that this year I was going to bring home a pie.  Uh oh, now I was committed to running this thing.

After some intense research of historical results, I determined that top 3 in my age group would require probably a low 24 minute effort.  To be safe, I would just try to break 24 minutes and the pie should be mine.  Even though I just did my first road run in over 5 months on Tuesday, and knowing that I would be the only one sporting trail running shoes up near the front of the pack, I still thought sub-24 was a realistic goal.

So with more nerves than I ever feel before the start of a 100-miler, I took off at what I thought was a 6-minute mile pace.  Actually the first mile felt pretty smooth and controlled and I hit the Mile 1 marker at 6:04.  Not bad.  I think mile 2 is the toughest mile of the course, slightly uphill and today into a pretty steady headwind.  So I upped the effort a little hoping to maintain pace and hit the Mile 2 marker with a 6:10 split.  Getting out of the wind as we would skirt through City Park and then hitting the nice gradual downhill of Mountain Avenue, I was still confident of running a negative split and breaking 24.  Expecting to see a sub 6 split at mile 3, I instead see 6:27!  Ugh!  At that point, my confidence just sunk.  I knew there would be no sub 24 and considering that there seemed to be hundreds of runners ahead of me, I had no ambition to really push the last mile.  I just ran on cruise control until hitting the turn onto College Avenue just before the finish.  As I hit the turn, there was Slush right on my shoulder.  Obviously, the race was back on at that point (and we were in the same age group, so who knows if a pie was still in play).  My trail-running mate was no match for my finishing kick (or he just spent too much energy chasing me down).  It turned out that we were just battling for 4th place anyway.

The last pie in our age group finished in 24:16.  I don't think I could have made up that time (almost 30 seconds) even if I hadn't coasted most of the last mile.  Always a fun morning, seeing many friends, and a great way to start another Fort Collins Thanksgiving.

Official chip time: 24:43 (87th overall out of 1942 timed finishers, 4th place in 40-44 Male)
Unofficial mile splits: 6:04, 6:10, 6:27(long?), 6:05(short?)

The general consensus at the finish line was that Mile 3 was long, so I probably should have worn my GPS watch or just ignored my watch altogether during the race.  This was still my fastest race here in 18 years, so I can't complain.

Full results here