Back working in Denver through this whole year. This means being on call Thursday through Monday for the next six months. Very likely I won't be able to road race at all still for a long time. On the good side I get paid to do nothing but play in the mountains four days a week.
Today was the coldest mountain run I've ever done, up to Mt Bierstadt 14,060 feet from almost I70 since the Guanella Pass is closed for winter. Then ran across the Sawtooth and over an up Mt Evans, 14,130 feet. Early, with frozen crust snow blown clean meant I could run the first peak all the way with only Yaktrax on my running shoes. Above 12,000 feet the wind was howling about 45mph a constant sandblast of ice crystals. I passed probably 7 people making the winter ascent of Bierstadt, going very slow in snowshoes. Reaching the 14,000 ridgeline I had to start layering fast to keep warm. It was so cold that taking off a glove for 30 seconds to pull on a shell numbed my hands so bad I couldn't move them.
Trying to take stock of where I am physically is very tough. Overweight at 167 which makes sense being as slow as I run, but strong enough that I didn't feel the altitude at all on this traverse. The best thing for me to do right now woudl be to cut back on the climbing and mountain time and get some speedwork in, laying off Hostess for a while. Can it be done?
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