The sun is up, the air is fresh, the stone is old

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?

I snowshoed up to Scout Peak of the Wellsvilles.  Long slog in wet or crusty snow.

It's my new years resolution to pick up my FRB posts again and start getting back into some road running. 

A Trifecta.  Drove to Moab yesterday with Walter, picked up some Trek 29ers from Poison Spider Bikes and did three hours on the new "black diamond" HyMasa Trail.  Pretty technical trail and Walter soon proved like most things he tries, that he picks up biking fast.  Pretty hard to keep up with him after two hours actually.  He took a pretty severe crash though on the descent into Kane's and I ended up taping both of his wrists up so we could hit the next part of the day; kayaking.

Kayaked down the Colorado from Potash Rd, Corona Arch trailhead in bright sunshine and 60 degrees.  No way this is January.  After an hour of hard paddling I was ready for the next switch and wanted to pull the kayaks out and run back.  Walter wanted to paddle back though so we spent the next hour and a half paddling against the current back up.  Holy $%#@.  Dropped the kayaks by the Jeep and hit the Corona/Bowtie Arch trail running.  Pretty cool trail, probably about four miles.

Completely wiped out about 6pm and crashed at the hotel.  About nine hours as hard as we could go.

Easy recovery run with the kids on bikes.  My teenage daughter now thinks biking while dad runs is lame.

Very boring run from my house towards Hollow Road Nibley.  I have to get in some road running though or I'll run this whole year like one of those ultra trail runners, unable to shift into any gear faster than 8 minute pace but still considering myself a step above mere runners.

Crawled out of bed early to run up Blacksmith Fork and through Left Hand Fork with Mandi.  I was on call for work so this one was kind of dicey but I was pretty sure I wouldn't have a trip until afternoon.  I knew this run would be a tough one for me, hard week.  Plus Mandi is one of the strongest uphill runners I've ever ran with, male or female.  Last year she entered the Buffalo 50 the day before and was the first female.  I begged some mercy and I survived.