It's a Big Sky: Week(s) in Review: June 17-30

Monday, June 17^th

PM—6 Miles—1:12—1,500’—Colorado Trail near Monarch Pass to Boss Lake Reservoir

I picked up Jason Schlarb in Denver and we began making our way to Lake City. We stopped for a run on the CT along the way. He killed it. I fell behind on the ascent with some pretty fatigued legs from a big previous week. Probably the hardest I’ve pushed on a descent since rolling my ankle a few weeks ago.

Tuesday, June 18^th

PM—3 Miles—0:59—850’—Part of approach trail to Wetterhorn Peak

Started heading up towards Wetterhorn with Jason. My legs were still incredibly fatigued, which caused me to throw in the towel. I turned around about 1.5 miles up the trail and walked back to the camp site.

Wednesday, June 19^th

AM—8 Miles—2:47—4,300’—Wetterhorn Peak (14,015’)

Finally, I had a little life in my legs and was able to run a large portion of the route. It was ridiculously windy once I gained southeast ridge. Initially, I stuck to the west side of the ridge as I made my way towards the summit and got pummeled by the wind the entire way. I eventually found an easy way to shimmy around to the east side of the ridge and found relief in the wind protection it provided. Once I climbed through the notch near the summit I was confronted with the howling wind once more. The 100’ section of class 3 scrambling to the summit was pretty awesome since it was the first technical terrain I’ve encountered on a 14er so far. Once I descended back to the beginning of the southeast ridge I followed a primarily off-trail descent route back to the main trail.

Thursday, June 20^th

AM—13 Miles—4:16—4,750’—Uncompahgre Peak (14,309’)

I headed out from the Matterhorn Creek Trailhead after talking with a local about the conditions of the 4WD road to the Nellie Creek Trailhead. The approach to the base of the mountain was long and winding, which quickly bored the hell out of me. So I cut the trail and boulder hopped for a bit before finally rejoining the trail near the bottom of the south ridge. The rest of the ascent was a big struggle for me as I just didn’t have anything in the tank. After seeing about three people on the ascent I was surprised to see 7-10 people on the summit. Once I descended back to the crest of the south ridge I wanted to find the shortest, quickest way to get to the base of the mountain. I didn’t feel like screwing around with a meandering descent. So, I looked down the first gulley I saw and went for it. The route ended up being surprisingly easy. Once at the bottom I had quite a bit of boulder hopping and tundra/boggy terrain to get back to the main trail for the cruise back to camp.

Friday, June 21^st

PM—4 Miles—0:26—0’—Orrick Roads

Flat and boring.

Saturday, June 22^nd

AM—2 Miles—0:15—0’—Orrick Roads

Still flat and boring. Great place to be for a taper since the running is so uninspiring.

Sunday, June 23^rd

OFF

Miles—36

Time—9hours 57minutes

Elevation Gain—11,400 feet

Monday, June 24^th

AM—2 Miles—0:15—0’—Orrick Roads

Can’t handle too much more of this running.

Tuesday, June 25^th

OFF

Wednesday, June 26^th

OFF

Thursday, June 27^th

OFF

Friday, June 28^th

OFF

Saturday, June 29^th

All Day—100 Miles—31:33—16,200’—Black Hills 100 Miler

First 100 mile finish! Wow, 100 miles is really f*cking far…Write-up soon to come.

Sunday, June 30^th

Still running…

Miles—102

Time—31hours 49minutes

Elevation Gain—16,200 feet

Well, well, well. Look who finally did a true taper for a big run. Having gone into big runs without much of a taper for most of the past and going into thisone with hardly any running for two weeks I can say that I will likely never do this much of a taper ever again. My legs felt like absolute shit from the start of the Black Hills 100 and got progressively worse with each mile. I’m convinced it’s better to enter big runs a little tired rather than completely flat.