Training Log Archive: Bash

'Bent and I loved the climbing yesterday, and we were aiming for a shorter day today so I picked a route that gained altitude *really* quickly. We went up Giant Mountain via the Ridge Route, then descended by the Roaring Brook trail, then headed up to the Nubble and down to join the last section of the Ridge Route leading to our car.

The weather forecast was undecided, even by mountain standards. As we approached our starting point, the skies opened, and we took refuge in The Mountaineer - an excellent outdoor gear shop. What tough luck! :) We ended up staying dry in there for awhile before we finally ventured out to drive to the trailhead. We had to buy a few things, of course. It was the polite thing to do.

The first part of the trail up Giant Mountain was rocky.





Oops, wrong turn. It says a lot that we believed this actually *could* have been our trail!



Compared to yesterday, more parts of the trail were runnable - but when you're climbing 1000 m in less than 5 km, it's hard to keep running!

We came out at a lookout where we met a Canadian couple who offered to take our picture.



Then we continued to a cool little lake before the climb resumed in earnest.





The best part about Giant Mountain was that we had incredible views well before the summit because the trail spent awhile meandering along open rocky ridges.











In spite of the sunshine, clouds still swirled by, and we could see rain hitting areas nearby.



It wouldn't be a great spot to be stuck in a thunderstorm but it was hard not to keep going up on such a brilliant day. Our luck finally ran out close to the summit. We put on our jackets and huddled in some cedars as torrential rain blew in - only for 5 minutes, and that was the end of it.

There was no choice about this, of course.



The last 15 minutes to the summit included some sketchy rock faces - particularly sketchy after the rainstorm created rivers on them.

Like all the Adirondack summits we visited, there was a party happening on Giant Mountain that included a friendly dog.





We went down Roaring Brook trail with Briana, a camp counsellor who was genuinely excited to learn about the existence of ultraruns and wilderness adventure races. I have her e-mail ID and have promised to send more info.



When we'd almost reached Hwy 73, we turned back into the woods and climbed the Nubble. It doesn't look like a popular route compared to Giant, although the views were splendid.



We could see the small lake we'd crossed over near the start of the hike.



In the last 10 minutes, we were passed by another party for the first time in two days! Naturally, we had to chat these guys up to see what the story was. Turns out they were a couple of 20-something guys working on a peak bagging project. They've visited 17 of the 46 High Peaks since December.



This was a spectacular route with lots of climbing and occasional running. Fun!

With UTMB just 4 weeks away, 'Bent and I headed to the Adirondacks for a mountain training weekend, as recommended by several friends. We loaded all our UTMB mandatory gear into our packs (it takes up a lot of space!) and brought clothing and shoes that may make the final cut.

Spaff had suggested a loop that he and Sneaker had enjoyed: Adirondack Loj, Marcy Dam, Feldspar Shelter, Mt. Skylight, Mt. Marcy, Adirondack Loj. We planned this for our first day and were happy to be joined by Ang (training for the TransAlpine Run) and Matt.



We were at Marcy Dam in that photo, just before we went orienteering inadvertently. Dee had been kind enough to photograph this section of her map since we wouldn't be able to buy a map until we arrived. I decided to take that printout rather than carrying the full map. Oops, turns out there have been some changes - maybe the result of Hurricane Irene, which wreaked havoc in this area. My map showed a trail around Marcy Lake that no longer exists but there are some old paths that fooled us for awhile, as the GPS track shows.

We spotted a sign and thought we'd found the trail but it was something else entirely. There was bear bait under this sign.



We finally bushwhacked across to the trail we needed after wasting half an hour exploring faint trails and scratching our heads. My compass stayed out for the rest of the day but I never needed it again, even though the trails aren't always well marked.

The scenery was terrific!







A lot of the trails here are not very runnable at the best of times, and conditions were extra wet and muddy today so it may not be accurate to call this a trail run - but we ran when we could, and I'm sure UTMB will involve a lot of speed hiking too so it was great training. This kind of terrain is much easier on my body than continuous running on rolling terrain. I guess it's because so many different muscles and movements are involved.

Even so, it's sad to see the min/km on this outing. But here's why...













Ang and 'Bent must have phoned each other to plan to wear their Hokas and matching shirts today.



We saw the sign for the turn-off for Mt. Skylight but it was confusing because we accidentally started going up a rocky creek instead of a trail. We backtracked to the saddle to see where the sign was really pointing. Oh... that creek *was* our trail. No wonder there weren't any switchbacks!



Sometimes we were lucky, and the rock jumble was replaced by big rock slabs - easier to climb up, as long as they weren't too slippery.







We'd been in the forest all day so it was great to get above the treeline on Mt. Skylight and see the views. We'd been warned repeatedly by descending hikers to be very careful of the wind and to put on all our layers. It was cold but I didn't end up putting anything on. Maybe they were from Florida.









We returned to the saddle, and this time we weren't fazed when we saw that the trail to Mt. Marcy seemed to be a creek - for the first while.



There's the peak of Mt. Marcy with hikers ascending steep, narrow trail through stunted conifers.



We loved the section of Mt. Marcy above treeline. In hindsight (i.e. now that I'm at our hotel, all warm and well-fed, and there is no chance of this happening), it would have been great to do a few repeats of just this part since it was excellent training for the Alps.





Can you find Ang and 'Bent?



I assumed the peak in that photo was a false summit since the peaks you can see from a long way below are *always* false summits. So it was pretty exciting to scramble up there and unexpectedly find myself on top of Mt. Marcy, the highest point in New York state! It was really windy.



There were staff members there to make sure the tourist riff raff behaved and didn't trample the alpine arctic vegetation. This is a very popular hike, although most people come up by a more gradual route.









The trip down had some steep rocky sections a few meters high. It was wet enough to make it a little challenging at times. At one point, Ang demonstrated how to fall down a cliff onto rocks below. :( Other than a painful thigh bruise, she was OK.



Eventually, we got to trail that we could run again - at least part of the time. It felt good! Best of all, I didn't turn my ankle, which was taped but not braced. If it can handle today, it should be able to handle anything if I can stay alert. Given that I'm targeting a 43-44 hr finishing time at UTMB, being alert is *not* a given.

Great day on the trails with excellent company! Ang, Matt, 'Bent and I went to Lisa G's for a huge meal afterward. That's why we run. :)

(Time/distance/elevation adjusted using Ang's GPS track of the route since I accidentally turned mine off for half an hour. Includes lots of stops!
http://ar.attackpoint.org/sessiondata.jsp?sessioni... )

How did it take us so long to get to Lake Placid? Beautiful area! Sure, we found the worst restaurant in town for our first meal but otherwise I'm impressed. Can't wait to try some of the hotel's watercraft fleet.

Thanks to a texting mishap, we didn't know that Ang and Matt had decided to come to town to hit the trails with us. Nice surprise - this will be fun! (Unless I turn my stoopid ankle again.) (I really, really hope that is not foreshadowing.) Epic day planned tomorrow in imperfect weather.

Why "N + 1" is necessary. ;)
http://www.cyclingcartoons.com/more-than-one-bicyc...

At the end of Stage 5 of the last-ever TransRockies Challenge mountain bike race, Team Nike veterans Mike Kloser and Michael Tobin have dropped to 2nd place overall in the team competition by just 4 minutes with two days to go. However, they are still crushing their age category (100+ combined age). Cool!
http://www.transrockies.com/trc/media/race-results

Memories... A few years ago, a writer was looking for "Lab on canoe trip" photos so I gave her some of mine. I think she's used them in articles for three different publications since then, and the latest is below. I love seeing photos of a young BulletDog (Mocha), and my heart still aches when I see ThunderDog (Tobler), who left us two years ago this month. It gets easier over time - but not as much as I'd thought it might.
http://riversportsmag.com/2013/01/22/doing-the-dog...

Before AR, I used to meet friends after work for coffee or a glass of wine. These days, I head out on my mountain bike in pouring rain to meet a friend, splash through puddles while chatting, and return home soaked to the skin with hair full of grit and clothes too dirty to go directly in the laundry. Love it.

I started from home and met FB on the rail trail at Horseshoe Hill Rd. as he commuted home from work. We rode back to Duffy's Lane where I turned off, and he continued on to Palgrave. Fun ride and great to catch up! :) I should have taken a photo. We were ridiculously dirty!

On my way to meet FB, I saw some kind of mustelid cross the trail. (Word of the Week for Simpy - more obscure than "chuffed".) It may have been a river otter, although I don't think of them as runners - or maybe a long-tailed weasel.

(Bike computer distance.)

Getting ready for a dress rehearsal for UTMB this weekend. Over 3 days of running/hiking, 'Bent and I hope to test gear and clothing, and we'll carry our UTMB mandatory gear in the packs we plan to use. This week I'm making a few modifications to create extra pockets in my 12L Salomon Skin pack. According to UTMB rules, it would be illegal to modify any of my mandatory clothing but luckily, I don't want to.

Hoping my ankle holds up this weekend since that is a definite risk. I can't wear the ankle brace since I'll end up with blisters over that distance. I let Dr. Thumbs-of-Death do his worst to my bad foot this morning, which doesn't fix the ankle but is designed to get the moving parts moving again. OW, I didn't scream but I sure wanted to. We always say that if it isn't excruciating, the treatment probably won't work!

Welcome to Felix Simon Piller, aka mini-Bender #2. He was born yesterday at 3:43 a.m. just 18 minutes after Chris and Elena arrived at the hospital. He's 8 lb 8 oz and doing well. Big brother Matteus is excited to have a new playmate.

'Bent and I got a little taste of parenthood ourselves last night when we had to get up a few times with a sick BulletDog. It started off in spectacular fashion when the poor pooch apparently came looking for me when she didn't feel well and threw up her entire dinner on my side of the bed. 'Bent had gone to bed early and somehow managed to sleep through that. I made the discovery just as I was about to flop into bed; luckily, I decided at the last minute to turn on a light because it could have been *much* worse.

So major drama ensued (including some late night laundry) and it kept on going through the night; as a result, 'Bent and I weren't too energetic today. Poor BulletDog had a rough day too so I stayed with her until 'Bent got home and just did a short run around Palgrave West. To keep it interesting, I ran a bunch of the local hills so I could check their elevation profiles with my Ambit. I felt good except for the moment when I cleverly attempted to kick a branch off the trail as part of a running stride and came down off-angle on my good ankle. Duh. I've got enough things to worry about pre-UTMB without having to worry about my own silliness! Luckily, that ankle still seems resilient. Also, BulletDog seems much better now - yay.