Way Behind - Time To Catch Up
It's been a busy month trying to finish up projects, get training in, climb, and arrange everything for my next social experiment. March turned out all right, despite one week of semi-taper for a race (8th overall), some crappy weather, and dealing with the nightmare commute which requires me getting up at 4am three days a week. In total I did 237.9 miles and 50,748' of gain - a little shy of where I would like to be, but given everything I'm happy. April is looking to be a better month so far, and my last with the commute which hopefully will either free up some time or at least allow me to sleep more to recover better.
For April so far, I'm at 219.3 miles and 25,637' gain. That includes a couple rest and taper days and dealing with the last week of crappy weather. I'm feeling good, and should be able to bump up the vert to around 50,000 over the next 9 days. So, things are going well. My foot acted up pretty bad during the 24 Hours of Lake Palmer event, forcing me to start walking way too early and then eventually to pull the plug after 12 hours and ~62 miles. It was certainly a bummer, as I was mentally and physically feeling good, but I was unwilling to push into an injury for a "fun" run. After a week of taking it easy, the foot seems to be OK. It really only acts up on roads when my gait is a certain way and I do much more mid-foot striking. On trails, I notice it but it doesn't seem to be bothered. Must be a sign of some kind!
As for climbing, things have been going well, although I have not had the time I would like to get outside much. Lots of campus board, finger board, and gym bouldering. I'm thinking with the move back to B-town and my social experiment, I'll get more time to get outside. I've already got two areas in the Flatirons that I need to check out, some are only partially developed and need more work. One is a M. Battaglia area that I looked at a long time ago but really want to go back to and develop this one house-sized boulder. Of course, summer is right around the corner, and that means all the fun will be up high, so they might have to wait until fall when temps will be better for pulling on small edges.
Couple articles that I wrote: Five Trails for Hill Running and Mountain Training around Boulder.
I had the honor to interview Alan Culpepper a week or so ago. Amazing guy, humble, insanely fast and talented. Here is the article.
I'll be hosting a trail running clinic on May 7th as part of the promo around my new book. Come and check it out, should be a good time, and it's free!