June 13th, 2008
More good times, more good training. Summer is finally here! Yippee!
Government Peak
The Government Peak Hill climb is the first local hill climb of the year last Saturday. It runs slightly up hill for a little less than a mile, then covers 3700′ of unforgiving vert over a total of about 4 miles. In other words, it’s friggin brutal with friggin lazer beams. Going into the race I had no idea how my relatively strong cardio vascular fitness was going to carry me in this race. I knew I was OK for skinning quite fast, but was curious how everything would balance out. As it turns out cardio will carry you well up higher in the climb, but to get into the zone without first having to recover from a lactate meltdown you are going to need some specific hill work. Sam Hill was the obvious winner from step 1, and I led the pack for the beginning with Trond Flagstad knowing that if I had any chance to make up some time on everyone it was going to be in the flatter part. Sure enough, about 2 or 3 minutes into the climb my legs felt heavy and nearly started squirting non-pasteurized death milk. It was so bad that I was convinced that I was going to have to stop and rest at some point in the race, and I just mellowed out for a while and recovered. Luckily they came back around and I managed ninth. Looking back it was pretty darned good for my second hill climb and without any specific training. Thank goodness for hindsight!!! (that’s three !’s)
Anyway, the race is pretty sweet. The Strabels put it on and there’s some fun tailgating while Ed’s over there yelling “More burgers, dogs are already done!” the whole time. If you are in the area, come along next year!
On a somewhat unrelated note, I had a good talk with Trond Flagstad after the race about training for skiing, running, and hiking as it relates to intervals. To try to get a feel for how I was feeling with technique and power for skiing, I decided to go out and do some 45-90 second skate intervals with my usual preschool-like focus on being smooth instead of fast. Man was I surprised! I’ve never skied hard like I skied during that session! my core was solid and my balance was right on, and I kept my tempo and strength through to the 9th 90 second interval, with my legs juuuuust starting to get heavy in the last five seconds or so of the last few. I guess if you spend all your time rollerskiing you are going to be better at that than hill climbing. Ain’t that a relief…
Oceans Fest / Roll For The Waves
Later that day was the Roll For the Waves rollerski race. Rollerski races are largely fielded by juniors in the Anchorage area unless you get lucky and the *entire* APU team comes or something. The cool thing about the event was that it runs around the park strip while the Oceans Fest is going on, which means you get live music, a beer garden, and you get to get all pumped from the music and beer and then yell technique at the juniors from the beer garden. Oh, and Jan Buron and Ben Arians were in there too - sorry I didn’t get a chance to comment on your torso twist, Ben!
I’ve got to add that there were something like 6 or 7 different races happening in Anchorage last weekend, three of which occurred on that very same block that the roller ski race was on. There was a 12K run, the Gov’t Peak hill climb, the Roller ski race, and the Arctic valley hill climb to name a few. What a pleasant surprise to see Anchorage continuing to grow it’s competitive side!
Getting High in the Chugach
Yesterday was an awesome day for training. I hooked up with friend Patrick Conway and headed for Bear Valley to get some good hiking and OD running in. Thursdays are one of my hard days, and considering I’m tossing in The Crow Pass Crossing as a summer training goal, I was ready to run pretty much anywhere. The other Patrick had to turn at about an hour, but I managed to get All the way to McHugh Peak and down the ridge a ways, then cover a couple of miles on Rabbit Creek road to stretch the legs a little before heading back to the car. All in all it was three hours, and after blasting warm Coke all over the driver’s side of my car, it was pretty much a no-brainer to jump in the creek. man. man o man. That felt really really good. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it till I’ve got zero blood circulation left, jumping in an ice cold creek after a workout is by FAR the best sensation I’ve ever experienced. E-V-E-R.
That run in the front range ended up being a pretty special one. It was like a time in the mountains can only be up north when it’s early summer and everything is really green, and you’ve still got that high but mellow northern evening sun coming down, and you’re in good enough shape to look back and be impressed with the ground you covered. I was standing all alone up there at McHugh looking at Peaks 1-4, Ptarmigan, the Suicides, The Kenais, and the rest of the Chugach, it was around 55F at 4000′, and there was no bloody wind. Beat that.
Almost everyone I know spends Sunday recreating outside, but I’ll be da*ned if spirituality isn’t as much as part of our lives as anyone else’s…
Happy trails!
