childhood revisited

Less than 2 weeks out from Vineman 140.6...but who's counting?

I'm feeling really, really good this past week. Tuesday I had a brick - 1hr spin, 1/2 hr run - and it was easily the best run I'd had in memory. Only 1/2 hour, but my heartrate stayed low and my pace stayed high. I really enjoyed that. Could it be the Taper? Possibly...

Wednesday I had a 2hr ride, in which I sustained an all-time high pace for a good piece of the ride. I kept wheels I'd never kept. I made power that I'd never made before. Dave said "you couldn't do that last summer."

I said yeah, there seems to be a lot of that going around.

Since the Outlaw Inlaws are in town, we thought we'd take them out of town for the weekend, escape the heat, show them the sights, etc. So we headed north to Colorado, one of my favourite places in the world. Normally when we go to Colorado we like to stay in Durango, but this time we stayed out of town in Cascade Village, a condo resort. I remember Cascade from when I was a kidlet, it's just about a mile north of the ski area I frequented when I was a kid, about halfway between Durango and Silverton. I never spent much time there, since it was past the ski area. After the ski area who cares, right?

My coach had thrown me 2 two-hour runs for my vacation weekend - it's logisitically far easier to squeeze in a chunk of run time than anything else. I did some prep work to look for places to run in the area for 2 hours. Would I run in town? I knew from doing the Narrow Gauge run that there's a really nice flat trail along the river through town that was probably good for a long run. Looked like about 6 miles, that would work. I also called the resort - were there trails nearby? They scratched their heads, couldn't think of anything, maybe there were some hiking trails nearby. I guess they don't get a lot of runners staying there. Could I find a treadmill if I needed to? Sure, 2 hours is a long time, but if I had to I would. The rec center has treadmills. That would be my fallback.

I had some vague ideas about what I'd do, but it wasn't until we were almost there that it hit me:

Cascade is also at the base of the best part of the climb at the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic.

Oh yeah. That road. The one that goes 6 miles up into the sky to Coal Bank pass. That road - the one that I rode so slowly in the Iron Horse that I probably would have run it faster. That road - the one that on a bike, I thought would never end. Six miles of windy road with an 1800 ft gain to 10,600-something. That road.

Perfect!

I (easily) talked my spouse into coming with me, and we left just before 8. It was brisk - but warmed up pretty fast. I took my brand new 2 gram pearl izumi shorts (they're pink!) and plenty to drink - and headed up.

I was surprised to find that they have, indeed, resurfaced the Million Dollar Highway. Still not much of a shoulder, but the grade and the turny-ness of the road is enough that all cars are forced to slow down considerably on the road. The traffic was mostly well-behaved. I waved at everyone - I think the cars were pretty surprised to see someone running the road.

I was shocked at how good I felt. The last time I ran at altitude I thought I was gonna die - by contrast, Saturday's run felt taxing, but not bad. I metered my effort to get me up to the top of Coal Bank, and turn around to come back down - pure bliss. My spouse ran ahead and came back to get me right as I ended 2 hours of running. Total distance: somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 10.5 miles. Or something. Garmin lost me again.

We drove the family out to my other favourite parts of Colorado - past Silverton to Ouray, along the spookiest stretch of road anyone in the car cared to be on. I do love that road, but it makes my palms sweat even thinking about it, with its dramatic dropoffs and total disregard for guardrails. No matter how spectacular the view, nobody forgot how far down that drop goes. We saw lot and lots of cyclists throughout the day - coming up the road to Silverton and on the road to Ouray.

I realized somewhere along the line that I actually had a wealth of options for running at my disposal I hadn't even realized. We were staying less than a mile from my old haunt, the ski area where I spent most of my winters for almost a decade as a kid. Looking at the local maps I realized we had access to some of the 4 wheel drive roads which doubled as ski runs in the winter. The ski area is mostly turned over to cows and mountain bikers in the summer, it's a multi-use area. I know it well.

Perfect!

Sunday morning I ran on my own. I ran up the highway a little over a mile to Hermosa Park Road, and back into the ski area. The ski area has a different name now than it did when I was a kid, but I'll never call it by its new name; it'll always be Purgatory to me. I can remember when Hermosa Park Road used to be the main entrance to the area, and we used to park right at the top, practically at the lift. For my run, I turned right at the parking area and headed back into the forest. At first the road had a gentle climb up into the San Juans, and it steadily got more aggressive. Four wheel drive vehicles passed me as I ran up the road - again, no other runners, but plenty of cyclists out for the day. I saw a fox trotting up the road, and plenty of chipmunks - my fear of bear encounters was totally unfounded, there were plenty of people on the mountain, and plenty of mountain to hide them from me. The road got steeper as I kept going, and it got more familiar. I climbed past the "Midway" stop on the lift, where I had first learned to ride a ski lift. "Midway" was as far as I went when I first rode the ski lift. Up I went, past the meadows where, in the winter, some of the gentlest ski runs on the mountain can be found.

At about an hour 5 I made it to the top of Twilight lift, about 5 miles up from cascade. I ran a little past it to see the view, and then turned around to head back down. Further on would have gotten me to what I grew up knowing as the Back Side of the mountain, where all the mountain bikers like to ride these days.

I know the area well in the winter, I know it best in white. By contrast, the summertime view across the valley on the San Juans is unparallelled. Colorado is at its most gorgeous at high summer, especially after this wet winter and summer. The aspens and pines were thick and lush, the vegetation has already recovered from a full ski season and the meadows were knee deep in grasses and wildflowers. The visibility was perfect, no wind, just a gorgeous cool day in the mountains. There may have been people, but they were not close - I didn't feel alone, but there was no one visible to me.

I would have stayed up there all day, but it was time to head home. I had told the kids about mommy's adventures on the Alpine Slide, and they were now anxious to try it for themselves. I could stay there all day gawking at the view, my family was waiting to enjoy it for themselves.

Running back down was painful, my quads had taken a beating the day before running down Coal Bank Pass. Today it was just excruciating - but after awhile it leveled out. I took it as easy as I could. 2 Hrs 7 for 10.1 miles. Or something.

The best parts of my childhood were spent on that mountain, it's part of where I truly grew up. Though I'm tired from running up that hill, it was a reviving experience to re-visit my old home. Mostly, it felt pretty good - though my quads are still fried.

And now, I sleep.