Thru Endurance We Conquer!

Birthdays can set in motion some of the best - or craziest plans - ever. And sometimes, the gifts given provide a means to completing a dream. After an extended scavenger hunt for clues on Friday, I finally unearthed my present from Nick. Small, but so powerful. An Osprey Rev 1.5 - the smallest pack in the Rev series, with a 1.5L bladder and just a few small pockets for storage. The perfect size for long trail runs. Not to heavy or bulky, but carrying enough to get in and get out if the weather deteriorates. And why would that be such a cool present? After all, my last marathon was in 2010 and my last trail marathon was in 2009! It's been no secret that I haven't been running much - just jumping into some local half marathons here and there. Well, back when I was a runner and thought very little of running a marathon on Saturday and then another one on Sunday, I had a goal. I wanted to do a 50 mile race. Heck with the 50k - that was only a few miles more then a marathon and a...

With a little more CT thrown in for fun. After our Leadville ride, we decided to camp at Raspberry Gulch and ride the CT a little more. It's early in the night, but one of the more techy traverses. Another few hours learning the curves wouldn't hurt. Given how tired and sluggish I'd been Friday, I was a little worried about the rest of the weekend. Would I actually be able to handle the hours and the trail? A nice lazy morning - sleeping later then I have in weeks and a big breakfast had me ready to go. We headed south first - towards Blanks Cabin. Again, just riding and scouring the trail. My goal was to be smooth and comfortable with all the punchy climbs and rock gardens. Much better this time around, even once we turned north and started retracing our trail. I was able to ride further up some of the steep hills. After the ride and another nap, it was run time. Just a short little run on the CT - working on increasing frequency in prep for some big plans next year! For S...

We are good at the "seemed like a good idea at the time" kinda rides. This one? Well, it all started on the drive out of town. We've not ridden in Leadville out side of the Fat Bike races and Nick asked if we should start our weekend there. Sure, why not? Then we both got the idea - Silver Rush, one of the Leadville 100 series races was supposed to be a very challenging race and several of our friends said we would love the race. The idea turned into a spark - let's ride the Silver Rush course! Even better, we wouldn't really need a map since the race was the next day. It would be marked and everything! And so north towards Leadville we headed... As anticipated, the course was well marked from the start. Since it was later in the afternoon and all the serious racers were hiding in their hotels with compression socks on and feet up, we also had the course to ourselves. Perfect. I wasn't sure what to expect since I hadn't looked at the profile and had only...

I was "supposed" to do intervals on Wednesday. I had a nice, hard workout scheduled - designed to address some of the weaknesses I've noticed in the first few races of the year. But like all plans - things change. Nick's work was in the process of moving buildings and he had the ability to take half a day off. Middle of the week, the chance to ride hard with Nick? Intervals were abandoned in favor of something just as hard, but so much more fun. It was brutally hot when Nick got home and we both packed water for the 90 degrees it felt like. Then up into the mountains we went - straight up through Stratton, up the Chutes and onto Gold Camp. Given that I was skipping out on my intervals, it was time to ride hard. Nick let me set the pace, but kept pushing a little to keep me honest. Up and up and up, the endless road climb silence of the mountains. We'd originally planned on doing the hike-a-bike up to the St Peter's Dome parking lot, but Nick decided to just ...