June 15, 2009
Peak Week - Day 1: Green Mountain
Peak week begins! I am attempting to get in some good uphill work every day this week in order to prepare my lungs for Saturday’s assault (I mean race) on Mount Evans. Sydney is in all day camp in Boulder so I have a great excuse to make the drive each day. I have decided to take it easy on the uphill and try and stress my lungs and not my legs. I don’t want to go into the weekend with fatigued quads. But I do want to go in with lungs that know how to breath uphill a lot because they did it every day this week! It is a strategy. We will see if it works.
Decided to do Green to start. Just because. Parked at Gregory then took Amp->Saddle->Greenman->Summit->Ranger->Gregory. I hit the top in about 54 minutes. No records there but I only ran the flat parts. Leaving my quads in tact for the days ahead. On the way up Greenman, I saw a lady on the trail cowering. I had to shut my headphones down to see why she was flagging me. Apparently, a rattlesnake (she said) just crossed her path and left her rather freaked out. It had slithered off into some rocks on the side of the trail. So I made a big circle and watched her down and around safely as well. We continued on our own separate paths. Surely, if I had seen it, I would have shed tears. Anyone ever hit snakes out there? And rattlers? Not sure.
I sat on the summit alone for a bit in peace. Never get a chance to do that. However, the clouds started rolling in and there was lightening in the distance. Had no fear. Felt all safe in the trees and not exposed on some rocky 14er. Just prior, I was looking over at Bear Peak wondering how far that is and how long it would take me to round trip it. I bailed on it. Oh well — I didn’t plan on spending all day up high.
I shot some crappy diary video of the day. Trying to play with a few things that I haven’t previewed yet prior to the big upcoming races which I plan to cover.
I went 5.05 miles with an elevation gain of 2654 feet in 86 minutes. View my full GPS data.
