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Twin Lakes Twenty Milers

13 Saturday Dec 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Medical Files, Running

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Aspen Chiropractic & Wellness Center, massage therapy, Shoes and Brews, Twin Lakes

SkoopI began my training for the Austin Marathon with two twenty milers to Twin Lakes this week.  One last Sunday and another today – Saturday.  Not a bad start considering my hamstring pull.  I still don’t know how I ran twenty miles a day after pulling my hamstring.  I wasn’t sure I’d be able to run at all.

I set the day after the Colder Bolder as my first day of marathon training and despite my sore leg, figured I’d just run slow.  I started out hamstrung but my leg loosened up after a couple of miles and I ran a fairly normal 9 minute mile pace out to Twin Lakes.  This is the ten mile turn-around point.  I tripped running up the steps to the lake trail, on the last step, with my weak leg.  Then I had to stop a few times around mile 16 to stretch it out.  My pace then slowed to over 10 minute miles, but I was able to continue running.  My leg was super sore after that and I took Monday and Tuesday off.  Got in six miles Wednesday and joined Keith and Steve Thursday for the Shoes & Brews social run.  We’re pictured here tasting the Skoop samples.  I got in another slow ten miles yesterday and then, amazingly, I woke up today with my leg feeling much better.  So I ran another twenty miles.

I feel a bit silly now that I scheduled a visit to see a chiropractor, but that’s been long overdue.  I discovered Aetna, my insurance provider, won’t cover massages provided for by a massage therapist.  Aetna will cover massages performed by Physical Therapists and Chiropractors though.  There is a Chiropractor in my neighborhood that everyone speaks highly of, so I will see him next Friday.  I have enough issues for him to review other than my hamstring.  My hip is out of whack, probably has been for decades.  As a result, my right leg is shorter than my left.  I suspect this leads to most of my running injuries.  Time to find out.  I’m just happy this muscle pull isn’t severe and that I’ll be able to run through it.

I have an odd albeit short history with Chiropractic medicine.  I haven’t been a fan.  I know it has its place though and I’m going to give it a shot.  It’s not really possible to train for marathons without getting in some decent miles.  I need to stay healthy over the next two months.  Giving my body a tune up next Friday is probably a good idea.  Poor Steve, pictured in the middle of the above photo, is scheduled for surgery Thursday to correct his running injuries.  I won’t describe the procedure because talking about that stuff gives me chills.  But the whole neighborhood will be thinking of him.

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Hope Pass

29 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

America's Biggest Loser, Buena Vista, BV, CDT, Collegiates West Loop, Colorado Trail, continental divide, CT, high school reunion, Hope Pass, Mike O'Neill, Patagonia, Punky's Diner, Roosters Crow, RRHS, Salomon, Twin Lakes, wieght loss training

Punkys DinerTogether with two friends, Mike and Rob whom I have known for 38 years, I set out last weekend to hike the Collegiates Western Loop of the Colorado Trail, where it follows the Continental Divide Trail west of Buena Vista.  We met up in BV for BBQ at Punky’s Diner.  Very tasty.  Afterward we camped off Cottonwood Road since we were parking one of the cars here in the middle of our planned route.  In the morning we ate breakfast at the Roosters Crow Cafe and began our southbound trek just north of BV at Twin Lakes.

Mt ElbertThe Twin Lakes are perched at 9200 feet off Hwy 24 and 82.  We parked at the trailhead on the east side of the lakes and hiked the East Collegiate Loop CT well over a mile before reaching the intersection with the CDT and West Collegiate Loop.  This newly designated trail runs for about three miles relatively flat and then rises through Little Willis Gulch over the next four miles to 12,540 feet, peaking at Hope Pass between Mt. Hope and Quail Mountain. I am pictured here with Rob aside the Twin Lakes with Colorado’s highest peak, Mount Elbert, in the background.

scrambleCarrying a 35 pound backpack, the 16% grade up to Hope Pass was exhausting.  Despite the cool mountain morning air, I sweat profusely.  I rethink my decision to not whack off my hair before this excursion.  My three months of preparing for this effort consisted mostly of recovering from my surgery in early April.  Walking, then running, and pelvic floor exercises.  Man, I should have performed more leg weights and run some hills.  My travails are nothing though compared to Mikes’.

tree climbMike weighed 280 pounds when he committed to join us in early April.  He lost a little over 40 pounds in his three months of training.  Essentially, Mike was carting two additional backpacks in body weight than me up this hill.  I wasn’t sure if this hike would be possible for Mike.  Boy was I wrong.  America’s Biggest Loser could not have pulled off what Mike accomplished.  Averaging one mile per hour, Mike completed 12 miles in 12 hours at two miles of altitude.  His FitBit reported his progress in terms of stair steps but otherwise lost its ability to accurately record the extreme results.

impassThe trail over Hope Pass was buried under impassable snow.  Rob lead us in a path that bushwhacked around the snow field. The Colorado Facebook page warned hikers that the Western Loop was still impassable due to such snow fields.  With Rob, trail name La Plata, we were undeterred and ultimately reached the summit.

Hope Pass SummitThis was Mike’s first such summit, but only the first of many passes and saddles that lie before us.  Despite our initial qualms, La Plata and I put our doubts aside about Mike’s ability to hike this trail with the unrelenting demonstration of will power required to mount this pass.  For Mike, the views reinforced his commitment and confidence to continue forward.

descentWe were then presented with a steeply dropping trail on the south side of the pass, three miles through switchbacks along Sheep Gulch – down into Clear Creek which lays between 9800 and 10,000 feet.  It’s beyond me how runners of the Leadville 100 run over this pass in both directions as part of that storied ultra.  The four mile ascent, nine miles total for the day, left us with very little strength for the descent.  Our trekking poles kept us steady despite fatigued knees and burning thighs.  Eventually, after a grueling plummet down Sheep Gulch, we reached a restful spot to make camp.

Sheep Gulch THWe took stock of our accomplished day as we setup our tents and replenished our water supplies.  Mike and I were both quite pleased with some of our recent purchases – namely our Patagonia puff jackets and Salomon hiker boots.  Mike was mixed on his collapsible trekking poles – they can be an irritating burden at times.  And he didn’t care for the Epic protein bars although I absolutely loved them.  200 calories of tasty meat.  Yum.  Ending the day exhausted, there would be no campfire.  I’m not sure we even made it to campers midnight – 9pm.  We retired early and prepared for day two which would include another 12,000 foot pass above Lake Ann.

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CT Cronica: Mt. Elbert

21 Thursday Jul 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Tags

Colorado Trail, Mt. Elbert, Starbucks VIA Ready Brew, Twin Lakes

As the Starbucks VIA coffee boots up your system in the blackness of the 5am forest, the headlamp from a tall, fit runner darts past you and Tumbleweed onto segment 11 of the Colorado Trail.  This is the very first time you are not the morning trail blazers.  You suspect this injures Tumbleweed’s pride more than yours’.  And as you take a rest to adjust your gear choices and admire the rising sun after a half mile, another large group of hikers plus a single hiker pass you on the trail.  Hikers clearly want to summit Mt. Elbert early before lightening moves in.  It’s ironic given your 5:30am start is the earliest your feet have ever hit the trail, and yet for the first time also so many others are racing ahead of you.

The Mt. Elbert junction comes a little bit later than you expect per the Trail Guidebook.  Apparently some previous trails are closed for repair, but it comes at about the 1.5 mile point.  The steepness of the trail is totally in your face.  You quickly pass the groups that previously passed you a mile earlier.  You made the call to leave the trekking poles behind and wonder now if you’ll need them for this climb.  Maybe it’s no steeper and aggressive than Mt. Massive, but your expectations were set for a more gradual approach based on descriptions of this being a gentle trail.

Those descriptions must be referring to the south approach and not this north trail.  You’ll descend on the south trail so that’s probably a good thing for your knees if the downhill is more moderate.  You appreciate how this trail tries to help with numerous switchbacks, especially above treeline.  But there’s just no way to sugarcoat climbing 4500 feet in five miles.  In fact, this entire trail presents you with a total elevation gain of 6500 feet – and a drop of 7600 feet.  Those extremes are almost hard to believe considering how much flat trail there is.  The peak though is as awe inspiring as yesterday’s Mt. Massive.  Similar views accept you are also looking into the backside (western slopes) cliffs of Mt Massive.  One difference is the trail today has many more hikers on it.  You can see that.  Given the choice no doubt hikers choose the tallest peak over the second tallest.  You’re mixed on whether you like so many other hikers.  You like seeing people but you don’t necessarily want to hike alongside others for miles on end.  Flatulence in front of Tumbleweed isn’t so much of an issue.  You crossed that barrier.  But complete strangers?

You are apparently mistaken about the southern trail being less steep than the northern route.  You keep expecting the slope to flatten during your descent but it never does.  Not until you reach the junction with the CT do your legs get some relief from the pounding.  Tumbleweed expresses his relief by giving the trail sign a big smooch.  You sort of understand where he’s coming from.  You don’t ask questions, you just take the pictures.

At around 9 miles now, the trail still continues downward but at a much less steep grade.  This encourages Tumbleweed to try some running.  You pick up your pace over the next mile or two but keep it conservative since this hike will extend over 26 miles.  Actually, you don’t know that and believe it will be 29 miles.  And to your horror, you run out of water after 17 miles.  This is just after crossing the Twin Lakes dam – which is part of a 4 mile Bataan death march around the Twin Lakes under a glaring sun.  You maintain a strong 16 minute per mile pace around the lake in an attempt to reach the shade of the trees on the far side.  Not only do you deplete your water in the process, but the trees aren’t as thick as they are green and the heat and sun remain issues.  You’re not exactly concerned about heat stroke, but it’s becoming clear you might finish this hike fairly dehydrated.  You announce your intentions to drink from the next strong running creek you come across.  These have been prevalent throughout the CT given the above average snow pack this year.

You almost begin to feel stupid.  Cheated even.  Where are the damned creeks?  For whatever reason, the ridge beyond Twin Lakes is dry as a bone.  A little desperation begins to creep into your mind, let in by the heat.  You see some weak streams and are able to soak your shirt.  These brooks aren’t strong enough to trust drinking from but the wet shirt helps cool down your core.  It’s unfortunate you’re so hot and thirsty.  You’d run much more of these last miles otherwise.  Instead you walk to conserve strength.  Tumbleweed talks about maintaining a zen state to keep from sweating.  You wonder if they taught that in his search and rescue training.  He lived on the West Coast then.  Right now you’d welcome some merciful cool sweat.

You slog onward.  And then the trail does bestow mercy upon you.  You expect the trail distance to be 29 miles.  This is uncertain because of the new route up to Mt. Elbert.  But you cross a ridge around 25 miles and suddenly see Tumbleweed’s car parked down at the Clear Creek Trail Head.  Incredible.  You just finished talking about possibly completing the hike in 12 hours and now you see it’s possible you might finish in 11 hours.  Tumbleweed takes this to heart and begins a mad dash down the hill.  You can’t be certain of the remaining distance as you can’t see the length of all the switchbacks leading down to the trail head.  It turns out to be just over a mile.  You run all of it in about a 10 minute mile pace – which is screaming fast for rocky trail running.  The distance turns out to be 26.2 miles – a marathon.  Oddly enough, your overall pace matches yesterday’s hike exactly at 25.05 minutes per mile.  Your actual moving pace is under 20 minutes per mile – or 3 miles per hour which is essentially normal walking pace.  Pretty impressive for having climbed up Colorado’s tallest peak.

You need to catch your breath after this sprint, but otherwise pack up and drive away as soon as possible for food and drinks.  As part of the car shuffle, you have to stop near Twin Lakes to pick up the cooler you stashed for drinks.  This puts you on Hwy 82, the highway to Aspen, and you decide to try eating at the Twin Lakes Village General Store.  Turns out their restaurant is closed but you are so hungry you microwave their frozen enchiladas.  This is not the best course for dinner, but the most expedient.  Along with some waters and cans of Coors, you sit outside by the highway to refuel.  This was an epic weekend.  Climbing Colorado’s two highest peaks was not a primary objective but an accomplishment that added greatly to the experience.  One more weekend of hiking and you’ll be halfway complete with the Colorado Trail.

40.137598 -105.107652

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