Day #2 of Training Camp

We got up and met Tim, Ken and Jasmine at the Golden Burro for breakfast at 6:30AM. After having Eggs Benedict over two english muffins and hash browns, we drove out to the Winfield Station side of Hope Pass. I found a nice walking stick and off we went up to summit Ms Hope....a 2.5 mile hike up the mountain. I began having flashbacks of going back over Hope after the 50 mile turnaround at Winfield Station. My mistake last year was making to Winfield in 11 hours...burned way too much glycogen...which left me spent as I went back up and over Hope. Today it took us about 1:12 to summit Hope and 45 minutes to get back down. There was a lot of snow still on the mountain. See the pics below...



As we made our first climb it was a challenge on "fresh" legs to get up the mountain side. Even though I am feeling pretty well acclimated it was hard. Using two poles this year will be a must, to save the legs. As we approached the summit the wind was gusting at 30-40MPH's and the temperature dropped. So we went from burning up to be very chilled. I snapped a few photos as noted below and then hustled back down the mountain side.




My right foot arch was sore but felt better as the day went on. My quads really felt the burn from the descent and I made a mental note not to bomb the hill like I did last year, using precious glycogen reserves and generating lactic acid that is very tough to recover from.

After making it to the bottom of Hope we decided not to run 3 miles up to Winfield Station and 3 miles back on the hot and dusty roads, but instead we took a 5 minute break, fueled up at the aid station at the base and began a second attempt at reaching the top of Hope. The legs were sore, breathing was more if a challenge but we kept a pretty good pace, about 10 minutes slower than first trip up. As we got about 3/4 of the way up I had to chow down an orange shot block to get my sodium and electrolytes. I skipped taking the endurolytes today as they made me very nauseous yesterday, which I'm told is due to the fact that they contain magnesium and its difficult to digest. So today I gave it the test, no endurolytes and I felt good.

As we approached Hope Pass for the second time Ken Clober was at the top and we snapped a photo of Tim, Ken and I overlooking the snow fields going down Hope and into Twin Lakes. The wind was merciless at the top so we didn't monkey around and began our descent back down the mountain. Tim decided to set the pace which was an all out assault on the mountain. I kept with him for 2/3 of the way and then decided that I should take it easy and avoid an injury. This strategy decided to be a good one. I let Tim go and he took a nasty little fall, but that honey badger don't give a shit, he got up and kept running.



There were several parts of the trail today that were still covered in snow and so we had to traverse two of the snow fields which was pretty sketchy and scary and the other we circumvented by making our own trails straight up the mountain side, which was like doing leg presses...really got the heart beating. By this time my watch crapped out so I couldn't see my HR, which was probably a good thing.

We made it back down the mountain. A total of 5 miles of ascent and 5 mile of descent....that was hard and my legs were talking to me... All of us went down to Vicksburg, about 1 mile down the wash board gravel/dirt road for grilled chicken, chips and a couple of beers. Then headed back to the hotel to shower, ice down and rest up before the night run at 9PM this evening :)

More to follow...so far so good...a little beat up, but that's the point of this weekend...challenge yourself and get your head in the game cuz in less than 60 days it's the REAL DEAL.

Cheers!