Visit to Leadville

After leaving Leadville in the middle of the night after my brief stay at St Vincent's last year, I made it back this Saturday night to check out the snow situation, begin the acclimatization process and hike 9 miles up to 11,500 ft of altitude. It was great to be back in Leadville to see the good folks at the coffee shop, italian restaurant and the Delaware Hotel.

The weather was a balmy 60F which felt like 75F in the afternoon sun. The scenery was nothing short of spectacular. Check out some of the pic s below.....



Ken, Nancy and I went out at 8:45AM on Sunday and went to the base of the power line to hike it. Round trip it was about a 9 mile trek. The views of the snow cap peaks, the sunshine and oh yeah.....the lack of oxygen made fun a fun day. My HR shot up immediately for the first 30 minutes and then settled into about 130BPM hiking up the power line. 1/2 way up we encountered snow which average between 3 to 4ft deep. We were able to successfully hike through most of it with an occasional 3 foot drop into soft snow. When we peaked the summit we hit 11,500 ft and had an unbelievable view of Leadville. We ran across a large grouse at the peak as well. It was really very cool. The day was focused on acclimating as well as getting in a hike, not run as my quads were still beat up from the 50k the day before...not to mention the IT bands...ouch!

After the hike I drove out to Twin Lakes to see my girl Hope....she was covered in snow...the lake was dry as it prepared for an epic snow melt over the next 2 weeks (see pic below). Then got back to Pbville and took a 2 hour nap and then worked in the lobby of the Delaware getting ready for the week ahead of me. I didn't sleep very well due to my shoulder/ribs as well as an elevated HR from the altitude...which is pretty normal. I got up this morning at 5AM got organized, went to Provin Grounds for a cup of coffee and finish up some items for work. At 8AM I made my way out towards Weston Pass to see Marge Hickman (a 15X finisher of the LT100) to drop off a check and see the house that I rented for the month of August. The house is in God's country and the views are breath taking....or maybe that was the altitude. I'm very excited about the coming months of being in Leadville to train. It's hard to understand unless you are there to really appreciate this part of the country.




This week the familia is coming into Denver and we're headed up to Estes Park...looking forward to it...should be a ton of fun. Tonight doing laundry and hitting the hot tub to loosen up and then up early to hit the trails near white ranch to do a 8 mile loop before going to work....lot's to do...so little time.

Cheers!