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More High Altitude Training...

As the Ascent is now just a week away, CJ and I decided to get some more high altitude training in before the big day.

CJ heard the Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp offered an A-frame you could rent near the Crags.  He booked us a night there last night.  It was rustic but nicer than we…

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Added by Shelley Hitz on August 9, 2014 at 4:00pm — No Comments

Hay in the Barn

That mountain can be as unforgiving as it is beautiful. Anything that can make its own weather, on a moments notice, to include snow in August, deserves our respect. Maybe because I see Pikes Peak every day, I somehow think it a trusted and old friend.



But it's not.



It's a force; a powerful and mighty foe, that is almost deserving of our worship, kind of like Mordor, I suppose.



I had my last long-ish training run on 'the mountain' this past Wednesday afternoon.… Continue

Added by Jill Gaebler on August 8, 2014 at 11:32am — No Comments

Unexpected Obstacles and Setbacks

It feels like I have been training for the Pikes Peak Ascent since last Fall.  

Oh...it's because I have. :)

First, I had to qualify by running a half marathon.  I trained last fall and ran the Denver Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon last October.  

From there, I have had my eyes fixed on one main goal....finishing the Pikes Peak Ascent August 16, 2014.  I can't believe race day is just a week from tomorrow!  Wow!

When training for a big…

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Added by Shelley Hitz on August 8, 2014 at 11:30am — No Comments

Wild West Relay...Again and Again!

This year marks the fifth 200-mile relay team I have organized in the last six years. Typically funded by our generous supporters at the Schriever Air Force Base Fitness Center, we’ve only had to take one year off due to last year’s budget cuts, which was actually a blessing in disguise because the organization of such an event can sometimes be very frustrating and…

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Added by Vanessa Shawver on August 7, 2014 at 12:45pm — 1 Comment

Final Training Runs

The last couple of weeks I really wanted to pick up my training.  I wanted to increase my mileage and continue getting some altitude training in.  Mission accomplished!

Three of my training runs went something like this:  I took the cog to Mountain View and ran to the summit.  It was a first for me as I have never rode the cog and ran from there.  As I started running I was thinking this is a small trail.  Then suddenly there was no trail.  I stopped looked around and luckily there…

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Added by Gene Chavez on August 6, 2014 at 9:22pm — No Comments

How the West was Run

Relays are increasingly popular and interesting beasts. Last weekend I ran the Wild West Relay which covered 200 miles from Fort Collins to Steamboat Springs. This was my first relay so had no idea what to expect. Vanessa, purple and gold alum, was our fearless team captain and did a great job organizing 10 friends and a couple strangers to run 36 legs. The legs varied from easy to "very hard". I'm not really sure how the…

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Added by Brianne Pierson on August 6, 2014 at 8:00pm — 1 Comment

Stand UP!

I’ve always had lousy posture, even standing still. Jogging up hills I find myself really leaning into the hill, bent at the hips. Not good. So I work on this constantly.

I work on keeping my head up. It only makes sense to keep your airway as open as possible right?   I also try to throw my shoulders back, push them back, whatever it takes. I’m not a physiologist but it only makes sense that you give your lungs as much room to work efficiently as…

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Added by Bill Beagle on August 6, 2014 at 2:48pm — No Comments

Pikes Peak Ascent and Team USA!

Pikes Peak is a happenin' place right now. For myself and I'm sure many others, the last four-ish weeks have been largely comprised of adventures on Pikes Peak, prepping for the WMRA Long Distance Challenge, which this year will coincide with the Pikes Peak Ascent, so it'll be cool to have an international race in there too, I'm guessing this will be a pretty deep year.

In previous years, the Long Distance Challenge has been featured in other way cool places like Switzerland…

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Added by Shannon Payne on August 5, 2014 at 12:58pm — No Comments

Jello-legs, made up songs, and the smell of burning brakes.

Yesterday morning brought us under the two weeks till Ascent day marker.  At 13 days away (less than 312 hours for anyone who's interested), I decided to spend some time pushing hard at altitude.  With running still out of the equation this left me with only one option - biking to the summit.  Sounds like misery, right?  Not really.  There were some seriously steep…

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Added by Mary Baldwin on August 4, 2014 at 9:36pm — 2 Comments

Tick....Tock....

I started hearing it a few weeks ago. An incessant, gradual, then rapidly accelerating ticking. Worse than Captain Hook’s croc tracking him. That nagging, nauseating feeling that time was slipping away. Like many things in life you can’t expect to put off training for a long run until the last few ticks of the clock and expect to get the job done. So July 22 I drove to the summit of Pikes with teammate Shelley Hitz. We jogged down to the A Frame at treeline and back up, a six…

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Added by Bill Beagle on August 4, 2014 at 1:50pm — 2 Comments

Jagged

Victory is so much easier to write about than defeat.  But it's from defeat where we learn to appreciate victory.  I can only hope my last outing to the Weminuche Wilderness teaches me something.  It has nothing to do with Pikes and little to do with Ascent training, but it is a window into what this whole pseudomountaineering thing is all about.

Jagged…

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Added by Sean O'Day on August 3, 2014 at 5:00pm — 1 Comment

Expect the Unexpected

We visited family back east this week. The theme in my life most recently has been to expect the unexpected. The day before we flew out, I had planned to get up early and get in one last fairly long run on dirt before heading to the land of road running. The roads are not kind to my bones.

Monday morning I got up and took our ten year old bullmastiff out for a walk. She had seemed a little gimpy in the preceding…

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Added by Tonia Smith on August 1, 2014 at 7:45am — No Comments

Mother Nature always wins

I promised fireworks, hard racing and excitement at the final Ascent Cycling Series. I wrote that on grey, dreary day with thunder rumbling in the background, feeling hopeful that we would be racing. After all, it was supposed to be sunny with a 50% chance of showers for Race day, and the ground needed all the moisture the clouds were currently dumping. We'd be racing. It might be a little muddy a little damp, but we would be racing.



Well... For the first time that I can remember,… Continue

Added by Tracy Thelen on July 31, 2014 at 2:32pm — No Comments

Getting ready for the Wild, Wild West

The countdown is on for the Wild West Relay which runs from Ft. Collins to Steamboat Springs starting at the butt-crack of dawn (actually, before that) tomorrow. I'm proud to be running with the Schriever Striders which is coordinated by the one and only Pikes Peak Sports Triple Crown of Running alum, Vanessa Shawver. I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to run with this fun group. The total mileage for my 3 legs is around 20 miles but I may jump in on some other legs to get a 50k in…

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Added by Brianne Pierson on July 31, 2014 at 9:55am — 1 Comment

Unlike sharks, runners can stand still...or so we're told.

I've dealt with the past week and a half of this whole "not-running-on-an-injury" thing pretty well.  Now, my resolve is wearing thin.  I know, I know, runners are not like sharks - we don't die if we stop moving.  That may be true in the most literal sense, but the similarities ends there.  There is a emotional and social death that occurs when a runner is not running for more than a few consecutive days.  Dramatic? Yes, but hear me out.  When you run, you have lots of friends who run.…

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Added by Mary Baldwin on July 29, 2014 at 8:37pm — No Comments

Let there be fireworks

Are we saying goodbye to the Ascent Cycling Series for the year or forever tomorrow night? Who knows at this point - but regardless, it's the finale of the 2014 racing. Race Number 5 for the 2014 Ascent Cycling Series and lucky 101 for Andy. We are returning to the familiar trails at Bear Creek for the second time this year - how many miles have I raced there over the years? Too many to count, yet each race is different. Back to the traditional Ascent race style after the length of the CMPS…

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Added by Tracy Thelen on July 29, 2014 at 3:30pm — No Comments

Race Trance Wednesday

The last race of the Ascent Cycling Series looms on the horizon. Race 5 of 5 will go down at Bear Creek Park this Wednesday night. It has been a great season and there are a lot of classes battling it out for the final podium positions that will not be decided until the dust settles Wednesday. 

One more race means one more chance for me to experience entering in to race trance mode. That is what I have…

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Added by Cameron Chambers on July 29, 2014 at 5:51am — No Comments

Runnin' Places with Smilin' Faces

"The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.” 

― John Muir

I'm finally back to having cell-phone signal and reliable access to the interwebs after my last 9 days of travel. I've calculated that I've slept in a tent almost 1/3…

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Added by Brianne Pierson on July 28, 2014 at 6:24pm — No Comments

The (trail) Torch Is Being Passed...Grab It!

By: MtnMama of UpaDowna.org

A few months ago, I started hearing buzz from our local trail and open space advocacy groups about a new trail that was going to be built. The mountain this trail will be built on has a lot of controversy surrounding it, and has always been known as a…

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Added by UpaDowna on July 28, 2014 at 10:00am — No Comments

Sacrifices

We all know when training is involved there are so many sacrifices that are made.  The event really dictates the sacrifices involved.  5k’s are different from 10k’s, from half marathons and even more different than the Pikes Peak Ascent.  This particular event is the sacrifices while training for the Pikes Peak Ascent.

The training for the PPA really began back in March when some runs went to North Cheyenne Canyon and the Chutes. From there it was Section 16, Garden of the Gods, Barr…

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Added by Gene Chavez on July 27, 2014 at 9:19pm — No Comments

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