the air up there

... or lack thereof.

I had had about enough of the scenery between the trailhead and Barr Camp and was looking forward to running the Classic 10K race on the 28th in the Springs.  The best laid plans... I don't remember the rest, but that's not what happened.

After talking with that Crazy Bastard Bucky (this is his new official title, by the way), I decided that I should think about getting some HIGH altitude training in since I pretty much suck at breathing anyway.  With that, I planned to drive up to the Summit on Sunday, July 29th to see what it was all about.

Once again I woke up at the asscrack of dawn something, because it wasn't even light out and made my way to the Pikes Peak Highway.  That Crazy Bastard Bucky gave me a heads up to a $2 off coupon for the toll and I printed it off and headed out.  I was at the gate at 6:35am and was already 17 cars back.  Apparently, I wasn't the only nutcase who couldn't wait to starve himself of oxygen for a couple hours that day.  The gates opened about 10 minutes early, I paid the man my $8, and I was in the rarified air by 7:45.  I drank a bunch of water on the way up and was doing a little dance in my seat for about the last mile and well you know... had to take a leak REAL BAD.  Naturally, the turistas don't load their happy asses onto the first train until about 8 or so and the Summit House was closed.  Shit!  I strolled across the summit to the US Army Environmental Research station and conducted my own little experiment on the rocks behind the building.  I'll post results later.

I packed my double bottle belt on, threw a windbreaker in the webbing and started down Barr Trail.  It was an absolutely beautiful day, clear skies, not terribly cold, and no wind.  I took it easy down the first mile.  Those 16 Golden Stairs are a bitch in both directions.  Once down to the Cirque, I put it on cruise control and got down the to 3 miles to go sign in just under 45 minutes.  There were a ton of people on the mountain that day.  Most of them making the same trip as me, but there were already a few who had made it up from Manitou after starting real early.

I drank some water, ate a gel pack, chatted with some other folks about how many times they had done the Ascent or Marathon ( I was way outta my leage with that crowd ) then decided to head up.  I had a nice little break to catch my breath and immediately went out fast to show those veterans I deserved to be up there.  Bad idea, genius.  That lasted for a couple of switchbacks before I settled into a pretty slow walk to let my heartbeat catch up and most of those people blew right by me.  I pressed on and made the first mile in about 26 minutes.  This wasn't too bad as I was expecting to be closed to 30 up there.  The second mile is a little bit easier... if the weather holds.  At this point, I had worked up a good sweat and my shirt was pretty wet.  Then some light clouds moved in, quickly followed by some thicker ones.  I would never see the sun again until I was back down to Glen Cove.  The temp dropped pretty drastically and I got a little chill.  I didn't let that stop me.  I pushed through the second mile in about the same pace as the first.  Cool! That last traverse before the Cirque is pretty daunting and it seemed like it took forever.  I took a quick break to get a few deep breaths and started up the final mile.   It was a death march for the most part and I couldn't see the summit for the majority of the time.  This is actually a good thing so you can't see how much more hell you have left.  I'm not sure what my time was on that final mile, but it was just under 90 minutes from where I started to the top.  So the 30 minute mile average up top was right on.

I grabbed some warm clothes out of my Jeep and waited for Kenny to come up whom I was supposed to take back down. I sat around for about an hour and a half watching what seemed like the same 5 people come up and then head back down for the next leg of a 3-2-1.  Still no Kenny.  I finally decided that if he wanted a ride he could hitch and I was freezing my ass off.  I later found out that he and Crazy Bastard Bucky ended up turning around at A-Frame when they saw the clouds building.

It was a good training session and I'm going to spend the last two weekends before the Ascent up there to get some more acclimation and hopefully take a few minutes off those last three miles.