CO Day 1: Barr, Missing Link, Jones Loop

Today I hooked up with Paul R. who showed me the goods higher up on the flanks of Pikes Peak. Paul moved to Springs from the NE a year ago and has been exploring routes with sick vertical that don't suck. Such a vast riding area, the possibilities and potential are mind boggling.

We started from Manitou Springs at just over 6000ft. We met early at 6:30am to get ahead of the masses expected to hike Pikes via the Barr Trail on this holiday weekend. There's really no warm-up before going right into a double-digit 4000ft climb on marbly pikes gravel. When I hiked the Incline a few years ago, I came down the Barr trail. I knew people rode it, but didn't see how. I crashed twice on foot with my feet rolling out from under me on marbles. It is actually quite climbable. More than a few water bars and rock outcroppings confounded me, but there were no extended hike-a-bikes.

We passed quite a few hikers, even high up, who must have started in the dark. It was not a problem and everybody got along just fine. Most were encouraging us and impressed. We reached our cutoff on the Mountain View trail just before reaching the Barr Camp. This trail descended some and contoured. The trail was barely there at times. It was gorgeous passing through aspen groves.

We crossed the cog railroad and at some point picked up the Missing Link Trail. This is still a work in progress but when finished, it will open up many high country loop possibilities. Paul led us through a hodge-podge of barely-there trails to avoid suck (lessons he learned). We popped out on Forest Road (that really is the proper name for it) and climbed a whole bunch more back above 10,000ft to Lake Moraine. The view of Pikes Peak was fabulous from here, and the air was perfect temperature now.

Now the fun begins. A connector brings us to the beloved Jones Park trail. This will likely be my first and last time riding it. Long story, but a rare trout that was once thought extinct in the area was discovered in the brook this trail follows. A new trail was machine built away from the brook that lacked soul and everybody hated it - hikers, cyclist and the moto crowd. Input from the user community was no put into the design. Now that the new trail was open, the old trail that everybody loved will begin deconstruction on Tuesday.

Jones Park had much of the same feel and vibe as Silver Creek coming off the Monarch Crest. Jones is looser and rutted though and required much more care in many areas. You rip down a narrow ravine always near the brook with occasional crossings. I liked it, but was forced off my bike a couple brief times because I didn't want to risk an endo.

I never saw Paul, except for maybe 10sec after each time we pushed off from a stop. I think his tires barely touch dirt on these descents. I could see trail disappearing to infinity under his tires because that is how high off the ground he was most of the time.

Further down we picked up Trail 666, continuing along the brook, but now much more grown in and narrow. Plenty of sketch and always wicked loose. There were places where if you slid over the edge, you were probably going all the way to the bottom on marbly gravel.

The ride finished but dropping through Red Canyon Park, where I rode last night. Paul linked up mostly trails I did not touch. So many trails in there. Most are pretty easy, a few challenging, and a few recently purpose built with flow. Great way to wrap up a ride. Over 200ft per mile on this one, almost all on loose gravel. Took a bit out of me. Paul has another punishing route even higher up planned for Monday. I'm going to be dead two days into two week trip!

Heading up Barr Trail, Pikes Peak just becoming visible

Guessing that is Cameron Cone with balance rock in foreground

When failing to make a rocky step-up, don't lean your elbow into granite to save yourself. Stuff is sharp AF.

Boulder tunnel you ride through on Barr Trail

Our turn-off from Barr Trail just below the camp

Mt View trail. A lot to like about this.

Pikes has its cog, Washington has its. Both have roads to top. Both are CFs at top. Interesting that Pikes puts the teeth on rails, which Washington puts the teeth on the engine.

Switchback on Forest Road and Pikes

Paul at our turn-off to pick up the Jones Park descent

Jones Park and surveyors rock. Paul says park in this context means meadow

Marbles and exposure all the way down

Don't look down. Springs in distance still crazy amount of vertical down even though we ripped a lot of down.

We came over that in the back ground through a notch

I chickened out going over this hump

Close-up of what traction, or lack thereof, you have to work with here. Like this everywhere.

Finishing descent in Red Rock canyon, forget name of this trail

Upper Codell. Kicked my butt last night going up. Still walked parts of it going down today.

Mt Kearsarge. Washington wasn't enough disappointment.

With bicycle hillclimb events going the way of road racing lately, I find it important to support the local events. Mt Kearsarge is one of these events, well organized, with modest entry fee. Many waited until the last week to sign up, so I worried it could be canceled. Before pre-reg closed, I was pleased to see numbers up from last year.

I beat myself up during the week, maybe subconsciously paying penance for slacking off and abysmal performance on Mt Washington the weekend before. I have a big cycling/hiking trip coming up too. I can't rest the month of August for a couple hillclimb events when I'm looking at back-to-back 25-30hr weeks with copious climbing at altitude. Intervals Tuesday (what were those again?), 32 minute run up Mt Monadnock Wednesday, then 2hr fairly rigorous MTB ride on new terrain the day before the race. Felt tired getting up, head not into pushing myself at all. I just wanted to stay in bed.

But the weather was fabulous. I was thinking more about the short hike to the summit than the race. Sneakers were going up in the support vehicle. Warming up, my legs felt like poo. I wanted to get the bloodbath over with.

We take off at 9:30am. Unlike last year, the young guns didn't go ballistic on that wall right near the start. Staying with the lead dozen guys or so was much more manageable. Erik V was in that group, who is in my 50-59 age group on Kearsarge but not 55-59 age group on Washington. He's untouchable. I didn't know if any others of the dozen were 50+ or not. Mark V, next age group older was with us. He handily beat me on Mt Washington the week before. I beat him on Kearsarge last year.

The course is rolling uphill first four miles. There was a cash prime at the toll gate where the real climbing begins. The young guns went for that as I found my pace for the next mile of 12% grade. I put a very small gap on Mark but didn't expect that to hold. I was so deeply anaerobic.

This short climb favors my C/C gene.  The climb is over before you know, maybe only 20 minutes of real work. I can suffer with the best for that long. I didn't feel the temptation to capitulate like I did part way up Mt Washington a week earlier. I stuck with the program.

Yep, pretty much how I felt the whole way up. Photo by David Smith

The hounds were always right behind me, keeping me honest. If I had let up even the slightest, Mark and two others would have passed me in a instant. Optimal time-trial strategy in many situations is even splits. But so many go out too hard, hit deflection in the middle, recover some only to get a second wind towards the end. It is a classic bathtub curve function with a large, junky middle where many seconds are lost against the clock. I think I faded a little in the second half of the climb, but so did the three chasers right on my wheel. In the last few hundred meters, the hounds smelled blood and Watts seem to be miraculously produced holding them off. When I crossed the line, I think I was within three pedal strokes of puking. Yeah, it was that good. It was the same feeling and similar duration to when I PR'd running up Mt Monadnock a couple weeks ago. Love that stuff. The endorphin buzz can last for hours after.

Anyway, that was good for 9th place overall, same as last year except more riders this year. Only a few seconds slower than last year, which may be attributed to a less aggressive lead-up to the climb. Nobody older than me beat me here, unlike on Washington last week. At least that's a metric I use to rationalize not sucking too badly.

I quickly changed into my trail runners and headed up to the summit. I was blown away to find not another person up there. Have never had this summit 100% to myself. Sure, the auto road was closed for the race, but the north side has a popular hiking trail up to the summit too.

On the descent, my front tire flatted just before the toll gate, 4mi from the starting area. Ugh! Not just me, but at least two other riders flatted there too. I didn't hit anything hard, don't think my rims got too hot. It was a slow leak, taking a while to go completely flat. What was on the road? Chris P came by with a bicycle version of fix-a-flat. He offered to let me try it. I was skeptical, but it worked. Thanks Chris! After awards, I found my rear tire had gone flat too. WTF. Haven't pulled the tires off yet to see what the failure mode was. Glad it didn't happen heading up.

Hope this race keeps going. Increase in numbers this year is encouraging. Always great to see such a diverse group of riders show up for uphill bike races.

View southwest, summit parking and race finish in center

View northeast, the White Mountains faintly visible

Not a single person up here except me

A moment of quiet after the storm

Food and awards

Mt Washington Bicycle Hillclimb

Back when there was still snow on the ground, I registered for this event. My motivations were: it would fall on my 55th birthday, age grouping up, it would be an "easy" podium. This assumed, of course, that registering for the race would motivate me to get back into Hill Junkie training mode with lots of VOmax and LT work on the bike. None of this silly trekking through the woods BS! This could be my last chance to climb this Rock Pile as a local too. Don't want to go too much into it here, but Cathy and I are at an inflection point in our lives and thinking about new possibilities.

So did registering for the race motivate me to train? Heck no! Every time I tried to get into a periodic structured routine of interval work like I used to do, it quickly fell apart. I started hiking in the mountains a couple years ago and it grew on me. Nearly half of my outdoor time is now spent on low to moderate intensity treks through the mountains. I use poles, primarily for going down. Hiking brings considerable balance to the body, meaning you bring so many more muscle groups into play than highly imbalanced cycling does. I like it mostly for getting away from people and cars, although many hikes require sucky drives. You definitely get more top of the world experiences hiking than you can cycling. So much more terrain to explore when ditching the bike.

I have been out to Mt Monadnock to run up to the summit three times this summer. That is intensely aerobic, or anaerobic I should say. Perhaps that would help maintain some semblance of peak fitness on the bike, I hoped.

Needless to say, as Rock Pile day arrived, I knew my finishing time was going to be less than stellar. I didn't really care and wasn't going to let it bother me. I did rest well all week and felt great warming up. The temp was mild but humidity was quite high. The weather was decidedly better than predicted just a day or two earlier, almost perfect even.

There were some seriously fast guys called up to the line, like Phil Gaimon, who many may know. Lot of familiar faces in the elite top notch wave, many new faces too. The eardrum popping cannon goes off. I made certain I didn't go out too hard.

The race starts around 1500ft elevation, and by 3000ft, it felt like I slid backwards through the entire top notch field. Hmmm, that never happened before. It was borderline oppressively humid out, but I did not sense thermal overload yet. I just didn't have the goods I normally do.

By 4000ft, riders from the next age group wave started passing me. Hmmm, that doesn't usually happen either. I kinda threw in the towel at that point. Why kill myself for 12th place and many minutes slower than my previous finish? The climb became much more manageable then.

One thing I realized is that the same gears you use when posting 65 minute finish aren't adequate when you slog up much slower. I was forced out of saddle in many places in my lowest gear just to keep the pedals turning. Oops. I have lower combinations to put on that bike, just didn't think it necessary. I've been using the same bike for this for about 16 years now, my Trek 5900.

I reached a point in the climb where panic set in. What if I don't even make top notch time of 1:20? My pace was so far off that it was conceivable.

I reached the finish in 1:14:55, my slowest ever, having to go all the way back to 2000, my first climb as a complete noob on inappropriately geared bike. Think I was still a bit heavier back then too.

Below my 13 Mt Washington race result times are plotted vs. my age. First race was back in 2000, through today's race in 2017. Pretty amazing really, how consistent I was through all those years, posting my fastest just a few years ago at 51. In 2014 at 52, I commented in my training log about losing focus in training and it showed. That was nothing compared to this year! Age will eventually dictate a decline though. Maybe it starts mentally, not wanting to push that hard all the time. I think the only way I feel my age right now is it takes longer to recover from a long, hard weekend of activities.

Add to this the six practice climbs I did over the years, I've ridden a bike up Mt Washington 19 times now. 90,000ft of climbing without rewarding descent!  I've hiked it at least six times and ran up it last year for the foot race. That is at least 26 times self-powered up to the summit. I have never taken powered transportation to the summit.

The summit was a party atmosphere as it always is for this event. The weather up top was spectacular, steady 7mph wind, high 50's, mostly sunny, and stunning cloud formations.

A couple fast guys in my age group didn't show up, so back at the bottom I was shocked to see I still made the podium (2nd) with that finish. Normally you'd have to be much faster than 1:15 in 55+ age group to ensure a podium spot. Wish my friend Brett could have been there. He trained well for this race, would almost certainly have knocked me down a step. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with anaplasmosis this week, a nasty tick borne disease. So many people are getting tick borne diseases this summer. Scary.

The catered Hart's turkey lunch was awesome as always. Real mashed potatoes, squash, stuffing, carved turkey, couple kinds of salad, rolls and real butter, and ice cream. Overall a great day talking with great peeps. Many from Colorado come out for this event. Who knows, if I find myself in Colorado five years from now, maybe I'll come back on my 60th birthday.

Myself pushing up finishing 22% grade

Almost there

Dying coming up to the timing mat

A lot of cars, but none of the overflow lots were used this year. Race did not sell out, first time since I've been doing this since 2000.

The finishing chicane, mostly above the clouds

So many to cheer you on over the last 200 meters

Like the TdF, spectators chalk out their rider's names

Summit area will be filled in as racers finish

Tuckerman Ravine appeared to be a cauldron of clouds all day

Summit crowd will give you the boost to get up that 22% grade section!

The Nelson Crag trail I hiked across the weekend before in zero visibility, frigid temps, 60-70mph wind. None of that today.

Winds holding steady around 7mph. Warmest at 3300ft.

Cathy and I with Tuckerman Ravine in background

Boott Spur on other side of Tuckerman Ravine. Hike over that last weekend too.

Monadnock: It's Like Wednesday Night Worlds without the Bike

I found a new midweek workout to get my hurt on. This summer, Soups and others have been meeting at Mt Monadnock state park on Wednesday nights for a run up the White Dot Trail to the summit. In case you've never hiked Monadnock, it is steep and scrambly. The term "run" is used loosely. The last half of the climb is slow motion hands and feet death slog.

What is so cool about it is in minutes, you pop out above tree line, and it is like whoa, how did I get this high so fast?! On a week night, there are very few others on what is normally a severely crowded trail on weekends.  The White Dot Trail gains about 1800ft to the 3165ft summit. My fastest so far is 32 and a half minutes.

A diverse cast of characters come out for this craziness. Coach Kathy from the Dublin school sometimes joins with her Nordic ski juniors. I haven't had a chance to meet her yet. Some of the kids are fit!

From the state park HQ at the bottom, the climb starts out harmless enough, actually runnable. Then it pitches up at an angle that makes your neck hurt to look at it. All semblance of running disappears. Breathing goes to max and you settle into a pace just below VOmax. It is both an individual time trial and a sprint race against the others. Some excel on the gnarly or downhill spots, others like myself do better just grinding out obscenely steep slab pitches. Just try not to hurl upon reaching the summit in front of the few people that are up there, wondering why you are staggering and breathing so hard. Fun times! Upon recovering on the summit with its 360 panoramic view, I can't help but think how fortunate I am to still feel this great in my mid-50's.

The hands get put to good use, and sticky rubber soles are pretty much mandatory if you want to take the fast "A-lines." This is where approach shoes like the Scarpa Cruz or La Sportiva TX3 prove very helpful. I've tried both now, and I think the Scarpa's have slight advantage.

It is a bit of a pain in the ass to get over there at peak rush hour from work, but its so much more rewarding that doing the same three minute climbs by the office for midweek intensity work.  I hope to do this more often. Wonder how it will prep me for the Mt Washington bicycle hillclimb next month? At this point, I'm not going to stress over that at all. This year will likely be my last racing a bike up the Rock Pile, right on my 55th birthday. Maybe a subject for another post...

Anyway, I'll leave you with a few pics from this week's blast to the summit.

Soups reaching the summit

Only three of us this week, Soups, myself and Isaac

Soups sporting a halo

Night glow settling in to the east with the Packs and Wapack range

Soups in the Pumpelly "cave." Soups hadn't been there before so I showed him on the way down. Pretty easy to find now with 0.25mi herd path beaten down along the ledge it sits on

And there was a monster blueberry bush at the cave...

Yum yum

Top side of the cave. Looks like original tin or some kind of tin alloy

Taking the steepest trail on the mountain back down, Spellman. It is practically straight down!

Genotyping for the Masses

I remember in the 1990's when the first genome of an organism was mapped out. It was a pretty big deal. It wasn't much later the whole human genome was mapped. DNA sequencing and genotyping continues to get faster and cheaper. Genotyping, determining the specific genetic variants a person possesses, has become cheap enough to draw curiosity seekers in.

Many companies now provide ancestry analysis. Spit in a tube, and for a hundred bucks we'll tell you how many hundreds of years ago that 0.5% Mongolian entered the blood line. Or no, you really don't have Native American DNA. Hundreds of thousands have pursued this curiosity now.

Some companies offer much more for additional cost. 23andMe has a traits and wellness option that looks at numerous traits. The normal, obvious stuff, like eye color, but also less obvious stuff like sensitivity to caffeine and sleep habits. 23andMe nailed these last two for me. I tend towards heavier caffeine consumption than average coffee drinkers and I am not a deep sleeper. These DNA traits do not play well together and thus I really should curb or suspend caffeine consumption.

A host of carrier diseases that can be passed on to your offspring are also tested. Prospective parents might be interested in this. All of mine came back negative. One concern I have is that as we become more comfortable moving around in our genome, it will also become easier to tinker with it. Designer babies? It may already be happening. Huge moral implications here. We think climate change is a threat to our species...

A couple tests that 23andMe performed came with a warning and an opt-in or opt-out. These are early onset Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease. Some people may not want to know they are going to go batty at an early age. There is also the issue that once you know this information, it could be treated as a pre-existing condition for insurance purposes and you could be denied coverage or forced to pay a much higher premium. I opted to not be told the results of these two tests for now, a decision I can change later if I want. The raw data is there.

I already know my ancestry going back many generations (northwest European). I could care less if my DNA says I can tell my pee smells funny after eating asparagus. Yes, this is one of the tests. Everybody's pee smells funny, but I had no idea some people are genetically incapable of detecting this. I sure can. So why did I plunk down some cash for this silliness?

I recently learned 23andMe checks the so-called "sprint gene." The gene is called ACTN3, and variants of it code muscle composition. Anecdotal evidence for a long time has suggested I'm a fast twitcher. I was never curious enough to find out for sure by getting a muscle biopsy. Carve a piece of my quad out? No thanks! Spitting in a tube seemed much easier and less painful.

It is ironic that I have fast twitch traits yet shun activities where fast twitch prevails. I'm thinking stick and ball sports, track, or even criterium races in cycling.  I like the long distance endurance activities, such as multi-hour bike and ski races. I tend to ride and train with other athletes that are stronger than I in endurance efforts. I can out-gun them in a 5-30 minute effort, but go past a few hours, I get buried.

Another indication I'm fast-twitched is in caloric consumption. I eat much more than my presumably slow-twitched companions. We go on trips, weigh about the same, do the same rides burning the same calories, yet I replenish with far more calories and still lose weight. Fast twitch muscle is much less efficient in producing power than slow twitch. I feel a bit cursed in this regard, but some of my friends feel cursed with slow twitch.

23andMe makes your full, raw data available online. You can browse by gene name, by traits or even chromosome. Scary how much info is there. They don't sequence your entire genome, only parts of interest, but still a huge amount of data.

Below is screen shot from my results at 23andMe of the ACTN3 variation that encodes a specific muscle protein. There are three possibilities here:

• T/T - no working copies
• C/T - one working copy
• C/C - two working copies

I have C/C, two working copies.  Doubly blessed (or cursed) with fast twitch!

So what does this mean? It's not rare. Nearly 30% of those from European descent inherit C/C. Some areas of Africa see closer to 100% of this genotype represented. That phrase "white men can't jump," well, there's a genetic basis for it right here in this gene, the fast twitch gene. What is rare, however, is somebody with no working copies, the T/T variant, reaching high levels of competition in sprint or power type competition. You must have this gene to climb that last couple percent in performance to compete at a world-class level.

So going forward, does this change anything for me? No, not really.  I'm not about to start weight training and racing crits. I already know I don't excel in several hour long events. One of the side benefits of possessing the C/C genotype is that muscle tissue with this protein is more resistant to breakdown from abuse. I now understand better why my body seems to tolerate weeks upon weeks of junky volume better than others. I will continue to engage in activities that are fun, clear the head and provide a balanced fitness.