Montreat Weekend Fun

I finally was able to escape the boring low lands of the piedmont this weekend and get some real mountain running in on the amazing trails of Montreat.   It was also good to see some good friends once again on the trails.  For Saturday, Mad A had planned a serious Pitchell training route for us that would send us up and down the east and west ridges surrounding the town.  He dubbed it "The Triple Threatdown."  Needless to say this route was brutal, with close to 4000 ft of vertical gain and 4000 ft of loss on 11 or so miles!  Mad A, Jon, William, Damian, Andrew, and myself all went forth from Lake Susan to tackle this beast.  It soon became clear to me that as soon as I started climbing up Rocky Head trail that I wasn't in great mountain running shape.  Although, I still had a blast and coming off a cold probably wasn't helping either.

Sunday, I was suppose to run with Damian, Dave, and Terry 17 miles from the Folk Art Center to Craggy Gardens via the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.  But the 8 am start was a bit too early for me and I didn't make it.  I was pretty bummed too, because that would have been a great run on some unexplored trail on the Pitchell course.  At least I got a few more hours of sleep in and got some more school work done.  I then went back over to Montreat and ran up to the summit of Greybeard Mountain.  The Greybeard trail is phenomenal, especially the old trestle switchback section.  It is a must run trail as is the West Ridge trail I came down back into Montreat.  This was another run was about 12 miles with 3500 ft of gain.  Just amazing mountain running.

Next week, Little Hump Fitness Challenge!

A month has passed...

...and I haven't written a post!  Sorry for all the hold up, but it is really difficult to keep this thing up when you don't have regular access to the web anymore.  Anyway, a lot has happened since my last post and here is a quick break down. 

- I've sweated prefusly running up and down the hellaciously technical trails of Hanging Rock State Park and continued to get more of a tan working at the lake
- I went on a road trip out west for two weeks (helped pace and crew Mike Mason at Hardrock 100)
- Running suffered during the road trip and it was hard to get motivated when I got back because of 95+ temps with near 100% humidity everday, so two weeks with little to no running
- Finally got motivated again and will be attempting first true long run of the summer since RAM this weekend

Well obviously, the road trip is the highlight of the above mentioned list, but there is so much to share and remember to write down that I might be here for hours and would probably soon get so sick of typing a blog that I will never do it again.  I don't want that and maybe you don't either (doubt it, haha).  Anyway, you can check out pics from the trip here by following these links below.  Sorry there isn't more to this post, but maybe I'll have more to share from this weekends adventure next week.

Out West Road Trip '11
Hardrock 2011
Stephen's Rd Trip Photos
Daniel's Out West Photos I
Daniel's Out West Photos II

Quick Check-in

It has been really hard in the recent weeks to find the time to sit down and right a new post.  I just started a new job at Hanging Rock State Park and I have no internet were I am living at in the park, so you can see why things have been a laging a bit.  Even today, I am busy visiting family and friends on my day off, but I at least thought I could give a quick update on what has been going on in the past 3 weeks. 

1.  I am really enjoying the new job and have great co-workers.  I've been swimming and getting a sweet sun tan pretty much everyday.  Plus, I've got great trails to run in the park, with plenty of vertical.  My runs have been inconsistent and of shorter length because of the heat lately, but I can defintely tell an improvement in my running just because of how tough everything is at the park.  It's pretty hard to run easy runs when almost every trail is straight up or straight down on some of the most technical terrain you've ever seen.  It has been a blast though!

2.  I finally ran RAM (Roan Adventure Marathon) this year with the good folks of WNC Trail Runner.  This is the run that caught my attention and made me want to join the group and it provided everything I expected and bit more too.  The plan was to run this 28-29 milish run in around 6 hours.  On the way out, I ran 2:36 and never felt like I was pushing myself as I was chating with Scott Williams almost the entire way.  The scenery was outstainding as it always is though my favorite section of trail I've ran to date.  I pushed myself back up Hump Mtn to try and catch up with Adam and Jeremy and that is where things started to turn downhill.  I'm pretty positive that consuming two gels that had been sitting in my car for three weeks, being reheated on a daily basis, were the colprit to my feeling of illness the last 10 miles of the run.  I was forced to walk everything from that point on because my stomach would cramp up something fierce and my kidneys were screaming in pain.  It ended up taking my 5 hours to return back to the start.   I stuck with Damian on most of the return, as we were both having some issues.  At one point, I even began to get scared for my life, but I filthy water source and the sight of round bald 2 miles ahead rejuvinated me just enough to push it to the finish.  It took me a good 30 minutes of laying in the parking lot with a cold wet towel drapped across my body while Hannah hand fed my salty chips before I came back to life.  I'm glad I survived this one and I can't wait to take the lessons I learned from this years race and come back next year and get that sub-6 hour finish!

3.  I got to help out the Grand Kirk (Matt Kirk) on his MST thru hike journey as he stayed at my place in the park a hundred yards of the trail.  The Grand Kirk was looking strong and had pushed 49 miles through the last mountain range on the trail to get to my place for some brews, food, and shelter.  I woke up early the next morning to join him for the last 5 miles out of the Sauratown mountains.  Like, I said, he is looking strong and there is no doubt that he will be finsishing ahead of schedule and enjoying his break from the mounatins for at least a little while.  Check out this page to see daily updates on how his progress is going: http://runthemst.wikispaces.com/

Until next time...