Colorado - High Altitude Camp 2014 - Days 1-3

I had the opportunity to go to Estes Park for a week. I love Colorado, so I was not going to pass it up.

Friday we drove to western Kansas.

Saturday morning we drove to Colorado. 

Within an 30 minutes of unloading my stuff, we were already heading out on a trail run. The nice thing about Estes is the Rocky Mountains are right there. We took a trail off Trail Ridge Road.

Sunday

Sunday morning I met up with my buddy Mark and a new friend Alan for a trail run. We met up with the Estes Park Trail Runners and went out to Cow Creek Trailhead. From there we did the out and back to Bridal Veil Fallls, and the added on a couple extra miles. Mark was saying he was still tired from the marathon he ran the week before...but he sure put the hurt on, on the way up to the falls.

Sunday afternoon I had my first real mountain biking experience. Mark took me out on a trail and it was rough. A lot of up/downhill and "ballsy" sections... Great for a first timer...right? Riding up to 9000+ feet sure made for an interesting time. I was starting to get a little too comfortable descending and I flipped over my handlebars on a technical downhill section. It was awesome! Let's just say I am in love with mountain biking!

Monday

I had my first swim in Estes on Monday. The pool is located at 8,000ft. I did my normal warm up and was about 6 seconds/100yds slower during the warm up. For my main set so did 2x[10x100 on :15 RI]. I was able to come within about 3 seconds of my normal times...but it was not pretty. I felt tired and could definitely tell the difference between CO and IL.

In the afternoon I met up with Mark and Alan again for a trail run. It was supposed to be the Twin Owls Loop from the Lumpy Ridge Trailhead - maybe 11 miles. I am not the best with directions and ended up going way off course. I finished with 13 miles...and 2:26 run time. So that ended up being my longest duration run...ever. I'm not so sure I really ran everything - there were some pretty wicked hikes out of some sections. Either way that was a lot of time on my feet.

The log run was fueled by a new product I am trying called ViFuel. It is made lin Estes Park. It would be along the same lines of most energy gels, except better. They taste great (Maple Bacon is my favorite...and saved me 2 hours into the run) and they go down so smooth!

Anyway. The Monday log run may have been a little (or a lot long) but it has been fun so far. Can't wait to see what other exciting things happen in the next 5 days of CO! Thanks for reading and have a great   week!