Substitute 200k results


The December 6, 2008, Radium Springs 200k Brevet was described as having 4130′ climbing, with elevations ranging from 4000′ to 5300′. My three-day weekend substitute totaled 236k with 11900′ climbing; elevations from 7500′ to 10000′. Not sure if I could have made 200k yesterday, even on relatively flat terrain, at a lower elevation, but I feel ready for a 200k now….well, maybe not tomorrow!

Today, Bonnie and I went for a nice, slow trail run. Then she had a bath and I got on my bike for a couple trips to the top of the pass. I felt surprisingly good on my bike today. Better than yesterday, but there was not much wind until the last few miles. The highway was covered with sand. That slowed my descents.

Yesterday I started to bonk about three hours into my ride. Today I ate a little more frequently and mixed my drink stronger to compensate for drinking less in the cool weather. I felt like I could have kept going….except it was almost dark, and 40F deg, and I was dressed for 60F.

I don’t really expect this little blog series to be very interesting it was for accountability, as Olga wrote about in November.


	Day 	Elapsed Time	Mi   / Km	Elev Ft

	Run/Walk
	Fri	2:20		8    / 12.8	1660
	Sat	2:40		10   / 16	1720
	Sun	1:00		4    / 6.4	840
		----------------------------------------
		6:00		22   / 35	4220 
			
	Cycling
	Fri	2:00		26.3 / 42.3	-- (rollers)
	Sat	4:40		56.6 / 91.1	3480
	Sun	3:45		42.4 / 68.2	4200
		----------------------------------------
		10:25		125.3/201.6	7680

	Total	16:25		147 / 236	11900

Saturday update

This photo is from August. I plugged my phone in to charge this morning and forgot it, so I didn’t get any photos of Bonnie playing in the snow.

Bonnie and I were out for 2:40. Then I got on the bike for 4:40. I forced myself to do the always-windy, 15 mile loop around La Veta twice before I headed back up home. The wind was brutal on the loop today, but calm past mile marker 8 on Highway 12. That part of the ride, down and back, was great.

So my total is 11:40…only 1:20 left, but I am going to try to do 3 hours tomorrow.

13 hours in 3 days

Ok, so it is not really a big goal, but I have to miss the 200k brevet I’d been planning to ride today. I figure the ride would have taken me 12-13 hours, including time-off-the-bike, so my goal for Fri-Sun is 13 hours combined – trail by foot and road (or rollers) by bike. Bonnie and I got in 2:20 on a snowy trail yesterday, then I got on the rollers for 2:00. I don’t think I will get in a total of 200k distance, since I am doing a lot of this on foot, but I will probably beat the total elevation gain of 4130′ even if I do all my riding on rollers.

Time thus far: 4:20
Time to go: 8:40

An amazing runner

She ran the Pike’s Peak Marathon 20 times, from 1975 – 1995.

Annabel Marsh was an amazing woman and an inspiration to me. She’s the oldest woman to run across the continental United States, at 61 years old. She didn’t start running until she was 47 and ran her first marathon at 48!! I was lucky to get to meet her briefly, at her talk with Caroline Merrill before the 2007 Pikes Peak Marathon. The presentation about their 1984 run from Boston to San Francisco was entertaining, energetic and motivating. Annabel died on November 26, 2008. You can read more about her life here.