We drove up to Colorado Springs, CO area for our grandson's birthday this weekend and stayed in Manitou Springs Sunday night. I got up at 6:00 and got ready for a run half way up Pikes Peak to Barr Camp and back. What a great run. The temperature was wonderful in the low 50's for this run. The further up the mountain I ran the more I got into the clouds, a beautiful scene. Running up the 3 miles of the W's was a great reminder of the relentless up, up, up that the W's are so famous for. It was a great reminder of how this mountain wears on muscles an tests your conditioning. It tested mine today. I caught up with a guy, Carl Olson, from the Colorado Springs area and ran with him most of the way up to Barr Camp. He is training for the half marathon Pikes Peak Ascent in August, his 7th one. It was good to work with him. Even after the W's the mountain still goes up, up, up except for part of a mile through the saddle where the trail flattens out. I monitored my heart rate on this ascent to Barr Camp and basically kept it in the mid 150's, under control pretty good. During the race last year through the W's the heart rate was in the low 170's and I noted that my ascent time to Barr Camp was comparable with last year's ascent to that point, so I think this may be a good sign. After taking a short break at Barr Camp I headed back down the trail and pushed it at a strong pace most of the way basically simulating race day pacing. It was interesting to note the heart rate on the descent averaging in the mid to low 130's, so the limiting factor on the descent is not the heart condition at all, but it is the condition of the legs after doing the uphill climb to over 14,000 feet elevation during the race. Today at Barr Camp the elevation was 10,200 feet so it is not as much a limiting factor as the full ascent to the summit. My ascent time to Barr Camp from the trail head was 1 hr 50 min which is very respectable based on my previous years training. The descent down from Barr Camp to the trail head was 1 hr 9 min which is 1 minute faster than I have done that part of the trail in training runs over the past 2 years. Then I ran on down into town and down to the motel to join the family. Then we drove over to Palmer Park and did a 2 mile run with my granddaughter and grandson. A great day of running.
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