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Saturday is the race I have been training for this summer, the old Imogene trail race in Telluride, CO. It is a 17.5 mile point-to-point race from the town of Ouray, over the 13,200 foot Imogene pass, to the town of Telluride. I will be running with, well hopefully fairly close to, the fast Naz Alvarez, my trail running friend. Imogene is an alpine mountain race like Pike’s Peak and so takes that high altitude fitness that is hard to come by without some regular above tree-line runs. I have done over 6 in the last several weeks so I should be in good stead for finishing the race and running most of it. I feel very strong currently. I am in the middle of a 2 week taper and my legs feel very strong and loose.
This year I changed my training routine quite a bit. I only ran 3 or 4 times a week and rarely ran on consecutive days. This kept my legs fresh and my hips, glutes, and calves from soreness and tightness that can lead to injury. Last year I ran every day and developed a neuroma and lots of severe tightness that prevented me from racing Imogene. Another thing I did this year was train alone a lot on the trails. I moved to Boulder early this summer so a lot of my early training was done on the Mesa Trail system. In early June I could not run to the top of Bear Peak. By early July I could, and was starting alpine runs. I had a nice gradual progression. I ran Herman Gulch, RMNP, and then 4 runs from the Hesse trailhead to King’s Lake, Devil’s Thumb loop. All these runs except Herman Gulch were by myself. Running by yourself teaches you that core motivation you need to do things like get over mountains fast. It’s also much more relaxing. Perhaps a bit too relaxing, because racing is done in groups and you have to learn how to deal with your nerves as well which running in groups can do. But I feel a lot more confident about the race because of all the solo training and it feels special because I discovered personally alpine running by myself for the most part. Since I listened to my ipod on many of these runs, they will of course be associated with the soundtrack of my training as well, mostly Belle and Sebastian, Hot Chip, White Stripes, Outkast, the Impala Lounge, and a few other things as well as dozens of podcasts such as Backpacking Light, Practical Backpacker and Dan Savage.
See, who says running is boring? You can learn a lot while running with an ipod. Besides, the training was challenging, never dull. The largest thing I took away from it is that I thrive on challenges, as in when I challenge myself on random days to push myself just for the heck of it.
How will I do Saturday? I am in shape to run up that mountain, even though it is a super long 9 mile climb. I am in shape to run down it, I am a good downhiller and will be able to endure the 8 mile descent. There are 2 areas of concern, one is getting over the very top in decent time. The last 1000 feet are brutal and grueling and my strategy is to save enough energy to get over by not running too hard in the lower elevations. The second area of concern is the loose gravel descent. My strategy is take it easy until I get used to it and make sure that I breathe really well and stay very controlled. In general I want to run light and controlled with a strong and smart race attitude. And of course have fun running with Naz, my running partner and other people running the race. Oh yeah, and I want to party afterwards.