My post to track hard running efforts on some of Missoula's best runs. My times are laughably slow by elite runner standards, but I like having some notes to look back on over the years.
LITTLE ST JOE - 5,400 vertical feet
Route: From Bass creek parking lot, straight up the ridge to the summit. Avoid private land at the first road switchback on the North.
9/28/18: I parked at the Charles Water trailhead and warmed up on the road to the Bass trailhead. I did not have a HR monitor, but set out walking off trail up the ridge at something a little above marathon pace. I used poles and walked the majority of the climb, and it was quite enjoyable. I need to double check some elevations, but I might have started too fast, since think I slowed down a lot in the last half hour. The larch are fully yellow up high, and it is a beautiful time to be in the high country, if not for only a few hypoxic minutes. I did pretty well staying on the route on the upper mountain, then also did pretty well running efficiently on the steep climber trail back to the car. I got a little too close to the edge of bonking, and probably lost a little time being woozey near the the beginning of the descent, but I picked up steam the whole way down. A rogue calf cramp was just severe enough to put me 12 seconds over my time goal. I didn't push as hard as possible, and could have taken more chances on the technical downhill running, so I think there is room for small improvement in my time. That being said, I think I had a better performance here than at the Rut.
Splits: First SB: 13, Trailhead: 37, Upper saddle: 1.11, Summit 1.36, Upper saddle outbound: 1.55, Trailhead outbound: 2.19, Car 2.30.12
SHEEP - out and back from Woods 18.5 mi and about 4,800 v.f.
9/1/2016 : It is almost comical to bill my Sheep mountain times as fast, as the standard cadre of fast Missoula runners could clip this run off in sub 3 hours without working too hard. In any case, I shaved another two minutes off my time today. I went out at a full race pace and hoped for the best. I was right on my previous splits the entire climb, but had to work disconcertingly hard to hold the pace. I didn't stop for a break at the top, and was soon cruising at my fastish and smoothish hard pace back to the car. I climbed to blue point a minute ahead of last time and kept things rolling a razor edge below the cramp threshold. I made it out totally spent and passed the evening holding sam on the couch, drinking liter after liter of water. It will be hard to go faster without better fitness. This was my first hard post-fatherhood effort, and it felt good to clean out the engine a bit. 3.10.46
LITTLE ST JOE - 5,400 vertical feet
Route: From Bass creek parking lot, straight up the ridge to the summit. Avoid private land at the first road switchback on the North.
9/28/18: I parked at the Charles Water trailhead and warmed up on the road to the Bass trailhead. I did not have a HR monitor, but set out walking off trail up the ridge at something a little above marathon pace. I used poles and walked the majority of the climb, and it was quite enjoyable. I need to double check some elevations, but I might have started too fast, since think I slowed down a lot in the last half hour. The larch are fully yellow up high, and it is a beautiful time to be in the high country, if not for only a few hypoxic minutes. I did pretty well staying on the route on the upper mountain, then also did pretty well running efficiently on the steep climber trail back to the car. I got a little too close to the edge of bonking, and probably lost a little time being woozey near the the beginning of the descent, but I picked up steam the whole way down. A rogue calf cramp was just severe enough to put me 12 seconds over my time goal. I didn't push as hard as possible, and could have taken more chances on the technical downhill running, so I think there is room for small improvement in my time. That being said, I think I had a better performance here than at the Rut.
Splits: First SB: 13, Trailhead: 37, Upper saddle: 1.11, Summit 1.36, Upper saddle outbound: 1.55, Trailhead outbound: 2.19, Car 2.30.12
SHEEP - out and back from Woods 18.5 mi and about 4,800 v.f.
9/1/2016 : It is almost comical to bill my Sheep mountain times as fast, as the standard cadre of fast Missoula runners could clip this run off in sub 3 hours without working too hard. In any case, I shaved another two minutes off my time today. I went out at a full race pace and hoped for the best. I was right on my previous splits the entire climb, but had to work disconcertingly hard to hold the pace. I didn't stop for a break at the top, and was soon cruising at my fastish and smoothish hard pace back to the car. I climbed to blue point a minute ahead of last time and kept things rolling a razor edge below the cramp threshold. I made it out totally spent and passed the evening holding sam on the couch, drinking liter after liter of water. It will be hard to go faster without better fitness. This was my first hard post-fatherhood effort, and it felt good to clean out the engine a bit. 3.10.46
2016 Splits: Three Larch road: 23; Top of first hill: 44; Blue Point: 1.14; Top of next to last hill; 1.44; summit 1.52. Blue point on return: 2.24; Top of first hill downhill: 1.45; Woods 3.10.45
Sheep bike
9/23/21: Biking is faster. I went pretty darn hard, felt like I had even splits, biked down quite fast, and generally had a clean outing. But cracking 3 hours must be possible
2021 Splits: Three Larch road: 25; Top of first hill: 47; Blue Point: 1.22; Top of next to last hill; 1.52; summit 2.04. Blue point on return: 2.35; Top of first hill downhill: 1.45; Woods 3.01.00
SENTINEL - Sentinel Hill climb
I have not been able to challenge my time since fall 2013. My best time was running with Doug Brinkerhoff the week after the inaugural Rut. We pushed each other to the point of breaking. 23.45
SENTINEL - My favorite run
Route: Up to North Sentinel however you like. Down to Hellgate saddle, Up and down Radio Tower via Chopsticks/Ridge trail. Out Hellgate. Good in either direction, but I think this is the fastest. Good steep run. I absolutely love it and much prefer it to the Pengelly Double dip course. Start and stop is at the Kim Williams bridge near the Adams Center.
5/2015 - I have slowly chipped away at my time over the years, and was surprised to best it this year. I out at a tempo run pace (HR in low 170s) and topped out on Sentinel around 26.30. I don't remember my split to the top, but it was probably just under 55. More notably, I was hang on to the tempo run pace. I hit it hard on the downhill, keeping the HR around 165. I did have to stop a few times to stretch out my calves, since they were in a two week period of being problematic, but otherwise the whole thing went off about as fast as possible. In the end, I shaved about 3 minutes off my time, mainly on the Radio Tower climb and Hellgate descent. 1.24.59
UNIVERSITY - Bike
9/10/21 Route: Up Pattee Canyon, then up the road to the Beacon and reverse.
Tried to beat my 2020 mountain bike time on a gravel bike. Interestingly, I wasn't any faster climbing on a gravel bike, but made up enough time flying down the road to end up with a faster outing. I am slowly getting better at pushing on a bike as hard as running, but since I wasn't cramping, I could probably go faster. Still felt like a solid time for me. 1.21.30
Splits: Top of Pattee road: 24; Turnout before last climb: 45?; Start of last climb: 50; Summit 1.01
JUMBO - Ascent via L
10/27/2015 - I have done a few Jumbo time trials this summer, and have not been able to bese my previous time, but I still haven't had an all-out, hurting bottom to top effort. This time I just pinned it from the bottom and held on, which yielded a new best time, if only by a mere 10 seconds. I have had mixed results with speed work over the past few months, but occasionally I am feeling good, and today was a good example. I was rested and my body responded favorably to the stiff pace, so this will be a hard one to beat without better fitness. 22.41
STUART - out and back from the Corridor
Route - Out and back from the main trailhead and Spring Gulch. Stay on the trail the whole way. Start and stop at the main Rattlesnake trailhead.
8-2015 I had a good hard go at running Stuart Peak for time the other day. I still contend a mountain bike is the best tool for cruising around in the Rattlesnake, but irregaurdless, Stuart is still a great long run.
 |
| Twin lakes and the Rattlesnake from Stuart. |
I have been trying to avoid long hard efforts in favor of smarter training tactics, but I went for it anyway, had a blast, and perhaps honed in my pacing strategy for the Rut 25K. A quick recovery is also yet another encouraging indicator that I am finally fully recovered from the Beaverhead race. After 5 mins of warmup jogging, I was able to sustain a near-skimo race effort for the duration of the run, and was surprised to have enough gas in the tank to run the last few miles at near threshold effort. I returned to the car in a magnificent state of fatigue.
Not in contention to challenge Adam Peterman's FKT (2.08 as of 9/2020, and I think he can go a lot faster), but a good solid personal effort, and a good confidence boost leading up to the Rut. Splits: Overlook trail outbound 39 mins, Upper culvert crossing: 59 mins, Wilderness boundary; 1.23?; Stuart summit 1.45; Wilderness inbound 2.01; Upper crossing 2.14; Overlook outbound 2.24. CTC 2.50.30.
Bike/run 8/20/20: I biked to the Wilderness boundary and ran the peak from there. I like this outing a lot better than running because it is so much fun flying out the flat corridor on a bike. I had a nice smooth outing and definitely got tired, but I think that I should have tried a little harder on the bike up. I could probably also bike down faster, but I really try to be good about not scaring runners and hikers. Technically, this time has an asterisk because I saw a black bear on the bike back down and stopped the watch for the ~2 minutes that I spent negotiating the encounter.
Splits: Overlook outbound: 36 minutes. Upper Crossing: 58, Wilderness boundary 1:24; Stuart summit 1.45.30; Wilderness inbound 2:04; Overlook outbound: 2.20; trailhead 2.32.30.
BLUE MOUNTAIN - Deadman Loop
Route: Loop up Deadman trail and down through the Recreation area. There isn't really a clear fastest direction. When running for time, I cut a lot of switchbacks on the recreation trail above the recreation area on a combination of game trails and old timber units.
9/17/2015: I chased my 2013 time on Blue Mountain. I consider fall 2013/Winter 2014 the time when I was in the best shape ever, so any improvements in time would have to come from better pacing, downhill running, and dialing the route. After playing it perhaps too conservatively at the Rut 25K, I went ahead and ran out hard from the car, slowly ramping up until my HR was around 170. I did the run in reverse from past efforts, climbing Deadman and descending the horse recreation trail. I think it is faster in this direction according to the climb-ladders, descend-ramps theory, but the routefinding is trickier. In any case, My HR faded from 170 to an average around 164 over the course of the climb. I saw a few motorbikers as per usual, but they were adequately polite, and it was nice to chat with them for a few seconds on the summit.
My legs were surprisingly jankey from the outset, and they were already a little hammered by the time I started the descent. I ran the descent hardish, with HR 140 – 155 depending on the technicality of the descent. I cut a lot of switchbacks in this direction above the main recreation area cross country and on climbers trails. I had a few minor calf cramps on the descent, not enough to have to stop, but enough to validate I had put in a hard uphill effort. In any case I ran out to the car in 2.14.40, just below my previous 2.18 best. I think there is some room for improvement. 2.10 is realisic, sub-2 would require better fitness.
Splits: Leave 2.14? trail 11.30. Start up Deadman – 23?; Summit 1.24; Road in Recreation area 1.57.
MURPHY PEAK + POINT 6 - From Snowbowl
Route: Start and end at the waterbar at the edge of the Snowbowl parking lot. I think the quickest route is straight up Sunrise bowl, Second Thought road, then straight up Spartan headwall, then straight up the steep trails to the road just below Lavelle, and out to the Burgundy ridge, then along the ridge to Murphy. Reverse the route, but tag Point 6 on the way back. This is a fun mini taste of alpine close to town, and it feels shorter than it is because it is broken enough that you are forced to get good rests.
9/28/22 - Pushing hard right in the middle of a self imposed break from intensity work was probably stupid, but the day fit in my schedule, and it was great fun. I beat my 2018 time by not screwing the climb up. I also fueled better, keeping 300 calories/hour going down the hatch, and as a result, I was able to match my return time from Murphy by pushing the ups. Since I haven't been running much, I lost some time on the long quad burning down from Point 6, but still came out ahead in the end.
MURPHY PEAK + POINT 6 - From Snowbowl
Route: Start and end at the waterbar at the edge of the Snowbowl parking lot. I think the quickest route is straight up Sunrise bowl, Second Thought road, then straight up Spartan headwall, then straight up the steep trails to the road just below Lavelle, and out to the Burgundy ridge, then along the ridge to Murphy. Reverse the route, but tag Point 6 on the way back. This is a fun mini taste of alpine close to town, and it feels shorter than it is because it is broken enough that you are forced to get good rests.
9/28/22 - Pushing hard right in the middle of a self imposed break from intensity work was probably stupid, but the day fit in my schedule, and it was great fun. I beat my 2018 time by not screwing the climb up. I also fueled better, keeping 300 calories/hour going down the hatch, and as a result, I was able to match my return time from Murphy by pushing the ups. Since I haven't been running much, I lost some time on the long quad burning down from Point 6, but still came out ahead in the end.
Splits: Top of Spartan - 26: Leave resort - 54; Murphy - 1.21; Point 6; 1.49; Car 2:12:23
No comments:
Post a Comment