Like this? Follow me:
Saturday 3/1/25: Rest
Sunday 3/2/25: Longs Peak via Cables with Drew
After last Tuesday’s shutdown Drew and I both peeped the forecast, which looked much better and penciled in Sunday for another go. Weather turned out to be pretty much perfect — toasty, even! — and Drew made light work up Cables. I recorded the temperature at the summit at 53F, which is quite astounding. I’ve been on the summit in summer in more frigid conditions.
Monday 3/3/25: Rest
Tuesday 3/4/25: StairMaster
Split workout (theme for the week. Morning was 1/2hr at L9, then 1/2 hour at L8. I can’t hold Z2 at L9 (yet?), so I drop down to keep the HR down too. Average HR is ~134 which is higher than my LT2 the last time I tested it, but I’m wondering if my HR at LT2 has moved up.
Later, 1hr at L7, which is well within Z2 by 15bpm.
Wednesday 3/5/25 Green Mountain, Easy Treadmill
Early afternoon, made it to Green Mountain for a chill hike up via E.M. Greenman. Gave it a little gas going down for my third faster ever. A little surprising, as trail conditions weren’t great and I wasn’t very fresh. But downhill has less to do with fitness and more to do with coordination, which is why I haven’t really focused on trying to go fast down (only up).
In the evening, did a easy job on the treadmill 3mph @ 14% for an hour.
Thursday 3/6/25: StairMaster
Before work, I managed to squeak in a small SM workout, 30 min @ Level 9. Afterwards, I came back for an hour at level 7. Total stories: 410 (155, 255).
Friday 3/7/25: Spin, Bouldering
Pretty wiped from a 9hr work day and the rest of the week’s training — in the morning I tried to jog up 5 flights of stairs and failed — so quick 1hr spin. Afterwards, sampled some of the new bouldering set, but only was on it for an hour or so.
Saturday 3/8/25: Rest
Sunday 3/9/25: Rest
Monday 3/10/25: Rest
13 hour work day (so much for “resting”), so I was pretty gassed to try to do something. Frustrating I couldn’t get out to do anything.
Tuesday 3/11/25: Run to Gym, StairMaster, bouldering
Ran to/from the gym, around 6.3 mi. Note very noteworthy, but this is the first time I’ve actually ran outside on flat pavement/concrete since November 12th of last year, where I messed up my hamstring a few days/weeks before on a 10lb weighted single leg dead lift. Thankfully, it seems to be getting better — certainly not 100%, but I’ll be staying away from heel hooks for a little while.
Quick bouldering session afterwards — an hour seems so short these days. Got a V4 I hadn’t done before — weird one.
Wednesday 3/12/25: Run Commute, StairMaster
Ran to/from the coffee to work, a little over 8.5 mi, 9:45min/mi. 135bpm and 500′ gain. I’ve decided that if I want to grab coffee at this shop, I’ll have to run there.
Later, went to the gym for SM 8 at 135bpm.
Thursday 3/13/25: Green Mountain, TM, Bouldering
Run up Green, felt pretty tired, but just wanted to get out. Gave it a little gas on a few parts on the downhill just trying to find fast, efficient lines. Also demo’d the Prodigio Pros to see if they’d work on such technical terrain — they’re great.
Afterwards, went to the gym to get another 30 minutes of running in (@ 14%). I’m kinda digging the split workouts way more than I thought I would. Then, bouldered for an hour or so. Got a V6 on the new set, not my favorite problem in the world. Looks like climbing is on the backburner again, but I’m not going to completely stop this year, like I did last. I missed it too much! Time constraints though aren’t going to hurt any real progression, but hopefully I can maintain.
Friday 3/14/25: Rest
Saturday 3/15/25: Rest
Sunday 3/16/25: Rest
I forget why this is such a big rest period — it’s a good chance I just had a crazy work schedule.
Monday 3/17/25: Bouldering/Stairmaster/Workout
Short bouldering session, mostly just did a tour of V6’s, not sensationally inspired by anything. Afterwards, on the SM at L8 for I was hoping an hour, but the power went out, so I got around 30 minutes in. I hung around a bit, thinking how ridiculous it was to hope the power would come back on to climb my fake mountain, when I have perfectly mountains outside. I eventually gave up and did a short workout: 3×30 single leg step ups, then 3×30 single leg bulgarian squats, and packed it up
Tuesday 3/18/25: Running/StairMaster
Simple day today, run to/from the gym a bit over 6 miles. Then SM for an hour at 7. Sore from yesterday’s minor workout — ugh!
Wednesday 3/19/25: Running/StairMaster/Bouldering
Ran to/from the gym. Short run there, then took almost an hour to get back home — a little over 7 miles total, easy pace. At the gym, SM @ 8 for an hour, then bouldering for an hour. Good new set thrown up. An hour still feels like the warmup is over — miss climbing, I guess. Still f’n sore from Monday — ugh!
Thursday 3/20/25: Spin, 2hr
Felt pretty tired, so thought an easy spin would be the right call.
Friday 3/21/25: Rest
I had plans, but then I feel asleep and woke up too late to really do anything substantial. Seems I need a reset. …tomorrow!
Saturday 3/22/25: Green Mountain Time Trials
The goal was to do a fast time up, be happy I’m making progress on my goal to lifetime PR my round trip on Green Mountain (~58 minutes), take a small break on the summit, and go fairly fast down. The idea is that as I get closer to when I want to make my attempt, I’ll have put the “up” and “down” pieces together.
Up went fairly middling. Time up was 45:38 — not the way I want to be going. My time way back in Dec. 25th was 45:08, so in the 3 months I’ve been training, I’ve slowed by 30 seconds. The strangest part of all this is that I honestly felt much faster. I was very obviously noticing that I was running sections of the trail I hadn’t months before. I was thinking back to the last time I had run some parts of these trails, and it must had been years ago. I checked my time on the top and was extremely confused. But clock time doesn’t lie; I must have slowed way down somewhere.
So training-wise, seems I should do some serious speed work — 30/30’s — and hope it’s enough work in the next month (debatable) and then strategize on just what I should run and what I should hike. If I’m hiking as fast as I’m running… why run? Run the runnable parts just faster.
Somewhat deflated at the top (and tired from the effort!) I still managed to mop myself back up to give it a good go on the downhill. Other than some ice lugeing near the Range/West Ridge junction, conditions couldn’t have been better. Surprised myself with my third fastest time down ever — 24:16 –still a few minutes slower than my best and I guess a nice consolation prize for the day. I’m warmed at least by the fact that if I put these two times together: 45:08 and 24:16 I squeak down a roundtrip in < an hour. If I can’t beat my PR from a decade ago, it looks like I could at least do a sub hour roundtrip in a month without too much trouble.
Sunday 3/23/25: Bouldering, 1hr
Rest day mostly (deflated). Good bouldering sess, but 1hr just feels like a warmup. Nabbed a nice old school V6 w/small edges at the buzzer.
Monday 3/24/25: easy run
Run to the coffee shop and back; a little over 5 miles, Z2
Tuesday 3/25/25: Bouldering, 1hr
Alright session, nothing crazy but happy to be on the blocs.
No running today, restin’ up!
Wednesday 3/26/25: Ride to Shavano
Ugh — big pack! Riding from Salida to the Shavano TH — I’m alway surprised at the elevation gain (2500’+). Because of the Snow drift a few miles from the trailhead, I had the place all to myself. Mild conditions for May — and not a ton of snow on those peaks.
Thursday 3/27/25: Jones Peak, Jones West, Tabeguache, Shavano, Espirit
Wonderful time up high, swishing the Shavano Halo as it be, as I get back into form. The Winter in the Sawatch has been particularly mild and it certainly felt like May up there. Giving my goals for the year, I want to spend as much time in the Sawatch as humanly possible. I had no real interest in doing the standard or Angel route on Shavano, but I dredged up a different plan I hatched last year that I literally was packed and ready to go on, but a storm rolled in and ruined my plans.
From the Shavano TH, I headed up the east ridge of Jones Peak, summited that and West Jones, then to Tabeguache, Shavano, Espirit, and down the east ridge of Espirit. A righteous tour. A little too much snow descending — I should have chosen the southern of the two forks of the ridge by treeline, as the northern more fork was very snowy — talkin’ up to my hips in terribly wet and loose snow. I should have known better! Instead I sort of bee-lined it to the trailhead inadvertently, with much bushwhacking. Anyways, all worked out in the end. Pretty fun. Great scrambling up Jones Peak and between West Jones — wish there was more!
Friday 3/28/25: CT/Shavano, ride back to Salida
Another early day, but an easy one. I dropped some camera gear early in my hike yesterday, so I went out to grab it while the snow was still set, then did a little Z2 workout on the Shavano Trail.
Then packed up and headed to Salida to grab the bus!
Saturday 3/29/25: Rest
Sunday 3/30/25: Rest
Monday 3/31/25: Run to Gym, Bouldering
Easy run to/from the gym (6 miles) to go bouldering. Some fun comp-style problems up. I almost signed up for the comp in a very unserious way, but thought I’d save my pennies. But each week, they’ll be putting up another set of these, so that’s something fun to look forward to.
