It's A Record!

Today was a Manitou Incline training day, plus a little Barr Trail past the top of the incline. The Incline as we call it here is only 1 mile in length, but climbs 2000 feet in elevation over that mile. Until now I have never actually seen how fast I could do the Incline. Today was the first time I did it on my own and pushed a little. I did it in 35 minutes and 3 seconds! This is about 20 minutes faster than any other time I've tried...a new record! It absolutely hurt too!!! I decided on a slow and steady pace at the beginning and kept that pace the whole time. I didn't have a heart rate monitor, but I know my heart rate was through the roof. Every breath was uncontrollably loud. Each quad burned to no end with every step, having no real time to recover between steps. About 50 feet from the top I thought I'd do a last bit sprint to the top and start running...HA HA HA HA! That was an absurd idea. I made it only 20 feet before my whole body screamed STOP in my head, and I pounded out the last steps at my slow and steady pace.

After resting at the top for a few minutes and talking to another guy training for the Ascent, I took off in the direction I thought would take me to the 'UP' part of Barr Trail. There is one trail I know that takes you from the top of the Incline to Barr Trail that heads down, and there is another trail that goes the other way to head up Barr Trail. I asked a few people about which direction to take to go up the trail and no one knew. So I took off and in a minute was in the woods. I thought to myself, "Well, I know Barr Trail is somewhere here soon," and I kept on hiking. This 'hike' turned into trail blazing through thick trees on a steep slippery incline over boulders into small ravines over downed dead trees and no trail in site. Yes, this goes exactly against all that I have learned in wilderness survival...but I kept on going anyway. Of course Julie calls me in the middle of this as I am half hanging on the side of a small ravine to ask me a quick question about dinner. I politely answered her question without letting her know what I was doing (I wasn't in the mood for a "be careful" lecture). Eventually, (about 15 minutes later) I found my way to the trail (who says guys need maps? okay, I think maps are REALLY good!) and  continued on with my run. Wow! My quads were really tired after doing the incline. I ran to Rock Arch again, let nature's call out over the valley on the side of Rock Arch, and started my roughly 3 miles descent down to the parking lot.

OOOOOOPS!
So about half way back down Barr Trail I wasn't paying attention for a moment and my left foot hit a rock as I was bringing it forward. Yes, you can probably guess what happened next. As I was flying through the air I thought, "Well, here you go again. You better tuck that right shoulder and roll onto your back. You might want to get your hands out of the way too since those are what you make money with. Oh yeah, if you start to roll down that 100ft cliff on the side of the trail, try to grab a tree or something on your way down." And then THUD, RIP, SKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID, WHACK. I hit the ground on my right shoulder, slightly ripped my shirt, slid about 10 feet, and came to a cushy stop as my body smacked into a tree on the side of the trail. A PERFECT 10! I was more upset with myself that I lost focus for a moment than anything else. I assessed the damage: two slightly scuffed up hands, a laceration in my right knee, road burn on my right shoulder, a bruised right elbow and left big toe, and a deflated ego. I layed there for a few moments really mad at myself, then as I felt the moisture soaking into my pants from sitting on the ground I decided that it was time to get up and go again. I finished my run without incident. I noticed at my car that I had blood on my pants at my right knee. I lifted them up and my cut had bled all over the place. I borrowed a wet towel from one of the Cog Rail workers and went home. 3.76 miles total, 70 minutes of running, 45 minutes up (35 up the Incline), and 25 minutes down.

Chalk another injury up in the book!

Right Knee                  AND               Right Shoulder

Oh, since Daddy was hurt Lily suddenly had an injury on her elbow and wanted to show it too!