The week that was (for me)
Watching the Olympic Trials together before bed.
The unofficial podium shot for the official Mt. Blue Sky Ascent podium.
Another busy week. This WTW is a bit longer – I won’t be offended if you skip through it.
I was fortunate to write a review of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería performance of Beethoven on Thursday’s Bravo! Vail opening-night concert. I also spoke with Pacho Flores, a world-renowned Venezuelan trumpet player, and wrote a feature on his Sunday concert.
On the sports side of my writing, I was able to chat with Olympian Val Constien as she prepares the Olympic Trials in Eugene. I also wrote stories on whitewater rafting rugby, and the Bighorn Gravel event.
I was hoping to boost my training last week so I could take it easier in the leadup to the Mt. Blue Sky Ascent this past Sunday. I wouldn’t say I totally succeeded, but it wasn’t bad, either — somewhere in the range of 10 hours of running + 8ish hours of biking. This week, I ended up running about the same and biking a bit less, as I only did one workout on 3 of the 4 days leading up to Sunday’s race. It wasn’t a full on taper, by any means, but I haven’t really done enough race-intensive blocks of training to warrant one either!
On Sunday morning, I woke up at 3:51 and drove to Idaho Springs for the hillclimb, a 14.5-mile trip from Echo Lake to the top of Mt. Blue Sky. I knew this would be a tough run…and boy was it ever.
The TLDR version: I placed second overall to Joe Gray (no shame there) in a time of 1:49:24.
Side note: being a 9-time world champ and 24-time U.S. champ, Joe is so approachable. Every time I’ve conversed with him or seen him talk to others at races, he treats everyone the same — whether it’s a fellow pro or just some guy who introduces himself by saying, “Hey, I ran behind you at Pikes Peak back in 2007!!”
Speaking of running behind Joe Gray, everyone was behind him right from the gun.
The 40-year-old Colorado Springs trail star burst out of the gate at roughly 6:40/mile pace. I wasn’t wearing a watch, so I don’t know my pace, but, my plan was to stay relatively within myself for the first 9 miles, get a breather on the downhill to Summit Lake, and then be ready to be tough in the final switchbacks. Right from the gun, the grade felt like the steepest parts of my daily routes (7th street or Cal Gulch, etc.).
Mentally, this was somewhat difficult. I’m used to doing maybe 12-20 minutes up a grade like that, then turning around and coming home. Here, I had almost two hours in front of me (knowing all the while it was only going to get harder the longer I ran).
I tried to break things into small sections — get to the next switchback, recover on this ‘flat,’ stay relaxed on this straightaway with the wind at your face because there’s something better around the corner…..etc.
Racing uphill is so interesting, especially at altitude. Even when you’re baby jogging, you’re still always riding a fine line of almost completely blowing up. In a 5-7 mile uphill race, I think you can take more risks, but Blue Sky is so massive and so long, if you go over the line, it’s going to be a long day.
I was in third place until just after the third mile. When I passed the second-place guy, I was alone for pretty much the rest of the race. No one was even close to me in the rearview and Joe was starting to get out of site in front. At the six-mile aid, I tried to take some water, but mostly only succeeded at wetting my mouth. That ended up being actually quite beneficial.
When I got to 8 miles, I still felt like I was in a really good place. My ‘guestimate’ is that I was likely on track for somewhere between a 1:43-1:46 finish at this point. I hadn’t really taken the foot off the gas and I was in a good ‘running’ stride – not jogging by any means.
The mile 9 aid came at Summit Lake, so I went from feeling ok to a million bucks, as I had just reaped the recovery benefits of a 800-1000-meter downhill. I grabbed another water and tried to slow up enough to actually drink it.
The course turns and punches up right after Summit Lake. I felt great for the first 2 minutes of the climb, and then WHAM!
My legs felt tired and my body felt done.
I remembered from my participation in the 2018 bike race hill climb that the last 4.5 miles of this road seem to go on forever.
Knowing I was now in ‘uncharted territory’ from a training perspective (longest run on pavement was maybe 70 minutes and the longest run I’d done period in the last six months or so was maybe 90 minutes, on trails, with various bathroom breaks. Most vertical in one day was 2,000 feet…) I tried to calmly familiarize myself with the unfamiliar setting, tricking myself into thinking this was just the start of the second run of the day. Pretend Christie is going to meet you at the top, I said. 4.5 miles. It’s not that bad.
Except it kind of was.
Around 11 miles, I turned a switchback and looked behind me for the first time in the whole race. I could see the bright orange Asics supershoes of the third-place runner. He looked strong and he had been gaining considerably on me in the last 5-10 minutes.
I tried a second mental ‘trick’ on myself (though some will just call this being mentally weak, I suppose…which it kind of is).
Instead of panicking or picking up the pace, which would have buried me permanently on the side of the next switchback, I just accepted the fact that this guy was obviously having a killer day. I mean, I’d been having a great day until 2 minutes prior, and here he was, moving in on me. I decided if he passed me, I’d say, ‘congrats dude, keep it up,’ or something like that, and then hope I could draft and recover for a moment or two. Cross that competitive bridge when we get there.
I didn’t dwell on it much. I put my head back to the ground and tried to go back to my bite-size approach of this mammoth mountain. Instead of get to the next mile marker, it was, take six more steps and then maybe, if it seems like you deserve it, you can walk for a bit. I still hadn’t walked yet, though many of the up-down competitors we were passing were walking all over the place.
Right before the final aid, there was an unexpected downhill. I tried to regain my composure again, also realizing that these minute downhills both played a weird game on my quads. When I started back up again, I felt like from a musculoskeletal perspective, I was right on the verge of a cramp in my calves. At this point, I was happy to be wearing just my regular Saucony Guides instead of a race shoe. The added weight was probably less important than the extra cushion and support.
For what it’s worth, I’d like to maybe come back and do this next year or later in the fall, in racing flats — but I need a little more preparation.
I got to the mile 12 aid station and walked through, grabbing a Skratch liquid and sipping while walking. After maybe 15 seconds, I started baby jogging, still sipping. Then, I chucked my cup to the side and said, ‘let’s go!’
From here to the top, there were various stages of triumph, defeat and everything inbetween. I walked a couple times, counting to 15 and starting again. After mile marker 13, I realized I maybe was going to hold this guy off, as he wasn’t coming closer. I baby-jogged, walked, ran – just did whatever was necessary to keep stepping forward.
It wasn’t pretty, but eventually I got there.
I’m happy with the time, and happy with my effort. Overall, there isn’t anything I’d do differently in my execution. The pace I ran was a smart pace. I knew there was a risk – maybe even a likelihood – that I would blow up at the top. I did, and I still got there. If I’d gone out slower down low, I might have still blown up on the top.
The week that was in cross-country skiing
Around the globe….
- Anne Kjersti Kalvå won three medals at last year’s World Championships, and at 31, was considered a relatively big success story on the World Cup. After struggling to live up to her potential, she had her best season, recording four podiums and finishing fifth in the distance globe standings. Last year, however, she took a turn for the worst. She opened up to VG this week and said she pushed herself too hard and got too thin.
- Klaebo left the Norwegian training camp because he’s had some elbow pain, VG reported. It sounds like he’s recovering and will be back to normal training soon.
- William Poromaa is also absent from the Swedish National Team’s recent training camp. He apparently aggravated his knee biking with his seat too low during the spring. The camp has a particularly large running emphasis, so the coaches decided to hold him out. He’s still training on the rollerskis, though.
- Edvin Anger compared changing from Madshus to Rossi this spring to ‘breaking up.’ Is this PST-worthy? Wow…. I will say, one noteworthy item is that it sounds like other brands were lined up to sign him, so he tested a bunch of skis and arrived at the conclusion that Rossignol was the best for him. Interesting…I wonder who offered him the most money – and how that played into his decision as well.
- Therese Johaug hasn’t officially made a comeback to the sport she left in 2022, but she’s training a lot. “It goes up and down in everyday life whether I feel like it or not. Of course, it varies depending on whether you’ve slept well or not when you have a little girl in tow. But I haven’t decided yet,” she said (translated). It sounds like she’s training 15-20 hours a week, but if she commits to racing the WC in Trondheim next winter, she’d need to have some weeks in the 25-30 hours a week.
- On the fly opinion column: I don’t think Therese Johaug needs to train 25-30 hours in a week to be ready for Trondheim. She could train 17-19 hours a week and destroy everyone in a 50k. Sidenote, if she even thinks it’s possible to do 25-30 and be a reasonably present parent at all, it makes me wonder how much actual parenting she’s doing right now…oh well, none of my business.
- In Ski Classics news, the two best Czech teams merged together for next season. The Vltava Fund Ski Team was one of my favorites from last year. I spoke about their appearance on the Ski Classics “Ski or Die” documentary series on a podcast last fall.
Seder-Skier.com 
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