Buena Vista might be my Park City. Last week I went there for a nice 24-hour ‘training camp,’ which included a run to the top of Mt. Antero and part way up Mt. Princeton.

First, my sales pitch.

Great Brew-pub scene…. tons of local, farm-to-table options, vibrant coffee houses and great entertainment. Ok, I don’t care about any of that…

Since I live in Leadville, Buena Vista’s 7,989-foot elevation qualifies as ‘low-altitude’ training, technically. Plus, it’s always about 10-20 degrees warmer than the ‘Ville, which, in October, can be HUGE! Buena Vista has a multitude of road and gravel bike options, all of which are low-trafficked — unless you decide to climb Cottonwood Pass. But even though there’s cars making their way over the Continental Divide, they can’t drive very fast and are usually ready for the legion of cyclists doing the same thing. From a running perspective, you can get it all — flat on pavement, flat on gravel, gradual singletrack, technical, steep singletrack, high elevation, low elevation, etc. Finally, the rollerskiing in BV is somewhat undiscovered and underrated, but actually quite terrific.

The fall weather at home has been pretty good; the main reason I fled south was to scope out a few 14ers before they’re covered for seven months.

Coming off 23 and 21-hour weeks, I hopped in the car on Monday morning with Ajee and headed for Nathrop. The coffee coursed through my veins, as did my excitement to run up Mt. Antero — something I’ve been wanting to do for the last four years. We got to the trailhead around 8:50 a.m., at which point I set up my Canon+ book on tape for the route, got my watch calibrated, slung a pair of water bottles, one emergency gel, and my Epi-pen into Ajee’s bag, and did a few joggy-jogs to shakeout the drive. With a long sleeve, my Temu $3 bike gloves (Michael Jackson white) and short-shorts, I headed up.

I wasn’t prepped for an FKT run, but I knew I wasn’t going to lallygag either. I wore my Saucony Peregrin’s, which, albeit being reliable anti-ankle roll shoes are not super light….they’re just a great all-around training trail tool for me (especially having sized up a 1/2 size—and making emotional piece with my middle and high school racing self in doing so). My only real ‘goal’ was to see if I could run the entire thing. Thus, I wanted to work into the run, having no idea what lie ahead.

The first 2-3k was pretty much what I expected: stiff climbing. The footing was better than I thought it would be, and actually, there were a couple of spots where it flattened out just enough for me to catch my breath. It wasn’t so steep that you felt like powerwalking was just as fast as running, so that was nice. In fact, it felt a lot like the ‘Ws’ on the Pikes Peak Ascent.

After a river crossing, the road became chunkier and steeper. This section — maybe 5k – 6.5k was definitely the hardest physiological portion of the route. The road pitched up to 18-30% grades and with the big rocks — and sheer length of the climb — it was brutal. I stopped partway up to get a drink and put my phone back into my pocket (it was giving me problems there to start, so I took it out and carried it…but that gave me more problems…). After catching my breath, I power-hiked a minute and then slowly started jogging.

At about 6.5k things got awesome. The road carves through the cliffs like one of those Tibetan passages you see in Buzzfeed articles titled “You’ll FREAK OUT watching these Chinese postal workers deliver the mail!” My favorite! As the grade mellowed considerably, I found my rhythm.

Honestly, I don’t know if I’ve had a more enjoyable climbing experience than the stretch from here to the top of Mt. SederSkier (more on that in a minute). The grade was fun, the views were spectacular, and there’s something about switchbacks above treeline that makes me forget about working hard.

About 1 hour and 18 minutes into the run, I reached the turn off to Mt. Antero, though I didn’t notice it and kept following the road instead. It curved a couple more times and reached the top of a mountain with a plaque on the ground. Seeing there was no “Mt. Antero” sign, I figured I was not at the top of the actual peak. Plus, despite my lack of route-studying, I did know the last quarter mile or so was rough scrambling — and I hadn’t done that.

Still, Ajee and I soaked in our view, renamed the peak Mt. SederSkier, and then proceeded to take photos in order to ask guru Karl about potential future routes at a later time. See below…

I was actually feeling fairly good about my time coming up. In Joe Gray’s FKT attempt, he did the entire road in 1:11:37. Now that I’ve scoped it out, I think if I laced up my Hoka Zinals and really went for it, something in the 1:14-1:16 range would be possible.

I did get to the top, just to check a 14er off. I haven’t really kept track of my 14ers to be honest…I think my list would be:

• Pikes Peak (bike and run)
• Mt. Evans/Blue Sky (bike and run)
• Mt. Massive – run
• Mt.Elbert – run
• Mt. Democrat and ?Quandry? what’s the other one over there?…gosh I’m terrible…. – hiked with parents
• Mt. Antero – run
• Mt. Belford – hiked with parents
• Mt. Huron – hiked with parents
• ….that’s all? ….gosh I’m terrible….

I came down — not altogether fast — loaded up and drove a mile down the road to find a pull-off so I could hop in the river for an ice bath. Man…the water was FRIGID. I managed to cool off for about 3 minutes, which actually still helped the recovery process a ton, I think.

Then it was off to City Market to grab some essentials.

Extra protein….super chocolatey ….maybe the best Kroger product out there.

I also found Polish sausage and LITERALLY 7 different loaves/buns/bread options in the discount cart, each with a sub-$1 price! Score….I bought some sandwich meat and cheese for the kids, a bag of apples, peanut butter and bolted back to the park to play.

Novi and Ella were very busy climbing on things when I arrived.

After drinking, eating and playing, we made our way across town to a different park for more of the same. I grabbed a coffee to charge up forjh the next workout and sat with Christie to drink it while the kids played. Around 4 or 4:30, she left to set up our tent south of town while I hopped on the rollerskis for about a 1 h 45 minute DP session.

I was surprisingly spry throughout and in fact, could have gone farther, but I didn’t want to miss roasting hot dogs over the fire with the girls. I dumped a few bowls of cold water over myself at the park, changed, and whipped up to our site.

There, I found the tent perfectly set up and Novi and Ella halfway through their Polish sausages. I know – my wife is a saint. She deserves unending praise for facilitating my training while simultaneously making it a family trip.

I wolfed down a couple of Polish sausages, plus ate the kids’ leftovers, then had a bowl of cereal and a couple more slices of whole wheat bread and peanut butter. We didn’t hang out too long around the fire; everyone was in the tent sometime around 8. It was the girls first camping experience, so they were jacked to be sleeping outside and sleeping with us.

After stories and a family prayer, they nestled into their sleeping bags. Quickly, an inside joke manifested itself out of the cool, mountain air, and they spent the next 25 minutes giggling back and forth whenever the signal phrase was tossed to and fro. We let it slide a bit, but around 8:45, decided they should probably try to get to bed.

After a little reshuffling, they finally fell asleep. For whatever reason — maybe the euphoria of a perfect day — I couldn’t get myself to bed at all. I zonked out at some point, but it couldn’t have been for long.

In the morning, I snuck out around 6:30 to drive into a coffee shop and file my work stories for the day. Around 8:30, I was off to the Mt. Princeton Trailhead.

Ajee and I got off to a nice start on this run, but it was sunny, exposed and there was only one puddle about 2 miles in for her to drink from. I could tell she was laboring early on, and after about an hour, I decided to make the workout a recon mission. We ran to the top of the road (which goes past the Mt. Princeton trail turn off) and took some fun photos of Mt. Antero.

At the turnaround, I squirted half of my water bottle into Ajee’s mouth. I did the same thing about 20 minutes later, then took my other water bottle out and carried it so she didn’t have to.

“We’re almost to the puddle,” I kept encouraging her as we flew down the road. Finally, we made it, and I let her soak for a long time.

I didn’t know it at the time, but my Mt. Princeton Road climb segment was the third-fastest on Strava. I actually don’t know how that’s possible, as I stopped for at least 2 minutes during it to let Ajee sit in ‘the puddle’ while I peed. Regardless, for whatever reason — maybe it was the Polish sausage — I did not feel Mt. Antero in my legs at all during the climb.

I mention that only because one thing I’ve been trying to observe since the Pikes Peak race is how I feel after certain training loads.

I got right back into high-volume training the week after the race. Exactly a week after the race, I competed in the Cougar Ridge Classic, a 26k trail from Vail to Minturn. I think I felt better in the CRC than the PPA…and I think going up Mt. Antero, I felt better than in both races.

Needless to say, my reflections — looking at sleep, diet, work stress, race stress, training, etc. — are not going to lead me to any dogmatic conclusions. I will say, I think there might be something to eating meat close to a race. Sounds strange, I know, but David Roche apparently swears by his pre-race (maybe even taper-week) burger dinners. I had a burger on consecutive nights prior to Antero and then of course loaded up on Polish Sausages before Mt. Princeton. I don’t know. I’m either onto something or on something.

Here’s a snapshot of the whole training picture since the Pikes Peak Ascent:

• Sept. 21: PPA
• Sept 22: AM – 60 min easy run/ PM – 1 hr 45 bike
• Sept. 23: AM – 90 run with strides/ PM – 1 hr 45 bike
• Sept. 24: AM – 60 run, short break, 3 hour bike (last two with parents, up Vail Pass)
• Sept. 25: AM – 60 run/ PM – 60 run
• Sept. 26: AM – 70 run + hike/ PM – 2 hour gravel bike
• Sept.27: AM – 60 run/ PM – 80 bike, easy
• Sept. 28 – AM – Cougar Ridge Classic – 26k trail race/ PM – 70 minute mtb, pulled Ella
• Sept. 29: AM – 60 min. easy, easy run/ PM – 3 hr road bike up Cottonwood Pass
• Sept. 30: AM – 90 skate + 90 bike/ PM – off
• Oct. 1: AM – 60 run/ PM – 2 hr bike
• Oct. 2: AM – 12×400 intervals/ PM – 1 hr 45 bike
• Oct. 3: AM – 1 hr 40 run/ PM – 90 skate ski
• Oct. 4: AM – 2.5 hr run up Mosquito Pass, 17 miles, 3k climb/ PM – 75 bike
• Oct. 5: AM – 65 run/ PM – off
• Oct. 6: AM – 80 run/ PM – 2 hr skate ski
• Oct. 7: AM – Mt. Antero run – 3hrs total/ PM – 1 h 45 DP in BV
• Oct. 8: AM – Mt. Princeton – 2.5 hr total, 3700ft/ PM – off
• Oct. 9 : AM – 65 run…good pace/ PM – Treadmill run with climbing intervals at the end
• Oct. 10: AM – 65 min easy run/ PM 2 hr bike
• Oct. 11: AM – 90 skate + 1 h 45 min bike around Turquoise/ PM – 60 run
• Oct. 12: AM – 13x400s / PM – 90 bike
• Oct. 13: AM – 60 run/ PM – 45 DP + 60 bike pulling both kids + 45 DP