First Two Days of Training Camp

It has been an interesting two days (so far) at the Leadville Training Camp.

I checked in Friday night. I finally got to meet the famous Race Director Merilee.
Years ago, a rocket scientist from Los Alamos, NM, figured out every last calorie his body would need to complete the LT100. He NDF'd! So the next year he decided to screw that level of detail. When asked what his strategy was he replied, "I'm going to keep running until Merilee tells me to stop." He made it.
So they made a T-shirt that says that. "Start running and... Don't stop until Merilee says so."

First day, the weather was unseasonably hot. I never deal with heat well. We ran from Mayqueen to Twin Lakes - basically a marathon. I suffered. I took my Salomon Raid Revo with 2-liter bladder and guzzled like a fish, but it wasn't enough. Lots of people suffered.
My legs still hurt from the weekend before. My left ankle slowed me way down. Any time the terrain slanted down to the right, it felt like a full-blown sprain. Any time the terrain was flat or slanted the other way, it was as if there was no injury at all.
My left knee was bothering me again. WTF?! Ever-other weekend it hurts - so schitzo.
The biggest problem ended up being a new, big blister on my right foot, front and center. And I was wearing my tried-and-true faithful combination of Injinji's and thin Gold-Toes! So I ended up branding the day a loss.
Others, though, gave me kudos for a job well done. I definitely finished right behind the lead-pack.

I met Andy again. He's the guy who helped pace along with me for about 10 miles at the Collegiate Peaks 50. Just like at Collegiate Peaks, I was ahead of him until near the end. Then he passed me and finished well ahead of me.
I met all sorts of cool people. TOUGH people! Geez, these folks are hard-ass tough. Very impressive and surprisingly not full off shit.
Ken Klouber was at his best. Funny and inspiring character. All it takes to get a 2nd wind is to see his smiling face on the course and, damn, nothing seems to hurt anymore.

Saturday night, I drove east up the road towards Mosquito Pass. (The Leadville Marathon will be there next weekend.) I slept in the back of my CR-V, as usual. The mosquitoes were biting, but it was not cooling off very fast, so I had a choice between being bitten constantly, always just as I'm drifting off to sleep, or closing the windows and boiling, which doesn't allow me to sleep. It just got too hot, so I threw open the back window of my CR-V, which immediately drew a loud and deep growl from a bear! Yikes, if it isn't mosquitoes it's bears! What does a guy have to do to get some sleep?!

I woke feeling quite good, though. Much better than the day before. I wasn't sure what to do about the blister. Going through the river will require a single pair of socks to avoid time changing on the river banks. I chose a new pair of The Wright Sock, which is a double-layer single. They're awesome.

More tomorrow...