Pushing beyond the beyond

The last couple weeks I've been trying to push myself beyond physical limits. There are a few reasons for this.

1. I have a 100km / 62 mi bike ride coming up in September for charity. I've ridden most of the pieces of the ride in the past but haven't put them all together in one sitting before, so I want to be ready for that.
   
2. (more compelling) Ski season is coming back around soon. Seriously, there's a cold rain outside right now. Snow was in the forecast for Chicago Basin this weekend. It'll be here soon.

After the Massive run, I've been wondering how far I could push beyond what I thought my limit was in various physical activities. To that end, I started this little run by riding NCAR two days in a row. Last year it would take my legs a day or two to recover from riding NCAR, but I actually felt like I rode better on Friday than I did on Thursday. Noted improvement from last year #1.

After taking the weekend off, I remembered that I had a 5k race to run on Wednesday. Having never previously run a 5k competitively, I wasn't sure what kind of time I could finish in. Last year I recorded runs at a consistent 10 min/mile pace in preparation for my 10k portion of the Boulder marathon, but this was a shorter distance, so I hoped to keep it under 30 minutes. My run on Monday night (as a warm up for the race) was a comfortable 9 min/mile pace. With that in mind I hoped to finish sub-27 minutes but wasn't sure what I could do beyond that. As it turns out I came in at just above an 8 min/mile, 25:04. [Despite this time, which I was proud of, I still ran the slowest of the 8 of us from my office. My coworkers are freaking thoroughbreds.] Noted improvement from last year #2.

Thursday, the day after the race, instead of taking a rest day we decided to make an attack on Flagstaff during our weekly lunch ride. For those of you not living in Boulder, Flagstaff Road is one of the steepest roads in town and is noted for being as extremely difficult ride. I believe it is the steepest paved road in Boulder... certain portions of it, at least. Our climb from the office gained nearly 2,000' in 7 miles. I honestly didn't think I would make it, given the shape of my calves and shins after the race, but after the first overlook things get a lot easier and we all did very well. I've ridden to the first overlook before but this was my first time continuing towards the top. Although we didn't go all the way to the top, it was still a great ride, and much more than I thought I was going to be able to do. In my head I moved my hypothetical cycling limit a little further into the distance beyond the previous marker I crossed with that ride.

After Friday morning's 6:15 lifting session it was more or less decided that since I hadn't completely obliterated my legs so far, I should take on another challenge during lunch. NCAR became the objective with Darren riding his single speed. My legs were pretty worn out from the previous two days, but I still put in a decent enough ride and had some left in the tank for a sprint-like finish. [Darren still beat Trey, Denis and I on his damned single speed, which I'm taking as proof he has a 3rd lung or is some kind of outer-space cardio experiment.]

I had to take yesterday off but decided to test my new cycling limit today with Trey. After riding to Jamestown on Memorial Day we thought it was time to give Lefthand Canyon a try... all the way to Ward. Given this is a ride professional triathletes and cycling teams use for training, I honestly did not think I would make it to the top, but wanted to see just where the breaking point was. We knew the 16th mile was going to be brutal, but as we passed mile marker 10, 11, 12, etc. it seemed we would both have enough left to finish. Climbing 3,000' from the mouth of the canyon was definitely tough (especially that half mile beyond Sawmill road!), but as we stood on the shoulder of the Peak to Peak highway above Ward we both could have continued further. I was shocked and proud as hell. For the second time this week I moved my hypothetical cycling limit a little further into the distance. That has become a fun little game :) We discussed heading up to Brainard Lake from there and having the option to ascend 8000' in total, completely self-propelled from our doorsteps, to the summit of a 13er like Mount Audubon. That really got the mental wheels spinning... I think this is just going to have to happen. Considering a huge majority of North America lies below 8000', climbing 8000' in one day from my doorstep would be completely bad ass. Boulder County is truly a special place. I feel like I'm finally getting to the point where I can take advantage of all it has to offer.

I'm not sure what's on the agenda this week, but I hope to continue testing limits and blowing past them. All of this has been recorded on my trailguru page... which I might soon be replacing with a Garmin watch due to consistent inaccuracies... time will tell.