Hardrock Training

While I'm still uber scared of Hardrock, I feel a little better about it knowing that I've been putting in just about as much work as I can to get ready for it.  Sure, I might have been able to run a little more, with a little more elevation gain, BUT, I ran most of my miles hard and am still feeling healthy, my body is responding well at what I'm throwing at it.  This week I ran 127 miles with 33,000' of climbing.  This aren't amazing numbers to some, but they felt like a lot to me, but not too much.  A lot of those miles were spent up at elevation with Elissa and good friends.  Last weekend we crashed Keith's pad up in Mammoth, thanks for the hospitality Keith!

Dom, Brian, Elissa, Katie, Michael, me and Keith behind the camera.

Duck Pass with Elissa.
photo by Chamoun.

Shoot'n a chute into Baldy Bowl.
photo by Dom?

Glissading is fun - near Garnet Lake.
photo by Dom.

Thousand Island Lake.
photo by Dom.

Couldn't help but check out this year's favorite to win HR (IMHO), Seb Chaigneau.  Looked at some of his recent training.  Cool, looks like he's running stuff similar to what I'm running in regards to length and time, and I almost climbed that much... oh, but he was 4,000' higher, yikes.  Not sure if he's really going to come this year, hope he does.

While I may not be ascending Mount Blanc like Seb, I've been sleeping in a Hypoxico Tent for a couple weeks.  Definitely took a bit out of me at first, but I'm slowly getting used to it.  After last weekends adventures in the Eastern Sierra I'd have to say it is helping.  But simply sleeping in a tent isn't going to do the trick.  I've been hitting up the high Sierra a lot, I'm heading up to Whitney next week, and I'm backpacking the John Muir Trail later this month - alllllllllll in attempt to survive, finish and have the best experience possible at Hardrock this July.

Can't wait to head over to Silverton!  I'm bringing Elissa, my parents, and some of my best friends out to the San Juans for some sweet, sweet mountain time.