‘No’, ‘not now’, ‘never’ have been my responses when asked about running a 100 mile trail race. And the responses I’ve received back are anywhere from ‘thank goodness’ to ‘but you’ll race for six days?!’. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Pacing Elinor at the Leadville 100 motivated me to get racing again whether in a local trail or mountain bike race or in an adventure race. But it did not motivate me to run a 100 miler. Well…maybe a 50 miler and definitely a stage race like the Trans Rockies or Trans Alps. I’m not sure why I feel this way other than right now I know I don’t have the time to train with two young ones and I don’t have the motivation presently (which means I most likely wouldn’t do very well).

The one exception – The UTMB – The Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc. This race intrigues me and makes me want to run 166km (103.15 miles) in one shot. My reason: In 2005 I raced with the Crested Butte adventure race team in the Raid World Championships and did a large portion of the UTMB course in one stage of the race. Despite not feeling great at the time, I fell in love with trail and the idea of running around Mont Blanc.

And now the problem: I have to qualify for the UTMB by racing in another ultra…

Check out The North Face video from this year’s shortened race.

Mt. Sopris from Prince Creek

Thanks to Ian I’ve been able to get out for some great rides lately. I’m not sure what I would look at while training to inspire me without Mt. Sopris in the area.

El running in from Hope Pass to the Twin Lakes aid station at mile 60.

Let’s see, it has been awhile since my last post and that’s not due to a lack of things I wanted to say. It has mostly been due to a lack of computer and a little bit from being too busy to borrow another computer.

Anyway, a few weekends ago I paced a very dear friend of mine in her first attempt at a 100 miler. Elinor has been training all winter, spring and summer for the Leadville 100 and was ready to give it a go. Elinor’s training partner Joy, had already raced and finished her first 100 miler earlier this summer at the Tahoe Rim Trail 100. Unfortunately Joy could not pace Elinor as planned so I opted for a slightly longer section of the race to make sure that El had someone with her every mile from mile 50 to the finish (no pacers allowed until mile 50).

Moving slightly faster than her projected times, El’s husband Rob called me letting me know I needed to get on the road and over to Twin Lakes for the drive into Winfield. Rob had an amazing aid station set up for El when she arrived at mile 50 hurting a little more than expected. I was extremely thankful I had made it in time as I think it would have been very difficult for Elinor to turn around and go over Hope Pass alone at that point. As difficult as it was to witness my friend suffering, I continued to encourage her to keep moving despite being a bit overwhelmed at the time. We made it over Hope Pass (which was absolutely beautiful for me) and into Twin Lakes at mile 60 to have a quick visit with Rob, Reed (their one year old), El’s parents (in from Canada) and Todd (a Leadville veteran and pacer for later in the race).

Despite stressing Elinor out at the time, Reed’s crying was a blessing in disguise as she was too overwhelmed to deal with him so she got up and kept going. We continued on together into the night, me attempting to keep her eating (one Honey Stinger chew at a time) and not falling asleep and El just concentrating on moving her feet forward. As with all races, there are good and bad times and Elinor made it out of a slump and had some great miles of running (and running fast) between Twin Lakes and Fish Hatchery. Even though I have been through these cycles in races as well, it was really interesting to witness them from this perspective.

After about 27 miles, I left Elinor at Fish Hatchery where she continued on with Todd and up the Powerline climb passing people the whole way. I know she had a few more low points before she made it to the finish line but she pushed through and showed some amazing will power. One of my motivating speeches for El was to finish this one so she would never have to go through this again but of course it sounds like she’s already considering another 100 miler.

Elinor will have a full recap of her race experience in the November issue of Trail Runner magazine.

As for me, I have been working on my running threshold thanks to Lindsay Hyman at CTS. Intervals with some great trail runs and mountain bike rides mixed in have gotten me back to a point where I’m starting to feel fit again. I have a little further to go but am looking forward to testing my fitness at a few races in September and October.

I love my friends but that’s a given since I have chosen them. Almost as much as I love my friends, I love swapping children with them so we all can get out for some training. Throughout this winter until now, one friend in particular and I have done a mommy swap at least once a week. Although we sometimes run or ride together with the kids, we both thoroughly enjoy the alone time to train for ourselves that the mom swap allows us.

This week was no exception. We had planned a day a fruit picking and playground playing about an hour and a half away so of course we worked in some training time as well. I dropped the kids off at her house early and jumped on the road bike with intentions to make it as far as possible before she picked me up. I made it much further than I thought I would and even managed to ride over a pass that I had never ridden on before.

Being able to get out for some exercise every day helps me maintain the sanity to be the mother, wife and friend that I want to be (at least much of time). The Chariot is absolutely amazing but I truly cherish the times I can get out alone. Ian and I manage this swap very well on the weekends as well but there is something special about the chance to do it during the week. If you don’t have someone to mommy/child swap with , I highly recommend finding someone as soon as possible. I’m not sure I could live without my mommy swap.

As I continue to get back into race shape, I am starting to get more intensity in my training from Lindsay at Carmichael Training Systems. In comparison to getting going again after having Juniper, I feel like I have gotten fitter much faster this time. Although I’m not as fit as I have been at other times in my racing career, I’m hoping I’ll get there at some point soon despite a few weeks of less training due to moving.

While out training on Friday and Saturday I found new training partners in unexpected places. During some endurance miles on the road bike with both kids in the Chariot on the bike path, I got passed by two guys on singlespeeds. I pushed the pace a little to jump in behind them which was good since I think I had been lolly-gagging a little. After a few minutes, I realized another man I had passed also dropped in to draft off the Chariot. When the singlespeeders turned off, I was concerned that I was either going to have to let this man (on a mountain bike and not super fit looking) pass me (not easy on my ego), ride ridiculously hard to stay ahead of him (it’s always a race isn’t it?) or chat it up (my mom always told me not to talk to strangers). We ended up chatting for the next eight or so miles while also pushing each other a little harder than we had been riding. It turns out this guy had been laid off with the economic downturn and started riding his bike a few hours each day about five days a week. He had already lost twenty pounds in less than a month and a half and made the second half of my ride go by quickly.

The following morning I was excited to get out on a trail run by myself after a week with Ian away and training with the kids everyday. My solitude lasted about the ten minutes it takes me to get from the new house to Red Hill where a young dog decided to join me on the remainder of the training session. After trying to convince the little guy (no collar) to ‘go home’ and to ‘get you mommy’, I gave up and hoped we’d find his owner on the trail. I asked each person I passed if they had seen the dog with someone earlier on the trail but no one recognized him. Despite wanting nothing to think or worry about on the run, I found this guy to be a great running partner. He stayed right with me and listened well – hard to believe no one was out looking for him. We ran into some friends and finished up with them reassuring me that I should run him back to the house and call animal control. Sometimes things fall into place as I found a leash at the trailhead that someone must have lost which got us down the road to the house. Although this little guy was a great running partner, he had some serious separation anxiety and barked whenever I was more than a few feet away. Animal control was shockingly super friendly and caring and brought the lost dog to the shelter. Although no one had called the shelter at that point looking for him, I have hopes that the owners found him.

Despite not ever training with these partners again, I feel like they got me jumpstarted again. I think I have one more week of hectic training sessions, parenting, work and unpacking and then I can concentrate again on getting back to top form.

Packing, moving, unpacking…and a little parenting, training and work mixed in. Although moving is stressful and very time consuming, it has been great to be living in town. I can go for a run with both kids in the Chariot right from my front door – saves me about 45 minutes of driving to and from. I have enjoyed road rides from the house, trail runs on Red Hill with a mile of pavement warm-up and mountain biking at Prince Creek from the driveway. Not to mention walking or riding my bike to the grocery store and not getting in the car for days at a time.I’ll miss a few things about the old house but there are so many great things about being in town that I’ll get past those things.

Before the move, I raced in the Mountain States Cup Blast the Mass race in Snowmass. I rode better than I thought and enjoyed pushing my limits with some fast and fun women. Although I was riding strong for me right now, I’m just not quite back to top race fitness yet. Despite holding onto third place for much of the race, I fell back to fifth in the last few miles. No complaints though as I felt strong and know I raced as well as I could three months after having Axel.

Now it’s time for more unpacking and hopefully some more races in the next month or so.

It has been a few weeks since the Crested Butte 40 and my last update.  We have had the Anderson clan in town since the CB 40 so things have been busy but lots of fun!

I’m not sure what I was expecting at the Crested Butte 40 but I knew I needed to start slow and not get caught up in the sprint off the start line. For the first time in my life, I climbed the first switchbacks in last place but actually had passed a few girls by the time we hit the first descent. I had been worried about the Cat 1 men catching me in the first miles but I managed to stay in front of them until the technical riding and continued with them for the first 9 miles. And that’s when I felt like I’d been racing for 50 miles and could barely make it up the next road climb. As much as I wanted to quit, I suffered on at a ridiculously slow pace until the first aid station at mile 19. After a few jokes and some great support from Ian, Alissa and Juniper I began catching people (men and women) on the long road climb up to Deer Creek. By the time we hit the hike-a-bike, I was feeling decent and put my adventure racing suffering skills to work and began to pick up the pace. The final climb up Mt. Crested Butte was still brutal, but I managed to not let anyone pass me and continued to catch a bunch of people that had blown by me early in the race. As horrible as I felt, it was nice to finish strong and know that I have maintained some endurance. Now I just need to continue to get that high end back with lots of speed work and hard training.

Although I hadn’t expected a lot for the race, I was somewhat disappointed with my finish. I raced against a group of super strong women but I had hoped not to finish forty five minutes behind the leader. It will take time to get back into race shape but I’m not the most patient person in the world. This gives me a good idea of where I stand and how much work is left to be done.

Summer’s finally here both by the calendar date and the weather! I had a busy week of training with lots of intervals running and riding.  I’m slowly starting to feel stronger during these sessions even when I pushed both kids in the Chariot last Friday for some running hill repeats.  That was a tough session!

I am racing in the Mountain States Cup Crested Butte 40 next weekend so I had to get out for at least one long mountain bike ride beforehand. I set out early Saturday morning and headed over Cottonwood Pass to Gypsum and then up into the Eagle maze of amazing singletrack.  At about three and a half hours of riding, I came up on the tail end of a cattle drive and ended up driving about six cattle back to the group. Just a little smelly. Despite being slowed down by the cowboys, I was able to really enjoy four hours and fifty miles of riding.

Sunday was Father’s Day which meant I left early again so Ian could be a father on Father’s Day.  Isn’t that what the day is for? Oh well, but it was great of him to let me get out for two plus hours of trail running with Elinor before he enjoyed a long ride. I was amazed how great my legs felt after a hard week of training which gave me more confidence the CTS coaching has been a very good investment.

I’m a little (okay, a lot) nervous for the race this weekend. The CB40 is technical and therefor not a fast forty miler. My ride on Saturday was the longest in ten months (and the longest I have left Axel so far). What if it takes me six hours to finish? Will I be able to make it without stopping to nurse? I raced for five days when Juniper was five months old but hadn’t done a race this long this early in the game.

In anticipation of actually getting internet at the house this evening after the lightening strike last Monday, I figured I’d get started updating what’s been happening for awhile.

The first week of June, I went up to Aspen to participate in the second meeting of the Polartec Athlete Advisory Board.  We enjoyed great food and discussed product we have been testing (including Power Shield Pro and others I cannot discuss) as well as new ideas and future product.  JustAZipper.com has a nice recap of the week if you’re interested otherwise all I can say is that I’m very excited about what’s to come from Polartec!

Axel and I left directly from Aspen and headed to Vail (I was a bit spoiled that week) for the Teva Mountain Games.  Ian and Juniper had been there for a few days, Ian working and Juniper playing with some friends.  The last two summers I have competed in the Ultimate Mountain Challenge consisting of four events in two days and the two years before that in the adventure race.  With Ian working and Axel only eight weeks old, I had to skip the UMC and just race in the 10K trail run on Sunday morning. This 10K is unlike any other I have raced including trail races – it is brutal. Most of the climbing is so steep that even the leaders are relegated to fast hiking so I was happy to finish just a minute or so slower than my time from last year (even with a stop to dump the rocks from my shoes). I missed competing in it all but it just wasn’t possible this year.

Dropping some ounces before the mountain bike race.

Lindsay at Carmichael Training Systems has been working hard to get me faster after the pregnancy and had me doing hill repeats and intervals throughout the week with a mountain bike race mixed in. My legs were sufficiently tired after Saturday’s running repeats and then we headed to Boulder for the Newton Running Form Symposium and Clinic.  Danny Abshire (Newton founder) and Ian Adamson (my old adventure race teammate) gave a great talk on the importance of proper running form to help prevent injuries and increase speed and efficiency.  After an hour and a half run through Boulder and up Mt. Sanitas in the pouring rain on Sunday morning, I joined the Newton crew again for the form clinic.  About thirty runners showed up to have their form critiqued and to practice what we had learned the night before. If you are able to get to one of these clinics, I highly suggest it! If you can’t make one, check out this video for some great tips.

Despite having missed two training sessions early in the week, I had an awesome twelve mile run with both kids in the Chariot this morning. With the temperature perfect, the wind still somewhat calm and not many people on the path, I was able to push my sixty pounds at an average 7 min. 50 sec. per mile pace. With all the foundation CTS has been having me build, I’m excited to get to the next phase of my training when I start to really prepare for racing again. I think I may be able to set some PRs and push the pace in some mountain bike races.

Start of the Vail Pass Hill Climb Time Trial. The last of four events.

I’m really looking forward to the next four days but they’re also going to be super busy.  Tomorrow Ian and Juniper leave for Vail for the Teva Mountain Games and Axel and I head to Aspen to meet with the Polartec Athlete Advisory Board.

Sometime in the midst of packing for Juniper, driving to Aspen to pick up truck parts, going to the grocery store, nursing, parenting, etc. today, I’m hoping to get out for an hour ride and some hill intervals.  It’s at these times that I’m thankful for the 1,490 feet of climbing in three miles up to our house – perfect for hill repeats.

Tomorrow I’m looking forward to a day with Axel and then dinner in Aspen with the Polartec group.  Friday we’ll be brainstorming new product before I head to Vail as well.  For the past few years I have competed in the Ultimate Mountain Challenge, racing four events in two days.  As amazing and fun as that is, this year I’m looking forward to enjoying the other aspects of the mountain games including the kids areas and cheering my friends on.  I hope to run the 10k trail race Sunday morning to see just how slow I am in comparison to last year.

I better get on with my large list of to dos so I can enjoy the hill repeats this evening.