Game Planning

OK so the heavy stuff is out of the way.  On to why we're here (at least me and my 4 readers)...

Training for the Vermont 50!  Somehow that seems less cool than "Leadville 100" even when I make it big.

Anyway, The VT50 is packing almost 18000 feet of total elevation change  (down counts, really), but something about their elevation profile has me thinking: GPS track...

Source: http://www.vermont50.com/html/course.html   

I've been pretty much all over Vermont on my bicycle and have hiked many miles there too, so I simply don't believe some of the spikes.  That said, some of the steepest terrain I've hiked is in VT so, maybe?...

Whatever, the winning times are fast.  It looks like at least 7 times have folks gone under 7 hours in VT and the course record is just over 6 hours 15 minutes.  Goeff Roes record at Steamboat while he was "mediocre" is 7:11.  Not saying Steamboat is harder or anything, but it sure is higher...

I've got that to base my expectations on.  Lots of the route is on gravel roads, those won't be too bad, cars have to go up them, so they're probably runnable.  There're also aid stations every 5 miles or so.  I think I'll be able to significantly beat my Steamboat 50 time. I'm thinking 1, maybe 2 hours.  Absolutely going to give it a rip.

Of course, I'll have to see how the training goes, and how many miles I can log in Cuevas (probably perfect training ground for this race), but I'm glad to have something a bit more "bite sized" to chew on for the next 3 months.

Thanks for reading, and stay cool...
J