In the summer 2006, I was preparing for Imogene. Along the way, I had planned to run the Pikes Ascent as a prep race for the crossing from Ouray to Telluride. I ended up so enthralled with the Pikes race, well … the rest is captured here I guess. But I was prepping for Imogene. I had run the race in 2005 and I thought I could improve on my performance there. As it turns out, I never got to do that – as in 2006 weather conditions were too difficult to allow an organized crossing and so we raced from Ouray to Bird Camp and back to Ouray. I recently found my 2006-7 training log in a MS Word document and I am back date posting those up here.
Anyway, that is not what this post is about. That summer I had started to connect with Scott Elliott – the 8x winner of the Pikes Ascent – on some of his workouts. Galen Burrell, at the time a baby faced winner of the marathon, would often join him. Scott would periodically announce some of the workouts he was doing. A rather famous one, and one that still seems to get some attention today is “Lindens.” From an (edited) email from 2006, this is how Scott announced Lindens.
For those of you who are so "inclined", we will be meeting for some
spiffy repeat loops every Monday and Thursday at 5:30PM on the upper
part of Linden Avenue. Galen B. & I both worked out on this course
many times in previous seasons and it was one of the primary reasons I
won the Pikes Peak Ascent and Galen won the Pikes Peak Marathon in
2004. So, keep an open mind about putting your feet to (horrors!)
pavement for a VERY rewarding interval session! As a bonus, if you
choose to make this course a routine, you'll be able to track your
progress & improvement as you get stronger and faster in your
hill climbing ability.
…
The climb is about 750 meters (I'm going to try to measure it and mark
off 100-meter splits sometime soon), and the ascent will take anywhere
from 3:00 (if you're sprinting and in Jonathan Wyatt / Melissa Moon
-ish shape) to 6:00 to accomplish. The grade is very similar to what
the upcoming Mt. Washington (NH) will present to you. Galen is
currently averaging below 3:45 per climb, while I am very close to
4:00, but dropping that average rapidly (I'm approaching 2 months into
a concerted effort to whip myself into Pikes shape.) The rest interval
to get back down to the start should take between 3:30 & 6:00,
depending on how snappy you wish to move (stagger?).
…
The idea of this workout is to keep both your climb AND your rest
periods CONSISTENT. Once you've gotten into a "groove" following the
second or third climb, aim to keep the same time within a few seconds
-- obviously it will get more difficult, but that's why you're out here
busting your butt! And it is equally important to keep your rest
interval the same each time around -- no slacking off.
Of course, I was fascinated, and I joined Scott and Galen on Linden, met JV out there and got totally worked. I have not made to Lindens in a couple years, as it is a bit of a drive for me to get to (and I think I can sort of kind of replicate it a lot closer to home), but it is a workout that I will probably have “fond” memories of for a long time.
Scott (a pic of his below) re-illustrated something to me that I already knew: I was not really a competitive guy. This is sort of funny to some because there are the people who I deal with outside of running. They think I am hyper focused, disciplined and competitive. All things being relative however, I am not in the circles of certain runners. Scott was in that circle that summer. The man oozed focus on his goal of winning Pikes again (he’d take second to Simon G that year in a race). I re-realized that my focus and attention compared to many was nada.
Anyway, repeats on Linden is not what this post is about. Nor is it a biography of Scott. It is about a set of stairs on Green Mountain. Scott also sent out another announcement about doing the last stretch on Green as a prep for Pikes. He did this to help prepare him not just for climbing but navigating the only thing possibly considered technical on Pikes, the Golden Stairs. His announcement also from 2006.
Howdy.
We'll be gathering for today's uphill repeats at 6:00 on the upper reaches
of the west ridge trail of Green mountain. Since you'll have a choice to
jog from several different trailheads to get up to the start, please
calculate accordingly to arrive by the starting time.
Start -- intersection of the Ranger trail & the Green Mtn. west ridge
trail (i.e., the "four-way trail junction") This is shorter and steeper
than the course we run on Thursdays up Linden Ave.
Finish -- summit of Green Mtn.
Intended repetitions: 7 (max) - hard up, brief rest at top, jog down.
…
Depending on your fitness level, this final section of trail to the top of
Green will take anywhere from 2:35 to 4:15 to ascend. For those of you
entered in the Pikes Peak races, the steepness & steps are somewhat
similar to the infamous "Golden stairs" the confront you in the final
third-mile of the ascent, thus this will serve as good training for that
particular nasty section.
I plan to run a 1-hour-ish mellow warmup from my condo in South Boulder up
Bear creek to the start. Anybody is welcome to join. Other trailheads to
park & warm up from include:
-Gregory canyon to Ranger trail to start
(ascent of ~50:00 - 60:00)
-Flagstaff amphitheater turnoff to Ranger trail to start
(ascent of ~25:00 - 35:00)
-top of Flagstaff road climb to Green Mtn. west ridge trail to start
(ascent of ~15:00 - 20:00)
Hope to see a few folks this afternoon!
-S
JV and I did this workout once. In pure excitement, I think JV set an FKT for this section (which no longer really starts at a four way junction since the Bear Canyon connector has moved) in like 2:23. I will let him describe how the rest of that went if he is so “inclined.”
I dubbed this section of trail, “the Elliott Stairs” as a nod to Scott and the stairs he was preparing for. Anyway, I am going to do this section tomorrow as a workout. I think JV is joining me. I am probably going to do five. Drop me a note/comment if interested. We will probably start pretty early (like 6?). I have no clue what I will average but I am going to try to manage these in a way that is consistent, pushes my HR into a VO2 max effort range – and hence, challenging.
