My First 14er

For my birthday, I was gifted a lovely weekend in Crested Butte, CO. We biked, hiked, ate (boy 
howdy, did I eat), and just enjoyed the mountain air. We fed apples to the mules next to our cabin; like all horsey creatures, they instinctively knew that a rattling plastic bag signals TREATS OMG TREATS and came running to meet us at the fenceline. What can I say, I know how to build influence and win friendships (mules count!). We even spent an evening in the Mt. Princeton hot springs, under a thick blank of stars. What a glorious way to relax. I haven't seen the Milky Way since I was a child...it was magical.
But the big accomplishment for the weekend was ascending Mt. Huron. My first 14er! At 14,003 feet, it's not the biggest 14er. But hey, it's not the smallest; Sunshine Peak claims that honor at 14,001 feet. However, it was still very, very challenging. Although the trail is only about 7 miles roundtrip, you ascend over 3,500 feet. Plus, I still wasn't 100% after that crippling downhill half marathon from the weekend before, so it was doubly hard for me. But I just chipped away at Mt. Huron as best I could. As we got into the final 1,000 feet, the trail grew very steep and slick with rock scree. I had to set little goals for myself just to break it up into manageable segments ("I'm going to make it up three more switchbacks and then I can rest. Three friggin' switchbacks, Bucko."). Mr. Bike Shorts, the weekend planner and sponsor, was an enormous source of encouragement. We did it! What a view! Definitely well worth all the trouble. But man, I really enjoyed that beer when we got back to the car.

Lo and behold, 2 days later I was enormously, fantastically, unbelievably sore. I was walking backwards down ramps all over again. I was painfully shuffling around for a week. So between the previous Half Marathon From Hell and my new Week-Long14er Crip Walk, it has become obvious that I really need to strength train. I mean, duh. But my instinct (and my Fitbit) tell me to put on my Mizunos and run. Run, run, run. So I've gotten really good at running and really bad at being strong. It's time to adjust my training regimen to get some weights back in my life.