Vail pass

Stacey and I, along with the rest of my family, are staying out in Avon, CO for a few days for a wedding. The town sits at around 7,500 feet and is tucked into a valley along highway 70 that includes a bunch of well known skiing towns.

The hotel we're at has an awesome 25 yard outdoor salt-water pool. It's nice to rest at the wall and have a mountain view. I've swam the past two days, though nothing too tough. Swimming at altitude is tough - I've really got to keep the pace low to even be able to swim 200 yards non-stop.

The riding is great around here, too. Yesterday Stacey and I rode 50 or so miles up to Vail Pass and back. The ride begins at 7,500 feet and tops out around 10,600 feet. The ride is basically a small uphill gradient for 15 miles and then a steeper uphill gradient for the next 10 miles. The elevation didn't give me much of a problem, though once again I didn't push the pace (well, at certain times I had no choice but to work hard or else I'd have had to walk my bike). I kinda wish I had my powermeter with me to see my HR and power just to see how they're effected by the elevation.

Today I did my first run since IMLou. I found a trail and ran uphill for 3.5 miles through the Beaver Creek ski area. I was gasping for air the entire ascent despite averaging about 10 min/mile on the way up. I used my brother's Garmin, which he has set to auto-pause when one's pace drops below a threshold. At every steep uphill section the Garmin would beep to signify that it was auto-pausing because my speed was so slow the device took it as me being stopped. After 35 minutes, I turned around and ran back, taking a slightly longer route. In total I ran a bit over one hour and got in 7.5 miles. It was a fun but not easy run.