High altitude training for the High Altitude Challenge!

T-1 under the tree!

Turn around

I decided to follow up our awesome Mount Whitney adventure with another little high altitude workout. My workout resembled the course for Mount Baldy’s and Coates Cyclery’s: High Altitude Challenge scheduled for Sept 17^th. The race is a mountain bike run duathlon. For those familiar with Baldy, racers bike up the San Antonio fire road past the ski lodge, loop around a little on some of the ski trails then transition to the run. The run again has you loop around the ski area and finish in the front of the ski school. 7 mile ride, 3.5 mile run all above 6000 feet! Quite a festive time is had by all.

With that course in mind I started my workout by heading up the fire road. I was able to settle into a nice rhythm. My giant 29’er climbs great and on the wide open gravel roads the climb presented a chance to push hard and not worry about the terrain. Instead of looping around the joint at the top, I headed up under one of the ski lifts. About halfway the lift trail I transitioned to the run. From there my goal was to run to the top of Baldy, which is what I think the course should do!

After meandering around the ski area a bit the trail gets a little technical, single track with nice drop offs on one or both sides. For those who run in Race to the Top you know this area as the place of no passing! Everyone is tired, confused and nervous and won’t give way for you to pass! If you start out conservative (like me) you get screwed here by those who went out hard and are now falling apart and are just a bunch of traffic cones between you and the summit . In Run to the Top you must start fast and try and hang on (by not letting people pass obviously!) but I digress. My run went smooth the weather was great. I had a short visit at the top and then ran down the rockpile. I transitioned back to my mountain bike and flew down the hill. Training for the day done and all before work!

Totals for the Effort:

• Uphill Bike: 4mi in 46:36 with an avg HR of 143
• Run to Baldy Peak 2.75 mi in 37:00 with an avg HR of 158
• Including downhill 13.5 mi with 1222 cals used and 142 avg HR