Cross training and injuries!

Well I saw Dr. Tilley again on Monday. This time we did a cortisone injection into my shoulder. Looks like I will be suffering with a little bicep tendonitis for a while, maybe forever. So I can't climb for a few days. I took yesterday off as a rest day, and today I hit Pinnacle Mountain. I set a personal best for my Pinnacle traverse today. I start off on the East side, the "hard trail." I was 20 minutes to the summit and then 10 minutes down the west side to that trailhead. Then I turned right around and made the summit again in another 20 minutes. With no rest for the weary I headed back down the east trail to the car. I was hoping to make it down that side in 10 minutes as well, but picking your way through the boulder field on tired legs is a little slower. Once I got back to good trail I was able to pick-up the pace and a run the last portion for a final time of 1:05.

Now you may ask how is running up and down Pinnacle Mountain going to help with 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell? It's just a matter of time and strategy. Imagine that you are at the Confederate Cracks and at 10 p.m. and you need to hit the check in point and cross the valley to the Roman Wall. This can be quite a hike with all of year gear and it requires a fair amount of elevation loss and gain. You certainly don't want to be waiting 10 minutes to catch your breath when you reach your climb, do you?

If you haven't been checking up on things with the 24HHH website there's a few interesting things going on. Andy sent out the competitor list this year already. Looks like the crazy cannuck Sonny Trotter and his globe trotting partner Jonathan Thesenga got their fill of Hell last year. But in there place is a nine fingered man from Colorado, who will be climbing with semi-local Jeremy Collins. Pro-climber Brittany Griffith will be back for another year, as will the hard climbing dou of Leather and Lace, Dick Dower & Natalie Neal. Watching Dick pull Crimpy Scampi at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning was serios motivation for me to get moving! If you don't know Dick (pun intended) you got to met him. He's older than the rocks, and climbs harder than most of you! Also absent from this years roster is last year's winning team of Stark Ligon and Cole Fennel. What gives guys???

Monday morning... I spent some more time on the treadwall this morning, but my shoulder has been bothering me again. I've got a call into dr. Tilley, maybe he can make everything feel alright!

More time on the treadwall.... Can't wait until i have a healthy partner!

Sunday morning ride on the river trail, 24 miles of beautiful weather!

Friday morning. 150 ft on the treadwall. More later....

100 feet of treadwall this morning, more later.

Back to the Grind!

We have returned safely from our little training trip to Colorado. It's amazing how hard a 5.7 can feel at 13,000 ft after 1500 ft of climbing. But we got it done! Now it's time to turn our attention to some serious HCR training. But wait!! Another injury plagues us.... This time it's not me! Dave did a little damage to his back while we were climbing in Colorado. So, the climbing training get's pushed back again. But I am still working on the endurance with hiking and biking. I will also be spending a few hours on the treadwall whenever I can. Hopefully you got signed up for the competition already, because the field is full and the registration closed! We've got 200 people signed up and ready to go. Dave and I are registered this year as "The Climbing Elvii" Anyone got a sequined jumpsuit I can borrow??

High Altitude Training

I would like to say I've been too busy training to blog, but the truth is that I've just not been doing it. But today, my climbing partner Dave is going to jump in for a "guest blog."
Here's the word from Dave...

Dave here, Logan's climbing partner. We haven't been doing a lot of training together lately, mainly because of the busy summer schedule here at the gym. We have been training on our own whenever we can however. Biking, hiking Pinnacle and the occasional climbing session at the gym. That's all about to change though.

Logan and I are about to set off for Colorado to knock off a couple 14'ers. (mountain peaks that top out over 14,000 ft). We will be attempting Crestone Needle via the Ellingwood Arete route and if all is going well we might try and link up Crestone Peak as well. The Ellingwood route is a beautiful arete that offers about 2000 feet of climbing up a prominent arete that tops out at 14,197 ft. A lot of the climbing is 4th class scrambling with a number of 5th class technical pitches thrown in along the way. We plan on getting in as many actual climbing pitches as we can by doing the direct start and avoiding some of the ledges that this route is known for. Even the 4th class stuff is serious though due the massive exposure and altitude.

Once we get to the summit we'll make the decision whether to attempt the link up or not. Our decision will be based on a number of factors including weather, time of day and how we're feeling. The ridge line between the two peaks looks pretty intimidating, almost more so than the route up. A lot of down climbing and rappelling only to climb back up some pretty gnarly knife edge ridges. It's only about half of a mile between the two summits but this will dramatically increase the length of our day. I'm hoping we can do the whole link up in under 12 hours of climbing and hiking. Sounds like a long day until you realize that's not even half of what we're planning on climbing at Horseshoe Hell.

Speaking of Horseshoe Hell, We are officially registered. Our team name this year is "The Climbing Elvii." Andy Chasteen, the organizer of Hell, sent out a message about 1 hour after registration opened and said it was well over half full already. Proving once again that this comp is one of the favorites among climbers all over the country.