Doug had invited me to come up to his turf to do some training with his
group in preparation for the Vermont 50m, and I finally made it up for a
session today. On today's menu was his insane long-run hill repeat session
up overlook mountain above woodstock NY. Since they were doing 5 repeats (~5
hours) and I didn't want to do that much (a week before my last extra-long
run (~7) before Vermont), I joined them for the start of the 2nd lap at
about 7:30am.
As I drove up the road from woodstock (the road Doug and his crew train on
in winter), I got dizzy from the switchbacks and the heights and that was
just driving up to the ~1800 foot elevation start area. From there it goes
up another 1350' to overlook mountain on the trail we would be training on
today. It was cool and breezy, a perfect morning for a run, and I was good
to go, if not particularly fresh because of more long runs than usual in the
past few weeks.
After I arrived at the parking area across from the Buddhist monastery,
another of Doug's crew arrived (yes a gal) to join at the same time as me,
and shortly thereafter Doug and another of his gals emerged from the trail.
A harem of only 2, I thought, a bit disappointed since I expected 1/2 a
dozen beauties, but they were a lovely sight nonetheless 🙂
Like any guy, my attention was on the ladies, but Doug himself is a very
friendly guy, and he made me feel welcome. He has the relaxed attitude I've
often found in other trail runners and also in orienteerers. He wasn't quite
how I pictured him, whatever that was. As we started up the mountain on
their 2nd lap, my first, I quickly learned that Doug is an avid storyteller
and loves to tell jokes and anecdotes as well.
I just hoped to keep up with them as one of his ladies took the lead. We
were going to do 2 times running up followed by 2 times power-hiking up,
running down all 4 times. Even though some sections are steep enough to walk
more efficiently, the 2 runs up are meant for specificity, as are the
power-hikes. I was wearing my new polar s625x and was eager to watch the
altimeter - a new toy. I found their pace put me in the tempo zone (80-85%),
which felt fine. It was like training at just under marathon effort for me,
and we wouldn't be going that hard the whole ~4 hours.
The trail up is basically a stone and dirt jeep trail with decent footing
most of the way. It was mixed sun and clouds, and I was looking forward to
the views from the top. We passed a spot where one of the gals had recently
seen a bear on the trail, then later the old hotel ruins, and then the
ranger station just before rounding the bend to the top and the fire tower.
It was a great view west and north of the Catskill range with I'd say about
15-20 mile visibility.
So then we ran down, ran up again, then power-hiked up and ran down 2 more
times for a total of close to 4 hours for me, closer to 5 for them. When at
the top for the final time, we climbed the fire tower for a better view.
From up there you could see 360, and could see the Hudson river to the east
less than 10 miles. By then it had partly clouded over, and felt even
cooler. At the trailhead again, Doug broke out the beer and generously
offered (we imbibed) before we headed into Woodstock for some lunch.
Doug's a great guy and I really enjoyed meeting him. Already his advice
dispensed over the net has helped me in my 50k last year and in even more in
the escarpment trail run this year. Today He even gave me a tour of
woodstock and we got to see a sampling of the colorful characters that hang
out there. I'm more of an introvert where Doug is more outgoing, but I
really enjoyed hanging out and trying his style of training. I don't know if
he'd allow me to come again, as he might think I was trying to get in on his
harem action 😉
-Tony