Jo and I may have found our new home. I drove up (and I do mean UP) to see it this afternoon and it's our dream house. 1 acre zoned horse property (although we don't want a horse), beautiful mountain home at 8000+ elevation. Anyone who has read "Running With The Buffaloes" may have heard of Magnolia? We would be yelling distance to "Mags" and some of the most epic running in the country. Run Mags enough in the summer and you're likely to see groups of Kenyans frequently. GZ has written about El Dorado Canyon and we'll be just a short trail away. One of the more unusual things is that we'll be on the same road as one of Ted Bundy's body dumps.
Training will change for me living at high altitude. I used to live in Winter Park at 9000ft and trained quite a lot there, you don't exactly run fast at that altitude. Boulder's elevation isn't even considered altitude by most standards. One of the most difficult things about altitude is that recovery is limited severely. Your body has to fight to keep up just with the altitude, add training and you get a double whammy. Push too hard at true altitude and you will get crushed. Today I became winded just walking the property line. One very good thing could be in the idea that I can place myself in the ideal training scenario and live at altitude and drive down to Boulder (~20:00) and train. The "live high train low" concept has been shown to be the ideal. Hence the popularity of altitude simulation (tents and the Hanson Brooks altitude houses). And another aspect that I have already thought of is that I am very well adapted to this elevation after having lived here for 7 years. This makes my potential altitude change only 2500ft of stress rather than 8000 if I was living at sea level. In other words- the change won't be as severe.
It's hilly up there... and it's hilly by trail runner standards. GZ can attest to this. I see that as being nothing but a good thing. One way to train fast at altitude is to run downhill. Your ability to run truly fast is limited by the altitude so you can trick your legs by running downhill to get the proper leg turnover. Plus I can drive to Boulder for flat fast workouts. Nederland is very close and they have a track.. 9000ft elevation track workouts? Yikes.
It's exciting and even though I am trying not to, my hopes are quite high that we'll be living there in less than a month.
Of course I could then host truly wicked training camps!!
14 comments:
Amazing. Congratulations. It is so cool to see someone win when it is a win for the family. Your blog inspires more than you will ever know.
Thank you for the good word "anonymous"..
Hi Lucho, that looks, and sounds, very nice! Settling down is a huge decision for most people, as there are so many considerations regarding family, grocery shopping school, friendly community, loneliness vs urban activity and so on. In this forum You've of course listed the running related arguments, but could you elaborate a bit about ie, house pricing, compared to Boulder/other places, when the snow masses forces you on skies or snowshoes... Best of luck, CB
How many of us will be able to sleep on the floor?
Looks cool
T - that is just Bee..eee..utitful! Looking forward to seeing how your training progresses in your "new" enviroment...
Brfoot- Floor? I'm not letting a bunch of grubby, sweaty Ironman athletes in to my house. That's what the barn is for.
The house is 3 bedroom, 2 bath with 1700 sq. ft. plus outbuildings. Plenty of room for you! Come on out (if we get the house).. Plus we'll be ~10 miles to the nearest ski resort..
Claus- There's a small K-8th grade school at the end of the street which makes it convenient. With the snow- I don't see that as being an issue at all. My wife's car and my own are great in snow and we both are experienced snow drivers. We met while we were both living in Winter Park Ski Resort and we spent quite a number of years there. I can see a treadmill in my future though. But Boulder is only ~20:00-30:00 away so going down to the dry and mild weather isn't a big deal. And I love X-country skiing.
House prices... this house is in Jefferson County, not Boulder County. This same house in Boulder city limits would be ~1 million (it has a little more than an acre of land). Tucked up in the mountains though in Jefferson County we can get it for $200,000. Boulder is very expensive and a lot of my friends (including me) have chosen to live just over the city limits in Louisville (Jeff, Bob) or Lafayette (Tony DeBoom, Alan Culpepper) where house prices on average are HALF that of Boulder city. I think the last housing sales list I received from my realtor had the average home price in Boulder somewhere in the $800k range? While Lafayette, which has better trails, better roads, zero traffic, and no crime.. was averaging ~$380k. There's something about "living in Boulder" that people love and I don't get it. Outside Magazine picked Boulder last year as the #1 most over rated city in America.. Give me the mountains and their subtle inconveniences any day.
PS- We haven't bought the house YET..
lucho - the place looks fantastic. i hope it all works out for you.
also...thanks for posting the links on the blog...good stuff that you are making available to us "regular" folk.
thanks
As far as I can see, there's lots of reasons to move outside of Boulder, lower prices, less traffic/people etc. The only downfall would be moving away from Your social network, but hey 20-30 minutes isn't that bad. Being a family might make it easier, as You're already settled as a family, while singles/competitive athletes might wanna live in the urban reservation, by the hunting grounds/water holes. Sounds like a great deal, good for You guys. Have a nice weekend and good luck with Your sub 2.30 journey.
Claus- Many athlete's live outside of Boulder to avoid the competitiveness and the huge number of athletes. You get caught up in training with good athletes too often.
Ckotte- I'm as regular as they come my friend.
Dude,
That place looks amazing! All that space for you and Ben to bomb around. If you get the place let me know and Gunner and I will bring our shovels to help build the pump track!
I've always been a big believer in the synergistic power of group workouts, as you've just gotta show up and the training takes care of it self. But it's interesting how the fastest guys in a group is often dictating the pace or structure of a workout. A lot of people seems to loose focus when the peer pressure grows or you train with people who's got better palmares. But it shouldn't be ignored that training with famous athletes can be a great motivational booster, and sometimes you end up thinking: "if it's works for him/her, it might as well work for me". Loosing the big picture, and training on other peoples terms, can be detrimental for an athlete, but I think a lot of aspiring and athletes could benefit a lot from professional/successful athletes work ethics, dedication and discipline. In the end it comes down to who trains the hardest, the most and smartest. Not mentioning having fun and enjoying the process.
Wicked training camps? F that- WICKED PARTIES!!! I am picturing myself running naked across that field in front of the house OR maybe riding a bike down the side of the house with Ben- oh, wait- maybe that IS one of our training camps...
Sounds good to me, I'll bring my skis. If you want to come up and run Bloomsday you let me know.
Hey!
After chatting with Kerrie about the MAF running thing, I'm jumping on. She is helping me get started (from zero) after a long season of injury and no runnning base to speak of at this point. I need something fresh and new to focus on in terms of my running so I'm excited to explore this concept. I'll be scouring your blog site for any MAF info,tips and insite. I'm a sponge! Nice house! Intriguing stuff about altitude and living/training in it as I live in New England
Post a Comment