Limitless Vertical Challenge was a virtual race running from May 25^th to 31^st measuring vertical gain.  I have enjoyed hill training, mostly because I sucked at it.  They had 6 levels of achievement, I was aiming for level 5, 29029 feet or 8848 meters, the height of Mt Everest.  I had a week, how hard would it be?  I need to give full credit to my wife Deb who introduced me to this Virtual Challenge, and not only supported me, but rocked her own!

          

          On Monday (May 25^th) I began doing repeats of the Economy side of Economy Mountain, on the highway.  My thought process was it would be easier to jog down.  I knew I had to average 1264 meters of gain per day, and 10 repeats of Economy got me just over 900 meters.  I parked my car ½ way up the hill, and it was nice as I didn’t need to carry any supplies and there was a nice wind off the water.

            

           Tuesday I transitioned to the Ski Hill.  I had finished my 2^nd night shift and wanted to get to work.  I played with the best way to gain elevation and get back down the hill.  Deb and I setup an aid station at the bottom of the T-Bar and I was heading up to pole 10 and coming down the Rosebowl.

I packed nutrition (if you can call some of it that) of Tuna sandwiches (ate two most days), Mrs Dunster Donuts (ate one bag in a week), Pop tarts (ate one the entire week), crispers (salt and vinegar), Salt Capsules (had them in case I needed them, but didn’t use any), Tons of H20 (went through almost 3 liters on my bigger days), Pomegranate Juice (went through 1 liter on Saturday and Sunday) and Coke.  I am not happy with the food I ate, but it settled in my stomach and I didn’t ever feel like I was bonking.  I went through a pile of water, especially on the warmer days.

Wednesday Deb and I both spent a couple hours at the ski hill before going Golfing at 2 until 5.  It was hot.

Thursday was a longer day, I got 1645 meters of Vert but it took me 7 hours.  This was the day I discovered turning around at the top of the T Bar and going down was the fastest way to complete a repeat.

Friday was the first day I began to feel sore, we went out hoping for a longer day, but I had decided I wasn’t likely able to complete the Everest goal and we went home after 3 repeats.  The black flies also started to get bad, and we had to wear bug nets on our heads.  I had to wear long sleeves as they would go at my arms.  It didn’t seem to matter how much bug off we used.

Saturday we arrived at the Ski hill early.  I had rented an AirBNB for Saturday and Sunday night on Mattatol lake, about 20 minutes away.  I was excited to be able to spend the morning trying for a big result, taking a shower and going back.  It rained a little mid morning, but the T-Bar descent wasn’t too slippery.  I got 6 repeats in the morning, 1000 meters of vert and I felt like maybe … I could do it?  Got back to the hill for 3:30 and did 7 repeats.  I felt great!  I was averaging 2 repeats an hour, give or take a couple minutes.

Sunday morning I was up at 5:30, stretched a lot, I had gotten over 2200 meters of vert on Saturday and I had about the same remaining.  Jason Warham came up from the city and met me at the hill for 8am and we did 7 repeats before 12 noon, and I was almost there!

Yes, I made a path. 

Started back at 2:30, did 4 repeats by myself and Deb did the final 2 with me.  I couldn’t believe how hard this challenge turned out to be.  I love trail running, much prefer it to road running, however this turned out to be a time game.  None of the trails I enjoy would have been short enough to get the elevation required quickly enough (for me).

Conclusion?  This was my 2nd virtual run ever, both done by Aravapia, and I highly recommend.  I wanted to try a different kind of challenge than a distance.  This was physically and mentally hard.  I totally encourage people to do it.  I have a higher appreciation for Vert gain than I did before, pun not intended but intentionally left in.

What did I change from my 100 mile attempt (Finished 114 kilometers)?  Shoes, Shoes, Shoes and Lululemon.  Who knew how damn expensive running can be.  I used cheaper shoes for my Capes 100 miler attempt and I had bad bruising on my feet.  I thought if I bought Salomon Trail running shoes, they would be good.  I had two different pairs of Salomons for Capes 100, both were awful.  This winter I switched to Hoka One Ones, specifically Challenger and Speedgoats.  Highly recommend for trails, my feet were great.

I use Lululemon compression shorts, socks and shirts mostly now (buy them as I can afford them, or get stuff on sale).  I recently bought a pair of their Jogger pants, and damn, they are nice.  This winter I went through two pairs (MEC and Craft brands) quicker than I should have.

Some numbers for the week:

Total number of meters for the Challenge/Week: 8926

Total number of meters of elevation for May: 14 666 meters

Total kilometers for my Challenge week: 90.5

Total time for the week: 26 hours 53 minutes

Total Hill repeats (not all the same distance): 60

Meters of gain from bottom of T-Bar to pole 10: 163

Bags of Garbage collected on the T-Bar route: 2 (Lots of litter at the Ski Hill 😒)