14 myles - 3.04:09

Gray's (14,270 ft) - 6:00 A.M.
blue bird day, 60s bottom, 40s top, snowy trail
mind/body - good recovery from yesterday
Hard effort

Prescribed workout: 3 hours with lots of elevation

Actual workout: 14 myles - 3.04:09 - avg. 13:09 ~5000 ft elevation gain

I started from I-70 early, early and ran all the way to the trail head. I was happy I was running effortlessly, knowing I had a rough outing yesterday on the Barr trail. Last time I was on this trail was 3 weeks ago and I barely made it past the trail head because of 3 ft of snow on the trail. Today I didn't hit snow until the 12K mark. The switchbacks of the east slope trail were completely snow covered so most tracks went straight up to hook into the Lost Rat Couloir trail. It's shorter but straight up to gain the ridge. On the way down I got a chance to practice my glissading techniques, I'd say they're pretty good. I guess glissading on the backside of Handies just after midnight with hard crusty snow makes daytime glissading a piece of cake. Here are my splits:

I-70 to trail head - 34:22
Summit - 1.51:03
Trail head - 2.40:05
I- 70 - 3.04:09

And with this run I hit 19,900 vertical for the week so far. With Pikes coming up tomorrow I should hit 26K.