Multiple PR's on Quandary, Colorado Fourteener

I've been blowing away all my previous best efforts (PR and PB) on Quandary in the past couple of weeks. That's on the Winter Route, which is somewhat different from the Summer Route.

Here are some screenshots from Strava:

Quandary Ascents on Winter Route

Quandary Descents on Winter Route

That puts me just about 2:00 out from 2nd place overall out of 13 for the ascent. That's really encouraging as I make up my mind toward Elbrus Race 2015. Am I going or not?

It's pretty tough to get that many PR's in such a short time. Going all-out once or twice a week for a few weeks on end can really be draining and have difficult recovery issues. I'll post more about the recovery aspects in an upcoming article, but first, here are some of my photos from the past few weeks on Quandary:

October Indoor Training - Charles

I was in Utah doing some work at the office and house there this past week. While there I decided to take the opportunity to train inside, since I had easy access to equipment that I don't have access to in Colorado at the moment.

Here's my training log whiteboard from Monday through Wednesday, October 14-16.

Monday: 
Inversion: 2:00
FreeStrider Elliptical: L8 - 6:50 - 1000'
SuperSet: 3 x {
SkiErg: L5 - 1:30 - 209m, 201m, 203m
IceTool Chinup: 2 x 3 (full hang)
Machine Lat Pulldown: 25 @ L6
Incline Chest Press: 25 @ 45 lb (only 2 sets)
Back Hyperextension->Superman Plank: 15, 10 seconds
}
Incline Treadmill: [1096']
4.157 mi - 50:00 - 5% - (4.988 ave.) - [12:02 pace] - 1097.448' - (1317/21.95 vert per hour/minute)

Tuesday:
Inversion: 2:15
FreeStrider Elliptical: L8 - 6:26 - 1000'
SuperSet: 3 x {
Glute Ham Raise: 2 x 5
Roman Chair Ab Situp: 15
}
IceTool Bodyweight Squat: 10/15/20 [left/right]
High Box Squat: 25 @ 155/175 lb
Parallel Box Squat: 5 @ 65/65/115 lb
Stairmaster:
Time: 24:00
Steps/Minute: 80
Feet: 1280.00
Miles: 0.27
VAM: 975.4

Wednesday AM:
Inversion: 2:00
FreeStrider Elliptical: L8 - 9:57 - 1500'
SuperSet: 3 x {
Glute Ham Raise: 6
Roman Chair Twist: 10
Roman Chair Situp: 15
}
Ski Erg: L5 - 3:21 - 500m
Experimenting with various upper body exercises
Jacob's Ladder: 11:00 - 696'

PM:
ITM: [1055']
5.00 mi - 49:57 - 4% - (6.006 ave.) - [9:59 pace] - 1056' - (1268/21.14 vert per hour/minute)

Training Log Whiteboard for Thursday and Friday, October 17-18

Thursday:
Inversion: 2:00
FreeStrider Elliptical: L8 - 10:14 - 1500'
SuperSet: 2 x {
Glute Ham Raise: 7
Roman Chair Twist: 10
Roman Chair Situp: 10
}
Band Goodmorning: 25 ea side with purple band
IceTool Bodyweight Squat:
1-leg from parallel box - 2 x 3 ea leg
with 1 leg on 6" box - 15 ea leg
Parallel Box Squat: 5 @ 115 lb, 5 x 5 @ 65 lb
Stairmaster: Time: 4:00
Steps/Minute: 125
Feet: 333.33
Miles: 0.07
VAM: 1524.0
Incline Treadmill: [204']
.261 mi - 4:01 - 15% - (3.899 ave.) - [15:23 pace] - 206.712' - (3088/51.46 vert per hour/minute)

Friday: 
Inversion: 2:00
FreeStrider Elliptical: L8 - 13:10 - 2000'
Hyper/Superman Plank/GHR/Twist/Situp: 10 ea.
Parallel Box Squat: 6 @ 65 lb
IceTool Chinups: 5
Mahine Lat Pulldowns: 25 @ L6
Leg Extension: 10 ea @ 52.5 lb
Dumbbell Lateral Shoulder: 25 @ 10 lb ea
Romanian Deadift [Narrow]: 10 @ 135 lb

Thursday and Friday I was pretty wasted and unrecovered from all the squats and chinups I worked on. I decided to mix it up a bit and rather than do a little warmup, then weights and finish with an hour of cardio, which wasn't working very well at the time I would do my cardio first, then see if I had the energy for the weights.

Training Log Whiteboard for Saturday October 19

Saturday:
Incline Treadmill: [836']
5.285 mi - 60:00 - 3% - (5.285 ave.) - [11:21 pace] - 837.144' - (837/13.95 vert per hour/minute)
FreeStrider Elliptical: L8 - 32:22 - 5500'
SuperSet: 2 x {
Glute Ham Raise: 10
Twist: 10
Situp: 10
}
SuperSet: 5 x {
Parallel Box Squat: 5 @ 65 lb
IceTool Negative Chins: 3 [pull from standing, then 5 seconds descend to full hang]
}
Sumo Romanian Deadlifts: 5 x 5 @ 135 lb

That seemed to work out okay for me. I then drove back to Colorado where I'll be doing a lot of outdoor training at temps below 20 degrees F in the morning, on snow and ice covered dirt roads and trails. Note the frost on my chin, collar, and earbuds.