I wanted to take advantage of to the nice cool morning. 46F at the trailhead!! I wasn't feeling that good at the beginning but decided to go for it anyway. Fell down about 1:30 in! But it came together and it was beautiful up on the ledges. There were some low clouds in the valleys, but it was mostly a beautiful clear day. I had the time when I got Welch two minutes ahead of Andrew. But I was still intimidated by hitting sub-7 pace on the descent. Turned out to be super fun!
I made a few brief wrong turns where I had to backtrack a little bit. Plus I had to stop and wait for Wish on one of the descent sections where she fell behind. So I could definitely take this down to 39:00. Maybe if I were feeling better beforehand, 38:00 is feasible. Wish had a great time. She's so much stronger on the uphill but on these faster descents, I can sometimes edge her out!
I noticed that I can't really hit lactate threshold on the steeper sections. On the shallower start, I was running a nice slightly-above LT pace but when it got steeper, the limiting factor became leg strength. I think that fact may guide future training a bit. Maybe some weighted uphill carries?
GPS must've gotten a little off at the beginning because I didn't catch the ascent segments on Strava. But, there's not really any alternative trail so I assure you that I did the correct route!
Splits:
Ledges - 12:35
Welch - 22:30
Dickey - 26:55
Finish- 39:58