Track and Field Blogs - Nate Jenkins

As many of you know I moved to Colorado Springs, CO from Lowell, MA last week. This is my first time going to altitude and a big change for me and my training so I figure I’ll do a few blogs over the next few weeks on what its like. In this first entry I’ll talk about the move and my first few days up here.

After indoor nationals on Saturday I had a going away party on Sunday which was kind of a bust because we got a foot of snow or so. Then I spent most of Monday at the Saucony offices doing the flotrack video’s that went up in the last few days, which was a ton of fun. I spent all day Tuesday packing. Which is really sad because I pretty much own only clothes and books. No bed, no dresser, in fact no furniture of any kind. Heck the only thing I had on my wall was my medal from the Olympic trials. But I’m not very efficient with my time so it still took me all day to get everything packed up and sort out what I was going to keep and what was going to the salvation army.

On Monday I got up put everything in the bed of my little 1997 Ford Ranger pick-up, ran a couple last minute errands and was on the highway by 8:30am.

I’m not much of a road tripper so I was figuring it would take me 3 or 4 days to drive the 2053 miles that Google maps told me would take 31 hours. But right from the gun I was very relaxed and focused on the idea that I was going to be in the car for an ungodly long time and so I was past 3 hours without even thinking I was really driving yet. So I decided to just go as far as I could and reassess my plans from there. It also helped that the Boilermaker has a small gas tank and the extra weight was killing my gas mileage so I was only getting 300 miles or so to a tank and I was stopping more like every 200 miles just to play it safe. Though it didn’t help that the boilermaker is the least powerful vehicle available in the first world and struggles to go much over 70 miles an hour and even with serious down shifting barely stays over 65 on up hills of any significance.

In central New York I saw a few deer on the side of the road which was a nice surprise considering it was the middle of the day but turned out to be the only wildlife for the trip of not other then 3 hawks with smaller birds or rodents in their talons on a 10 mile stretch in western Iowa, note to all those who believe in reincarnation do not come back as a small bird or rodent in western Iowa the odds are definitely stacked against you out there. The first 500 plus miles of the trip were past rather quickly though it hurt a bit that I hadn’t yet left New York. But then the states started flying by and thought the last few hours were tough made it across the Mississippi and stopped at a Holiday Inn just over the bridge in Iowa at about 1 am eastern time. I was checked in, had changed my watch to central time and was asleep in my room within 12 minutes of pulling off the highway. I slept like a stone till the alarm woke me for day 2. After a quick shakeout jog and a quick stop at the continental breakfast on the way out the door I was back behind the wheel at about 8:30 again, though central time.

I had feared the second day, across the plains and after spending so much time in the car the day before would be a disaster but it ended up being fine. I made a couple of phone calls mid day to keep me awake during the mid afternoon doldrums.

I actually really enjoyed Nebraska. It was the first state on my trip that I hadn’t been too before and in the western part of the state I hit a crazy wind storm that created a very ominous cloud of dust for the horizon which was very neat. It did however slow the boilermaker from the 80 miles an hour I had been able to build up to on the super flat plains, don’t give me a hard time about speeding the speed limit was 75 and I went by cops and they didn’t care so you shouldn’t either, down to only 60/65. Like I said the Boilermaker lacks any power but those were some crazy winds!

Finally I was in the northeastern plains of Colorado right before dusk, though the dust from the wind sort of killed the sunset I did find the scenery quite beautiful in the fading light. By this point I was pretty punchy and sore from driving but I managed to hold it together with one nicely placed phone call from Gary and I was at my new place in the springs at 9pm mountain time. I unpacked my truck and crashed on the day bed in the living room. The day bed is Blake Boldon’s, my new roommate, sub 4 miler and all around nice guy, name for the mattress on the floor in the living room.

Up by 7 the next morning, largely because I was still on east coast time, I was ready for my first ever run not a sea level. I expected the worst, feared I would be breathing heavy and dying at 8:00 mile pace. The trails I ran were awesome, snow free and dry. I was shocked that at the easy jog pace I was doing it felt no different then sea level, other then I was really stiff from the drive.

My next few runs pretty much confirmed my first run, first there are hundreds of miles of awesome trails in the springs that give you the feeling that you’ll never be able to run them all particularly because I find myself after I run on one wanting to go back there for my next run. Second at the easy paces the effort really isn’t much different, though I did pay a bit on a long climb during my Sunday long run with Tommy Neal and Ryan Kirpatrick. But for the most part though I have noticed a difference it is much much less then I expected, though after my first workout I think that will probably change. But for that story you’ll have to wait until I do that first workout and post again. Until then keep running!