A lovely Eldo link-up under pre-storm gloom in which @max.kilcoyne regaled me with many a tale from his past three months couch surfing in Chamonix. Good to have the kid home. Now if I can just keep him from getting distracted by sport climbing.
Back at the end of last July I was rounding into top summer fitness with an eye on UTMB a month later when the protestations from my left Achilles tendon that I’d been lowkey ignoring exerted their final demand: STOP IT.
So I did. I’d gotten complacent—perhaps even arrogant—and flagrant with my missteps. Miserably, I was in Chamonix a month later for UTMB week anyways, but there was no running.
After the initial few days of calming down the sharpest symptoms, I had virtually no functional progress for six months. Two months ago, I very nearly signed off on Haglunds surgery. I had once considered it seriously eight years prior, but also backed out then.
Mysteriously, something shifted in the tendon as the calendar rolled into February and my run-walk sessions gradually became more runs than walks until I was somehow running continuously. Now, almost two months later, I’m still only running three days a week, but 10-12 miles at a time.
To be clear, I’m nowhere near real running health; I still monitor the feeling in my heel near-continuously and especially obsessively upon waking up each morning. Every run still contains at least partial doubt. Back-to-back days are out of the question (but that has been the case for most of the past decade).
But there’s no denying that I’ve finally begun being able to access the terrain—technical movement on rock & snow, thin air—that gets me most excited. With the inevitable hiccups here and there—progress is rarely linear—my heel seems to be handling it.
I’ve been out of the game so long that I still can’t believe it—and still almost don’t dare allow it—but I’m starting to let the first tingles of excitement for summertime objectives creep in.
Dovetail on Longs Peak w @nodin_desaillan last week. Really fun to see a new-to-me route and scratch around in the alpine a bit even if my haglunds heel doesn’t allow for the lockdown of a real crampon. Many thanks to Nodin for being tour guide and for running the whole egress in his @lasportivana Aequilibrium Top boots!
Snuck in a January ascent of Longs Peak yesterday. I was fairly uncertain about heading up with gusty winds forecasted and just emerging from being laid out with covid all of last week. But @hailey.m.moore and I also closed on a small property up there at the very foot of the mountain last week, so it felt important to cement our commitment to the neighborhood with a day out appreciating its charms. As magnificent and humbling as ever. Delighted to have it be truly the backyard summit now.
A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to join @raide.research on a trip to Vietnam to dial in some of the new run belts coming down the pike. I’ve collaborated on many product designs in the running industry over the past couple decades, but this was the first time I’ve spent a week in a factory, iterating samples in real time.
It was an eye-opening experience. Seeing a factory like that in person—the source of so much of the stuff that humans bring into the world—filled me with conflicting emotions. The sheer resources on display, both material and human, are staggering. It made me confront consumerism head-on.
The antidote to my misgivings was witnessing Kyle’s unrelenting attention to detail and commitment to finding innovative design solutions. Raide is a product-first brand. Its whole reason for existing is to identify a gap in the market—in functionality, in quality, in aesthetic—and create something that improves the end-user’s experience of recreational movement.
I think this commitment ultimately makes Raide’s existence additive; helping bring a couple of its products to life felt like a creative act I could be proud of instead of doubting whether another widget really needed to exist. Certainly not that said widget needed to exist, but that maybe it at least deserved to.
Working alongside Kyle—and leveraging the factory’s clear expertise—to dial in literally every single stitch was rewarding and affirming. It was so cool to see the factory’s designers and sample-makers problem-solve and try things in real time to make Kyle’s vision a unique reality.
Running is a simple pursuit. Its material requirements are refreshingly minimal. My week in Vietnam granted me a fresh appreciation for everything that goes into making it just a little bit easier to get lost in the hills and find some of that magic flow we’re all looking for.
Tour de Tava (Pikes) over the weekend with @hailey.m.moore on what (i think) was our fifth lap of this route. We first rode it together in Oct 2018, only a couple of months into dating. Her first time bike-camping, her first 100mi day on a bike.
We both have thousands of miles of touring under our wheels at this point, but this loop—Rampart->Ring The Peak->Shelf->Phantom->Gold Camp—is a classic and I’m always struck by the consistent quality of the riding. It packs a lot into only 170ish miles. After a year where we only strapped camping gear to our bikes one other time, this past weekend was a perfect reminder of what’s so compelling about it.
Ultrarunning is evolving.
On Long Run Labs, @antonkrupicka and @_kelsquinn of @lasportivana share about redefining athlete sponsorships: from simple logo deals to collaborations built on story, authenticity, and shared values.
Jon chats with Anton and Kelsey about:
✅ The evolution of ultra running over the past decade
✅ Maintaining sport integrity while enabling commercialization
✅ Bringing project ideas and engagement to brands
✅ Advice for athletes seeking sponsorships
Tune in now to Long Run Labs wherever you get your podcasts!
This episode is supported by:
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Driven by values.
Anton’s (@antonkrupicka ) career is decorated, but recently his focus has shifted from achievement, to peak experience.
It’s an excuse to spend a bunch of days developing a relationship with a place, allowing for full presence in the moment.
The @raide.research LF 2L belt has been my most impactful gear revelation for getting out in the mountains this past year.
But I don’t always need the ability to carry a liter+ of water & a filter, or crampons and an ax and a phone and snacks for a full day out—a lot of the time I’m doing something way more lowkey in the front-country and only need to bring, say, my phone and a jacket or maybe a single 500L flask and a couple gels and a debit card.
Enter the new UL 1L from Raide. Same high quality materials and construction, thoughtful design, and no-bounce minimalist performance & function as the original LF 2L but with less bulk and a lower profile silhouette for those days when you’re just getting out for a quick hit.
Like this lap on the First Flatiron here in Boulder, my go-to when I’m looking for a <1hr micro-adventure.
The UL 1L fits the bill for everyday-carry duties; but with its sleek compression system (hidden cordlocks instead of Velcro straps) and the supportive back panel (tho thinner and less tall than the 2L) it’s still up to the task of fueling longer outings with no-bounce.
Jump on this one quick—if the popularity of the og LF 2L belt is any indication, these won’t stay in stock long!
Went up Longs Peak yesterday for the first time in almost two months; my Achilles tendon has been keeping me away. Shoulder season ascents are always tricky: summer in the sun, winter in the shadow of the northern aspects. The Cables pitches held the most true ice I’ve ever seen on them. I got the screamin’ barfies crimping icy cracks with gloves missing most of their fingertips. It’s ok, I’ve had them for a decade.
On the descent I escaped the unpredictable and wallowy footing of snow-covered talus for the sunny and bone-dry environs of the Camel Couloir. Parkouring down this feature’s boulders and scree, shirtless in the warm autumnal sun at 13,000’, the Diamond towering over me, I felt the most fully like myself that I have since July.
Even midday shadows are creepingly long. The Achilles is coming around, albeit slowly. We’re having an amazing fall (the coolest in a decade and a half, apparently), but I’m gradually getting excited for winter.
