When you've lived in one place almost your entire life there are certain places you take for granted. It took me 14 years of living in Colorado Springs to finally take the Cog Railway to the top of Pikes Peak, for example. Climbing the Manitou Incline is another perfect example...
1 mile, 2000' elevation gain. REPEAT THAT - 1 mile, 2000 ft elevation gain... 3000+ steps straight up. 40% avg grade, 68% max grade.
This is "hoo-ah" country. I mean, Semper Fi, friggin pound your chest type terrain - and no, I don't ride up it... Imagine a staircase with over 3000 stairs - where each stair is, like, 2 ft higher than the last. Now we're talkin...
It's one of the city's famous proving grounds where people sit in Kinfolks bar at the base of Manitou Springs and compare their best times. Champion marathoner Matt Carpenter runs it almost daily. Olympic speed skater Apollo Ohno practically sidesteps up it. And I had never attempted it in almost a quarter-century living here...
I have to be honest - in the winter when it's dark and snowy, I'm far less inclined to go for a ride after work than I am to scamper up this beast of a workout, so I regret the fact that I've neglected it for so long. I intend to make it a regular addition to this winter's training regimen...
Perched precarously near the top, with a strong sense of.......vertigo.....
2 comments:
Simpson...
I stumbled on this while running a process. Good stuff. Reminds me we should hang out more often
-Doug
There's a group that does it every Thursday evening. Everybody starts at a time that they think will get them back to meet at Kinfolks for beer at 7:15. I've gone a couple times lately. This week a couple guys didn't think once was enough and did it a 2nd time.
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