go anton!

When I picture my life in an alternate universe, I often think of the life that Anton Krupicka lives. I only really know his life through his Strava and IG feed, but what I see is bike-touring, trail-running and rock-climbing, rinse and repeat. He lives out in Boulder, CO too, which has always been top 10 of places I would want to live. He and his gorgeous girlfriend seem to have the perfect life just adventuring on the daily. He's a sponsored athlete (La Sportiva) and a minimalist, so seems to get by with not having a day job. Another cool thing about Anton is that he was in academia at one time, studying physics, geology, philosophy, math, environmental sciences, etc. and worked in labs as a grad student, so not only is he physically gifted, he has brains too. He also reads A LOT- I just stumbled upon his blog and will definitely be hitting up that list for book ideas.

from trailflow.co

Tomorrow, Tony Krupicka makes his return to the Leadville 100. This is a race that is known as "The Race Across the Sky" and is one of the hardest 100 milers in the world. The entire race is run at elevations between 9,200-12,600 feet. Yikes. What's super cool is that Billy Yang will be documenting Anton's race. Anton won the Leadville 100 race in 2006 and 2007 and now he's back, 15 years later since his first win to toe the line. He was plagued with injuries for many years after crazy high mileage weeks (200 miles a week at some point) and it's great to see how he has managed to get back into it. I don't know, but I think that the bike has played a key role in his return to running. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but it makes sense that cross-training on the bike would let him heal up and also let him train with less pounding. What makes Anton's Strava feed so much fun to follow is all of the bike-touring and rock-climbing that he does.

One of these days, I would love to get out to Eldo for some climbing. My last climbing trip was at the end of 2019 and I'm really itching to get back out there. I've been trying to get back into climbing shape- need to start hitting the climbing gym, but when I can't be there, I at least need to start doing to upper body work or traversing on the wall that I have in my garage to get that footwork back. I would also love to learn more about bike-packing. I'm not sure if there are long stretches of bike path here in NJ, but I'm sure I can figure out a route within driving distance and give it a go. By lucky coincidence, I already have a bike-packing tent- just so happened that when I purchased the tent, the only one available was made for bike-packing. Then I guess I just need to maybe figure out a pannier system. Also, the bike that I have is not one of my choosing. Many years ago, my sister wanted to unload her bike, which is a hybrid road/mountain bike and I bought it from her. I think I'd like to get something a little more rugged.

Getting back to Anton, it's so funny how one person can be so inspiring. He is one of the most graceful and humble runners out there, in my opinion. I have even tried to mirror his running form because it makes running look effortless. One of my favorite running movies where Tony's running form is displayed is Unbreakable. I've seen it a couple of times and will likely watch it many more times. Ok, enough fan-girling for now. I'll just send good vibes out to Leadville and can't wait to follow the race tomorrow. Not quite sure where to follow, but likely coverage on irunfar.com.

Go get it, Tony!