If you’re lucky enough to be in the mountains, you’re lucky enough!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Time Capsule: Dinner, Running, and a nice Fall Week!

Here is some of what we have been up to the last week - grab a chair and some popcorn, as there will be a FEW more pictures than usual!!!
Happy Trails and Happy Texans! 

Saturday evening we headed up to Denver to have dinner with Tina and her husband.  He was in town for a conference and Tina decided to run the Denver Rock'n'Roll Marathon since the dates coincided.  Pretty handy way to get in a destination marathon - and we tend to believe it would be hard to beat a Colorado one.  We had a great time getting to know them and they are both wonderful people.  Tina ran a great marathon, by the way - Congratulations!  We could certainly see them as Colorado folks...some day....  Hopefully, they enjoyed their time here this past week!
On the Trail again... and it's a good thing!

Sunday we hit the trails again - we stayed close to home just in case K's leg acted up.  So no better place to run than Ute Valley Park.  It was a pretty near perfect fall day (again) and we were soaking it up! Since most of you know what we have coming up for the next several months in terms of running weather, we have to capture ALL of the fall sun we can!
Cruising some Slick Rock at Ute
Pikes with some snow on the north face!
The arch - and why were we leaning backwards??
Fall colors are peaking
Watch your step
A collage of Fall color paints the bluff
New trail heading around the west bluff...
So, as you can see from the great scenery, it was another fabulous fall day in the Rockies.  Kathleen squeezed out 7 miles, which is awesome.  I made another lap around the park to eek out 11 miles and called it a day.

Shoes - K Asics Trabuco
S Pearl Izumi SyncroFuel XC


Here are some pics that Kathleen took from near our home on a midweek run.
Blodgett Peak and the colors of fall

One of our local trails
The neighborhood park

Thursday evening we had a visit from Tim on his way to Cuba, New Mexico, to participate in the Deadman Peaks 50 Mile race.  He got there just in time as our work was being finished to re-establish hot water in the house, after a few day hiatus from such luxury rudely interrupted our week!!!  We were going to be taking care of his dog, Pippit, while he was gone, so he crashed here Thursday night and headed out in the wee hours of Friday morning.  It was a good trip for Tim, as he ended up winning the race ahead of Colorado Springs' own Brooks Williams.  Congratulations Tim!!  He will be heading out to Salt Lake in two weeks to run the Antelope Island 100k - stop by his blog and wish him luck!

Saturday morning, we awakened to gray skies and a cold wind - guess it really IS fall after all...  We needed to get in a quick run before Kathleen left for work.  We did a nice 4.5 mile route - pain free for K, I might add - and then she was off to work.  I rested a bit, then headed over to meet some folks from Team C.R.U.D. for a run at Garden of the Gods.  The sun decided to come out of hiding, which was very nice!  Brownie had tossed out an invite to join them for their Saturday run, which was way cool since I am far from an "ultra distance runner".   I was not able to hang around after for the pizza eating contest, which looked like it ended up being pretty competitive.  It was definitely cool to be running with some multi-100 mile race finishers - maybe some of it will rub off....  I left the camera in the truck since I was the "new guy", so I may have to snag a pic or two from one of the guys that ran who had a camera.  We ran 7.5 miles in the Garden.

Shoes - K Asics 2150 Trail
S - Pearl Izumi SyncroFuel XC
Flying W Ranch

Sunday we waited a bit to get out - we had sun but along with it, gale force gusts of wind.  Some upper level disturbances have been keeping a little weather instability stirred up and with it comes the winds!  You may get tired of seeing Ute Valley, but we're thankful to have such great trails close by while Kathleen nurses the running legs back into action.  So off we went into the windy day to get a few miles in the legs.
Kathleen hugging her new best  friend - the foam roller might get jealous!
Very Steep drop in - why do the pics look flat???
Fall holds on a bit longer
There she runs - woo hoo!
Catching some fall rays
HT, Close Up

Kathleen made a pass on the frontside of Ute, then headed out and back up toward home.  She was able to run 5.5 miles today and ran a total of 4 days this week- pain free!  Just keeping the fingers (and toes) crossed that the gradual climb out of the pain cloud will continue.
Pikes Peak - more snow than last week
Sweet singletrack
Hole #13 on the Disc Golf course by UVP - "The Big Ugly"

Got a shot of hole 13 on the DG course that runs along the east edge of Ute Valley - no one out today, which was very odd.  For whatever reason, this hole is marked as The Big Ugly!  Finished out the run with 11 miles, so had two good days of running for the weekend after ZERO midweek runs for me.  But, since I average out to be a 2-3 day a week runner, that's "par for the course" I guess!  Thanks for sticking with me this long - it was indeed a good week.  Happy Trails!!!

Shoes - K Asics 2150 Trail
S - LaSportiva Wildcat

18 comments:

Generation X (Slomohusky) said...

Fun again thanks HT. Looks like great get together with the Happy Texans. Thanks for ALL the Fall photos - very appreciated here in the desert. Things for always sharing your story. Wow Antelope Island - I know this place. I have been there a few times. My nephew has done the 50 there. Good luck to your friend!

BTW this summer - I promise I will visit ya folks! I will leave the Partridge Family discs at home though. :)

Generation X (Slomohusky) said...

BTW - Looking Through the Eyes of Love is a Partridge Family great one. Burt Bacharach sound is all over that one. :)

HappyTrails said...

There you go Slomo - now everyone knows we're old farts!!!

Generation X (Slomohusky) said...

Yes on the bridge just this past week. It was fun watching the progress over the years to a finished bridge.

Jill said...

Kathleen, I'm so glad you were able to getting in 4 good days of running with zero pain- that is awesome and I hope the streak continues for eternity! Steve, I have no doubt you could do the 100K, you are so strong and love those trails, piece of cake for you!!

Have a great week!! I'm headed to New Mexico tomorrow for a few days - I know some great trails along the Rio there, will be sure to get in a bit of trail running, provided the heel will allow it!

T Z said...

Thanks for the Colofix. You guys have better fall colors than we are having. We had a wet spring, moderate summer, and then 2 weeks of gorgeous but dry weather and we have various shades of brown leaves to enjoy.

Great news about K getting her runs in with no problemos.

Stay away from those 100 mile types. It's a nasty disease they have!!!

ShutUpandRun said...

Gorgeous pics. No better place to be than fall in CO...

Johann said...

Lovely post and super photos! Wonderful to see Kathleen running like that. Photos never show how steep the trails are. Have a great week!

Tina @GottaRunNow said...

Had a great time in CO! I hope you can visit RMNP soon. It was a bit chilly (which was a nice change for me, though!) and December will probably be freezing. I'm so glad I was able to meet you in person - lots of fun!

Unknown said...

How fortunate that you met Tina, you have been meeting so many wonderful bloggers!
It looks like the weather is changing in your area and I definitely see signs of fall. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Nice!
Kathleen.. Love the pic of you by the UVP sign!

brownie said...

Nice to have you along for the run! Come join us again soon.

I'll be over in Ute on Saturday for the fall series.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for watching Pippit. It was nice spending some time with you two before and after the race. Let me know what's up this coming weekend; maybe we can get out for a run and lunch.
tim

ajh said...

Love the pics as always. I especially liked the one of the fall colors on the bluff. It is excellent that Kathleen is getting in more and more running pain free! There is hope for all of us!

Happy Feet 26.2 said...

How neat you were able to meet up with Tina and her hubby. Fun!

Fun pics on those fall trails. WE have had some dry weather here for several weeks. REALLY weird for us. It left us on Sunday, and it was back to the typical "sweat dripping from the shorts" run.
cool weather is promised again later this week. I'm excited about that!

Julie said...

Hi guys,
I am a huge fan of bloggy meet-ups! Very cool that you were able to meet another blogger friend.

Lovely pictures as always! It looks like fall has made its way to Colorado:) Just think, the white stuff is not far away!

Glenn Jones said...

I sure wish I could be running where there were fall colors. Here in Southern California, ou fall color is *brown*

Ace said...

Being outside with these colors right now is amazing is it not? Glad to hear about a pain-free week!

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