Falcon Trail Holiday Run
Blodgett Peak from Falcon Trail
It is unusual for me to run on Mondays, however, bonus holiday mileage is always a plus. On Labor Day I headed over to the US Air Force Academy to take in the Falcon Trail. Kathleen decided to stick with a bit lower mileage at Ute Valley Park to try and take it easy on the hips and legs, so it was a solo run. It turns out, I was not the only one with the bright idea to head out to Falcon - it was a freeway on the trails!
Hello Mr Bull Snake, thanks for the brown shorts!!!
The Cadet Chapel
Wonderful Trail!
It was an incredible day with typical Colorado Fall weather - crisp morning, bluebird skies, and pleasant temps during the day. Even with the trail traffic and two long days in the legs, I had a great run (aside from missing K) and felt really solid the whole time.
13 Miles, 1800' elevation gain
Shoes - Pearl Izumi SyncroFuel XC
Post-run Starbucks - Happy Trails revved up!
Who stole Summer?
Saturday morning on weather.com - what?
Saturday, Kathleen had to work and she got out early for a run near home. I was up really early and headed for Boulder to meet Tim for a run and help him move into his new digs on the east side of town. Before leaving, I was horrified to see the above reading on the weather channel. Wasn't it just last week that we were needing to get up at the crack of dawn just to beat the 90 degree temps???
Dowdy Draw Trail
Eldorado Canyon
(I neglected to bring my camera on the run, so the two photos above are public domain from various OSMP web links.) Tim and I had a great run on some of the southern trails in the Boulder OSMP trail system, hitting Dowdy Draw, Springbrook, and Goshawk before taking Rattlesnake Gulch into Eldorado Canyon State Park for a short grunt up Eldorado Canyon trail before turning around and heading back along mostly the same route. Tim is busy training (and stressing out over) for the Bear 100 near Logan, Utah in two weeks. So we did a nice "recovery" run before his last big run in preparation for the race. Of course we were hungry, so we moved some stuff to the new place, then hit up Beaujo's Pizza for a little salad bar and Prairie Pie - oh yeah!
We had an interesting chat about logging mileage for trail runners. In typical, normal running circles, output over time is logged with straight numbers - mileage run and time spent. However, as is the case with so many trail runs, there are significant variables that can make a 15 mile run take 3 hours, which on a running log, looks really bad. Significant accumulated vertical gain, extreme technical footing, and raw starting elevation all conspire to make mileage a secondary factor. So if you run trails, how do you account for these factors when you log your runs so that 6 months from now, you will know what your Effort was?
14.6 miles, 2650' elevation gain
Shoes - Pearl Izumi SyncroFuel XC
Fantastic Day at Cheyenne Mtn
Part of NORAD's Antenna Farm atop Cheyenne Mtn
-keeping an "eye" on the Western World!
Sunday morning we headed to Cheyenne Mountain State Park for a little trail activity and brilliant sunshine. Another gorgeous day was on tap and we have to take advantage before old man winter shows up. Had a nice view of the gobs of aerial devices atop Cheyenne Mountain from the parking area. If our blog disappears, you know I photographed the wrong ones.....
You again???
For the second time in a week, rounded a bend to find a well-fed bull snake sunning on the trail. This guy was more bashful, retreating hastily before I could get the camera out. These are one of the more common snakes we see and are not venomous, but can be large and intimidating. This one was a bit over 3 foot long I would guess. If you are not a large insect, rodent, small bird, or lizard, he is most likely not at all interested in your company! They are hoarding for winter right now, so watch your step.
Kathleen enjoying the Sundance Trail...
...Steve was, too!
Trail with a view
Heading into the Rock Garden
Nice forest photo
Parting Shot of the mountain
Once again, it was an awesome day to run trails in Colorado. We had a great time at the park, headed home and enjoyed a cold soak for the legs, followed by a leisurely afternoon with the return of NFL on Sundays. Happy Trails!
12 miles, 1725' elevation gain
Shoes - K Asics 2150 Trail
S - Pearl Izumi SyncroFuel XC
