Good Riddance Global Warming

Quite the volatile weather week we had - talk about some wild swings in temperature and conditions!  After a marginal 7 mile run on mostly dry and icy trails Saturday morning, we were treated to 4" of freshies on the trail Sunday morning to start our run.  Thought for a while about going over to do a trial at the local gym and just run treadmill - but naw, vetoed that idea after thinking about it for thirty seconds or so.  We bundled up, headed out, and timed it right to get some nice sunshine in during the run - which was great as it was the only window of good sun we had all day!

 Checking out the neighborhood snow situation

Group Photo - Traction devices ready!

 Nothing like first tracks

So with the wind blowing pretty good, we opted out of any exposed routes and headed over to Ute Valley Park.  Need to be sharp running technical trails covered in fresh snow, so this would be a good mental as well as physical workout - all while staying predominantly out of the wind.  Since we have not had an abundance of snow this year, it was a nice change of pace to crunch through the fresh powder on a cool morning, all while enjoying the bright sunshine that has been absent from Colorado (and many other states) for most of the week.  (Dang Canadians sending all their crappy cold fronts down here...)

 Dropping in below the rim - and out of the wind!

 Great day for a run

 Basking in the sun

Not many tracks on the technical stuff - most stayed on the wide trails

You can tell the dog tracks - following their "own" trail!!!

Kathleen coming through the trees

Ute Valley, with Blodgett Peak falling prey to the incoming cloudcover

Not sure what's going on here.  The City did a bunch of drainage type work here late summer and into fall, and tore up a lot of trails in the process.  They still have this closed for whatever reason - nuclear waste maybe???  Might have to be forced to investigate past the fence when the snow leaves....

Untouched blanket of snow - peaceful

Parting shot - and clouds rolling in

We had a couple light periods of snow falling during the run, increasing in frequency as we started to head toward home.  The clouds came in pretty quickly, and stayed with us most of the day.  It is "funny" how fresh snow on the ground makes it a little more mentally tolerable to have cold temperatures.  While 20 degrees is quite balmy after our nice subzero stretch mid-week, it seems less irritating when there is some snow to show for it.  Must be one of those mental trickery issues.  It was nice to get out for 11 miles of trail/snow running, even though the fresh snow gets to be a little like running in sand.  Bracing right now for another round of negative temps, although this week's installment is scheduled for shorter duration and we may get back to some 50's by this weekend - gotta love the Rockies!!!  Happy Trails!

Shoes - K Asics 2150 Trail

S Pearl Izumi SyncroFuel XC