tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32932659917022402132024-02-06T21:28:50.387-07:00Happy TrailsHappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.comBlogger334125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-24538677873614435202013-07-14T21:17:00.000-06:002013-07-14T21:17:02.323-06:00Under Reconstruction Updates coming in the near future :-)<br />
<br />HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-56874236526910721752013-01-27T21:15:00.000-07:002013-01-28T14:21:03.827-07:00Can we go back to Christmas?... OK, so not really go back to Christmas and start over or anything. But maybe go backwards from today on the SD card in the camera and see what's been going on. Sort of like a photo dump with commentary. Aside from a few periods of Old Man Winter showing his mug, it has been extremely non-winter weather here. While this is premium for outdoor enthusiasts (except skiers) who need their weekend fix in the great outdoors, it is really, really super uncool for our heinous drought scenario. However, since we are in no way able to control the climate, might as well capitalize on the bodacious weather and maximize the outdoor time! Beside that - and without mentioning any names of people in Vermont or Oklahoma - we have been under a bit of outside pressure to get some stinking pictures up - so here we go!<br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Sweet Ride on Falcon Trail</b></span></span> </div>
So we have been mixing it up with trail running and mountain biking, and it has been working out really well. Today, with highs forecast in the upper 50's, we headed over to the Air Force Academy to do some riding on the Falcon Trail. We were hoping that a bunch of the snow from our last trip over there was gone, and sure enough it was. We started at the stadium and headed clockwise. Instead of riding it as a loop, we had a plan today to get some extra mileage in. <br />
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<i>Kathleen climbs out just below the BX and Community Center</i></div>
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<i>New display at the Chapel Overlook</i></div>
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<i>The Chapel and cadet commons</i></div>
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So we rode clockwise around to the Chapel overlook, which is at mile marker 0, the official trailhead. However, for us it was already mile 8. We turned around here and headed back the way we started. We were hoping to avoid the last remnants of snow on the north end, extend our riding mileage beyond the standard 13 mile loop, and cash in on the super sweet descent off the back side - the one we had just grunted our way up a half hour earlier!</div>
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<i>Brilliant sunshine on Falcon Trail</i></div>
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As expected on an awesome day like this, traffic on the trails was quite heavy. In fact, there was more traffic today than any time I remember on Falcon Trail during all of last year! By the time we circled back to the stadium lot, it was in the upper 50's and just fantastic outside. (Sorry east coast frozen people...) <i> </i>We just couldn't stop, so we rode past the lot and headed around the trail past the golf course and around to the first road crossing on the north side of the course. We turned around here and had a blast flying through the singletrack in wide open meadows to the east of the course - which by the way had plenty of activity today! We rolled up to the truck after 21 miles of sweet trail riding with big grins on our faces. Yep - this weather is bogus for January in the mountains - but man are we enjoying it while it lasts!! Between today's ride, a Monday ride (and run = brick), and last Sunday's ride at Cheyenne Mountain State Park (sorry, no camera), Kathleen got in over 60 miles on the mountain bike - 3 technical trail rides in a week - sweet!</div>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Saturday Run at Garden of the Gods </b></span></span></div>
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<i>Kathleen cruises past the Giant Footprints</i></div>
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Yesterday, I headed out the door for the Garden of the Gods, with Kathleen planning to meet me at the park to start her run. This allowed me an extra 5 miles without Kathleen having the pressure to go too long on the run. While it was not too cold out, it was pretty gray most of the day which wasn't real fabulous for the motivation. But 50's in January is what it is, so quit whining and run, right? </div>
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<i>And why would you NOT want to run here???</i></div>
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<i>Steve cruising the Strausenback Trail</i></div>
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Oddly, trail traffic was light and we were able to cruise at will, circling all of our favorite spots in the park. Kathleen was shooting for 10 or 11 miles, which was perfect as 15 or 16 is about my top end at this time of year. While we were both tired, it was again hard to peel off the trails with such unbelievable temps in winter. We stopped in to see our favorite crew at the neighborhood Starbucks and then kicked it for the rest of the day. With a boatload of people sick around here, we made certain to stay out of crowded (aka germ factory) areas as much as possible this weekend!!</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Back a couple weeks</b></span></span></div>
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<i>The previously mentioned ugly stuff</i></div>
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Just so you don't think we're getting all cream puff weather this winter, we did have this spell a couple weekends back - can you say "ride the indoor trainer"? Two words - butt cold. Glad it's over. For now.....</div>
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ride at Pueblo Reservoir</b></span></span></div>
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<i>Kathleen riding out the mesa on Voodoo Loop</i></div>
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Back a few weeks, we took advantage of some sunny weather to get some time in at Pueblo Reservoir. New Years weekend, we spent a couple days down at the desert oasis mountain biking with friends (just over 50 miles on Sat/Sun) and going for a long run on dry trails after some quick snowstorms left the home trails a little snowpacked. So the next weekend, we were itching to ride again and headed back. The quick 1 hour drive is easily justified when dry singletrack - miles and miles of it - await your tires and/or trail shoes.</div>
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<i>Western end of the trail system ... for now</i></div>
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We have been to Pueblo quite a few times for a winter get away but had never been on the newest loop - Voodoo - which is the farthest trail loop to the west. From what we hear, there is yet another loop in the works for the next mesa west of Voodoo - holy trail stash Batman! So we made a point to head straight for Voodoo to start the ride and it is an absolute blast. It has some fast, open stretches that are really made for the bike, but might be a bit "out there" for running. We'll report on that the first time we get back there to run the loop. It is awesome riding - long wide open stretches of twisty singletrack, punctuated with typical desert riding in and out of drainages and arroyos. There really are no long climbs at Pueblo, just a lot of punchy, leg draining ups and downs - hardly any flat areas. And lots of loose, broken shale - can be a bit tricky to ride or run. The shale is noisy, too.</div>
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<i>Steve on the Outer Limits Trail</i></div>
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<i>Looking north across the reservoir, with Pikes Peak 50 miles to the north</i></div>
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<i>Our route for the day - we covered less than half the trails available</i></div>
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We had a blast riding our legs off, eventually calling it quits after 28 miles of splendid desert trails. While there are several mountain biking races held here, we are really surprised that there are not any ultra trail races held here. It would seem to be a great early season ultra with the mild weather Pueblo generally receives. Anyway, we had a great ride and really enjoyed the dry trails in the middle of winter. There is a pretty good chance we'll be back down before it gets blazing hot - both to run and ride these awesome trails.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Christmas in the Park</span></b></span></div>
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<i>Group photo in Beaver Meadows</i></div>
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And now for that whole Christmas thingie - We generally do not go anywhere at Christmas, as in years past we have had limited time off work and most often also have family in town. This year, no family in town and 10 days off between Christmas and New Years holidays meant we had a little freedom to roam. So we booked our favorite spot in Estes Park and spent Christmas in the quaint little town at the east portal to <a href="http://www.nps.gov/romo/index.htm" target="_blank">Rocky Mountain National Park</a>. </div>
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<i>Kathleen running the park service road above Beaver Meadows</i></div>
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We were unsure of how much recreation we wanted to plan while in Estes Park. We did not even bring snowshoes due to the poor snowpack so far this year. Christmas Eve, we headed over to the park to get in a little trail run. Little being the key word since it was 17 degrees and windy - well, it is <i>always</i> windy in Estes Park... We started at the visitor's center, took the service road out to the trail junction, and ran the trails in Beaver Meadows. While there were some nice stretches of dirt, there was also a fair amount of running on crusty snow and a wee bit too much post-holing through windblown and drifted sections. It was good to get out and stretch the legs a bit and we rolled up 9 miles before calling it a day. With snow in the forecast for Christmas Eve night, it was looking like a white Christmas for the first time in many, many years.</div>
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<i>Finishing up the run with weather moving in</i></div>
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<i>Christmas Day - 6" of fresh powder - Fall River entrance</i></div>
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Sure enough, the weather moved in and delivered 6" of fresh snow, leaving behind brilliant blue skies and numbing temps to start Christmas Day. We decided to get out and enjoy a drive in the national park to check out the freshies - it was magnificent.</div>
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<i>Old Fall River Road</i></div>
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<i>Horseshoe Park, looking out toward the <a href="http://www.rmnp.com/RMNP-Areas-HorseshoePark-AlluvialFan.html" target="_blank">Alluvial Fan</a> area</i></div>
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<i>Group mug - loving the White Christmas!</i></div>
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<i>Windblown snow crystals add highlights to Longs Peak</i></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><b>Thanks for checking out the time capsule - <i>Happy Trails!</i></b></span></div>
HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-14840766830861042852012-12-23T09:10:00.001-07:002013-01-12T18:20:54.723-07:00Merry Christmas and some trail RIDINGWhat, you say, TWO biking posts in a row??? Well, the day after the week after the last post, Kathleen was riding in Ute Valley Park and descending a series of root steps that we have ridden and run down a thousand times over the years. For whatever reason, at that moment, Ole Bessie snapped a chainstay - see below (probably had something to do with that "thousand times" thing):<br />
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<i>R.I.P. - 12 years of good service from that frame!!</i></div>
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Now, we had been itching to get back to some off-road riding, so the plan was to start perusing new bikes in the spring. However, this incident left us in a quandary and had us looking a little sooner. Lo and behold, we found a sweet deal on a couple of gently used 2011 Santa Cruz Superlight's and snatched them up. Merry Christmas to us :)) Back.In.Business. Now we haven't had much winter yet, so we were hoping to get some riding in this weekend. Thanks to a nice little storm mid-week, we had just enough snow to be a nuisance but decided to head out anyway. We took off on Santa Fe from Woodmen Road, cut over from Ice Lake to the Falcon Trail, and rode that awesome loop before heading back.</div>
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<i>Breaking in the new machines</i></div>
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<i>Cruising out one of the dry sections</i></div>
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While the snow on the north side was pretty chunky and made a mess, the ride was awesome and we ended up with a nice 25 miles of trail for the day. For Steve, it was the first significant off-road ride in years, but the feel for the bike was back within the first hour. All in all, a great day and lots of fun. And if you're in to bikes at all, we have a couple super sweet sets of Stan's tubeless wheels on the way to lighten up the ride - nice! Rest easy, though, we are now off to do a nice <b><span style="color: blue;">trail <span style="color: red;">RUN<span style="color: black;">.</span></span></span></b> <b><i>Happy Trails!</i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Have a <span style="color: red;">Merry</span> <span style="color: #38761d;">Christmas!</span></b></span></div>
HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-27275734624681577572012-11-26T16:24:00.003-07:002012-11-28T17:38:39.715-07:00Yup, we are still alive!!!<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: #073763;"><b>The Happy Trails duo is still alive and kicking despite a serious absence from blog activity. Steve has settled into and is enjoying his new job. We are both settling into the short, colder days of winter although we certainly have been happy with the overall mild weather Mother Nature has delivered thus far. Everyone, locally, knows we need moisture in a BIG way but not having to wear our heavy duty cold weather gear sure is NICE!!!</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: #073763;"><b>Even though we have been on a blog hiatus, we have continued to run our local trails which is always a wonderful thing. The not-as-wonderful-thing is that I am still not physically back up to speed. For reasons unknown, it is taking me longer to "come back" than what we had hoped. I am not able to rebuild much in the way of strength, speed, or endurance. The body is just not able to build and accept much in terms of training adaptation yet. Many runs feel a bit like a slog/sufferfest - the body just doesn't work quite right and won't "go". Occasionally, I have been able to pop off a run where I feel pretty good - not normal - but pretty good and feel encouraged of what "could be". There have been brief glimpses of promising potential but have been unable to make those brief glimpses last. But, it is what it is and we are trying to roll with it. The doc said, in some cases, it can take at least a year to get back to normal. I am 7 months in - only 5 more to go.......</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: #073763;"><b>Nevertheless, I am still trying to do what the body allows. I am thankful that I can still do "stuff" - I count my blessings - it certainly could be much worse. I am also thankful for my most wonderful, patient, and long suffering husband. Steve has been the model of love, support, and encouragement. He comforts me when all I want to do is curl up and cry. He is my cheerleader and priceless treasure and I am grateful beyond measure for him.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: #073763;"><b>So, here are a few pics from the last few months, a little proof that we are still getting out and getting after it: </b></span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;">Beautiful fall day at Red Rock Canyon</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another beautiful autumn day up the Incline and down Barr Trail. Magnificent Pikes Peak in the background.</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: magenta;">I was graced with a visit from dearest</span></span></b> <b><a href="http://runwithjill.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Jillery</a><span style="color: magenta;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. We hit the Incline, Barr, and The Mate' Factor for lunch. ALWAYS a FUN time together. </span></span></b></div>
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<b>Another stellar day, this time at Palmer Park</b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Doesn't get much better than this - food and family on Thanksgiving. Getting ready to eat at Steve's sis's house - his mom and sis - see how <i>food</i> makes everyone smile???!!!</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">The work center trails in Monument the day after Thanksgiving...... notice the continued fine weather theme???</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><b><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We encountered many mountain bikers while running in our beloved Ute Valley Park on Thanksgiving morning. Steve and I remarked to each other that it sure looked like tons of fun which led us to ask why in the world hadn't we done it in oh, say, 4 years or so??? We don't know why. We just haven't. It caused us to wonder whether or not we could still RIDE our mountain bikes on anything bumpier or more technical than a paved street and not kill or permanently maim ourselves. We decided to find out. </span></span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><b><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Steve hauled the bikes off the garage wall, wiped off the inches of dust that enshrouded them, and proceeded to give them a quick "once over tune-up". The final verdict: Kathleen's bike, other than a couple of the pivots which need to be adjusted, a little air in the tires and front and rear shocks and lube on the chain, was in good working order and ready to roll.</span></span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><b><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Steve's bike, on the other hand, was not so lucky. It seems that the seals on his rear shock were shot rendering the machine unrideable. Boo-hoo.</span></span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><b><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We decided to head down to Cheyenne Mountain State Park yesterday. I planned to run a 6 or 7 mile loop and then hop on the mountain bike and see if I had ANY technical skills left in me. Steve planned on running long. I figured CMSP was a good starting point for a first, semi-technical trail ride in 4 years - the trails are mostly flowy, smooth, albeit off-camber decomposed granite, punctuated by rocky and rooty sections. Just enough challenge to help regain some feel for the bike but not too much so where a person could hurt herself.</span></span></b></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Group photo halfway up the Talons</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>The primary goal was to NOT kill or seriously injure myself. Secondly, to not ride stiff as board after not being on dirt for so long.</b></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>I kept telling myself to keep the elbows soft and shoulders relaxed. It's really funny how the body remembers the flow and feel - after a couple of miles it felt natural, familiar, and instinctual - just a little more tentative and stiff than years past but good. Very good. I even made it up and around a few of the tighter switchbacks near the top of the Talons where there are quite a few embedded rocks and loose scree which can cause some balance and traction issues. I was ecstatic on how the feel for the technical aspect came back. The thing that was a glaring weakness, though, and a reminder of some physical limitation, was my lack of strength. I just don't have the torque strength to power up, over, and around rocks, roots, etc. I made it over everything, but sometimes barely, and it HURT A LOT doing it. No amount of "try or train harder" can remedy it - it's just not an available option to the body yet. It's frustrating to have absolutely zero control over the situation. I just keep reminding myself that it will get better, eventually, and to continue to be thankful that I am able to get out to run AND ride. That counts for much. </b></span></span></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally made it to the top of the Talons and getting ready to start down.....</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;">Grimacing while looking toward the rocky switchback that starts a sweet descent</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Long story short - I had a </span></span><span style="color: magenta;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BLAST <span style="color: red;">on the mountain bike. I don't think I have had as big of a grin on my face on any of our trail outings as of late as I did yesterday. Probably because I wasn't in continuous slog/sufferfest mode - just was at play and having good old fun. The Geico commercial with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxRoXuPjAKc" target="_blank">Maxwell</a> the pig came to mind many times during the ride, particularly on the faster, flowing descents. All I was thinking was "Weeee, weeee, weeeeeeeeee!" I love Maxwell - he embodies what life should be - such fun! </span></span></span><span style="color: blue;"> </span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Because I was moving fairly slowly, Steve wasn't ever too far behind on the climbs. It was nice to have him nearby - not only because I adore his fine form and company, but also he was close by to scrape me off the rocks if I had a magnificent wipe-out on my maiden mountain bike voyage. Thankfully, no scraping was needed. Once he gets his shock re-built, I will look forward to us getting out together on the bikes again. It is just too much fun!!! How did we stray away for so long???</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: purple;">Steve ended the day with a great 18 mile run - a nice accomplishment since CMSP is more of a challenging effort. I ended up with a 7 mile run and a little over 15 mile ride and a big grin on my face - a grin because I didn't kill or hurt myself and for the overall fun factor of the day.</span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #274e13;">As a follow-up, I saddled up the bike and headed over to UVP this morning despite the windchill registering at 18 degrees - that's cold on a bike. But I HAD to give it a whirl at Ute. It's where we learned to ride trails 20+ years ago and I figured if I could make it around the very rocky, rooty, sandy, and technical nature of trails there, there was hope. I made it around the basic loop unscathed and finished feeling super excited. Again, I was reminded of how weak I am physically. But I made it over everything so it's a starting point and the mountain bike will serve as another tool to help rebuild and keep the fun factor high and fresh.</span></b></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: magenta;">Hopefully you will all be able to find some <span style="color: red;">FUN FACTOR <span style="color: magenta;">over these coming winter weeks and months and do like Maxwell the Geico pig - be a little silly and exult in the ride whether it's humming along perfectly or not so much. Enjoy the ride! </span></span></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: magenta;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: magenta;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Happy Trails!!!</span></span> </span></span></span></span></b></div>
HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-37315756336814997562012-08-26T22:01:00.001-06:002012-08-26T22:03:05.431-06:00Good times in Aspen/Snowmass!It was time for a little vacation and boy did we have a great week! What better way to kick off a vacation than to have some great friends visit all the way from South Carolina. A & J used to live within walking distance to us, but followed their roots back to SC more than a decade ago. Dang we miss having them around! So day one of vacation was a "staycation" day. We did some tourist stuff, showed them around the Waldo Burn area, did a bunch of shopping, ate at <a href="http://www.adamsmountaincafe.com/" target="_blank">Adam's Mountain Cafe</a> in Manitou, and just had an all-around great day! Mr A had a seminar in Denver all week, so they headed off to D-town Sunday evening and we packed up the wagon for a little trip to the mountains.<br />
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<i>Good times with awesome friends!</i></div>
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We have been chomping at the bit to get out to the mountains for a bit of new scenery. Hope the intercooler is tuned up on your PC or Mac, as the photo dump is on! Seems like with the fires and all, summer was really hacked up for us, at least schedule-wise. So we booked some time in Snowmass Village and hit the road. Monday it rained all day in the mountains driving up, and pretty much rained until late night in Snowmass (much needed rain). Tuesday we woke to "sort-of sunny" skies and thick humidity. It seems that a bunch of hazy smoke from wildfires in CA, WY, and MT all converged on the Rocky Mountains and sat there for days on end. It never really smelled smoky, but boy did it put a dent in the scenery photos...</div>
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<i>Kathleen climbing the Rim Trail out of Snowmass Village</i></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Snowmass Divide and Mt Daly from the Yin-Yang Terrace on Rim</span></div>
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<i>Sweet singletrack through aspen forests - could it be much better?</i></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Kathleen climbing up on the exposed ridge - we are well above Snowmass at this point</span></div>
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<i>Aspens anyone? Making the descent toward Lower Snowmass</i></div>
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Day one on the trails was perfect to wet the appetite - 11 miles of perfect singletrack and a great way to get rolling!</div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: x-large;"><b>***********************</b></span></div>
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<i>The Bells on a hazy day</i></div>
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We missed out on riding the road bikes last time we were in Aspen, so we knew we had to ride the Maroon Creek road up to Maroon Lake and the base of the Maroon Bells. The road is mostly closed to passenger vehicles during the day in the summer, so traffic is limited to tour buses every half hour and the occasional early-bird that got up to the Bells before the road closes. The Maroon Creek road is just over 9 miles and climbs gradually to around 9600', where the expansive view above greets you.</div>
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<i>Sievers Mountain rises to the north of Maroon Lake</i></div>
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<i>HT decked out in bike gear for a change</i></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">This little guy got a piece of our Snickers Bar that fell to the ground - </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-style: italic;">then he followed us around the sidewalk as we were leaving!</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
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We had a great day on the bikes, riding around downtown Aspen for a bit to grab lunch after descending Maroon Creek. The ride ended up around 30 miles and was plenty of saddle time since I have not been riding much!</div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">******************************</span></b></span></span></div>
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<i>Starting out on the Sleigh Ride Trail</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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Thursday we wanted to get in some quality time on the Government Trail, one of the premiere trails in the area. It starts out on the Snowmass Divide and continues south, crossing Snowmass Ski Area and Buttermilk Ski Area before dumping out near Maroon Creek Rd. We had plans for a loop starting out at the top of the village and then finishing in Lower Snowmass, catching the transit back up to the village for a sweet point-to-point run. We used the Sleigh Ride Trail and Ditch Trail to get over to the Campground Connector, which would take is up many switchbacks to the Government Trail.</div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Kathleen way below, under the Campground lift</span></div>
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<i>Finally on the Government Trail</i></div>
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<i>One of MANY stream crossings </i></div>
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<i>Coming up would certainly be anaerobic frenzy, but going down</i></div>
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<i>was more like a footwork nightmare!</i></div>
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<i>Kathleen drops in from Government Trail</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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We took Government Trail all the way across Snowmass Ski Area, left the
park boundaries, and finally connected to Anaerobic Nightmare Trail.
This trail is, coming from below, basically straight up and covered
in gnarled roots. We, however, were going down the trail and it was a
foot placement puzzle at high speed, dropping 600 feet elevation in .6 miles! And of course I biffed on it and
skinned up the right knee.</div>
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<i>New trail - The Iron Curtain</i></div>
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<i>These bucks were so large, I first thought they were elk when I startled them at the "salad bar"</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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We finished off the descent on the lower Tom Blake Trail, where Kathleen peeled off to catch the shuttle after 11 miles and I took the Blake Trails back across to the Village to end up at 14 - another fantastic day!</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">*************************</span></span></span></div>
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<i>Kathleen in the wildflowers</i></div>
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<i>Oh, and more aspens - loved this stand of trees on Tom Blake trail</i></div>
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<i>Good Times!</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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Took the Snowmass tour via the Tom Blake Trails on Friday for a shorter 8 mile outing. The run was 100% sweet twisty singletrack and the scenery, as always, was priceless!</div>
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<i>Oh, and we had to stop by and see how work on the new house was coming along. As if....</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>************************</b></span></span></i></div>
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<i>Mt Daly, with it's signature granite stripe</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>While not peak season, there were still plenty of wildflowers</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Kathleen runs out the Ditch Trail along the Snowmass Divide</i></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Time for a group photo</span></div>
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<i>Running the divide, with a nice view of the Snowmass Creek road heading out the valley</i></div>
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As is always the case, we didn't want to pass up one last opportunity to grab some trails before leaving. We ran out the divide to the intersection with the Snowmass Creek drainage before loading up and heading for home. A nice little 5 mile jaunt to help ease the boredom of the 3.5 hour drive!</div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Views from Independence Pass</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">That first switchback off the east side takes your breath away - no guardrails</span></div>
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<i>All downhill from here - Happy Trails!</i></div>
HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-41829863277988857342012-08-22T21:41:00.000-06:002012-08-22T21:42:44.176-06:00Coming Soon...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>The Maroon Bells</i></div>
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<i>Rim Trail - Snowmass</i></div>
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<b style="color: #990000;">We</b> had an awesome time last week in the Aspen/Snowmass area, running some spectacular trails and doing a little road biking. We are busy going through scads of photos getting ready to do a big post, so keep an eye out. <br />
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We also had a blast last Sunday watching the finish of the Pikes Peak Marathon, watching a lot of friends and local folks finish a big run on America's Mountain, as well as "star-gazing" - Pikes drew some national and international running talent this year. Good times - be back soon with details on a great week.</div>
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<b style="color: #274e13;"><i>Happy Trails!</i></b></div>
HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-87975578142847017762012-07-29T19:22:00.000-06:002012-07-30T13:08:24.666-06:00Long Run: Doubling up on FalconHere's the Cliffs Notes report - <a href="http://knuckledraggingrunner.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Craig</a> tried to run me to death.<br />
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If you want to know more about the run, keep reading. <br />
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<i>From the Falcon Trail, looking southwest to Blodgett Peak</i></div>
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I met up with Craig over at the US Air Force Academy Saturday morning for his long run leading up to Pikes Peak Marathon. Quite a few weeks back he showed me his top-secret training plan for shaking things up at PPM. When I saw the Long Run - 2 laps at Falcon for time on feet, I was intrigued to say the least. While I have no interest per se in marathons, or for a large part racing in general, I have often thought about a double loop of Falcon. Number 1, I really like the loop - great terrain, lots of variety, good climbs, etc. Second, it is one of few places locally where you can do a long, continuous loop - 13 miles to be exact. The only problem I saw was doing it solo. I guess now I had that part checked off the list also. So I told Craig I would at least hang for the first loop and see where everything shook out for a second.</div>
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<i>The Knuckledragging Runner himself - still sporting "battle bandages" from the last time we ran</i></div>
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Now there was a secondary issue, which I did not share until we were already running. I had only run up to 21 miles previous, and my longest run this calendar year was 19. It did not seem to phase my running comrade, so we were off and running - clockwise on lap 1. While it was warming quickly, there was a strong breeze that really saved our bacon throughout the day. It was, however, a bit of a Catch-22 - when we were in the trees and shaded from the sun, there was no breeze. When we were in the breeze, we were fully exposed to the overhead sun. We managed pretty well though and the first lap rolled very well. OK, maybe too well. We were hitting some time checks a fair amount earlier than Craig's goal pace. Now that is good in one sense if it was a "one and done" event, but there was that whole <i>second lap</i> conundrum looming on the horizon. I let Craig lead out, so it was his fault...</div>
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<i>The Chapel overlook - beautiful day to be on the trails</i></div>
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We didn't get too concerned about making decent time, figuring it never hurts to bank some time for the next lap. It was a great day to be chatting about trails, races, family stuff, life in general, etc., although we never got around to solving the problems of the world. Maybe next run. We did get in a great first lap - I logged 2:13 moving time for lap 1, about 45 seconds per mile under goal splits. With the loop nature of the trail, finishing the lap put us back at our vehicles for an unmanned aid station, which is quite convenient. We got a bit of solid food, loaded up some more water in the packs, and started lap 2 counter-clockwise for a fresh look at the trail. I am not certain Craig really knew if I was "all in" for a second loop, but I took the look of relief on his face as a sign that he was happy to not head out for #2 alone. The guy has business to get done on the mountain in three weeks - gotta "man up" and show some support, right? :)</div>
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<i>Top of the last big climb - looking due south at Blodgett and the AFA water treatment plant</i></div>
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Where do I start with lap 2?? About a mile and a half in, after some gradual up around the golf course and through some forest, there is a grunt of a climb on a spine above the northern part of the Academy. It is not that it is steep, rather it is long and very very very exposed. It was already in the 80's by now and the sun was directly overhead. Conversation waned, to say the least, and for about 3 miles was reduced to two or three word sentences. Several times <strike>the guy who tricked me into this death march</strike> Craig asked if this ever ended. While it did eventually crest, the slog took its toll. I had gone quite a ways without a glimpse at the Garmin, and I think we were so anxious to get that sucker done, we had climbed it a little fast for what was already in the legs. Oops. On the descent off the ridgeline, it was apparent I had put a dent in my reserves as Craig quickly put a gap on me, although I think some of that is his overall descending edge on me. We had to regroup quickly though as the next climb was soon upon us.</div>
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We put our heads down and ground out the next climb, first through the deep sand along Interior Drive below the Chapel, then up the long switchbacks to the Chapel Overlook. From there, it was a nice reprieve winding through the forest, before crossing Academy Drive and pushing the tough little climb up to Stanley Canyon trailhead. We took a breather in the shade, knowing we were 75% of the way done. Now it was time for the steepest descent off the backside of the canyon - on tired legs no less. </div>
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<i>Unfamiliar Territory</i></div>
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I was reminded to get a photo of the display once we were past the longest-run-ever point. Too bad my running glasses don't have my bifocal rx in them - I totally blew the focal point on that shot!!! </div>
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So near the bottom of the long hill, before crossing the Monument Creek Trail, Craig sounds the first alarm - he got his first draw of "air" from the hydration pack. With 4.5 miles to go. "So, Steve, how far off the trail is it to that Burger King you showed us?" "Oh, just across the road, through the BX parking lot, after the grunt hill past the fire station." "Ok, maybe we better check the fire station." About 5 minutes later, I had my first bubbles. We hadn't totally realized how warm it was getting but both of us had burned through some H<span style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span>O - and we had a long stretch of exposed meadow to run through between us and the vehicles.</div>
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You can imagine the relief when we rolled up out of the creek drainage and saw people swarming around the fire station. There was some sort of community event going on, with barbecue - OK, that part was rude having to smell bbq 22.5 miles in to a run - they even had a Big-Air Jumper for the kids shaped like a fire truck. Frankly, we didn't care about any of that. When the fireman said past the kitchen and refrigerator, cold drinking fountain, blah blah blah, we were all over it. Plus it was air conditioned inside the fire station. So we lingered a bit, filled the packs, drank a little more from the fountain, then eventually had to get out before we decided to climb into the fridge and take a nap....</div>
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<i>Not too far to the finish - luckily most of the rest of the trail was not too technical</i></div>
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Coming out of the fire station, there is a steep trail that climbs up to the community center/BX area. Not sure, but I have a feeling <strike>we</strike> I looked less than amazing climbing that.<i> </i>It was hot, and I was getting pretty tired. I think the stop at the fire station had given Craig a fifth wind, as he was starting to push me a bit. We hit the descent from the BX with a "rabbit" out in front - a lanky guy had hopped on the trail and was pushing a decent pace out ahead of us. I was struggling a bit for the first time to hold an even gap and I think the lure of finishing off strong was taking hold of Craig. Somewhere in that foggy zone of tiredness, I am on my face. It is weird how when you are tired, you hit the dirt before you are even aware that you hooked your toe and are falling. There is none of that slow motion business where it takes 5 seconds to hit the ground - that only happens when you are alert! Luckily, I was in the deep sand so there wasn't much in the way of damage assessment. It did wake me up a bit, though, which was apparent by my first thought - "Crap, I never restarted the Garmin at the fire station..." - like that mattered at this point! So, I dusted myself off, got my senses, and took off. Craig had enough gap that he didn't hear me hit the ground, so I was a ways back now. At the bottom of the meadow, he yelled that he was taking a shot at sub-4:30 and I was all for it. </div>
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I reeled it in a bit, knowing that I could easily faceplant again if I tried to push the pace with my feet barely leaving <i>terra firma</i> with each step. I was already well into the bonus round and had been fueling off reserves for a bit of time so that strategy was just fine. I finally rolled in for 26 miles at 4:32:45 moving time, for a second lap split of 2:19:45 - not too shabby to drop only 1/2 minute per mile pace on the second go round. The gain for the double loop is about 3100', which is by no means huge but does add up. Oh yeah, and the whole <i>longest run ever</i> thing comes in to play as well. I thought about running out to the golf course and back, just to say I was an ultrarunner and so forth - however, I didn't really care. I was more interested in having a seat in the shade and "not running" for a while... BTW, five gels, 2 S-Caps, 130 oz. water and one Strawberry Yogurt granola bar fueled the effort if you wonder about such things. </div>
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I have to say, in all seriousness, this was a great run. I was glad Craig threw it out there because it was on the list for a while. I think, although he will have to confirm, that this was a good confidence boost for some overall pre-race fitness. But all that fitness, goal oriented jazz aside, it was just a fun day on the trails. Definitely good times.</div>
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<b><i style="color: orange; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Shoes - Brooks Pure Grit</i></b></div>
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<b>On a side note, you may be asking where Mrs HT has been. Good question, and you'll soon be seeing more photo evidence of her on these pages. As has been the case (<i>too often to count</i>) in the past 18 months, we had a couple setbacks related to the Graves Disease recovery. Things that were unpredictable but happen and are common issues related to fall-out from the disease. I am biased, but I am also in control of the keyboard, so I have to say Kathleen has been absolutely rock-star at dealing with all these crazy roadblocks - her grit and determination are astounding to me. That being said, we are rolling with it all, and are most thankful that we still have biking legs as she (we) has had to do more biking this summer than we really wanted to have on the schedule. However, good progress is being made on the running front and along with it, we have a couple scenic long rides on tap, and maybe a few runs, to report on in the coming weeks. Stay tuned...</b></div>
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<b> </b> <span style="font-size: large;"><i style="color: #cc0000;"><b>happy trails</b></i></span></div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-81241980300399513402012-07-15T19:51:00.000-06:002012-07-15T20:47:26.437-06:00Where's the Flat Part?<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh361csbO7Fe-qFmfGLeB4HMVbkIuaJTK2N6I8lU0JkBv0Iug73HqLfqkarsummux_agBamcfDr98Le4jvRuUMZKbxTn2NQCQKLGh66B5FYuhzGH7WCFkG4eOcHdTTF8P3b2JSsh6cfDwNZ/s1600/Barr+Trail+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh361csbO7Fe-qFmfGLeB4HMVbkIuaJTK2N6I8lU0JkBv0Iug73HqLfqkarsummux_agBamcfDr98Le4jvRuUMZKbxTn2NQCQKLGh66B5FYuhzGH7WCFkG4eOcHdTTF8P3b2JSsh6cfDwNZ/s640/Barr+Trail+1.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<i>Tour guide for the <strike>climb</strike><b style="color: red;"> suffering</b><strike><br /></strike></i><br />
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Yesterday, I did something most sane, sedentary folks would find<i> unreasonable: </i>I set the alarm for 5 am on a Saturday - what? I was meeting <a href="http://knuckledraggingrunner.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Craig</a> over at Memorial Park in Manitou Springs to run up Barr Trail as part of his <a href="http://pikespeakmarathon.org/" target="_blank">Pikes Peak Marathon</a> training. The plan for the day was A-Frame and back from the PPM start line, about a 20 mile round trip. Craig invited me along for all or any part of the trip so I figured why not? (BTW, I was the sherpa as Craig decided to travel light for race simulation reasons, therefore, the only photos of human suffering were taken by, not "of", the guy who carried his camera - ha!)</div>
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<i>Early morning sun on the infamous "W's"</i></div>
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I would like to wax eloquent about how effortlessly we breezed up Ruxton Ave, sailing smoothly onto the lower sections of the Barr Trail with the cool morning air invigorating our running efforts. Of course, many of you have been on or heard of Barr Trail and you would know I was lying like a politician in an election year.<i> </i>The fact is, this run eats at your soul from the first steps onto Ruxton, bringing to life things like "barking calves", "flaming lungs", and all other manner of exercise induced suffering. And we call this recreation. Fun even. Aside from one measly effort long since pushed to the dusty corners of my memory bank, all other trips up Barr have included an entrance via <a href="http://www.manitouincline.net/" target="_blank">The Incline</a>. So when people warn about ruining your run on the W's, I don't always relate. I have a better appreciation for it now. In order to keep myself from blowing up, I let Craig set the pace. </div>
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The W's are indeed hard, but the issue is more the accumulated effect of constant climb and lowering oxygen. At lower elevations, you can "redline", realize the trouble you are in and cut back your effort. Generally speaking, at that point, you can recover within a run and carry on to finish your workout. However, at altitude, it seems that when you blow up, there is too much stacked against you to recover "during" your exercise. We have seen it time and again, whether on the bike or running, and that is why people like Matt Carpenter try to warn newbies on Pikes Peak to notch it back at the start... Anyway, back to the run.</div>
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<i>Majesty</i></div>
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Barking calves aside, we settled in to a nice run. There was a LOT of traffic on Barr already, which we expected as Ruxton was packed with cars as we ran up. We chatted about PPM, the recent fires, life in general and pretty much settled into a nice flow up the mountain. It was funny as several folks commented about things such as "Look, they are running and can still talk", or "Why hurry, it will still be there when you get there?" - normal trail chatter. One thing is for sure, it was good to see folks out enjoying the trails and happy to be alive. The city was in a bit of a fire-induced coma for a few weeks, but in general life is getting back to a "new normal". Above about 9000' feet or so, my recent nemesis breathing issues started howling at me and my ribcage suddenly felt like it had the capacity of an infant. Not sure what's up with that, but have been bending some ears<i> </i>to help me get it figured out. I will need the big-boy lungs for some outings I would like to squeeze in before summer's end :)</div>
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<i>Barr Camp is Hoppin'!</i></div>
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We hit Barr Camp (7.5 miles in and 10,200 feet above sea level) in about 1:54, which is good for me since I really haven't ever done this exact route. I guess it is a PR - woohoo.... And Barr Camp was jamming with folks - I had to wait for about a dozen people to clear out to get the photo above. This at 8 am. We hung out for a while, did some stretching, and then I decided to head back down. I felt bad to leave Craig on his own to A-Frame, but at the same time, I knew my lungs were stressing pretty good and another 1800' up wasn't going to help them out. So Craig headed up, and I started the descent back to Manitou - all 4300' of it!</div>
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<i>Great Views</i></div>
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I paused at a couple favorite spots on the way down to look at the beauty of all that surrounds Pikes Peak. Given that three weeks ago the harsh reality was that all this could burn if the fire jumped Highway 24, it was all the more reason to pause for the awe of where we live and what we get to do on any given Saturday. We are quite thankful for that and not a day passes that we take it for granted. Return trip down was 1:14, certainly not speedy but I felt good the whole way down. The round trip ended up just over 15 miles for me on the day, with 4300' accumulated gain. Oh, and by the way, there is NO flat part, just in case you were wondering. And I got in some <u>"weight training"</u> at the end of the run. I needed to stop at <a href="http://coquettesbistroandbakery.com/" target="_blank">Coquette's</a> in Manitou for gluten-free flour, so I finished the last .3 miles of the run carrying a 4lb bag of flour under each arm ;-)</div>
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<b style="color: orange;">Shoes - Brooks Pure Grit</b></div>
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<i>Snyder Quarry and Cave of the Winds</i><br />
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There is not really an overlook to the north where you can see Waldo Canyon, so this was about as close as I could photograph, looking a little northeast. The visible scar on the far hillside is Snyder Quarry, and right below it is the <a href="http://caveofthewinds.com/" target="_blank">Cave of the Winds</a>. The burn area to the west is Williams Canyon, which is being rated extreme on the burn severity index, along with Waldo Canyon just a bit further west. Waldo will most likely re-open eventually, but will look totally different than what we have ever seen, which is sad but is also the cycle of life and nature.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Back a few weeks...</b></span> </div>
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<i>June 26: Pre-Evacuation notice went out about 2:15pm - this is at 3:15pm from our driveway</i></div>
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<i>June 26: At 3:30pm, it became mandatory for good reason</i><br />
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<i>June 26: 6:15pm - From the eastern edges of Colorado Springs -</i><br />
<i>We stood in my sister's driveway and cried for our neighborhood</i><br />
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We have thought quite a few times over the last weeks about a post to gather all our thoughts
concerning the Waldo Canyon Fire but still not sure at this point we
have totally wrapped our minds around that. We are extremely grateful
to all our friends and running peeps who were so supportive during that
time. It is a bizarre and surreal occurrence to go through, and one we
hope to never repeat in our lifetimes. Kathleen was at home when the firestorm broke containment over the Front Range and down into Mountain Shadows. The images she saw leaving home will forever be etched into her memory. The wall of fire was so large and moving so fast, she could only describe it as being special effects from a movie, yet it was not. The fact is, we are fortunate
and blessed that we are not sitting in a strange environment today planning to
rebuild our lives from scratch. We know people who are, and it is a
dark spot to be in, yet those we have had contact with are handling it
with such grace ... and that is inspiring. Sometimes the depths of tragedy exposes the strength of human character. </div>
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We have a lot of photos we
took on our first visit through the "war zone" - those handful of areas
where it seems entire streets and blocks vaporized. It takes your
breath away to see it, and the images on TV had done nothing to prepare
us for the gut punch that it is to stand in front of an ash pile that is
the memories of several hundred families. We took the pictures more as
a reminder of our blessings, rather than something to post on the
blog. But processing through those images has helped us a lot with
processing what has happened to our community in this corner of town.
We have lived in this neighborhood nearly 20 years, and can picture in
our mind's eye many if not most of those homes and streets as they were
before June 26. Yet every day now we drive out of our neighborhood with
the new reality of charred sticks dotting the Front Range, and chimneys
left as the sole reminder of the memories of many families<i>. </i>They say routine has a centering or healing effect after trauma - starting to get back to normal has been good in a cleansing sort of way. </div>
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Might not ever get around to that "thought gathering" post but getting back to normal, even if it is the "new normal", feels good for now...</div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-size: large;"><b><i>Happy Trails</i></b></span></div>
</div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-24176669967544940042012-07-01T23:16:00.004-06:002012-07-01T23:51:54.187-06:00Thankful ... And there's no place like Home!We're home. After 6 days of refugee living, Happy Trails Central is re-occupied! We are extremely thankful and blessed that our home, and those of our neighbors, were completely unharmed. There is so much going through our hearts and minds right now that it may be a bit before it can be composed into a meaningful post, but we have to thank all our running peeps who have emailed, called, sent texts, etc. offering help, encouragement, and at times, humor to help us through these past days. You guys are awesome.<br />
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In the mean time, as we celebrate our safe harbor, please continue to remember the 347 families who lost their homes, all within 1 - 2 miles of our house. And also, we would be remiss if we did not give a huge shout out to the 1500+ people who are battling this fire on our behalf. We are unbelievably grateful. Here are a few pics to help you visualize their efforts and thank you so much again to all the firefighters and law enforcement who have fought to keep us safe!<br />
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<i>Heroes</i><i>...</i></div>
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<i>Fighting the blaze in Mountain Shadows</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho94TJMB7YpxFWR5iNcimoMcjaAADMwsHZBaOcrGLuqj0ZTk0KvUA13FT8yoHaPguwx6flt8qqF_i_wm6rlKadsfXR87AiARCVtGEQYT5a1CgqD5mgHQe02-yvJTlj_T8vriRL1Zwhn12i/s1600/Firefighters-tents.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho94TJMB7YpxFWR5iNcimoMcjaAADMwsHZBaOcrGLuqj0ZTk0KvUA13FT8yoHaPguwx6flt8qqF_i_wm6rlKadsfXR87AiARCVtGEQYT5a1CgqD5mgHQe02-yvJTlj_T8vriRL1Zwhn12i/s640/Firefighters-tents.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Sleeping on the front lines...</i></div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-66695331345932825252012-06-26T08:43:00.002-06:002012-06-26T08:59:20.795-06:00Waldo Fire continues......<b>Just a quick update..... We have not been evacuated yet. But the fire continues to grow. It is estimated to be at around 5100 acres, currently. The smoke is hanging in a haze across the region and the smoke smell, at least at our house, is super strong. We are both headed into work today. Our cars our packed with essentials, documents, photos, bikes and running gear (priorities, you know), and not too much else. What do you take??? It's just "stuff". Anyway, that's just a quick update. Here is a link to our local paper's website which has done a great job keeping the site updated regularly. We are considered north Mountain Shadows neighborhood. Peregrine and the Air Force Academy are to the north and Rockrimmon is east. Thanks for all of your warm and kind thoughts, prayers, and offers of accomodations. We've gotten lots of emails from you and it is encouraging for us.</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.gazette.com/articles/fire-140851-highway-waldo.html" target="_blank"><b>Gazette Link</b></a>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-89301386196393767472012-06-23T16:31:00.001-06:002012-06-23T21:32:56.038-06:00Not so pretty good.....<div style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>UPDATE: Our voluntary evacuation order has currently been lifted, so we just have to watch the news and keep the phone close by. We got some cloud cover, and the winds died off. We really hope they can get a handle on this quickly as that beast got out of hand really, really fast! Fire is now over 2000 acres as of 8 PM news conference.</b></span></div>
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There is a wildfire burning out of control in Waldo Canyon, just west of Colorado Springs. Our neighborhood has just been put on voluntary evacuation alert. Mandatory evacuation line is currently only 2 miles south of HT central. We are currently sitting in front of the computer with our vehicles loaded, ready to head east. Not a good feeling in the pit of the stomach.....<br />
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Latest pic from the end of our driveway - not good. Fire is up to <strike>1,000</strike> 2,000 acres and just started at noon. We are still on standby...<br />
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This is not going to turn out well... </div>
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<a href="http://www.gazette.com/articles/blaze-140753-fire-side.html" target="_blank">Source</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiljPghB2gGDLzQZxKGRYOMe1De6lJTysgbrXA6m3xmNY9SJosgWhGq2fzvzm1xaXpF4-GjlmEKtq-uSF2C7kIeh4lvRi3TQysZB967tbeXrVDVIiBge4qHNGPh5Pa-7lArTx2xV-KKIbB_/s1600/m639r6-m639q7062312pyramidmtfire0828.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiljPghB2gGDLzQZxKGRYOMe1De6lJTysgbrXA6m3xmNY9SJosgWhGq2fzvzm1xaXpF4-GjlmEKtq-uSF2C7kIeh4lvRi3TQysZB967tbeXrVDVIiBge4qHNGPh5Pa-7lArTx2xV-KKIbB_/s640/m639r6-m639q7062312pyramidmtfire0828.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.gazette.com/articles/blaze-140753-fire-side.html" target="_blank">Source</a></div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-24019824329909015552012-06-17T15:45:00.002-06:002012-06-17T19:52:50.261-06:00Fun on Two Feet ... and Two WheelsLast weekend started with a little trip over to the US Air Force Academy for a good run around the Falcon Trail loop with <a href="http://knuckledraggingrunner.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Craig</a> and his son Alex. It was the first time over there for the guys, and this is a must run trail if you live in our area. We had a good time just taking an easy stroll around the loop. Although we got started when the gates opened to the public to get on base, by mid-loop it was already blazing hot out there! <br />
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<i>Sunny and warm on the Falcon Trail - crossing the Stanley Canyon access point</i></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Had a blast being tour guide for these two guys</span></div>
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These two have some good races coming up and goal for the day was time
on the feet and some climbing thrown in - both accomplished. While this
is not the hardest run in our neck of the woods by any stretch, you
won't see too many 13 year old youngsters spending their Saturday
mornings running 13 miles with the old guys - most of them are home in
bed until the crack of noon, then glued to an X-box for 6 hours or
whatever the national average is these days. While we had a couple of
what Craig calls "teenager moments", it was a good run and we all enjoyed the trail. We were also glad to be done as it was heading into the upper 80's when we finished. Good Times! (By the way - Craig took a bunch more photos - go over to his blog and have a look.)</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Shoes - Brooks Pure Grit</span></div>
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Meanwhile, while the boys were out running, Kathleen was out on the roads of the Academy enjoying some quality time on the road bike. She is working through some musculo-skeletal issues related to the Graves Disease, so she will be spending some good time on the bike here and there to help with the rebuilding process. She was able to get in a sweet 30 mile ride while we were out playing on the trails and had her feet kicked up waiting on us when we reached the trailhead.</div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Hit The Road!</span></span></b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Enjoying the blossoming Jupiter's Beard - a.k.a. Red Valerian - in our Xeric Garden out front</span></div>
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<i>Italian Cycling Slippers</i></div>
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<i>Starbucks and Pikes Peak - aaah....</i></div>
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This morning we headed out early for a road ride and we needed to beat the heat. It was forecast to hit 90's by noon, so we wanted no part of that especially since we would be spending our workout time on asphalt! We also wanted to be out early to beat the nut-jobs driving on the west side of town, but we didn't totally avoid that... And what is up with the wind this year - it can be over any time. Had to run in it yesterday and it was gusting heavily while riding today.... The route for the day was a combination of The Garden of the Gods area, Gold Camp Road, and Mountain Shadows area.</div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Riding up Gold Camp, almost to Section 16 parking lot</span></div>
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<i>Up on the open stretches of Gold Camp - no hiding from the wind here...</i></div>
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<i>Almost to the top </i></div>
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<i>End of the road - at least for skinny tires</i></div>
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Riding up to the end of the pavement is a great out and back. On the weekends, you will have plenty of two-wheeled company. This is a popular route for gradual and steady grade hill repeats thanks to the extended climb - from 31st street and Highway 24, you climb 1000' in a bit over 4 miles, for around a 4% grade. You'll have mountain bike company as well, headed up past the pavement into Cheyenne Canyon where countless miles of steep trails await.</div>
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<i>The suburban reservoirs at Stratton Open Space and the <a href="http://www.broadmoor.com/" target="_blank">Broadmoor Hotel </a></i></div>
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<i>You should stay there if you come visit....</i></div>
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<i>The Trusty Rigs</i></div>
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<i>Back in our neck of the "woods" - Mesa bike path looking into Queen's Canyon</i></div>
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We had a great ride - 30 miles for the day and the heat was building, so we got ourselves out of the sun! It was a good week - I ran two solid tempo runs this week - a short and a long, and finally felt decent doing so. I had quite a lengthy funk after Greenland but appear to be hitting solid stride again. Looking forward to some longs runs in the high country, but those will have to wait until at least mid-July. Our niece is getting married and my folks will be here for two weeks, so family time comes first!!</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="color: #660000;"><i>Happy Trails!</i></b></span></div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-43740158866208444612012-06-11T19:28:00.000-06:002012-06-12T19:04:13.968-06:00The BEST trail ever......<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The best trail ever...... well, that has to be the Comeback Trail!!! That's the route I (we) am currently on and it is a <span style="color: magenta;">FANTASTIC</span> trail to be travelling.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I've been a bit hesitant to say too much too frequently about my journey with Graves Disease this past 18 months or so because I suspect that most people really don't want to "hear" about it but a number of people this past week encouraged me to write more about it. Reality is - it's where we are and where we've been for the past two years or so - so here's the updated scoop:</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">After having the Little Fella (thyroid) nuked back in February - necessary to shut down the war between the body's attacking auto-antibodies and the thyroid - we were in waiting mode - waiting for the final verdict that the Little Fella was dead or essentially non-functioning as a result of the radiation treatment. That final verdict came about 7 weeks ago and thus started my new, daily, life-long regimen of synthetic thyroid hormone replacement ~ levothyroxine. For fellow hypo-thyroid folks, this is ho-hum stuff. For me, it's new territory. I've always had a nicely humming metabolism so there have been many fears and unknowns encountered along the way. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: red;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: red;">The morning set-up</span></span></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Every morning I now wake up between 5:15 and 5:45 to take this little life-giving pill. The pill bottle is next to our bed along with a big glass of water and a straw. I am not allowed to eat anything within an hour of taking the pill - I usually push that out to 2 - 3 hours, just to make sure I am not short-changing the absorption process. Overkill - probably - but that's how I roll. I am not allowed to consume any calicium, iron, or caffeine within 4 hours of swallowing it. This required a new breakfast menu. Because I am a creature of habit, for years my breakfast generally consisted of greek yogurt, frozen blueberries, and slivered almonds or walnuts. Yogurt has calcium so no more morning yogurt. I am now enjoying frozen blueberries, granola, shredded coconut, a touch of ground flax, and slivered almonds or walnuts. Can't do cow or almond milk over the top due to the calcium so, gross as it sounds, I splash a touch of water on top just to soften things up. It actually is fine. I am really liking my new breakfast - it fuels very well. Thank you to my beloved hubby for suggesting it!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I have now been on levothyroxine for almost 7 weeks. Doc had said to expect to really start noticing an improvement in how I feel at the 6 - 8 week mark. She was right on target. I felt like a 'switch' finally 'flipped' right around 5 weeks - I started to feel a flicker of 'good' and catch a glimpse what 'normal' is. When a person is in a constant state of various levels of crumminess for so long, she forgets what 'normal and good' really feels like. It's a nice feeling. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">Sweet nectar of life</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The realization of finally arriving at the Comeback trailhead hit a few weeks ago when I was in the kitchen putting a couple of pathetic, overly ripe bananas to rest in the form of banana bread. I enthusiastically mashed the bananas in a bowl with a fork and then set about to vigorously stirring the batter by hand. I paused a moment and alerted Steve to what I was doing. He knew. You ask, "What's the big deal about mixing banana bread batter?". Well, here's the deal: The past 18 months I have been UNABLE to vigorously stir anything. I was too weak. Couldn't hold my arms up and stir. Steve had to do all the mashing and hand mixing of banana bread, brownies, cookie mix, pancakes, waffles, you get the picture. Completely ridiculous and crazy, I know, but true and the common nature of Graves Disease. There are many symptoms and side effects that are part of the disease and muscle wasting and weakness is a biggie. I was completely powerless to change that aspect - no amount of "try harder" or magic protein shakes improved the wasting and weakness despite being on the anti-thyroid med. So that magical moment in the kitchen of being able to mix the banana bread without an arm falling off was a monumental one. It caused us to cautiously muster hope that I was possibly FINALLY turning the corner and heading to a better place not only physically but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Graves messes with everything BIG TIME. And there's nothing that can be done to change it unless a person has effective treatment, which for me, started on February 16, 2012, thankfully!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">So today, I am two weeks post-banana bread mixing break-through and the improvement has continued. I am seeing the potential of being able to rebuild the withered and lost strength and stamina for the trail running and biking we so love but also the strength and stamina needed for life in general. With the active Graves, I found myself withdrawing socially, to a great extent, because I just didn't have the strength and energy to invest in relationships, which are so precious and invaluable. It is exciting to come full-circle and return to being "me" again. It has been so long.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Despite feeling the remarkable improvement, I am not "there" yet - it will take time. We essentially had to "tear the house" down to the foundation in order to re-build a new and better structure. I wonder, too, if the foundation got a little chunked up in the process. The rebuilding process will need to proceed slowly and not go "buck wild" and try to regain strength and fitness too quickly. I've learned (sort of) the virtue of patience through this process - a necessarily slow and gradual one - exercising that virtue a little longer won't hurt. I have to admit, though, that running and riding SO slowly and somewhat feebly is a bit frustrating but it can't be helped and it IS getting better and will continue to get better. So incredibly <span style="color: magenta;">THANKFUL <span style="color: black;">and <span style="color: blue;">INCREDIBLY <span style="color: red;">BLESSED</span></span></span></span>....... Our bodies are certainly fearfully and wonderfully made!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">My doc (whom I started with in Dec 2011) is having me put off blood work for another 2 to 4 weeks and maybe a bit longer if I continue to experience improvement and feel good. Normally, folks go in at 6 to 8 weeks after starting a replacement regimen or a change in dosage. Thyroid is my doc's gig - not only is she a physician who deals ONLY with thyroid related disease, she is an endocrinology professor, and is involved in active research related to thyroid disease. She knows her stuff and is experienced and confident in her treatment protocol. I am confident, as well, as long as I continue to feel good, that is! :-) </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Initially, I am/was expecting a dosage adjustment which is normal. But if things keep perking along in a positive manner, maybe not yet. I am carrying around a few pounds of extra 'fluff and puff' which doesn't thrill me and unsavory images of morphing into a puffed pastry or the Pillsbury Dough Girl have flashed through my mind. In actuality, it has had me FREAKING out because I've never had to worry about extra, uncontrollable 'fluff' and seeing numbers on the scale NEVER seen before in my life has been unsettling. After being assured this is part of the normal process, I've subsequently calmed down about it and am hoping that once the hormone levels stabilize and I am able to start rebuilding the muscle that was cannibalized by the Graves, some of that 'fluff and puff' will start to melt away. Fingers crossed...... :-)</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I am sensing a spark just beneath the surface - something not felt in a VERY long time. Steve and I are excited to have, at the very least, parked at the Comeback trailhead - soon to be soiling our shoes on the actual trail - the best trail ever! </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A <span style="color: blue;">BIG <span style="color: magenta;">THANK YOU</span></span> for all of your care, concern, encouragement, and from several of you - wise and personal expertise - it has calmed fears, helped keep me going, and has been a priceless treasure to US. You guys are awesome. Thanks, too, for enduring this LONG post! Here's to a return to true Happy Trailing, hopefully just on the horizon......</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Steve will do a post on our weekend fun in a few days......</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">Happy Trails</span> to all this week!</span></b>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-64728929878853280192012-06-03T21:42:00.000-06:002012-06-04T16:01:22.177-06:00Sights and ScenesWe put together a little photo documentary of what trail running exploits we have been up to for the past couple weeks. <u>We</u>, as in Kathleen has been running enough lately that it has been a lot of <u>US</u> running together - I dig that! It's Sunday night and I'm a bit tired, so words will be few and photos plenty :)<br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>Garden of the Gods</b></span></div>
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<i>Postcard day at the Garden... as always!</i><br />
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<i>Looking down on the west side of the big rock formations -</i><br />
<i>Lots of runners will be on that road next week for the Garden 10 Miler </i><br />
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<i>Peregrine Falcon on Dakota Trail - we rounded a corner and there he was right next to the trail - look at the size of that talon! He was magnificent!</i><br />
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<i>Happy Trails DUO</i><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-size: x-large;"><b>Cheyenne Mountain State Park</b></span><span style="color: #990000;"> </span><br />
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<i>Trailhead with a Great View!</i><br />
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<i>Yes, our feet occasionally touch pavement....</i><br />
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<i>Already warm but we're smiling!</i><br />
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<i>Coming down Blackmere Trail</i></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-size: x-large;"><b>Palmer Park</b></span></div>
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<i>Edna Mae Bennett Nature Trail at Palmer Park</i><br />
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<i>Palmer Point Trail with a view that makes it hard to concentrate</i><br />
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<i>Kathleen climbing the front side of Palmer Point Trail</i><br />
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<i>Cool rocks on the Templeton Trail</i><br />
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<i>Kathleen rolling on the Greencrest Trail</i><br />
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<i>Climbing Grandview with the foothills across the horizon</i><br />
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<i>Cruising the Kinnickinnick Trail - say that 10 times fast!</i><br />
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<i> More fun on the K... Trail</i><br />
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<i>Cacti are in bloom EVERYWHERE!</i><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: x-large;"><b>Red Rock Canyon/Section 16</b></span><br />
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<i>Section 16 connector from RRC - just getting the climb going!</i><br />
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<i>On the steeps now, climbing in earnest on the Intemann Trail - the shade on the steep climb</i><br />
<i>was nice, as it got hot early today! </i><br />
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<i>The saddle before the high point of Section 16 - note the steep switchbacks</i><br />
<i>of High Drive cut into the far canyon wall. </i><br />
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<i>Just about ready for a long descent!</i><br />
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<i>Looking back up the entrance to Section 16 from High Drive</i><br />
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<i>Bottom of High Drive - cars can only come down this side, no driving up</i><br />
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<i>Back down into Red Rock - looking out across to Garden of the Gods</i><br />
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<i>Roundup Trail runs out the bottom of the canyon</i><br />
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<i>Top of Roundup, looking across to the hills of Section 16 and Intemann Trail</i></div>
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<b style="color: #274e13;">It has been a <u>GOOD</u> couple of weeks - Happy Trails!</b><i> </i></div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-21337937366383649602012-05-25T06:02:00.002-06:002012-05-25T07:59:55.342-06:00Friday Fun<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dream Big!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Happy Friday! </span></span></div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-42603495370715854532012-05-19T17:25:00.000-06:002012-05-19T17:38:21.622-06:00Good Times on Limbaugh Canyon Trails<div style="text-align: left;">
Last Sunday, we headed back up to Greenland to get in a run with Craig - you can read about it <a href="http://knuckledraggingrunner.blogspot.com/2012/05/greenland-trail-jog-in-fog.html" target="_blank">here</a>. I have had <i>a little experience</i> with wanting to put that course to rest, so it was no problem to head up and suffer for another lap in an attempt to push down a good time. It was a good run and post-run conversation led to all the runs Craig has been missing out on in this wonderful playground that is the Pikes Peak Region. One of the runs that caught his attention was Mt Herman/Limbaugh Canyon, a stout loop starting from the Monument Fire Center and circumnavigating Mt Herman on some great technical trails. (Well, I <i>may have</i> left out the technical part...) So it was decided that this morning we hit up this nice route.</div>
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<i>Already a ways up Trail 715, looking over Monument, CO</i></div>
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Our forecast was looking a wee bit sketchy with 50's for highs, after 80 on Friday, and a good chance of rain. I admit that as I approached Monument<i> </i>and I-25 was wet, I was a bit unsure about pulling this one off. Limbaugh Canyon is nowhere to be when a lightning episode breaks out! However, Mt Herman was still washed with sun from behind the clouds. So off we went, meandering through the trails in the work center, over a couple ridges, before hopping onto the 715 Trail. I think by this point, Craig was becoming aware of the technical nature of these trails (sorry I forgot to mention it!!) but we were enjoying the start of the long climb with the cooler temps. </div>
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<i>Almost to the Bear Creek drainage, time to head UP!</i></div>
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The climb was, as always, steep and loose with a lot of rocks and decomposed granite surface - something you get used to in these parts, sort of like running on ball bearings at times! We had been enjoying some good chatter along the route, but a few of the harsher pitches begged a bit more silence, focusing the mind on the task at hand. For the record, I walked *several* sections of steep, but Craig ran the whole thing - <u>animal</u>!<i> </i>We worked our way up to the saddle intersection with Mt Herman Road, leaving one last grunt to the entrance for Limbaugh Canyon. As luck would have it, some fine folk HAD TO BE OUT EARLY at the "shooting range" that needs to be closed on Mt Herman, so we nervously climbed the last bit with what I perceived to be largish caliber rifle and small caliber carbine going off below us. It was just a wee tiny bit unnerving to drop in the canyon and hear ricochet buzzes echo off the high rock walls above us - yikes!</div>
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We thought for a bit the sun would poke out on the run out through Limbaugh, then about a mile out from the opening to Palmer Lake, we could see the whisps of fog rolling up toward us at a good clip. By the time we approached Inspiration Point, overlooking the town of Palmer Lake, a dense fog had pushed in and some thick drizzly air along with it.</div>
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<i>Town of Palmer Lake below the fog bank</i></div>
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<i>Looking back up Limbaugh, with the fog really closing in</i></div>
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It was too cool to stand around and gawk at the sights, so we dropped in the steep descent, then made the sharp right uphill onto the new cut that heads back up into the National Forest on the front side of Mt Herman. For some reason, it felt like we never finished climbing today, as the 8 or 10 switchbacks here really sapped my legs. Must be pre-season lack of vert hitting home. Started to pick up a little light rain a couple miles out from the work center, but it never amounted to much and was never uncomfortable.</div>
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<i>Monument Rock on a gray day</i></div>
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<i><span style="font-style: italic;"></span> </i>It was nice to drop in the top of the work center and run the fresh cut descent on the west side - it was finished sometime late fall, and this was only the second time on it but it is some fantastic trail work. Got down through the pond, had a few picks of The Rock, and ran it in to the trailhead - 13.5 miles, with just under 3000' vertical gain on the day. Definitely Good Times! This was also by far the hardest test I put the Brooks Pure Grits through to date, and it has earned the right to hang in my full time trail rotation with the Saucony Peregrines. </div>
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<span style="color: purple;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;">Speaking of shoes..........</span></span> </span></b></span></div>
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OK - changing gears here, but did you know I love shoes? Kathleen's "Imelda Marcos" streak has really rubbed off on me! I am borderline shoe-aholic... One of the things I didn't really get into post-Greenland was that it was the second race I have done in low heel-to-toe drop shoes. While I admit I have not gone to the great scientific length that <a href="http://funwithgravity.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">this guy</a> has, I did some due diligence to make sure I did not crash-n-burn. I started "breaking in" my body to a 4mm drop shoe early last year with the Saucony Mirage, which is more of a road shoe. I did this gradually until I was ready to try out the Peregrine for more serious trail work, and it has been great. Later in the fall I picked up the Kinvara 2, two days before Crazy Horse and ran the race in them on their first outing. They were also great and I was pretty well liking the low drop, other than the occasional fleeting notion that I <strike>needed</strike> wanted more "cush". After the unnamed cushioned shoes were used a good portion of early winter, I found myself living in KT Tape with a latent hip issue. Nothing against the tape guys, but that ain't normal. So in February I went to total low drop - canned all my other shoes. Over the next couple months, voila, no hip issues. Hmmmm. Now while I am definitely not talking minimalist here as all these shoes are still well cushioned, my body has responded well to lowering the heel and I listened to that. For whatever that is worth...</div>
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<i>Uh-Oh</i></div>
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So imagine then my horror when I come home from the last tune-up run before Greenland and Kathleen points out this in what was going to be my race shoe - Nooooooooooooooooooooo...... Blown out toe is not good.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizLaE59H1fvkaRSw0DyrgqGDKsDPifO7s2tnBljbRDpy4pIU2RK0PCJEEGd9adMWdu0H_zeOFPDvyXKSN7_j3KvLvtX_IHs2Nq1pgMPNETrNYFLiuZ0aLa4BKZiO1LxK5KSr3TjVVlfsoQ/s1600/Kinvara+Blue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizLaE59H1fvkaRSw0DyrgqGDKsDPifO7s2tnBljbRDpy4pIU2RK0PCJEEGd9adMWdu0H_zeOFPDvyXKSN7_j3KvLvtX_IHs2Nq1pgMPNETrNYFLiuZ0aLa4BKZiO1LxK5KSr3TjVVlfsoQ/s640/Kinvara+Blue.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Plan B - Mr Blue gets to go racing</i></div>
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It just so happens, I found a Kinvara 2 the week before Greenland (the new model 3 is out, which I am not caring for initially) and raced in it (again no break in - isn't that sacrilege for racing???) But I do have to give props to <a href="http://www.saucony.com/store/SiteController/saucony/home" target="_blank">Saucony</a> - a couple emails were exchanged and they had me send the black shoe back for <i>inspection</i>. I'm a shoe geek if you had not noticed, so it was hard to part with those puppies after that run at Crazy Horse, but just this Wednesday, these showed up at HT Central:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIgpyGhxb2aDBYwfzlkxyhV4rKXldbbT5ccT2HctRcj0yYQAjNwAE4tTsdPc6NAUbQOJ1AJkL3425tQZePOH78dn7C3p8th0pFzsnIXSjv0gKH82ZXPGkEDR5fa8E36YrEE-OkAwovB0oH/s1600/Kinvara+New.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIgpyGhxb2aDBYwfzlkxyhV4rKXldbbT5ccT2HctRcj0yYQAjNwAE4tTsdPc6NAUbQOJ1AJkL3425tQZePOH78dn7C3p8th0pFzsnIXSjv0gKH82ZXPGkEDR5fa8E36YrEE-OkAwovB0oH/s640/Kinvara+New.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Still black, but check out those blinding green accents!!!</i></div>
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Can't wait to wear out the Blues and get these dirty!!</div>
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Happy Trails!</div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-18122113146934801622012-05-06T15:22:00.002-06:002012-05-07T11:26:44.348-06:00Greenland 25k : Putting the Non-Plan to the TestTwo years ago, after a second straight implosion on lap 2 of the Greenland 25k, I swore off this race. However, like a moth to a flame, early spring had my mind wandering to this race and possibly taking another stab at it with more focused workouts. This race has had everything in the past - howling wind, snowstorms, exposed baking heat - and year after year, it sells out. Derek and all the folks over at <a href="http://www.coloradorunnermag.com/" target="_blank">Colorado Runner Events</a> put on an excellent event, which lends to the appeal as well. This year, with an increased registration of 1000 runners, it sold out later than the previous two but still was full prior to registration closing. With the increased cap also came staggered starts for the 3 distances - this was a relief because the 550 runner mass start in 2010 was harsh, and I could not have imagined a 1000 runner stampede to start!<br />
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<a href="http://greenland50k.com/?page_id=24" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnhk5EvDYxgcZJt-obQlExRI6dKdTnn5B7CdCqGVXxwyul9RYg4uZPZ2HsW8Cj5roiaiTapEQV_260enAyL4Qb46vxRSex9c4cmcnqCBnRfNYFVYKw3y-VTVTKA91ZnmjPAmRgJUp9ajoF/s400/Greenland_logo.png" width="340" /></a></div>
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<i>What a view to start the race!</i></div>
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<i>Race Central - almost time.</i></div>
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Unlike previous years that I have run this, we showed up to Greenland about an hour prior to the race start to blue sky, relatively warm, and NOT WINDY conditions - hmmm? While I know that most racer types relish frigid temps to start a race, I was completely OK with this scenario, especially sans-wind. When I hopped in line for packet pick up, I got to chat for about 10 minutes with <a href="http://www.streakrun.com/" target="_blank">Mr Ace</a>, which is always a pleasant way to start the day!<i> </i>This guy is a spring of enthusiasm, and was getting ready for his second 50k in seven days with badly blistered feet - wow! </div>
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Anyway, got my bib and went back to the car to get pinned up, put the chip on the shoe, and get in line for the "facilities". Uh, oh. The waiting line for the cans ended up being over 15 minutes, which ended any chance of getting a warmup run in. I'm not sure about logistics or park regs for Greenland, but I am not sure 10 portalets adequately cover 1000 racers.... I wormed my way in to the front area of the start with 3 minutes to spare. I was lucky - keep reading.</div>
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<i>Massing at the start</i></div>
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<i>And they're off - stampede at the start - I was about 8 deep at the start, which was good!</i></div>
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<i>Eventual winner and new CR Daniel Kraft had to pass everyone coming out</i></div>
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<i>of the parking area - we surmise he got stuck in the potty line too long!</i></div>
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LOL on that one - Kathleen remembered seeing this kid hauling onto the course after everyone was across the mat! I noticed him pulling through because he reminded me of a twenty something Scott Jurek - floppy curly hair and smooth as silk stride. He blazed a 1:34:38 which blows my mind. </div>
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Now back to the race in front of me. Start was hopping as expected, but I have a patience problem with wading through people and I always worry about getting tripped, rolling an ankle, going to jail for punching someone who keeps stepping on my shoes, and so forth.... So after about 3/4 mile I had to tune it down a bit as there is no way these legs are rolling 7's for 25k :) By about 2.5 miles, I had settled in to my comfort zone and started to, for the first time, look around and enjoy the scenery. Given the vast open expanses here and the complete lack of any shade, Greenland Open Space still has its charm.</div>
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<i>Looking over to Spruce Mountain Open Space</i></div>
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<i>Coming off the hill toward the end of the first loop and feeling good.</i></div>
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I hit the top of Kipps Loop climb about on target at 7:49ish pace, and dropped in for the first screaming descent off the back side. I kept it reeled in a bit given the past experiences of Lap 2 doom. However, with the turnover I have been doing this spring and my legs being used to better pace, "reeled in" ended up being 6:50 - 7:05 pace, which is newer territory for a comfortable running pace but felt good. There were already quite a few 50k runners mixed in with the line by this point but I could tell from posture and body language who I was racing with. The folks with the "I will be out in this exposure for another 3 or 4 hours" look were pretty obvious. And it <u>was</u> getting warm.</div>
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I made the turn at I am guessing 59 and change, though the chip splits aren't up on the Greenland page yet (hope they will be), and grabbed a cup of Heed at the aid station before crossing the mat and starting Lap 2. I have been pretty dialed on hydration and seemed to be doing really well as far as that goes. Lap 2 is kind of tricky as the gradual climb back on Greenland trail to the pond starts to tell you where the legs are. Then the sharp climb over the ridge from the pond twists that down a bit and you must concentrate on regaining some turnover before the second trip up Kipps. I flagged a bit on mojo here and had to wrap my head around the task at hand. Unlike past years, I was still running fluid and no signs of blowing up. Progress.</div>
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Got to the aid spot at the base of the climb hoping for a Heed cup but the tanks.were.dry. "Can you hang on a minute while we're mixing?" Um, like, I am racing here.... So I grabbed a water cup, drank half, and tossed the other half over my head. The breeze we had to start had completely ceased and the second time up Kipps with the overhead sun was definitely warm. Felt bad for the 50k folks to go two more rounds on that - ouch. Took my last gel about 4 minutes from the top of Kipps - one of my bigger mistakes was not having a couple more gels - and I knew I had to grind one out of the legs to push over the top. Ended up about 1:20 slower on the second time through the climb, which is a good sign. However, I hit the crest and started running calculations on some "silent" goals I had. Sketchy, but I spent a lot of time preparing for it, so I decided it was all or nothing. A younger guy I had been running with for a good portion of the time drug me over the top and we picked our way through the eternal line of 50k runners on the back side. We had traded some chatter earlier but were in red light zone at this point. He asked me to pull through as he was not sure what he had left, so I did - but realistically I didn't know either. I told him that I was going for broke, but might see him again... </div>
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<i>Smelling the Barn - mission almost accomplished.</i></div>
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There were a lot of runners to pick through the entire way down the
backside descent, most of them 50k folks in damage control mode with the
quickly mounting heat. At one point I was hitting sub 6 paces and knew
this was simply <u>not in my sustainable range</u>. However, in the heat of
the moment, the brain doesn't function like that! By the time I hit the
turn off the Kipps Loop to the main drag for the last .9 miles my
fleeting dream of sub-2 Hours was all but gone. I have no business
running a 6:05 mile (and I am OK with that) and it was going to take that from my fuzzy-brained
calculators but still I rolled. Three quarters out, for the first time
all day, one of those neural twinges hit my left calf. Then two hit my
right. Why Me? I almost said it out loud, but tried to push through. Then it hit, at one half mile out, my right toes curled under my foot in a ball and I almost toppled. I pulled off trail, unable to move my foot, and desperately
dug both thumbs into the ball of twisted mass that was my right calf and
pushed them all the way to the bone. Within what I guess to be about
twenty seconds I was hobbling, then running gingerly, then flogging for
my life! I vaguely remember my young friend going by screaming at me to
get up and run - and I thanked him at the finish. I pulled in behind
him for the last half and he shouted "Not a word - I am this close
(holding up his thumb and finger about a quarter inch apart) to having
both calves ball up and I am hanging on..." </div>
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And so I rolled in at 2:00:48, nearly a 10 minute PR and quite a satisfying day. The barely structured training program I had concocted worked well and the efforts of the previous 2 months paid off. The strong second lap and all out finish vanquished those lingering demons this race had left me with in the past. Granted, in those previous years, I had no training schedule to speak of and really expected more than I had worked for. This year was different. For someone in their 40's who is mostly a 3 day per week runner, I would say that I have to be ecstatic with where I ended up. And I planned the peaking pretty well too. A month ago, I ran a two lap trainer here and yesterday took another 13 seconds per mile off that effort. So I am happy. And now I do not have anything hanging over my head about Greenland, which is OK by me. Unless the flame draws me in...again... (Or when Kathleen is recovered and decides to go for the Masters Women's win there :) )</div>
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Here are the numbers, for those who must know:</div>
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2:00:48 </div>
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22nd overall, 5th masters </div>
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7:47 per mile if you use raw 25k, or 7:45 if you use the race's advertised distance of 15.56 miles</div>
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BTW, I ran good tangents - Garmin showed 15.57</div>
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1987 calories burned ( I only ate 300 during - oops) </div>
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1380' elevation gain - pretty "flat" for out here</div>
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73 degrees, 7% humidity at my finish time - that's right Midwesterners/Southerners - single digit humidity</div>
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Shoes: Saucony Kinvara2 </div>
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We finally got to meet <a href="http://knuckledraggingrunner.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Craig</a> and his family after the race, and hung out for a while chatting up race recap, future trail runs, etc. - Good Times! Craig and his son both won awards - sweet! After that, we got to run into the entire "Ace" clan in the parking lot, including Mrs Ace, the kiddos, and the rest of the family who were visiting from Montana - pretty neat! We stayed for a bit to see some of the front 50k runners come in. We were absolutely stunned when Peter Maksimow came in at just over 3:22 for a new course record - 5 of the 6 CR's fell yesterday, even with the heat. We were hoping to see <a href="http://bradpoppele.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Brad</a> finish before heading out and he rolled in with an awesome sub-4 hour finish. Good day all around! </div>
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<i>Oh - and forget Gluten-Free for a minute,</i><br />
<i>Kathleen insisted - Black Forest Roulade Was Mandatory!</i></div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-23742972760106791962012-05-05T12:40:00.000-06:002012-05-05T13:54:03.062-06:00Greenland 25k Trail race - done!<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Steve's <a href="http://greenland50k.com/" target="_blank">Greenland 25k trail race</a> is in the books and it was all good! His unofficial finish time was 2:00:48, a 10 minute PR. One of his calves cramped a half mile from the finish - the kind of cramp where the toes curl beneath the foot. He had to stop briefly and let the toes unfurl and then was able to finish well. He did great. He is very pleased with his result and I am so proud of him! Race report forthcoming.......</b></span><br />
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<br /></div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-64651303201624427842012-04-29T21:45:00.000-06:002012-04-30T12:19:07.088-06:00Spring in the Mountains - A Few Days in Pagosa SpringsSkip back a week and we took a little time to run away from home, heading down to Pagosa Springs. We were nearing the end of the life-cycle for Kathleen's nuked thyroid gland, so timing was sketchy but we figured we would just make lemonade if the lemons got hurled our way! We have lived in Colorado for going on 22 years, and, aside from a marathon drive one time from Moab to Cortez, through Durango and over to Gunnison in one day, we have not spent any time in the southwest part of the state. While spring is maybe not the ultimate time to visit this area given that some of the iconic trails are in the high country and they get TONS of snow, we decided to do a little snooping around anyway. With the requisite 5 hour drive one way, it isn't somewhere we would pop over to on any given weekend, since 10 hours of driving cuts into play time. So off we went...<br />
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One thing we ALWAYS do before heading new places is to get the <i>"dirt"</i> on trails. There is a well organized group of races in the Pagosa Springs area that are put on by Morgan Murri under the umbrella of Gecko, which raises funds to help children get reconnected with the outdoors. Morgan was super helpful with emailing us details about the area, giving us some advanced notice on trail conditions, and providing great maps to download on the Gecko website. Timing was unfortunate as we caught him in a busy week between out of town races - we would have liked to get in a run with him. Next time for sure! Read about the children's program, as well as the race series, by clicking on the logo below. Oh, and then sign up for some races while you are at it!<br />
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<a href="http://www.joingecko.org/folders.asp?uid=13" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsV0JMeDuUjbHejTnuY17dYIi5OaYML7k2h_9VINKEfQZA2FxcOBAyftRM0XdSiLRCw8wfNeoD4vmpkmU5bEj0pR4fhMJH8UQgqRNROny9k7Yz2ORyvfCjdVt1y_i06B_9-B3_bJeIXRha/s400/gecko_header_logo.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><i><span style="color: #274e13;">Tuesday Run</span></i></b></span> </div>
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<i>Enough trails within that "little" map to run several days out here</i><br />
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We wanted to hit up the trails that make up the Turkey Track Trail Half
Marathon, so we headed out to the race start in the Turkey Springs
recreation area north of town on Tuesday. We knew that there may be some mud in spots since there had been a decent little snow on Sunday right in the middle of spring drying on the trails. It really was not bad at all given the fact that most of our time was spent between 7600' and 8200' on mostly forested trails.<i> </i></div>
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<i>Launch point - Fourmile Stock Trail - a mulit-use/ATV trail</i><br />
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<i>Kathleen climbing Fourmile Stock Trail</i><br />
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<i>Finally on the sweet singletrack</i><br />
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After climbing Fourmile trail, we took a left down a dirt road, watching for the trail to take off to the left that is used in the race. The trails are distinct, but not marked, so paying attention to the the map helps.<i> </i> And the singletrack was worth the wait - pristine and primitive may best describe it. It is refreshing to run narrow trails that are not trampled by 100,000 of your "closest friends" every weekend. Sometimes being far away from the Front Range is NOT such a bad thing! </div>
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<i>Nicely thinned and neat forests - they do it right down here</i><br />
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<i>One of many sweet trails - we could have posted hundreds of photos, </i><br />
<i>however, running them was more fun!</i><br />
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<i>Beautiful meadow, but we weren't supposed to see it...</i><br />
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We were blissfully cruising along, clicking off the miles of awesome trails when we arrived at this huge meadow. Unfortunately this was <i>not </i>part of the half marathon course. But when you are digging the trails and enjoying the scenery, sometimes things go unnoticed!<i> </i></div>
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<i>Ignorance is bliss on trails like this!</i><br />
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So on we went, cruising through some neat forest that had recently seen a huge amount of elk traffic, although we saw no elk this day. Having briefly calculated what some of the turn points should be on the course, at a certain point we started to realize we ... were ... lost. Now, on a day when you are feeling great and running unbelievable trails, this is a minor issue. However, when you are keenly aware that any time in the near future your running partner could completely run out of thyroid hormone and crash, "lost" becomes an unnerving event. So I turned on the nifty little "Return to Start" function on the Garmin and compared it to the map. The images didn't jive ... hmmmm? Fortunately, we had a phone conversation with Morgan on the way out to the trails that morning and he had mentioned that the Turkey Springs Road was as far west as we wanted to ever go on the trails. Second fortunate event was that I had printed both the Half and Full maps from the website. We ended up on a road, heading approximately NW according to the GPS. I made a couple out and back trips on some trails and had Kathleen wait at intersections to save some mileage on her legs. Finally off in the distance I could see a T intersection and picked it up a bit. Luckily it was signed "Brockover Road" - part of the Marathon course - woohoo!!! </div>
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We were at the intersection with Turkey Springs Road, which we knew
would take us all the way back around to the car. The downside was that
my rough calculation had us at 4+ miles out and well over 13 miles into
the run, already past Kathleen's longest since her RAI treatment, and
her energy was flagging. So I told her to continue at whatever pace was
comfortable and I was going to hammer to the car, then head up the road
and pick her up. So I had an unplanned tempo session and made a courtesy taxi trip to catch her on the road. It turned out to be a great run, with just a little sketchy period thrown in! Given some more time to explore and familiarize with the trails on the marathon map this could become a great place to hang out! Ended up with around 18 miles and 16 miles on the day - a bit more than we were looking for but well worth the extra effort.</div>
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<i style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Shoes - Saucony Pergerine</span></i></div>
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<i style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Thursday Run</span></b></span></i></div>
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Given the big effort Tuesday, we decided to take a break Wednesday, instead driving over to Durango to do some shopping and snooping around. It was a nice day to have some down time and Durango will require another trip down to this part of the state at some point in the near future. Plenty of trails there too, yet some of their stellar ones require a summer time visit when the winter stash has cleared out. One thing we knew for sure, if Kathleen had legs we would be back out in Turkey Springs on Thursday morning.</div>
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<i>The "other side" of Fourmile Stock Trail</i><br />
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Thursday we woke to rain, which at home means "don't worry about a run today". However, away from home it often means "watch for a good window and go for it". So the rain stopped and we took off for the trailhead. Given the sketchy weather scenario and the chance of rain and/or snow, we decided to do some trails very close to Turkey Springs road in case a quick getaway was needed! We noticed on Tuesday that Fourmile continued across the road where we turned as a singletrack, so we took off that way, which is also a cross country ski trail in the winter months and is marked at junctions with the blue posts.</div>
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<i>Sweet forest trail - plenty of water over in this area</i><br />
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<i>Notice how tall the blue ski trail posts are - a "little" snow falls over in these parts!</i><br />
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<i>Loamy forest trails emerging from winter's slumber</i> <i>- some wet...</i><br />
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<i>...and some already dry.</i><br />
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<i>Awesome singletrack - mile after mile</i><br />
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About forty minutes in, it started to snow. It was kind of that graupel, or corn snow, and so we headed back just in case. We were about out to the Piedra Stock Trail, west of Turkey Springs Road when we turned around. We thought we would throw our shell jackets on and see what happened. We made it all the way back to Newt Jack Road, which was the turn for the race, and the sun emerged. We ditched the jackets and decided to catch Turkey Springs Rd and loop all the way back around to the west and hop on the Fourmile Stock trail again - it was that good! </div>
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<i>This appeared to be some sort of lava-type flow that cut through this meadow</i><br />
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<i>Kathleen cruises through the pines</i><br />
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<i>Think twice about running over these - not as easy as it looks!</i><br />
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<i>Not quite the yoga circle from the Rim Trail in Aspen, but someone spent a little time on this!</i><br />
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We ran most of the remainder of the route just ahead of the next round of the storm. We had about a mile descent to the car on the Fourmile, the same stretch the races finish on. The rain started slowly, then picked up in intensity and we ultimately finished wet but smiling. We eeked out another 13 mile run on excellent trails. Another awesome day!</div>
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<i><span style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Shoes - Saucony Peregrine</span></span></i><i></i></div>
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<i style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Quick Jaunt before heading Home</b></span></i><br />
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<i>Early morning over the San Juan River</i><br />
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<i>Overlook on Reservoir Hill</i><br />
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Friday morning before heading home, we decided to try out some trails on Reservoir Hill, which is right in town across the highway from where we stayed. The trails are steep to get up on top, then wind their way around the hilltop, eventually dropping back down one of the sides. It is used for Nordic skiing in the winter, but you wouldn't catch me on these trails on skinny skis!!!</div>
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<i>Continental Divide overlook, San Juan River below</i><br />
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<i>Cool looking benches along the disc golf course</i><br />
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We made the outer loop of about 3 miles and hopped across the highway to get ready for the trip home. We had some early signs that we may have squeezed everything out of Kathleen's thyroid <i> </i>that we could have - of course, you probably already read earlier in the week that this was indeed the case. But we had a pretty good time burning that little organ up on this trip and we most certainly need a return trip at full steam! While we may not have timing on our side, health-wise, to make it down for Turkey Track races this year, it is now in the proverbial bucket.</div>
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<i>Highway 160, heading east to Wolf Creek Pass</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9UgeLpFutT33kkR9AAua38sQiTzQyLVfGS493UAClnTZiFxIKjDZVWMM5fvRrcOGZeCluMyxoVvC7diyqDRkqf-Y-YjHwHOUoH7rtUFly-Rd4M6Zw9SmAq93pkBpv48RwF7VrmsAwFZVu/s1600/ResHill+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9UgeLpFutT33kkR9AAua38sQiTzQyLVfGS493UAClnTZiFxIKjDZVWMM5fvRrcOGZeCluMyxoVvC7diyqDRkqf-Y-YjHwHOUoH7rtUFly-Rd4M6Zw9SmAq93pkBpv48RwF7VrmsAwFZVu/s640/ResHill+6.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<i>Bye, Bye snow - Wolf Creek Ski Area on the way home</i></div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-49271156542664656422012-04-28T14:16:00.000-06:002012-04-28T14:33:09.671-06:00Training DayIt was a great day for my last <strike>obsessing</strike> training run at Greenland ahead of next <a href="http://greenland50k.com/" target="_blank">Saturday's race</a>. I had intended to head up and do a "hot" lap to see what I could push, and then maybe run a second cutoff lap at a more reasonable pace. However, when Kathleen woke up this morning, she wanted to at least try a run before she went to work. This was the most awesome news I heard all week. So I suited up and headed out with her for a 3.5 mile loop. Now 3.5 miles certainly beats ZERO and I was stoked for her to run - Kathleen is quite a trooper and is going to come back to running with a vengeance once the hormones get leveled out. Time to "take names", so to speak, after a year and a half of limbo ;-)<br />
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So I fueled up with a little breakfast, threw some extra clothes in the truck, and hit the road. As we have mentioned in the past, ad nauseum, no matter what time of day or what day of the week, there is usually wind at Greenland. No different today, and it was a cold wind. And I forgot liner gloves. So as is the routine, roll off at the traditional race start at the gate for the Territorial Road and bore down straight into the teeth of the wind. For 3.5 miles. It was good today though. I have been a bit nervous because I have basically a "non-plan" plan for getting ready for a race. Having no background in "real" running, we know nothing of periodization, track workouts, Arthur Lydiard, blah blah blah blah.... Basically we run to have fun, do some hard tempo runs, some of which are on similar terrain to the race course, and see where the chips fall. Scoff if you want, but when it is a bluebird sky day and we're out running delicious ribbons of singletrack and you can't because it is your 12x400x600x3000 or whatever, who is happier :))<br />
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Anyhoo, back to running. I felt good on the doubletrack out, almost too good. I hit Kipp's at 7:37 avg, the saddle at 7:50 avg, Greenland cutoff at 7:31 avg, then in to the finish - 8 miles, 59:00 and 7:22 avg. Then <strike>I wet myself</strike>, err I mean, thought "What if I could hold that for 15.5???" Now the week of nervous stomach starts!!! Seriously, though, I don't know if most people need this sort of run but it will actually help my mind rest this week with comfort that I have put in the requisite training for my goal. We'll find out in a week! I ran a 2.5 mile cool down after swapping out shoes and sloshing down some Blueberry Pomegranate Gu Brew, putting the day's work at 14 miles, and the last long effort for the training cycle.<br />
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BTW, I wore the Saucony Kinvara for the hot loop. Not sure if it has adequate tread for the sand, but man it sure flowed nicely as far as I could tell. My plan all along was to race in the Peregrine, but now I am waffling. At 2.5 ounces less per shoe, it may not be such a bad idea. Any suggestions pro or con???<br />
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<i>Done! And feeling pretty good too!</i></div>
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<i>Greenland OPEN Space, with Pikes Peak in the distance</i></div>
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<i>Spruce Mountain on the left with Noe Road rolling away</i></div>
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<i>So there is the profile for the full lap</i>...</div>
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<i>...and my splits</i><br />
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Working on the Pagosa Springs post - it should be up tonight or tomorrow with some sweet pics of Springtime in the Rockies! Also wanted to get an early "Good Luck" out there for next week at Greenland - <a href="http://www.streakrun.com/" target="_blank">Ace</a> and <a href="http://bradpoppele.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Brad</a> running the 50k, and <a href="http://knuckledraggingrunner.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Craig</a> running the 8 miler - should be good times out on course!</div>
</div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-39197652703369681062012-04-25T08:56:00.002-06:002012-04-26T18:44:45.033-06:00Hooray for a performance enhancing drug!!!<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Yep, you read right - adulation for a performance enhancing drug use on Happy Trails..... I received my results from blood work on Monday which signaled I have hit rock bottom and the thyroid is essentially non-functioning. R.I.P. little fella. I have been given my first prescription for synthetic thyroid replacement and we are ecstatic!!! This means that the worst part of the Graves Disease process should be behind us. Doc said I should feel noticeably better within 3 to 4 weeks and heading in the normal direction within 6 to 8 weeks. There may be some dosing adjustments along the way but overall things should be so much better. People have told me I will feel almost super human once I hit "normal" just because I have felt overall so poorly for the last 1.5 to 2 years. We can't wait!!! Because my levels have dipped so low, intentionally from the RAI procedure, I've not been able to do much in terms of running the last few weeks. That's ok. Good things are on the horizon......</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We spent a few days in Pagosa Springs last week, for some R & R, and even though I was fairly gutter crawling, was able to wring a few last trails runs out of the body while we were there. It is an incredibly beautiful area with some really great trail running and trail race series. The full report and pics will be coming soon!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Steve is on fire. He is as fit as I have seen him in many years and is anxious for a good race at Greenland 25k in two weeks. I am so excited for him and can't wait to cheer him on and, of course, get some good photos of him blazing to a PR. He has worked so hard, not only keeping up with his training and other "life" responsibilities, but has kept me propped up and perking along through the last long while. I am so proud of and thankful for him!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Happy Trails, indeed!!!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></b>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-12307262031655504732012-04-01T22:00:00.007-06:002012-04-02T18:27:34.956-06:00Chugging Along<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Oops... it appears we missed the month of March. Well, not really, but apparently we missed the urge to put up a post in the month of March :) We are still getting out on the trails, albeit less mileage for Kathleen, but we are still out chugging along. And it certainly helps that the weather has been unseasonably phenomenal in Colorado for this time of year. Before we get to the weekend's activities, here are a few images from the prior month:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaTMoawPRbwJo-e6GsoLcPjbJ_y6KOiOxm9ThjfucwPQLi0a9NSNKM2TgKibuII9s4YLNAD6QKMamzrHEyasmY-WPgY0NH-ixaIqdqFXd5leWzOVhVi6L3Ef37KmAuY2GULxL8V8chm57t/s1600/CMSP+HT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaTMoawPRbwJo-e6GsoLcPjbJ_y6KOiOxm9ThjfucwPQLi0a9NSNKM2TgKibuII9s4YLNAD6QKMamzrHEyasmY-WPgY0NH-ixaIqdqFXd5leWzOVhVi6L3Ef37KmAuY2GULxL8V8chm57t/s640/CMSP+HT.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Group photo from a great run at Cheyenne Mtn State Park -</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>65 degrees on March 4! </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1N2xiYiXLErVJxER7D8sq4nqE4zpOFYaXsZjQDV3MX5qcFKZi9RgWp9NRVpirQR6LztVrovl1A8Kr2u3sJIS9gaKQkNN1aGI0WzdJXWqIHV_hShu45Ep0U_ksoIX0MGgicu_s6pj5poPW/s1600/Bike+Shoes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1N2xiYiXLErVJxER7D8sq4nqE4zpOFYaXsZjQDV3MX5qcFKZi9RgWp9NRVpirQR6LztVrovl1A8Kr2u3sJIS9gaKQkNN1aGI0WzdJXWqIHV_hShu45Ep0U_ksoIX0MGgicu_s6pj5poPW/s640/Bike+Shoes.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>It has been nice enough that we have been out on the bikes too</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-rJSapYjz3wk1ILDaYo6J3f7GV4AnaRL5lQHnW7yDTpvokSrRvEn9eOirBIhFu44fAlAI6fM9OfL6EEJ-j1kZkZd2TdVVJD7gXz_Gu2h6cn3WxrV29SKrI4fg_MnbFQhJZ-911o-Z0GTG/s1600/PP+Sunset+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-rJSapYjz3wk1ILDaYo6J3f7GV4AnaRL5lQHnW7yDTpvokSrRvEn9eOirBIhFu44fAlAI6fM9OfL6EEJ-j1kZkZd2TdVVJD7gXz_Gu2h6cn3WxrV29SKrI4fg_MnbFQhJZ-911o-Z0GTG/s640/PP+Sunset+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>Since Daylight Savings Time, I have been chasing "daylight" quite a few nights post-work</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSsfIa6a0KGZtTiINh4zHRhkZUP9naPnLlmBPqAN-OeLQ9QITXgcbRN72h4tEpk5zUo2AxpHAcdcX-801_P_S4hwegF4HO6bMzzOZm14AKyEhyWKwZSjjGKxkpKK8vbtBEKUNk9_QjHydO/s1600/PP+Sunset+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSsfIa6a0KGZtTiINh4zHRhkZUP9naPnLlmBPqAN-OeLQ9QITXgcbRN72h4tEpk5zUo2AxpHAcdcX-801_P_S4hwegF4HO6bMzzOZm14AKyEhyWKwZSjjGKxkpKK8vbtBEKUNk9_QjHydO/s640/PP+Sunset+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Sunset on the Grandview Mesa - Palmer Park</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">Greenland Trail - Saturday </i></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Now for current events, we headed out to Greenland Open Space on Saturday morning. I have still been hitting some tempo training, and some harder trail outings, and have been thinking about taking another crack at the <a href="http://greenland50k.com/" target="_blank">Greenland 25k</a> race. Twice previous, I have crashed and burned on lap 2 after going out over my head here. So I have been training in an attempt to go out hot, and then hold it for both laps. I have been encouraged by the fitness I carried over the winter months, and had a couple recent runs last weekend that had me salivating for a little redemption up north: - a first ever sub-7 pace tempo run and a 3 1/2 minute PR on the Falcon Trail at the US Air Force Academy. So one of my goals for the day was to test the legs on Greenland and decide if I was in. The weather forecast was for calm Saturday and WINDY Sunday - they lied. We arrived at the parking area with some nice wind already pasting the hillsides, but there is a good chance for that on race day too, so it was put up or shut up.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrQiJ_uoXgTpL1Q3DrgfA1XP8SY3fsIMsQxAdcjY7tHrk17mDWWZZcBWo4Hw8k5o3ktWkvF2tqqwYjlHE1TGcWedVD6rdjUr2gjPAIGGB6DSuVqBy_2D5ecqXb7AtfCNHgF0tq0IwgXFEa/s1600/Greenland+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrQiJ_uoXgTpL1Q3DrgfA1XP8SY3fsIMsQxAdcjY7tHrk17mDWWZZcBWo4Hw8k5o3ktWkvF2tqqwYjlHE1TGcWedVD6rdjUr2gjPAIGGB6DSuVqBy_2D5ecqXb7AtfCNHgF0tq0IwgXFEa/s640/Greenland+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Climbing the Kipps Loop switchbacks, overlooking Spruce Mountain Road - </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Kathleen in the center of the photo</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Kathleen had no idea when I took the above photo that from my vantage point, I could see 2 runners on the climb below her. Even in her post-RAI-dying-thyroid-slower state, they never caught her on the climb (or at all for that matter). She was stoked later when I pointed it out! ;-)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjNnql4UvJ5bhUgjWImZkiUqedmLJW6UJDcEJoxT4KGCj6m5n9ainImSOlVZESuQJDvT6icIOYev-wMbC6tKMkAlkuaCy7zD6G2qVX9Z9L6_NOUMu5yPnhjhwz5yeshT88jvcAHfh3sA5l/s1600/Greenland+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjNnql4UvJ5bhUgjWImZkiUqedmLJW6UJDcEJoxT4KGCj6m5n9ainImSOlVZESuQJDvT6icIOYev-wMbC6tKMkAlkuaCy7zD6G2qVX9Z9L6_NOUMu5yPnhjhwz5yeshT88jvcAHfh3sA5l/s640/Greenland+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Spruce Mountain from Kipps</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Lap one for the course starts out an old doubletrack road that is quite sandy. It is a gradual climb to the base of Kipps Loop (mile 3.5), which then switchbacks to the high point on course (mile 5). Off the back saddle of Kipps, it is mostly descent to the finish, if you are on the 8 M course. The 25k and 50k go most of the way back to the start, before doubling back over the Greenland trail to the dirt road and repeating the Kipps Loop. So lap 2 of the 25k (and 3 & 4 of the 50k) are slightly different than lap 1. Both previous attempts at this race, I have cramped badly on lap 2, especially coming off the saddle on the descent, which is where you make up time from the climbs. Saturday I guessed at the turn point (off a little) and hit it at 59:40. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRosI8Lx9UDsiePI5PoKr3fPe48Y7WOCLqgT9pihag9J4xQhXILL5YHXKOLcd9cy5XlOyGZaaLvQdawmQTZuisvTPMNIbpU7qbVbFalBuR1GLW9BJ_x3ZGSZuxGCAafgAI8Vn_aeAzzU91/s1600/Greenland+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRosI8Lx9UDsiePI5PoKr3fPe48Y7WOCLqgT9pihag9J4xQhXILL5YHXKOLcd9cy5XlOyGZaaLvQdawmQTZuisvTPMNIbpU7qbVbFalBuR1GLW9BJ_x3ZGSZuxGCAafgAI8Vn_aeAzzU91/s640/Greenland+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Great to see Kathleen running!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">At the trail junction going back out, I waited for Kathleen coming off the hill as she was finishing the loop out to the trailhead for a nice 8.1 mile jaunt. She was running great and enjoying the day - 75 degrees in March at Greenland is pretty sweet! After seeing her off, I headed off for lap 2.<i> </i>I was pushing pretty hard into the headwind heading out and I was curious to see how I would hold up. I hoped to simulate the race to see where the fitness was at, of course always hoping for race day to show with NO STINKING WIND. I was pretty excited to hit the saddle at the top of Kipps on round two at low 8 average pace, and dropped off the back ready to let it roll in to the finish. Much to my surprise, the legs held out really well until the flat straight heading in to the start. About half mile out, I had the first alarm go off for calf cramp, shortly followed by more of the same. However, I was close enough at this point that it didn't matter. I was short of race distance at 15.12 (race is 15.54) but my time of 2:00:25 put me at a 7:58 pace, cutting 25 seconds per mile off my best race pace there. Sweet! So there was only one thing left to do - drive home, log on , and enter. (Well, that is after BBQ at <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/broken-bones-smokin-pit-monument" target="_blank">Broken Bones BBQ</a> in Monument -pulled pork and sweet potato fries - and a Starbucks stop!!!) So I guess that means I'm in ;-)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: blue; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; text-align: left;"><i>Shoes - K Nike LunarGlide</i></div><div style="color: blue; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; text-align: left;"><i>S Saucony Peregrine</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="color: #274e13;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Sunday - Red Rock Canyon</span></b></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkjP7JWZi2loF2b4hHkhkzP7cgqIxcvv6XB3koSp3x48pdRdoepfMwCxLJ_mSzTqe-rlwWUt9PnuHmaYe-E1Fgobwld_DYguMDLLz-6ucjAvPb5ZVjaMGAOq3V1OoSghZGFd5ZfVTn0bXR/s1600/RRC+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkjP7JWZi2loF2b4hHkhkzP7cgqIxcvv6XB3koSp3x48pdRdoepfMwCxLJ_mSzTqe-rlwWUt9PnuHmaYe-E1Fgobwld_DYguMDLLz-6ucjAvPb5ZVjaMGAOq3V1OoSghZGFd5ZfVTn0bXR/s640/RRC+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>Kathleen running sweet ridgeline singletrack - Codell Trail</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">Today we got a late start (again) and headed over to Red Rock Canyon Open Space. It was already mid 70's when we rolled in, so the gusty winds were actually helpful in keeping us cooled off - which is weird to mention on April 1...? Both of us were fairly tired and had lead in the legs, so it was a day to enjoy the scenery, kick up a little dirt, and be glad to have sweet trails to run.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcRaizspE7jTr9VfN-YkSChkpsOSwwRGrHdUOTThlDswEFN-UZUDkv9pkNRSmNGw4ltoTNcqK8gvzKt5LPLAFBpfsIY6d9lcU1-qlGk-MWBFuVNtLBr1Ti9u64kOf6Ja-CMrm9NEYaHr_2/s1600/RRC+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcRaizspE7jTr9VfN-YkSChkpsOSwwRGrHdUOTThlDswEFN-UZUDkv9pkNRSmNGw4ltoTNcqK8gvzKt5LPLAFBpfsIY6d9lcU1-qlGk-MWBFuVNtLBr1Ti9u64kOf6Ja-CMrm9NEYaHr_2/s640/RRC+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>Climbing the Quarry Pass Trail</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXgS4BJof8o0g1xhbMmtO6xj04xtfkZZkvVcZQt1shW-mOwRHKvQuvdBfM49213d1M_816yo52FJbmdE_x4VMciLBlNDsoekGh6Zn19aIWJ9zsscl1ueEbKcRQYTeMkL5vxLmv-8ai5Tlu/s1600/RRC+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXgS4BJof8o0g1xhbMmtO6xj04xtfkZZkvVcZQt1shW-mOwRHKvQuvdBfM49213d1M_816yo52FJbmdE_x4VMciLBlNDsoekGh6Zn19aIWJ9zsscl1ueEbKcRQYTeMkL5vxLmv-8ai5Tlu/s640/RRC+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>Nice view of Red Rock Canyon, and the Garden off to the north</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilDaVFbHDug40ZtojS2lKQs35qWP4HWNnvO2Yxi4IWvjqH2KfVXOx2gjRU4Vzm6ssgvkxmYKSokofiTV3d_PuQozDPbIbe3zYGqKeVWFdVT-cyG2kDKe1qd0mDvJfcOgIKHlAdYqY3q2VP/s1600/RRC+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilDaVFbHDug40ZtojS2lKQs35qWP4HWNnvO2Yxi4IWvjqH2KfVXOx2gjRU4Vzm6ssgvkxmYKSokofiTV3d_PuQozDPbIbe3zYGqKeVWFdVT-cyG2kDKe1qd0mDvJfcOgIKHlAdYqY3q2VP/s640/RRC+4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Kathleen hits the top of Roundup Trail</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZXNV6tyIhjeDao6gvXt_UTVHGTzF_mRsxGW66VQTkE3PnPMpd0NuIVjypxM3Ypn_KtPFQZd80JnaxsJbjH8Wil5HmxUpH7D7G3A2qGg1bmE1XtyZx98eqFE61NjpODfvrP0PAKN91ERag/s1600/RRC+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZXNV6tyIhjeDao6gvXt_UTVHGTzF_mRsxGW66VQTkE3PnPMpd0NuIVjypxM3Ypn_KtPFQZd80JnaxsJbjH8Wil5HmxUpH7D7G3A2qGg1bmE1XtyZx98eqFE61NjpODfvrP0PAKN91ERag/s640/RRC+5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>It is funny how light angles change perspective - the water looks like Gatorade from here...</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0EIyMdeo7himGYbJ5gF5a1LFRNnLB8OIFzXUg699Yl6KzK6HSjGOHpyD8l8s425vmC5PeD4hWB9YNiHzKAOXfF4UEafOckQ5UBix0AH1PSZ0W1mNFdmiZDNTqlFczMGlsuvK_5QLfhLsI/s1600/RRC+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0EIyMdeo7himGYbJ5gF5a1LFRNnLB8OIFzXUg699Yl6KzK6HSjGOHpyD8l8s425vmC5PeD4hWB9YNiHzKAOXfF4UEafOckQ5UBix0AH1PSZ0W1mNFdmiZDNTqlFczMGlsuvK_5QLfhLsI/s640/RRC+6.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>... but just brown from here! One of the old mining ponds.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">We enjoyed our run today - 8 miles and we were done! And with the carryover from yesterday, we were also quite hungry - and what better way to cure that than to hit <a href="http://rudysbbq.com/page/home" target="_blank">Rudy's BBQ</a> which is only a block away. We could smell the smoker when we were on Codell Trail and I thought about it the whole run!!!<i> </i>Smoked turkey, green chile stew, and potato salad hit the spot.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; text-align: left;"><i>Shoes - K Brooks Pure Flow</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">S Brooks Pure Grit</span></i></div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-41300876309728044582012-02-29T22:12:00.004-07:002012-04-22T11:36:56.203-06:00Thanks ... and Moving AlongFirst off, thanks to everyone for the kind comments and emails last week. It was a great lift and just wanted to let everyone know it was appreciated. Kathleen is doing fine and we are going along through the waiting process that is normal to occur after the radioactive iodine treatment. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: x-large;"><b>FREEDOM </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Kathleen was quarantined for two to three days so as to not expose others to radioactivity - and she was stir crazy!!! So following two days of complete isolation from the outside world, last Sunday she was allowed out of the house - so we hit the Garden for a run! We were still super cautious about being in close proximity to other people but out on the trails that was no biggie.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxxQFGcVTgQ3fugLmEJNAg_NvugM-luBL12HecCQsyd2iwubYXc0IhjeC1pnqv7iT14i8VRAMOZJ-c0OD2JEmQM33uGgMi6U7sjSrSk2IdDu8TpoWACVVEw5sz8xl94r2-CudSIBtvZ-l/s1600/FebNineteen+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxxQFGcVTgQ3fugLmEJNAg_NvugM-luBL12HecCQsyd2iwubYXc0IhjeC1pnqv7iT14i8VRAMOZJ-c0OD2JEmQM33uGgMi6U7sjSrSk2IdDu8TpoWACVVEw5sz8xl94r2-CudSIBtvZ-l/s640/FebNineteen+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Free at last</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA7m1P6wGjVN6mQ1yMi6vD9S4TBfTXbNrI57O-rr7eMRO6rY-xANBK40aOCMCeJ2cPuF0Ct_DZjbcyDCMvFMacYr6EIvMU30V1rt2_-WxgEws-4Cyt3hRfJ5Ejtz_ZnS2mHGAJZ6sVTV90/s1600/FebNineteen+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA7m1P6wGjVN6mQ1yMi6vD9S4TBfTXbNrI57O-rr7eMRO6rY-xANBK40aOCMCeJ2cPuF0Ct_DZjbcyDCMvFMacYr6EIvMU30V1rt2_-WxgEws-4Cyt3hRfJ5Ejtz_ZnS2mHGAJZ6sVTV90/s640/FebNineteen+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Enjoying the grayish sunshine below Siamese Twins</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS0Wo2B8u7dYy_IyKPKGkm8hBhZtihyIKoecXFa2cG6Ay4mje0iAEsafjaWe3845mV9hBPICQ1G2gzDi6PWAxWgUsB5lPeLt4ReKkVGX0UvQ9lo14fEiAv3CaqgafMuRz7iDOfwfpWFWcV/s1600/FebNineteen+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS0Wo2B8u7dYy_IyKPKGkm8hBhZtihyIKoecXFa2cG6Ay4mje0iAEsafjaWe3845mV9hBPICQ1G2gzDi6PWAxWgUsB5lPeLt4ReKkVGX0UvQ9lo14fEiAv3CaqgafMuRz7iDOfwfpWFWcV/s640/FebNineteen+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The Hill</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHjz9g6ZWxFExuGur-kgLYtCFjDc4_sGHGTZxEVZdFClmyXCEedkpyCPH10oB53pZjnkf0t9rVnb4Sr6OE52Apt7scjsPiSjRd5756xkDI9W940VhVEEttRjTiDIW596C8NHZBlkCfjzl2/s1600/FebNineteen+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHjz9g6ZWxFExuGur-kgLYtCFjDc4_sGHGTZxEVZdFClmyXCEedkpyCPH10oB53pZjnkf0t9rVnb4Sr6OE52Apt7scjsPiSjRd5756xkDI9W940VhVEEttRjTiDIW596C8NHZBlkCfjzl2/s640/FebNineteen+4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Siamese Twins with no crowds</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">It was good to get out to the Garden, and especially nice for Kathleen to be outside. Kathleen ran a nice 7 mile loop, then relaxed with a book in the Pilot while I went for another loop to finish with 13 miles on the day. Good times!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="color: blue; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Shoes - Montrail Masochist</i> <i> </i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-size: x-large;"><b>Nice Long Run</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqoXER0FIHIaaSWL_ZDYhS5RXNebyKGuCH83V8cm47FtzWFssZI2TXTRs1Wv-8zeEHhWaUhSZUVAFxEsy6seExn4t5LlVfwhX1-0oPXqFymsYD4HVhz10mNif7xXXQ1cISt3EL0u8m-9Js/s1600/Saturday+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqoXER0FIHIaaSWL_ZDYhS5RXNebyKGuCH83V8cm47FtzWFssZI2TXTRs1Wv-8zeEHhWaUhSZUVAFxEsy6seExn4t5LlVfwhX1-0oPXqFymsYD4HVhz10mNif7xXXQ1cISt3EL0u8m-9Js/s640/Saturday+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Reservoir with a nice backdrop</i> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Last Saturday, Kathleen ran early before she had to go in to work for a bit. Though her body won't allow her to push the pace at all or get long distances in, she has still been getting out for her runs without much trouble and just keeping them shorter than usual. But shorter runs are far better than Zero runs!!! I was a chump and waited for it to warm up before heading out on a long run. I have not done as many of these lately and just wanted to log some miles and stay out on the feet for a while. I headed over Flying W trail toward the Garden, but took a detour up onto Blair Bridge Open Space. We always see these reservoirs in the satellite photos, but have not ever gone on top of the hill to check it out. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCafWnse4B2h5zbA5149Vo0kv5-I3noAnKhzBdVvY4kK6T6387cUekah5mQRsZ2lkb6KSS5oHaA8ysTGVLjVSokkpsu-lKUNCW43XjlTh0oKx15a9MUhP_yCShkWtnPfyb6TOqSNtGkpTg/s1600/Saturday+1a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCafWnse4B2h5zbA5149Vo0kv5-I3noAnKhzBdVvY4kK6T6387cUekah5mQRsZ2lkb6KSS5oHaA8ysTGVLjVSokkpsu-lKUNCW43XjlTh0oKx15a9MUhP_yCShkWtnPfyb6TOqSNtGkpTg/s640/Saturday+1a.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Looking down from the top of Blair</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8n_IfdhyphenhyphenKYjK_kKz_VDfzA2IWJGXeDGuWG3jgxnx__ioXREj6lnuz7po_C6cgWE0zoBd79yEE5GsE3Tp8B0zB4GljAa5R9uqqVT3b8owFH_kNQvgNYgk1bU0_uFI68zjF0w6dZcuwmg-u/s1600/Saturday+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8n_IfdhyphenhyphenKYjK_kKz_VDfzA2IWJGXeDGuWG3jgxnx__ioXREj6lnuz7po_C6cgWE0zoBd79yEE5GsE3Tp8B0zB4GljAa5R9uqqVT3b8owFH_kNQvgNYgk1bU0_uFI68zjF0w6dZcuwmg-u/s640/Saturday+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Sweet views with the blue sky making its return!</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqIy3NUgrqY8Rqg618ifstMjMr5daLfjqLPoj1wPMOEJO4h1k2eMgkA5LLoHwfqtU3xnie4QJPlwoLmikJYYn5icakA3YUGm1OTtJ8q6cgv_9umhRl-faatFsnTs0Fs7Ws8bJLW7BnZnfA/s1600/Saturday+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqIy3NUgrqY8Rqg618ifstMjMr5daLfjqLPoj1wPMOEJO4h1k2eMgkA5LLoHwfqtU3xnie4QJPlwoLmikJYYn5icakA3YUGm1OTtJ8q6cgv_9umhRl-faatFsnTs0Fs7Ws8bJLW7BnZnfA/s640/Saturday+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Up on the west ridge looking across the Garden</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmIoobIb6I1h_EtC3Z1QblL2gIF-ZtAvbJhSnRMTcc40UzosZJ2ulu-wSJa6n18jNtORS7K36Wblj7fJfLqZ1xEwdv5iaMmY_HdtH-74t7cjfrCo6mfsUFCyyqRSyRpPbaQN153o4oTnWq/s1600/Saturday+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmIoobIb6I1h_EtC3Z1QblL2gIF-ZtAvbJhSnRMTcc40UzosZJ2ulu-wSJa6n18jNtORS7K36Wblj7fJfLqZ1xEwdv5iaMmY_HdtH-74t7cjfrCo6mfsUFCyyqRSyRpPbaQN153o4oTnWq/s640/Saturday+4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Same reservoir, different perspective...</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">I looped through the Garden on Palmer Trail, then up out of the park on the Ponderous trails to the ridge above Glen Eyrie. From there looking east, you can see the reservoirs far below from the beginning of the run. Dropped over the gate and onto Rampart Range Road for the long cruise back down to the Garden.<i> </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitHxHCOToMOGsAKLBqxbK6jCtN6TN8WLqK7jHmC419yzxdtx-zW8RXzUcovkmB0GV6Ar3Ssus0mL-HRBCjz8ftyMFKpRouETaidYOsVTEy_7i4AKvmNV2tR3Cgn7wz6pwEATtkhbGXXgQ1/s1600/Saturday+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitHxHCOToMOGsAKLBqxbK6jCtN6TN8WLqK7jHmC419yzxdtx-zW8RXzUcovkmB0GV6Ar3Ssus0mL-HRBCjz8ftyMFKpRouETaidYOsVTEy_7i4AKvmNV2tR3Cgn7wz6pwEATtkhbGXXgQ1/s640/Saturday+5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Not the Saguaros that you will see <a href="http://pinkcorker.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">over here</a>, but they're all we have to offer!</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvN5EC7yJu14_UUcc7FaOc3AT9uqAjr_V4Bo9nwTg8Bm-exelgI-RIFN3a4LWzE2Hg-o8gr5zGUlAiUrwdRUesy3O-ZQLfm0IOmF67Khe4X87II84o-IXsR_utspflO1oRtVnQPsuYyqTI/s1600/Saturday+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvN5EC7yJu14_UUcc7FaOc3AT9uqAjr_V4Bo9nwTg8Bm-exelgI-RIFN3a4LWzE2Hg-o8gr5zGUlAiUrwdRUesy3O-ZQLfm0IOmF67Khe4X87II84o-IXsR_utspflO1oRtVnQPsuYyqTI/s640/Saturday+6.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Parting shot - heading home</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK1ZLHhA4N79jdTDSkqLlAWT65otCv3AEki2mn5MhlvQ45Yy8TLq7NKzTh4ZSo_DogmaFXg3J6_3EU94klRxw0KYEiqlhRNf8AI5aAM6gjwFJi0K81u9mjnpr48EXNwDoyyVo1H4Xubcz_/s1600/Saturday+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK1ZLHhA4N79jdTDSkqLlAWT65otCv3AEki2mn5MhlvQ45Yy8TLq7NKzTh4ZSo_DogmaFXg3J6_3EU94klRxw0KYEiqlhRNf8AI5aAM6gjwFJi0K81u9mjnpr48EXNwDoyyVo1H4Xubcz_/s640/Saturday+7.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>One happy pair of shoes</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It was a great day, with temps in the 50's for most of the run which I will take any day in the winter! The run ended up being 17 miles and though tired, I felt overall quite good to finish a run like this in February. <i> </i>Longest run yet in the Saucony Peregrines and my feet seem to like them real well.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">More Blue Skies</span></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Rl1vO-nBNiR4XABjn8FOf-470UMLu2rVUH5qlEt5KE2LGUi7xZtycJu0ohTEwlRgARCaKCalVt5bvOUUJGGcW6o0bJuej8qdJ9ucMWmcAT3V6w7CbBrDnur68Tmd12iGFCphdeGp1Z_D/s1600/UVP+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Rl1vO-nBNiR4XABjn8FOf-470UMLu2rVUH5qlEt5KE2LGUi7xZtycJu0ohTEwlRgARCaKCalVt5bvOUUJGGcW6o0bJuej8qdJ9ucMWmcAT3V6w7CbBrDnur68Tmd12iGFCphdeGp1Z_D/s640/UVP+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>Group shot at Ute Valley Park</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">Sunday morning we got out early for a run at Ute Valley Park, and it was quite a bit more crisp than Saturday. We were meeting friends in Castle Rock for lunch so we got in a nice 7 mile run on the trails and then hit the road. It was also the inaugural run for both of us in these puppies:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7mtEMtWvjNDsnWuxHZXQ04yp1wMtx8dwkD7QO3fLvkpJ0Plns9k_9YbsQhwo64PY6g5IRoFa4TqvGNKVpApxL9cI2mvPcOArWfPV0Luq9DlX-MbltAF7plQ34TUgKbXL-liGT-LqlnwL1/s1600/UVP+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7mtEMtWvjNDsnWuxHZXQ04yp1wMtx8dwkD7QO3fLvkpJ0Plns9k_9YbsQhwo64PY6g5IRoFa4TqvGNKVpApxL9cI2mvPcOArWfPV0Luq9DlX-MbltAF7plQ34TUgKbXL-liGT-LqlnwL1/s640/UVP+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Brooks Pure Grit</i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">So back in time a bit to the big day at the hospital, <a href="http://runwithjill.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Jill</a> showed up wearing the Brooks Pure Flow shoes. We were intrigued and of course GRILLED her about them. Her new race team is sponsored partially by Brooks, so she also was privy to the Pure Grit and encouraged us to check them out. We did. And then we bought them :) I felt so good running in them, that I took another jaunt at Ute when we got home later in the afternoon. First shoe since the Masochist that I can cinch down and run without having some foot discomfort. After some miles in them, watch for a review here. Happy Trails!</div></div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-45025145789695965102012-02-16T22:24:00.006-07:002012-02-20T16:49:08.174-07:00Nuked...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNrfHuwOaMlxGE_1XC6G05F8SVvEl6NgYk8sbEAxvdD0H_TwbGlQXKiwnOY9UIoa_VlTk7EAi3MPQc4-GWiWTdhvXP2j9dw5upe4lgdA5y36_nGrzpUe9fs3B-2wQuODMk0cb5Y1Omc3El/s1600/Nuked+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNrfHuwOaMlxGE_1XC6G05F8SVvEl6NgYk8sbEAxvdD0H_TwbGlQXKiwnOY9UIoa_VlTk7EAi3MPQc4-GWiWTdhvXP2j9dw5upe4lgdA5y36_nGrzpUe9fs3B-2wQuODMk0cb5Y1Omc3El/s640/Nuked+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>UCH -</i> <span style="font-style: italic;">Anschutz Outpatient Pavilion</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE7yWDPvAHxZlxqe8K5X5gkwTASpBecPwGxAk5DWqodQXOfAi0NBsdMIz7ljrjkpuQnMsku_QcGKiMP860UvbNl_ikFMZXgIXwlRscQJb24h05O0KhLkpZam6LHqBdIUDfiudY2maV5Tdr/s1600/Nuked+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE7yWDPvAHxZlxqe8K5X5gkwTASpBecPwGxAk5DWqodQXOfAi0NBsdMIz7ljrjkpuQnMsku_QcGKiMP860UvbNl_ikFMZXgIXwlRscQJb24h05O0KhLkpZam6LHqBdIUDfiudY2maV5Tdr/s640/Nuked+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>UCH - Main</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ2YMb1BimlHv6KPAC2U8lCQLJqHk9JO-U9hpucW4n8V_8Yv_hovTECQFYARp8BC5lLUJvqxtGL7Ujlt19md4emAAk2exxBJ3aozTEjuwOHmPUuqDpdC80p4PU4oHd-QyHwADf60XfR3Sa/s1600/Nuked+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ2YMb1BimlHv6KPAC2U8lCQLJqHk9JO-U9hpucW4n8V_8Yv_hovTECQFYARp8BC5lLUJvqxtGL7Ujlt19md4emAAk2exxBJ3aozTEjuwOHmPUuqDpdC80p4PU4oHd-QyHwADf60XfR3Sa/s640/Nuked+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>The view from the endocrinology department - showing a mere fraction of the buildings on the enormous campus</i><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP16UJ8JGbaix7i5NjxkrhHrxT9sTq1QG0kaKalEIGPDieU79QloCWMDTG_Pr0RRPFnoq_4xxOL93EUn7rCyXX9E_xeEbx6IdWtuZlZ4kPMV_45zqBhQHolrBCBGn4aTuu59Lev-82YQ22/s1600/Nuked+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP16UJ8JGbaix7i5NjxkrhHrxT9sTq1QG0kaKalEIGPDieU79QloCWMDTG_Pr0RRPFnoq_4xxOL93EUn7rCyXX9E_xeEbx6IdWtuZlZ4kPMV_45zqBhQHolrBCBGn4aTuu59Lev-82YQ22/s640/Nuked+4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><i> Souvenir container</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZrWS5ExvmSb9LFbpdc5AaYR7Ucy2eATs7ghQLx91VTukLZ4zekyD-gFBIBjkyrIc5IXYKA6mfBcG1sdyCfRuUn5MqPzRm8p21nXBQUJY94wAipELy1-xJsxDDVY9ybVlPcWAQgvdSHIoa/s1600/Nuked+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">For the last couple months, as you may have noticed, there has been diminished evidence of Happy Trailing in these parts. Kathleen's overall health had been slowly fading over the last quarter of 2011, most likely a combination of the Graves Disease and the cumulative effect of the anti-thyroid drugs she was taking for the past year. Since early December, we have been consulting with specialists at University of Colorado Hospital in Denver (this is a huge hospital - almost a small city in itself) to look at options for a more permanent treatment for Graves. It had become apparent that the AT meds were not going to provide a shot at any period of remission for Kathleen like we had originally hoped for. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">While there is no cure for the auto-immune component of the disease, disabling the majority of the thyroid's functionality can provide a huge relief in the symptomatic effects of Graves, since the thyroid is the main target of the antibodies. Most often, unless there are extenuating circumstances, the chosen method for diminishing thyroid function is through the use of radioactive iodine (I-131 for you physicists out there). The iodine is taken up by the thyroid, then over the course of 3 to 6 weeks, a large portion of the thyroid dies and the overall function of the organ is greatly decreased. Once this occurs, most patients require synthetic hormone replacement therapy, which is a simple pill taken daily. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">So today we started the day early at UCH with blood drawings, then several tests leading up to some pictures and scans of the thyroid. The docs then determined the ideal dosage for Kathleen, ordered a custom pill from the nuclear pharmacy (do you know where your neighborhood nuclear pharmacist is???), and at 5:15 pm she swallowed a pill that we hope will be the start of getting the major hassle of this disease behind us. Since it takes a while for all this to occur, it is still a waiting game, but at least now we have some better sense of direction. If everything comes to fruition, summer may be the start of Kathleen feeling normal again...for the first time in a long while. We're hopeful...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIf5RVcPQCn8qxqSQE23vAtoFlW5eGgrOZmeZdqazx8SElvL5dTtbxwbdAp0kia9l4YEHpuAzBG5G-M4IGhbcgqxdDBeGWzhUvA2HIcS3C7TFzMHDjqC_KOQkj42XMx4y8nZsnkysHr9wO/s1600/Kathleen_Jill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIf5RVcPQCn8qxqSQE23vAtoFlW5eGgrOZmeZdqazx8SElvL5dTtbxwbdAp0kia9l4YEHpuAzBG5G-M4IGhbcgqxdDBeGWzhUvA2HIcS3C7TFzMHDjqC_KOQkj42XMx4y8nZsnkysHr9wO/s640/Kathleen_Jill.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Jill helped brighten the day!!!</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">It helped Kathleen out a <u>bunch</u> having a mid-day visit from <a href="http://runwithjill.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Jill</a>, who drove way out of her way to the 'not so hot' part of town to hang out and have coffee (& tea) with us. By the middle of the day, the anxiety was building a bit on Kathleen so being able to relax and muse about getting back to running hard was a great way to break that tension - it was a huge lift! Thanks Jill!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">So, over the next few months, there may be some longer periods of down time on the blog, not because of inactivity, but more because of the need to get back to normal - been a while, so we might not recognize it at first! Don't worry, we're not going anywhere! Happy Trails...on the comeback trail soon!</div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293265991702240213.post-11833642148769903222012-02-15T09:12:00.000-07:002012-02-15T09:12:03.919-07:00You never know what you'll get in the Rockies!Saturday morning, we woke to snow and temperatures hovering around 10 degrees, with a wind chill subzero. It was snowing lightly, as it would all day long, so we decided against more sane judgment to head out for a run at Ute Valley. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8y86l_J-XSEiMtG46a33T4T6cWSOx7M0PCzJDGbHUCGTDMYvuZ-rEk1xlrQ2TI6jiz1iazBZUmyROUUAR-fKM0cMgDhwBcywQ1F140a0I25kbXjaJ1EHwtK9kmnKdSdvQgciNN5w9n02G/s1600/UteVly+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8y86l_J-XSEiMtG46a33T4T6cWSOx7M0PCzJDGbHUCGTDMYvuZ-rEk1xlrQ2TI6jiz1iazBZUmyROUUAR-fKM0cMgDhwBcywQ1F140a0I25kbXjaJ1EHwtK9kmnKdSdvQgciNN5w9n02G/s640/UteVly+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>Kathleen runs up from the arch</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN2Nh2STnVxfraev5ZB8iLk2DcRaKi4Y6saFgbD4XneX15UW06LyXNRSRWR09qgS-t5v-BKNYJBdGibJ5_Br8U5h865lOd9GgCTLOFnx3qr852JM_12nMlzAj30oUIqWnw-Twx67tLT17g/s1600/UteVly+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN2Nh2STnVxfraev5ZB8iLk2DcRaKi4Y6saFgbD4XneX15UW06LyXNRSRWR09qgS-t5v-BKNYJBdGibJ5_Br8U5h865lOd9GgCTLOFnx3qr852JM_12nMlzAj30oUIqWnw-Twx67tLT17g/s640/UteVly+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>Quiet forest</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvJ_j5eWx9ij9n9LWgjTrCO4IUc2dGBOJPpqbGyzYPKPvXOEmftGypE2Q5kRIUufZzb8ACTB5JLaOMm-hBR5hsXMpUjYIS_bn6tua_5q3L9hKMp4Qio4HMCxdG-tX8jLXpBEnpaGm-kfOd/s1600/UteVly+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvJ_j5eWx9ij9n9LWgjTrCO4IUc2dGBOJPpqbGyzYPKPvXOEmftGypE2Q5kRIUufZzb8ACTB5JLaOMm-hBR5hsXMpUjYIS_bn6tua_5q3L9hKMp4Qio4HMCxdG-tX8jLXpBEnpaGm-kfOd/s640/UteVly+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>Top entrance to Ute Valley</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm_p9_St3ELc6NvzX8FeK1WLsNjlrJMCWFWCuzGpv0oau47GnXrkj4w4fJlHjpb1wwna74VFjY4Wn1kyAm0GHUy7k4MdqiFNpAE9UW1fCcIiIbmgLzZOlKhnXj6qAzxccYk7_05poDkl0J/s1600/UteVly+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm_p9_St3ELc6NvzX8FeK1WLsNjlrJMCWFWCuzGpv0oau47GnXrkj4w4fJlHjpb1wwna74VFjY4Wn1kyAm0GHUy7k4MdqiFNpAE9UW1fCcIiIbmgLzZOlKhnXj6qAzxccYk7_05poDkl0J/s640/UteVly+4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-style: italic;">Peaceful running</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitjRktTQqNAfLUf7KUzUZfBRIglFCOnERom9R3ipC99sVWZa7VrQ0ZM_vLX9jSvvJNuHt1tIp3lDXY0vUgLd03uY2urxeZElbafczF8ziak99oR18Xq7AUN_dVdHbj9K_Lpcwy4tN_blz6/s1600/UteVly+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitjRktTQqNAfLUf7KUzUZfBRIglFCOnERom9R3ipC99sVWZa7VrQ0ZM_vLX9jSvvJNuHt1tIp3lDXY0vUgLd03uY2urxeZElbafczF8ziak99oR18Xq7AUN_dVdHbj9K_Lpcwy4tN_blz6/s640/UteVly+5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Heading out - looking over the west rim</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">We got our 10 miles in, then got back inside to stay warm the rest of the day. Good run, but not hoping for many more at those temps!!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i> </i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i> </i></div><div style="text-align: left;">Now go back 1 week, and we had blue skies, 40 degree temps, and a great run in the Garden - weather jaackpot is looney around here lately!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBb8EZ-JrGmDn2D2SXiFXmwuZos7manHekceTazdtkQ9PvHGxzOntjiFWeL4ToiezmkgL9ZVHspmoIDlBcs14fk3ZNZ352sOS8g-VBpsGlHw5nXjSqrjbzzkXhLt9k9wdSCbW9IOmxUv6N/s1600/GG+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBb8EZ-JrGmDn2D2SXiFXmwuZos7manHekceTazdtkQ9PvHGxzOntjiFWeL4ToiezmkgL9ZVHspmoIDlBcs14fk3ZNZ352sOS8g-VBpsGlHw5nXjSqrjbzzkXhLt9k9wdSCbW9IOmxUv6N/s640/GG+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>Say oooh, aaaah....</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCba2zMSpWDJaGOafaBbTZHPq0ZuOFMhduiDl4PDS0zkJkk5NrgwCTMBd5YmEI57XE-lJ_lifuXfONowtHiLZjkE7q_2rE0UxjmJWDE-oZGl_6oHpi4fDP_GyeNoHbqVTbBEochj9Jgc7o/s1600/GG+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCba2zMSpWDJaGOafaBbTZHPq0ZuOFMhduiDl4PDS0zkJkk5NrgwCTMBd5YmEI57XE-lJ_lifuXfONowtHiLZjkE7q_2rE0UxjmJWDE-oZGl_6oHpi4fDP_GyeNoHbqVTbBEochj9Jgc7o/s640/GG+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>Top of the ridge above Rampart Range Road</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhleWxVnuxyXSbWNkT2uw-F1YXk6bx97-8YB-MwFqxtkwWH9egsic57aSObMpzQtlh_8st0vVsz_5ulZ7TUrcrtkgDMCDIGwPS-6mmYAVl_7d8ull3hqkNXg4eCVjRA23zIam2RoB54LDee/s1600/GG+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhleWxVnuxyXSbWNkT2uw-F1YXk6bx97-8YB-MwFqxtkwWH9egsic57aSObMpzQtlh_8st0vVsz_5ulZ7TUrcrtkgDMCDIGwPS-6mmYAVl_7d8ull3hqkNXg4eCVjRA23zIam2RoB54LDee/s640/GG+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>Ridge Trail</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitY-sBBKN3-mUqxJAsBr-AzCH4ipKCMM7S874Ja45foNGhN2tOGzpt1HzOCi823jvJKxOiAkQ_HE_J56P4eBaAApPjzA8CjcnmyqUfQhgpq_dY6qHXxw587Q8kdUmZ62BX0O5tE2D5AMj1/s1600/GG+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitY-sBBKN3-mUqxJAsBr-AzCH4ipKCMM7S874Ja45foNGhN2tOGzpt1HzOCi823jvJKxOiAkQ_HE_J56P4eBaAApPjzA8CjcnmyqUfQhgpq_dY6qHXxw587Q8kdUmZ62BX0O5tE2D5AMj1/s640/GG+4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i>Kathleen on Rampart Range</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrzsSov8WYTkn3yDGJji7wbhP4Pd6Z2OdPqG_KXWW5PWt1wSCXsc3cHqhPFIou34DhBhc3XspCgAyyGyC0KQNTr6wHhcfmHyFvM57g-wqS25VLyAY83lfjjKhYazacTE0irGh5jeNsv_1g/s1600/GG+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrzsSov8WYTkn3yDGJji7wbhP4Pd6Z2OdPqG_KXWW5PWt1wSCXsc3cHqhPFIou34DhBhc3XspCgAyyGyC0KQNTr6wHhcfmHyFvM57g-wqS25VLyAY83lfjjKhYazacTE0irGh5jeNsv_1g/s640/GG+5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Nothing like the Garden on a blue sky day!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Not bad for a 12 mile run in the middle of winter. We will certainly take this over the recent alternative even though we desperately need the snow! Just thought we'd throw up some quick pics so everyone knows we're alive!!! Happpy Trails!<i> </i></div>HappyTrailshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17651141743444721517noreply@blogger.com9