Happy Trails

Flying Solo on Falcon Trail

2012-01-22T16:53:00.001-07:00

With all the crazy restrictions and the all-too-confusing DEFCON color coordinated alert scales used at the local military installations, it has been a LONG time since we have been on the Falcon Trail. I heard from a trustworthy source that Falcon was in good shape AND had a green light for civi's. With Kathleen having caught the crud from a coworker, I decided to tackle the long route on Saturday since it is so close to home. Normally we would park at the stadium trailhead and run this as a loop, but for some reason I had it in to run in from the horse trails up on Blodgett, run the loop, and then CLIMB back out to finish. It would be a good test of the winter fitness and the ice-induced hip strain I have been nursing.

Over the ridge from Blodgett, the USAFA in the distance

Starting from this area, there is about a 2 mile drop in on a variety of dirt roads and horse trails to link up with the Falcon Trail. Given our bizarre winter to date, there were rare patches of snow and almost no mud. It was gray and cool at the start but forecast was for some sun and upper 50's so I was optimistic that the finish would be much warmer.

Finally on Falcon - nice luge trail through the rocks

Nice views along the creek

That cave could be emergency shelter in a storm!

Center of campus - Chapel on the skyline

Circa 1860's - not sure if it is the "original" glass, though!

It was indeed good conditions on the trail. The back side was completely dry and I encountered no ice until dropping out of the Stanley Canyon trailhead to the northeast. Down from there to the road there were a couple sketchy spots that required some mindful attention. With the temperature in the mid 40's, there was just enough of a slimy surface on the ice to make it snot slick. I have been enjoying the consolidated snow traction on the Saucony Peregrine, but it is definitely NOT an ice shoe (not many are...). I traded places quite a few times with guys on bikes - passing on the climbs, getting passed on the descents. it was such a great day to be out and the forecast high winds we have endured lately took the day off. So it was definitely a good day to be out on the bike - a couple guys made mention that they left early to beat the wind but were wishing they would have started an hour later for warmer temps!!

I fatigued noticeably by the time I climbed the ridge above the golf course on the north side of the Academy. This is, after all, January and I have not been maintaining the mileage I did in the fall. I made a conscious effort to ignore the Garmin as I knew at that point I still had 7 or 8 miles to go. Running out the long meadow below the BX, I passed two cyclists that I had traded spots with 4 times. They had laid their bikes in the grass and stood beside the trail with their thumbs out as I went by. I got a good laugh and they shouted encouraging words since they were almost done with their loop! On the trail above the BX, I caught wind of Burger King. Now I am not a fast foodie, but why after almost 15 miles does that smell SO GOOD??? I contemplated the emergency cash stash in my Nathan pack and thought about sauntering in to the BK and getting a Whopper, Animal Style, if you know what that is ;-) Gotta stay clear of the bread, you know??? But alas, with a 2 mile climb out of the Academy staring me in the face, that thought was fleeting...

Exit gate - depart from the Falcon Trail and head UP

Blodgett Peak

The next trail beta I need to work out is a route that starts at Blodgett Peak Open Space and gains access to the horse trails I dropped in on today. That would certainly put this run well over 20 miles and make for a good mid-summer long run bonanza. I am thinking this might involve connecting to the West Monument Creek Trail, which drops in the "V" on the right side of the photo. This gets sticky as Colorado Springs Utilities parked a water treatment plant on the creek and "interrupted" access to the trail. However, there are people who know ways around such things. :)

AFA water treatment facility on the hill to the left,

and one of their reservoirs below right

Can't stand still long - still have to climb out over that ridge

Back over on our side of town - looking over Mt St Francis,

home of The Sisters of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration

As you can see, I made it out alive! 17 miles with just under 2600' climb. That was a long run for me at this time of year, however, I enjoyed the test of fitness and found out that I still have a good base. If you are in this area, get out and run the trail - it is not often in January that Falcon is this free of snow and ice. And you never know when they might close access again... Happy Trails

Shoes - Saucony Peregrine

Happy Trails in January

2012-01-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

It is January, right? I thought I might check into it since the normal weather cues that usually tip one off to the presence of WINTER are by and large missing in action in these parts of Colorado. Other than a few decent storms that have left us some seriously icy trails up on the western areas of town, it has been downright balmy. As any good trail runner would do in this scenario, we have to take advantage of the conditions - sort of that 'Make Hay while the Sun Shines' mentality!!

As had been ever so briefly mentioned in the previous monologue, a slight issue flared up on the measly 6 miler at Bear Creek Lake which I have had to baby a bit the last few runs. With that, and the aforementioned icy trails west and up the side of yonder hills, we regretfully passed on the Ponderous Posterior 2012 edition. It is a great mid-winter, get out and socialize, and mingle with trail luminaries (such as JT) but the thought of spending the entire spring nursing hip/groin issues due to a silly ice incident made the decision easy.

Saturday was a VERY nice day and we used the sunshine and warm temps to get in a nice flat tempo run on the Santa Fe Trail. We worked ourselves pretty hard but are enjoying the continued attention to maintaining a bit of speed. We also met some new trail running folks while we were out that have been at some of the same races we have - always nice to have some familiar faces to pass while out doing what we love!

When we woke today to brilliant gray skies, I must say we were less than enthusiastic about getting the motor running and hitting the trails. Seriously now, gray sky and 50 degrees in January, in Colorado no less, is worthy of a bit of sour puss, right??? We decided to head over to Palmer Park again as we had thoroughly enjoyed our run there back in the start of December. It was readily apparent from our first miles that the gray skies had been no deterrent to the throng of other trail users - it was game on! Mountain bikers, trail runners, hikers, a bazillion dogs - everyone was jockeying for their piece of the outdoor space with the 50 plus degree weather.

While we both felt less than stellar (even talked about driving back home :-o ) taking the first steps from the trailhead, we gave it the "couple mile" grace period before passing judgement on the legs and are glad we did. Despite the lack of dopamine generated by the gloomy skies, we warmed up nicely and got into a nice mellow rhythm, enjoying the trails, chatting with other trail users and their pups, and soaking up a pleasant vibe from the pure delight of running sweet trails - ever have that transcendent feeling on your runs? I must say, Jim's post from earlier in the week replayed in my head a time or two and brought a smile to my face as we tread across the technical terrain at Palmer Park.

I even gave the Cascadia's a shot at a redemption run today. While they have spectacular ice traction, they do irritate my toes a fair amount and Brooks was far less than helpful when I contacted them after the Barr Trail disaster in them. I doubt I will wear this beast many more times and will most likely send it's slightly used carcass on to a worthy cause for "re-issue". Worse things happen I suppose. All told, it ended up being a really nice run and we enjoyed the day, even though we had contemplated bagging the run before it ever started. Sometimes you just have to give the mind a chance to "warm up", along with the legs and lungs. Once engaged, it turned out to be a great day to run after all!

12 miles

Shoes - K Nike Lunarfly Trail

S Brooks Cascadia

Enjoy some pics from the day:

Kathleen getting things rolling

Surveying the landscape from Grandview Overlook - note Garden of the Gods in the distance

Cruising below the Grandview mesa

Perspective is everything...

This was only two feet to the left of where the above photo was snapped.
Yeah... photography geek moment there...

Enjoying the sandstone singletrack

The pink really stands out on a gray day!!!

Running the sweet cliffside on Kinnickinick Trail

Heading out - just about done for the day

Parting shot - Happy Trails!

A Funk-y PR

2012-01-12T22:32:00.001-07:00

Wow - has it really been 32 days since a key was tapped on this domain??? As a matter of fact, it has and it marks the longest period of inactivity here since we started this blog in 2008. So what in the world is going on?...

Generally and for the most part, business as usual. Still running, though at times not nearly as much. And some good runs - we have photos to prove it Fairly healthy, though challenged as it has been the whole last year. Then the holidays were mixed in there. My (Steve) folks were out for 10 days, and as always is the case with them, they ran us ragged - 24/7 motion for them at 69 & 66 yrs old! But it was a great visit as always.

Closed out the old year with 1440 miles run, another 350 or so on the bike, along with some XC ski and snowshoe outings and it was a pretty good 2011. Fulfilled my obligation to race at least once in the calendar year, so I got that monkey off my back. A good overall year on the feet. Hoping for more of the same this year, but wishing to combine it with much better health for the better half of HT (and more company from her on some long runs!!).

So here's some flashbacks from the previous 768 hours - enjoy:

Kathleen enjoying 60 degree temps at Cheyennne Mtn in December??

The joy of Winter running

Great day on the trails

Cheyenne Mtn State Park run - 14.5 miles, awesome day and we finished at 62 degrees!!

Christmas Eve - a little different story

The Garden in dress whites

After 11 inches of snow at our place on the 23rd, our Christmas Eve run was mostly bike path and multi-use trails. Nice 11 miler!

A New Venue

Arkansas Riverwalk Trail - Canon City, CO - notice the ice floating down stream

Bridge near the end of the trail

Royal Gorge Route train depot

Plenty of ice on the river

We had to make a quick trip to Canon City the day after Christmas, so we brought some shoes and took a quick run on the Arkansas Riverwalk trail before heading home. Nice little 6 mile diversion that we squeezed in to a short time window we had available - nothing spectacular as far as trail goes, just a totally new venue for us! It was also in the upper 50's again.

COLD RETURNS

Bear creek Lake Park - cold and super windy!!!

50 mph wind gusts and they're out ice fishing???

Small inlet at the lake

New Year's Eve (23rd Anniversary, if you are counting!!!) we had to make a trip up to Morrison, so we planned to shoe horn a run in at Bear Creek Lake Park while we were in the area. It was 48 at 8 am when we left home. By the time we hit Morrison, it was 31, spitting snow, and howling wind. Problem was, we were dressed for 48.... We made the 6 mile Mt Carbon Loop and called it a day - we had to get in the car and head back to Colorado Springs!! Lots of ice and big, frozen post-hole tracks in the trail on the north side of the creek. Strained an old nagging groin injury that has been gone for more than a year - might keep me off the ice/snowpack trails for a while. We saw two semis blown over on their sides on C-470 on our way out of Denver - sheesh!

Very cold early with some inversion - must have been "warm" on the peak!!

Pikes, majestic as always

Kathleen runs past the Siamese Twins

Cabin Canyon Trail

Niobrara Trail with stunning views!

This past Sunday we ran the Garden - ah, familiar trails and favorite places!! It was fairly cold but manageable and there was barely any snow to be found, with just a few testy ice patches here and there in the shade and north facing trails. After a double on Saturday for me, I was not sure what to expect. I ran from home and met Kathleen at the Garden. We had a great day and enjoyed the bright sunshine, ending up with 15 miles and maybe a little spark returning to the runs.

Happy Trails!

Palmer Park Run (What a Difference a Week Makes...)

2011-12-11T21:18:00.002-07:00

Previously...

So back up a week and gather some background on why there was no posting here. It was butt cold. I was too frozen to type. Last Saturday, I had quite possibly the coldest experience ever on a run. I finished with the wool undershirt I was wearing frozen (as in sheet of ice) from my chest to my waist. Hands frozen too. Almost called a cab to get home. Thought about changing the blog to Unhappy Trails. Sunday was not much better, so we headed over to Ute Valley Park hoping to avoid the bone chilling wind. We had some snow, but for the most part have missed out on what the Northern Regions received (Denver, Boulder, Ft Collins). So with the mercury at 20 and wind chill temporarily above 10, we headed over to Ute.

Kathleen drops in off the west ridge

Tried to stay down in the valley and out of the wind

Weather moving in fast and we're headed home!

While we mostly avoided the wind, we did not outsmart the cold. At 7.5 miles, we threw in the towel, cried Uncle, whatever you want to call it. Judging by the peace and tranquility on the trails, most (sane) folks hopped on a treadmill in a warm room somewhere. A venti Italian Roast at Starbucks at least made a segue into warming me up post-run.

Shoes - K Nike LunarFly Trail

S -Nike Pegasus

Now for the good stuff!

Sweet, technical, DRY trails beckoning us

Today, under vastly different conditions, we headed over to Palmer Park to get in some great trails. This used to be our summer post-work run. However, rampant riff-raff and various seedy issues have caused us to avoid evening visits to this park. Sad how "that" element of society can dictate public use of such an awesome park but it is what it is. With an inviting cerulean sky and beautiful trails awaiting we took off on what we hoped to be a great run.

Kathleen gets things rolling early on the run

Doesn't look like we're right in the middle of the city?

Palmer Park is one of those rare gems - a rustic, mostly undeveloped park with unbelievable trails that is right in the middle of the city. Land locked in between neighborhoods and heavy traffic, this jewel has awesome trails and great rock formations. Many of the trails are on the techy side, so there are a lot of hardcore mountain bikers that frequent the trails here as well.

Unlimited views

Some snow hanging on the northern trails

Kathleen rocks the final , sunny descent

As we had hoped, the weather was fantastic and the 40's felt like summer after last weekend. We were able to get in 12 miles on some premiere trails and absolutely enjoyed our run. Days like this in December are special and we often squeeze out of them the maximum we can for the day because it could be zero next weekend. But it wasn't today, life is good!

Happy Trails this week!

Shoes - K Nike LunarFly Trail

S - Saucony Peregrine

Mid-Week Special

Unbreakable: The Western States 100

Wednesday evening, we had tickets to see a screening of "Unbreakable" to benefit Friends of the Incline. Great cause, and a good reason to get out and see a well done documentary covering the 2010 Western States 100 race. If you get the chance to see a screening of it in your area, we would highly recommend it. It is being released on DVD next week as well - link to the website from the caption under the video. After the film, we were privileged to have these two guys spend a little time doing QnA - good times:

Geoff Roes and Tony Krupicka (in case you didn't recognize them...)

Good Tempo Run (and some reading material)

2011-11-27T19:58:00.007-07:00

It started out cold this morning, but warmed nicely into the 40's by the time we were running. We headed out for a tempo run on the Santa Fe Trail (postponed from yesterday), and judging by how the legs felt, the bike intervals tuned them up pretty well! I wasn't sure what to expect, but the turnover felt really good out of the box and I settled in to a nice steady pace. The section of Santa Fe Trail we normally use for these runs heads north from Woodmen Road onto the US Air Force Academy. It is a gradual climb out, but somewhat "rolling up" with a couple hills out past the 4 mile mark. So the inbound trip is generally "rolling descent" which makes for a good setup to negative split the return...usually. Today was a challenge as I turned around at the 5 mile out mark, there was a pleasant headwind (sarcastic italics applied...). Anyway, the run was good and there were lots of people out after the COLD yesterday (guess I should not have been gloating on the 67 degrees Thursday...). Pushed pretty good on the out and then fought hard to negative split the return trip with the wind. Ended up having my best pace for this 10 mile section at 7:21/mi. Here are the splits:

Mile 1 ~ 7:39

Mile 2 ~ 7:13

Mile 3 ~ 7:33

Mile 4 ~ 7:32

Mile 5 ~ 7:49

Mile 6 ~ 7:28

Mile 7 ~ 7:16

Mile 8 ~ 7:10

Mile 9 ~ 7:05

Mile 10 ~ 6:56

Good day out there - sorry, no photo taking when trying not to cough out a lung ;-) Will most likely try to continue these as much as possible over the winter as they have certainly ramped up the fitness and improved our overall running! Kathleen had a decent day - not where she should or wants to be at just over an even 8 average but OK considering she is coming out of a serious funk cycle with the Graves - that roller coaster is getting old, but a post for another time will address those issues :)

Shoes - K Nike Lunarfly Trail
S Saucony Kinvara

*****************************

I don't often throw out what is on the reading docket but, in the vein of improved overall health, this is the current read, (thanks to ultra runner, Matt Hart, for the recommendation):

Now, this is potentially dangerous reading for me since my brother in law (and his dad and brother) are king sized wheat farmers. Ouch. I would certainly hate to be disowned by part of Kathleen's family. However, there is some important background info you need to know, just so you don't think I am out on a limb. Kathleen was having some intestinal distress about 18 months ago (which knowing what we know now may have been partially related to early onset of the Graves) and dietary experimentation ensued - starting with cutting many wheat and gluten products from the diet. Needless to say, this affected my diet as well (voluntary, mind you) but not nearly to the extent of hers. There have been several noticeable changes that have resulted from the "gluten-light" diet we adopted. Aside from the improved intestinal tract health for Kathleen, something unexpected occurred for both of us. When Kathleen's blood panel was done for Graves in February, her total cholesterol was down 60 points. Since we have always considered her high-normal level as family linked, we initially thought this drop may have been a side effect of the disease. But, when I had my annual physical done recently, my total was down 34 points. Hmmm, head scratcher? The other significant change for me is that I am carrying 7 to 9 pounds less on average, maintaining a weight I have not seen in over a decade yet gaining on my fitness and strength. More head scratching... Now, I am certainly not advocating that everyone drastically changes their diet - we had reasons for it that were our personal choice for experimentation. However, if you decide to pick up this book and start reading Dr Davis' pages, don't blame me for what might happen. The documentation he provides is staggering. You might just find yourself thinking about doing this:

Bye, bye wheat....

********************************

Last, but not least, more Christmas goods for you. One of our old faves, David Crowder Band, has been performing this on their farewell tour - their rendition of Christmas Eve-Sarajevo (Carol of the Bells), ala TSO. There is some talking at the start - music begins at 1:14 in - Enjoy:

A Saturday Bike....

2011-11-26T20:01:00.008-07:00

We awoke to lovely blue skies this fine Saturday morning.... lovely blue skies, ferocious winds, and a crisp wind chill of 11. For those of you who have dogs - have you ever opened the back door for your dog to go "out" on a cold morning, have the critter poke its head out the door, figuratively say 'I don't think so', put it in frantic 'reverse' and hightail back into the house because it didn't want to venture out into the cold? Well that was the case for Happy Trails this morning (ahem, not the part of needing to go 'out', if you know what I mean). We were dressed, ready to head over to the trail for our weekend tempo run, despite watching the trees bending over from the gusty wind, opened the door to go out, had that bitter wind hit our faces and put it in immediate reverse back into the cozy, warm confines of the house.

Hmmm, what to do. We need our 'scheduled' faster paced run in for the week (that's about as structured as we get). So, being the 'bad', not-so-tough-as nails duo that we are, we changed from running attire to BIKING
attire. We decided not to run in the cold but ride instead. Yes, RIDE. While it was gale force windy out. While it was 'we're not ready for the cold' cold out. Yes, we rode. Indoors. On the trainers. In a warm, cozy house (with some artificial wind - a fan blowing on us - to make us think we were really outside, sort of). Threw in a Carmichael Training video - Climbing Speed - and proceeded to sweat profusely by doing repeats of Over and Under climbing threshold intervals. It was all good. We got a great workout in despite missing our tempo day. Tomorrow we are hoping to redeem ourselves with a LONG run....

The cardinal rule in the HT household has been "No Christmas music until December 1". I (Kathleen - and yes, I finally did a post) am bad all the way around lately - no run today AND starting Christmas music overload way early. Oh yeah, adding to my string of badness - I just made a batch of gluten free butter cookies with Nutella sandwiched in between. We are hoping to post a Christmas playlist with some of our faves but have had trouble getting a full list to download. So here's one good song to start you off.

Happy Trails!

Enjoy "The Christmas Song" by Michael Tait

Summer returns on Thanksgiving Day!

2011-11-24T21:19:00.003-07:00

Just realized this is only the third post on this page in November - where has the time gone??? Of course for some, that may be reason to give thanks :) In all seriousness, today we stop to be thankful for what we have in life. For us, this is ongoing through the year, not just on this one day, and any attempt to make a list of what we give thanks for would fill the pages of many blogs. For too many, it is just the holiday we have to "get through" to make it to Christmas - their loss in my opinion...

On a smaller note, one of the endless list of things we are thankful for is the ability to get out and run fabulous trails within close proximity to home. In lieu of the ubiquitous Turkey Trot, we opted to take full advantage of the unbelievable weather and go for a great trail run. With sun and temps in the mid 50's before we even started, it was startling to think that it is almost the end of November. We headed over this morning to Red Rock Canyon Open Space to get rolling.

Early stop on Roundup trail for a HT group shot

We had the unique position this year to be footloose and fancy free for Thanksgiving day. Last year we had the privilege to have Kathleen's sister and family out to visit from Oregon, and we normally spend it with my sister's family who lives here. However, our niece is engaged and now there are "obligations" to the future in-laws for them. So they had to travel north, leaving us to do as we would with our entire day! So with fresh legs under us and no schedule, we decided to do a tough run by looping through Red Rock Canyon, linking to Section 16 via the Intemann Trail, rolling the S16 loop, then coming back through RRC. So we were off...

Kathleen on the Intemann Trail

View from the Intemann link to Section 16

After climbing to the top rim in Red Rock, we connected over on the Intemann to Section 16 trail. Here, the climbing really gets after it. In 1.3 miles, you climb 1200 feet which leaves you somewhat breathless and tired, but it is worth it. The reward is about 3.5 miles of flowing descent, steep at times, but manageable and FUN!

Almost to the top of the climb on Section 16

We were surprised once we got down the trail and dropped onto High Drive at the amount of ice already packed in for the season. With no sun during the day, this will keep until late spring and made for a few spots of tricky footing. Definitely not ready for traction aids with the kind of weather we've been enjoying. No slips or falls, though, so that was all good and we popped out to Gold Camp Road and started the short climb back up into S16 to find our way over to Intemann again.

Back up high on S16 - looking down at Red Rock Canyon sprawled out below

Catching some good rays on S16 - awesome day!

It does not get much better in November

The old rock quarry - we're headed through that notch

Close up on the Quarry Pass Trail

We dropped back down into RRC and decided to do a trail we have rarely been on. Quarry Pass Trail climbs up and through the square notch in the rocks, then drops out on the other side and continue on through another hillside before joining the Mesa Trail. The legs were tired from the hard climb and long descent, but we couldn't leave without enjoying a little more trail and soaking up a bit more of the rays!

Parting shot - looking down at the old reservoir from Quarry Pass Trail

We finished out with 11.5 miles and a cool 3000' of climbing, but with that terrain it seems you cover more ground. Great day out there altogether and we finished with the mercury touching 67 degrees - how sweet is that??? Looking forward to some more good running in the next few days, so watch for a few more pics to show up this week. Happy Thanksgiving!

Shoes - K Nike LunarFly Trail

S Nike Pegasus

BTW, Kathleen broke the cardinal rule of Thanksgiving day in the HT household and started listening to Christmas music already! The shame....

If you also want to start early, check out Mac Powell's distinctive vocals with Third Day - one of our faves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKX3eyYuJ9c

Blown away, bruised toes, and such....

2011-11-12T18:28:00.002-07:00

There was a high wind warning in effect for our area that started posting yesterday for the entire day today. Now, when you live in (or even near) the mountains, weather reports, predictions, dire warnings, etc. are always taken with a grain of salt. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. Well, let's just say they weren't joking. It was not freezing cold this morning, however, it was 20 - 30mph winds with gusts to 50mph. Sweet. I love wind. And sarcasm. I waited for a bit to see if it would die down. As if. I would be running solo, as Kathleen had to do some labs early before work. Now, if you are going to run in sucky wind, it is always "nicer" to have someone suffering with you, right??? OK, off to run and hopefully not be blown away. I dropped in to Ute Valley Park hoping for at least some periods of shelter from the wind gusts.

Theme for the day - see dust cloud coming, turn back to it and squint until it passes!!!

Been a while since I ran here - love these trails and the sights along them!

Walk the Plank!

I took the side spur out toward I25 at the bottom of Ute Valley Park, hoping to stay in the ravine for a bit and out of the wind. This trail seems to be in the middle of nowhere, then out of nowhere you end up looking up at I25. That is the great thing about unimproved parks in the middle of town.

The trail skirts along the ravine on the right - I25 is straight ahead but you wouldn't know

Not sure who put this up in the park boundary?

Storm shelter... or wildlife hostel

I ran through the disc golf course, surprised to see a couple guys out tossing discs in gale force winds! As I rolled past the cave above, which we have run by many times, it came to mind that this would be a great little shelter if some freak weather blitz hits while out on a run. Although, the mountain lion and/or bear that frequently uses it may take issue with the occupancy!

Always have to run past the favorite arch

As always, fabulous.

I had many opportunities to gaze on Pikes Peak during the run. The wind was howling up there, as could be seen by the swirling clouds of snow whipping through the many large bowls on the massive granite slab. I would guess that a run up there today would have been just peachy.... I was not sure what to expect from the day, as I started out the run with the expectation that it may be a short lap, then right back home. I had just enough shelter in Ute that the run went well and I ended up with 10 miles. Basically had the park to myself, as I saw three cyclists (still can't figure that) and a guy walking a couple dogs. That's it. So it turned out pretty good for a day that I could have easily passed on!

Shoes - Nike Pegasus

In the Can't Ever Find the Perfect Shoe department, I had a strange occurrence after our great run to Barr Camp a few weeks back. After feeling pretty stellar throughout that whole run, including the big descent, I got out of the chair late that evening and my left big toe area felt like it had been smashed. Nothing happened on any previous runs, so what gives? No trips, no stubbed toes, nothing. So I remove my sock, and whoa nelly - the whole side of the big toe trunk was purple. I wasn't sure if I sprained it (is that possible?), broke it, or any number of other things that run through your mind when the side of your foot is heinously discolored... I took the whole following week off as a precaution but basically felt fine by Saturday morning. I was set for a long trail run, so I laced up the Cascadias, just as I had on Barr, but felt a strangely familiar pain in the big toe less than a half mile in. So I circled back to the homestead and did a little investigation. When lining up the epicenter of the formerly purpleized area over the shoe, lo and behold it was exactly centered above this point:

Scene of the crime.....

So I am taking a few weeks reprieve from donning said torture device, hoping to not retire an expensive shoe WAY TOO EARLY. We'll see. On the run in question, I swapped over to the Saucony Peregrine and proceeded to run 16 miles on the Garden trails and part of the Ponderous Posterior route without incident, so I am leary. I am interested if anyone else has had this issue with the new Cascadia, since it is the first model year to have the front wedge added to the medial side of the shoe...???? Remains to be seen.

Happy Trails to all - hope to run tomorrow, sans wind, with the lovely Mrs HT!

Friday Sunrise

2011-11-11T07:02:00.000-07:00

I couldn't pass up sharing this awesome sunrise - have a great Friday!

Incline and Barr Camp

2011-10-25T22:01:00.001-06:00

We had thought about trying some new trails up north a ways on Sunday, but decided with the great weather - and the prediction that it would be leaving town - we might rather enjoy the awesome day closer to home and leave the 3 hours in the car for another weekend. So we pulled a random one from the hat and decided to hit the Manitou Incline and then head up to Barr Camp. Some may be shocked by this, but in 20+ years living in the shadow of Pikes Peak, I ~~have~~ had never been to the iconic Barr Camp. In fact, I have never been on the summit of Pikes Peak. Kathleen has done both, but not me. Of course, I have only been on one 14er period, as I have ear troubles that high, but I see this mountain every.day.of.the.year. Given that it was forecast for sunny skies and 70 in town, what better day to see some new turf.

Manitou Incline looks so innocent from far away

Step and Repeat ... approaching the 68% grade and looking up to the false summit

Kathleen summits with Colorado Springs west side sprawling below

As was expected, the Incline was a freeway - lots and lots of 'traffic' to weave through, which is not easy on 3000 railroad ties going straight up. I'll try not to rant, but there were a fair amount of inconsiderate folk out Sunday who did not want to move out of the way, which is very annoying. This was the case coming back down Barr later in the route as well. Let's be honest here - if you are going to be out on the Incline and/or Barr Trail on a weekend, there are going to be lots of folks out. A good handful of them will be runners and fast hikers. If you get your snuff ruffled by having to move aside for traffic to go through, probably not a good place for you. Just a public service announcement.... Anywho, where was I??? So we made our way up the Incline, not pushing to quite our normal extent as we needed to have a good reserve for the continuing climb to Barr Camp.

Kathleen feeling invincible at the top of the Incline!!!

Shooting over the connector trail to Barr

Lots of stellar views of this rock on Sunday!

Happy Trails indeed - not too shabby for a photo backdrop!

Making our way up to Camp

Up here, the leaves were long gone...

Made it to Barr Camp

We hopped onto Barr Trail from the Incline connector and had just under 4 miles to the camp. Along this section, there are a couple stretches which are the "flattest" parts of Barr Trail and made for some nice running. It was shaping up to be a phenomenal day and we were soaking it in, taking tons of pictures, and enjoying the treat that it is to live in the place we call home! It was probably in the low to mid 50's as we approached Barr Camp, but the intensity of the sun at 10,200' made it quite balmy. We sat out on the deck for a bit, refueling and chatting with the gracious caretakers. It was pretty sweet hanging out there and probably won't be the last visit to that deck on a sunny day ..... After fueling up and getting a short rest, it was time for some raging downhill. Aside from several short climbs on the way down, you are looking at 6.5 miles of mostly decline heading back into Manitou Springs. Hang on!

Sunny day and feeling good

Looking out from the W's across to the Garden - awesome!

Back down at the Cog Railway Depot - spectacular fall day!

Our 11.25 mile route - quite the gaudy first mile, eh?

The Incline shaves a bit of mileage off the round trip number, but who is really counting miles on this kind of run? 11.25 miles with accumulated gain and subsequent descent of 4100' made for some tired legs (and sore quads!!) by the time we were done. It was a blast and we had some stellar weather to be out enjoying the lower part of the Pikes Peak Massif.

Shoes - K Nike LunarFly Trail

S Brooks Cascadia

We were not done with our visit to Manitou Springs, however, as it was time to refuel at Coquette's Bistro & Bakery. Check out these plates:

Kathleen went for the Fat Frenchie

And I had the Monte Cristo Crepe - plate was not full for long!

Manitou was hopping on this fantastic fall day

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Monday, Kathleen enjoyed near record temps out on the road bike touring the hills above our neighborhoods. She was once again treated to some awesome views on a 25 mile loop with overlooks such as this:

Not bad views for a Monday ride?

Great day for a walk in the park, too!!

Happy Trails!

Garden's Fall Showcase

2011-10-22T15:41:00.043-06:00

Fall color showing off at Garden of the Gods

Glen Eyrie from far above

Drop in to Rampart Range Road from upper right - to the left is downhill into Glen Eyrie

Looking across Cedar Heights from RRR - majestic Pikes Peak looks grand as always

Rampart Range Road with Mt. Rosa - some aspens still golden in the forest up there

Labyrinth of trails in the Garden

Sleeping Giant and Cathedral Rock

Ute Trail

Niobrara Trail above the old reservoir

Side view of Cathedral Rock from Ute Trail

Awesomeness on display

Parting shot...

Great fall run at the Garden - wanted to get the photos up for some fall colors. A little over 15 miles and 2600' elevation gain. Great day - photos tell that!

Double Delight - last rose of the season. We brought it in to save it from the frost!!

Happy Trails!

Black Hills Visit in Photos

2011-10-16T22:42:00.000-06:00

Been fighting photo uploads not working ALL WEEK, so these are behind schedule. Turned out to be an issue with Firefox 7, so this post is brought to you thanks to Google Chrome. So you are getting the full dump of photos from our South Dakota trip - if a picture paints a thousand words, here's 32k worth for you! Aren't you glad after that race report that you don't have to read 32 thousand words from us - sheesh! Hope your browser doesn't explode unloading photos....

Rode the steam train to Keystone after the race

Blowing off some steam, so to speak

Then we went for the first visit to see the "Fellas"

Great evening view

Monday we walked only - no running - Mickelson Trail

Tuesday - Deerfield Lake Loop - another perfect day, although unseasonably warm

Kathleen on the Lake loop

Sweet trail and nice fall colors showing

Deerfield Lake

Happy Trails

Nearing the end of the run up at Deerfield - 15 miles and it was 84 degrees when we finished!

Wednesday run on the Flume Trail - a National Recreation Trail

Very scenic trail following an old mining flume
from Sheridan Lake to Rockerville

Tunnel that the flume passed through - only about 5 feet tall
and quite dark at about one hundred feet long - not for the claustrophobic!

Kathleen on Flume Trail

Very sweet trails

Part of the old retaining walls for the flume

Lots of running on trail that was cut out of rock cliff faces

Pedestrian bridge over the Sheridan Lake outlet

Sheridan Lake - another beautiful place we ran around

After the run, off to spend more time at the Shrine of Democracy

Took about 100 pics of these guys

HT at MR

Came back a third time for the evening lighting - very cool

Never got tired of Mount Rushmore

Thursday, we ran a short loop at Horsethief Lake

Most of the run was in wilderness, and once again, we had the trails to ourselves

Lots of awesome singletrack to explore here - this area has the potential
to be a trail runner's paradise - we WILL be back!

Autumn's golden carpet

More trails than time (or legs) would allow this visit

Farewell Horsethief Lake - and thanks for the memories Black Hills, SD!

Finally a race Report - Run Crazy Horse Half Marathon

2011-10-09T22:42:00.002-06:00

Last Sunday, we got up at the crack of dawn - on vacation no less - and joined about 900 other folks headed up toward Crazy Horse Memorial outside of Custer, South Dakota for the second edition of Run Crazy Horse, a full and half marathon event. We were on schedule to meet up with Kathleen's dad and his wife in the Black Hills for a little family time, sight seeing and R&R - surprisingly this area is almost exactly the same distance from their place in Iowa as it is from our place in Colorado - cool. There was a twist, however, a couple weeks out we were searching (as always) for trail beta and info on the Hill City area where we would be staying. Wouldn't you know it, up pops an ad for Run Crazy Horse - 2 days left until registration closes. And, the finish line is a quarter mile from our hotel.... And, I might add as she might leave it out, Kathleen was really starting to feel almost herself again - good time to race, right??? So we inquired with the folks as to whether there were any objections with a short interruption to the vacation time for a little race action. None. So we threw our names in the hat, so to speak. We didn't realize it until we got there, but they were actually a bit excited to see some of the race and hang out at the finish line to watch for us, so that got us more excited about racing. Now that we're home and free of an old laptop trying to get wifi in the hotel, it is time for the full write up!!

We were a little sketchy on details for the start area of the race, but knew the majority was to be run on the Mickelson Trail, which we have run and ridden parts of when we were there in 2007. This is a sweet multi-use DIRT (this was the key to signing up!!) trail that runs 109 miles from Edgemont, SD to Deadwood, SD, and features spectacular scenery, such as the photos below which we took on our walk the following morning:

Stream and pasture along Mickelson

Changing colors

Race action photo from the website

We knew also from the photo above that we were starting on the entrance road into the memorial and that there would be some climb at the start, which is always good for us when competing against road runners :) As for the rest of the puzzle to the course, we were in the dark until the Lakota Indians started the drums and singing to get us off and running. This may get long, so skip down if you are bored, but you'll get the race from both our perspectives - grab a coffee and cinnamon roll ;-)

Steve's Race: As I had noted a couple posts back, in August I realized that a summer of long trail runs had possibly left a gap in the fitness and we started logging some "tempo" miles on one run weekly. While this in no way qualified as "training" for a half marathon, I was quietly hopeful that some of the work would pay dividends in the race. Because of that, I was a wee bit nervous pre-race as I had some goal tiers I had been sorting through in my mind, based upon last year's results, some of my recent runs, ... and some smoke and mirrors calculations. Now, if you regularly look at this blog, you know I am not a huge racer. Tim harasses me about this, but I live with it :) This is not necessarily a lack of competitive drive as much as it is aversion to pain. If I enter a race, it is to race. It is okay if that is not the case for everyone, but for me it is for pushing myself hard. So in the past, I have often raced over my head (and fitness level) and suffered badly post race. I guess everyone does, so deal with it, right? So we're off....

Miles 1-4 Setting myself up The start ended up being straight downhill on pavement, not my cup of tea. There were about 50 to 60 people ahead of me belting out sub 6 minute pace - too rich for my blood. So I held back a bit and as we topped the first hill on the road, we made a sharp right onto a nasty dirt road. Up hill, big loose rocks. I passed 30 or so people in a 3/4 mile stretch - nice - level the playing field a bit. We then got back on the paved road for a half mile to the visitor center, and made a left again onto the dirt road toward the base of Crazy Horse. I was pegging a guy that looked exactly like George, who I had eavesdropped at the start area talking to his friends about wanting to run right around 7's - ambitious, but it seemed comfortable for those first miles. We made a figure eight out to a turn point, then doubled back to the start area. There were about 4 significant hills and they enabled me to stake out my position for most of the race - weird how that works so early. At the turn, I was counting bibs - just watching for the maroon half marathoners. Eight bibs. What? Am I in too deep already??? We had to go down the paved exit road out to the highway, make a left into the dirt parking area, and then switchback down onto Mickelson. I passed "George" and I was in the clear. After a brief ways in on Mickelson, we pass the 4 mile marker. My numerical position would not change from there - but I had no way of knowing that this early. I glanced at the Garmin for the first time - I was averaging 7:10 pace.

Miles 5 - 10 Long stretches and concentration During the next 6 miles, mental and physical met and the long steady churning that is not common to a lot of our running came into play. There was a shirtless guy in front of me about a quarter mile along with the lead woman, and Larry (the George look-alike) had dropped behind me a ways, but I could hear him occasionally talking to another runner. I never once looked behind me the entire race, which is odd. Around mile 7.5, Larry and his pal Eric came up along side me and chatted for a while. They were taking the bit pretty hard, so I decided to hold my pace. Two spots down. These miles had many long stretches where you could easily see half mile or more ahead and so I watched as they passed shirtless man, and then Larry gradually pulled away from Eric. But for miles, I could now see three guys ahead. At mile 9, I checked the dashboard on the Enterprise for an update - 7:04 average. It dawned on me that I had now been running for quite a stretch at near and/or sub-7 pace and had not had a leg fall off or any major red lights. I was nervous and pumped at the same time. Almost in La-La land, until I fumbled my last S-cap and watched it drop in the dirt, then I snapped back to reality rather quickly...

Miles 11 - 13.1 Smelling the barn and running on fumes Right after mile 10.5 or so, I noticed a change in the demeanor of shirtless man. I was in pretty deep on pace, but I decided to throw in a bit of a surge and see if I could dent his lead. At mile 11, I was 10 steps from him and realized he appeared to be of my "vintage" so to speak. I got a little jello-legged and knew I had to try to separate from him. I don't know much about race etiquette, but I felt sort of bad when I pulled up along his right side and tossed a casual "How's it going?" his way. He was in a bad patch so I pulled through. For the next mile and a half, I made a concerted effort to push it down around mid 6:40's to see if I could create a gap but I never totally lost the sound of his steps. At 12 we passed a guy who had been out front in the first 4 spots last I saw him - he blew up in a bad way and was walking it in - poor guy. So I was back on par with my placing with a little over a mile. At mile 12.5 I was starting to burn fumes and the trail had leveled, then started a slight rise toward town. I figured I was over 80 minutes in and had not much left to run, so I just buried my head and held it down as long as I could. There were tons of folk out cheering people in which was really awesome but it was all going by as a blur at this point. I made the hard left turn up the embankment to the road, then the right turn onto Main street and I could see the finish line - it was downhill, which was a relief. I did not want to look back, so I spent what I had left to the finish line. 1:31:58 official time, I held a 7:01 average for 13.1 miles - holy cow! Jarrett (shirtless man) finished only 17 seconds behind me - very close. And he's 47, so also in the Masters. Sorry pal, but I had to do it!!! :) The pass at 11.5 earned me the Masters win, which I will take any day of the week, especially since it may never happen again! I had secretly hoped for a 1:35:xx - and far exceeded that, which made my head spin for a bit. I had a blast, it hurt, I was spent, but it was worth every one of those 91.8 minutes! The time on the clock made my day. What I saw six minutes later made my year....

And now Kathleen's commentary:
To sum it all up - it was a GREAT day! Not only was I in awesome company with Steve and Dad and J, we had comfortably cool and sunny 8:00 am start, and best of all, I was/am feeling like I am finally on the comeback trail, healthwise. My doc has continued to reassure me over these past 7 or 8 months that I indeed would return to a semblance of normalcy. About 5 or 6 weeks ago, finally, the "switch flipped". We had started to do some tempo work on the Santa Fe Trail, a smooth gravel, slightly rolling path, a few months ago. Well, for Steve it was tempo. For me, it was a place to just find a more steady running effort rather than the constant up and downs of our local singletrack trail runs which seemed to take more out of me physically. There were many a weekend where I struggled to put one foot in front of the other on those trail runs. Steve asked me quite a number of times, "Why do you keep torturing yourself?". My answer always was, "I have to give it a go because this could be the day where things turn around and the switch finally flips." And so it went, weekend after weekend, month after month - maybe this would be the one day where the switch finally flipped. Sure, I had some decent, ok days but no truly normal, fully good days. No one other than Steve got to see me in all my non-glorious 'miserableness'. There were quite a few boo-hoo moments, mourning what had been lost and wondering if there was a genuine chance of regaining at least some of it.

So back to the tempo-ish runs on Santa Fe. At first, I was struggling to average 9 minute miles over an eight mile run, which ironically, felt like I was flying compared to the 10's, 11's, and 12's I was doing per mile around my initial Graves diagnosis. Then, out of the blue one weekend, I hit an 8:40 average. Hmmm, is this an anomaly? Then, the next weekend, I hit an 8:14 average. Really? No way. Can it be true? I hadn't been able to even sniff 8's with all I was worth but here it was, almost within reach. I was hardly allowing myself to hope..... but maybe the switch had finally flipped??? Long story short, the runs turned into tempos. I was actually able to push my body instead of my body pushing me around. I hit 8:04 the next week and then!!! a 7:54 the next week! Really??? I've held steady at 7:45's the last few weeks, which I'm good with, but admittedly am a bit greedy - I want 7:35. Back to Run Crazy Horse.......

This race was to serve as a celebration of life and health. My "goal time" was 1:45 based on nothing other than pulling it out of thin air. My secret finish time, in my heart of hearts, was 1:39:xx, again, based on nothing other than it sounded better than 1:45. It was fun milling around in the Crazy Horse Memorial Visitor Center beforehand, checking out all of the intriguing history as well as listening to all the pre-race chatter. We heard, quite a few times, folks dreading the "hilly" starter loop. Ahem. We also heard people lamenting how "slow" the gravel trail was to run on and how the gravel was hard on the feet. We just smiled to ourselves - it sounded perfect! :-)

The native American drums sent us off at the start, again, a glorious bluebird, perfect temperature morning. The herd set off in one big amoeba but then quickly started to string out over the immediate rolling hills. We did an approximate 3 mile figure eight loop around the base of Crazy Horse on a mix of paved and gravel roads before connecting over to the gravel and wonderful Mickelson Trail. I settled into a nice steady pace and timed it right to run alongside the eventual 2nd place woman, Nicki. Nicki ended up being a lovely young woman - we did a fair amount of chatting those first miles. Lots of fun and a funny moment, too. We were running stride for stride and got reports from the various bystanders that we were the 3rd and 4th women. Part of our conversation went something like this:

She asked: So how old are you?
Me: 44. How old are you?
Nicki: 24. Holy Cow! Are you really 44?
Me: Yep but only for another month or so.
Nicki: Wow. I hope when I am 44, I look as good and am as strong as you!

LOL! She was paying me a very lovely compliment but a realization hit me - I am now one of "those" - one of the OLD girls - on the verge of needing to be put out to pasture - how did this happen???!!! I am old enough to be her mother!!! :-) Wasn't I just 24 and young looking, um, yesterday??? I'll have to ask Steve... how and when did this happen? It made me smile.

We did a girly knuckle knock, happy we wouldn't be competing against each other in terms of age categories. At just over 4 miles, she started to gain a half step on me, then it was a full step, then two. Dang those 24 year old legs and lungs. I told her to have a great race and that I hoped to see her at the finish. She smiled and slowly started to pull away. I was completely content and comfortable and was just trying to concentrate on keeping a steady, sustainable up-tempo run. As you are aware, the Happy Trails duo aren't exactly the racing veterans, so some focused effort was definitely on tap.

At just over 5 miles, I was passed by another gal who had been lurking behind Nicki and I since the start. Again, I was completely ok with that, happy as a lark figuratively skipping merrily down the trail, and just settled into running my own pace and race. There weren't many people around me at this point - I think I was hovering in the neighborhood of 4 or 5 men but that's it. The course was beautiful and peaceful. Most of the first 8 miles or so were almost completely shaded by yellow and orange aspen trees and pine trees. It was a glorious setting and I just settled in with the guys and enjoyed the moment. I fully expected to be passed by more women as I was running as 5th woman at this point and the trail was fairly flat to slightly downhill with a few rollers thrown in until the finish. The miles ticked by and I never lost complete sight of the 4th woman. At mile 9, I was starting to feel minor effects of the faster than normal Mrs. Happy Trails pace but it was still all good. My mantra was, "just stay steady" and "do what you can with what you have". The last few miles, I started to VERY SLOWLY pull back a bit of time on the 4th woman. I began to wonder whether I could really pull her back and was astonished, too, that no other women had passed me. I was waiting but they never came. Is this for real??? I didn't have a clue who was behind other than a couple of the men I had managed to ease past.

The last half mile or so was down the middle of Main Street into Hill City. Lots of smiling and cheering people lined the street. I couldn't quite motivate the legs to move fast enough to catch 4th woman although I came close - she ended up 4 seconds in front of me. I didn't care. I was ecstatic. 1:37:52 - 7:29 pace. A time like that was beyond my wildest dreams in mid-August. It just wasn't possible. Not only did I end up feeling fantastic physically, I was excited and elated to know that Steve had run so well, too. I had watched him run near the front on the starter loop and based upon my good time, was assured he had a good time, as well. Ecstatic all the way around.

A happy Happy Trails duo

For me, this race signaled a return to health, at least for awhile. From here, I may or may not be able to improve upon my overall fitness - time will tell. Because my thyroid levels have been fairly steady these past 2 months, my body is starting the process of repairing the damage and rebuilding everything that was lost with the Graves - the muscle tone, strength and endurance, among other things. If this race is any indication, the switch has flipped and the body is finally getting back on track. I have to admit a bit of trepidation, though. A fear that the "on" switch will turn "off" again lurks beneath the surface. If the thyroid suppressant dosage doesn't keep the levels steady, then going backwards is a reality, again. But, focus on the present positive, right? Run Crazy Horse was a true celebration in many ways. It is so easy to take life and health for granted - make sure to savor every moment.....

We would highly recommend Run Crazy Horse Half or full marathon. The races are run on a beautifully scenic trail at the peak of the fall color season. The setting - from the start at the Crazy Horse Memorial to the trail - is hard to beat. It seems to be a well organized and well run event (results were up immediately) that has a friendly vibe - from the organizers, to the volunteers, to the participants. If you are looking to head to the Black Hills in the fall, don't pass up this fun race!

We will post lots more photos from our trip to the Black Hills but promise few words. Thanks for hanging in for what has to be THE LONGEST half-marathon race report EVER! Sheesh.........

Happy Trails to everyone!

Run Crazy Horse Half Marathon - Quick Recap

2011-10-02T17:51:00.002-06:00

Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer, South Dakota

15 minutes to Go-Time

So we are in South Dakota for a meet up with Kathleen's dad and his new bride. A couple weeks back, we saw an ad for Run Crazy Horse - a full and half marathon, run mostly on the Mickelson Trail. The next day, we're in - what the heck - might as well jump in on a race in another state while we are there!!!

Kathleen kicking it in

Bringing home a little "hardware" from South Dakota!

We both essentially ran perfect races. Best I have ever felt start to finish in a race and probably nearly so for Kathleen as well. So here is how we shook out:

Steve - 1:31:58, 9/537 overall, 8th male of 192, 1st overall Masters man

Kathleen - 1:37:52, 22/537 overall, 5th female of 345, 1st overall Masters woman

Happy Trails!!!!!!!!!!!

Snow, Cheyenne Mountain, Biking, and Palmer Lake

2011-09-25T20:49:00.000-06:00

Time to get caught up on some posts here. This will be a two week wrap up so let's get rolling. Aside from some current busy-ness outside of running, we have done some different running of late. I realized that I spent a good portion of late Spring and most of Summer getting in some great long trail runs at a pretty casual pace. It dawned on me that I may have sacrificed some level of fitness doing so, so we started a few weeks before Leadville trying to get in one "tempo" (and I use that word lightly...) run per weekend in place of a gorgeous, spectacular trail run like we would normally do. We don't geek out on numbers much, but since some of our normal handful of readers dig that stuff, we're talking in the 8-12 mile range, 7:15's to 7:35's pace for Mr HT (no details will be divulged by me for the other HT, except to say these days are mostly gone and she is getting some Mojo back...), on Santa Fe trail which is flattish as it gets around here and mostly coarse granite surface. And I did say "we" as Kathleen is certainly improving overall in the health category, for which I am most grateful! Needless to say, this has put a serious dent in the photography files as I have no intention of carrying a camera on bust-out runs :)) So, on to the running!

Snow capped Pikes Peak

About a week and a half ago we had rain - 4.5 inches in 24 hours, an all time record - and there was a foot of snow at the summit house of Pikes Peak - welcome Fall! Considering we average 17.40 inches annually, that is big time for 24 hours!

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Cheyenne Mountain on an awesome fall day!

Kathleen passes through the rock garden on Zook Trail

A week ago we high tailed it down to Cheyenne Mountain State Park to get in some superb trails under (once again) unbelievably blue skies. It was downright warm for mid-September, for which there will be no complaints from these happy trail runners! It was actually busy at the park compared to most visits, which would certainly be attributed to the fantastic day. Of course we were in denial as to the yellows and oranges beginning to show in some trees, as that is the all-too-familiar sign that snow in these parts is "around the corner". So, as always, we have to take full advantage of great days like these! We followed for the most part the Xterra Half Marathon course, then threw in some extra at the end.

A little video coverage at the top of North Talon trail - very sweet trails up there!

Kathleen cruises North Talon

Did we mention the views? Wouldn't you like to run here...?

First taste of Fall

Rolling the Blackmer Trail - did I mention it was awesome out?

We rolled up some of the best trails in the park, mostly staying up on the hardier terrain to avoid the "don't wander far from the trailhead" types. It was all we could do to drag ourselves down off these trails on such a great day. So, we just kept going - soaking in as much as we could while the legs held out, banking some quality time ahead of "those months" when runs like this are a distant memory!

Kathleen on Blackmer, Cheyenne Mountain on the horizon

One of the few smooth parts of Medicine Wheel Trail

I have my eye on you ... by the way, you got any snacks????

Stopped for a group photo before heading down

After dropping down to park level, I headed out for a final small loop, not wanting the day to end. The combo of Medicine Wheel, Zook, Turkey Trot and Talon were just enough to finish off the legs and let me call it a day. It is hard to come up with additional superlatives to describe both the day and the run - awesome! Kathleen finished with 14 miles and 2500' gain, and I snuck in an extra two for 16 miles and 2750' gain. Definite good times!

Shoes - K Nike LunarFly Trail

S Brooks Cascadia

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Kathleen's view from high up on a road biking loop - we live in a pretty sweet place!

Monday's have been road bike days for Kathleen - it has been helping keep the body leveled out and also helping to relieve a little of the pounding while the medication for Graves Disease gets completely dialed in. It has been a great mix, and with views like the one above, who wouldn't want to get out on the bike???

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Out today - running Santa Fe Trail in Monument, CO

Skip forward a week, and this morning we headed a short trip north to park at the Baptist Road trailhead for the Santa Fe Trail. We were looking to get in a longer, steady run, something that is also generally lacking from our repertoire. If you have ever run the Pikes Peak Road Runners Winter Series, we started where Race 3 always commences. This is going to sound like a broken record but who cares - it was flat out fantastic today - crystal-clear blue skies, with temps in the high 70's - bring it on!

Santa Fe Trail heading toward Palmer Lake

Palmer Lake, CO

Our goal for the day was to run out to Palmer Lake - the northern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail - and see how we were feeling. We ran the loop around the lake while we were there, then headed back down. As almost always on this end of SF Trail, it was a headwind going out, combined with uphill. So, you can almost always negative split your run, which is good mental training to keep it rolling and not lollygag on your return trip! It was starting to get fairly warm, especially for late September, on the way back but we rolled it out nicely, making sure to enjoy the splendid day.

Back at the trailhead, mission accomplished

We were able to get in an even 13 miles at a nice, steady pace, which went absolutely according to plan. It is quite difficult to explain how great it was today and how good both of us felt on the run. It was definitely a Happy Trails kind of day :)) It was made even better by running into our friend Jon at the trailhead, as he was rolling through at the finish of another epic mountain bike loop. Shortly after that photo was taken at Cheyenne Mountain last year, Jon's back went out completely on a ride, so it was great to see him out getting big-time mountain rides in!!!

Shoes - K Nike LunarFly Trail

S Brooks Cascadia

We even threw in some really odd activity for this pair - this afternoon we went over to Colorado College, where I ran 2 miles on their sweet synthetic track so that I could try out some new kicks before soiling them! So I even got in a track workout, then we topped it off by running some barefoot strides on the astroturf soccer field to relax the feet. How's that for diversity? All in all, it has been a great couple weeks and we are hoping for some good Fall running to continue - have an awesome week!

Hangin' with the Pinkcorker

2011-09-12T22:41:00.000-06:00

Almost four years ago, during a snowy, frigid, blizzard-y weekend, Steve and I 'discovered' the world of running blogs, more specifically trail running blogs. The absolutely first blog on the radar was Renee's "Pinkcorker". She and I seemed to be kindred spirits. We have been blessed to have met and become friends with some amazing blog friends but Renee was the first. We have cultivated a friendship via email over the past years. Six months ago, she emailed and said she would be traveling to Colorado to visit a friend who had lived near her in Tuscon and asked if she could stop and finally meet and visit with us for a few days on the way. You can probably figure out what we said - "Of course! Come on up!"

Renee jumped into the world of ultra running a few years back and our original plan, six months ago, was to take her on a few of our fabulous local trail runs. Those plans changed when she unexpectedly decided to do the splits on a trail run in the Tuscon mountains and tore a ligament near the upper area of her femor earlier this summer. Her 'splits injury' combined with my current inability to run long caused by the Graves, required a creative change of plans. Renee's injury rehab has progressed well and, although she is unable to run, she is able to fast hike and bicycle. She is learning to ride and is becoming best friends with her bike. I was a cyclist WAY before becoming a runner so a bike ride always rates high on the desirability scale.

After getting our house guest settled in at Happy Trails Central on Saturday evening, we began plotting our plan of attack over the next two days. Sunday morning, after renting a mountain bike for Renee at a local bike shop, we headed north on our ride on the crushed granite Santa Fe Trail. With the combo of a long drive from Tuscon and altitude adjustment, a more mellow ride was on the docket for her and the Santa Fe Trail fit the bill. We squeaked out 25 miles that consisted of constant girl chatter, beautiful weather, and our lovely mountain scenery. Steve escaped our non-stop chatter by slipping away earlier in the morning for a nice, peaceful 17 mile trail run at Red Rock Canyon/Section 16/Intemann Trail area.

Renee is all smiles riding through the U.S. Air Force Academy on a gorgeous day.

I love my bikes! Despite not spending as much time on them the last few years, riding still feels so natural and a part of me.

The Santa Fe Trail is a beautiful multi-use trail.

After our ride and Steve's run, we got cleaned up and headed over to Manitou Springs for some post ride/run grub at one of the best local eateries - Adam's Mountain Cafe.

Then, after the grub, we hit up The Mate' Factor for an iced peach yerba mate' tea.

Played tourists and wandered Manitou for a bit, then drove through Garden of the Gods on the way back to the house. Renee commented that it felt like deja vu - everything seemed so familiar because of reading about and seeing pictures of everything on our blog! She even recognized our house before she saw the address because of seeing pictures of our xeriscape garden out in front!

**************************************************************************************************************

Most out-of-towners seem to be intrigued by the Manitou Incline and Renee was no different. Way-back-when, the Incline was on her list of 'must-dos'. Although running is not an option for her right now, hiking is so we headed out for a grand hike up the Incline this morning. We took it slow and although she questioned her sanity in undertaking such an arduous effort with her current fitness level several times during the climb, she's a tenacious ultra runner and perservered.

Finishing with a smile despite low-lander oxygen depletion

Connecting to Barr Trail. I was thrilled to see that the Aspens on the left were NOT changing...... yet........

We fast hiked down Barr Trail. Renee was excited to see part of Barr as she and her hubby and a group from their Tuscon trail running group are thinking about coming up next August and doing the Pikes Peak Ascent/Marathon. If I can get completely back on track, the Ascent has been on my list of 'things to do someday'. Hmmm, combined with a quite a few local friends who are doing the Ascent/Marathon next year, the Tuscon group coming up might provide the extra motivation to really train for it. We'll have to see..........

We wrapped up a whirlwind day with lunch at Coquette Creperie, a repeat visit for Mate', a stop at a Chef's Catalog (kitchen store), the Dutch bakery (I needed to get a treat for Steve since he had to work and couldn't come out and play), Title Nine, The Colorado Running Company, and Criterium Bike Shop (Renee needed a jersey she had spied there yesterday). Whew! We had to blaze home, get her packed up and out the door so she could drive to her next destination near Denver and arrive before it was completely dark.

After hugs all around and waving good-bye, we realized again, that our interest in trail running has afforded us the opportunity to meet extraordinary people - Friends - over the past few years.

Happy Trails to everyone this week!

We seem to have misplaced our summer....

2011-09-05T22:08:00.002-06:00

Never mind the fact that August came and went without much blog activity over here at Happy Trails Land, but where in the world did summer go??? One minute you are doing everything you possibly can to not run in searing heat (BTW, officially the hottest Summer on record for Colorado Springs, following one of the coldest Spring times...), then the next thing you know, the days are 100 hours shorter and you are shopping for deals on Icebreaker and Smartwool getting ready for cold, short winter days. Wow. Can we hit the rewind button?....

Well, anyway you slice it, Labor Day weekend has come and gone. With it, we snuck in a quick trip up to Winter Park for possibly our last high country play weekend before the snow flies... And on queue, we witnessed a snippet of just how short their summers are with Sunday's low down in the mid 30's - ouch! It was only two months ago we visited and they were just starting to thaw from the heinously long spring freeze and now the leaves are changing. So we had to make some hay while that sun was still shining!!

Kathleen rolling the Creekside Trail

Saturday we headed over to Fraser to run some of our favorite singletrack out in the valley north of the ski area. To our surprise, we saw a half dozen runners at it already, which is more than we have seen in a summer's worth of visits before. Nice to see some folks are appreciating the trails on foot. As we have said before, we have mountain biked just about every square inch of this valley (or somewhere near it!) and we are enjoying the freedom of seeing it in a totally different light by running the trails, just in smaller increments at a time. So we were out in the Creekside, Flume, Chainsaw area for the day rolling up some nice trails with relatively slim traffic, especially for a holiday.

"Buzzing" along on the Chainsaw Trail

Stopped for a pose on the new cut of Creekside

Kathleen on the Givelo Trail, with sweeping views of Indian Peaks Wilderness

and the Continental Divide in the distance

As is always the case, we enjoyed a spectacular day on premium trails, all the while savoring the bluebird skies and basking in the Colorado sun. Oddly enough, we had similar if not slightly warmer - daytime highs than were occurring at home, which was quite a weather shift! While we were not in the hills looking for huge runs, we did manage to run a sweet 13 mile loop at altitude, making for a satisfying day.

Shoes - K Nike LunarFly Trail (you're digging those glow in the dark accents, right?)

S Pearl Izumi Syncrofuel XC

Horses graze, while Parry Peak (right) and James Peak (left) loom on the horizon -

soon they will be in their familiar, snow-covered state

...And looking to the west, Byers Peak and its namesake wilderness spread out across the landscape

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Sunday morning was considerably cooler, but things started to warm up reasonably so the long sleeves, arm warmers, and such all stayed packed. The plan was to run up the Vasquez drainage and work around toward the ski mountain, then run the forest back along toward town. We started climbing immediately, which was actually OK given the chilly start. The run up Blue Sky trail was mostly shaded, and I must admit my arms and hands were cold when we popped out of the forest at the top of the climb - where did that come from? We stopped for a minute to give directions to a group of mountain bikers and standing in the sun for a few helped get the temperature regulated again. Oh, and they asked if we would be running barefooot next time.... I don't think so!

Enjoying the sun with Vasquez Peak Wilderness in the rearview

Upper section of Vasquez Creek, a mere trickle compared

to when we last saw it in July

It was really a nice change of pace to run the Tunnel Hill dirt road as it rolled across the forest on its way over to the base of the ski mountain. We were surprised at the camping activity over the weekend - exponentially more campers out in the forest areas than were out in July. But for the most part, it was quiet and peaceful running along the mountainside - before you knew it, we were at the ski area.

Tunnel Hill - just up from the base area of Winter Park Resort

From the road we dropped into Serenity Trail, one of the coolest forest singletracks, running from the ski area over to the Little Vasquez road area. It is a tight, rolling trail through dense forest - I tried to video it while running, but I will spare you the nausea and continue to work on my film making skills some other time!

Dropping in on Lower Cherokee - nearing the end of another awesome run

Finished out the run for the day on Ice Hill and Twin Bridges trails, with another 14 miles of altitude training in the books. While we had not intended to split the valley into halves for our runs, it worked out well as the long point to point was not feasible this trip. Since the USFS is logging extensively for wildfire mitigation, the D2 / D4 / WTB trail matrix is closed, so the primary connecting links from ski mountain to valley are shut down and would have made the long run much LONGER than normal. The two days we spent on the trails were splendid and will tide us over until next season for the high country. We had lunch and then "people watched" for a while at the ski area while having a nice cup of coffee and soaking in the sweet mountain rays!

Shoes - K Nike LunarFly Trail

S Saucony Peregrine

Parting shot at the base of Winter Park Resort -

Flowers still in bloom, but their season is coming to an end...

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South Suburban Reservoirs and the Broadmoor Hotel from the top of Gold Camp Road

Happy Trails at the top of the climb - Gold Camp Road

After coming down from the mountains Sunday night (miss out on that holiday traffic jam on I-70....), we had plans to get in a good road bike ride. We have found over the last months that mixing in the riding with our runs has helped immensely with Kathleen on recovery between outings. Since the stress of running at altitude has a bit of a magnified effect on the Graves symptoms right now, we knew that a third day straight of running up high (9000 - 10,000 elevation) was not as good of an option as a ride down low at home at 6800 feet. We headed out on the bikes under perfect conditions (again!!!) and rolled through the Garden on our way over to Gold Camp Road. We were surprised again that bike traffic was quite low on GC, especially since it is a favorite for tempo/time trialing hill work with local bikers.

After pushing a steady pace for the entire ride and pushing extra hard up the 4.5 mile GC climb (and two days running in the mountains), the legs were starting to feel pretty shot on the way home - but you have to maximize your days, right??? We made our way back up the west side of town, enjoying relatively slim traffic on the city roads, and landed ourselves at a table at the neighborhood Starbucks for an attempt to resuscitate our tired bodies with some good caffeinated drinks, all the while reminiscing about another weekend of great mountain exploits. Our 30 mile ride provided the perfect bookend for a great weekend! My mind is wandering as a pot of homemade meatball vegetable soup is simmering on the stove and smells soooooo good - hope I can wait until tomorrow's lunch . . . .

Happy Trails this week!

Shoes - K Sidi Catapult

S Sidi Dominator

Team Footfeathers: Crewing the Leadville 100

2011-08-22T22:41:00.004-06:00

Back up the calendar several pages to February 15, and this email from Tim pops up in the wee hours of the morning:

-----Original Message-----
From: ~~tim@xxxxxxx [mailto:tim@xxxxxxx]~~
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 6:33 AM
To: HappyTrails
Subject: crew

Hi,

Would you guys be interested in crewing me at Leadville 100?

Since we were (and probably still are) clueless about anything to do with ultrarunning or what this duty would entail, we said "Sure." So began the months of tidbits here and there talking to Tim, finding out what he needed, worrying that we would suck, and so on. (Who knew that a trail run and a Thanksgiving dinner three years ago would lead us to this juncture!) Then, within the past week, it ramped up - Game Time - now we would be crewing and trying to keep up with the leaders of the race for InsideTrail via Tweets during the day. Cool. We were getting to Leadville late Friday night after work, sleeping in command central, aka the Pilot, and being out at the ungodly hour of 4 am to get rolling on this adventure. Let's go!

We made what ended up being a very good decision (rookie luck) and skipped the start, driving straight to Mayqueen AS #1, and were the 6th car there. The lead pack of guys went through like they were running a 10k - are you kidding me? Holy Cow! Tim rolled in before 6 am, right on his splits. It was just starting to get light as we drove around Turquoise Lake on the way out. Everything went as planned - aid #1 down, no issues - we're rolling on to the Fish Hatchery AS #2! We realized how fortunate the plan was at the start, as there were cars parked for miles out the road - whew!

For whatever reason, the Fish Hatchery was our favorite aid station - very cool vibe here

The next aid was at the Leadville National Fish Hatchery which was a very cool setting. There was a lot of room to spectate, great crewing access, and just a really neat vibe to this place. The runners come in off of Powerline, run up the road into the aid area, then right back down and out onto the road toward Halfmoon. The fog from early on was burning off and it was opening up into a really nice sunrise. It was great to be able to see, as we did not recognize many of the top ultrarunners since we aren't ever around them. The lead pack went through, and we started to piece together names and faces we would see for the rest of the day. Mike Arnstein was in front, followed by Dylan Bowman, Timmy Parr, Ryan Burch, Ryan Sandes, Duncan Callahan, Jeff Browning, Dan Vega, etc. Guys we have read about are now right beside us - sweet! Snap out of it, we have a racer to tend to - and he came through 2 minutes up on his splits again, so we grabbed his necessities at the aid while Kathleen filled his pack, all the while he is quizzing me on who is running up front, what are the splits, etc. - Tim is quite easy going, even while he is racing - amazing! He was running in the top 20, right where he wanted to be. Out of AS #2 - moving on to Twin Lakes AS #3.

Stopped at HalfMoon Road to get a photo - looking good

Spectacular views along HalfMoon Road

Arriving at Twin Lakes - the day was shaping up quite nicely

Prime real estate - set up crew station in the main lot!

Twin Lakes is where it started to dawn on us that it was really, really nice to have a fast runner! We arrived to a very quiet, pristine scene, got prime real estate parking, and set up next to some fantastic people that we would see through the rest of the day. Twin Lakes is pivotal, as it is the entrance to the Big Climb - Hope Pass at 12,600' looms above the runners - standing between them and the halfway turn at Winfield, 10.5 miles away. Once again Arnstein was through first, and we thought going too fast - but what do we know, we're just newbie crew folks :) Parr, Burch, Bowman, Sandes - all through closely - and with some good separation to the next groups - the race was shaping up at the front. Tim came through at Twin about 4 minutes up on splits - this is working out great. We loaded him up for the big climb, broke out the poles for the nasty descent off of Hope, and he was rolling out toward the halfway point. We negotiated a sweet deal with the "neighbors" to cart their son's pacer to Winfield AS #4, and in turn, they would hold us a spot in the prime parking lot for the return trip - right on!

Leaving Twin Lakes - the trail leading to the monster climb up Hope Pass

Winfield AS - great views, the calm before the swarm

If (and that is a big IF) we ever crew this race again, Winfield AS #4 is off the agenda. This is a drop bag aid station for sure!!! The drive out to Winfield is fairly sucky. It is basically at the end of a long, rutted, dusty dirt road, the last three miles of which you share with the runners. There were no runners yet when we arrived, but those coming later would really pay for this section of drive. Did we mention that it was really, really, really great to have a fast runner??? (Thanks TIM!!!) The other issue is that there is very limited parking. Once the lot filled, and the road started to have consistent racer traffic, cars could only come in as vehicles left. Ouch! Ryan Sandes made a huge move on Hope Pass - one that proved the decisive move of the race. He went from 5th to first in the course of that 10.5 miles and would not relinquish the position for the remaining 50 miles. Bold.

Feeling pretty good after trip #1 over Hope

Tim did great on his first passing of Hope and was just a few minutes down on the splits, no big deal. It was also hot - he was ahead of pace on salt consumption because of the intense overhead sun. We took a little extra time making sure he was ready to head right back up Hope. Some extra food, extra liquids, etc. He was looking a little tired, but overall was just running smart and doing a great job. He got quite a spark seeing ~~a young lady friend pacer from Hardrock~~ CORRECTION, a very young lady he raced with at Ice Age 50 mile - standing there by the aid tent at Winfield - we practically had to drag him, kicking and screaming, out to get back to his run (and you thought we wouldn't rat you out......) So AS#4 was good to go and we were out of Winfield. We were horrified at the scene heading out: after the point on the road where the runners left to head up the trail, inbound traffic was parked. For over a mile. One car leaves, one gets to go in - back to that whole fast runner theme..... Regardless, we were out of Dodge and headed back to Twin Lakes.

Parting words - heading back over the monster

Twin Lakes AS #5 - round 2 at Twin Lakes, and much more of a zoo this time. However, we had an ace up our sleeve as the fine folks we spent our morning with there had us lined out with parking in the prime lot. Nice. This was a longer crew spot - fresh shoes, extra food, encouragement after twice crossing Hope. For the first time, we missed the leaders. But that was OK. We were tiring and needed to recharge so we could be focused on our racer. Tim bonked hard on Hope. I could read it on him from across the meadow coming in. We got him in a chair and JT, who would be pacing him for the next 26 miles, helped us get him refueled and ready to get moving again. Pretty amazing that he was charged up to get Tim running, as he had just driven up from the Springs after racing the Pikes Peak Ascent. The aid stop was long, but we were not forceful in pulling the chair, as he really needed a little rest. After 15 or 20 minutes, these two were charging up the hill out of Twin Lakes. Back to the Fish Hatchery AS #6.

Enjoyed a nice rain shower at FH - very peaceful

Calorie fest starts before the aid station - JT gets some pep from Katie and Holly

Tim came back to life on the leg in to Fish Hatchery, running almost the entire section and regaining his competitive juice. Man that was nice to see, and it kind of gave us a second wind. A great pacer, a bunch of calories, and getting passed by some guys he didn't want passing him rekindled some fire in the belly. Sweet! The guys donned headlamps as darkness was approaching and they were off toward Mayqueen - the final aid stop.

Lucho was waiting for us as we rolled into Mayqueen. He would be pacing the final leg of 13.5 miles, where just last year Tim had paced him through a very rough patch. The boys rolled in looking pretty spent at about 10:50 pm, 18:50 into the race. We got Tim into a thermal long sleeve, filled him up with hot soup, and they were on their way to the finish. Someone had passed in the aid stop, and the focus was back to reel people in. We loaded up the last of the gear for the day and headed into town to park at the finish line. Ryan Sandes had rolled in before we arrived, winning in an impressive time of 16:46, followed by Dylan Bowman in 2nd, and Neal Gorman moving up to 3rd after a conservative middle of the race.

The boys in the finishing tent - JT, Tim, and Lucho

We snuck in a couple short naps, all the while listening to the announcer calling out names as finishers approached the home stretch. Tim left Mayqueen 18th and managed to take three spots on the run in, finishing 15th at 1:04 am, 21:04 into the race (official chip time 20:59:52 !) We were so proud - what an amazing accomplishment! We threw a blanket over him, and got him into the med check in and in front of a heater as the chill of the night caught up with him after movement ceased. What a day! Would we do it again? Maybe, but it would take a special person like Tim to get us back out for it....

Headed home - saying goodbye for a while at least

After catching a small amount of sleep, we got some breakfast in town and watched some runners still coming in. Then it was time to head out, which was a little bittersweet as Tim is moving away this week. Road trip, I guess....

Happy Trails

Quick Leadville Crew recap

2011-08-21T20:57:00.000-06:00

The sun burns through the morning fog at Fish Hatchery aid station

Just a quick note - we had a great weekend crewing our good friend Tim at the Leadville 100 Trail Run. Tim finished in 21:04, good for 15th overall, and 3rd in the 40-49 age group. He did great all day, we met lots of awesome people, and were able to watch a good portion of the front end of the race play out all day. It was a memorable experience for certain and when we have had time for sleep deprivation to run its course, we will probably be able to process a little better just how cool this weekend was. For now, all the keys on the keyboard are running together - watch for a more coherent report soon!

Happy Trails

Leadville awaits

2011-08-18T06:42:00.003-06:00

Well, there has not been much time for blogging this past week and a half, so we wanted to throw up a quick post so you know we're still kicking! Still would like to throw up the rest of the pics from our Steamboat trip, but that will be posted out of sequence as we have a big weekend on the horizon. Running has been going pretty good, including a great run at Spruce Mountain and Greenland from last Sunday - photo above.

We will be crewing our friend Tim this weekend at the Leadville 100 Run, which should be a pretty cool and new experience for us. As it turns out, we will also be providing some "live" coverage of the front end of the race via Twitter for InsideTrail , a new website following the MUT (mountain, ultra, and trail) racing scene. If you want to get updates, follow InsideTrail on Twitter - @InsideTrail . We will be tweeting with the #LT100 tag on all the entries, so you can search that as well.

The weekend is also BIG time right here in town as huge crowds are in town for the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon this Saturday and Sunday respectively. Great weekend for Colorado trail racing all around. Would like to hit the finish of PPM to see some folks get that done, but not very likely after the day & night at Leadville - good luck to everyone racing there.

***UPDATE*** Some have asked about the PPA / PPM result Tweeting - don't know anyone doing a Twitter feed, but the Pikes Peak Road Runners website will have "live" updates every 15 minutes to 1/2 hour. Those guys are awesome with the timing/results business! Click Results, find Pikes Peak Ascent or Pikes Peak Marathon (depending on the day) and then click the In-Progress Results link.

Happy Trails!

Runnin' and Ridin' the Boat - Scene Two

2011-08-08T22:12:00.000-06:00

Tuesday - Mad Creek / Hot Springs Loop

Kathleen climbing up Mad Creek Trail

Tuesday we were aiming for a little shorter outing which had potential for a longer option if the legs felt snappy. We decided to head out the Mad Creek Trail, with the option to continue on the Swamp Park Trail in Mount Zirkel Wilderness and loop back on Red Dirt. Our primary goal was a 14 mile loop. The trail starts with a nice climb up the canyon wall above Mad Creek (go figure...) and then opens out into some large meadows mixed with aspen groves.

Note the gate - all of this area is open range, meaning you share the trail with the bovine crowd

Landmark Mad Creek Barn, looking up valley to the wilderness

Dense foliage - and this is a "good" section...

We were not prepared for the dense overgrowth of foliage as we got in towards the wilderness boundary. Generally the cows keep the trail pretty cleared, but they have been slacking this year. There were times when the growth was so dense from both sides that you could not see the trail or your feet, and the foliage was near shoulder height in spots. So, after crossing into the wilderness (and getting the 'itchies'), we decided to try an alternate route and turned back.

Too busy eating to trample the path for some trail runners!

Perched above Mad Creek

Crossing Mad Creek - used a bridge for this one!

High above the Hot Springs Trail

We crossed over the bridge after coming out of the grazing zone, and headed up a long ridge on the opposite side of the creek. We would traverse the other canyon wall, run up and over the ridge, and then drop down to Hot Springs Creek to loop back around to the trailhead.

Cooling off post run - Kathleen catches me gingerly lowering myself into the cold creek!

It was getting pretty warm and turned out to be a fabulous day. We ran 9.5 miles, which fit in great for our week long plan of activity, and then sat in the creek for a bit to soak the muscles and rinse the pollen from all the bushwhacking!

Wednesday - Road Ride to Lake Catamount

Enjoying another bluebird day - on wheels this time

Lake Catamount and great country roads

We hit the road Wednesday on two wheels, rather than two feet. We planned a nice route that would circle Steamboat Springs, then catch the River Road out to Lake Catamount, on the lower slopes of Rabbit Ears Pass. We had several route alterations due to the ubiquitous chip-n-seal operations in effect - winter is not far off, and they have to get their roads repaired while they can! We saw a lot of bikes out enjoying the day - these are just some great roads to get out and ride without much traffic hassle at all.

Stopped to watch the tractors for a bit - great countryside for a meandering ride

We could have ridden for hours on end with the perfect weather and scenery that is oh so easy on the eyes. I, being the voice of reason, reined us in at 35 (someone else was "jonesing" for 40) miles though as we had more on tap for the week - can't spoil any days with inactivity, right??? After fueling up post ride, it was time to head over to the Yampa River Botanic Park. We needed some fresh ideas for next summer in the Xeric garden at home.

Fantastic mountain gardens

Looks like more work for Kathleen next summer....

Great ponds at the park

Foxglove framed against the Colorado azure skies - sweet!

A perfect couple days but still more to come. The modem was smoking, so more pictures will have to wait until the next upload!!! Happy Trails!

Summer in Steamboat - Scene One

2011-08-06T13:35:00.007-06:00

Been a little while since a post here, so it is time to dust off the keyboard and put some words to a little escape we took this week over to Steamboat Springs. We have been contemplating a long-term escape from the Front Range of Colorado if everyone and their brother continues to move to our area (another 4 million in the next two + decades, nearly doubling our state's population), but that's another story for a different time. We're going to have to start posting horrible pictures and telling everyone how awful a place it is to live :)) Back on track here - now for some good scenery and Happy Trails (and roads, but that's next post ;-) )

Last Sunday we took a drive up to the northwest part of the state. We like to stay clear of I-70, so we went through South Park and caught Highway 9 over Hoosier Pass - pictured above, then up through to Rabbit Ears Pass and over to Steamboat Springs. August is sometimes a spotty month for travel across these areas as the dry summers can occasionally leave a lot of brown, drab landscape. However, with the REALLY long/cold spring in the mountains, everywhere we drove it was green and lush. And yes, folks in the mountains are actually talking about summer starting, just in time for about 6 weeks of it until snow starts up high - ouch, is that ever a short season! Did a double take on the sign marking the distances off the pass - see below:

Couldn't help noticing someone had been on Hoosier Pass recently.... We had to stop and pay homage!

(Any coincidence that Beth placed her sticker so close to High Country Healing???)

After the 4.5 hour drive over to Steamboat, we drug out the road bikes and went for a nice, mellow 18 mile spin around town to flush out the legs a bit (we had done an 8 mile tempo run the day before). This is a great place to bring the bikes as there are countless miles of quiet country roads to ride without fear of being run off the road or ending up in crazy traffic. We even sat out at Starbucks enjoying some great weather and kicking the feet up while enjoying some high octane beverages!!! We also spent some time pouring over the map plotting out our trail excursions for the next several days. Let's get rolling!

The Rabbit Ears - unique volcanic plugs atop Rabbit Ears Peak

Monday found us back over on the east side of Rabbit Ears Pass at the Dumont Lake trailhead for the Wyoming Trail, part of the Continental Divide Trail that crosses from Rabbit Ears to Buffalo Pass. This is some wide open country as the total trip across is over 20 miles by road from east to west and it is about 18 miles by trail from Rabbit Ears to Buffalo.

Dumont Lake - alpine lake #1 for the day

Kathleen on the start of the Wyoming Trail

The first 1.5 miles of the trail winds gently along a diversion ditch that the forest service uses to spread out the watershed. The trail skirts a huge alpine meadow above Dumont Lake that is bursting with wildflower activity. The trail dips through a stream near a diversion point and then sharply climbs into the first section of forest.

Been a while since we had snow on the trail

The dense forest, along with elevation that is mostly in the 10k + range, harbors snow for long periods of time and it is holding on to quite a bit this year. This was the start of many miles of snow, mud, and standing water on the trails - summer is almost here!

Indian Paintbrush bloom along the Wyoming Trail, just before Base Camp

One of MANY creek crossings on the day - Fishhook Creek after the descent from Base Camp

After about 4 miles on the trail, there is a connection over to the USFS Base Camp trailhead. From here, the Wyoming Trail continues on, shown at times on maps as Trail 1101, Base Camp Trail, CDT - all the same trail. There is a sharp descent in to the Fishhook Creek drainage, quickly followed by another climb up to Fishhook Lake - #2 alpine lake of the day. Base Camp is a popular spot for hunters who pack in on horseback in the fall - wear blaze orange if you run here in the fall!

Fishhook Lake - stunning. Why would anyone want to live here....???

HT at Fishhook Lake

Next up - Lost Lake - we found it!

Finally to #4 - Lake Elmo

We had some great stretches of trail out past Lost Lake to Lake Elmo. A lot of the trail passes through meadows that are seeping marsh ground and there was lots of standing water on the trail. We got pretty used to the shlish-shlosh feeling of soaked feet as we ran 90% of the day that way. Lake Elmo was the elusive lake for us as we have seen the others before either from the Rabbit Ears side on foot, or from the Buffalo Pass side on mountain bike. When you look west from the trail at this point, you are looking over the back side of Mt Werner, home to Steamboat Springs' ski area.

Starting back from the far side of Lake Elmo - just around the bend, the trail is under water

Leap of Faith!

Given the fact that back in March Kathleen could at times barely lift her arms shoulder high, and had to carefully step up or down for trail obstacles because she had lost all her strength, seeing her regain enough strength to jump across the creek was one of the moments that made the trip for me. While she is not by any means back to her old kick, this was a moment that gave me a spark of hope that we have her headed on the right track!

Typical trail surface for most parts of the CDT - lots of footwork, no daydreaming

Heading back down from Base Camp

Racing the rain clouds back to the trailhead

The clouds had pushed in on us pretty heavy from the start. We had several periods where the sun teased us for a while, but moreso we were watching the skies, not wanting to be caught out in the expanses of this pass in severe weather. It is not like the rain would have hurt so much - we were wet from the knees down the majority of the run. The lightning is what you have to fear up here!!!

Coming out of the forest with Dumont Lake off in the distance

Dropping out into the huge meadow and the connection along the diversion ditch

Kathleen runs in the wildflowers

Back to the start - Rabbit Ears monument and the end of the trail

This photo was a bit deceptive - the skies to the northeast were still showing blue, yet behind Kathleen as she took the photo were huge black storm clouds. We finished out with 15 miles in pretty big country. Although the trail conditions weren't perfectly stellar due to the standing water on much of the trail and the profuse number of downed trees that broke up the running rhythm at times, it was a great day to be out. And what a better way to end a run like this - we had left over pizza from BeauJo's waiting in the car - nice! Stay tuned for more from the trip and here are some parting wildflower shots on the way out from the trailhead!

Could you run here?

Red "Carpet" treatment

Flowers everywhere

Other than at the parking area at the trailhead, we did not see another person along the entire route. Peace, quiet, and solitude......

BTW, minutes into our drive back, the rain commenced - Happy Trails!

Another One Bagged: Bear Peak, Boulder, CO

2011-07-17T20:38:00.003-06:00

Following a week of unstable weather with hot temperatures and evening storms, some quite violent, the weekend was calling for HOT and no rain - ugh! Saturday morning we were out really early for a good tempo run on Santa Fe Trail - had to beat the heat, so we were off the trail by 9 am. No time for pics, either :)

Sunday, we had an "appointment" in Boulder to meet up with Tim for a run, then have lunch to chat about crewing him during the Leadville 100. The original plan was to run some nice trails in Flatirons Vista and Doudy Draw trail areas south of Boulder. However, with the forecast high of 96 in Boulder, that plan got scrapped in favor of a less exposed, more forested route. There is a trade-off: The less exposed route is also quite steep....

Starting into the Bear Canyon Trail

We started up the Shanahan Trail, climbing at a good rate but just seasoning the legs for the GOOD stuff to come. Even with the 7:45ish start (yes, that meant rising at 5:15 on a weekend morning to drive to Boulder!!!), it was warming rapidly down on the southwest side of Boulder. Fortunately, we were soon into the trees which provided a nice canopy for a large portion of the run. From Shanahan, we caught the Mesa Trail and took that over to the start of the Bear Canyon Trail. This is a very nice trail that ascends the canyon between Green and Bear peaks. As seen above, it was a beautiful day. We made our way up the Bear Canyon trail and then decided to see some new terrain and headed over toward Bear Peak. The Bear Peak West Ridge trail starts to get a little more aggressive and it is apparent that it is traveled less frequently than the neighboring Green Mountain trails. BTW, the trails are all shown on this map.

Tim running the West Ridge trail - did you know this guy did Hardrock last week??
He even let us hold the buckle.....

Kathleen on a nice section of the West Ridge trail - she went rockstar today!!

South Boulder Peak - the highest of the Boulder Skyline peaks

Views are constant - The Continental Divide from one of the lower flanks of Bear Peak

After several runnable sections on the West Ridge trail, the ascent of Bear Peak becomes predominantly a ~~struggle for survival~~ good power hike. The back side from which we would summit is all rock, so there is a lot of natural stair climbing. Topping out at 8461', the summit of Bear provides stellar views: Longs Peak to the northwest, the Continental Divide to the west, and Boulder and beyond to the east. Spectacular - once you catch your breath. At only a bit over 5 miles into our "run", we had already gained a whopping 3075' elevation - yowsa!

Behind the tree and below the Flatirons, NCAR is perched on the open hilltop

Longs Peak framed nicely by the trees

Time of day and rising temps caused another change of plans here. The original route would have called for us to drop off Bear into Shadow Canyon and run it out to the bottom end of Mesa, then take Mesa back up to our trailhead. This would have left a pretty good clip down low to run exposed to the sun. So we ~~were duped into~~ followed Tim and dropped off the summit on the Fern Canyon Trail. We have done a steep trail or two in our day. But this thing is ridiculously steep. We clipped off the first 1000' of descent in about three quarters of a mile - commence quad mashing session! We followed Fern all the way down through the shaded canyon until we dumped out onto Shanahan again. When we first came out of the trees in the last mile or so, the heat hit you in the face right now. We were glad that the alternate route was chosen because that roll across Mesa would have been ROASTING! The route ended up at 8 miles - a poor indicator of the work that it was! A very scenic route nonetheless and did a nice job of prepping us for our next stop:

I was remiss in getting a group photo, so I had to dig deep in the HT photo

archives for some mug shots - a perfect collage with our favorite Boulder eatery!!!

No better way to refuel beat up legs than to head over to Beaujo's for some fine PIZZA and salad bar! We sat around stuffing our faces and chatting up crew duties at the Leadville 100, now a quick 5 weeks away. After his experience at Hardrock, this could be a great course for Tim to roll really well. We're looking forward to it. It was 91 when we left town, don't know if Boulder hit the upper 90's but it had a good start! We had a great day and Tim delivered the goods on the trail tour as always! Happy Trails!!

Shoes - K Columbia Ravenous

S - Montrail Masochist

T - Hoka BondiB

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Just a quick update - if you recall, Kathleen had mentioned a while back that CU Boulder grad Michaela Cui was doing a charity ride from Alaska to San Francisco to raise awareness and funds for The Graves Disease Foundation. A local television station in California did a news segment highlighting the ride - it can be seen here. Michaela and Chris will be finishing the ride on Wednesday and celebrating in Crissy Park after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge - Congratulations after 3200 miles on the bike!!!

It's cool in them there hills

2011-07-13T21:53:00.001-06:00

Last Sunday morning, we took off early to head into Mueller State Park near Divide, CO, for a trail run. It was cloudy and very muggy at home but was supposed to warm up rapidly, so the half hour trip up the pass to run above 9000' elevation sounded like a solid plan. We visited Mueller a month ago to try out some trails, and at that point, only half the park's trails were open due to elk calving. So we had in mind to run the "other side" on Sunday, including a large loop we had done years ago on skis. It was nice and cool, in the low 60's when arrived, but also quite humid. Since we last blogged we have encountered a meteorological breakthrough - July Monsoon started and we have had at least some rain for six straight days (and it is raining now as I type). With the rains has come humidity - an oddity for us and most likely short lived - which does not mix well with altitude and minimalist oxygen supply. But the cool air sure was nice, so we sleeved up and hit the trail.

Kathleen in big timber on Elk Meadow trail

Morning clouds shadow the back side of Pikes Peak

Who needs singletrack - go for Tripletrack!!!

We started out from the visitors center and ran over to catch the Elk Meadow trail, then ran it out to the Cheesman Ranch loop. These trails alternate between shady forested paths to wide open rolling prairie grass. As scenic as this park is, we saw almost no one the whole time we were out. Aside from people really close to the parking area, we saw a mountain biker and two sets of hikers - that's it. Talk about having the trails to yourselves.

Old collapsed barn - a deer came out the side "door" as I approached

and I nearly dropped the camera from the startling it gave me!

Cheesman Ranch

Almost to the top - Cheesman Ranch Loop

The trails on the northern half of the park, while more mellow in grade, follow the similar pattern to the trails we ran last month on the southern half. The main road in the park is on the high spine, approximately 9800'. All the loops start down, go through rolling areas, then ascend back to the spine. We really like to finish on downhills - don't point fingers - YOU DO TOO! That does not happen here. So after a long loop out on Cheesman, we finally made it to the top and decided to head over onto the Homestead loop and connect over to the Revenuer's Ridge trail we liked so much.

Starting out onto Homestead - dropping our hard earned elevation

Meadow on Homestead trail - there are quite a few spots in Mueller

where the trail is grass instead of dirt

All finished - a nice tourist from Longmont, CO took our photo for us!

We enjoyed the trails we ran on the north part of Mueller and finished out our run just under 12 miles. The elevation on the run ranged from 9200 to 9800 feet and the total climbing was around 2000' for the route. It ended up being a fabulous day for running here as temps were in the low 70's when we finished - plenty warm when you are 2 miles closer to the sun!!! Both of us had a good run and didn't really feel like pushing on any farther. This area, as well as Rampart Reservoir nearby, give us good options for close proximity altitude training - gotta figure out that vexing little altitude issue I have going one of these days :)

Shoes - K Montrail Masochist

S - Pearl Izumi SyncroFuel XC

* * * * * * *

In other news, gotta throw out a huge congratulations to our friend Tim on his finish at the Hardrock 100 - you need to read his race report, then sit down and chew on it for a while - it is gritty, raw, a bit disturbing, but also a compelling look into arguably the hardest ultra out there. Hats off to JT also for doing a heck of a job pacing Tim in from Telluride to the finish.

There is a video that has done laps around the net in ultra circles that also gives some insight into how this race tears you down to raw existence from John T Sharp's experience there in 2010. You can see the "bigness" of this race a little bit in his video account. I will warn you ahead of time, as his weariness builds, his language degrades noticeably - not in a vulgar way, more in a "I'm getting beat down by this race" way. Just be warned and send your kids out for ice cream ;-): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi93ivFcvy0

Running in Mountain Bike Capital USA

2011-07-09T12:21:00.005-06:00

The last few summers since we really got into trail running as a full time way of life, we have not spent much time in Winter Park. In the heyday of our mountain biking 'past', we might sometimes be up there once or twice a month during the summer and fall, hitting the trails, enjoying the cool little mountain town, and generally 'Getting out of Dodge' for 2 or 3 days to regain some sanity. The base area of the resort has changed a lot of late - not so much the mom-and-pop type area anymore, but more the commercialized ski resort. With it came a summer shift too, as the mountain area is now a downhill / freeride only bike park - definitely not our gig (used to call those bikers knuckledgraggers, but in deference to this guy, I must now find a more suitable name !!!). We remember fondly (**old fart musing alert**) our days of "earning" the descent off that mountain by climbing the 2500 or 3000 feet elevation it required to reach that sweet singletrack on top.

But that's a rambling rant for another post, it was Independence Day weekend and we were hoping to beat the searing heat on the Front Range and escape the mass of humanity. Score on both counts....Mountain Bike Capital USA (Winter park's summer tagline) - get ready for some trail running!!!

Givelo Trail - Fraser Rodeo Grounds trailhead

Saturday morning, we headed out to some awesome blue skies and low 60's temps - perfect running weather. Parked over by the Rodeo Grounds in Fraser with the intent to do a big run - a large portion of the King of the Rockies Mountain Bike course. The plan was for Kathleen to run part of the route, then swing up to Elk Creek to refill some of my supplies. Might mention here - we have been bone-dry down on the Front Range, but there is water EVERYWHERE up here thanks to the very late Spring. We had to drive through part of the Fraser River overflowing onto the road, which a car would not have made it through, just to get to the trailhead.

Northwest Passage with the Continental Divide in the distance

We cruised the Givelo Trail over to Northwest Passage, enjoying the new life that is taking shape after the plundering of the mountain pine beetles. Looks different every time we are back but the "different" is starting to grow on us. We reached the CR50 dirt road and Kathleen decided to stay on the low route, bypassing the 3 mile run up the dirt road to the Tipperary trailhead. She headed over to run the equally awesome Creekside - Flume loop on her own while I trekked up to the Tipperary Creek trail.

First crossing of Tipperary Creek

Made pretty good time up the road, albeit the exposure to the high altitude sun may have started to get after me. Started in to Tipperary feeling a bit sluggish on the first steep ramp. At the first creek crossing, I took off the shoes and socks and waded across about mid calf deep. I don't run well in wet shoes, so this wasn't optional. The first couple big switchbacks beat me down pretty good - 8 - 10% grade but should have run more of it than I did? Maybe I went too hard last weekend...???

So here is a question that someone out there might have some insight into: We have lived at a decent altitude (~ 6800 feet) for 20+ years. However, the first day we are up high - like 9 or 10k and up, I struggle with the altitude (Kathleen doesn't seem to have this problem). It does not matter if it is bike or run, I always have. Occasional light headed, some bouts of general malaise, and early onset fatigue, maybe even a bad bonk. Generally day 2 is Wunderbar, so I don't get it. Any ideas...???

Tipperary alternates between dense forest and big meadows like this

Heading down - dropping off Morse Pass on the steep Spruce Creek Trail

After a couple lengthier-than-desired walking spells, I navigated the second stream crossing with the aid of a fallen tree, and ran the much more tame incline out to Morse Pass - the top of Tipperary and the intersection with the Spruce Creek trail. This route can be climbed either direction, the Tipperary side is 3.5 miles with about 1300' climb, most of which happens in the first 2.75 miles. The Spruce Creek side is slightly over 2.5 miles with 1400' climb, so much steeper, not many switchbacks, lots of long straightaway views, and TONS of bigger, loose rocks. So we, along with 99% of the other traffic, always go UP Tipperary. Running down Spruce is a little tougher than biking it - you can't roll over the loose rocks like on a bike.

Fraser River and Byers Peak - lots of snow still up there and may be there when snow flies again...

New intersection of Chainsaw and Zoom - once dense forest, now expansive views

Chainsaw / Zoom exit from the "forest" into Elk Creek

Looking south from Elk Creek road toward the ski area

Tired but satisfied - enjoying an awesome day

Shortly after making my way across Flume and the start of Chainsaw, I hit all fresh cut singletrack and a major re-route of Chainsaw. The forest has been mostly clear cut from the beetles and it was exposed in the direct sunlight. Then I cramped. Just a short one. Couple minutes later, again. What's the deal with this?? The pounding from the 2.5 mile descent on Spruce, combined with the run over 10k feet, started to pool in the legs a bit on this climb, and I started to doubt that my run would continue on to the ski area. I took 2 S-Caps and 2 gels in a 30 minute spell, but still couldn't shake the twinge in the legs. I dropped out of Chainsaw onto Elk Creek road, where Kathleen was waiting to restock me and pulled the plug - 16 miles and nearly 3000' climbing was plenty for the day. She could tell when she saw me crest the hill that I was done. She had been able to enjoy a great day on the trails as well with 12 miles of sweet singletrack! So we sat out in the meadow for a while, soaking in the fantastic day, then headed into Fraser for some Rocky Mountain Roastery java jolt!!! Later that evening, Hernando's "recovery fuel" - the king of pizza in Winter Park ever since we started going up there in '91. If you dig garlic, you must have your pie Simone style - mmmmmmmmmm!!!

Hello Mr Marmot

Classic steep mountain road

Sunday, we decided to run from the resort side, starting at the base of the ski mountain. It's a little trickier now with most of the trails being downhill travel only, so we had to hop on the steep mountain road and head up. One of our tricks from the bike is to grunt out the shortest route up, then enjoy long meandering trails back down. So we headed up a little over a mile, caught a trail across the forest, and dropped in to what we previously knew as Upper Cherokee, now GreenWorld until you leave resort property. Cruised down through the berms, which is weird for running, and then onto the long stretches of narrow, tree-lined singletrack that is Upper Cherokee. Dropped across the water board road onto Lower Cherokee, which is much steeper and quite technical, and rolled that down to the Ice Hill trail.

Entrance to Ice Hill

Ice Hill is one of those little gut punchers - there are two short ramps with 20+% grades that really suck the wind out of you. It was interesting because we passed through here twice on Sunday. After some strong wind Sunday afternoon, when we ran through again on Monday, there were two fresh tree-falls across the trail - glad we missed out on that. We continued out onto Little Vasquez, an old logging trail that is steep at times and very rocky. It was great climbing along listening to Vasquez Creek and the many raging tributaries through the woods here. We also passed under one of the Denver Water Board viaducts that carry water through the Moffat Water Tunnel right next to the train tunnel.

Vasquez Creek is roaring - this weekend's MTB race will be re-routed
around the traditional stream crossing unfortunately

After running the service road over to the top of Blue Sky trail, we dropped in there for a nice cruise through the forest with the refreshing sounds of the creek roaring far below us at the top, then crossing over it on the foot bridge (seen above) where the water is practically lapping your feet from underneath the bridge it is so high! Out the bottom of Blue Sky and across the road put us back on Ice Hill, which we took over to Serenity Trail - as the name implies this is a fantastic, peaceful forest run with a nice bed of soft pine needles making it easy on the feet.

Bridging a marshy area on Serenity Trail

Moffat Tunnel - trains are constantly passing by Winter Park Resort, turning into the mountain
and 6.2 miles through the Continental Divide, and down onto the Front Range

Finished out a great run at the ski area village with 11 miles and around 2000' climbing for the day. We tooled around a bit and headed back to the room to get cleaned up and drive out to Lake Granby and Grand Lake - the headwaters of the Colorado River. We were quite curious about the water level and were happy to see it at the highest point we have observed in over ten years since our mountain drought hit hard in the late 90's. Needless to say, it was a zoo over there and we did not linger or bother trying to walk the boardwalk in Grand Lake - half of Colorado's population looked to be there on Sunday!!!!

The Coca Cola bear gets a hug!

Ice Hill Trail on another awesome day

Boy, did we ever hit the jackpot on weather for this trip. Monday the 4th it was once again bluebird skies when we headed out for a run. We were a bit tired but decided to roll out from the base, across Serenity trail to Ice Hill, then up Twin Bridges and back the way we came. It is hard to leave when the trails are so great, the weather is nice, and the summers are so short up here - have to maximize that time!!!

Running Twin Bridges trail

Vasquez Creek along Twin Bridges

The first of the "twin" bridges was our closest connection to the roaring creek. The planks were soaking wet and the rapids were jumping 3 to 4 feet up from the current. So we had to pass on the refreshing mountain stream leg soaking - maybe another day :)

Group mug on Twin Bridges

We rolled back the way we came and cruised in to the ski village on tired but happy legs. 7 Miles to cap off a great weekend getaway. Got some coffee and snacks, and sat out at the base people watching for about an hour before starting the trek back home from the mountains! Sorry it took so long to get this puppy loaded but it has been a crazy week. Happy Trails!!!

Beat the Heat at Rampart Reservoir

2011-06-27T22:47:00.000-06:00

Early morning sun on Rampart Reservoir

Saturday was a photo-less long run day so you will have to visualize for yourself... Kathleen had to work, so we ran to the top of Mesa Road and she returned home to round out a 9.5 mile morning jaunt and tend to her duties. I looped through the Garden of the Gods, down Ridge Rd and made a lap around Red Rock Canyon before returning home the same way. 20 miles and glad to be done before the big heat.

Sunday's forecast was for 90's, so we headed up Ute Pass to check on the city's water supply at Rampart Reservoir. We had to get an early start or else miss out on parking spots at our favorite trailhead. At 9300' elevation to start, the air is generally at least 10 degrees cooler than it would be at the house at 6800'. It was an absolutely perfect morning with clear blue skies and mild temperatures - time to get rolling.

Quiet bay

Massive granite boulders are numerous along the trail

We like to start at the Rainbow Gulch trailhead and run down to the reservoir. It means you have to finish with a climb, but it also makes the run a little longer :) Early on in the run, we saw mostly fisherman down on the shore in various places, a couple runners, a mountain biker, and these folks:

Kayakers enjoying the quiet morning

Running some nice forest trails

Views like this distract along the entire route

As we have said before, this is one of those "trick" runs. Aside from the raw elevation, this trail has no extended alpine climbs nor does it have abundant technical footing. However, the constant jaw-dropping views and incessant ups and downs that come with running the the shoreline of a mountain reservoir place a drag on your concentration, and eventually, your energy reserves. There is a constant struggle to push an even pace - so this is a good mental training run, although the reservoir usually wins the struggle....

Kathleen cruises the scenic trails

Once again - views on the right, wait...watch your step...

Looking out from the dam - the sharp point left of center is Blodgett Peak

Standing on the dam, looking out across the ridge you can see a wee bit of the sprawl that is Colorado Springs. Here is the odd thing: it is about a 28 mile drive to get to the trailhead from our house. Blodgett Peak is only about a 3-ish mile hike from our front door. From Blodgett to the reservoir, as the crow flies, is maybe 3 to 3.5 miles. So you start wondering, if there was a good route, why not just bust over the hill from home, trudge up to the reservoir, run a lap, then run home??? Hmmm, maybe some time pouring over the Ormes Pikes Peak Atlas map is in order...

Back around to the inlet - plenty of snowmelt pouring in

After crossing the dam, the west side of the reservoir goes by in a flash as the 2.5 miles or so on that side seem so short compared to the length of the eastern side with the large inlets. Running through the forest, more and more light peers through, the sound of rushing water tickles the ears, and then you pop out of the trees along the inlet, ready for the climb out to the trailhead.

Stop for a pose

From the footbridge, it is about a mile and a half climb out, starting on sweet singletrack following the inlet. At the end of the trail, it is back out onto a wider trail (more like a road) that is quite exposed - it was here we noticed just how warm it was becoming, and we were glad to be finishing, not starting as so many were. The route ends up at 14.25 miles with just under 2400' climb. It was a bit of a stretch for Kathleen, but she made it. It was a great run - yet another that is so close to home! We stopped in Woodland Park for some Starbucks refueling, then stopped on the westside of town to hit Rudy's BBQ for some awesome smoked turkey and green chili stew to repair some tired legs!!! We were glad to have been up high - we hit 96 degrees in town, only 2 degrees shy of a record high! Happy Trails!

Satellite view

Shoes - K Pearl Izumi SyncroFuel XC

S - Montrail Masochist

Sunday Fun Day in the Garden

2011-06-22T22:32:00.001-06:00

Postcard Perfect Day at the Garden of the Gods

So how do you follow up the day after doing the infamous Incline??? Gingerly, for one. Kathleen and her sick friends will paint this as the ultimate joy fest (don't fall for their ploy!) that you can't live without doing on a regular basis. If you want the truth, it hurts...for days... Sunday we decided to take our mashed quads over to the Garden of the Gods for some good trail running. We woke to a gray blanket of cloudcover and upper 40's temps - what? The Weather ~~Liars~~ Channel said it was to stay all day, so we were not in much of any hurry to get moving. Then the clouds started to peel open and we knew we better get rolling. Sure enough, by the time we got to the Garden - BAM - full sun and warming up rapidly. Nothing like sun, blue skies, and this scenery to get you rolling on the trails!!!

On the way up, stopped by my favorite withered tree

I have been getting some great mileage out of the trails we picked up while doing part of the Ponderous Posterior back in January especially during the long runs. This would be Kathleen's second pass on some of them so it was pretty "new" for her. We departed the Palmer trail out of the Garden and headed up onto the ridge into Pike National Forest land.

Kathleen on the way UP!

The desert is alive - finally

The climb out to gain the ridge is quite stout and the humidity left from the early clouds was pouring off of us in sheets. The ridge we were climbing is also exposed from sunrise and sheltered from the breeze, so it was baking pretty good at this point. After gaining the ridge, we ran the contour north to the water tower above Queen's Canyon and dropped out onto Rampart Range Road.

Cruising down RRR - enjoying the long descent!

Rampart provides a nice long descent after the harsh climb, and is also noticeably cooler than the front side was. After approximately 3 miles, we popped back out into the Garden and ran around near the Trading Post. We intended to run a newer cut of trail up and over to the Scotsman, however, the initial climb had a really long horse train headed up. The stable folks from the Garden aren't too keen on letting you pass them, and riding behind a dozen or so 1000-lb walking crap factories on a hot day is a no no :) So we cut over to the Siamese Twins trail and looped around to cut back onto the trails to the south before the horse train got there.

Stunning landscape to run in - what is keeping you from running here...?

Temporarily Green - the valley vista

We made our way around the outer loop and headed back up to the visitor's center trailhead. Kathleen called it a day here after a great 10 mile trail run - feeling good, too, I might add! I topped off the water in my pack and decided against ~~my laziness~~ my better judgment to run back through the park, and up Flying W before heading home for the day. The legs were fairly toasty after 16 miles and it was time to be done. Another great day running in some hard to beat locations. I know, we have it rough. But someone has to do it .... Happy Trails!!!

Shoes - K Asics 2150 Trail

S - Saucony Progrid Peregrine

If you are So Inclined!

2011-06-18T20:53:00.019-06:00

Our initial plan for the weekend was to head to the mountains. We nixed that idea when the weather forecast for the area we had planned looked sketchy. We'd rather save the drive time and money for a pristine weather weekend. We were twiddling our thumbs with no definite weekend running or riding plans when we received an email from our friend Jill late last night wondering whether we would like to join them for a climb up the Incline this morning. I responded a very enthusiastic YES (I LOVE the Incline - it is a great, quick, intense workout that is a nice change of pace. Steve isn't as enthusiastic about the Incline as I am - he usually goes along mostly to humor me, I think. LOL!) One of Jill's sons, B, and a friend of Jill's, are training for a climb up Mt. Whitney later this summer. Jill's other son, R, and another friend rounded out the Incline group today (as well as hundreds of our 'closest' friends - the place was swarming with people!).

The Cog Railway Depot

The object of our desire - the start looking up to the false summit

Graph from Incline Club website

Pre-carnage group photo

Almost to the false summit - about 2/3 of the way up

Obligatory Happy Trails group photo, of course - at the top

It was kind of neat hanging out on top for a bit, watching and listening to all the people cresting the last step. There were many locals but probably lots more out-of-towners, no doubt 'duped' into climbing this critter by their dearest friends and family. Seeing and hearing their excited expressions at completing such a challenging climb was a lot of fun for us.

Saw lots of Vibram Five Fingers going up but heard quite a few comment that there was no way they were running down Barr Trail in them. Some ended up hiking back down the Incline (no thank you), some hiked down Barr, and we did see a few run down. Looks too painful to me. Steve, Jill, and I concentrated on a mid-foot strike in our nice springy shoes on the 4 mile-ish descent and think we did a pretty good job!

Majestic Pikes Peak as seen from the connector to Barr Trail

Purple Mountain majesty

Today's route

After we all re-convened at the bottom of Barr Trail, we waded through the masses and ended up at Coquette Creperie in Manitou for some quality post run grazing. Everyone seemed to enjoy their meals as all the plates were licked clean. We ended a fun, satisfying day with friends with smiles on our faces. Good times, indeed!

I wasn't sure what to expect up the climb today and was willing to take whatever came (ie, slow). One of the things Graves Disease causes is muscle wasting and it has affected not only the strength of my legs and arms but also the heart and lungs. I have been working diligently to rebuild and regain all that has been lost and today was a good indicator that things are heading in the right direction. Steve and I crested the last step together in 34:56 - TOGETHER!

We have not been running together in months. He mostly has been a very distant figure way out in front of me - a moving target of sorts, for me to aim toward. It was a nice feeling to keep up with him today. He is in really good shape and the Incline is NOT his favorite. The fastest I have ever climbed the Incline is 32 minutes. The fastest I did it last year was 33. Those times seem to be within sight. I was encouraged earlier this week when I rode 30 miles on the road bike last Monday and saw some hill climbing repeatability - about 3000 feet-ish. Not fast, but strength seems to be lurking beneath the surface. I felt GREAT. Then, on my couple of before-work morning runs, I was able to notch it up a gear a few times (not much of a bigger gear but it was there and it hasn't been). So combined with today, I am cautiously excited. Steve says I should throw the 'caution' part out the window, celebrate, put on my dancing shoes (if I owned dancing shoes) but that's just how I roll - a cautious realist. It might get thrown out the window if I can get a few more consistently good weeks under the belt. The 'magic' number I seem to be hearing from the docs and a couple of people is 6 months on the anti-thyroid med = feeling close to 'normal'. I am at 15 weeks and keeping my fingers crossed.

Let's see what tomorrow brings! Happy Trails All!

A Brick and some New Trails!

2011-06-12T21:55:00.002-06:00

Headed out for one of our regular routes Saturday morning as Kathleen had to get to work. We got out early and headed over to the top of Mesa Rd overlooking the Garden of the Gods, before turning around and retracing our steps. We included the little side trip on the Blair Bridge Open Space trail both directions for a little variety. It was an awesome morning, smoke-free once again, and, after some lingering cloud cover Friday night, quite humid by our standards - over 50% until around noon!

Running up from the landmark Blair Bridge

Kathleen on the bike path at the top of Mesa Rd - Nice view into Queen's Canyon in the background

From the Mesa overlook - a little skirt of clouds in front of the Peak

At the top of Blair Bridge OS - quite the landscape behind us!

We were happy to get in a nice 10 miler for a pre-work run and had a great time enjoying the much cooler than average summer morning.

Shoes - Saucony Progrid Mirage

I have been generally running more distance after Kathleen heads out, but didn't feel like running any more. Don't know if it's general malaise or thought maybe I picked up a bug in Iowa - dang Midwesterner's ;-) So instead of calling it a day, I hopped on this:

The trusty steed

I rolled out on the road bike, forgetting that it is much easier to under dress for running. The 58 degrees caused me to stop at the first intersection and pull the arm sleeves out of the Camelbak (yes, I wear one on the ROAD BIKE too!!) I did a nice loop around Fillmore, Mesa Rd, and then looped around the Garden Roads before climbing over Flying W and heading in for the day. Twenty miles on the bike, which made for a nice brick workout and helped knock off the rust from whatever had me dragging! Ended up being a nice day.

Shoes - Northwave Revolution - My "Other" favorite Italian bike shoe

New Trails at Mueller State Park

Kathleen at the Rock Pond trailhead, aka #5 - starting out the day

We took a little drive just over half an hour from home to Mueller State Park today to try out the trails. Many years ago, we did some backcountry skiing in Mueller but had never been there to run. We may have mountain biked there once, but mostly we have seen the trails under a blanket of snow. We had a large outer loop in mind to get in some mileage goals, however that would change when we hit the entrance gate this morning. The ranger informed us that the northern trails were all closed for Elk calving. What? It was like the Griswolds hitting Wally World with an empty parking lot. "Sorry sir, the trails you want to run are closed. The ELK out front should have told you so..." So we had to improvise a bit and head out on totally unfamiliar trails. All the trail markers have only numerical markings, so we would highly recommend a map if you go. The trails are mostly wide and non-technical, though there is some singletrack, and for the most part, the surface is decomposed granite. There is also a lot of steep terrain, so bring your "good legs" when you venture out for a run.

Rock Pond trail was lined with fantastic aspen stands

Brook Pond - a slight detour off of Rock Pond trail

Kathleen cruises past Rock Pond

The main road and visitor's center area all sit on a spine/ ridge that runs through the park. So most of the trails start downhill and then climb sharply back up to that ridge. (Something to remember as you do loops here!) After passing Rock Pond, we took a new trail - #15 which the ranger called Rock Creek - that is not on any of the maps yet. It is a steep climb out following the creek up many small waterfalls and is a nice narrow singletrack.

Log foot bridge on trail 25

At the top of the climb, we jumped on 25, the Geer Pond loop and soon came to the namesake pond:

Geer Pond

Osborn Homestead - in a little disrepair

After skirting Geer Pond, we were treated to a very steep climb for quite some time until we reached Osborn Homestead - trail 27. A quick drop down to the ruins of the Osborn family's living quarters leads to a nice open meadow.

Boardwalk through the marsh in the meadow

Trail 27 is mostly grassy and winds around open meadows and back onto another pretty good climb to the Black Bear loop (13). Black Bear starts with a very steep descent into a forested area and drops out at the remains of the Nobel Cabin - and the start of trail 30, the Nobel Cabin Trail. Guess what? It climbs steeply back out to the 13 trail, and then continues upward, regaining the ridge to near where the road travels through the park.

Kathleen on Nobel Cabin trail

Revenuer's Ridge Trail (#1)

Upon gaining the ridge contour, you drop in on what was arguably the premier trail we ran today - #1 ~ Revenuer's Ridge Trail. This sweet singletrack runs the contours near, or just below, the roadway back through the park to the visitor's center. It alternates between vast open meadows and densely treed forest areas and was simply a blast to run.

Video from Revenuer's

Kathleen at the top of an awesome meadow!

Top of the School Pond trail (#2)

We rolled back through the visitor's center parking area at 11.5 miles and 2300' of climbing, and Kathleen was ready to be done - pleased, but done. She followed me over to the trailhead for a group photo and did a bit of walking to let her legs wind down some. From there I took the 2 over to the 21 - Aspen Trail. This was a bad move, but how would I have known...? As expected, I took an extended descent past the School pond loop on Aspen, but when I thought I hit bottom, I got a "surprise". The next two miles consisted of a series of short, steep hills - straight up then right back down, gradually gaining back up to the ridge. A couple were 20+% on both sides, so I would most likely not run this one again, especially nearing 15 miles into a run. Oh, and I was almost trampled by a cow elk that was running faster than I ever could. I was beginning to think elk sounded good for dinner...

Finally back on top of the world - great view of the distant peaks!

Second visit to Revenuer's Ridge

After rolling back through the staging area for some needed liquids, I had contemplated heading across the road to run the Elk Meadows area. However, I wasn't real keen on "elk" today, and Revenuer's Ridge sweet ribbon of singletrack was beckoning me for a second run. So I caved in and ran it again!!! Ended the run with right at 20 miles and around 3900' climbing. Hope you enjoyed the tour of Mueller - we sure did! At elevations between 9000 and 10,000 feet, this is also a nice reprieve from the summer heat in Colorado Springs and some good altitude training close to home. Happy Trails!

Shoes - Montrail Mountain Masochist

Thursday evening jaunt

2011-06-10T21:10:00.000-06:00

After having some really smoky days from the NM & AZ wildfires, it cooled a bit Thursday afternoon and some big cloud cover rolled in sporadically on the foothills. I headed out for Ute Valley Park after work and got in a great run with some fantastic sky vistas. The run ended up at a little over 7 miles and I got some good pics of the filtered sunset. Hope everyone is having a great week!

A Monday Ride

2011-06-08T22:20:00.010-06:00

After returning from Iowa, for Dad's wedding, on Sunday evening, I was excited to get out on the road bike Monday morning. Not only was I feeling good and excited for a ride, I got an extra nice bonus when Tammy decided to join in on the ride. She is just coming off of an awesome age group win at Sageburner 50k (her second 50k ever! Woo-hoo!) the week before and was looking for a nice spin on the bike to help in her recovery. I hopped on the bike, headed south from home, picked Tammy up at her house, and we then headed into Garden of the Gods.

Two girls enjoying the FABULOUS weather! Summer seems to have arrived!

As you can see from our photo, we've had hazy skies due to smoke from the wildfires down in New Mexico and Arizona. The winds, thankfully, have moved most of the smoke out of our area. We rode at a fairly leisurely pace, pushed a little harder up a couple of the hills, and completed several laps. THEN, the REAL goal of the ride: we headed into Manitou Springs for a stop at our favorite watering hole and a big drink of Peach Yerba Mate'. Tasty and refreshing. Of course, there was lots of girl chit-chat going on, too.

Peach Mate' - Performance enhancing rocket fuel and mmmm, good!

The scene of our indulgence

After lolly-gagging for 30 minutes or so, we hopped on the bikes and headed back the way we had come. Dropped Tammy off at her house and then continued northward home. Ended the day with 27 miles and was very pleased to feel good and to share the ride with fine company. It felt wonderful to be out on the bike. Mondays have been designated as my official 'ride' day and will be shooting for 30 or 35 miles next Monday, if the body continues to cooperate. These past 7 days or so have been 'feeling good' ones. I am hoping and praying the 'feel good' days continue!

Happy Trails this week!

Coming Up for Air

2011-06-05T22:01:00.009-06:00

So let's get caught up here a bit on some lingering laundry. This past couple months has been a bit of a kick in the pants - not in a majorly severe sort of way, but more like - "Can I buy a break here for a minute?" kind of way. The whole deal with Kathleen having Graves has been, and probably will be from time to time, a setback for our "normal" lifestyle. I think we will manage that fine and do whatever it takes to keep her leveled out. To add insult to our already peachy Spring fun, I found a tumor on my chest May 12. Just so no one hyperventilates prematurely, you're stuck with me. (I will also warn you ahead of time that there is a potentially gross photograph somewhere in this post...)

Anyway, I did the rational, well adjusted, emotionally stable thing and started going through the checklist of all the heinous scenarios represented by this little ball of unwelcomed joy residing without request on my chest - typical reaction for a sane adult I'm sure. But, it gets even better than that, when the doc says "blah, blah ... family history of breast cancer, blah, blah... you get to go have a mammogram and ultrasound ...blah, blah". What???????????? Guys don't have that stuff done??????????? So on the 23rd, I'm getting smashed, poked, prodded, and ultrasounded (yeah, it's a word if you're playing Scrabble with me) Next stop on this parade is the surgeon - May 23 I get a nice 2 cm cut in the chest and he "pops out" this guy through the nice little hole:

Say Hello to my Little Friend

I named it Elvis, by the way - and it has left the building. And the surgeon didn't flinch when I asked him to have the nurse take a pic with my phone before my pal got shipped off to the laboratory. I wanted the jar on the mantle but he wouldn't go for that.... So to get on with this before you go read something interesting, stitches are now long gone, Graceland is healing fine, and pathology is GOOD - nothing bad, nothing close to bad, just a "plain old Lipoma, or fatty tumor" in his words. Back in business and time to COME.UP.FOR.AIR. !!!!!!!!!!!!! So it is now time for summer FUN. And no doctors offices. And more trails. LOTS of trails. In the mountains. Including pictures of said trails. Is that OK??? And if you ever need advice on running 19 miles on trails with a Nathan pack and stitches in your chest 3 days after surgery, drop me a line. Just don't tell your surgeon - they get a little weird about that. :)

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So after all that "fun" was behind us, we had family travels to get after. Kathleen's dad got married Saturday in Iowa, so we had some road trip activity this week. Sweltering, steamy hot back there in Iowa - you people that run in that slimy humidity in summer deserve some props - I will take altitude and lots of hills over that. Got in a 9 and 13 mile run (K felt good and got in 9 and 9 - woo-hoo) while there but no pics. Kind of weird, too, to be getting ready for a parent's marriage... If you have read our blog for more than a few days, you may remember that Kathleen lost her mom to a long battle with cancer last year. It just so happened that dad met a lady in his town who had lost her husband to ALS two years back. So they had some things in common right off with watching their spouse be stripped of life by heinous diseases. One thing led to another, and they decided they did not want to be lonely, so at the tender young age of 70, dad is now married again. We liked the analogy their pastor used - that they both have been through a long season of winter and now it is a new season of spring and renewed life. We had spent a wee bit of time with the new bride back in the fall when we were on an emergency visit after an operation landed dad in the hospital. We spent as much time as we could with her this week as well and could not have picked a better person. We are so happy that they found each other and wish them many years of health and happiness together. There was also lots of fun family time with K's brother, sister, spouses, and kiddos (and met the new 'family' who all seem real and nice). We are thankful everyone gets along well and we all had a great time together.

Happy Trails incognito ~ Photo op with the new bride!
Hanging out at dad's house before the wedding

So now we're looking to get back in the saddle with some good old trail running. Hopefully we'll be back on track with scenic trail photos next week. Summer is here and it's time to get after it! Happy Trails!

Epiphany Moment

2011-05-29T18:13:00.009-06:00

A few weeks ago, I had decided to not talk about my head-on collision with Graves Disease because I figured most people don't really want to read about it. Well, I changed my mind. After scouring the Internet for information on endurance athletes with Graves, I discovered that there isn't ANY information out there connecting the two. I surmise that this could be good and bad - good, in that not too many people who enjoy endurance related activities have it; bad, in that endurance athletes who develop it are no longer endurance athletes. That is my fear. Hopefully we can contribute a little info to aid someone who may eventually be in search of it like we've been.

I had a few weeks where I felt exceptionally good, around the last of April and the first week of May, where I thought that perhaps I was starting to see a true improvement in my physical well-being, i.e. beginning to regain some of the strength and endurance that I had lost, beginning last fall. Unfortunately, the past few weeks have been a slow slide backwards, whereby I've been scratching and clawing to hold onto my 'feeling good' gains to no avail. Doc lowered my anti-thyroid med dose over Easter by half, based upon my improving blood results. There is still a lot of extra thyroid hormone poison coursing through my body (the thyroid stores up tons of extra) so Doc told me to 'hang tight' and assured me that the ride on the roller coaster will level out. I have been moping around in the doldrums the past few weeks, following the weeks where I had a wonderful glimpse of what COULD be, physically speaking. It almost felt like a cruel joke. I am slow, weak, and tired. I have no capability, right now, of anything endurance related. Bummed big time.

But all that changed this past Wednesday when something 'clicked' in my mind and heart and I have done an about-face in terms of my attitude. Steve and I were at the monthly newsletter stuffing for Pikes Peak Roadrunners and afterward, chatted briefly with John from The Colorado Running Company. It seems that John happened upon our blog a while back and had learned about my Graves diagnosis. Unbeknownst to him, our brief conversation resulted in a pep talk and also a swift kick in the pants. He shared stories about a couple of our local running speedsters who were sidelined with debilitating conditions for several years. He then said it was OK to only do what I can do. If all I can do is hike, right now, then hike and be satisfied with it. If I can only run 5 miles without collapsing in exhaustion, then be happy with it. If it's 10 miles, well, then good. Just don't be so unhappy and so dissatisfied if the body isn't able to do more. Be happy with where I am and whatever I am able to do for the moment. Don't push for 'that little bit more'. He probably didn't realize what he was doing for me but it was what I needed to hear, so thanks John! I guess I needed PERMISSION to go easy on my body. It has been beat-up and abused by Graves for 6 months and I all I have been trying to do is push and PUNISH it even more, for being 'BAD'. It was one of those true Epiphany Moments.

The fact of the matter is: I can run. Not fast and not as far I would prefer, but I can run. I can ride my bike. Again, not as fast and not as far as I would like but I can do it. I rode 25 miles this past Monday and 22 miles today. I ran 10 miles and hiked 7 miles yesterday (Steve ran 19 miles) - it was too much, just call me a bone-head - so I will be making sure to cut back on my running routes for a few weeks or a month - whatever it takes - because it's OK and I'm good with it (at least momentarily). I truly am thankful for what I am able to do right now - and that's not just blowing 'feel good smoke' at you - it's true! :-)

So yes, you will be hearing more about the Graves thing because, reality is, it is a part of our lives forevermore. It is woven into the fabric of my being, like it or not. I happened across Michaela's site this past week. Michaela just graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder and was diagnosed with Graves Disease last fall. She and a couple of friends are getting ready to embark on a 3000 mile bike ride to raise funds and awareness for Graves. We exchanged a few quick emails this past week and it's nice to be able to talk with someone who is in the same situation and understands the challenges of dealing with and healing from this disease.

Some of the challenge, too, is the fact that Steve and I have always enjoyed doing our riding and running together - it's who we are. So we both have had to adjust to this - we are still doing these things together but in a little different capacity. I want him to keep going and keep pursuing but sometimes he wants to wait for me. I don't want him to wait for me. It is what it is. Hopefully, soon, I will catch up. Just some time and lots of patience............

Fingers crossed, pictures tomorrow!

Happy Trails for the rest of the weekend!

Here's some fun, feel-good music that revs me up!!!

A little new scenery (and some familiar!)

2011-05-21T20:07:00.002-06:00

Been a bit since a post here but we're still running! When we got back from the desert a couple weeks back, we took a mountain bike ride one day and then headed out to Limbaugh Canyon for a sweet loop we have done a couple times. Only we forgot how brutally steep the climb was on Trail 715 - especially on tired legs from those fantastic runs in Fruita!!! Not really sure what to think of Limbaugh - anyone know what the "secret" is there, feel free to fill us in. Those two runs from the fall are the MOST SEARCHED posts ever since we started blogging. What's up with that? Must be the Bermuda Triangle of the mountains or something...

Anyhoo, the last two weeks have been the part of Spring that everyone savors in Colorado - RainSnowFogSleetHailWind - a very annoying weather pattern. Last weekend we had two long runs in rain/drizzle conditions and cold, so we were not in the "sharing" mode. You can thank us. Had some life stuff thrown in with it too and cleared that, so it was time for some good weather in time for the weekend and back to good runs.

Out early enough to run with the moon!

Kathleen had to work today, so we were out pretty early to get some good miles for her pre-work. Since we had nice weather and an early jump, we decided to get in some exploration. For a while the "Scar" has been on our docket for a little exploring. You have seen it in our pics before - the long, flat scar that was formerly Queen's Canyon Quarry and is now reclaimed. Technically, the road up onto the scar belongs to The Navigators. However, it is used a great deal by local hikers and runners. There is a nice flock of bighorns that live up there - steep canyons are their deal, you know.

Heading into the canyon - Scar is in the distance still

Up onto the mining road now - Tiny Kathleen in a Big Canyon!!!

Fascinating rocks and meadows on the way up

Just a little farther...

Looking down on Glen Eyrie

Posing with the Canyon's mascot

We climbed for a while to the bighorn statue and had to head back down so Kathleen could get to work. We will certainly be back to check out the rest of the Scar in the near future. The climb is manageable and the scenery is certainly not what we expected once we got back in there. There is supposed to be a trail off the far end of the scar that heads all the way over to the old plane wreckage that sits behind Blodgett Peak, as well as a trail that heads up to Palmer Reservoir. Exploration awaits...

Cruising the descent

Down through the canyon

Some great scenery

After dropping out of Queen's, Kathleen headed off for the climb back over Flying W to home, and I rolled into the Garden of the Gods to continue the run. It was starting to warm nicely by now, a welcome change from the last couple weeks! Soon after hitting the Dakota trail on the front of the Garden, I ran into Jonathan & Tammy running their "backyard" trails - funny we don't bump into them more often. Chatted a bit and was surprised to find out that they have not been running the scar as Jonathan was almost ticketed last time up because they are in the midst of a study on the bighorns - Ooops... Might explain our solitude up there! Good to see them again - they are racing on some sweet trails down at the Sage Burner in Gunnison next weekend - good luck!!

Still one of my faves - Siamese Twins

Pikes Peak - crowned with clouds most of the day

I rolled through the Garden with my intent to run some things reverse of normal route - heading UP Rampart Range Road to the water tank, then descending the singletrack that is usually a laborious grunt from the Garden side. This was the first run up RRR and, while quite manageable, it is still a task and requires some concentration on the pacing. It is just under three miles to the tank, where you leave RRR, climb a goat path past one of the city water tanks, and gain the ridge high above the Garden and south of Queen's Canyon.

Top of the Scar, just past the hill in the forground

It was interesting to look out from this vantage point to the scar, seemingly forever away, when I had just been on it 90 minutes earlier. It was not until on the ridgeline that I noticed that distinct singletrack across the hillside - need to find out about that too!

On the ridge, looking out at Cedar Heights - those poor folk have horrible views, eh???

Took this video while running across the ridge to the drop in for the Garden. Hope it is not too shaky -the wind was gusty up there, so no commentary during the vid either. This is about 800' feet or so above the Garden, so you get some pretty nice views. Rolled out through the middle of the park, which was by now packed with people on such a great day. Made my way up and over Flying W and home, rolling into the casa with just shy of 21 miles and 3800' of climbing. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning. Kathleen had rolled in a while back with 11 miles, which is also great for a morning run before heading off to work. Hope all is well and might be back tomorrow with some more fun stuff. Happy Trails!

Shoes - Saucony ProGrid Mirage

Desert Escape, part two

2011-05-08T19:26:00.014-06:00

After devouring some decent Mexican food on Monday evening, following our most wonderful desert trail odyssey, we hit the hay with big ole grins on our faces. We woke with those same silly grins and began plotting our day - actually our next two days. Steve and I decided we wanted to try Monday's fun trail route in the reverse direction on Wednesday. Since, to me, that was the more important day, my aim was to keep today's run (Tuesday) short and sweet. I urged Steve to feel free to stay out and explore as long as he wanted as I had brought a stack of books that I hoped to consume over this week and would be perfectly happy to hang out at the truck and read while he extended his run. His response was, "We'll see". We loaded up and headed out to the very popular 18 Road/Bookcliffs trail area on a most lovely morning.

Almost to the trailhead parking lot with the spare Bookcliffs in the background.

Prime indeed! At the start, heading up Prime Cut Trail - a "lush" oasis in the midst of the dry desert landscape.

Gratuitous Group Photo

Turning onto more sinuous ribbons of singletrack - Frontside connecting to Joe's Ridge, Zippity Doo Da, and the BIG Edge Loop.

Steve on Joe's Ridge. The pictures don't tell the whole story - there are short parts of the ridge where the trail is perched on a knife edge - maybe 20 or so inches wide and then falls away steeply on either side.

We met a poor guy and his wife on mountain bikes coming toward us - he told us he was hyperventilating because he has a fear of heights and gets vertigo. His wife was gently trying to nurture him through it. Luckily, Joe's isn't really scary and is relatively short. Zippity Doo Da - well, that's another story. Miles of constantly rolling knife edge trail. I hope that poor guy stayed away from there!

Nice view of Joe's. LOTS. OF. FUN!!!

Came off of Joe's and headed up Kessel Run and connected back over to Prime Cut. I intended to head back down to the truck and encouraged Steve to keep running, figuring I would have about 8 miles by the truck and happy to save my legs for a potentially second long run tomorrow (fingers crossed). Steve decided 8 was good for him, so we headed down Prime Cut together, satisfied with 8 miles for the day.

If you want to see some good video of Joe's Ridge and some of the trail exposure, watch this video.

If you would like to see just how much more "spine" tingling Zippity Do Da is, watch this video from Ted over at Stuck in The Rockies. Enjoy!

Above - the map of 18 Road/Bookcliffs area. We are eyeing the epic Edge Loop for a future outing - it is in yellow on the map. It will be about 28 miles and includes a short rappel down "the waterfall". Doesn't that sound fresh and exciting???!!!

Worthy of mention: we refueled at Pablo's Pizza, in Fruita, that afternoon. Mmmmm good!

Most excellent pizza, especially in a small town. And great appreciation for their very scrumptious, homemade gluten-free crust. I'm getting hungry typing about it! More Please!

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We got up bright and early Wednesday morning and headed over to the main Kokopelli Trailhead, planning on doing Monday's fun run in the reverse direction. Trails always look different when done in the opposite direction. Steve was feeling great and ready to kick up his heels. I was feeling good but wasn't completely sure what to expect from the body once we got the legs moving. Time would soon tell............

We headed up the rolling gravel frontage road for a little over 2 miles before connecting to Mary's which then connected us to Steve's Loop (cool name for a trail, eh? And yes, it REALLY is called Steve's).

A perfect bluebird day in the mid-60's. Perfect weather. Perfect trails. Perfect company.

Up off of Steve's, now connecting to Mary's above the Colorado River.

Beautimus cactus

Soaking up our Vitamin D, expansive views, and lovely trails. Ahhhhh.............

This group started not too far behind us at the beginning of Steve's Loop where we saw them on a bench above us. We had just completed the 4 mile Horsethief Bench Loop when they were coming down the cattle chute, surprised they hadn't caught us yet.

As Steve mentioned from yesterday's post, we saw 3 guys RIDE this section - we had heard of it, but had never actually witnessed such a feat. WOW. There was a well deserved raucous round of applause and cheering when the last of the 3 made it. A fourth guy almost got the glory, but face-planted off of one of the last boulder sections. We still cheered for him, though, as he had earned it.

Nearing the end..... Getting ready to turn on to a new trail - Wrangler - that would take us back to the start of Mary's, not too far from the truck. At this turn-off, we are about 13.5 miles in. I am getting tired but still feeling pretty good. Two thumbs up.

Happy Trails Duo feeling pretty happy on Wrangler

Smelling the barn..............

We made it back down and over the last hill to the truck, ending the day with a marvelous 16.25 miles. Now, 16 miles has become "no big deal" for Steve as he's been putting in longer miles than that these past few months but it felt monumental to me. I got a little teary eyed at the trailhead when the realization hit of what my body had just accomplished. Starting the end of January, beginning of February, I was struggling to put one foot in front of the other to shuffle 3 or 4 miles, so I was literally soaring on Cloud 9 to be able to do what we did in the four days here. Ecstatic. I am not setting any speed records, for sure, but am encouraged to be able to do what we did. It will just take time to get my strength back. Also, I don't intend to talk much more about Graves after this (but if you or someone you know has questions, please feel free to ask as I am happy to help and share) - but when a person has climbed over the hurdle we have, it deserves positive and exuberant acknowledgment (and a big thank you to a wonderful, caring husband!). It's all good. Next up: a 20 miler in the mountains the end of May........another good test........

Another worthy mention: We re-fueled at Rib City, in Fruita, where they serve up some AWESOME smoked meats - the pulled pork and turkey were outstanding!

Another worthy mention #2: We both wore Montrail Masochists on our 4 runs, each alternating between two pairs. Our feet and bodies ended the trip in a completely happy state despite the rough and rocky conditions. Very awesome trail shoes.
Happy Trails this week!

We Desert(-ed) the Mountains... Part One

2011-05-07T21:50:00.003-06:00

Vail Pass - our weekend weather last Sunday - we're outta here!

I-70 through Glenwood Canyon - a highway masterpiece

We generally take our "Spring" getaway a little earlier than this, but with the rude interruption of Grave's Disease, we had been stalling to let the meds get Kathleen back on track. We were itching to get out for some time on new trails and Kathleen was wanting to "draw a line in the sand" for a fresh start on rebuilding her fitness. This week was that line. With some good labs under her belt, we took off for some desert relief from the fussy weather we had been having, driving through a snow storm to get to the western slope of Colorado. We were waffling on going to Moab, but perched ourselves in Fruita, Colorado simply for the fact that it has far better trails than Moab. Don't tell anyone, but it's true ;-)

Arrived in Fruita and "stretched our legs" with a nice 5 mile loop on Rustler's. The Line is Drawn...

The storm pushed through to the east, just where we wanted it to go. The Colorado River is running high, ~~stealing all our water~~ sending water downstream to Vegas, Phoenix, and other places that can't get their own...

Kathleen enjoying the desert trails and knocking off the cobwebs from 5 hours in the car

Enjoying the last stretches of sweet singletrack - got to save some legs for Monday...

The Promised Land - Overlooking trail nirvana from the Kokopelli Trailhead on Monday morning

Getting it rolling on Mary's Loop - the start of Monday's long run.

Climbing Mary's Loop, overlooking Rustler's, which we ran Sunday. Mary's Loop is the "official" start of the Kokopelli Trail - 142 miles of desert rambling from Loma, Colorado to Moab, Utah.

Heading up the double-track climb on Mary's - caution needed as the jaw dropping scenery does not lend well to the technical trails ahead!!! The views are so big that photos struggle to capture the landscapes. We took boatloads of pix, so follow along!

Dropped off of Mary's onto Horsethief Bench - one of our favorites. We have biked and run this trail numerous times.

Stopped for a group shot on Lunch Rock. You can sit on the front of the rock, dangle your legs over into free space, and watch the Colorado River flow far below your shoes while you eat your snacks!

Climbing well above the river on Horsethief Bench. The distant canyons are part of Black Canyons Wilderness which flanks the other bank of the Colorado. The water looks calm from up high, but it is really moving with the late snow melt in the high country.

Kathleen enjoying the trail - and her health. This day was a big test.

This is the "cattle chute" that you go down to enter Horsethief Bench, and then climb out to return to Mary's Loop. For perspective, Kathleen is about 40% of the way up. We have heard of mountain bikers cleaning this but never witnessed it ... until Wednesday when we would see 3 clean it and one faceplant on the very last drop! Can you pick a good line through that???

One of many canyon rims that you run along on Mary's Loop

A lot of cliffside exposure on these trails - probably less jello leg running it than biking it!!

Kathleen climbs away from the river on Mary's, nearing the junction of Steve's Loop - what a cool name for a trail...

Trail marker for my namesake loop - Steve's Loop is a sweet singletrack that follows the rim around two large canyons and then winds its way up toward the major intersection with Lion's Loop, Mary's Loop, Mack Ridge, and the Moore Fun trail.

Running on the ledge - watching your step is advised.

Such awesome trails - really hard to not run these multiple times in a row

Dropping in through some large boulders - remember the part about not watching the scenery???

Eagle's view of one of the benches on Steve's Loop - love seeing those ribbons of trail

The desert was in full bloom - good timing because the scorching heat that is coming to this area leaves the landscape fairly parched by summer.

We don't often run with cows but all the area we would run while in Fruita is open range - good thing they are vegetarians!!! This intersection connects traffic for 5 trails going off in different directions. Kathleen chose to drop down to the doubletrack off of Mack Ridge and run back in to the trail head, finishing with 15 miles - more on that in a minute...

From Mack Ridge, I headed up the Moore Fun trail - we had never been on it. It was good but not fun, if you know what I mean! Up many rocky switchbacks and ledges I climbed, with about 5 false summits, until I reached this perch looking over Mary's and Horsethief - sweet! Moore Fun is extremely technical and I would guess that I would be lucky to ride 25% of it if I had been on my bike. Some of it was even difficult to run but I enjoyed the views and the new experience.

Descending now on Moore Fun, looking east over the trails to the start of the loop, with the massive Grand Mesa in the distance, partially cloud covered.

Finally reached the end of Moore Fun - a fitting sign post to mark the end of an unbelievable run. Desert runs are different, as there are not many extended climbs with large gains like there are in the mountains. This 18 mile run had just under 2800' of elevation gain, fairly tame by mountain standards. However, the constant undulations of the trail, exposure, and pesky technical footwork required leave you in a similar state of overall fatigue. As for Kathleen's run, this was the first 15 miler she has done in many months and she was very excited to finish well. We were anxiously awaiting what the following days would allow. More to come...