Chugging Along

Oops... it appears we missed the month of March.  Well, not really, but apparently we missed the urge to put up a post in the month of March :)  We are still getting out on the trails, albeit less mileage for Kathleen, but we are still out chugging along.  And it certainly helps that the weather has been unseasonably phenomenal in Colorado for this time of year.  Before we get to the weekend's activities, here are a few images from the prior month:

Group photo from a great run at Cheyenne Mtn State Park -

65 degrees on March 4!

 It has been nice enough that we have been out on the bikes too

 Since Daylight Savings Time, I have been chasing "daylight" quite a few nights post-work

Sunset on the Grandview Mesa - Palmer Park

Greenland Trail - Saturday

Now for current events, we headed out to Greenland Open Space on Saturday morning.  I have still been hitting some tempo training, and some harder trail outings, and have been thinking about taking another crack at the Greenland 25k race.  Twice previous, I have crashed and burned on lap 2 after going out over my head here.  So I have been training in an attempt to go out hot, and then hold it for both laps.  I have been encouraged by the fitness I carried over the winter months, and had a couple recent runs last weekend that had me salivating for a little redemption up north: - a first ever sub-7 pace tempo run and a 3 1/2 minute PR on the Falcon Trail at the US Air Force Academy.  So one of my goals for the day was to test the legs on Greenland and decide if I was in.  The weather forecast was for calm Saturday and WINDY Sunday - they lied.  We arrived at the parking area with some nice wind already pasting the hillsides, but there is a good chance for that on race day too, so it was put up or shut up.

Climbing the Kipps Loop switchbacks, overlooking Spruce Mountain Road - 

Kathleen in the center of the photo

Kathleen had no idea when I took the above photo that from my vantage point, I could see 2 runners on the climb below her.  Even in her post-RAI-dying-thyroid-slower state, they never caught her on the climb (or at all for that matter).  She was stoked later when I pointed it out! ;-)

Spruce Mountain from Kipps

Lap one for the course starts out an old doubletrack road that is quite sandy.  It is a gradual climb to the base of Kipps Loop (mile 3.5), which then switchbacks to the high point on course (mile 5).  Off the back saddle of Kipps, it is mostly descent to the finish, if you are on the 8 M course.  The 25k and 50k go most of the way back to the start, before doubling back over the Greenland trail to the dirt road and repeating the Kipps Loop.  So lap 2 of the 25k (and 3 & 4 of the 50k) are slightly different than lap 1.  Both previous attempts at this race, I have cramped badly on lap 2, especially coming off the saddle on the descent, which is where you make up time from the climbs.  Saturday I guessed at the turn point (off a little) and hit it at 59:40. 

Great to see Kathleen running!

At the trail junction going back out, I waited for Kathleen coming off the hill as she was finishing the loop out to the trailhead for a nice 8.1 mile jaunt.  She was running great and enjoying the day - 75 degrees in March at Greenland is pretty sweet!  After seeing her off, I headed off for lap 2.  I was pushing pretty hard into the headwind heading out and I was curious to see how I would hold up.  I hoped to simulate the race to see where the fitness was at, of course always hoping for race day to show with NO STINKING WIND.  I was pretty excited to hit the saddle at the top of Kipps on round two at low 8 average pace, and dropped off the back ready to let it roll in to the finish.  Much to my surprise, the legs held out really well until the flat straight heading in to the start.  About half mile out, I had the first alarm go off for calf cramp, shortly followed by more of the same.  However, I was close enough at this point that it didn't matter.  I was short of race distance at 15.12 (race is 15.54) but my time of 2:00:25 put me at a 7:58 pace, cutting 25 seconds per mile off my best race pace there.  Sweet!  So there was only one thing left to do - drive home, log on , and enter.  (Well, that is after BBQ at Broken Bones BBQ in Monument -pulled pork and sweet potato fries - and a Starbucks stop!!!)  So I guess that means I'm in ;-)

Shoes - K Nike LunarGlide

S Saucony Peregrine

Sunday - Red Rock Canyon

 Kathleen running sweet ridgeline singletrack - Codell Trail

Today we got a late start (again) and headed over to Red Rock Canyon Open Space.  It was already mid 70's when we rolled in, so the gusty winds were actually helpful in keeping us cooled off - which is weird to mention on April 1...?   Both of us were fairly tired and had lead in the legs, so it was a day to enjoy the scenery, kick up a little dirt, and be glad to have sweet trails to run.

 Climbing the Quarry Pass Trail

 Nice view of Red Rock Canyon, and the Garden off to the north

Kathleen hits the top of Roundup Trail

 It is funny how light angles change perspective - the water looks like Gatorade from here...

... but just brown from here!  One of the old mining ponds.

We enjoyed our run today - 8 miles and we were done!  And with the carryover from yesterday, we were also quite hungry - and what better way to cure that than to hit Rudy's BBQ which is only a block away.  We could smell the smoker when we were on Codell Trail and I thought about it the whole run!!!  Smoked turkey, green chile stew, and potato salad hit the spot.

Shoes - K Brooks Pure Flow

S Brooks Pure Grit

Thanks ... and Moving Along

First off, thanks to everyone for the kind comments and emails last week.  It was a great lift and just wanted to let everyone know it was appreciated.  Kathleen is doing fine and we are going along through the waiting process that is normal to occur after the radioactive iodine treatment. 

FREEDOM

Kathleen was quarantined for two to three days so as to not expose others to radioactivity - and she was stir crazy!!! So following two days of complete isolation from the outside world, last Sunday she was allowed out of the house - so we hit the Garden for a run! We were still super cautious about being in close proximity to other people but out on the trails that was no biggie.

Free at last

Enjoying the grayish sunshine below Siamese Twins

The Hill

Siamese Twins with no crowds

It was good to get out to the Garden, and especially nice for Kathleen to be outside.  Kathleen ran a nice 7 mile loop, then relaxed with a book in the Pilot while I went for another loop to finish with 13 miles on the day.  Good times!

Shoes - Montrail Masochist 

Nice Long Run

Reservoir with a nice backdrop

Last Saturday, Kathleen ran early before she had to go in to work for a bit.  Though her body won't allow her to push the pace at all or get long distances in, she has still been getting out for her runs without much trouble and just keeping them shorter than usual.  But shorter runs are far better than Zero runs!!!  I was a chump and waited for it to warm up before heading out on a long run.  I have not done as many of these lately and just wanted to log some miles and stay out on the feet for a while.  I headed over Flying W trail toward the Garden, but took a detour up onto Blair Bridge Open Space.  We always see these reservoirs in the satellite photos, but have not ever gone on top of the hill to check it out. 

Looking down from the top of Blair

Sweet views with the blue sky making its return!

Up on the west ridge looking across the Garden

Same reservoir, different perspective...

I looped through the Garden on Palmer Trail, then up out of the park on the Ponderous trails to the ridge above Glen Eyrie.  From there looking east, you can see the reservoirs far below from the beginning of the run.  Dropped over the gate and onto Rampart Range Road for the long cruise back down to the Garden.

Not the Saguaros that you will see over here, but they're all we have to offer!

Parting shot - heading home

One happy pair of shoes

It was a great day, with temps in the 50's for most of the run which I will take any day in the winter!  The run ended up being 17 miles and though tired, I felt overall quite good to finish a run like this in February.   Longest run yet in the Saucony Peregrines and my feet seem to like them real well.

More Blue Skies

   Group shot at Ute Valley Park

Sunday morning we got out early for a run at Ute Valley Park, and it was quite a bit more crisp than Saturday.  We were meeting friends in Castle Rock for lunch so we got in a nice 7 mile run on the trails and then hit the road.  It was also the inaugural run for both of us in these puppies:

Brooks Pure Grit

So back in time a bit to the big day at the hospital, Jill showed up wearing the Brooks Pure Flow shoes.  We were intrigued and of course GRILLED her about them.  Her new race team is sponsored partially by Brooks, so she also was privy to the Pure Grit and encouraged us to check them out.  We did.  And then we bought them :)  I felt so good running in them, that I took another jaunt at Ute when we got home later in the afternoon.  First shoe since the Masochist that I can cinch down and run without having some foot discomfort.  After some miles in them, watch for a review here.  Happy Trails!

Nuked...

UCH - Anschutz Outpatient Pavilion

 UCH - Main

 The view from the endocrinology department - showing a mere fraction of the buildings on the enormous campus

 Souvenir container

For the last couple months, as you may have noticed, there has been diminished evidence of Happy Trailing in these parts.  Kathleen's overall health had been slowly fading over the last quarter of 2011, most likely a combination of the Graves Disease and the cumulative effect of the anti-thyroid drugs she was taking for the past year.  Since early December, we have been consulting with specialists at University of Colorado Hospital in Denver (this is a huge hospital - almost a small city in itself) to look at options for a more permanent treatment for Graves.  It had become apparent that the AT meds were not going to provide a shot at any period of remission for Kathleen like we had originally hoped for. 

While there is no cure for the auto-immune component of the disease, disabling the majority of the thyroid's functionality can provide a huge relief in the symptomatic effects of Graves, since the thyroid is the main target of the antibodies.  Most often, unless there are extenuating circumstances, the chosen method for diminishing thyroid function is through the use of radioactive iodine (I-131 for you physicists out there).  The iodine is taken up by the thyroid, then over the course of 3 to 6 weeks, a large portion of the thyroid dies and the overall function of the organ is greatly decreased.  Once this occurs, most patients require synthetic hormone replacement therapy, which is a simple pill taken daily. 

So today we started the day early at UCH with blood drawings, then several tests leading up to some pictures and scans of the thyroid.  The docs then determined the ideal dosage for Kathleen, ordered a custom pill from the nuclear pharmacy (do you know where your neighborhood nuclear pharmacist is???), and at 5:15 pm she swallowed a pill that we hope will be the start of getting the major hassle of this disease behind us.  Since it takes a while for all this to occur, it is still a waiting game, but at least now we have some better sense of direction.  If everything comes to fruition, summer may be the start of Kathleen feeling normal again...for the first time in a long while.  We're hopeful...

Jill helped brighten the day!!!

It helped Kathleen out a bunch having a mid-day visit from Jill, who drove way out of her way to the 'not so hot' part of town to hang out and have coffee (& tea) with us.  By the middle of the day, the anxiety was building a bit on Kathleen so being able to relax and muse about getting back to running hard was a great way to break that tension - it was a huge lift!  Thanks Jill!

So, over the next few months, there may be some longer periods of down time on the blog, not because of inactivity, but more because of the need to get back to normal - been a while, so we might not recognize it at first!  Don't worry, we're not going anywhere!  Happy Trails...on the comeback trail soon!