Sunny and cool at Ute Valley Park
Kathleen hits the trail before the sun.
Saturday dawned sunny and clear, with a crisp 49 degree starting temp for a nice trail run at Ute Valley Park. We had to hit the dirt early so Kathleen could put in a half day at work (blah!) and we always get the most of our morning runs at UVP. We have been biting our tongue on uttering the two words we dread - early fall, yet we have certainly been having some cool mornings and the air has a different snap to it. We like fall - it is, in fact, one of the best seasons in Colorado. We just don't want an early winter.
Sun was welcome this morning as Kathleen emerges from the trees.
Running the ridge with Pikes Peak bathing in morning sun - that sight never gets old!
There were some folks out marking the trails for Komen Walk for the Cure and they were kind enough to snap a photo for us near our favorite arch.
Lose the sleeves and enjoy the sun!
Heading out of the park on the still shady side - UVP is a gem and we love having it so close to home! 8.5
early miles with nearly 1500' of climb.
Shoes K- La Sportiva Wildcat
S- Asics Trabuco
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WARNING: IF YOU LIVE WHERE IT IS BLAZING HOT, YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO SEE WHAT IS NEXT. . .
Something is missing ... Pikes Peak
should be on the left-hand skyline in the photo!
Fog, drizzle, wind, and 54 fantastic degrees greeted us Sunday morning. Interesting, because just over the Rockies on the western slope of Colorado, the day topped 96 degrees in Fruita. Welcome to the mountains!!! We had been planning a long run at Spruce Mountain Open Space and figured we would just go ahead with that regardless of weather. We headed out from Spruce Meadows trailhead and up onto Spruce Mountain. It's August and we had lightweight wool on - wrong . . .
Kathleen slaloms through the pines on the ascent of Spruce Mtn.
Steve rounding the bend through the rocks, almost to the top.
Group photo-op on Windy Point - aptly named today!! It felt like we were overlooking the ocean on a foggy day, being pelted by the moist wind. Almost had us wishing for a run in Carmel or Monterey . . .
Looking out toward Greenland Open Space from Windy Point.
It still was not raining when we finished Spruce, so we headed over to Greenland for a little extra mileage. This is the view of Greenland's "population center" from the exit of Spruce Meadows trailhead!
View from Greenland looking toward Spruce Mountain.
I love hearing the trains sound off when the fog and low clouds are overhead. They were very busy today hustling coal down to Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
Kathleen prepares to make the left hand turn onto the singletrack Greenland Trail. To the north (toward Denver), it was bright and the clouds were breaking a bit.
On the descent back toward Greenland trailhead - ready for some Starbucks?
After finishing our run, we had to wait for another train in order to get back to where we parked. Here are some of the bison grazing at Endless Frontier Ranch. There is a bison to human population imbalance in Greenland!!!
Looking south on our way out, it was getting really socked in on the mountains.
It warmed up to a balmy 55 degrees by the time we finished! We were able to run a little over 15 miles in just over two hours. It is a bit more mellow on climbing here also - 1750' gain for the run. All in all, a couple nice runs for the weekend and we are blessed to be healthy and running well. Happy Trails to all this week!
Shoes - Asics Trabuco
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Something a bit different - art on Happy Trails???
We had the unique opportunity to have a special guest last evening during our worship services at Woodmen Valley Chapel - we had an evening of dialogue with world-renowned "Nihonga" artist
Makoto Fujimura regarding a reintroduction to the arts a message of hope and healing - something missing from the works of many, if not most, modern artists. It was an inspirational treat - if you enjoy different types of art, you might enjoy his.
We hit the trail at Cheyenne Mountain State Park today to check out some of the routing for the Xterra Half Marathon that Kathleen is going to run in October. A lot of the route is reverse of the way we usually run it and turns two of the extended descents into extended climbs - just gotta train harder, right?!?! She is really concentrating on the rock drop on Cougar's Shadow here.
Steve on a buttery smooth section of Blackmer.
The clouds rolled in EARLY today along with a lot of haze from the CA fires. We had some "nice" lightning over the mountain "encouraging" us to speed up toward the very end of the run!
Kathleen cruises the rock garden on Zook Loop.
Happy to be finished and not hurting - both! Sweet! I finished with 8 miles and Kathleen did an extra loop on the Medicine Wheel (think uphill, all boulders!) and finished on Zook for 9.5 miles. We kept it shorter today while test driving Dr. Dale's handy work. We had a great time but certainly were not through with running thoughts for the day. By the way, we "stimulated" the economy running style - new Brooks Cascadia 4 for both. Were suckers for shoes, what can we say???!!!
We headed from the run over to the expo for the American Discovery Trail Marathon - we were on a mission to pick up packets and bibs for a fine group of TATUR's coming in tonight to run the race from Tulsa, OK. Of course, they are coming in via Albuquerque because they ran the New Mexico Marathon earlier today - so they are doubling up for their holiday festivities. Since it is right in our back yard, we'll slip onto the trail to run a bit with Ken and possibly a couple of his friends and then meet up with Dana at the finish area to cheer them home! Because of a certain "fascination" Ken developed for the Incline (see end of Winter Park post) while visiting earlier this week - rumor has it that any fuel left in the tank may be expended on a little foray out to Colorado's Stairmaster - OUCH!!! Say tuned . . .
