Yup, we are still alive!!!

The Happy Trails duo is still alive and kicking despite a serious absence from blog activity.    Steve has settled into and is enjoying his new job.  We are both settling into the short, colder days of winter although we certainly have been happy with the overall mild weather Mother Nature has delivered thus far.  Everyone, locally, knows we need moisture in a BIG way but not having to wear our heavy duty cold weather gear sure is NICE!!!

Even though we have been on a blog hiatus, we have continued to run our local trails which is always a wonderful thing.  The not-as-wonderful-thing is that I am still not physically back up to speed.  For reasons unknown, it is taking me longer to "come back" than what we had hoped.  I am not able to rebuild much in the way of strength, speed, or endurance.  The body is just not able to build and accept much in terms of training adaptation yet.  Many runs feel a bit like a slog/sufferfest - the body just doesn't work quite right and won't "go".  Occasionally, I have been able to pop off a run where I feel pretty good - not normal - but pretty good and feel encouraged of what "could be".  There have been brief glimpses of promising potential but have been unable to make those brief glimpses last.  But, it is what it is and we are trying to roll with it.  The doc said, in some cases, it can take at least a year to get back to normal.  I am 7 months in - only 5 more to go.......

Nevertheless, I am still trying to do what the body allows.  I am thankful that I can still do "stuff" - I count my blessings - it certainly could be much worse.  I am also thankful for my most wonderful, patient, and long suffering husband.  Steve has been the model of love, support, and encouragement. He comforts me when all I want to do is curl up and cry.  He is my cheerleader and priceless treasure and I am grateful beyond measure for him.

So, here are a few pics from the last few months, a little proof that we are still getting out and getting after it:  

 Beautiful fall day at Red Rock Canyon

 Another beautiful autumn day up the Incline and down Barr Trail.  Magnificent Pikes Peak in the background.

I was graced with a visit from dearest Jillery.  We hit the Incline, Barr, and The Mate' Factor for lunch.  ALWAYS a FUN time together.

 Another stellar day, this time at Palmer Park

 Doesn't get much better than this - food and family on Thanksgiving.  Getting ready to eat at Steve's sis's house - his mom and sis - see how food makes everyone smile???!!!

 The work center trails in Monument the day after Thanksgiving......  notice the continued fine weather theme???

We encountered many mountain bikers while running in our beloved Ute Valley Park on Thanksgiving morning.  Steve and I remarked to each other that it sure looked like tons of fun which led us to ask why in the world hadn't we done it in oh, say, 4 years or so???  We don't know why.  We just haven't.  It caused us to wonder whether or not we could still RIDE our mountain bikes on anything bumpier or more technical than a paved street and not kill or permanently maim ourselves.  We decided to find out.  

Steve hauled the bikes off the garage wall, wiped off the inches of dust that enshrouded them, and proceeded to give them a quick "once over tune-up".  The final verdict:  Kathleen's bike, other than a couple of the pivots which need to be adjusted, a little air in the tires and front and rear shocks and lube on the chain, was in good working order and ready to roll.

Steve's bike, on the other hand, was not so lucky.  It seems that the seals on his rear shock were shot rendering the machine unrideable.  Boo-hoo.

We decided to head down to Cheyenne Mountain State Park yesterday.  I planned to run a 6 or 7 mile loop and then hop on the mountain bike and see if I had ANY technical skills left in me.  Steve planned on running long.  I figured CMSP was a good starting point for a first, semi-technical trail ride in 4 years - the trails are mostly flowy, smooth, albeit off-camber decomposed granite, punctuated by rocky and rooty sections.  Just enough challenge to help regain some feel for the bike but not too much so where a person could hurt herself.

 

 Group photo halfway up the Talons

The primary goal was to NOT kill or seriously injure myself.  Secondly, to not ride stiff as board after not being on dirt for so long.

I kept telling myself to keep the elbows soft and shoulders relaxed.  It's really funny how the body remembers the flow and feel - after a couple of miles it felt natural, familiar, and instinctual - just a little more tentative and stiff than years past but good.  Very good.  I even made it up and around a few of the tighter switchbacks near the top of the Talons where there are quite a few embedded rocks and loose scree which can cause some balance and traction issues.  I was ecstatic on how the feel for the technical aspect came back.  The thing that was a glaring weakness, though, and a reminder of some physical limitation, was my lack of strength.  I just don't have the torque strength to power up, over, and around rocks, roots, etc.  I made it over everything, but sometimes barely, and it HURT A LOT doing it. No amount of "try or train harder" can remedy it - it's just not an available option to the body yet.  It's frustrating to have absolutely zero control over the situation.  I just keep reminding myself that it will get better, eventually, and to continue to be thankful that I am able to get out to run AND ride.  That counts for much. 

 Finally made it to the top of the Talons and getting ready to start down.....

Grimacing while looking toward the rocky switchback that starts a sweet descent

Long story short - I had a BLAST on the mountain bike.  I don't think I have had as big of a grin on my face on any of our trail outings as of late as I did yesterday.  Probably because I wasn't in continuous slog/sufferfest mode - just was at play and having good old fun.  The Geico commercial with Maxwell the pig came to mind many times during the ride, particularly on the faster, flowing descents.  All I was thinking was "Weeee, weeee, weeeeeeeeee!"  I love Maxwell - he embodies what life should be -  such fun!  

Because I was moving fairly slowly, Steve wasn't ever too far behind on the climbs.  It was nice to have him nearby - not only because I adore his fine form and company, but also he was close by to scrape me off the rocks if I had a magnificent wipe-out on my maiden mountain bike voyage.  Thankfully, no scraping was needed.  Once he gets his shock re-built, I will look forward to us getting out together on the bikes again.  It is just too much fun!!!  How did we stray away for so long???

Steve ended the day with a great 18 mile run - a nice accomplishment since CMSP is more of a challenging effort.  I ended up with a 7 mile run and a little over 15 mile ride and a big grin on my face - a grin because I didn't kill or hurt myself and for the overall fun factor of the day.

As a follow-up, I saddled up the bike and headed over to UVP this morning despite the windchill registering at 18 degrees - that's cold on a bike.  But I HAD to give it a whirl at Ute.  It's where we learned to ride trails 20+ years ago and I figured if I could make it around the very rocky, rooty, sandy, and technical nature of trails there, there was hope.  I made it around the basic loop unscathed and finished feeling super excited.  Again, I was reminded of how weak I am physically.  But I made it over everything so it's a starting point and the mountain bike will serve as another tool to help rebuild and keep the fun factor high and fresh.

Hopefully you will all be able to find some FUN FACTOR over these coming winter weeks and months and do like Maxwell the Geico pig - be a little silly and exult in the ride whether it's humming along perfectly or not so much.  Enjoy the ride!  

Happy Trails!!!

Where's the Flat Part?

 Tour guide for the climb suffering

Yesterday, I did something most sane, sedentary folks would find unreasonable: I set the alarm for 5 am on a Saturday - what?  I was meeting Craig over at Memorial Park in Manitou Springs to run up Barr Trail as part of his Pikes Peak Marathon training.  The plan for the day was A-Frame and back from the PPM start line, about a 20 mile round trip.  Craig invited me along for all or any part of the trip so I figured why not?  (BTW, I was the sherpa as Craig decided to travel light for race simulation reasons, therefore, the only photos of human suffering were taken by, not "of", the guy who carried his camera - ha!)

Early morning sun on the infamous "W's"

I would like to wax eloquent about how effortlessly we breezed up Ruxton Ave, sailing smoothly onto the lower sections of the Barr Trail with the cool morning air invigorating our running efforts.  Of course, many of you have been on or heard of Barr Trail and you would know I was lying like a politician in an election year.  The fact is, this run eats at your soul from the first steps onto Ruxton, bringing to life things like "barking calves", "flaming lungs", and all other manner of exercise induced suffering.  And we call this recreation.  Fun even.  Aside from one measly effort long since pushed to the dusty corners of my memory bank, all other trips up Barr have included an entrance via The Incline.  So when people warn about ruining your run on the W's, I don't always relate.  I have a better appreciation for it now.  In order to keep myself from blowing up, I let Craig set the pace.  

The W's are indeed hard, but the issue is more the accumulated effect of constant climb and lowering oxygen.  At lower elevations, you can "redline", realize the trouble you are in and cut back your effort.  Generally speaking, at that point, you can recover within a run and carry on to finish your workout.  However, at altitude, it seems that when you blow up, there is too much stacked against you to recover "during" your exercise.  We have seen it time and again, whether on the bike or running, and that is why people like Matt Carpenter try to warn newbies on Pikes Peak to notch it back at the start...  Anyway, back to the run.

Majesty

Barking calves aside, we settled in to a nice run.  There was a LOT of traffic on Barr already, which we expected as Ruxton was packed with cars as we ran up.  We chatted about PPM, the recent fires, life in general and pretty much settled into a nice flow up the mountain.  It was funny as several folks commented about things such as "Look, they are running and can still talk", or "Why hurry, it will still be there when you get there?" - normal trail chatter.  One thing is for sure, it was good to see folks out enjoying the trails and happy to be alive.  The city was in a bit of a fire-induced coma for a few weeks, but in general life is getting back to a "new normal".  Above about 9000' feet or so, my recent nemesis breathing issues started howling at me and my ribcage suddenly felt like it had the capacity of an infant.  Not sure what's up with that, but have been bending some ears to help me get it figured out.  I will need the big-boy lungs for some outings I would like to squeeze in before summer's end :)

Barr Camp is Hoppin'!

We hit Barr Camp (7.5 miles in and 10,200 feet above sea level) in about 1:54, which is good for me since I really haven't ever done this exact route.  I guess it is a PR - woohoo....  And Barr Camp was jamming with folks - I had to wait for about a dozen people to clear out to get the photo above.  This at 8 am.  We hung out for a while, did some stretching, and then I decided to head back down.  I felt bad to leave Craig on his own to A-Frame, but at the same time, I knew my lungs were stressing pretty good and another 1800' up wasn't going to help them out.  So Craig headed up, and I started the descent back to Manitou - all 4300' of it!

Great Views

I paused at a couple favorite spots on the way down to look at the beauty of all that surrounds Pikes Peak.  Given that three weeks ago the harsh reality was that all this could burn if the fire jumped Highway 24, it was all the more reason to pause for the awe of where we live and what we get to do on any given Saturday.  We are quite thankful for that and not a day passes that we take it for granted.  Return trip down was 1:14, certainly not speedy but I felt good the whole way down.  The round trip ended up just over 15 miles for me on the day, with 4300' accumulated gain.  Oh, and by the way, there is NO flat part, just in case you were wondering.  And I got in some "weight training" at the end of the run.  I needed to stop at Coquette's in Manitou for gluten-free flour, so I finished the last .3 miles of the run carrying a 4lb bag of flour under each arm ;-)

Shoes - Brooks Pure Grit

Snyder Quarry and Cave of the Winds

There is not really an overlook to the north where you can see Waldo Canyon, so this was about as close as I could photograph, looking a little northeast.  The visible scar on the far hillside is Snyder Quarry, and right below it is the Cave of the Winds.  The burn area to the west is Williams Canyon, which is being rated extreme on the burn severity index, along with Waldo Canyon just a bit further west.  Waldo will most likely re-open eventually, but will look totally different than what we have ever seen, which is sad but is also the cycle of life and nature.

Back a few weeks...

June 26: Pre-Evacuation notice went out about 2:15pm - this is at 3:15pm from our driveway

June 26: At 3:30pm, it became mandatory for good reason

June 26: 6:15pm - From the eastern edges of Colorado Springs -
We stood in my sister's driveway and cried for our neighborhood

We have thought quite a few times over the last weeks about a post to gather all our thoughts concerning the Waldo Canyon Fire but still not sure at this point we have totally wrapped our minds around that.  We are extremely grateful to all our friends and running peeps who were so supportive during that time.  It is a bizarre and surreal occurrence to go through, and one we hope to never repeat in our lifetimes.  Kathleen was at home when the firestorm broke containment over the Front Range and down into Mountain Shadows.  The images she saw leaving home will forever be etched into her memory.  The wall of fire was so large and moving so fast, she could only describe it as being special effects from a movie, yet it was not.  The fact is, we are fortunate and blessed that we are not sitting in a strange environment today planning to rebuild our lives from scratch.  We know people who are, and it is a dark spot to be in, yet those we have had contact with are handling it with such grace ... and that is inspiring.  Sometimes the depths of tragedy exposes the  strength of human character. 

We have a lot of photos we took on our first visit through the "war zone" - those handful of areas where it seems entire streets and blocks vaporized.  It takes your breath away to see it, and the images on TV had done nothing to prepare us for the gut punch that it is to stand in front of an ash pile that is the memories of several hundred families.  We took the pictures more as a reminder of our blessings, rather than something to post on the blog.  But processing through those images has helped us a lot with processing what has happened to our community in this corner of town.  We have lived in this neighborhood nearly 20 years, and can picture in our mind's eye many if not most of those homes and streets as they were before June 26.  Yet every day now we drive out of our neighborhood with the new reality of charred sticks dotting the Front Range, and chimneys left as the sole reminder of the memories of many families.  They say routine has a centering or healing effect after trauma - starting to get back to normal has been good in a cleansing sort of way.  

Might not ever get around to that "thought gathering" post but getting back to normal, even if it is the "new normal", feels good for now...

                                            Happy Trails

Incline and Barr Camp

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

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

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!

Priorities

Beautiful sunshine and blue skies greeted us this morning although the gusty winds remained.  Steve blazed off to work and I set about to putzing around the house immersing myself in completely meaningless activities that included vaccuming, cleaning the bathrooms and kitchen, and de-cluttering the paper "pile" (where does all that paper stuff come from anyway???).  After mindlessly slaving away for an hour or so on the meaningless chores, I glanced out the window and noticed the azure blue skies were taking on a more gray hue.  Cloud cover was moving in.  Uh-oh.  Alarm set in as I snapped out of my "responsible person" stupor  -  what am I doing???  Lollygagging around and wasting a beautiful morning on mundane household chores - when did my PRIORITIES become so askew?  Who needs a clean house anyway? Aren't  clean houses a bit over rated?  It's time to hit the trail!

Not in the mood for a normal trail run, I headed off for a little change of pace - the Manitou Incline!  I love the climb up the Incline and the subsequent run down Barr Trail.  Steve isn't as big a fan as me so I am FORCED to SNEAK over on Mondays occasionally.  SNEAK is the operative word because Steve is not fond of me going there by myself as he is fearful of four-legged animals and two-legged animals 'getting me'.  I "forgot" (ahem) to call and inform him of my plan on the short drive over .  Oops, my bad.  I was thoughtful enough, however, to leave him a note on the kitchen counter, before I left, telling him how awesome he is, that I love him, and that BTW, I went to the Incline - just in case one of the species of animals did 'get me' - they would know the approximate vicinity to search for my whereabouts.   

Anyway, I found a nice parking spot and headed up to the start.  Rumors have been floating around the past few weeks of a 'gestapo' squad issuing citations to the hordes participating in the fun of trespassing climbing the Incline (parts of the Incline are privately and publicly owned).  There is ongoing work being done between the various landowners and managers to make climbing the Incline legal.  I had visions of being hauled kicking and screaming (ie: resisting arrest) down the mountain by the 'gestapo' squad and Steve getting a call from me, his sweet wife, incarcerated at our local pokey, pleading for a bailout.  Busted in more ways than one.......  My fears were quickly put to rest, though, as I caught up to a group of firemen from one of our local departments who were training on the Incline today (with big, weight vests and shirts boldly naming their department, I might add). There was comfort in knowing the fine company I was keeping in my choice of criminal mischief exercise and figured to be safe from being hauled in if I stayed close to them.  :-)

It was a good climb today.  My fastest time EVER was quite a few years ago, when I was in good bike shape - 32 minutes - fairly respectable.  I've come close to matching it but not quite.  Today I did it in 33 minutes, 30 seconds.  Very happy since I am coming back from a few down months.  I will get it, again, one of these days. 

Took the new camera to play with today - a Canon SD 960 Digital Elph.  Unfortunately, I didn't do it justice as I managed to wash out any color that was available on a mostly gray day.  Steve will be giving me his tips and tricks on focus and teaching me about the different settings. 

Eager to start the march upward

Expansive views from the top - one mile and 2000 feet elevation gain

Peering through the trees to Garden of the Gods

Snow dusted switchback on Barr Trail

Dilapidated flume near the trail

Old engine

It ended up a most excellent day.  I enjoy the peace and quiet solitude the trail affords.  It allows me to think about life and people.  I have quiet conversations with God (I should probably talk less and listen more!).  I ponder with a heart of gratitude the countless blessings that enrich my life daily from my wonderful husband to dear family and friends and all the 'stuff' that fills it in and makes it full and complete.  Life's not always perfect but it most often is good.  I am thankful, indeed.  Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Trails to everyone this week!

Postscript:

Here are a couple of 'Go Fast Up the Incline' songs that rev me up!  :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWRJAHaOrYg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQctVDvIFWg

And if you need a dose of BIG TIME winter sports, go watch this video - This.Is.Sick:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=672524882840

Two Girls on a Joy-Run

Monday morning dawned spectacularly perfect - bluebird skies and pleasantly warm temperatures.  I picked up Tammy and we headed over to Manitou, destination: Barr Camp.  In an effort to gain some altitude right quick and in a hurry and avoid some of the crowds on the lower switchbacks, we headed up the Incline.  Along the way, we ran into a gentleman, Jerome, whom I have seen the past four times I have been up the Incline.  I don't know the man, at all, other than seeing him  here - he's a very jolly sort of fellow and seems to LOVE the Incline (I think more than us!) - it appears to be his Happy Place.  It has been fun to see his familiar, beaming face the past few climbs.

Ooey, gooey, sweaty - one mile down, 4.5 to go.  

Even though it was early and it wasn't too hot, we were dripping!  The high altitude sun is strong and this initial effort is fairly intense.

After hopping on the half mile connector trail, we joined up with Barr Trail.  It was a nice four mile climb, from here, to Barr Camp.  I really enjoyed this section because it is a realistically runnable grade for mere mortals like me.  There were a few steep pitches that we elected to hike but for the most part, we ran.

Again, I LOVED this 4 mile section of trail.  I wish my photos could do justice to the scenery.  I will try to do better next time.  It is such a beautifully magnificent yet peaceful setting - awesome.

We stopped for refueling and visited briefly with the friendly folks at Barr Camp.  Barr Camp has various forms of overnight accomodations available, albeit rustic.  There are campsites to pitch a tent, lean-to type structures (equipped with mattresses - bring your own sleeping bag!), bunkhouse, and separate cabin (again, pack your own sleeping bag!).  Could be a fun weekend outing, were it not that I would have to carry my own bed (sleeping bag) up!!!  :-)  

One of the local residents begging for a handout.

More local residents getting busy with their carbo load.

A quick look at the creek before we headed back down.

Tammy took the lead on the descent, and lead she did.  Holy cow, the girl is fast and fearless on the descent!  I tend to be a more cautious (and somewhat LAZY) descender - I like to coast - and she made me WORK.  HARD.  I LOVED it!  Thanks, Tammy, for busting on me - it was all good!  :-)  She flew down the mountain for about 3.5 miles and then eased up on me and we coasted the last few miles to the end, thank goodness!

We splashed around in the creek a few minutes, near the end, and if I would have had a change of clothes, would have gone for the leg ice bath immersion.  But, since we were  NEEDING to make a public appearance by partaking of a post-run mate' tea, I opted  to avoid the drowned rat look.  We ended with a visit to The Mate' Factor for a peach mate' - YUM!!!

For me, it most certainly was a joy-run.  A picture perfect day, a magnificent setting, wonderful trail, and good company - it can't get too much better.  We ended up with around 11 miles and about 3600 feet of climbing.  A good day, indeed.

Happy trails to everyone this week!