Indian Summer and Trails

Hope everyone enjoyed that teaser from Thursday - those first couple bone-chilling mornings bring the shock of the impending months of winter home pretty hard.  However, with some nice weather on tap for the weekend and some improvement in Kathleen's running, we had plans to break away from the close confines of Ute Valley.  Saturday morning, we headed up to Spruce Mountain Open Space to take advantage of some blue skies and nice trails.  While it was windy, as always at Spruce and Greenland, it was not snowing sideways AND windy, so we did not complain .... much.

Pikes Peak from afar

Kathleen heads across Spruce Meadows

Enjoying the trail just in front of Spruce Mountain

Luckily we had headwind all the way out Spruce Meadows trail, so in theory we would have tailwind and downhill heading back out - nice!  While the temps were clawing their way up toward the 60 mark, the 25-35 mph winds left the arms raw if uncovered, so the sleeves remained in place the entire run.  Still beats snow.  Or 16 degrees.

Kathleen on the lower flanks of Spruce...

...Followed by Steve

Looking out toward Larkspur and the Continental Divide's snowcaps

HT on Windy Point - camera blew over twice...

Looking off the rim to Greenland Open Space

Textures of Fall

We made our way up onto Spruce Mountain and did the upper loop, then made our way down and headed back across Spruce Meadow.  We were soaking up the awesome day and not really paying heed to the windy conditions.  It was great to be out on the trails, especially with Kathleen running well!  We made it back to the Spruce trailhead - 9 Miles Pain Free for Kathleen, longest such endeavor in well over 2 months!  I was itching for a bit more, so I proceeded down the road and over to Greenland Open Space for some extra miles.

Standing guard over "Norman" (remember City Slickers?)

D&RG making frequent coal runs, Spruce Mountain  in background

I was not sure when I got into Greenland if I would be ambitious or not.  A full loop on Kipps would put me over 18, but after the 2.5 mile start straight into the wind, I took the shorter loop and finished with 15.  It was such a great run - we just wanted to lounge in the sun and continue soaking in the brilliance of the day!

Shoes - K Asics 2150 Trail

S - Pearl Izumi SyncroFuel XC

A "Garden" variety run

Aspen-framed splendor!

The Big View

Although we were being cautious about the condition of Kathleen's legs, weather again lured us away from home to run.  We headed down to Garden of the Gods Sunday morning to get in a sun drenched cruise through the labyrinth of trails that weave their way through the magnificent spires.  It was a repeat performance on blue sky and sun, minus the gale force winds.  Excellent!

The Kissing Camels

Kathleen on Palmer Trail

Some daring folk perched on Sentinel Rock

Cruising down from the Siamese Twins

Someone is getting her legs back...

Trails with a view - Nice!!!

Up, up, up onto Niobrara trail

Parting shot - the Valley View

It is certainly hard to beat a run in the Garden of the Gods - unless of course it is the second long run in a row PAIN FREE.  Kathleen peeled off at 8 miles - in her words, "content in being patient and not greedy with increasing the mileage too quickly".  She was comfortable the whole time, which made me wear a huge smile on my last loop!  I celebrated by meandering through another 4 mile circuit and we were "forced" to celebrate at Starbucks afterward.  WooHoo!  Not certain at this point as to the length of Indian Summer's visit, but we have extended an open welcome for any length it desires to stay with us - "we'll leave the light on"!!!  Happy Trails for sure!

Shoes - K Asics Trabuco

S Pearl Izumi SyncroFuel XC

Spring in the Rockies - a little Seattle, a lot of Colorado!

Spring .. or Seattle?

One of the things that you learn to live with when Spring finally arrives to the mountains - weather is, from day to day, a crap shoot.  But it is a change of seasons that does not bring aggravation like the prolonged winter does.  It is different.  Green starts to show, flowers attempt to come out, and every weather-challenged day generally brings with it a run of several days of pretty good stuff.  It is a season of transition.

So, when you wake up to days like Saturday, you roll with it.  Thick fog surrounded our house Saturday morning, so much so that I thought I had awakened too early for a weekend.  Kathleen had to work, so we had to get in a run or she would be out of luck.  So we pretended we were in Seattle and this was normal, and headed out the door.  Up and over Flying W and down to 30th street and it was a little "brighter", and then climbed up Mesa Rd - where I am approaching summit above.  Fog was thick enough, you could not even see Kissing Camels from the top of Mesa.  Pikes Peak - forgetta bout it!

As we made the return trip, the fog grew more dense.  Not really a surprise as we live about 500' elevation above 30th.  This was the view on the Flying W trail about half mile from summit - a little soupy!

We crested Flying W and headed down toward home.  Here is Kathleen dropping into the Abyss o' Fog.  It is strangely peaceful running in the fog, though I don't know that I would prefer to do it enough to get "used to" it.  There is an odd detachment from spatial and distance relation in the fog as well.  Your internal pace sensors don't work well and time seems frozen.  It is cool every once in a while.  We borrowed it for a day, now the Pac NW can have it back. To keep.  All in all, it was a nice morning out, given the soggy conditions - did I mention there was light rain coming from the fog the whole time?  We were able to get in 9.5 miles with around 1100' elevation gain - significant because this route fairly closely mimics the undulations of the Greenland 25k in two weeks.  

Shoes - Asics 2150 Trail

Colorado Came Back

As almost always is the case, fantastic weather followed up our foggy, soggy day.  It took a while as we were astounded to wake to a blanket of fog again this morning.  However, it was short lived, and the skies (and trails) were treated to the radiance of a spring Colorado sky by mid morning.

We wanted to get one more recon mission in at Greenland Open Space this week, but decided to change it up a bit.  How do I say this gently?  Greenland.Is.Boring.  At least Kipps Loop where the race is held.  One lap is plenty.  We do two laps for the 25k, the folks doing 50k get a whopping 4 - with a free sanity check at the finish!  Really, it is good for a race because it is compact enough for logistics to work on race day and it is challenging enough to keep your attention - and heart rate - up on race day.  BUT, we like to have fun on the weekends - the whole, entire, absolute reason for trail running. Soooooooooooo, the plan was to first run a loop on Spruce Mountain for "fun" and then head back over to Greenland and run a loop on the race course with tired legs, like we will do for lap 2 in the race. We started our run from Spruce Meadows horse parking area - and got to start behind these 4 horse riders.

We ran the 1.5 mile gradual climb on Spruce Meadow trail over to the base of Spruce Mountain and then started the ascending in earnest.  Two and a half miles of climb until cresting mid-way around the loop on top of Spruce will get the legs jellied up a bit.  Kathleen is climbing above on one of the "flatter" sections going up Spruce.  Some of the switchback sections are nearing 20% - ouch.

Surprisingly, the trail conditions were stellar on Spruce.  A few mud patches, some standing water from snowmelt, but mostly smooth sailing - sweet!  Here I am about a third of the way up - still a bit of snow on the north side.

View from the southern rim of Spruce Mtn.

The ranch down below might as well be named Bonanza - bordering over 1000 acres of open space, and within easy access to Pike National Forest, these folks have access to the Trail Bonanza!!!  On top of that, they have their own "open space" to play on as well.

One of our favorite group photo spots - overlooking Larkspur.

Panoramic view of Spruce Mountain, seen from Greenland Open Space.

We headed back across the prairie trail to connect over to Greenland.  We had maintained a reasonable pace for Spruce, knowing that we wanted to run a loop on Kipps with pre-fatigued legs - as much for the mental preparation as it was for the physical seasoning.   We headed out on Greenland with just a bit over 9 miles in the legs and knew it was going to be another long run.  While lap 2 is not exactly identical to lap 1, for the most part the trail is generally ascending for the first 4.5 miles of the second loop.  There is a short, steepish descent off the saddle that drops down to the Territorial Road and connects at about the 2 mile mark of the first lap.  The second ascent of Kipps is tough, as that 1.5 miles of steeper climb comes on softened legs.  Get ready to work!

Kathleen running the WIDE OPEN spaces at Greenland.

 By the finish, clouds were building to the west - almost like summer...

We made our way to the summit and knew that, for the most part, it was downhill rolling from here.  Although tired legs prevailed, we did chip away at our overall average pace on the loop around Greenland - good sign.  We ran 17.5 miles with 2100' climb and 8:40 pace.  That was, for the second week in a row, a new distance achievement for Happy Trails!  At almost 2 miles additional to the race, and with a lap on the more difficult Spruce Mtn, we are feeling pretty good for the 25k in two weeks. AND, thankfully no "issues" for Kathleen this week!  Great day out running!

Shoes - K Brooks Cascadia - Loop 1, Asics 2150 Trail - Loop 2

S - La Sportiva Wildcat

Good luck to all the Boston Marathon runners tomorrow - both Blogger friends and local PPRR members!

Greenland Tune-Up

Starting to get some more miles in the legs, which is always good with a race coming up.  Of course, the weather (usually) and longer days appropriate more available time, and generate more positive energy, for running.  We both got in nice runs Monday - Kathleen at the Garden and me on Santa Fe post-work. Wednesday morning started out snowing like mad for 4", then in true Colorado style for spring, the sun broke out and 90% was melted by drive time home.  Sweet.  So Thursday night, we hit the Garden for part 2 on the week and did an 8 miler on totally dry trail - nice!

We have been wanting to hit a training run at Greenland with the 25k coming up May 1, so we headed there today.  It was cool with some wind (always windy there) but the sun was mostly out and there is not snow covering the trails - hot diggety!  A little pre-run pose at the kiosk at the main trailhead.  Thought about going Johnny Cash today, but opted for the gray liner shirt at the last minute...   Oh, and I broke Kathleen's cardinal rule of photo taking #1 by cutting our feet off - sorry!!!

Awesome view of Pikes from the race start area.

 Kathleen passes an old corral on the Kipps Loop climb.

The plan for the day was to run out the Territorial Road double track, as the race starts, then do Kipps Loop, double back over Greenland Trail to the two track, and then cruise the last two miles in flat to the trailhead.  This is around 11 miles and we hoped to hit low 8's average pace three weeks out from the race and evaluate our condition with a few key training runs to go. 

Steve rolling through the prairie meets mountain landscape.

Kathleen on Greenland Trail, cruising past the pond on the climb over the saddle.

Finished ... and smiling! 

We came up just a hair short of 11 miles, but our estimate was pretty close.  The nice thing was that we ran well today and hope it is a good sign of positive and progressive spring fitness level.  We had no splits over 8:56 average on the climbs, and hit low 7's average on the descents.  So we're liking where we are for "speed" (for us! since we are not fast!), if you can call it that, and pretty positive about our conditioning this spring in spite of a few setbacks over the past few months.  Looking forward to a nice, long run tomorrow - Happy Trails!

Shoes - K Asics 2150 Trail

S - Brooks Cascadia 2

Stats: 10.7 miles, 1070' elevation gain, 8:13 avg. pace

Mid-Winter's Run at Greenland

We are in that bleak period of gray running weather where it is not so much a question of "Will I Run?" but more "Where can I run that is not icy skating-rink-of-season-ending-doom or ankle swallowing mud bog?"  With surprisingly warm temps the last few days and some single digit night temps, we are in constant flux between the two extremes.  One thing is for certain though, we were not missing out on a chance to run some trails with 50 degree warmth in January!!!

After deciding we did not feel like the hour drive to Pueblo Reservoir, we headed off to Greenland Open Space.  They have had more a lot more snow right there on the divide between Co Springs and Denver, but we were hoping for some decent running.  Getting ready to head out, looking south to Pikes Peak from the trailhead.

 

We started out running the Spruce Meadows Prairie Loop, hoping that the open areas would be dry.  While there were some dry spots, as in the photo above, we did a fair amount of prairie grass running today.  (By the way, if you are reading this, Sunshine Girl, that is Kathleen, in a SKIRT, in the middle of winter!! hehe!  No worries, though, we'll get paid back and have to don our eskimo suits before long.)

 

We started the run in full sun, but were racing the clouds all day as they rolled in over the Front Range.  This is looking north toward Larkspur.

 

More than half of the trail was in this state today - under water and snot-slick muddy!  So we ran a lot of lumpy grass on either side - good foot and ankle strengthening day!

 

When we finally got to the base of Spruce Mountain, we were greeted by quite a bit of snow in the trees.  So we made the frontside loop and decided to head over to Greenland and run a loop there.  No sense going up top, and then having to descend on ice with no traction control in place!!!

 

It was cool running through the forest on the north side of Spruce.

 

We did the bottom loop at Greenland and headed in from there - 14 miles on the day.  Felt longer with the lumpy-grass trekking but that's what trail running gives you some days.  Beats a treadmill!!!  Still had a nice view of the Peak, however, it would be socked in with clouds by the time we got home.  It was a great day and we truly can't beat getting these warm-up days mid-winter.  Some folks had big races this weekend - hope they went well and we're looking forward to your reports.  Happy Trails!

Shoes - K Asics 2150 Trail

S - La Sportiva Wildcat

Give Thanks and Run Trails!

Started off the Thanksgiving long weekend right by heading out to dinner Wednesday night with wonderful, long-time friends we don't get to see often enough.  Lots of laughs and good times, as always.  Geared up Thanksgiving Day and headed to Greenland Open Space, this time departing from the upper trailhead at Palmer Lake.  Sunny skies and temps in the 50's were perfect for a nice trail run on turkey day.  For many years now, we always start off our Thanksgiving day with a run or ride - it is a tradition for us.

Kathleen lacing up for a run!

Getting our dose of train activity - had two go by while we were out.

We had hoped for some dryness on the trails as Greenland is pretty open, but we had no such luck.  At least the trails here have a lot of sand, so the mud does not cake up on the shoes very much.  As you can see off on the far hill, there is still some snow that needs to melt.  Kathleen is nearing the top of the Kipps Loop climb. 

Picking my way through the melting snow/mud transitions on Kipps Loop.

These big fellas are from the Mile High Bison Ranch, which borders Greenland Open Space.  Steak anyone?

Kathleen is cruising back toward Palmer Lake on the Greenland Trail.  In the distance is another of our favorites, Spruce Mountain Open Space, however its trails were untouchable under the current conditions.  Though muddy most of our route, we still got in 10.5 miles, had an awesome day for a run, and headed home to get cleaned up for dinner with family.  We ate with Steve's sister and family, and his younger brother, all of whom live in Colorado Springs.  It was great to get together and be thankful for all our blessings, including dear family, friends, and good health!

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Black Friday dawned and we did what we always do - anything to avoid SHOPPING!  The color we were looking for was more azure, and the sky was painted with it - bingo!  Now, people will drive hundreds of miles, elbow their way through lines at malls, even sleep overnight in parking lots - just to buy junk that will end up in their attic 6 months from now.  Not us.  With unseasonably warm temps ahead of an impending weekend snow storm, it was trail time!!!

Last weekend, we ran something new in Pueblo.  This weekend, we went for more familiar terrain there - sweet desert singletrack on the south shore at Pueblo Reservoir.  Unlike our trails that cannot currently shake the freeze/melt/mud pattern, the narrow twisty trails at the reservoir were in perfect form.  We started at the Red Gate trailhead and jumped onto Cuatro Cinco - which Kathleen is running above.

With the temperature eventually reaching 70 before we finished, it was another unreal running day - who would trade this for an elbow-jockey duel in the aisles of Walley World or Best Buy?  Pass.  We connected over to the Outer Limits (seen above) for some nice cliff-hugging trail along one of many inlets of the reservoir.  Way, way out there you can just see the white cap of Pikes Peak.

Last weekend, we turned around on our out-and-back about 100 feet or so below the dam.  Here is today's view from far above the water on Pedro's Point, looking out to the dam - Nice!

Kathleen is topping out on one of many cliffs overlooking the water.

Looking out from the Pedro's Point trail to the marina - water is down a bit, as evidenced by the large sand bars.  While recreation is big here, a lot of people rely on this reservoir for their water supply and the dry fall has it a bit lower than it was on our last visit.

Powering up the Rock Canyon trail - camera makes it look pretty flat, however, it is about 8% grade behind me.  This is a tricky climb, covered in loose rock plates and left over volcanic flow that makes for less-than uniform footing.  It is a great way to finish the run by draining what's left in the tank on the climb out to the ridge.

Not much else to say - great day, another great run!  We were able to do a nice 13.5 mile loop on some fantastic desert trails.  **Almost forgot to mention - set an SKCR for the route today too - running faster is good!  We're thankful - Happy Trails!

Shoes - Asics Trabuco