Peak Bagging - Green Mountain

Decided to head up to Boulder on Sunday for a run with Tim - run some of his "slow" miles while he is recovering from last week's 50 miler.  Here was a brief overview of the emails concerning the run:
Steve: what are you thinking about tomorrow?
Tim: got an adventure planned for you guys  {red flag}
Steve: ?
Tim: 3 hours easy pace with amazing trails and views
 ~ an hour later
Tim: uh, by the way, the run has about 4000 feet of climb, just so you know {red flag confirmed}

We knew what we were getting into, so we were up at the crack of dawn and headed for Boulder! 

Kathleen and Tim - Mesa Trail

Headed out from Tim's place for some miles before the day's main attraction - Green Mountain.  Rolled out on some nice connector trails until catching Mesa Trail for the cruise over to Chatauqua Park.  It was an awesome, sunny morning, especially considering the low clouds, cool temps, and drizzle we left behind in Colorado Springs - what a difference 90 miles makes!

Steve rolls across Mesa Trail

Mesa Trail is some very nice running, including sections to the South that we had run previously.  There is great scenery with lots of high meadows full of wildflowers and a stunning  skyline to the west as you roll along the base of the Boulder mountains.

Surveying the Flatirons

Once we arrived at Chatauqua, it was time to survey the real work ahead.  With around 5 miles of climbing/rolling terrain to soften up the muscles, the serious business of the day loomed ahead.  From the scenic view of the Flatirons above, we would connect through the upper meadow over to the base of Green Mountain.

Looking north past Flagstaff to Mt Sanitas

Ground Zero - The Official start to Green Mountain

Starting up Green, the "uh, by the way.." portion of the email hit full on.  The route we took up Green was just over two miles with 2400' climb - stout no matter how you stack it up.  Time to get to work!!

Some of the early "trail" ascending Green Mtn

Looking out across Boulder from part of the way up

While we are accustomed to climbing steep terrain, there is always something "extra special" when climbing new trails and not knowing when the pain climb is going to end.  This climb is no exception - you do not baby your heart rate up this kind of climb!  So we put our heads down and plugged away - the next thing you know, we're at summit - sweet!

Looking West - top of Green

At the summit post - Green Mountain

Panorama from Green Summit

We spent a little time taking in all the views from the summit of Green.  It was an awesome day, but a wee bit hazy making some of the distant skyline a little fuzzy in the pics.  About one third in from the right on the photo above, partially shaded by a cloud, is Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.  After soaking up some jaw-dropping vistas, it was time to drop in for a big time descent off the saddle of Green Mtn into Bear Canyon.

Steve running a meadow in Bear Canyon

Kathleen high on a ridge in Bear Canyon

While the descent was quite steep at first, the run down through Bear Canyon has very manageable grades and fantastic footing for the terrain we were on.  There were some nice new trails cut in Bear Canyon since we were last there a couple years back.  The new switchbacks made the runouts a little nicer and the overall descending experience much better.  

From Bear Canyon - looking back at the start of our climb

As we ran out the last of Bear Canyon, we had a great overlook to the start of the climb from earlier in the day.  After about 3 miles descending, we dropped out on the service road and had a steep pitch back up to catch Mesa Trail.  After another short climb on Mesa, it was a nice descent all the way to the finish.  No questions, this was a tough outing for a run of its length.  However, there were some killer views and lots of nice trail to go along with the hard work.

Stats: 14 miles, 4400' elevation gain

Shoes - K Saucony Guide Trail

S - Asics Trabuco

After we finished, we got cleaned up quick and headed over to Beaujo's Pizza, a Colorado tradition known for its Mountain Pies and a pizza place that is Gluten-Free friendly.  We inhaled some high quality replacement calories and enjoyed our time chatting about future trail exploits - good times!
Happy Trails to everyone this week!

Sun and fun on Monday!

I was completely ecstatic for the forecast for today - lots of sunshine and a high in the mid-60's.  Well Mr. Weatherman, you spoke the truth and came through - I love you!!!!

Consequently, I gleefully headed out for my run mid morning (50's but glorious full sun and bluebird skies!).  Stayed on the maintained dirt paths around our neighborhood which are beginning to dry out nicely.  The route I did today is one of my basic, "normal" routes - nothing especially spectacular or noteworthy but good - I do it frequently and generally don't get too tired of it.
Up and over Flying W to 30th, turn around and head back over, loop around Starbucks, then head home.  The nice thing about this route is that there are quite a few options to change it up for variety and add mileage and elevation - mostly on dirt.  I stuck with the standard route of 8 miles and 1100 feet of elevation.  It's good.

After I got home, made myself an iced decaf non-fat mocha, leashed up The Girl, and headed right back out the door for a walk.  After a lovely walk and my recovery mocha drink, it was time to load up the road bike to meet my dear friend, Deb, at the Air Force Academy for a "first ride" of the season.  The AFA is one of our favorite places to ride - wide, clean shoulders, and controlled traffic.  It was WONDERFUL!  I felt very good and fairly strong - certainly not top notch, in-season strong - but I could feel the potential lurking beneath the surface and that made me HAPPY, particularly since there have been zero miles outside on the bike in the past few months.  The hills felt good and there are enough on the Academy to work it.  Deb and I always enjoy our time together, although it isn't nearly frequent enough.  She is a local high school track coach and teacher.  Interestingly enough, she was telling me about how she has been running almost exclusively (when weather permits) in Vibram's Five Fingers for the past 6 months.  When the weather is fowl, she runs in the Nike Free.  I have known Deb for many years and most of those years she has been a passionate proponent of barefoot drills so the switch to the Five Fingers was a fairly easy adjustment.  But she did it gradually, one mile at a time.
I'm still not sold, although I understand the philosophy behind it.  Anyway, after expounding on the pros and cons of Five Fingers, barefoot running, and the interesting aspects of coaching high schoolers,we ended up with 33 high quality miles and about 3000 ft (??? - I don't totally remember - I need to get the altimeter back on my bike) of climbing.  AWESOME!  I was REALLY hungry during the entire ride (because I forgot to eat much after my recovery mocha other than yogurt and blueberries) and ended up sidling up to the energy food buffet - 3 Strawberry Banana Power Gels and 2 packs of Honey Stinger blocks.  I always carry LOTS of food with me - my friends know that if they get hungry, my Camel Bak is a rolling/running energy food grocery store! 

Threw the bike in the back of the Pilot (the Pilot has a pretty voluminous rear area - I crammed the bike in without even taking off the front tire or needing to fold down the rear seats!), raced over to Borders to pick up my new cookbook (above), hit Natural Grocers for a few supplies and then headed home.  I was excited to get home to try out this recipe for dinner, of course, out of the new book.  Yes, I am going gluten free - more on the why and how at a later date.  Suffice to say, my periodic indulgence of hubcap size cinnamon rolls from the Donut Mill in Woodland Park after long runs or rides is a thing of the past.  Sigh.  Weep for me Slomo...   :-)

What can I say???  It was a GREAT day all around - did a good run, a fantastic ride with a dear friend, got lots accomplished, and had awesome weather as icing on the cake.  Life is always good, despite some occasional bumps in the road.  Those bumps just serve as character builders and are refining tools.  Happy Trails to everyone this week!