"Warm" Singletrack at Lake Pueblo!!!

Got up this morning and looked at the forecast for Pueblo - 70, sunny, and windy. Two out of three ... hmmmm ... road trip to Lake Pueblo State Park! At this point in the year, we would probably run in a hurricane to get 70 degrees, so a little wind was tolerable. We are not sure if it hit 70 - it was 68 when we left the trailhead to head north again - but it sure felt GOOD to be out in the warm sun. Now there is a bit of a trade off as you can see in the photo of Kathleen above on Pedro's Point: this is high desert with lots of rolling ... well, rolling desert!
It was nice to be running around all the water again. The water in the resrvoir was higher than when we last visited in January by six to eight feet. The park report was showing 36 degree water temp, so although we saw many boats out today, we saw NO water skiers! Steve is on the Outer Limits trail and you can see several boats in the inlet behind.
There were good views of Pikes Peak from pretty much everywhere on the trails today with the clear skies.
By this point on Outer Limits, we were heading more easterly toward Pedro's Point and we were beginning to gain a little shelter from the wind. Pretty much the first 7 or 8 miles we were running more into the wind than away from it - however we were warm at the same time, so it was all good!
The evergreens always have color, but we did notice that the deciduous trees are getting their leaves already in Pueblo - wow. The cactus are also blooming so spring must be around the corner - woo hoo!

CAUTION: Please do not step off the trail.

Kathleen is all grins as she cruises down the waterfall trail. How could you not be smiling on a day like this with buff desert singletrack under foot?
Coming out of the Waterfall trail and ready for the climb out to the trailhead. You really don't want days like this to end when it is March.
The view heading up Rock Canyon trail. Lots of loose shale and big rocks - appropriately named trail. The running here is a nice change from our normal alpine type runs - lots of sharp ups and downs, not many long climbs or descents, and plenty of loose talus and shale to keep your eyes focused on the trail. Oh, SAND too!!!
We will probably have the grin on our faces even when we wake up tomorrow. We were able to run a bit over 13 miles of awesome high desert trail. We had to take a little drive to get there, but it was well worth the trip. It was one more step to thaw the winter fog off and get charged up for a new season! Happy Trails to all this week and hope you begin to thaw out as well!

Shoes - Asics Gel Trabuco

Good day for a ride!

We did not get up early and run this morning - single digits and below zero wind chill. IT'S.THE.MIDDLE.OF.MARCH and that crud is no longer tolerable!!! I guess we're getting a bit soft as we age - we'll leave that harsh cold stuff to the real hardcores like these folks up in Canada! Kathleen had to work, so after it finally warmed a bit, I headed over to the Santa Fe trail to get some revolutions in on the mountain bike. They started putting up these fancy mile posts a while back that mark off the mileage for the whole Front Range Trail system.
A little change of pace actually was just what the doctor ordered. I have had a little "issue" on and off with some IT band and ankle/foot crabbiness on the left leg. This was the result of a little snowshoe incident in January (involving my clumsiness on 27" long feet!!) and I'm ready for it to be gone. So I am hoping to mix in a few rides this spring to balance out the leg muscles a bit. Kathleen has already been getting some Monday rides in again (and even a few Bricks!).
It was a crisp, beautiful bluebird day with awesome views as always. On the left is Baldy and the right is the familiar Pikes Peak, as seen from the Santa Fe Trail halfway through the Air Force Academy. It was a nice change to be clipping off 4 minute miles - you'll never catch me doing that on foot FOR SURE!
I turned around at the gate for the north boundary of the Academy. This is looking north to Mount Herman in Monument - plenty of great trails up there also, but save those for another day. I have not been on the bike in at least 4 or 5 months, except for a handful of trainer rides indoors this winter. So you don't want to overdo it on that first one - sore butts are no fun!!!

Cool view of Pikes Peak through the barbed wire.

In other words, don't mess around once you go through the gate! Even though you are passing through on a public access trail, you have plenty of reminders that you ARE ON AIR FORCE TURF.
Falcon Stadium, home to your Air Force Falcon football squad. Skirting the ridge line right behind the press boxes on top of the stadium is the prime singletrack Falcon Trail - one of our favorite runs. We love using the Academy grounds and we have a great deal of respect for what happens here. There are plenty of future leaders training on these grounds and we are thankful for their service. It was pretty nice to get out on the bike and have some different activity for the legs today. I was able to get in 20 miles and aside from sore "sit muscles", feel pretty good post ride. Looking forward to a good run tomorrow with the possibility of some unseasonably warm temps again - sweet! Happy Trails!

Shoes - Sidi Dominator (just for AJB in SC!)

PS - Kathleen came home from work and peeled off a quick 5 miler to make up for skipping the morning run - cool!

Bear Creek and Section 16

It's time to start building the climbing legs again, so we headed over to Bear Creek Regional Park to do some familiar trails. Only today we put them together in a new route. The theme was climb the first half, descend the second half - and it was a loooong climb (at least for us!!!)
The sun was awesome as we hit the trails and as ordered, the blue sky was plentiful - Gotta love Colorado! Kathleen is running the bear Creek Regional trail here on our way out to Section 16.
Section 16 is a general name for an open space area above Gold Camp Road and we run the Palmer and Red Rock trails that form a loop around the circumference of Section 16. Once again, this steep rock slab looks flat in pictures - can't figure that out.
The start of the mile long section of 13 - 16 percent grade - ouch! There was still a bit of snow left, but not much and we definitely need some. We don't want to dry up and blow away (or worse, burn away) this summer.
Nearing the summit of the long climb on Section 16, we were awarded with the views over Red Rock Canyon Open Space (one of our fav's) and out across the city. It was so clear, the vistas stretched forever today.
Kathleen cruises along the rolling saddle atop Section 16, nearing the start of the reward for all that climb - 5.5 miles of almost continuous descent (and burnt quads!).
Steve cruising along at the exit of Section 16 onto High Drive, a steep dirt road that is only open to traffic one direction and only in summer. From this point, we still had over 3 miles of descending to the trailhead - sweet!!!
Colorado Springs stretches out in the background as Steve runs the Bear Creek Regional trail on the way down. Not too many "skyscrapers" to speak of and we like it that way.
Back down in the desert terrain of Bear Creek park, Kathleen is finishing strong. This trail is part of the race course for the Summer Roundup race we did last year. If we are in town, we'll do that one again this year.
We ended up running just shy of 11 miles with an accumulated 2800' elevation gain. As the graph shows, that second half of the long climb about causes you to hack up a lung!!! This will be a good route to get the climbing legs in gear. We would normally choose to climb the opposite direction but we were not sure of the snow/ice situation and that steep side is almost impassible in the downhill direction with ice. Now that most of the ice is gone, our next visit will be in the opposite approach. It was great fun out there and we even enjoyed the burnt quads! Happy Trails!!!

Shoes - K Montrail Odyssey
S - Brooks Cascadia