A "Peak" In on a Great Day

Good evening runs...and Stinking Wind...

Been getting in some good evening runs (and good morning runs for Kathleen!!).  Until this week, no Nathan pack on the evening runs, as most have been shortish and keeping the throttle down.  Not yet anywhere near the point where I feel the need to push hard on the weekend long runs, so the evening outings have been an attempt at getting some tempo workouts (so traveling light...)  Thursday night, however, we had unexpected sunny skies in the afternoon (and the first afternoon with no wind), so immediately after arriving home, I headed for Ute Valley Park with the camera on board.  Here are some pics of the trip:

 Typical evening run - shade to the west, sun to the east

 Catching good rays on Pikes Peak - not a bad view for an evening run...

 Back around for a second glimpse and fading daylight

 Nice textures along the trail in the low light of evening

Rustic and suburban collide - heading out of the park for home

Both evening runs this week were over 7 miles, which will start helping with the endurance training.  (BTW, 3 runs in the mornings for Kathleen!)  I really pushed this one at Ute on Thursday, hitting very nice times for technical running and was hoping it would not backfire for the Saturday long run.  Good times!

Spruce Mountain ... and the WIND

Saturday, we headed up to Spruce Mountain Open Space for some good singletrack with a bit more mellow grades than the past couple weekend outings.  As has been the norm for longer than I want to remember, it was once again WINDY as all get out when we arrived.  You can only find so many sheltered areas to run good trails until you just have to suck it up and run in it.  So we glued a smile on the face and headed out on the trails.

 Kathleen enjoying the sun (but not the wind) on Spruce Meadows trail

 Nice view from the top of Spruce Mountain

The first portion of the run was on part of Spruce Meadows, which is quite exposed and therefore quite windy.  We looped back and headed up onto Spruce Mountain, enjoying some relative shelter on the climb and the first half of the loop on top.  It really was a pretty good day with sunny skies and low 60's temps.  The wind really dries you out, so water consumption was up quite a bit.  Rounding the south side of the mountain top loop, you hit Windy Point - and with the S to SW winds hitting 35+ mph, you can see the effect in this photo:

 Gritting our teeth (and hanging on to our shirts!!) while being pelted with sand...

Finished out the loop on top and dropped back down the front side in shelter, enjoying the break from the relentless wind.  I ran into the trailhead and grabbed more water from the truck.  Kathleen finished here with 10.5 miles and quite a solid run for her!!!  It is really looking like she is on the comeback trail!  I had that short moment when I could have thrown the Nathan in the back and been done, but against my better judgment, I actually made the decision to head out for another loop.  As it turned out, I made a bit of a blunder in route arrangement by heading out on the Spruce Meadows big loop in the clockwise direction.  In hindsight, counter-clockwise would have given me about 50% less headwind, but that sort of thing happens.  The next 8.5 miles would prove to be one of those loops that fall under one of those nonsensical categories such as "character building", among other things.  For the most part it just sucked.  The rolling hills and plentiful sand on the Spruce Meadows loop, combined with the wind and subsequent sandblasting, made the end of the run more drudgery than I cared to enjoy.  Will it be one of those runs that I look back on when in a tough spot on a future long run and say, "Hey - I pulled through that one" ?  Not if I can erase it from my memory before then....

Long into my day - Kathleen got this pic of me from above at the trailhead

Got in 19 miles for the day.  Thought about calling it 23 for the sustained wind resistance, but it is what it is.  I do know that I will be back to this area for a couple more long runs as the "out there" exposure to the elements is quite similar to an area I may visit for a really long run in the near future.  No photos from today - sorry.  Went for a short recovery run in Ute Valley Park to get out of the wind...again.  25 degrees cooler today and 40 mph winds = no stopping for photos - just get'r done!!!  Have a great week and Happy Trails!

Shoes - Montrail Mountain Masochist

The numbers - 19 miles, 2240' elevation gain, 4 stops to clear sand from the shoes....

Weather Madness!

Saturday morning Kathleen got out early and hit 5 miles before work - Yes!  This is a good development.  Meanwhile, I was salivating over the weather forecast, which was predicting upper 70's!  (I checked first, and it was NOT April Fools)  Jumping around with these temps of late can be a little tricky on the body, however, I was definitely getting out for some heat for this one!  So I headed over to Red Rock Canyon, where we have not been in a while, and decided to do a little Red Rock and add on the Section 16 loop.

 Blue skies and WARM!

Looking over Red Rock from Lion Trail

I got the last parking spot at the main trailhead at about 9 - I guess everyone watched the weather forecast!!!  I headed out around the east side and up the Codell trail, then continued climbing until I was up to the Section 16 connector.  

In between RRC and Section 16 - gonna be a good day!

Intemann/Waterfall trail up to Section 16

Early on I had that strange feeling that I would have no legs - what's the deal with that on a high 70's day?  Add to that the fact that there is a boatload of climb, and I was adequately nervous.  So when I hit the steep waterfall connection up to Sec 16, I kept it scaled back and did some power hiking.  Between here and the high point of the climb, there are some ramps in excess of 30% and several extended clips of 20% grade.  Now, I am not a good walker.  In fact, if you asked Kathleen, she would probably say it makes me grumpy.  But on this day, it was necessary.  Already pouring sweat by the bucket, I will say that the trees on the climb and the wind on the ridge were a welcome relief - cannot believe I was needing to cool off???

Way above Red Rock but plenty more to climb!!!

Nice views

When I finally reached the saddle where the climb eases up a bit, my legs started to turn over for me a little better.  I was glad that I did not bag this one early.  Had some great views up there - just a couple canyons north of where I was the previous Saturday!  Downed some globs of caloric goop as I rolled across the remainder of this climb and was anxiously awaiting the long rolling descent down to Gold Camp.  I was about a minute into the plunge when I saw someone climbing toward me WAY overdressed - I thought, That poor sap missed the news.  However, it turns out it was JT out training for his outing to the Grand Canyon - getting some heat blasts in ahead of the R2R2R run.  (But, man, it still looked way too hot!!!)  It was a drag to find out this morning that the brutal winds overnight brought the neighbor's massive pine tree crashing through his roof - not good!

High Drive - it looks so flat in pictures...

The descent down the back side of Section 16 was great and the legs came around a bit - not one of those glorious, all is right in the running realm kind of days, but still felt good.  The steep drop on High Drive was a bit of  pounding as usual but I was really concentrating on my descending form and I think it helped.  Rolled out of the descent and started the climb back up onto the loop so that I could reconnect to Red Rock.  Once out of the tree lined canyon, the heat was really becoming apparent.  So it felt good to drop down into Red Rock again, knowing that the remainder of the run would be mostly downhill!

Looking out to the Garden

I stopped for a minute to check out the sights as I was descending through RRC.  On the right side of the photo, you see Ridge Road climbing into the Garden of the Gods - the first ramp is 13%, then it "backs off" to 7%.  Many times at the end of a long road bike outing I have cursed that road - it stings just to look at it!

Always better AFTER you climb it....

Finished up with an even half marathon - 13.1 miles and 3320' climbing.  After several longer runs of late, this is one of those shorter runs that remind you just how humbling running in the mountains can be.  Considering that I nearly pulled the plug early on this one, it was a good day to push through the cement legs in the early stages and let the recovery creep up on me.

Shoes - Montrail Mountain Masochist - Getting kind of attached to this shoe - only wish I could get it at our favorite Candy Store....

Could the weather continue??

Kathleen navigates some "small" stones....

Got up Sunday and found that the Chinook winds that howled overnight had kept the temperatures in the high 50's.  However, the weather alarmist forecaster was warning that the weather was changing and it was rolling in fast!  So at 8:30 we were out the door for Cheyenne Mountain State Park.  When we arrived there, it was 68 degrees, but as you can see in the photo below, the gray clouds were creeping up behind the mountains...

Nice ... for now

Grabbing some rays early on the run

The Lone "Evergreen"

This tree growing from a rock on the Blackmer trail always makes my mind wander to the Lone Cypress on 17-Mile Drive - could a trip to Monterey be in the near future???

Stopped for a photo-op on Blackmer

The sun came and went during the run as was anticipated.  It was holding on pretty good as we dropped down to the base nearing the end of Kathleen's run.  We were completely stoked that she pulled off 8.5 miles. It was nice to see a glimmer of life coming back to her body.  Granted, she was tired, but we'll take it at this point!  

Picking my way through the rock garden

Just before the rain hit...

I headed out for another loop after Kathleen was finished, rolling out onto the Sundance trail and keeping an eye on the skies.  It was getting darker and the temp was falling off pretty quickly, so I didn't head up too high.  I looped the bottom of Talon over to Turkey trot, and then the rain started.  I was still warm, so it wasn't too bad until the wind kicked up.  I took Zook over to Medicine Wheel, ran the ankle twisters down to the base, and called it a day at 14 miles.  It was quite a good time and we were so lucky we got out EARLY today.  When we pulled out of the parking area, the temp was reading 53 degrees - a 15 degree drop from the start.  AND, by 1 PM, we had our first snow flakes hit the air.  Right now as I type it is 30, feels like 16 - what a day!!!  But hey, we got our run in, so bring it on!  Hope everyone has an outstanding week - Happy Trails!

Shoes - Montrail Mountain Masochist