Decent week, considering the long travel home from the south Pacific, a day off in Hawaii and a travel recovery day at home.
The week's stats looked like this:
Time: 11:50
Distance: 61.08 miles
Elevation gain: 7,454 feet
Sunday and Monday featured sea level runs on Palmyra Atoll.
Tuesday: Off. Spent the day working in Honolulu and taking a red-eye flight back to Colorado (cue unwanted memories of a toddler screaming for three straight hours directly behind me on flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles.
Forgot to mention the two tornados (people who live by the ocean call 'em water spouts) we saw Monday as our return charter flight from Palmyra was landing in Honolulu. Off the starboard side of the plane, two twisters dipped down from the clouds and churned up a big mass of water where their tips hit the ocean. Reminded me of a few childhood summer evenings in Kansas spent under the workbench in the basement as the tornado sirens wailed.
Wednesday: Off. Got home about 11 a.m. I was so wasted from lack of sleep, I spent the day zombie working and then passed out early for some seriously sound sleep.
Thursday - Bergen Peak Upper Loop: 1:27; 8.31 miles; 1,682 feet o' elevation gain. Easy run to get re-acclimated to running in the Colorado version of paradise. Took Maya along for the ride.
Friday - Elephant Butte/Alderfer-Three Sisters: 1:12; 6.55 miles; 1,597 feet o' elevation gain. Put in a moderate effort from the upper parking lot to the top of Elephant Butte. Hit the summit high point on the west side in 23:24 via the western social trail route. After descending to the upper ridge, I ran the outside loop of Blair Ranch, up and over the Three Sisters rock formation and then took Ponderosa (hello park ranger...see Maya on her leash!?) up to the Brother before cruising back to the truck at the upper lot.
Saturday - Pine Valley Ranch/Buffalo Creek: 5 hours; 30 miles; 3,800 feet o' elevation gain. Up early for a long one on the fine trails of PVR and Buffalo Creek area. Started, sans watch (oops), around 6:20 a.m. Ran Stawberry Jack - Homestead - Sandy Wash - Buffalo Creek Road - Shinglemill - Colorado Trail - Tramway - Buffalo Creek Road - Baldy - Miller Gulch - Homestead - Buck Gulch loop. This was a really good run. None of the niggles were acting up. Just ran a steady, if unimpressive, pace. Lots of mountain bikers out. Forgot the watch this morning. Didn't miss it. In fact, time seemingly went by more quickly without it. Was surprised when I looked at the clock when I got back to the truck. Five hours went by fast! Spent a few minutes post-run soaking the feet in the South Platte River and downing a new recovery drink I'm testing this week.
That is a seriously diverse week, capped off by a great run at PVR. Nice!
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