Green Mountain

Time: 1:12
Distance: 5.8 miles
Effort: Moderate
Body: Fair
Weather: Cool and cloudy


Morning run up Boulder's Green Mountain with Brandon, another Colorado blogger I've been following for a while. After a quick introduction, cut short by the morning chill, we were off. We took the Gregory-Ranger route up, which is a route I hadn't run up before. I like this route better than the Ampi-Saddle-Green one. Today's route is much more runnable. Plus, I like that you get several good glimpses of the Green summit during the approach.


Trail conditions were reminiscent of a Tale of Two Cities...the best of times and the worst of times. A fair bit of the trail was melted out, with lots of bare ground. The bad part was that the parts that weren't melted were icy.


We started up Gregory at an easy pace and conversation dwindled as heart rates increased. We passed a descending Anton K., but, due to our extraordinarily blistering uphill pace, we blew right past him with just a quick greeting. We made steady progress up Gregory to the ranger cottage, after pausing at a bridge to strap on traction devices. From here, it's a long, steady climb with the same mix of icy and clear trail. Hit the summit in 45:52. After a few minutes enjoying the view and chatting, we retraced our steps back to our cars.


On the descent, we talked about how cool it is that there's this community of runners/bloggers out there with so many folks willing to share learning, ideas, training advice and whatnot. And, there's the added benefit of meeting other similarly inclined runners for excursions like ours today up Green Mountain.


Hope to make the jaunt up Green a regular part of the training regimen. 


Total elevation gain: 2,479.  Average HR:  151.