The Week that Was - January 1 - 7, 2012

Ah yes...a new year. The time when many make new resolutions, big plans and look back to take stock of the year that just ended. I am definitely a big fan of that stuff. Thus, my resolution is to make some big plans as soon as I finish reviewing 2011.

Until then, I'll try to keep up the daily ultramarathon of work, family, running and volunteering.

So, the week that was:

Monday: Steady - 10.38 miles; 1:38; 1,105 feet o' elevation gain - Hiwan - the Ridge - Kittredge. Met up at DW's house and ran through two local 'hoods and snuck over to the dirt road that leads down into Kittredge. Ran down to Bear Creek, east down Bear Creek Canyon. Climbed back up via Kerr Gulch. Took the upper sneak back into the Ridge and retraced our steps to DW's house.

Tuesday: Tempo - 8:59 miles; 1:16; 384 feet o' elevation gain - Upper Bear Creek Road.  Met up w/ Steve F. for this one. Two mile w/u jog up the road, then two miles of uphill tempo (6:31; 6:20). Actually, I did about 2.25 miles of tempo because I missed the prominent mile marker post. Turned around and did a mile easy, then two more miles of tempo (5:56; 5:55). One mile c/d.


Wednesday:  Climbing - 5:12 miles; 1:06; 1,513 feet o' elevation gain - Flagstaff Mountain. Started late afternoon from Eben G. Fine and climbed up the trail to the sign that marks the loop atop of the mountain in 33:24. Trail conditions were decent, with constantly changing mix of snow, ice and dirt. Most of the descent was in the dark. Naturally, I had no light. Took me 32:50 to get down (a whopping 34 seconds faster than the ascent).


Thursday:  Easy w/ hill fartleks - 9:23 miles; 1:18; 1,279 feet o' elevation gain - Ran a slightly abbreviated version of my 10-mile loop through the Soda Creek subdivision. Got in an extra mile on the bike path around Bergen Park. Toward the end of the loop my right knee started hurting - a very noticeable ache on the outside. Walked the last quarter mile.


Friday:  1 mile; 8 minutes - treadmill, Buchanan Rec Center. 6-7 miles was the plan, but my right knee objected. After some tense negotiations, I relented and headed to the weights. One and a half sets of squats was about all the knee would allow, so I scrapped that too and setting for a series of core exercises on the soft floor around the climbing wall where jP and CP were climbing. Frustrating, but was able to watch a lot more of the kids rock climbing that I would have otherwise.


Saturday: 23.25 miles ; 3:32; 2,137 feet o' elevation gain - Hooked up with CB for some early morning jogging. Started at the dirt parking lot at the Morrison exit of C-470. We headed north to Green Mountain running on the bike path along C-470, noting that the mountain ahead looked tantalizingly free of snow. As we drew even with the mountain, we called an audible and hung a right and did a loop around the southeast side of the mountain. We continued along to the snowier/icier north side before climbing steeply up to the signal towers (after I made a rather unglamorous butt slide down a steep, icy section of trail). We descended the west side of the mountain and ran the C-470 bike path back to the cars. I bid CB adieu (family commitments) and headed out for a nine-mile bike path/road loop through Bear Creek Lake park. My knee felt a little twingy now and then, but held up fine.

Lakewood's Green Mountain in the distance. From near Mt. Carbon. 

Road down from the Bear Creek Lake dam, looking southwest.

Total:  67.49 miles; just shy of 10 hours; 7,253 feet o' elevation gain. Overall a very solid week. The knee issue that cropped up Thursday, and forced the day off on Friday was frustrating, but seems to be manageable (as it held up OK on Saturday's long run). Fingers crossed that it was a fleeting protestation.

On Sunday I sweated my way through my second-ever yoga class with JP. I sweated so much over the hour-long class that my fingers were pruned and I regularly found myself laying in my mat's very own private sweat pond. I feel like these sessions are great for long-run recovery. I felt so much better post yoga work-out than before. Hope to make these a somewhat weekly affair. After the class, I went home and read the NYTimes Magazine article on the injury risks of yoga. Good reminder to take it easy.

The Higher You Go, the Warmer it Gets

An early start to the workday allowed for an extended lunch run today. An inversion was holding the cold, damp air down low, making the upper reaches of the local hills warmer than the bottom.


Time: 1:57
Distance: 10.71 miles
Effort: Easy
Body: Average
Weather: Cool and Cloudy

Ran from the office to Eben G. Fine and up to the summit of Flagstaff Mountain via Viewpoint and Flagstaff Trails. Pace was easy, but steady. Trees, shrubs and grass all were covered in a nice cloak of snow from the overnight dusting. Truly beautiful.

Interestingly, the higher I went, the warmer it got. Apparently there was an inversion holding the cold air down low.  Almost stopped to shed a layer at the top of Flagstaff.

After running around the trail atop Flagstaff over to Flagstaff Road, I jogged down to the Green Mountain Lodge, curious about trail conditions. The trail was icy, but footing wasn't bad due to the bit of snow covering everything. I was in the mood for a bit more vert, so I jogged up Ranger to Greenman, hung a left and ran over to Saddle Rock.  I paused here for a bit and contemplated heading up to tag the summit of Green, but I already was hurting for time, so down I went.

The descent down Saddle Rock took a lot of time and patience. Lots of ice and no traction devices conspired to slow my pace to a crawl in spots. I even had to sit down and inch my way down one particularly steep, rocky and icy drop.  Managed to make it down to the mouth of Gregory Canyon without hitting the deck, although I had multiple close calls.

Jogged through town back to work with a quick stop at Illegal Pete's for a burrito to go.

2,154 feet o' elevation gain.

Flagstaff Mountain Loop

Late afternoon run up Boulder's Flagstaff Mountain, returned via Boulder Canyon...a loop I hadn't run before.

Time: 1:21
Distance: 8.75 miles
Effort: Moderate
Body: Good
Weather: Mostly sunny and cool

Set out from Eben G. Fine park in Boulder and headed up the Viewpoint Trail to the first pull-out on Flagstaff Road. From there, just kept heading up. Trails were in good condition all the way to the top of Flagstaff.  There were a couple 20 meter sections of snow, but the footing was good.  Just a tad bit of mud here and there.

Ran solid to the top, then as I ran the trail that encircles the unassuming summit of the mountain, I started doing the mental calculations of time and distance. How long to run up to Long Canyon, down to Gregory and back to the car?  Should I just retrace mt steps?  Then, I remembered the long-closed road that descends from the west side of Flagstaff to Boulder Canyon.  I should be able to do that in the allotted time, I figured. So, off I went.

The early stretches of this road were covered in snow/ice, but once the road emerged from the heavily timbered area up top, it was pure dirt.  I was surprised at what a solid road this was.

Made my way down to the canyon bottom, jumping off the road on a social trail near the bottom to stay away from a private residence. Once across Boulder Creek and on the road, I ran a half-mile or so to the terminus of the Boulder Creek Path and jumped on it for the steady cruise back to Eben G. Fine park in town.

Enjoyed the gentle downhill and quick turnover on the creek path. Felt good to run a 6 minute pace for a bit.

Yesterday was pretty much an off day. Just did a four-mile dog jog at Elk Meadow. The wind was howling, which caused my enthusiasm for a run later in the day to flag. Just as well, I reckon, as the week has been a solid one and a bit of rest was probably in order.

Now...what to do this weekend...

Flagstaff Mountain - Plus Some Other Stuff

Got out a bit early to get in some miles before hooking up with the Boulder Trail Runners group for a pack run.


Time: 1:42
Distance: 8.83 miles
Effort: Easy
Body: Good
Weather: Sunny & Cool


Heard via the Boulder Trail Runners listserv that Andrew Skurka was going to share some stories and pics from his six-month, 4,700-mile Alaska-Yukon Expedition at Sherpa's Restaurant this evening.  So, I cleared the decks and planned to stick around Boulder post-work in order to catch the presentation and get in a few miles.


I got over to Chautauqua around 4:30 p.m. with plans to run for a while and then meet up with the BTR Thursday Happy Hour running group at 5:30 p.m.  Standing in front of the Chautauqua meadow with so many trail options before me I tried to guess what would be the least likely option for a fairly large running group of people with mixed abilities. I was keen on not running the same route twice this evening.  So, I guessed the group was not likely to run up the Flagstaff Trail, so I headed off solo in that direction.


I was feeling pretty good and ran an easy pace up the Flagstaff Trail to its intersection with the Ute Trail near the apex of Flagstaff Mountain.  Hit a spit here in 28:23 and turned around and retraced my steps back to Chautauqua.


The BTR group was already gathering as I ran up. After a quick pit stop for some water, the group of 15 or so runners set off running toward, you guessed it, Gregory Canyon, where the start of the Flagstaff Trail is. I still held out hope that the group would opt for a cruise up the Gregory Canyon Trail, but twas not to be. Up the Flagstaff Trail we went. 


The group quickly split up with three of us well off the front running a steady, but easy pace. The group didn't seem to have a pre-arranged route, so at the first trail junction we stopped to regroup. This would be the theme for the rest of the run...run, stop, run. 


We ran up Flagstaff to Crown Rock (regrouped) and descended down to Gregory Canyon (regrouped). From there, we ran down to the parking lot (regrouped) and headed up the Bluebell Trail and ran a series of trails over to the Mesa Trail (regrouping twice), then three of us ran up Mesa a bit and picked up an extra mile or so on a few trails I'd never run on that eventually led us back to Chautauqua.


It was a lot of fun running with the group, but all the stopping to regroup was a bit much for me. I thought about bailing a few times, but was enjoying running with some new folks just enough to stick with it. Glad I did.


After the run, I headed over to Sherpa's for some Nepalese food (fair) and some $2 pints of local beer (very good).  A crowd of about 40 people turned out to hear about Skurka's adventure. This was the first time he'd given a presentation about his expedition, which he returned from about five weeks ago. He had some great stories and good pics and video. He still has a lot of work to do on the presentation, but he's got a great experience to share.


One video he showed stuck out in my mind. He shot himself sitting under his tarp during a hard rainstorm. He was at the tail-end of the trip, enduring a long stretch of difficult bushwhacking through pure wilderness - a 3 and a half week stretch of no towns, no roads...just wilderness. You could tell from his voice and his thousand-yard-stare that he was walking a razor's edge of emotion. In the video, he was opining on what wilderness in Alaska is compared to what we have here in the lower 48, but his eyes and just-on-the-verge-of-cracking voice told us more about Alaska wilderness than the words. You could tell he was mentally going through a lot of difficulty. Very telling.  Very poignant. If you get a chance, be sure to catch his presentation.


Boulder Daily Camera article on Skurka and his expedition, here.

Boulder Skyline Traverse - Long & Hot

Time: 5:26 
Distance: 24.18 miles
Effort: Easy
Body: Average
Weather: Clear and Hot


With the San Juan Solstice 50 looming in less than three weeks and a week-and-a-half-long trip down to sea level scheduled right smack in the middle of those three weeks, I was eager for a long, hard run this weekend. The run was, indeed, hard, but was made much easier by virtue of having some excellent company to share the miles with.


Met up with Brandon bright and early at Boulder's South Mesa Trailhead near Eldorado Springs. On the menu: the Boulder Skyline Traverse, a route that begins at the edge of South Boulder Creek, then climbs to the four mountain highpoints of the rocky backdrop to the metropolis of Boulder, Colorado.


First up was the climb from the trailhead to the saddle between South Boulder and Bear Peaks.With Brandon leading and setting a steady, early-morning pace, we cruised up the Towhee Trail to Shadow Canyon and made good time up the canyon's many twists, turns and step-ups. 

Brandon sets the pace up the Towhee Trail bound for Shadow Canyon

From the saddle, we hung a left and made the short climb up to the summit of South Boulder Peak. I tagged the summit 60:15. We had the place to ourselves. We paused long enough to snap a couple of pictures, suck down a gel and flail about like children trying to stay out of the flight path of what had to have been the World's Largest Bumble Bee.

Looking west from the summit of South Boulder Peak

After descending back to the saddle, we made quick work of the traverse over to the scree field just below the summit of Bear Peak and began the short climb up the shards of rock to the rocky summit of Bear Peak. A few hikers were basking in the cool morning sun as we paused to look down the spine of the Flatirons to Green Mountain and rest of the day's route.

Looking north to Green Mountain from the summit of Bear Peak

A brilliantly-executed self-timer picture on the summit of Bear Peak

The run from down from Bear and over and up to Green is my favorite section of trail on this run. It's got a little bit of everything: steep descents, easy climbs, rolling trail and a few steep grades. We rolled through this section, pausing at the small stream at the mouth of Bear Canyon to dowse ourselves and our hats in the cool water. Before we'd fully dried in the rapidly warming air, we met up with Tony K., who was out for one of his 6-7 hour fun runs. After a brief conversation, we set off and made the final climb to the four-way on the Green Mountain West Ridge Trail.

From the four-way, it's a quick climb up the rocky step-ups to the top of Green Mountain and its famed summit rock. We were warmly greeted at the summit by Kraig K. who was out picking up some elevation gain on the heels of his run last weekend at the Jemez 50, a race that by every account sounds like an unforgettable and remarkable sufferfest. Kraig mentioned he was thinking about signing up for the Leadville 100. In a valiant attempt to lure him into the race, Brandon let him know that all the cool kids were running that race, except for the ones running the Pikes Peak Ascent and/or Marathon that same weekend. Kraig reports on his blog that he signed up. Brandon's power of persuasion remains unmatched.

Self portrait on Green Mountain's summit rock

Brandon nonchalantly explains where all the cool kids will be the weekend of August 21-22

After descending back down Green's west ridge, we bid Kraig adieu and we headed down the West Ridge trail to Superflag and descended down to the Ute Trail trailhead at the turn-off to Flagstaff Mountain. We soon hit the flat top of Flagstaff Mountain and found the rock that is the mountain's highpoint. We paused here to refuel before heading off down the Flagstaff Trail bound for Halfway House.

I managed to free-climb the last four feet to the true "summit" of Flagstaff Mountain

From Halfway House just off Flagstaff Road, we cruised down the Valley View Trail. Along the way, we stopped to gaze at our northerly-most destination - Mt. Sanitas.  My legs were still feeling good at this point, but Sanitas looked dauntingly far away.

The high point in the middle of the pic is Mt. Sanitas

We finished our descent, pausing at Eben G. Fine park to fill our hydration packs with  amazingly cold water from the restroom sink. We soon were off, headed over Red Rocks to the base of Sanitas. We ascended the Mt. Sanitas Trail, winding our way past a couple dozen hikers. It was a busy day out there. And, by this time it was warming up quite a bit. Were it not for a decent breeze blowing from the southeast, it would have been brutal. I was feeling pretty OK on the ascent, powerhiking the steep step-ups and running the rest. Hit the summit marker in 25 minutes, after winding my way through the 20 people (and their 632 dogs) hanging out at the summit. Brandon soon joined me and after a couple of pics, we set off for the character-building return to our cars at South Mesa.

Looking east from the summit of Mt. Sanitas

From the summit, we descended down to the Sanitas Valley Trail and then followed roads up to Chautauqua where we stopped to refill our water packs before heading out on the Mesa Trail. The Mesa Trail offered some welcome shade and some moderate ups and downs. 

Brandon cruising down the Mesa Trail as seen through a malfunctioning camera lens.

We made good time over to Bear Canyon where we met up with Justin M., Nick C. and Nick P. who were out practicing togetherness in preparation for racing (Nick C.), pacing (Justin) and crewing (Nick P.) at the Western States 100 later this summer.  After another four miles, we wrapped up the Mesa Trail return with a quick descent down to the cars.

The run today came up about three miles shorter than the last time I did this run, the last five miles of which I did in the dark sans a light. I realized today that I missed two Mesa Trail turns last time, one of which I realized and corrected and another than took me an extra mile or two toward the east.

Once back at the cars, we both had food and drink on our mind. So, we caught our breath, reflected briefly on a great, hard run and took off. I went straight to the gas station at the turn-off to the road to Eldorado Springs and loaded up on a protein drink and a quart o' Gatorade before making the 40 minute drive back home.

All-in-all, it was a great day. We worked steady on the ups, ran the flats at a reasonable pace and picked up just a bit shy of 8,000 feet of elevation gain. Really enjoyed spending the hours with Brandon and swapping thoughts on prep and strategy for Lake City. 

Flagstaff Mountain - Steady

Time:  1:47
Distance: 10.68
Effort: Moderate
Body: Good
Weather: Mostly cloudy and cool


Evening run from work to the "summit" of Flagstaff.  

Ran up Spruce and Pearl Streets and made my way over to Eben G. Fine park and picked up the trail that takes you up to the first parking area off Flagstaff Road.  From there, I ran the Flagstaff Trail, with its multiple crossings of the road, to the top of Flagstaff Mountain.  

I learned that the summit is not marked, which is understandable since the top is a big flat, open area with a few small rock outcroppings (with a nice view of Green). I cruised around up there a bit and found what appeared to be the highest point, then returned down via the Flatstaff Trail to Crown Rock and then down into Gregory Canyon and finished up the trail portion in Chautauqua.  


Once off the trails, I had a new priority and that was to get as quickly as possible to Illegal Pete's for a burrito.  With burrito in hand, I ran the last mile back to the office and feasted.


A very nice run on some new trails for me.  This was my first trip up to the top of Flagstaff.  Great views down into Boulder Creek Canyon from the north side.