Here and There

Colorado weather. Never dull. Saturday in Denver...90 degrees. Today in Evergreen:

Elk Meadow Open Space. Bergen Peak completely obscured by clouds

Crappy.

The last two weeks o' running have been modest in mileage (both around 50 miles), but have included some solid runs.

The highlights:

Greenland Open Space - (14 miles; 1:56) last Sunday, after dropping off my visiting nephew at Colorado College in the Springs, I stopped off at Greenland and ran the park's trails, plus several miles on the New Santa Fe Regional Trail, a 16-mile Rails-to-Trails crushed gravel path that connects Palmer Lake to the Springs. I enjoyed the run in the fading daylight, but found the course of the Greenland 50K to be rather dull.

The Greenland Trail heading out from the parking area.

Arlington, VA loop - (10.2 miles; 1:20). Spent this past week in Arlington, VA on a biz trip. Got out for a couple of 10-mile runs, plus a pair of six mile jogs (both done in the dark...one around 10:30 p.m. after landing in D.C.). On Wednesday, I got out with a friend from work for a nice loop that included a bit of everything...technical trail, smooth trail, bike paths and roads. Worked in a good bit of tempo. A nice change from the base-building pace stuff I've been doing lately.

Nothing says "Welcome" more than a defaced road sign.

The start of the Potomac Heritage Trail by Roosevelt Island 

Key Bridge, connecting Virginia with Georgetown in D.C., from the PHT.

 Other than those highlights, it's been the usual mix of Boulder peaks and Bergen Peak in Evergreen. With the biz travel, managed just two yoga classes over the last two weeks. Hoping to get in a few more this week.

Solid 17-mile run with 4,500 feet o' elevation gain yesterday on the Beaver Brook Trail, running from the Chief Hosa trailhead to Windy Saddle and back. Felt pretty wasted, though, after the run. Definitely need to ramp up the long runs this week, and work in another tempo effort.

Fortunately, the IT injury seems to have healed. Still playing it smart, but beginning to feel  comfortable adding in more intensity and mileage. The trick is to do both gradually, and listen to the body.  Yeah, I'm talking to myself.

Back to It...Running in VA

After a few days off and a flight to D.C., jumped back into things with a 15-mile jaunt on just about every surface available...asphalt, concrete, dirt, rocks, gravel....


Distance: 15 miles
Time: 2:11
Effort: Moderate
Body: Fair
Weather: Cloudy and warm

Ran from the hotel about 3.5 miles down the Curtis Custis Trail, a paved bike path along I-66, to Rosslyn and hopped on the Potomac Heritage Trail for 4+ miles of dirt.  The PHT runs along the Potomac River through this part of VA and is the closet part of an evolving 800-mile collection of trails in the Potomac River watershed.

This part of the PHT is a rock and root-strewn stretch of singletrack that runs between the river and the George Washington Memorial Parkway above. The trees are still leafless here, so the views down to the river were unobstructed and beautiful. I scared up about half-dozen great blue herons and saw my first belted kingfisher of the year. Spring is coming quick here. Today's temps were in the 60s, warm enough to run shirtless, particularly with the humidity.

Ran the PHT to Chain Bridge, hung a right and ran across the bridge and descended down to the C&O Towpath, a wide crushed gravel path that parallels an old canal. Picked up the pace a bit along this long, flat stretch and ticked off the four mile trek back to Key Bridge in Georgetown at just below a 7-minute pace.

At this point, the race was on to see if I could finish the run before my back, which has been bugging me for the last five or so days and was the reason I took off Thursday - Sunday, tightened up too much and forced me to lope home.  Fortunately, things held up and I was able to run steady the last four miles back over Key Bridge and up the Curtis Trail back to the hotel.

After a quick shower, I immediately headed out the door for some food and walked for another two miles to keep the blood going to hopefully hasten a return to a more normal running schedule.

Post walk and post-refueling, I returned to the hotel and started icing. Not sure what happened to tweak the back so bad.  The discomfort has centered around the an area just to the left of the spine with some modest pain radiating into the left glute and around the left side into the region around the top left front of my pelvis.  Been a bit anxious that I did something to my hip, but there's no impact-related pain. So, for now, I figure its just some annoying (really annoying) muscle strain.

Eager to see how things feel tomorrow.

Potomac Heritage Trail - C&O Towpath Loop - Washington, D.C.

Time: 1:43
Distance: 11.11 miles
Effort: Moderate
Body: Good
Weather: Warm and Sunny


Another trip to Washington, D.C., another sea level run. 


Ran from hotel in the Rosslyn 'hood of Arlington down to a section of the Potomac Heritage Trail, a 830-mile collection of trails that start at the mouth of the Potomac at the Chesapeake Bay and run all the way to the Ohio River Basin.  The section I ran is all singletrack and starts at Theodore Roosevelt Island and snakes through the rocky beginning of the Potomac Gorge, ending 4.1 miles later at Chain Bridge.


The trail is all tree-shaded and loaded with roots and rocks. A couple of creeks (or "runs" as they are called in Virginia) spill over the rocky bluffs into the gorge just above the trail making for really cool waterfalls. There are two trails that head up into the adjacent neighborhoods on the palisades above. I followed one, Donaldson Run, up to the Potomac Overlook Regional Park. After a bit of exploring in the park and refilling my water bottle, I returned to the river-side trail and continued on to Chain Bridge.


I took Chain Bridge over the river and dropped down to the C&O Canal towpath, which runs 184.5 miles from Cumberland, Maryland to Washington, D.C. A good portion of the JFK50 is on the upper reaches of the towpath. Once on the towpath, I upped the pace for the 3.25 miles from Chain Bridge to Key Bridge, which connects Rosslyn with Georgetown in D.C., averaging around 6:20. 


Finished the run up with a jog across Key Bridge and a quick and short loop around Rosslyn to hit the 11-mile mark.


Very nice run, with a solid tempo finish. Humidity wasn't too bad, but still was dripping pretty much the whole time.  About 80 percent of the run was on dirt or crushed gravel (on the towpath). Not a bad ratio considering I'm in the middle of one of the country's largest metro areas.