Elk Meadow - Meadow View Loop

Time: 47 minutes
Distance: 5.31 miles
Effort: Easy
Body: Good
Weather: Cloudy and cool


Easy a.m. jog from home to Elk Meadow Open Space  Ran a loop that included Painter's Pause, Founders' Trail, Meadow View and a social trail down the gulch back to our neighborhood. Five or six other runners on the trail this morning taking advantage of the perfect running temperature - a bit more sun, though, would have been appreciated.


Planning on heading over to the Buffalo Creek/Pine Valley Ranch area early tomorrow to run the North Fork 50 50K course. If anyone's interested in running all or part of it, I'm aiming to hit the Pine Valley Ranch trailhead around 6 a.m.

Elk Meadow - 12x400

Time: 1:06
Distance: 8 miles
Effort: Hard
Body: Good
Weather: Sunny & warm


A bit o' the speedwork today. Couldn't bear a stint at the track with the trails drying out, so I decided to try something different. 


I did a 2.4 mile w/u running from home down Quarterhorse Road and around the Elk Meadow dog park. Once I hit the upper lot at Elk Meadow and got on the park's trails, I started doing on the Meadow View and Painter's Pause Trails a series of 400-meter surges with two-tenths of a mile jogs in between. I ran the surges on whatever terrain the trails threw at me (uphills, downhills, snow, mud, etc...).  The 12 400s went like this:  1:39; 1:50; 1:43; 1:39; 1:40; 1:26; 1:25; 1:22; 1:18; 1:54; 1:25; and 1:34. The average pace for the 400s had a high of 7:38 and a low of 5:23. I never went all out, just ran them "comfortably hard."


This was a pretty entertaining workout. The variable terrain was certainly a heck of a lot more challenging (and scenic!) than a track. Plus, the surface is, of course, a lot less jarring and much more in line with what I'll experience in any race I run.

Mt. Sanitas - Frontside Loop

Time: 1:13
Distance: 7 miles
Effort: Easy
Body: Good
Weather: Sunny & warm


Easy pace run from work to Mt. Sanitas. Ran up to the Sanitas summit via the Hogback and East Side Trails and returned down the west side on the Mt. Santias Trail. Pace was easy, but steady. Felt strong the whole way out and back.  Beautiful day. Lot's of people on the trail.

I can't remember the last time I went up Sanitas via the east side. It was a nice change. Was thinking on the way down how much I don't like running down either side of Sanitas on the maintained  trails. I much prefer the route down I ran yesterday. It's much less technical, with no big step-downs and is, thus, substantially more runnable, and less crowded.


Must remember to charge the GPS watch. Was back to low tech for today's run.

Work - Mt. Sanitas Loop

Time: 1:34
Distance: 10 miles
Effort: Moderate
Body: Good
Weather: Sunny & windy


Tempo pace/effort run was the plan for the day. With the sun out and temps in the 60s, not even the fierce spring Chinook wind gusts could serve as any kind of excuse for not getting out for a good, hard run. 


Ran tempo pace/effort from the office, up Mapleton Hill to the Mt. Sanitas trailhead. Paused at the picnic shelter to retie my shoes (the laces on the Brooks Cascadias will not stay tied without some serious double-knotting), then hit the lap button on the watch and began working my way up the seemingly endless collection of steps and step-ups that is the Mt. Sanitas Trail. I was feeling pretty good today, so I pushed it a bit, running everything I could and doing the hand-on-knee presses when I was relegated to speed hiking the biggest step-ups. Hit the summit a short while later gasping and feeling alive. Didn't know until I got back to the office and downloaded the Garmin data that I PR'd today's ascent with an 18:04, besting my previous PR of 19:51.


From the summit, I headed north and picked up the social trail that descends southwest to a turn-out a couple of miles up Sunshine Canyon from the Sanitas picnic shelter.  From the turn-out, I ran a couple hundred meters uphill to Granite Drive and ran this dirt road down to Timber Trail and its intersection with Sunshine Canyon Road. Fifty meters downhill, I picked up another social trail that parallels Sunshine and leads back to the parking lot across from the Sanitas picnic shelter. From the lot, I headed up and over the hump to Settlers Park and Eben G. Fine Park and ran the paved Boulder Creek Trail to Naropa and took 23rd Street back to the office at Folsom and Spruce.  


This was a great run. I loved this loop. The combination of surfaces (asphalt, concrete, gravel roads, rock, dirt), elevation profiles (flat, gentle incline, serious ups, serious downs, gentle descents) and paces (tempo, uphill slog, downhill glide and rolling joy) was like a running buffet -- it's all there and you get to pick and choose, taking only what you want. While the Sanitas ascent was, of course, strenuous, the full run felt effortless, as if the legs were on autopilot...just going.  What's more, it was pure joy. My favorite part was the section of social trail along Sunshine. It's rolling and narrow. My favorite kind of trail to run.


2,312 feet of elevation gain. Average pace for the run (w/u, c/d, Sanitas, tempo) was 9:28.  I'll have to make this a regular route.

Mt. Falcon , Red Rocks, Hogback - Long Run

Time: 3:25
Distance: 20.52 miles
Effort: Easy
Body: Average
Weather: Sunny & warm


If you had to pay to run, would you? I would, and today I did.


With JP travelling for work this weekend, my options were to take the weekend off, or find a babysitter to watch JP and CP while I got in a long run. The Babysitter Gods were smiling this weekend, and I was able to get out for a reasonably long run this morning under sunny skies and 70+ degree temps. It cost me a few bucks, but it was money well spent!  And, I got out early enough to still have the afternoon to goof around with JP and CP.


Due to time considerations and lingering snow in the higher elevations, I opted for some Front Range trails. I started just outside of Morrison by C-470 and began running west toward town.  I remembered a trail I had seen last summer on the southeast side of the hogback. I found it again, complete with a sign that helpfully read "Trail."

The trail was actually a set of stairs heading steeply up. Assuming the trail would take me up to a trail along the top of the Hogback, I headed up. The trail, instead, dead-ended at some climbing spots. Figuring there had to be a trail up top, I did some class II climbing to get up and around some big slabs and made my way to the top of the hogback. Alas, no trail. Despite having thoughts of "when you're in a hole, stop digging" running through my mind, I pressed on. Surely there must be a trail somewhere. Public land this close to the Metro area is too precious. Alas, twas not to be. After scrambling for 25 minutes (the first mile clocked in at 26 minutes), I decided to cut my losses and started down-climbing the west side. My destination was Mt. Falcon Open Space, which I could see from my now-lofty vantage point. The challenge was that there's a quarter-mile of private land between the public land and the road I needed to be on. So, I ran south, figuring I could find a sneak to get to the road. After a couple of miles of running along old cow tracks, I hit a dirt service road and made my way out. I never jumped a fence, but the gate I had to hop to get to a public dirt road indicated I was traipsing across someone's ranch, at least for a bit of the way.

The hogback outside Morrison from Mt. Falcon Open Space. I climbed up the left side.

Well, now I know...there's no trails along that section of the hogback.  So, onto Mt. Falcon.


I ran a steady pace up 3.8 miles up the mountain on the Castle Trail, hitting the shelter in 30 minutes and the upper parking lot in 43 minutes. On the upper reaches of the trail, I ran into Donnie, a guy I ran with for several miles at the Moab 50K. He was out getting in some miles in preparation for the Collegiate Peaks 50 and the SJ50. He was running with another guy out prepping for Western States.

Looking west on the upper section of the Castle Trail in Mt. Falcon Open Space

After turning around and heading back down, I made my way over to Red Rocks and ran a series of trails through the big red rocks to the amphitheater. The joint was hopping, with many people out sightseeing, exercising and taking in the views. I ran up the stairs to the top and continued on running a series of roads and trails, making my way over again to the the hogback, this time several miles north of where I started. 

Red Rocks Amphitheater 

I picked up a trail across from Red Rocks, climbed to the top of the hogback (there is a trail along this section!) and then down to Alameda Parkway, which is now closed to cars west of C-470. Now on pavement, I pushed the pace a bit at the end to polish off the last two miles (7:25; 6:52).


3,813 feet of total elevation gain for the day..

Elk Meadow - Super Loop

Time: 1:01
Distance: 7.3 miles
Effort: Easy
Body: Good
Weather: Sunny & cool


Up early to get in a run before JP headed out for five days of travel. Ran from home, through the hood, up to the upper lot at Elk Meadow, Meadow View Trail to the north end social trail, then back to the lower lot via Painter's Pause. Most of the trail was in good shape, save for the section in the trees along the meadow's edge on the east side of Bergen Peak. A few more days of warm teams and we should be back in business...at least on this lower trail.

Green Mountain - Ups

Time: 1:07
Distance: 5.38 miles
Effort: Moderate
Body: Average
Weather: Sunny & cool, but glorious


Hit the hill early this week. I started up the Gregory Canyon trail just a hair before seven a.m. The trail was almost totally clear of snow/ice until the downhill stretch just before the creek crossing downstream from the ranger cottage. As I ran this section, I was thinking about how nice it is that I'll be able to get to know this trail in a whole different way, once all the snow and ice is melted off. There will be new patterns to run through rock gardens, bigger step-ups (no packed snow to make them seems smaller) and no slippage to send unwanted waves of fatigue through the legs.


From the ranger cottage to the top, it was all ice/snow. Fortunately, there was just a bit of crusty snow on top of the ice to allow provide a bit of traction.


Splits:


Ranger cottage:17:56
4-way: 37:48
Summit: 41:12


I soon need to find a minute in each of first two sections. It's time.


Hit the summit at almost the same moment Tony arrived from the Ampi-Saddle-Green route. I was breathing hard, hands on my knees. He, well, wasn't. After a few minutes chatting atop the summit rock, gazing at the crystal clear views of the Indian Peaks, I was off back the way I came. Ran past another runner, who I think was Kraig - didn't get a change to introduce myself. Down in a relaxed (no traction devices today) 26 minutes.

Washington Park - Mile Repeats

Time: 1:02
Distance: 7.25 miles
Effort: Hard
Body: Good
Weather: Mostly sunny & cold


Spent the day in Denver at a meeting at the Botanical Gardens. An hour and half break between the meeting and a group dinner was just enough time to squeeze in the day's speedwork.


I headed over to Wash Park, did a two-mile w/u and then did 3x1 mile (5:55; 5:55; 5:58) with 800 meter breaks (8:50; 8:07 pace) and a one-mile c/d at 7:32.


After a quick wipe down at a gas station en route downtown, I met back up with the meeting crew for a fabulous meal at the Vesta Dipping Grill in LoDo. The veggie samosas and tofu steak were amazing. Best meal I've had in months.

Evergreen Mountain - Long Run

Time: 3:09
Distance: 19.1 miles
Effort: Easy/Long
Body: Good
Weather: Mostly sunny & cool


Looking out our window across the hills and dales of Evergreen, Evergreen Mountain occupies a prominent place in our viewshed. It's a rounded, north-facing mountain with a rocky bald spot, bright with April snow, that makes for a familiar hump three miles to the south.


Today's plan was to run from home to the top of Evergreen Mountain, with a few interesting stops along the way.


From the house, I ran through a local neighborhood, then jumped on the People's Path, a paved sidewalk that parallels Evergreen Parkway. I followed this a couple of miles to Dedisse Park, a Denver Mountain Park on the north side of Upper Bear Creek Road. A dirt road snakes through park and dead ends at a final picnic spot. Here a nice single track winds down the south-facing hill to Upper Bear Creek Road. Across the road, the Dedisse Trail winds its way uphill, around the Evergreen Golf Course and into JeffCo's Aldefer-Three Sisters Open Space Park. 


Once in Three Sisters, I ran to the trail high point in the park, just below the Three Sisters, which are prominent rock outcroppings looming up above Bear Creek (there's a Brother, too, but it's across Buffalo Park Road in the Evergreen Mountain open space park). After a few more miles in Three Sisters, I made a pit stop at the upper parking lot and then headed across Buffalo Park Road and around the meadow in front of Evergreen Mountain.


To this point, the trail had been virtually snow free.  Once in the trees of Evergreen Mountain, however, it was all packed snow. I took the trail up the west side of the mountain and made quick work of the switchbacks up to the intersection with the two-mile summit lollipop out-and-back. On the south side of the large, rounded summit, one is treated to an amazing view of Mt. Evans and its surrounding peaks. I paused here for a few moments of mountain-gazing before returning to the main intersection and heading down the east side trail and back into Three Sisters.


I returned on the Dedisse Trail, ran up Upper Bear Creek Road to the Lakehouse and into downtown Evergreen to refill my water bottle at good ol' Beau Jo's Pizza. For the final stretch home, I did the big climb on Douglas Park Road and wound through Hiwan Hills and back home.


Beautiful afternoon. Whetted my appetite for more snow-free trails!

Taos - Carson National Forest

Time: 1:16
Distance: 8.2 miles
Effort: Easy
Body: Good
Weather: Mostly cloudy & cool


After a few days in Crested Butte, we dropped nephew Will off at Colorado College in the Springs and headed south. After a day's stop in Santa Fe to take in the art scene, we headed up to Taos to kick back and chill out. The place we stayed had a pool for the kids, was paid for with hotel points and was located not too far from the boundary of the Carson National Forest. Perfect.


Managed to get out on Thursday for an easy run up a two-lane county road to the forest boundary. My trails radar was going wild as I rounded a bend, looked up a canyon and saw the brown signs that are alternatively my savior and my bane. Those familiarly-colored signs inevitably mean access to public lands, hence the reference to them being my savior...my balm...my sanctuary. On the other hand, they also can be a bane in that they point to places I often don't have the time to explore, and that, at times, gnaws at me.


Today, though, I had a bit of time and headed up Trail 108 - the Devisadero Trail, which ascends Devisadero Peak, a peak the Taos Pueblo Indians used to use as a place to watch for Apache raiders coming down Taos Canyon. I followed the trail for several miles, gaining a couple of smaller summits in the hill-strewn foothills here. I didn't have enough time to get to Devisadero Peak (and, at the time, didn't know where the trail went), but enjoyed the time on the mostly-dry, south-facing trails.