You Gotta Crawl Before You Can Run

Let the healing begin.

Things have been gradually improving of late as the body does its best to repair whatever nerve damage was done a bit over a month ago when I woke up in the wee hours with intense and unexplained pain radiating down both arms (and eventually settling mostly on the right side).

Aches/discomfort in the right arm continues to diminish...a little bit more everyday. Feels like some of the diminished fine motor skills are slowly returning, also in a bit-by-bit fashion. Not sure if my right arm strength is improving or not, but it continues to be noticeably less than that of my left.

I took a week off of running last week, due in part to out-of-town visitors, work and family schedules and a weekend trip with jP and friends to camp in Rocky Mountain National Park. I also decided that some time off might kick start the body's repair work. Hard to tell if the time off made a difference or not, but since things are improving, I'll take that as a sign that it was a wise decision.

I'm currently in Arlington, VA on a biz trip.  Got in a 8.78 mile jog last night running from a friend's place on Capitol Hill, down the National Mall, over Memorial Bridge, past the Iwo Jima Memorial and up the Custis Trail to my hotel, finishing up at 11:30 p.m. I felt pretty sluggish, but it was hot and I was toting a belly full of Indian food and a couple of Dogfish Imperial IPAs. Excuses. 

Still, I was happy to be moving for that 1.5 hours, and it felt good to sweat.

Got out this evening for a not-so-fun four-mile jog on some of the local paved bike paths. Felt creaky.

Home tomorrow.

Interesting piece in Velonews about what cyclists (and runners, no doubt) should do when they break their collar bones.

Radio Silence

125 and 85.  Those numbers say it all.

125 is the measurement in pounds of how much force I can apply with my left hand's grip.

85 is what I can pull with my right hand.

I'm right-handed.

Before July 1st, I never gave much thought to those kinds of measurements.

Let's back up a bit.

On June 18th, I ran the San Juan Solstice 50. I finished a respectable 14th overall in 10:15:10.  The post-race recovery went well...Sunday - Tuesday off, easy runs on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.  On Sunday, I began feeling achy and fatigued. Monday morning, I was on a plane to D.C. I spent all day Tuesday and half the day Wednesday (until housekeeping kicked me out) in my hotel room bed crushed by the body aches and fatigue of what I assume was the flu.

I got back home Wednesday night and was on the mend. Better Thursday.  Then, things got interesting.

I woke up around 3 a.m. Friday (July 1) morning with awful pain running down both shoulders into my arms.  I've likened the feeling to hot lead being poured over my shoulders and dripping down to my forearms.  By 7 a.m. the pain on the left had eased, but continued to be agonizing on the right side.

After a brief work-over by a local PT/chiropractor I cold-called, the pain eased enough to carry on with a long-planned Fourth of July trip to Crested Butte. As the pain eased to a general discomfort, I noticed that my fine motor skills and dexterity in both hands had deteriorated and strength in my right arm had diminished, hence the numbers noted above.

Over the last couple of weeks, the constant discomfort has mostly disappeared, replaced by what feels like muscle soreness in the upper arm and shoulder and a tearing sensation in my forearm when I attempt quick movements.  Beyond that, the body generally feel physically disconnected, out of tune and dulled.  Running is doable, but I have no power on the climbs and no braking strength on the descents.  And,  interestingly, I can no longer yell.

Doc thinks I might have a brachial plexus neuropathy, which in a nutshell means the network of nerves that exit the spine and branch out into the upper arm got messed up. In about 30 percent of cases, this neuropathy (disease of the nerve) is preceded by a bacterial or viral (flu!) infection.  Typically, these cases resolve themselves over the course of about three months, in rare cases longer.

I'm now in the fun..."come-back-in-two-weeks-and-let's-see-if-you've-improved" dance with the doc. Easy for him to say...  Acupuncture with Allison at Alternative Care of Colorado, massage and daily icing are also in the mix.

For now, I'm trying to preserve some fitness with near-daily jogs in the 4-7 mile range.  The pace feels plodding and mellow (and a little dull) and has me longing for the quad-busting, full-focus cruises down Green Mountain.

The good news is that I have the sense that things are improving bit by bit, but the rate of improvement is far too slow for my liking, especially with all the high country snow finally melting out. As a result, I've dropped the Pikes Peak Marathon from the race calendar, and in all likelihood will drop the September Bear 100 as well.

Hence, the radio silence and lack of posts on this blog.

Recent runs over the last week and a half, at the aforementioned plodding pace, include five miles at Maxwell Falls in Evergreen, six miles around Elk Meadow Open Space, six miles at Betasso Preserve in Boulder and five miles on the Gudy Gaskill and Beaver Brook Trails in Golden with the kids (they rode their mountain bikes). None of the runs feel anything close to effortless, but they are helping keep some of the rust off.

One thing's for sure...I much prefer the self-inflicted running injuries to crap like this! More to come...

San Juan Solstice 50 Race Report

As I marched in the early morning darkness down Highway 149 from our rental house to the start line of the 2011 San Juan Solstice 50, I had no bounce in my step.  It was 4:15 a.m. I wasn't injured or tired, just uninspired.  I had a race to run and just wanted to get it over with.

Running has been like that for me over the last month or so. Training has been a chore, something squeezed in (or not) between way too many other commitments.  I ran twice the two weeks before this race, once for 3.5 miles in San Diego and once for about the same in Washington, D.C.

My running mojo was nowhere in sight and I was standing at the start of arguably the hardest 50-mile trail race in the country.

This year's race, as most know by now, would not be run on the standard course. There still was too much snow up on the Continental Divide and the run-off from the rapidly melting remnants of this year's epic snowpack was creating unsafe river and creek crossings.  Thus, the RD and his race committee came up with a challenging alternative course that kept runners off the snow and out of the water.

2011 San Juan Solstice 50 course profile - 12,799 feet of elevation gain

Start to Vickers Ranch

As the clocked ticked down to 5 a.m., a long line of runners took up position on Silver Street, across from Lake City's town park. In no time, we were off, wheedling our way through town, past darkened houses on empty streets headed toward the Water Dog Trail for the climb to the top of Vickers' Ranch.

A lead group was off the front as we hit the singletrack and I fell in with a conga line of runners alternating between running and speed hiking. Despite my angst, my legs were feeling good and the modest pace up Water Dog proved frustrating. Finally out of the initial rocky switchbacks, the trail opened up a bit and I was able to motor past a few slower runners.

Sunrise from Vickers Ranch.  Photo: Woody A.

Vickers Ranch to Silver Coin

The Vickers' Aid Station at about mile four seemed to appear quickly. I ran through it without stopping, picking up the pace through the undulating terrain of meadows, aspen groves and spruce/lodgepole forests. Finally, we hit the highpoint on Vickers and ran along a ridgeline with a vast meadow spread out below us, the meadow I remembered hiking up at about mile 42 last year.

About 100 yards past the place last year's climb joined the trail I now was on, I noticed a good-sized group of runners running toward me. Turned out, this was the lead group of runners. They had gone off-course and had backtracked to get back to the proper trail.

Heading down Vickers Ranch - me in the black gloves on left. Photo: Shane T.

Soon, everyone had reformed and were cruising down through the meadow back toward the marked course. Once through the meadow, the now serpentine trail wound its way in and out of aspen trees, then back into a coniferous forest before dumping us out on Highway 149, a mile or so below the Slumgullion Aid station, which we would see 30+ miles later.

Once on the highway, the new course took us uphill about 50 meters to some pink flagging on the right. Here, Chris D. from Gunnison and I quickly found ourselves off-course. Next to the flagging was an obvious two-track, which we followed. Mistake. We were supposed to drop down about 10 meters before the two-track. We spent about five minutes poking around trying to find the trail before I finally located it.

Now back on track, we were cruising down some cushion-y ATV roads headed toward the Silver Coin Aid Station. At least we were until we went off course again. Somewhere we just missed a turn (my bad...I was leading).  There were four of us running together now...lost. Three of us decided to head cross-country, generally downhill in hopes of picking up the course again. After a good five minutes of wondering if we were digging ourselves into too big of a hole, we spotted the trail ahead.

Sliver Coin to Silver Coin

Soon, we were entering into the Silver Coin Aid Station. After a quick re-fill, I grabbed my Ziploc bag o' gels from my drop bag and began the climb up Roundtop Mountain. This was the second climb of the day, and it was hard. This was one of those roads that makes you wonder what its builders were thinking...."hey guys, do you dare me to try and build a road up this mountain!?"  It was ridiculously steep in places and rocky the whole way.

A section of the climb up Roundtop Mountain. Photo: Shane T.

I pulled out my iPod, inserted the ear buds and disappeared into my head.

As I marched up the road, I was still feeling apathetic. "Let's just get this done," was running through my head. I didn't care where I was in the standings. No matter that someone had just out-hiked me.

After a particularly steep pitch, where it almost made sense to climb it with all four limbs touching the ground, the top of Roundtop Mountain was in sight. Downhill running awaited.  But first, I went yet again off-course for a bit. After a quick fix, I was back on course and running down a decent-quality road.

The view from the top of Roundtop Mountain. Uncompahgre Peak in the center. Photo: Woody A.

Just then, something changed in my head. I wanted to run...and run hard. "F*** the quads, let's see what happens," I told myself as I started running hard downhill. I was flying, easily at a sub-6 pace, just feeling great. No pain. No discomfort. Running free...with abandon.

In no time, I was back at the Silver Coin Aid Station, grabbing another Ziploc of gels and refilling my hydration pack (and knocking over a toddler on my way out...sorry!).

Silver Coin to Camp Trailhead

Next up were several hot miles on a dirt road along the banks of Lake San Cristobal. I ran steady, but not too fast along this stretch. About two miles out of the Camp Trailhead water stop, JP, jP and CP pulled alongside in the truck. Seeing them put some bounce in my step.

Just past the Williams Creek Campground, the course went left up the Camp Trail and back onto singletrack...at last!  JP let me know I was in 16th place...oops 15th, as I passed a runner just before the trailhead.  After dumping a couple cups of water on my head, I waved goodbye and jogged up the trail into the woods.

The jogging didn't last long as the trail turned up and the slog up to the Divide began. I had some real rough patches through here. The runner I passed just before the water stop was right on my heels, and another was about 100 feet ahead. A few miles in, I pulled over and let my shadow pass me. I was hurting.

Near the top, I started hearing whoops from above. I wondered if the Divide Aid Station was close. Turned out, it was Scott Jurek, running with Dakota Jones, letting out his trademark hollers. As they bounded past, I realized we were close to the top.

Divide to Slumgullion

At last, the Divide Yurt appeared, right around mile 31. Now we were back on the original course. With sublime views of vast meadows and distant peaks around, I continued marching up the trail to a high point on the Divide, still not feeling very good. Downhill ahead, however.

After crossing the highpoint, I began running again down a long doubletrack that seemed to go on forever, as I looked at the route ahead. After rounding a bend a few miles down, I saw the awnings that had to be the Divide Aid Station, which had been moved several miles down at the edge of Rambouillet Park due to muddy conditions.

After a quick refill, I was off running through Rambouillet Park toward the big descent down to the Slumgullion Aid Station at mile 40. I picked off a couple runners through this section. Soon, I was picking my way through the very rocky beginning of the descent down to Slum. Once through that section, I let things fly again. My quads were hurting, to be sure, but I still had the "f*** the quads" mindset, so I kept up a solid pace.

About a mile outside of Slum, a hiker told me and the runner just ahead that we were in the top 10. That didn't feel right, but it added some additional motivation to run hard. A little bit later, RD Jerry Gray appeared in a truck asking if I'd seen the mountain lion. I hadn't, but I sure wanted to.

The Slumgullion Aid Station appeared much quicker this year than last. JP, jP and CP were there to greet me. I cruised into the aid station and was hustled quickly out of there by Jurek and Jones...one couldn't ask for a better pair of aid station crew members. Both of them had such great energy and had me out of there with an efficiency that would make any NASCAR pit crew proud.

Slumgullion Aid Station with CP. Photo: Tanya A.

Crew support from CP and Dakota Jones (accepting a lovely collection of sticky, empty gel packets). Photo: Tanya A.

Slumgullion to Vickers Ranch

Jurek escorted me across Highway 149 and I sped down to the mining slag heap one must cross. I was feeling great...good energy...solid speed. I started getting some calf cramps right about here, though. At one point, I had to stop as my left calf severely locked up. I looked down at it and it seemed to be permanently flexed...locked.  Finally, it let go and I started running again, afraid that if I stopped, the cramping would start up again.

Next up was the climb back up Vickers Ranch. This 1,600 foot climb really was no problem, just steady hiking. There were several runners in sight behind and in front of me, just close enough behind me to keep me from slacking and just close enough in front to pull me along at a steady clip.

Once at the top of Vickers it was back to running. Everything definitely was hurting now. The legs were tired and on the verge of cramping, but I was quickly learning that one can still run fast when sore and tired.  So, on I went running pretty much everything from the top of Vickers to the Vickers Ranch Aid Station.

Vickers Ranch to Finish

Once again, I refilled and resumed running. I had to stop a few times on some of the steepest stretches to give the quads a brief break.  On one particularly steep stretch, I pulled over to rest and pee and was passed by Chris D. I quickly finished up and gave chase.

He was moving very, very well and it was all I could do to keep him in sight.

At last, we hit the final switchbacks on the Water Dog Trail. With views of Lake City below, I knew the descent was almost over, so I gave it all I had.  Chris now had over a hundred meters on me.

Right at the end of the singletrack, I passed a runner and kept motoring, wondering if I had any hope of catching Chris. As we ran down a long stretch of straight, mostly flat dirt road I focused on running steady and catching Chris.  I was slowly reeling him in. The 100 meters were now 50 meters as we hit the path along the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, then crossed the river on a pedestrian bridge.

Soon, we were running down Silver Street.  He was now 25 meters or so ahead, but I wasn't gaining any more. I did a quick check of all the body systems and realized I didn't have enough strength or real estate left to run him down.  I did my best to keep it close as the finish line drew closer and closer.

He beat me by 10 seconds.

Approaching the finish line with CP and jP. (Click for a better view.)

Ouch.

I ended up finishing 14th overall in 10:15:10, running across the finish line with CP and jP who were waiting for me as I ran up Silver Street (such an awesome feeling!).  Ended up as the third masters, behind Karl Metzler and Chris D (and third in the 40-44 age group).

Full results here.

Post-race

After a quick round of hugs from the family, I laid down on the ground...er, collapsed...and didn't move for 15 minutes. I was wasted. My calves, hamstrings and lower back all were cramping.

After pounding water and Heed for a good while, I managed to crawl over to a massage table where a woman from Creede was offering free work. Before I knew it, the shivering started and she ordered me off the table and into the most comfortable lawn chair on the planet. She gave me a bottle of water filled with electrolyte powder and ordered me to drink.  CP brought me soup from the finish area food table.

Thirty minutes later, I was vastly improved and back on the table seeking some relief.

Any relief is good relief.

The body work was great, but didn't do much to ease the intense discomfort I was experiencing in the lower half of my body. I had, indeed, managed to f*** my quads! I could hardly walk.

We hung out for a while, cheering on runners as they finished and catching up with old friends and new, including Woody A. and Brendan T.

I think I found my running mojo at the top of Roundtop Mountain.  Here's to hoping I can hold onto it for a while. I have a date with a mountain down south in another few weeks.

Weekly Roundup - May 29 - June 4th

Frustratingly complex work/family schedule combined with available "beginning-a-taper" excuse led to a pretty damn lame week o' running. Still searching for my running mojo. If you've seen it anywhere, let me know.

Wait...is that my running mojo standing on an Evergreen street corner?

Sunday - Off

Monday - Alderfer-Three Sisters: 6 miles; 1:01; 1,000 feet o' elevation gain. Nice dog jog from the park's upper parking lot. Ran down through Alderfer, around the rocks on the Secret Trail, then down into Blair Ranch. Took a detour to explore a well-trod social trail that headed off to the west. Beautiful terrain over there.

Tuesday - Elk Meadow: 4.51 miles; 36:27, 626 feet o' elevation gain. Squeezed in a brief birthday jog between kids and work.

Wednesday - Errands:  3.58 miles; 29 minutes, 344 feet o' elevation gain. Dropped off the car at a local shop for some repairs. Chased jP on his mountain bike all the way home. The kid can cruise on the downhills.

Thursday - Bergen Peak Trail Out-and-Back: AM - 7.03 miles; 1:17; 1,533 feet o' elevation gain. Pressed for time (again), ran from the house up the Bergen Peak Trail at Elk Meadow Open Space. Cruised up to the intersection with the Summit Trail. Finally...some heat, and a whole lot of wind howling in from the west. Maya was dragging in the heat.

PM - 4 miles, 45 minutes: Drove out to Nathrop, Colorado (between Buena Vista and Poncha Springs in the Arkansas Valley) to meet up with some friends to celebrate Stevie's 50th b-day. Got out with the crew for a four-mile run up a dirt road near the rental house. Everyone else, including jP and CP, were on mountain bikes. Ran a bunch of the ups with hands on jP's and CP's backs, pushing 120+ pounds up the steeper stuff. Good Hard workout. Not sure how JV and TW do it!

The driveway leading to the Nathrop rental house with the Collegiate Peaks in the distance.

Friday - Off  (Drive home from Arkansas Valley)

Saturday - Bergen Peak Summit: 11.01 miles; 1:54, 2,211 feet o' elevation gain. Ran again from the house and took the Bergen Peak and Summit Trails up to the summit. Felt great on this run...just cruising with no leg fatigue. Lots of people on the trail, which kept the run interesting. Even saw a handful of runners on the Summit Trail leg...not a usual experience. Chatted at the summit with a Denver guy wearing a Sageburner 50 shirt. Maya had a blast on this run...just trotting along. Two springs were still running on northeast side of the peak along the Too Long Trail, so between the water I brought and the springs, she was well sated.  Once down from the peak, we ran over to the mechanic's place and picked up the car I dropped off on Wednesday.

Spent the evening in Boulder with good friends. Great meal at Salt and a groovy ethereal vibe at the Boulder Theater watching Iron and Wine.

Reflections:  Pretty lame week with a whopping 36.1 miles in 6:05 with 7,323 feet o' elevation gain. A couple of decent days, but mostly low-mileage junk. I had planned an easy week with the San Juan Solstice 50 coming up on June 18th. Probably took it too easy, though. Had a hard time getting out as much as I wanted to since this is a week between the end of school for the kids and the start of camp. So, I could only get out in very limited windows.

Weekly Roundup - May 22 - 29, 2011

Sunday - Off:  JP was out of town, so the kids and I hung close to the house.

Monday - Green - Bear Canyon - Mesa Loop: 9 miles; 1:44; 2,701 feet o' elevation gain.  One of my favorite runs in Boulder. Ran it counter clockwise from Chautauqua. Put in a solid effort up Green from Gregory Canyon, but couldn't muster anything better than 40:46 to the summit. Didn't work hard enough on the stretch to the ranger cottage.

Tuesday - Man...I can't remember what I did on Tuesday. Is that bad?

Wednesday - Bergen Peak Upper Loop:  8.41 miles; 1:11; 1,724 feet o' elevation gain. Ran up Too Long and down Bergen Peak. Ran the downs hard again. Felt good.

Thursday - Matthew Winters - Red Rocks - Hogback Loop:  6.62 miles; 1:06; 1,242 feet o' elevation gain. Squeezed this one in between the end of the workday and picking up the kids. Had planned on an easy pace, but quickly got in too deep time-wise and had to run the Hogback portion harder than planned.  Was thinking about rattlesnakes on the run through M-W. I've read twice recently posts on what do to if you're bitten by a rattler. Both had the usual recommendations...keep your heart rate down, don't try to suck the venom out, don't elevate the bitten appendage, seek help. Great advice. Funny thing was, both posts were written by ultrarunners, but neither said what to do if you're bitten when you're out in the middle of nowhere alone (anyone ever run deep into the woods solo?) with little prospect of someone wandering by soon. Reckon I ought to do a little research. Which reminds me, I watched the movie 127 Hours this week. Fair.

Friday - Elk Meadow/Dog Park Loop:  8.11 miles; 1:17; 1,017 feet o' elevation gain. Met up with Steve F. for this easy jog around the lower trails of Elk Meadow, including a run down Quarterhorse Road and back through the dog park part of Elk Meadow. Brought Maya along on this one. I hate running with a leash in hand. Wish Jefferson County Open Space would allow some off-leash use in their parks (a la Boulder).

Saturday - Manitou Follow Your Nose Loop: 25.01 miles; 5:13; 5,981 feet o' elevation gain. Up early for the drive down to Manitou Springs to meet up with Woody, Joe Z., Scott and Troy for a to-be-determined run.

We started just a few blocks from the start of the Pikes Peak Marathon/Ascent and headed south to pick up the Inteman Trail. We ran Inteman over to Ruxton and then up to the Barr Trail. We ran a steady pace up the Barr Trail to a sign about a mile and a half below Barr Camp where Woody and I hung a right and the other three guys continued on up the Barr Trail. Woody and I had designs on running a big part of the Ponderous Postier Pikes Peak 50K route, only in reverse. However, anyone that ran it would tell you we already were off course, only we didn't realize it...yet.

The trail down from Barr started as a rutted, washed-out gully, but soon turned into a reasonable, but unmaintained primitive trail as it wound in and out of small drainages, over creeks and through woods and meadows. There was one spot, on a grass-covered hillside, where the views of Pikes Peak were absolutely sublime.

Unknown trail dropping down from the Barr Trail. Pikes Peak in the background. Photo: WA

We eventually ended up at a marked trail junction. One of the options was the Heizer Trail, so we took that as it appeared to head in the direction of Highway 24 where we planned to pick up the trail up Waldo Canyon. Heizer climbed steadily to the apex of a mountain then plunged steeply 2.5 miles down to the town of Cascade on Highway 24.  We quickly figured out we were well above where we needed to be, so after a water refill at a wine bar (they loved us) we started running down Highway 24. The run down wasn't too bad, except for the sections where there were just five feet between a canyon wall and cars/trucks whizzing by at 55+ mph.

After a mile and a half, we hit Waldo Canyon and started climbing. Our plan now was to find a way over to Rampart Range Road, which we would run down back to town. So, up Waldo we went. At the canyon's loop intersection, we went left and cruised up...up and up. I really like this trail. The scenery is great, the grades are reasonable and the trail is well-maintained. From the upper reaches of the loop, we could see the water tank on Rampart Range Road where we wanted to be. Now...how to get over there?

We were constantly on the lookout for trails headed north, hoping we'd be able to follow our noses and get to our next destination. Finally, we found a solid, unmarked trail heading northeast, so we took it.  Again, excellent trail. We were just cruising, soaking in the views and enjoying the spectacular weather.

As we descended, I started thinking we were heading into Williams Canyon. Soon enough, we hit a trail junction with a left-right option. Right was down canyon, left was up canyon, and likely the route up to RRR. We are 21 miles in at this point and opted to head down Williams. Good call as the canyon was gorgeous.  Finished things up with a mile or two through town back to the cars.

Looking down Williams Canyon.  Photo: WA

While we didn't take the route we had planned to follow, there's something to be said for simply following your nose and exploring.

Reflection:  Definitely not a high-mileage week, with just 57.14 miles. But, some good time on feet - 10:34; and decent elevation gain - 12,666 feet. Definitely need to get the mileage up a bit, while continuing with the mountain runs.  (And, I've got to figure out where my brain was on Tuesday!) I've been struggling a bit of late with the running mojo and not enjoying some of the runs as much as I typically do. Need to noodle on that a bit. Might be worth a more in-depth post soon.

Weekly Roundup - May 15-21, 2011

An up and down week, to be sure. Had some high quality runs, but was hamstrung by the lingering effects of the bug I picked up last week.  


Sunday - Bergen Peak Summit:  2:12; 10.47 miles; 2,109 feet o' elevation gain. Ran to the summit of Bergen Peak from the house...up Bergen Peak, down Too Long.  A good 5-6 inches of snow up top.

Monday - South Mesa - Shanahan Loop:  1:20; 8 miles; 1,516 feet o' elevation gain.  From South Mesa Trailhead ran up Homestead and Towhee to the mouth of Shadow Canyon, traversed over to the Mesa Trail to Shanahan North Fork and closed the loop via Lower Big Bluestem and Mesa. Lots of variety in this loop: steady climbs, downhill screamers and rolling goodness.

Tuesday - Bear Creek Trail:  1:12; 7.72 miles, 1,033 feet o' elevation gain. Started from O'Fallon Park, a Denver Mountain Park, in Bear Creek Canyon. Ran up to the BCT, hung a left and cruised down to Lair o' the Bear Open Space, then turned around and retraced my steps. Maya was out on this one with me. The last couple of miles were in a cold rain. Thank goodness the run started right next to Bear Creek.  Maya, who is a mostly-white dog was now mostly dirt colored. I think she enjoyed the post-run creek bath.

Wednesday - Off:  Just couldn't get myself out into the rain/snow.

Thursday - Treadmill:  50+ minutes, 7.25 miles.  Heavy wet snow was falling most of the day. Totally unmotivated until around 5 p.m. Finally got myself out the door to the rec center. Wasn't sure what to do today on the 'mill, so I did a little of everything.  The miles went like this: 8:00; 5:42; 8:00; 6:58; 8:00; 6:00; 8:00. A veritable smorgasbord of treadmill fun.

Friday -  Centennial Cone Open Space:  2:30; 18 miles; 2,646 feet o' elevation gain. Took a good chunk of the day off work to get in a longer run since JP was going to be out of town over the weekend. Ran from the Mayhem Gulch Trailhead in Clear Creek Canyon.  This is a great, fast loop with a few modest climbs, lots of rollers and some fabulous views of the foothills and down into Clear Creek Canyon. Had a smile on my face pretty much the whole run, except for the parts where the sky spit bits of ice and water at me, but that was short-lived.

Saturday - Bergen Peak Upper Loop:  1:18; 8.21 miles, 1,733 feet o' elevation gain. Was feeling a bit tired from the previous two days' efforts. Jogged via streets to the lower lot at Elk Meadow Open Space. As soon as I hit dirt, the wind started roaring. It was blowing so hard, I turned off my iPod because I could no longer hear the music. The roar of the wind was drowning it out. I just put my head down and slogged it out, know that as soon as I hit the trees, I'd find relief.

Soon enough, I was out of the wind and enjoying my slow recovery jog pace. Then, just as I was approach the Too Long Trail turn off, I noticed a runner coming up behind me. Damn it! I don't want to be caught from behind and passed!  So, I picked it up a bit figuring I'd be alone again once I started up Too Long. Not many people run up that trail. Wrong. She turned up Too Long behind me.

I gave up my notion of a pure recovery jog and picked up the pace enough to avoid being overtaken. After about half a mile, I started feeling better. In fact, the higher I went, the better I felt.  On a couple of the long switchbacks, I could see her below running strong.  I continued on, past the Summit Trail turnoff and picked up the pace down the Bergen Peak Trail. I was feeling GREAT on the descent, just cruising through the rocks with confident foot placement and a solid pace - even passed a mountain biker who also was going down.  I enjoyed that way too much.

All-in-all, a solid week. The long run was shorter than I would have liked and the day off was unnecessary - the result of a lack of will, I guess. Still, ended up with a hair under 60 miles, 9 hours and 22 minutes of fun and 6,391 feet of ups.

Blowing a Gasket

The battle against time on Monday must have pushed the engine too hard. I think I blew a gasket.

Around mid-morning on Tuesday it was clear that an illness was building. Fatigue was setting in. The throat had a mild tickle. Damn.

By evening, the verdict was delivered. Sick. Sore throat. No energy. The crud. And, overnight we got six inches of heavy wet snow. Add it all up and you have the perfect time for a trip to the East Coast.  Up at 5 a.m. for a flight to Washington, D.C.

Despite feeling awful, I got out last night here in Arlington, Virginia for a six-mile run. Ran from the hotel down to the Potomac River, did a loop around Roosevelt Island, then ran a couple miles up the bike path along the river and looped back past the Iwo Jima Memorial.  50 minutes; 6+ miles (no GPS watch).

I hoped the run would ease the grip of the crud, but it didn't help. Glad I got out...the weather here is perfect - mild temps, light breeze, no humidity.  Hope to kick this crap quickly.

Bear Peak & A Mental Lapse

Late afternoon run up to the summit of Bear Peak via the backside. A navigational error added a bit of urgency (...and time...and distance) to the run.


Time:  2 hours
Distance: 8.25 miles
Effort: Moderate
Body: Average
Weather: Sunny and warm

Started from the Cragmoor trailhead, unsure about what I was going to run today.  Thought about heading up Bear Peak via Fern Canyon, but wanted a bit more distance and running than that route offered.  The catch was I had a time cut-off to meet in order to be where I needed to be to pick up jP and CP.

By the time I had climbed up to the Mesa Trail, I had a plan. I'd run up Bear Canyon to the West Ridge Trail junction, assess time and either return down the canyon or head over to Bear and down Fern Canyon.

The climb up Bear Canyon was a beautiful as ever. Still my favorite route up into the Boulder hills. I passed a ranger hiking near the mouth of the canyon - the first ranger I've seen out and about in a while. I hit the West Ridge junction and time was looking good. By my calculations, I had enough time to get up to Bear, down Fern, back to the car and back to the 'hood to pick up the kids.

So, up West Ridge I went. I realized here that this was the first time I'd been on this trail since running last June an abbreviated and moonlight version of the Boulder Skyline Traverse with GZ, Tim L., JP and a host of others. I made steady work of the ups and downs over to the backside base of Bear, then scrambled up the loose stuff to the north ridge, climbed the jagged rocks to the summit and tagged the summit marker.

As I made my way back down from the summit, I was back doing the time calculations. My head was filled with numbers, which obscured the mental map I was following. Before I knew it, I was jogging over to the saddle between Bear and South Boulder Peaks.

The minute I hit the saddle I realized I messed up. Fern Canyon is on the north side of Bear, and roughly a straight line down to the car. I was now standing at the mouth of Shadow Canyon, which angles decidedly to the south, away from where I was parked.

Well, I was committed (and now a bit stressed out) so I started down Shadow Canyon, pushing the pace and hopping from rock to rock, down the big drops, around the trees and past three to four groups of hikers. Time was ticking by faster than I was running.

Made it out of the canyon and traversed over to the Mesa Trail, winding my way, eventually, back to the gravel path that leads down to the Cragmoor cut-off.  Made it back to the truck at exactly two hours.

And, as luck would have it, it was JP's turn to pick up the kids. Good thing, because I would have been late. Rest assured, I now have the location of Fern Canyon permanently tattooed on my brain.

Weekly Roundup - May 1 - 7, 2011

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.

Elevation: Six Feet

I have heard it said that more people have stood atop Mt. Everest (2,700 as of 2008) than have set foot on Palmyra Atoll (not counting WWII period).  

I'm willing to bet, then, that the membership in the Palmyra Atoll trail running club (the No Incline Club?), if one existed, would have to be infinitesimal. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit this special place, let alone run the trails of Cooper and Strawn Islands.

Initial approach to Palmyra Atoll aboard charter flight.  Photo courtesy of EW.

The last two days on Palmyra Atoll allowed for a couple more runs on now-familiar ground.  Felt like I got to know some of the sights along the way:

• the two spots where pairs of fairy terns would repeatedly flutter down from the trees and hover just out of reach before darting off into the tree canopy;
• places on the beach and on the mile-long runway where one was assured of seeing groups of bristle-thighed curlews, a bird species of global concern (estimated that there are just 8,000 left worldwide);
• the bushes where the Cooper Island trail dumps out on the runway where young red-footed boobies always seemed to be hanging out looking for twigs and plant material for nests;
• the noisy frigatebirds chasing red-footed boobies above the runway trying to get the boobies to regurgitate their day's food in order to have an easy meal (kleptoparasitism).

Adult red-footed boobies

In addition to running, I had the chance to snorkel around some absolutely amazing coral gardens, do an hour-long dive down what felt like a manta ray highway, explore some WWII ruins and learn about the atoll's history as a refueling base during that war, do some hands-on conservation work and sea kayak the length of the east lagoon.  

So, the runs:

Sunday, May 1st

AM:  3.10 miles - hike in the rain out to the end of Strawn Island and across the coral flats and back.

PM:  8.11 miles; 1:09 - three loops on the Cooper Island - trail/runway loop, plus a quick swing through the base camp.

The trail through the forest on Cooper Island

Monday, May 2nd

AM:  5.02 miles; 52 minutes - from base camp to the end of Strawn Island, then down the beach (past some really cool WWII concrete structures) to North Beach, then onto the Cooper Island trail/runway loop route. Took lots of pictures along the way.

Running down North Beach

The mile-long runway on Palmyra.  During WWII, the runway was twice as wide.

Pillbox on the beach on the north side of Strawn Island

The trail headed toward the end of Strawn Island.

The population figure changes when someone arrives or leaves. In WWII there were upwards of 3,000 people on the atoll.

It's good to back home in the dry air and 7,300-foot elevation, but it's hard not to miss the beauty and rarity of the atoll and its 6-foot elevation.