Hogback Shadow

46 minutes
easy pace (moderate climbing the steps)
solo - 3:20pm - felt a little sluggish, so I decided that, if I was going to go slow, I'd head up and do some climbing - nothing like a bunch of stairsteps to work the kinks out - headed out from the school and did the Hogback Loop - those steps get easier every time (it used to seem like such a task to get up there, but now it's over before I start suffering much) - felt great on the way back - sunny, but I was in the shadow for most of the run - warm enough for shorts - lovely day - saw no one on the Hogback Loop trail.

Easy Rail

42 minutes
easy pace
solo - 3:30pm - sunny, but ended in the shadow - just warm enough for shorts (50 degrees) - from the Fourmile Creek TH, to the Rail Trail terminus and back - just goin' mellow - tail/crosswind out, head/crosswind back - I was not motivated to get out there today, but, once I was five minutes into it, I was glad to be doing it - a quarter mile from the end, I passed Frank Shorter - he was just trottin' slowly (probably out on a twenty miler or something) - wow, was it really 36 years ago that he won the gold? - he's still gettin' out there and runnin' - I hope I can keep it up that long - felt good today - I spent a lot of today's run daydreaming about mountain biking - I saw my riding partner today, and he assures me that he will be in shape come spring - I know I will be - well, even if I'm in good running shape, it will take me a couple weeks to get my riding legs back - the heart and lungs will be there though (never left).

Into Shadow Canyon

77 minutes
easy to moderate pace (moderate climbing, easy descending)
solo - 2pm - sunny, but chilly and windy - (ended up not skiing today) - started from the S. Boulder Creek (West) TH, west on South Boulder Creek Trail, south down the Mesa Trail, westward up the Homestead Trail, continued west on the Towhee Trail, Shadow Canyon Trail to the abandoned cabin (where Shadow Canyon "proper" begins), northeast on the westernmost "last chance" connector back to the Mesa Trail, north on the Mesa, and eastward down the Upper and Lower Big Bluestem to the TH - felt very good - I am becoming quite the mountian goat - the climbing just gets easier every month - rolled my left ankle on the descent (nothing serious, just enough so it will be a little sore for a few days).

Big Big Blue

59 minutes
easy to moderate pace
solo - 1:45pm - sunny with intermittent cloud shadows, chilly, light breeze - Big Big Bluestem loop - from the S. Boulder Creek (West) TH, South Boulder Creek trail, north on the Mesa, west on Upper Big Bluestem, reconnect and continue north on the Mesa trail, South Shanahan trail, Shan/Blue connector, lower Big Bluestem to the TH - saw a fox at the Mesa / S. Shan junction (I don't know if it was directed at me or some hikers' dogs nearby, but the fox barked - I had never heard that before) - I had planned on going farther today, but my legs were tight and a little tired. Going on a long ski tomorrow and I want to be fresh for that.

Osprey on the Rail

52 minutes
easy pace
solo - 8:30am - filtered sunshine, just warm enough for shorts - Rail Trail from the school - mellow pace - felt good - saw that bird again, and I am certain it was an osprey - it soared right over me - if it looks like an osprey, and it flies like an osprey...it's probably an osprey - NeNe ran the same trail at noon and saw it (another?) and she is also sure it was an osprey - just because guidebooks and birders say that they do not winter here does not mean that there are not exceptions - individual birds can break the rules, species have variations (even mutations), and there is plenty of documentation of wildlife behaving strangely in the past decade or so - so I say osprey - I'll betcha a sushi dinner on it.

E/F Loop with the Waning Crescent

58 minutes
easy pace
solo - 7am - chilly, but not as cold as I had anticipated (overdressed) - clear skies - crescent moon hanging out above the southern horizon - sun rose as I traversed the Mesa Trail - I don't know what it is about being on the Mesa Trail at sunrise, but it's special watching the sunlight creep down the flatirons until finally it's on me - mellow tromp - spacin' out - just "being" - felt only so-so (wasn't really awake yet).

Glove Retrieval at Boulder Valley Ranch

60 minutes
easy pace
with NeNe - 4pm-ish - fifty degrees, filtered sunshine - yet another day in shorts - sun setting as we finished - started at the Foothills / Eagle junction off US 36 just north of town - Eagle trail, down the Cobalt trail, Sage trail, southwest on the Eagle trail, Mesa Reservoir trail, Hidden Valley trail, and the Degge trail back to the TH - nice and easy, but I did one little surge after NeNe realized that she dropped a glove "somewhere back there" - it was only about 300 meters "back there", but by the time I got it, turned around, and caught back up to her, it was about a 3/4 mile surge that I had done - legs were a little tired from yesterday's effort, but felt pretty good overall - I know there will be plenty of nasty weather to endure in the next few months, but next week February comes - spring and summer is right around the corner - if I can just keep up the motivation and keep getting out there almost every day, I will be in pretty good shape to start jammin' again when the weather is nice - What's on the agenda? Lots of mountain biking, tons of trail running, maybe a little trail racing, and a trail marathon.

Rail Trail at a Decent Clip

45 minutes
moderate to hard pace (closer to moderate)
solo - 8am - from the school to the Rail Trail terminus and back - chilly, but wore shorts, sunny, light crosswind - I felt like going hard so that's what I did - came back two minutes faster than I went out - It felt great to turn it on a bit today; I had not run quickly in quite a while - felt great - I had some zip in my legs, but, when Spring comes, I'll have to start doing it more often (then it won't feel so foreign). Today, it was a bit of a shock-to-the-system, but a good kind of shock - running is a wonderful thing - I am lucky to be able to do it - I love it.

Boulder Valley Ranch

51 minutes
easy pace
with NeNe - 3:30pm, warm enough for shorts, sunny, calm - very mellow clockwise loop from the Longhorn TH - Sage trail, Eagle trail, Mesa Reservoir trail, Hidden Valley trail, Cobalt trail back down to the car - lots of flying v's of geese out there - felt great - maybe I will go fast tomorrow?

Backcountry Skiing at Brainard

[backcountry skiing]
2 hours 20 minutes
mellow tour
with NeNe - late morning - cold and windy, but sunny with blue skies - went west on the Waldrop trail to Brainard Lake, around the lake along the road (very exposed and windy), back east on the CMC trail - the CMC is a ski-only trail (no pesky snowshoe people cutting up the ski tracks), a very neat "corridor" through the forest - nice wide-open downhill to finish - beautiful up there - lots of snow along the CMC.

[The running-every-day-of-2006 streak has ended, but the do-something-aerobic-everyday-of-2006 streak lives on.]

Sunrise E/F in the Snow

61 minutes
easy pace
solo - 7am - 10-15 degrees, clear skies - standard E/F loop - I love to get up on the Mesa Trail early in the morning - crisp, clean air - the Earth spun around to show the sunrise just as I got up onto Kohler mesa - stunningly beautiful - mountains rising up to meet the waning moon - only saw one other person up on the Mesa - trail surface was snowpacked and icy with chunky footprints frozen in yesterday's slush - I had a few cocktails last night so I was not feeling particularly super or swift - very mellow pace - just going slow and enjoying the scenery.

SoBo with NeNe

54 minutes
easy to moderate pace
with NeNe - 4pm - sunset shortly after starting - from the S. Boulder Creek East TH - ran easy with NeNe to the E. Boulder Rec Center where she turned around - I continued to the Bobolink TH at Baseline Rd. at moderate pace, turned around and chased NeNe at moderate pace and finally caught her 5 minutes from the car - ran easy with her to finish - cold - trial surface was a mix of dirt, mud, puddles, packed snow, and powder - felt good to go a little faster today - last day in my old (grey) Montrail Hardrocks - they are officially retired as new red ones have been acquired.

Snow on the Rail

50 minutes
easy pace (with moderate surges mixed in)
solo - 9am - cold, light snow falling, low clouds, fog - felt great to get away this morning - about an inch of snow on the trail - mine were the first footprints on the Rail Trail today, except for the prairie dogs (they have interesting tracks - all four feet hit the ground, then about a foot and a half of getting airborne before all four feet hit the ground again within a foot of each other - that must be a prairie dog who's haulin' ass, in full flight) - Rail Trail from the school - felt pretty good - I love running on days like this because (almost) no one else is out there.

Easy Rail

52 minutes
easy pace
with NeNe - 3:30pm - windy, sun & shadow, warm enough for shorts - Rail Trail from the Fourmile Creek TH - a very mellow tromp, chattin' (bitchin' and moanin' about students / colleagues / parents) with NeNe - I was glad to get out there to blow off some steam (I'll be glad when this week is over - feeling kind of stressed).

Up Linden Again

42 minutes
easy pace
solo - cold, windy, in the shadow (4:15pm) - same loop as last Thursday, but without the wrong turns - very unmotivated and a little tired before going out, but ten seconds out I was glad I was doing it - saw a woman and her dog twice who were doing the same loop in the other direction - plenty of climbing on this loop, but this second time was so much easier than last Thursday.

A Cold Big Blue with NeNe

44 minutes
easy pace
with NeNe - 11am - cold, overcast - standard Big Bluestem loop (same loop as yesterday with sr/og) - very mellow - reality returned today along with winter - woke up to a half inch of snow in Boulder, just enough to make the trail slightly muddy - I noticed in Cosmo Doogood's Urban Almanac that today is "Ditch Your New Year's Resolution Day" - the weather certainly had something to do with it, but the New Year's Resolutioners were absent from the trail - too bad for them, but good for the rest of us - with the exception of some occasional nice days, the trails are all ours until early April (when those people creep back out of the woodwork for their Bolder Boulder preparation).

Big Blue with SR/OG

50 minutes
easy pace
with sr/og - 8:00am, sunny, chilly but warmed up quickly - nice and easy tromp of the standard small Big Bluestem loop - saw a coyote truckin' across the prairie and across the Mesa trail - very mellow - visited the FHS track on the way home.

Fowler with the Family

49 minutes
easy pace
with NeNe, KJ, and senior runner/oldguy - from the Eldorado Mountain TH, Fowler trail to the Visitor's Center in Eldorado Canyon State Park - sunny and very warm (shorts, no shirt, knit cap) - I think sr/og liked the views in the canyon - super mellow - fun - beautiful day.

Easy E/F

54 minutes
easy pace
solo - 7:30am, sunrise - cold - left the house just as the sun crept over the horizon - standard E/F loop - through the hood, church trail, NOAA/NIST property, service road up onto Enchanted / Kohler Mesa, Mesa trail to Bear Creek fire road, Bear Mountain Park, through the hood back to the house - passed a small group of mule deer on the Mesa trail (they stood motionless and just watched me run by) - cold, but the sun warmed things up pretty quickly - only saw two people up on the Mesa - nice and easy -felt great.

Up Linden

44 minutes
easy to moderate pace (closer to easy)
solo - 8am - clouds and sun - chilly (dressed for winter) - windy (first half) - from the school, across Wonderland Lake dam, south to Linden, west on Linden Dr., climbed up the road and continued climbing on N. Cederbrook Dr., Ridge Rd., "wraparound" trail above Lee Hill Dr., Old Kiln Trail, Foothills Trail, Foothills Community Park, back to the school - I was thinking that this run would be much more difficult - maybe that's why it seemed so easy (prepared for worse) - only 5 to 5.5 miles, but a good hill in there - really only 15 minutes of climbing (800 feet or so) - about half roads, half trail - as I descended the "wraparound", I saw, on the slope on the other side of Lee Hill Dr., a fox darting through a small herd of mule deer as a hiker was spooking all of them - that little fox was movin' - always wanted to do that loop and now it's done - felt great again.

More of the Rail

51 minutes
easy to moderate pace
solo - 9:30am - Rail Trail (I do love that trail) - filtered sunshine, warmish (shorts) - windy (head/crosswind out, tail/crosswind back) - nothing special to note today except that I felt better than I have in two weeks, felt great - tomorrow they are calling for colder temperatures, but just for a day - I might actually have to wear tights for the first time in the '06 (I hope not) - getting spoiled with these warm temps - I am feeling the slightest bit of tightness / soreness along my left shin - got to do my stretches (something I've been neglecting to do) - don't want to get a shin splint.

2nd Run Today - Half Rail with Blaine

52 minutes
easy pace
with Blaine (one of the runners on the cross country team) - Blaine needs to be ready for some mountaineering outings that he will be doing as part of his Senior Project, so he wants to run with me sometimes. So, we did a run together at dusk. - We left the school at 4:45pm, headed out on the Rail Trail, got to "the pond" (or "bog", or "oasis", whatever you want to call it) and it was getting awfully dark, turned around and stumbled back. We were watching our moon shadows on the way back, looking at the city lights, and the big herds of mule deer. It really was a cool experience. Plus, he's a very neat kid - I love talking with him - still warm enough for shorts - nice and easy - looking forward to more runs with him - I wanted more mileage, and today I got some more mileage.

Rail and Hogback

71 minutes
moderate pace
solo - 9:00am - filtered sunshine, a little chilly, slightly windy, got to wear shorts again - from the school, ran the Rail Trail, on the way back I did the Hogback Loop (clock-wise like usual) - first time I actually ran all the stairsteps on the Hogback - those steps get easier every time - great views from up on the ol' Hogback - saw a couple mule deer and several hawks - I spooked one hawk as I rounded a corner and he took off only 20 meters or so in front of me - it was nice to go faster and a little farther - felt good

Rail Trail from the Trailhead

53 minutes
easy pace
with NeNe - 1:30pm - sunny and a little chilly (shorts, but hat & gloves) - did the Rail Trail from the Fourmile Creek TH instead of from the school - super mellow pace - just chattin' with NeNe - slight tailwind out (hardly noticed it), slight headwind back (noticed it) - pretty nice day for what is forecasted as the coldest day of the week - calm winds for a change - warmer temps later in the week, so that probably means more wind (great - my favorite) - Third Quarter (my busiest quarter) starts next week, so no more sneakin' away in the early afternoons - it'll be all mornings or late afternoons then - but we're getting more daylight every day now, so all will be AOK - I've been doing far too many easy short runs lately - I really need to go faster or farther, or both.

Gregory Canyon to the House

56 minutes
easy pace
with NeNe - sunny, windy, and a bit chilly - 10:30am - parked a vehicle at Gregory Canyon TH, Blue-Baird trail & eventually connected to the Mesa trail near the Bluebell / Mesa junction (there are so many trails around there that I cannot keep them straight), Mesa to the mouth of Bear Canyon, east on fire road, Yuri Pass, through the hood to the house. - it's fun doing a point to point run, rather than a loop or an out and back - retrieved the vehicle after a late lunch at the Tea House - lots of people out there on the trails - all of those New Year's resolutioners are still at it (Will they still be out there when the weather turns nasty? I hope not for my own trail experiences and enjoyment, but I hope so for our society in general.) - I think there was a little section of the Blue-Baird that I had never been on before - always good to see new territory - staying in the trees and being close to the hills shielded us from some of the wind - very fun - felt great.

Up to the Mesa

56 minutes
easy to moderate pace (moderate on uphills and flats, easy on downhills)
solo - 2:15pm - sunny and 65 degrees, light winds - summer garb (shoes, socks, shorts, skin) - from the house, west through the hood, up and over Yuri Pass, Bear Creek fire road, north on the Mesa, down McClintock and Enchanted Mesa trails, past Chautauqua Auditorium, zig zag through the hood to the Four Pines TH, little trail behind Green Mountain Cemetery, across Skunk Creek, NOAA/NIST property to Broadway and Dartmouth, through the hood to the "church trail", back to the house - felt pretty good, not super - the trails were full of people - as I descended the McClintock I passed some fifty-something woman hiking and she said, "God, you are an inspiration. Wow". I just smiled and laughed, but I thought, "Geez, you're easily inspired". What's so inspirational about a guy letting gravity yank him down a trail? Besides, there are easily 500 faster and fitter runners in this town. It was a little weird, but, of course, the compliment made me feel good. - Unbelievably nice day.

Easy Rail

53 minutes
easy pace
solo - Rail Trail - 1:45pm - sunny and fairly windy ("the rail" is usually a better choice of trail on windy days, as it is right along the foothills - gives a little blocking protection) - I had planned on going farther and faster, but once I got out there I just wasn't feelin' it - nice and mellow - one of those days when I space out and all of a sudden I'm done - that's fun - effortless.

Easy Meander with Dan-o

35 minutes
easy pace
with Dan-o - 9:30am - easy meander around Foothills Community Park and Wonderland Lake - sunny and chilly, light breeze - wore shorts - shot some hoops in the gym as a little warm up - feelin' good - it's hard for Dan-o and I to go slow, but we forced ourselves to do so.

Back to Work - Rail Trail

51 minutes
easy to moderate pace
solo - Winter Break has ended - back to work today - so, ran the Rail Trail from the school - 9:30am - mostly sunny - probably a little too chilly for shorts, but I did it anyway - also wore winter cap and thin gloves (and a long shirt) - only a gentle breeze, which was very nice indeed - my cold is almost gone - feeling pretty strong, almost all the way back - I love this trail; if the city ever turns it into an "officially designated" city trial, they will ruin it by turning the perfect singletrack into a freeway - I'm glad I can enjoy it while it is still sweet.

Fowler - More Wind

47 minutes
easy pace
with NeNe - Fowler trail - 10:30am - sunny, but windy (I am getting very tired of this wind business - I'll welcome the return of cold temperatures if it means some relief from the wind - it's difficult to relax, even indoors, when the wind is howlin') - start and finish at the Eldorado Mountain TH - up the Fowler to the visitor's center in Eldorado Canyon State Park, and back - it's good we ran when we did, as the wind got much worse later in the day (did I mention how much I dislike the wind? - if I ever commit some awful crime, it will happen on a windy day - makes me crazy) - I was pretty wiped out after my run with Dan-o yesterday, so today it was nice to just go mellow - shorts, winter cap, thin gloves

When Seniorrunner/Oldguy comes to town, I think this is the trail I'd like him to see - (spectacular views of the canyon) - after the initial climb (5-10 min.) it's pretty flat and the views are awesome - he has some "clock cleaning" on his agenda - the clock to which he refers must be his own - ha! - but, we'll do something else if it's icy - as of now, it's dry.

Left Hand/Rail - With Dan-o

56 minutes
moderate pace
with Dan-o - Left Hand/Rail loop - 3pm - Eagle, down Cobalt, north on Left Hand, west on Beech, cross US36, Rail trail, Foothills trail, tunnel back under US36 - moderate pace but very windy, so effort was more than moderate - felt good to work hard - it really is fun running kind of fast with Dan-o - warm enough to wear shorts, but had on my winter cap to keep the wind out of my ears - sunset as we finished - feeling better (my cold) every day, but still hackin' up some pretty stuff

Buffalo Ranch

46 minutes
easy pace
with NeNe - Buffalo Ranch - 3:30pm, start and finish at S. Boulder Creek East TH - Buffalo Ranch (CU cross country course - Jawbone Hill gets easier every time I run it), berm trail, Tantra Park - sunny, sunset as we finished - not as warm as past few days, but not as windy - not as congested today, but hacking cough - feeling a lot better today - felt blah at the start, great afterward - running was the best thing I could have done - a boxer/pitbull dog ran along with us for a while - well, not really - he would run past us , then stop and sniff some stuff, then pass us again, and on and on - cute dog, ran sort of sideways - saw several "New Year's resolutioners" out there.