Rail

51 minutes
easy pace
solo - noon - sunny and just warm - Rail Trail from the school and back - jeez, did it feel good to be back out there running - just ran very easy, but it was a snap today - my quads are a little tired from the weekend riding (and not stretching) but I was zipping right along with ease today - a little time away from running always lets me come back fresher and more motivated - feelin' good.

Rest Day

rest day
busy and unmotivated

Buffalo Creek Ride # 5

[mountain bike]
10.85 miles
1 hour
solo - 11am-ish - overcast turned to mostly sunny - set out on this ride after we had packed up camp (Levi is a natural camper; he handled it all like a champ) - the goal of this ride was to hit some new territory and discover the other cool trails in the area - parked at the Miller Gulch TH, ripped down Miller Gulch to the junction with the Sandy Wash Trail, turned left and went back up the Homestead, then rode down and up the Skipper Trail to the Buck Gulch TH, then down FR 553 to the other TH - Miller Gulch is a fun downhill, but it's just a rutted out old jeep road - the big new discovery is the Homestead Trail (very cool winding singletrack - rollie-polie) - and I had forgotten how cool the Skipper Trail is - rode at a decent clip on this short little thing before leaving Buffalo Creek and heading for home - it was a great weekend of camping.

Buffalo Creek Ride # 4

[mountain bike]
12.22 miles
1 hour, 18 minutes
with KJ - hot and sunny - 4pm-ish - from camp, rode down Tramway, east a bit on old 543 road, up Shinglemill to FR 550, back down Shinglemill to the Morrison Creek Trail, down Morrison Creek, west on old 543, back up Tramway, and back up to camp - wow, the upper portion of Shinglemill is very cool (twisty, rocky singletrack, with great views of the burn area) - rode this ride pretty mellow - not as hot out there today, but still pretty hot and windy.

Buffalo Creek Ride # 3

[mountain bike]
19.57 miles
1 hour, 45 minutes
solo - 9:45am - sun and clouds, started out cool but it got hot quickly - rode from camp to Chair Rocks and back - forest road 550 - Colorado Trail, across Highway 126, continue on Colorado Trail, across FR 538, then found the faint singletrack to Chair Rocks, back the same way - this was an awesome ride - rollie-polie singletrack, my first time on the CT east of Hwy 126, not too many yahoos - I did this ride at a decent clip, and felt amazingly good on the ride back to camp.

Buffalo Creek Ride # 2

[mountain bike]
10.95
1 hour, 19 minutes
with KJ - 4pm - sun and clouds, damn hot, windy - set out from camp, down Tramway, 543 road, up Baldy, down Gashouse, back up Tramway to camp - felt a bit tired on this ride (I'm sure the heat had something to do with it).

Buffalo Creek Ride # 1

[mountain bike]
15.93 miles
1 hour, 36 minutes
solo - 10:30am - sunny and hot - left from our campsite (1/2 mile east of the Tramway Trail on forest road 550), down Tramway, NE on old 543 road, up Morrison Creek, down Shinglemill, down 543 road, up Gashouse, down Baldy, and back up Tramway to camp - felt good, especially at the end of the ride - despite tons of campers and cars, the trails were fairly empty - I do not descend these trails as quickly when I am all by myself, but maybe I climb a little bit faster.

Back on the Rail

55 minutes
easy pace
solo - noon - sun and clouds, hot (damn hot!) - just an easy trot on the Rail Trail from the school - I'm not used to this heat; just today I felt like I started sweating more (sweat now starting to stream down) - the heat really keeps the yahoo count down; only 2 runners out there today, and they were fast - felt a little tired, but that's normal after some rest days - we're headed up to Buffalo Creek this weekend for some camping, running, and mountain biking; tonight will be Levi's first night in the woods - this weekend's runs and rides will probably not be massive miles, but they will be frequent.

A Bigger E/F

56 minutes
easy to moderate pace (moderate up, easy everywhere else)
solo - 7:30pm - cool and cloudy with T-storms in the distance - from the house, I ran a variation of the regular E/F loop - once at the NOAA/NIST property, instead of running along the southern border of the property, I continued north along the Broadway Bike Path, then ran the northern edge of the property, then King Ave., and the Four Pines Trail from the Four Pines TH, that connected with the Enchanted Mesa Trail, and the rest of the loop was the normal route - I almost didn't run today, but decided to after a bunch of cool air from the T-storms rolled in - I had a great view up on the Mesa Trail; off to the east was a huge thunderstorm, with a thick arc of a rainbow showing through a break in the clouds, and lightning bolts flashing all over the place - a very intense scene to take in - the storms and clouds made it so dark that it felt like twilight out there - the rest days did me good - for some reason, my body was telling me that it did not want to run.....so I didn't - today I felt refreshed and fast and was really enjoying it.

Rest Day III

and still restin'.....but itchin' to get back out there.

Rest Day II

still restin'

Rest Day

rest

Double Walker on the Mountain Bike

[mountain bike]
2 hours, 8 minutes
16.11 miles
easy to moderate pace
with DJ - we parked at the Meyers Gulch TH, rode down to the Walker Ranch TH, rode the Walker Ranch loop twice (once clockwise and once counter-clockwise), then climbed back up to the vehicle - clockwise is much faster, but it means hiking up the hike-a-bike section; it also makes the downhills shorter - never really felt myself start clickin', felt a little bit stuck in low gear - crazy hot out there today.

Easy E/F with KJ

75 minutes
easy pace
with KJ - sun and clouds, hot - midday - a very mellow tromp of the standard E/F loop with KJ - I did some easy jogging, jogging back to KJ, and walking every now and then - lots of yahoos out there - felt pretty tired considering the mellow pace.

Rail

53 minutes
easy pace
solo - noon - sun & clouds, hot (upper 80's) - Rail Trail from the school, to the terminus and back - I still feel like a 300 pound doughboy out there, but at least I'm getting the miles in - I think I need a brutal mountain bike ride to get things kick-started again - very hot out there today; it sure felt nice when a cloud would come along - grasshoppers galore on that trail, and I saw a big ol' bull snake; he was about a five or six footer, but was as thick as a tennis ball - felt pretty darn good by the end of the run.

Rest Day

rest day
tired and unmotivated
I just wasn't feelin' it today.

E/F

57 minutes
easy pace
solo - 7:30am - sunny and already hot - from the house I ran the standard E/F loop - church trail, NOAA/NIST property, dirt service road onto Kohler Mesa, Mesa Trail, down Bear Canyon fire road, through the 'hood to the house - super slow and mellow today - I'm in a rut (I'm getting my miles in and still running almost every day, but I'm feeling slow and unmotivated - I just need to keep at it, just go easy, and I'll eventually come out of this little funk) - the air this morning was so crisp and clear, the hillsides were so green - I just love being on the Mesa Trail in the early morning - I think I need to spend more time on the bike, so I'll value my trail-running time a bit more - like most of my runs the past week, I felt blah to start out, but felt great and zippy by the end of the run.

Hogback Loop

43 minutes
easy pace
solo - 4pm - sunny and warm - ran the Hogback Loop from the school and back - very mellow and easy - I even walked some of the stairsteps - lots of rabbits out there - also saw a little garter snake - felt only ok.

Rail Trail

54 minutes
easy pace
solo - noon - sunny and a bit breezy - Rail Trail from the school - super mellow and easy today - my legs felt heavy today (was it from the last two hilly runs or the 5 cocktails yesterday?) - ended up feeling pretty good by the end of the run - saw DJ coming back from his run as I was heading out - itchin' for a mountain bike ride about now - meadowlarks were singin' up a frenzy out there today.

From the South Mesa TH

71 minutes
easy to moderate pace
solo - got dropped off at the South Mesa TH, ran up the Homestead, then up Shadow Canyon to the last-chance-back-to-the-Mesa trail, connected back with the Mesa Trail, continued north, just north of the North Shanahan Trail I discovered a faint singletrack trail that went south for a bit along the rock ridge, then it ended up paralleling the N. Shanahan trail, descended the long SW-to-NE singletrack down to the Cragmoor area, ran through the 'hood back to the house - felt good today.

Around Green Mountain

105 minutes
easy to moderate pace
solo - sunny and warm - I got dropped off at the Bear Canyon TH, ran up Bear Canyon, Green Bear, Green Mountain West Ridge, down Flagstaff Rd. (just down a couple of switchbacks), down Long Canyon, and then down Flagstaff Trail to Gregory Canyon TH - that's a great loop, and I felt great doing it.

Rail with DJ

50 minutes
easy to moderate pace
with DJ - sun and clouds - 11:45am - felt hot when the wind was calm, felt cool otherwise - Rail Trail from the school - today's run was a PR for DJ on that course - he's gettin' in shape - I felt heavy and sluggish at the start, but started to feel zippy on the way back - we pushed it in at a pretty good clip - heard several snakes in the grasses along the trail - feelin' good.

Easy Rail Trail

53 minutes
easy pace
solo - 3:40pm - sunny, warm - Rail Trail from the school - very easy and mellow - just spacing out and movin' along - felt heavy and sluggish.

Hogback Loop

45 minutes
easy pace
solo - 12:45pm - sunny and a touch on the chilly side - from Foothills Community Park, Foothills Trail, Hogback Loop, and back - really easy today - I was even able to keep the stairsteps mellow - just goin' easy today - felt good.

Half Rail with Mateo

44 minutes
easy pace
with Mateo (one of the XC boys) - sun and clouds, a bit chilly - Mateo's thinking about gettin' back into it, so he'll be ready to go this fall - so, he wants to go out every Tuesday with me - ok, I'll be there - super mellow, just yuckin' it up with Mateo - from the school, we ran the Rail Trail to the pond and back - feel good.

Rail

51 minutes
easy pace
solo - noon, sun and misting clouds, cool - out and back on the Rail nice and easy - I spooked a couple of mallards at the pond and they went off flapping and squawking, spooking me - some woman warned me about a "snake up there"; I may have heard it, but I didn't see anything - felt just a little tired from yesterday's ride - I really need to start stretching.

Buffalo Creek Mountain Biking

[mountain bike]
2 hours, 21 minutes - 21.85 miles
easy to moderate effort
with DJ - 11am - sun and clouds, temperature right on the edge of chilly - Buffalo Creek - always fun at Buffalo Creek - Up Strawberry Park, Homestead, Gashouse, down Baldy, up Tramway, Colorado Trail, Green Mountain Loop (clockwise), up Gashouse, Homestead, and down Strawberry Park - DJ wasn't feelin' it today, so we rode slower than usual - we were still cookin' along though, as we know the loop so well that we ride it smarter than we used to - felt great.

Mesa Trail

75 minutes
easy to moderate pace
solo - 12:20pm - sunny, warm, and the trail was a bit muddy - NeNe provided transportation to and from the trailheads, so I was able to do a point-to-point run today - set out from the S. Mesa TH (on the road to Eldorado Springs), ran the entire Mesa Trail to Chautauqua Park at easy to moderate pace, then warmed down by going easy and meandering my way to the Gregory Canyon TH - the Mesa Trail took me 56 minutes, the warm-down was 19 more minutes - Oh, how I love to run the whole Mesa Trail; feels like I went somewhere - plenty of climbing on that trail, but that also means plenty of descending - tons of yahoos out there today, including the real trail runners, the Bolder Boulder trainers (half of which will be gone on June 1st), hikers (and their dogs), tourists (speaking an assortment of foreign languages), and plenty of moms and dads in town to pick up their college kids for the summer (a typical spring Saturday on the Mesa) - felt pretty good, but coming off a rest day always feels a little uncomfortable.

Rest Day

rest day
cold and rainy
I planned on going out at 4pm, but that's when the skies opened up and the rain really started coming down - rest is good.

Old Kiln Laps

47 minutes
easy pace
solo - 1:50pm - cloudy, chilly, light rain, and a cold northerly breeze - headed out from the school, ran up to the Foothills Trail, then did five laps of the Old Kiln Loop, and back - nice and easy - the rain was turning to slushy rain, then back to just rain - just runnin' laps and trying to go the same pace every lap (the hill was tougher and tougher each lap, but I was runnin' easy so no big deal) - one more day of nasty weather, then Saturday looks good - I've had a little stomach ache since yesterday afternoon; today's run made me feel much better.

Rest Day

Rainy and cold.....and lazy.

Rail

50 minutes
easy to moderate pace
solo - 3:15pm - warm, sun and clouds, and gusty winds - Rail Trail from the school to the terminus and back - still felt slightly tired, but much better than yesterday - just north of the pond I heard a rattlesnake in the grass below the trail - I walked down the slope just a bit and found it (a little two and a half footer) in the grass - it was rattlin' away - that's the first rattler I've seen this year - those wind gusts were throwing me around a bit - the hill on the Foothills Trail gets easier every time I run it - feelin' great.

Hogback and Rail

71 minutes
easy to moderate pace
solo - noon - sunny, warm, light breeze - from the school, climbed up and down the Hogback Loop first, then headed out on the Rail Trail (to the terminus and back) - I worked pretty hard on the Hogback climb but kept it between easy and moderate everywhere else - actually the pace was closer to easy, but the effort was closer to moderate - my legs were still tired from all of that climbing on the mountain bike yesterday, so I was not exactly burnin' up the trail today - felt tired, but good - the meadowlarks were singing away out there.