More Snow on the Mesa

57 minutes
easy pace
5pm - cold and clearing - more snow fell during the day today - in general there were about 6 inches of powder on the trail, but certain sections had over 10 inches - took the usual route home from work, including Yuri Pass - took a good spill in the trees behind NCAR, but where I fell was so slick that I just kept sliding; I was fine, but totally sprawled out on the trail - I'm glad we're back to winter; if it's going to be cold, and if it's going to be even a little icy, then why not go all in and just have snow everywhere - felt great.

Darkness and Ice

56 minutes
easy pace
5:45 am - dark, clear, and chilly - back into work via the usual route (no Yuri in the dark though) - feelin' pretty good these days, and used to the early morning thing - slow going in the dark and ice, but once I crossed Skunk Creek there was enough light to move a little faster.

Home on the Mesa

50 minutes
easy pace
5pm - clear and cool - usual route home from work (up 9th to Chautauqua, Mesa Trail to Bear Creek fire road, Yuri Pass, Bear Mountain Park, and home) - movin' right along today and feelin' zippy; amazing how much faster dry ground is compared to snowpack - less ice all the time, but the remaining ice is glassy and super slick; did a lot of bypassing the ice by just finding dry forest floor off the side of the trail - rolled left ankle coming off Yuri; not too bad though - felt great.

Day Off

got lazy

on quarry land

73 minutes
easy pace
midday - sunny and breezy - they said there would be 2-5 inches of snow today, but I ran with sun and blue skies - parked at the Eldorado Mountain TH, took the little singletrack up the first valley to the left, crossed the aqueduct, and hit the old fire road west of the siphon - saw a ton of snow mold on the new mulch back there - at the gate went across the creek, hopped the fence, and explored around a bit on private land (owned by the quarry?) - found a huge section of the uplifted ancient sea bed (like down near the trailhead), found an old mine with little elevated rails coming out of it, and saw the biggest group of ptarmigans I've ever seen (there must have been a hundred of them) - scrambled straight upslope for a beautiful view of Rocky Flats, Table Mountain, and Denver - turned around and came back the same way - meant to go longer, but ended up back near the TH and didn't feel like doing any extra - felt a little groggy on the way out, but felt good coming home.

Mesa to Downtown

56 minutes
easy pace
5:45 am - dark, clear, and chilly - back to work from home retracing my steps from last night (without Yuri Pass) - getting used to these pre-sunrise, dark trail runs - I was not motivated at all today, but once I was up on the trail I was glad I made it out - the packed snow is now ice, and very glassy and slick ice - I had a few close calls slipping on the ice, but saved myself each time without even having to dab with my hands - feeling good and looking forward to something a bit longer this weekend.

Home on the Mesa

53 minutes
easy pace
5pm - clear, fairly warm - ran home from work on the typical commuter route (up 9th to Chautauqua, south on the Mesa Trail, east on Bear Creek Canyon fire road, Bear Mountain Park, and home) - every day there is more and more dry trail to run on, but the snow patches in the trees are getting packed down and glazed up (pretty much like ice) - felt good.

Mesa to Work

58 minutes
easy pace
5:45 am - still warm, dark and clear - back into work via the standard commuter route (reverse of last night) - mellow run into work - half asleep, just shuffling along in the trees and snowpack - a skunk darted across the trail in front of me on fire road - most of the mud was frozen - beautiful pre-sunrise colors on the horizon this morning - felt great after the run.

Mesa to Home

53 minutes
easy pace
5 pm - pretty warm and clear, but windy - ran home from work via the standard commuter route - plenty of snowpack in the trees, but other exposed spots are now dry and fast - it feels strange to run on dry dirt - felt pretty zippy tonight, but just kept movin' along at a mellow pace - took most of the run to skake off yesterday's rest day; those off days are killers - felt great once up the hill.

Day Off

just laziness

Rocky Mountain

66 minutes
easy pace
2pm-ish - sunny, breezy, warm - ran with Nee' today in Rocky Mountain National Park - headed out from the trailhead off Highway 66, about a mile from our Estes Park cabin - ran the snowpack into the park, under the road to Bear Lake, and up toward Moraine Park in the trees along the south edge of Moraine Park - lots of post-hole making in those trees at a bit higher elevation - turned around near a huge herd of Elk in Moraine Park - could really feel the elevation over the first mile - Nee' drove the car back and let me run back to the cabin on the highway.

E/F in a Little Powder

62 minutes
easy pace
10:30 am, chilly, sunny, 2-3 inches of fresh powder on the trail - a very mellow trot up to the Mesa in the fresh snow - resisted the urge to go harder.

Rest Day

lazy, lazy

Broadway

26 minutes
easy pace
6 am - dark and cold (4 degrees) - feeling a bit lazy and wimpy today, so I ran into work from home via the most direct route: straight down the Broadway bike path - light snow on the pavement, but not too slick - just trotted along mellow - my fingertips never really warmed up this morning.

More Snow on the Mesa

59 minutes
easy pace
5 pm - light snow and chilly - ran home via the usual commuter route - snow was ending and clouds were thinning as I reached Chautauqua - snow-covered flatirons were lovely - 2-3 inches of new snow on the trail - it was a bit slippery - I had three near misses were I thought I was going to hit the ground hard, but saved myself every time - spooked a herd of mule deer near fire road; a few scurried down the slope while most stood motionless ten feet above the trail until I ran by - nice and easy run in the light powder.

Morning Mesa

60 minutes
easy pace
5:45 am - chilly, foggy, light snow, and dark - ran back into work via the same route as last night, in reverse - the early hour and the fog combined to make this the darkest run I've done in a long time - I was moving pretty slowly on the Mesa Trail because I really couldn't see the trail well at all - plus the trace of snow on the trail made it tough to judge how slippery it was - just took it very easy, enjoying the crisp morning air and the quiet - saw no people up there this morning - feelin' good.

Evening Mesa

57 minutes
easy pace
5 pm - chilly, humid, very foggy - ran home from work via the standard commute route (up 9th to Chautauqua, Mesa Trail to Bear Creek Canyon fire road, Bear Mountain Park, and home) - the fog was very thick and it made the woods feel more isolated - the frozen post-holes were tough to navigate - more and more long stretches of open trail every day where I can actually run - very mellow, nice and easy.

Rest Day

just feelin' lazy

Buffalo Ranch

41 minutes
easy pace
8 am - foggy, chilly - trotted around the CU cross country course with SR/OG - we did two of the big, full-perimeter loops (including two trips over Jawbone Hill) - nice and easy - most of the trails were frozen mud - I'm sure SR/OG wondered about the Buffs home course; now he's seen it with his feet.

Shanahan with SR/OG

55 minutes
easy pace
11 am - started out in the chilly fog, but climbed up above it into the sunshine - headed out from the base of Shanahan (on Lehigh), up the central singletrack to mid-Shan, then up South Shan to the Mesa Trail, Mesa north to North Shan, down North Shan to the trailhead - trail conditions were all types and the frozen post-holes were like a mine field - I think SR/OG enjoyed being up in the trees, but I doubt he enjoyed the trail conditions - descended back into the fog to end the run.

AM Meander in Ice Fog

39 minutes
easy pace
5:45 am - chilly with ice fog (felt like micro-snow in the face) - super chill little run from the house this morning - did my standard dink-around loop, but, rather than going up Skunk and down telphone road, I came home along the southern edge of the NOAA property and back up church trail - heading out I slipped on some black ice in the church trail parking lot (hit the pavement pretty hard and sort of jammed my wrist - hurt for about 10 minutes) - behind the cemetery (on the side of Kohler Mesa) I heard a pack of coyotes below me (on the western edge of NIST property along Skunk Creek); they were yelpin' and yipin' about something for a couple of minutes - felt like I wasn't really awake yet this morning, but felt pretty good.

Mesa Trail Commute

56 minutes
easy to moderate pace
5 pm - cool and calm - ran home from work via my normal commuting route on the Mesa Trail - the snow was still soft, but much firmer than the last two days - not as much mud - it's pretty difficult to run easy in that soft snow; it simply takes a little more effort to get through it - felt a little tired tonight, but mostly felt good.

Dawn on the Mesa

60 minutes
easy to moderate pace
6 am - still warm out there (pushin' 50 degrees) - ran into work retracing my steps from last night's run - a lot of ice had glazed up on the trail, but the packed snow was even softer than yesterday - my feet were punching through it, sometimes up to mid-shin - I usually had a choice between ice or very soft snow - pretty slow-goin' today - I was off the Mesa Trail before the actual sunrise, but there were some beautiful pre-sunrise colors hangin' out above Denver and the horizon.

Soft Snow on the Mesa

54 minutes
easy to moderate pace
5 pm - dusk - very warm today in Boulder (60 degrees with snow melting everywhere), and it was still close to 50 when I set out - ran home from work via my usual commuter route (up 9th to Chautauqua, up the Mesa Trail, down Bear Creek Canyon fire road, Bear Mountain Park, and home) - the snow on the trail was very soft and my feet often would post-hole a foot down into it - very muddy on the south-facing slopes, but still a lot of snow in the trees - felt strong tonight.

Short Little Blue

39 minutes
easy to moderate pace
2 pm - filtered sun through the clouds - windy (but nothing compared to yesterday) - just a short little Big Bluestem loop - after yesterday's "run" I wanted something super mellow today - parked at the South Boulder Creek (West) TH - ran up South Boulder Creek Trail, then down Big Bluestem Trail - the wind and sun have been eating away a lot of snow - trail conditions were a variety (damp earth, mud, slush, packed snow, ice) - climbing up with the headwind it was mostly soft-packed snow with slush on top, coming down with the tailwind it was mostly damp earth with some mud - once past the corral (almost back to the trailhead) I descended into a foggy pocket of air that was at least 10 to 15 degrees colder than above (there the snow was crunchy and firm) - felt a little tired today.

Windy and Deep

85 minutes
easy to hard effort
10:15 am - sunny and crazy windy - wow - today was quite the experience - from the house, headed up through Bear Mountain Park, up fire road, south on the Mesa Trail to South Shanahan Trail, turned around and back the same way - with the sunshine it felt pretty warm, but the wind was wild - some parts of the trail (especially fire road) were completely exposed, but the wind was moving the snow to other places - once south of the Fern Canyon Trail on the Mesa I was breaking trail though deep snow - in some spots the drifts (more like filled-in gullies) were up to my hips - it was a ton of work, but a total blast - if I didn't know the Mesa Trail so well it would have been very easy to get far off the trail - turned around at the junction with the South Shanahan Trail at 48:30, and immediately I was re-breaking trail (the wind was covering up my footprints that quickly) - coming down through all of that snow was super fun (sliding and shoe-skiing, plunging deep into the snow and falling face first into it) - I was pretty tired when I got home - I probably would have been better off on skis today, but that would have just been a fun ski - today was an adventure!

Cold Dink-Around Loop

43 minutes
easy to moderate pace
9:30 am - sunny, cold, light breeze - another 2-3 inches of snow fell yesterday afternoon - did my standard from-the-house, short, dink-around-loop (about half road and half trail) - I started out quickly to stay warm, and I was really movin' on the Broadway bike path, but it felt almost effortless - once on the trail it was more like trompin' and slidin' and a lot more work - felt very good - just something short today - maybe I'll go longer tomorrow.

AM Mesa

56 minutes
easy pace
7 am - very cold, sun and clouds - ran back into work this morning via the same route as last night, in reverse - zero degrees when I left the house - my body felt warm by the time I got to fire road - Shanahan Ridge obstructed my view of the sunrise, but it was beautiful to see the sunlight light up Bear Peak...then I watched the sun line drop down to put a red glow on the entire mountain - by the time I got up to the Mesa Trail the sun was behind a cloud, so I never felt it's warming rays - only about a half inch of new powder fell since last night's run - felt great.