Monday, December 30, 2013

G & T 20

G & T 20


Another great day up on the mountain. Windy, snowy, clouds and sun all in the same run!
 Looking at Torreys on the way up - you can just make it out through the blowing snow clouds...
 Sun clouds passing by McClellan Mountain on the way up...
 Lots of atmosphere today...

Looking down into Rat Dog couloir...
 Looking west and down from Torreys...
These were my only friends up there today...

Saturday, December 28, 2013

White Ranch

White Ranch

Another fine morning along the Front Range. I tried to run the outer loop, but part of the Rawhide trail is still closed from the flooding. Still, I was able to get in a solid 14 miles and 3,400' of gain by running a figure eight around the park. Really nice out, with a light breeze rustling through the dead grasses. Jefferson County has proposed building a connector from White Ranch to Golden Gate Canyon State Park, which would be amazing. Right now you can hook up the two parks by running on the Drew Hill road to the Red Barn, but that is not very fun. Hopefully the connector will be built soon.






Friday, December 27, 2013

Christmas Skyline Traverse and Mountain Lion

Christmas Skyline Traverse and Mountain Lion


With the morning of Christmas day free, but obligations to be in Boulder later that day, Tara and I went and ran part of the Skyline Traverse. I ran the same route as last time, going from South Table Mesa up Homestead to Shadow to SoBo, then over to Bear, down the west ridge and up Green, then back the way I came, tagging all the peaks again. The day was absolutely spectacular, with not a single cloud in the sky. A bit cool and breezy on the peaks, the trails were dry and smooth. I didn't see anyone on SoBo or Bear, and only a few people on Green, it was a great Christmas present. A little better then last time at 3:47 rt.

The following day (26th), I was running one of my usual routes from home when I encountered my second mountain lion in the 38 years I've been in Colorado. The route goes through some open space near Apex Park in Golden, and I usually only run it early in the morning when I don't have time to go anywhere else. It was about 6:03am and I was wearing a headlamp. I like to scan the hills with my headlamp on this run because there is often a large elk herd that winters here, so it is fun to see hundreds of glowing eyes in the blackness. This time, however, I only saw one pair. As I kept running down the trail, approaching the eyes, they blinked out. Then, a few seconds later they were back. It didn't seem like a lone elk, so I slowed down and zeroed my light beam on them. They disappeared again, then came back. I could tell whatever it was was standing up, then it started to move the opposite direction I was heading in a smooth gait - no lope of a fox or coyote. I was about 40 feet away on the other side of this small drainage, and it looked like it was going back behind me. Tara was still coming down the trail, so I stopped and then started to run up towards the eyes. The thing stopped, and then I could make out the form of the mountain lion. It stood staring at me, and I could see the white of its underside and started to make out the fur. I didn't want him heading towards Tara, so I moved closer to it and made some noises - mostly just talking to it - "Hey, what are you doing. Don't go that way. I see you." etc. It froze again, and we had a stare off at about 25 feet. It then turned and started to move silently through the grass the other way. I followed it with my light as it slowly moved across the slope, stopping to check me out every couple yards. Finally, it went over a bend and disappeared. I told Tara what happened, and we walked down the trail with our headlamps scanning the slopes. After a few minutes, we spotted it again, this time on the other side of the draw and up about 50 yards, moving away.

The only other time that I've seen any mountain lions was once driving up Boulder Canyon early in the morning, and two of them ran across the road, moving from the creek up the slope right in front of the car. That was cool, but this had a different sense of respect. There was no fear, but certainly a lot of respect. It never made a sound, and if I had not spotted his eyes, I would never have known it was there. Really cool!
 Looking into Eldo from the top of SoBo
 The Divide - not a cloud. The moon is up in the left corner.

 Bear and Green from SoBo...
 East from Bear...
 Green and beyond from Bear...
 Bear from Green...
 Bear's super fun West Ridge trail...
Shadow, so good...

Monday, December 23, 2013

G & T 19

G & T 19

Another fun day up on the mountain. Lots of blowing snow and wind, with brief moments of sun. The sun never really rose above the ridgeline of McClellan Mountain today, making it a dark and shadowless run. From here on out, the days get longer and the sun climbs higher into the sky.

 Windblown trail...

 Looking down 2,000' into the valley...


Friday, December 20, 2013

Upslope

Upslope

A dense upslope rolled in last night, putting a nice freeze on the Front Range. Running up Mt. Falcon, however, got one up above the cloud bank for some nice running. I really like this run, the west Denver version of Green Mountain out of Boulder. Almost the same vert (2,100 vs. 2,300), but a bit longer (8.5 miles vs. ~6.5 miles), with some fun loops up top that don't see much traffic.
 Mt. Morrison poking above the cloud bank...





Descending back down into the fog and mist...

New article on injury risk and minimalist shoes. Pretty straight forward and common sense, although I would argue that it might take longer then 12 weeks for one to really adapt to minimalist shoes and not end up with any injuries.

Monday, December 16, 2013

G & T 18 and an article on Recovery Time

G & T 18 and an article on Recovery Time

Well, I've now done 18 straight, making it through one third of a year. Pretty cool, but at the same time, pretty darn tired. It's not hard to bang out 14+ miles and 5,000+ feet on a regular basis, but there does seem to be some cumulative wear when doing it every week (on top of regular training/running). In fact, perhaps science agrees (see article below). Still, another day, another lap. Great day up on the mountain, with only "minor" wind. The snow is what is killing me - all of the extra work involved really tires me out, although I seem to be averaging only 1 hour longer then I was in summer (my average right now is 4:15 for the round trip, while in summer it was 3:15).
 Looking west from the top - Keystone visible on the far right with Breck straight ahead...

My tracks on the way back down...

An interesting article just came out. Published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, the authors looked at recovery time from endurance exercise via transcriptional changes in the muscles. Based on this study, it takes a full 96 hours for muscle recovery to near completion, at least from a transcriptional perspective, which is basically meaning it takes 96 hours for your muscles to recover and for your DNA to begin to replicate. That is, after 4 days your muscles are just starting to rebuild, and more importantly, to incorporate any adaptations on a genetic level one may have gained from their training. Now, this doesn't mean that you don't recover in some ways faster, and incorporate adaptations faster, but for your body to begin to do this on a DNA level, it apparently takes longer then just one or two days. I know some runners follow a hard day with two mellow days instead of the hard/mellow pattern. Makes sense, and perhaps that is why there are many 10-14 day training programs instead of just a 7 day program. Perhaps I should have chosen to do G&T every two weeks, not every week? Too late now, but it does provide some insight into why one must ramp up their training slowly.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

G & T 17

G & T 17

The last three times I've run the mountain I have been praying for good weather - each time to no avail. This time I thought I might have my prayers answered, but alas, not so. I could see the summits this time, but that just let me know what I was going to get hit with - 30 to 40 mph gusts of wind that carried small particles of snow ice. The wind cut through all of my layers (I'm guessing solid negative temps with the wind chill) and the snow ice stung on any exposed skin. I couldn't really stand up top, so my time on each summit was a mere few seconds as I scrambled to find any small boulder to help block the cutting snow ice. Down in the valley the wind was tolerable, but it did make for some serious work breaking trail. I obviously came up with this challenge during the summer when it was nice out...
 Sunrise on Mt. Parnassus - things look promising...
 Lots of work breaking trail... you can start to see the wind gusts picking up on top of Torreys...

 My face is red from the wind snow ice burn...

Looking towards South Park through the snow ice wind...
You can see Longs Peak way off in the distance...
This was a massive avalanche that I had to cross twice - it was about 400 yards wide.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Cold Mt. Falcon

Cold Mt. Falcon


Day two of the cold snap, and not much better. I tried to hold off on running this morning, hoping that it would warm up just a touch. No luck, still -3 when I set off. Despite the frosty temps and ample snow, it was still a great run. No one else was out, and with the bitter cold and snow a nice quiet atmosphere permeated the run.

 Rocking the eyelashicles...
 Looking northeast from the top...
Looking west at the Divide...

Monday, December 2, 2013

G & T 16

G & T 16

I thought I might get lucky and have a nice day up on the mountain for a change. The impending storm was not supposed to roll in until Tuesday, and the weather people were calling for sun and warm temps. I guess that was for Denver, because up high, it was WINDY and STORMY. Not much to say, but this slog challenge is starting to wear.
 You couldn't see the peaks, but I was still hopeful of some sun peaking through on the way up...
 Nope, it just seemed to get worse...
 This is one of the clearer moments on the way up...
Top of Grays... By the time I got down all my tracks were covered and there was a couple inches already of fresh powder.