G & T 33 And 34

G & T 33 and 34


Been a busy couple days trying to work a bunch, cram two runs of Grays and Torreys into the schedule, and taper for Cedro Peak all at the same time. This is when the G & T challenge proves to not be the smartest idea. Cedro is on Saturday, and I work all day Tue-Thurs, so my only hope for keeping the challenge going was to do back to (almost) back climbs. On Friday's run the storm the night before dropped around 10" of new snow (according to Loveland, who is now at 400+ for the year - yeah, it is a big snow year), making for a slow, grueling slog fest of a run. To top it off, it was windy - of course! Today's outing was no better, with a nice blizzard arriving early in the morning and continuing throughout the climb. I'm guessing there was a fresh 6-8" by the time I made the round trip. Now I have four days to taper for my first 45 mile race. Sweet!

It's April 7th and I'm pretty sick of snow right now. Looking back at my logs, the snow didn't become a factor until Nov. 25th, at which point my time gained an hour. That was #15, and I have now completed #34, meaning that I have done G & T more in full winter-snow conditions then not. I am so ready for summer and for it to stop snowing!

Apex

Apex

Some photos from Apex yesterday morning. This is near my place, so it is a regular loop of mine.

The M5 Challenge

The M5 Challenge

I decided to do some laps on Mt. Morrison this morning, with no real set goal in terms of the number of laps, just with the idea of getting in some solid vert. The south ridge trail up Mt. Morrison is brutally short - 1.8 miles with 2,000' of gain. It's pretty much straight up and then straight down. As I started, I began to try and come up with some sort of goal, and when I was running the numbers in my head, I realized that 5 laps pretty much equals 10,000' of gain and 20 miles (I tagged on an extra ~2 miles to get to an even 20 by running up the road a bit between each lap). I thought that was pretty cool: 5, 10, 20. So I settled on 5 laps. It was a great morning, although windy on the ridge, but with no one else on the mountain, I just put my head down and got to work. One my fifth lap Jeff V. showed up, which was great, as I was getting tired and he re-motivated me (and blasted past me on the climb up). However, after that fifth lap I gave up and decided it would be better to go get lunch then try and do another lap - plus I was attracted to the numbers. Seems like the M5 Challenge could be a cool annual event - until someone decides to do a M10 Challenge!

G & T 32 And Sunrise Track Sessions

G & T 32 and Sunrise Track Sessions


Another run up Grays and Torreys yesterday. Started off fairly cold, with the wind blowing up high. Not a ton of new snow from the weekend storm, but enough that above treeline through the willows the trail was all blown in and required postholing/slogging. I've gotten really good over this winter at knowing where the "packed" trail is and how to stay on it despite not being able to see it. It is almost like reading braille, as I weave my way through the willows and around the avalanche shoots of Kelso Mountain. Really windy (as usual) up high, with steady gusts pretty much the entire time.

 It only took me 32 times running by the old mining cabin on the summer road to notice this!

 It's only 2,000' if you step off from Torrey's summit to the valley floor...

This morning Tara and I got up early for a Sunrise Track Session. Haven't done many of these lately, but each time I really enjoy them. Something about running on a track in the pre-dawn hours that is really meditative. Pushing hard with almost no light, but not needing it because your footing is solid, shuts the mind down and allows one to just move. Sets of 400s and 800s to start the day off right!

North Table Mountain - Running Through History

North Table Mountain - Running Through History


I like to run at North Table Mountain, as I can put together a fun loop, bag a small peak, and work on rollers. I also like to know a bit about the places that I run, including my local home runs. North Table has a rich history, although little of it is known. It was first used extensively by the Northern Arapaho and other tribes, often for hunting and for defensive purposes. In Northern Arapaho North Table is nenebiihi' bii3hiitoon, which literally means "north table." The actual place name has been lost. There is historical evidence of continued N. Arapaho use up through the 1870s, until they were forced onto reservations during the Plains Wars. Then, in 1894 Frank Bussert homesteaded on the top of the mesa, building a large house and farming several acres of land. According to Heine Foss, who purchased much of the mesa in the 1950s from Bussert's grandson, most of the prairie grasses had been overgrazed, and there were numerous eroded ditches and gullies, so much so that one would be hard to recognize it compared to today. Foss embarked on a multi-year program of planting grass seeds across the mesa to restore it, and when Jefferson County acquired most of the mesa land as open space, much of the mesa has slowly returned to it's pre-human environment. Today there are several small seasonal streams and ponds on the mesa, as well as a burgeoning population of mule deer and other wildlife. I prefer to run the mesa early in the morning, when the light is just coming up. Today, with the weather changing, instead of a spectacular sunrise it was cloudy and grey. Still, it is possible to imagine what it was like 100-200 years ago when the mesa was truly wild and open - running through open prairie, past towering cliffs, over ancient lava flows, and along trickling brooks exposing weaknesses in the geology.