A Barr Camp "Plus" Day

I had wanted to attempt a summit of Pikes Peak this morning, but the winds were high, and the road was closed (I had planned on up only).

Instead, I headed up the trail, set on Barr Camp at a minimum, but I knew I wouldn't be satisfied without going a little beyond.

I was a bit early before the club run since I had planned to summit, but I was also skipping the pavement due to my ankle being angry lately.

It was nice to see Tim, who had headed out early for his run also.

The trail was icy at the start of Barr, and fully snowpacked beyond No Name Creek. 

It was gorgeous conditions, actually, as the worst of the wind was only above treeline. You could see snow blowing off the front face all morning.

Most of Barr from Bob's Road up felt like running in sand. The snow hadn't melted a lot, so each step had a lot of give. I'd expected at least some postholing today, but not this low down! It's definitely winter conditions on the trail, but it's beautiful. 

It was nice to sit in at Barr Camp for a few minutes and chat. Ultrarunner Craig stopped in, I'm amazed by the distances this guy is able to do.

I wouldn't be able to stay too long as I opted to push for AdaMan rock, as Zach said he'd hiked Elk Park several times with snowshoes and it should be packed in.

Well it did help to follow Zach's snowshoe prints, it was still mostly postholing. I broke trail off of Elk Park towards AdAMan Rock and did the short scramble to the outcropping. Views were outstanding but it was very windy on top.

As I jogged down, the trail had melted out quite a bit, but there were still very icy patches caused by the snowmelt and wind combinations.

It made for a great day of adventure in the mountains, although it was not what I had planned.

Goal for 2019: Sub- 4 hours in the Pikes Peak Ascent

I will admit, most people don't have a decade's worth of exercise planned in advance. I'm not most people. You may recall last year, I posted a list of goals for the next six to seven years. Check here if you missed it.

Now that it's 2019, I've decided on the goal for this year. I will be pushing some speedwork and hill repeats in order to go for that sub-4 hour Pikes Peak Ascent!

Certainly one of the lower mileage goals, I still don't expect it will be easy. My ankle still hasn't fully recovered from the painful fall I took in July of last year. I'm getting some physical therapy to help it out, and including lots of cross-training in my typical training week.

I will need to focus on more speedwork soon (maybe some track repeats tomorrow) but I'm still running long on weekends. I haven't been able to make it to the club runs much this season yet, but I had a great run with the club two weeks ago. Here's a photo of the group by the 7.8 miles to summit sign on Barr Trail.

This last weekend, I ran part of the Legacy Loop on the urban trails in Colorado Springs. If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, you should. They've done an excellent job with the underpass at Uintah on the west side of the trail, so you can now run the loop without needing to cross at the light. Very convenient!

Now that it's mid-January, the sunlight hours already feel much longer than they did a month ago, and the snow is sporadic, so I am hoping to get some good training in on the trails soon.

I look forward to seeing many of you this year during our common Ascent and Marathon goals! Happy 2019.