Second annual Memorial Weekend Elk Park trail run with Sharon!

Hello,

Happy Memorial Day! What a lovely weekend for Pikes Peak Ascent training. If you're curious: Read about last year's Memorial Day Elk Park run here.

Yesterday, I set out with Sharon, J'ne, and a couple of her friends from Denver. Sharon and I set out on the Incline.

I did 38:36 today, which isn't the best, but I'm glad to be under 40 minutes.

The clouds from the top were so cool! Sharon was right behind me.

We power hiked all the way to Barr Camp, and got there in 2:07 total. I'm actually quite happy with that time! I'll have to be faster when running the race, but for a power hiking time that's good. We saw J'ne at camp, she had run a 2:01.

The caretakers said that Elk Park trail was pretty deep in snow near the top still, so Sharon was going to turn around at Camp. But I wasn't ready to turn in the towel yet and I wanted to go further than Barr Camp.

So we convinced ourselves it might be possible to do Elk Park, and set out. The first part of the trail was clear.

We took photos by a rock like last year!

The moss growing on the rocks was so thick and pretty from all the rain lately!

The trail was clear up until the meadow. And there was a super cool view of the ridgeline leading to the Pikes summit, with the moon setting in the background.

Unfortunately, past this point, the snow quickly and thoroughly covered the trail. We didn't go much past the meadow.

Still, we went over 2 miles onto the Elk Park trail before turning around, making our total for the day 16 miles!

The fresh air was wonderful and this was such a fulfilling day, even if we didn't go all the way to the top of Elk Park. I'm certainly glad we got as far as we did, and didn't just turn around at Camp.

Plus I saw many friends along the way, including catching up with Jim and his family.

Memorial day weekend is the traditional start to the summer season. Just as I enjoy a long run on each Sunday to set up my week for success, I love having a Memorial day weekend adventure to set up my whole summer for fun!

Weekly training update - wet spring weather begets cross training and urban trail running

My last post was on Wednesday of last week, when I enjoyed a trip up a totally clear Barr trail.

On Thursday, I went to the gym and did some lifting and rowed for 30 minutes.

On Friday, I simply swam for 45 minutes. A nice relaxing swim can help a week's training sink it. It's like yoga in the water if you don't push overly hard.

On Saturday, I ran down to my favorite set of pullup bars at the top of Monument Valley Park. I might have mentioned this previously - the bar is the perfect height and width for pullups for me.

I took a photo as I left, above Boddington Field, of Pikes Peak hiding in the clouds.

I ran north along the Pikes Peak Greenway to the Pikeview Reservoir. Pikes Peak revealed herself from behind the clouds.

Saturday's run was atypical of a weekend run, totalling only 7 miles.

Sunday was my daughter's birthday! It was also the Pokemon Go community day for May, so we spent three hours walking around downtown and came home to pizza and cake. Certainly not the ideal diet, but that is life. My diet is a constant work-in-progress. Sometimes I'm better about it, but usually I'm not. I try not to beat myself up about it too much, and just stay active enough to counteract *most* of the damage.

Then, on Monday, I ran a quick 5.5 miles at Palmer Park. I somehow managed to find a gap between the rain we recieved in the morning and the crazy snowstorm in the evening!

The mountains stayed shrouded in the clouds, but the view of the city and the Garden of the Gods was nice.

On Tuesday, I again went to the gym. This time I played around on the adult monkey bars for a while, swinging across them as many times as my grip could stand for, and finishing with a set of hanging leg raises each time. Then I did some bodyweight dips, situps and pushups. I finished with 30 minutes of swimming.

On Wednesday, I was itching to go for a run, but my body was yelling at me for a break. I delayed too long and ended up putting my run off for the next day.

Which brings us to Thursday, which is today. The weather was cool and crisp in the morning, overcast and misty but not raining outright.

I set out along the Templeton Gap trail, which is exceptionally green. The spillway has a solid stream running through it, and the grass shows evidence of even higher water levels recently.

The extra water along the trails is spurring the wildflower growth!

I ran to the Pikeview Reservoir again.

My run totalled 11 miles for today. Not too bad for a mid-length run.

My expectations are high for my upcoming training! Tomorrow I plan to do some bodyweight work and possibly some light cardio. Then, on Sunday, I am planning on going up Elk Park with Sharon on our second annual Memorial Day weekend Elk Park trip! The mountains have been hammered with snow lately, but it's also been raining a lot and warm enough to keep the snow melting quickly. We shall see if we make it - if not, at least we plan to get to Barr Camp. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I also made a reservation for early July camping at the Sand Dunes National Park with my family. I can't wait to take the kids camping here - it was the first place I went camping when I moved to Colorado almost 20 years ago. I went with my high school cross country team for a training camp. The memory of that very positive experience still draws me to return, so I hope to do at least a run up Mosca Pass and some lap swimming in the hot springs pool while we are there.

Midweek adventure on Barr trail

I have so many photos I wanted to share that I didn't want to wait for a weekly update to post.

Yesterday I did a standard "short route" at Palmer Park. The yucca area provides some great views.

I felt pretty good running yesterday. After my run, I did some weighted squats and some ab crunches.

Today I planned to do the Incline, and then push as far as I could within my time limit up Barr trail.

The day was hot and clear to begin with. Tons of people on the Incline. I crawled up the thing, both literally and figuratively. Is it just me, or does the Incline seem more difficult lately - ever since the last major storm when it washed out a lot?

I landed 43:18, disappointingly slow, but I am going to chalk it up to a combination of my training volume lately, and the heat, and the squats I did yesterday.

The sun was brightly shining as I rounded the corner on the Pikes overlook past the Incline.

It took me almost exactly 2 hours to the second to reach Lightning Point. That would have meant at least another 15 to 20 minutes to Barr Camp. Not the worst ever time, but still sluggish for a summer day with clear trails.

As I came up on Lightning Point, the weather changed rapidly. It got windy and overcast and chilly. It's amazing how quickly it happened.

Because I was trying to stick to my time limit and I didn't bring a long sleeve shirt, I didn't go much further. Instead of pressing on for Camp today, I just climbed the nearest flat rock with a big view.

Now I want to show you something kinda neat! This photo is from the top of the rock I climbed on the Sunday before last:

If you look really closely at the flat rock near the center (slightly right), it has a fire ring atop.

And here is the fire ring up close from today!

The rock outcropping I was on previously is prominently visible towards the center-left. How much fun is that?

Here's a panorama from the top of the rock!

And, as quickly as that storm had moved in and on top of the peak, it was gone. It moved south and east quickly.

I ate my snack near the rock outcropping, finding a perfect spot to set up a tent, making a mental note for future adventures. Then I headed down the mountain for the day. I caught one more very nice photo, near Bob's Road, of the distant Almagre Mountain.

Although I wasn't fast today, it was a very picturesque day in the mountains. And breathing in the fresh mountain air is so refreshing for the soul!

Weekly training update: swimming, cross training, and Palmer Park trails

This month is going by way too fast! My training from last week wasn't that interesting to put on paper, but I think it will be effective.

On Tuesday, I went to the gym and did a full body workout like I did the week before, with lots of compound exercises. Then I went to the pool for some laps. I love swimming as a cross training exercise. It's easier on the legs than running, but it can be great cardio. I did 30 minutes and incorporated a variety of strokes.

On Wednesday, I did a short evening loop at Palmer Park. I looped the top of Yucca Flats (the northern mesa). The weather was really chilly and windy. I wore shorts and a windbreaker, but by the end of my 5.5 miles I was wishing I'd worn gloves and a hat too.

After this storm, when the clouds finally cleared on Saturday, there was a fresh layer of snow atop Pikes Peak.

I decided to stay in town on Sunday and run local trails in Palmer Park again. I probably should have headed to the mountains anyway though, because this time Palmer Park was HOT.

I looped Templeton Trail first. The same scenes that were covered by thick clouds on Wednesday were now open for viewing!

I was so hot by the time I reached the far north side of the park, that I decided to go to the gym for a while to escape the beating sun.

24 Hour Fitness is just on the other side of Austin Bluffs. I did some overhead presses, close-grip bicep curls, pullups, and straight-leg raises. Man, those leg raises were exactly what I needed for my abs. I also did 15 minutes on the brand new row machines that they must have just gotten in the last week.

Then I ran home by crossing through the park again, over to the Grandview trail and down that way.

I netted only 8 miles of trail running, but the mid-workout gym training sure made me feel like I'd put in an effort worthy of a Sunday. As Sunday is my primary "long" training day, I don't like to let myself off the hook with an easy workout or short run.

Finally, today I got my week started off right by going back to the gym for a few supplemental exercises that I didn't do yesterday, like the inclined bench press and side lateral raises, as well as some declined side-to-side ab crunches. I capped it off with another 30 minute swim.

I'm trying to increase my overall cardiovascular exercise throughout the week, so I hope to continue the trend!

A tough week in spring training

I'm laying on the couch, pretty well useless after a hard week of training.

On Tuesday, I worked really hard at the gym. Like, reeeally hard. I did several heavy compound exercises, bodyweight exercises, and even some supplemental movements. Squats, overhead press, bench press... pullups, dips... side-to-side sit ups, lateral raises, pushups, and even a plank. And then I rowed, with as good of form as I possibly could, for 40 minutes.

Then, less than 12 hours later, I got my butt up to do that Incline with Sharon! I was slower than last time (no surprise), but still landed a 36:01:

It was nice to see Steve on the way up. The Incline was super foggy most of the way up, although we never actually got rained on.

It was crazy, because we came up to the top still shrouded in fog, but when we turned the corner before the trail heads down to No Name Creek, the fog cleared out and the sun began to shine!

And also we found a friendly chipmunk.

It was so cool going back down into that sea of clouds!

On Thursday, I did what I considered to be some "light" weightlifting at home. I did some deadlifts because I hadn't done those on Tuesday, but I also did more squats and some core work. I didn't think I worked that hard, but I was still feeling those deadlifts on Sunday, so I guess I did.

On Friday, my family and I went for a hike at Cheyenne Mountain State Park! I must say, I love how they've designed and marked the trail system. Each trail is color coded, and the trail markers match the map. The kids had fun climbing around on some of the big chunks of Pikes Peak granite that are strewn throughout the park.

Now that the Dixon trail to the summit of Cheyenne mountain is complete, that has made my list of goals for this summer. It's one that I'll have to do as a trail run - at 14 miles round trip it's much too far to take the whole family. But we hiked for a couple miles and generally enjoyed the atmosphere while I scouted out the trail for future runs.

On Saturday, we took the day off and went to Elitch Gardens. After waiting in line for over an hour, we finally got to try out the new Meow Wolf ride... and it wasn't quite worth the hype. Hopefully the Meow Wolf Denver exhibit will be better than the themed ride. The only reason I mention this is because it may have had an impact on my run on Sunday - standing around an amusement park for hours, and being bounced around on roller coasters, might just have an effect on my training. I'll have to avoid doing that immediately before the Ascent. One wouldn't necessarily include roller coasters in one's mountain training, but I've come to see that it can be taxing on the body in a different way.

Sunday's Incline was even slower than Wednesday's. In 38:46, at least I was under 40. However, my perceived effort was quite high. It "felt" faster than my last Incline, but it wasn't.

It wouldn't be an Incline if I didn't see Steve coming down as I was headed up!

The painful Incline would only lead to a painfully slow Barr Camp day for me. I felt like my hips and lower back were screaming at me. I figured the deadlifts were still talking to me. It's not much fun to find the ghosts of deadlifts on Barr trail! But tough days like this test what we're made of, and how far we can push while already exhausted. At least that's what I tell myself.

I got a chance to chat with Jonathan about the area trail conditions while I was at Camp. The trail had been completely clear on my way up, and he reported that Elk Park still harbored some patches of snow, but they were likely to melt off quickly. Good news, as Sharon and I are planning to do Elk Park in a few weeks!

Unsatisfied with my Barr Camp time, I decided to climb a rock outcropping (this one is almost immediately off of Barr trail) just to get some photos and breathe deep in the mountain air, at least so I could say I got something out of the day.

I will say that I love rock scrambling! This is an easy scramble, and although it didn't improve my overall energy levels (that would be tough for how tired I was), it definitely provided inspiring views.

As I made my way down the mountain, the weather began to change a little, bringing some clouds in.

As I was nearly done, I ran into Craig almost at Soda Springs park. He had done a PR on Rampart to Woodland Park, and he had also done over 50 miles (!) On Rampart earlier in the week. This guy... he is just amazing! He's in his 70s and doing the kind of mileage that I dream of doing. I've only broken the 50 mile barrier once in my life so far. And here I am, feeling beat down by a lowly 12ish miler? Wow.

Well, the weather is supposed to change this week, and we might be getting more snow up on the Peak again. I might be in for some more weightlifting and rowing at the gym if the weather isn't really conducive to running outside. What I probably need is some light swimming and yoga, though!

I do hope that my tough week is just a "building block" on the way to a fast Ascent. It's difficult to see past the immediate sometimes, but I believe that I have been consistent in my training, and not every workout is going to leave me feeling amazing afterwards. It's all just another step in the process.