Beginning last Saturday, August 7th, the air quality has been mostly bad in Colorado Springs. I've fit in a few outdoors workouts in the good air quality times, with at-home workouts when the air was the worst.
It makes me sad to think that this is the way summers in the West are now. I used to love the peak of summer, now it's just filled with smoke.
I wanted to share some photos from the last two days, and summarize what I've been doing in my training lately.
***
Saturday, August 7th, 2021:
When I heard the smoke would be pouring in to the Front Range, I got out early on August 7th and did 10 miles with 800 ft elevation, prepping myself for more time indoors for the following week.
***
Monday, August 9th, 2021:
1 hour on the exercise bike - 30 mins casual pace, followed by a 30 min training video with 8 x 30 second all-out sprint efforts.
***
Wednesday, August 11th, 2021:
Comprehensive upper body workout with machine butterflies, pushups, dips, and supplemental support exercises (side lateral raises, etc.)
***
Thursday, August 12th, 2021:
1 hour 30 mins exercise bike. I can watch dirt bike GoPro videos and pretend I'm riding on hills in the Rampart Range instead of sitting in my living room. 😆
***
Friday, August 13th, 2021:
Finally a cold front pushing through began to clear the air. I got outside to do 9 miles with 800 ft elevation.
***
Saturday, August 14th, 2021:
7 miles, mostly flat. A quick, cool early morning jog.
***
Sunday, August 15th, 2021:
9 miles with 900 feet elevation gain in Palmer Park in the early morning. I looped the park clockwise. The sun is rising later already, signaling the gradual coming of autumn.
 |
| Top: morning twilight breaking in the east. |
 |
| Clouds before sunrise near the southeast side of the park. |
Then, on Sunday evening, I did a walk at the Pueblo Reservoir with the family. The weather was cool and fresh, not hot like you'd expect on an August evening in Pueblo.
 |
| Sunset with distant rain clouds. |
***
Monday, August 17th, 2021:
The air was already noticeably hazy at sunrise, but clear enough for one last run. I could still see Pikes Peak clearly enough in the distance. As the morning would go on, the smoke would continue to pour in.
I made it my mission to get some scrambling in. I would end up with just a little less than 8 miles and a little more than 1000 feet elevation.
Scrambling up the bluffs in Palmer Park is always a good time. The bluffs are gentle and mostly forgiving for route-finding practice. Today, I started out by scrambling the south-central cliffs of the northern mesa.
 |
| A slightly hazy start to the day, with Pikes Peak off in the distance and a red sunrise over the little cave. |
I looped around the northern mesa of the park counter-clockwise today, descending into Lazyland and then climbing back up, this time on the north-central bluffs.
 |
| Classic formations towering above Lazyland. |
Finally, I completed my counter-clockwise loop of the park by rounding the bend at Yucca Flats and descending once more, this time down to the Palmer Point trail.
 |
| Happy flowers on top of the northern mesa (Yucca Flats.) |
Palmer Park is great trail-climbing practice if you know what you're looking for! It's such a fun park, a real gem for locals, especially once you get used to the winding, confusing nature of the trails. The trick to Palmer Park is not worrying about exactly where you are on the trail at any given moment, but rather retaining a generalized sense of direction, since most trails twist and turn quite often.
For now, I'm relegated back to the indoor bike trainer and weights until the air quality improves. I'm hoping that once it does, I'll be able to do some real big climbing in the mountains ⛰.
No comments:
Post a Comment