Fri, April 21

9 miles on the Legacy Loop today. Mostly flat, nice smooth mileage.

***

Sat, April 22

35 minutes on the row machine at a moderate effort.

***

Sun, April 23

A trio of summits this morning with Dionne!

We started on the Incline, which was a little snowy.

I started at a light jog today, trying to shave seconds from my time where I could. Again like last week, I didn't look at my timer at all until I was on the last step. At the top, I cheered.

My time today was 31:59, shaving another 25 seconds off from last week.

Summit one: the Incline.

The clouds coming off the mountains created a distant layer above the city, making for very picturesque views.

After the Incline, we descended Barr Trail and joined into the Intemann Trail.

Then we connected to the Red Mountain Trail, which I hadn't ever been on before.

I felt good on the nice, runnable uphill trail.

The quick trip to the summit showcased some lovely red rocks and great views of the Incline behind us.

Summit two: Red Mountain.

We returned back to the Intemann Trail and continued on towards the last summit of the day, Iron Mountain.

The trail up Iron Mountain was clear and smooth and very runnable.

Summit three: Iron Mountain.

The summit has nice views of the surrounding area.

After Iron Mountain, we jogged back to the school. I added a couple extra miles on the Intemann Trail, to round out my day to exactly 14 miles. And quite a nice amount of uphill throughout the day.

Both Red Mountain and Iron Mountain were new summits for me, so thanks to Dionne for showing me them!!

And I'm really happy that my Incline time has gone down each time I've done it this year. I know for a fact I've never done it under 30 minutes before, and I'm only 2 minutes off from that goal now!

***

Wed, April 26

Dumbbell front raises, lightweight, unilateral & bilateral.

***

Thur, April 27

45 minutes on the row machine, trying my best to keep my form, engaging my core.

***

Fri, April 28

8.4 miles with Pippin today. It's been so busy lately I haven't had much of a chance to run with Pippin! 

He was excited to get on a variety of our favorite trails.

The moon was rising over the bluffs as we made our way back.

Later, I did lightweight dumbbell overhead presses. I tried to go slowly and focus every part of the exercise, feeling the different muscle fibers acting throughout the motion.

I followed those up with some lying leg raises, trying to engage the lower core.

***

Sat, April 29

I didn't want to do too much today and wear myself out before my Sunday Runday long run. But in the evening, I could tell Pippin was wanting to get out for a run, and I'd probably be too tired after my run tomorrow to take him.

So out we went!! I decided to treat it as a back-to-back run with tomorrow.

We stayed on the roads. Not long after we entered Palmer Park and began our climb up the mesa, Pippin spotted another dog ahead on the trail. This dog was attached to a cyclist and both were making their way casually uphill.

Pippin and I had the same playful thought. Let's race them!! I felt his energy surge as I encouraged him to pull on.

The dog pulling the cyclist spotted us. For a short time, the dog and cyclist sped up a little. 

But so did we!!

I was quite breathless by the top of the canyon, but as I looked back - we were way ahead of the cyclist/dog duo. I always have a fun time racing cyclists uphill.

As we parted ways with the cyclist and ran along the long flat part of the road along the mesa, we witnessed a beautiful sundown.

We watched the lovely clouds at the overlook for just a moment, returning home before it got too dark. We ran 5.9 miles total, and a nice little push on the uphill.

This was the perfect pre-fatigue run for tomorrow, since I'll be running with Dionne in less than 10 hours.

***

Sun, April 30

Dionne and I set out at 5:30, early enough to catch a great sunrise from the trail as we jogged Intemann Trail to the base of Barr Trail.

We jogged casually for our warm-up until the trailhead. We wouldn't be doing the Incline today, instead opting for the longer mileage of climbing the Ws on Barr Trail.

At the Barr trailhead, we began our climb. I wanted to do a steadily ascending pace at least until No Name Creek.

I didn't push the pace too much, but just tried to stay consistent.

We regrouped at No Name, and Dionne continued on with me for a little while longer before turning around.

Then I continued to Barr Camp.

The trail wasn't icy at all until the last half-mile, upon which point is was too lazy to spike up for the uphill, but I was quite thankful to have the spikes for the downhill later.

Today I got the opportunity to go into the cabin and meet the newest (within the last couple years) caretakers, Robert and Carla.

It was nice to be back at this little woodsy refuge in the mountains, enjoying coffee and conversation.

After I lingered around a while, I decided to go uphill just a bit further on the trail before turning around. I donned spikes for this part. The trail was normal winter conditions from Barr Camp up - packed down snow that is easily traversed with spikes. 

I bypassed the 6.5 mile marker and climbed up past the next switchback. I climbed a rock off the trail for an overlook before I would turn around.

From my perch, I saw an approaching hiker, and what do you know, it was previous Pikes Peak Marathon winner Alex Nichols. He was headed for the summit. He had a lot more snow to deal with today than I did two weeks ago with my summit!

After the short break at the turn around, I jogged as smoothly and continuously downhill as I could, making good time.

The skies were beautiful blue and the trail was easy. I did have to pass quite a few people after the Incline connector.

Classic Colorado blue skies 💙 over Cameron's Cone on my way down Barr.

I skipped the bus and ran all the way back to the high school, and I jogged up the stairs at the school to bring my total distance to 19.1 miles for the day.

After I got home, I still did several sets of push-ups to round out the day. I felt surprisingly still energetic after a 25 mile back-to-back weekend.

***

Wow, what another great spring week in Colorado!!

I have to thank Dionne for all the long training lately, we have been getting out on the trail and getting those miles in!

And I feel good that I'm able to incorporate weights and bodyweight workouts in pretty comfortably, and rowing.

I'm looking forward to summer more and more!! See you all out there soon!