Rants and Raves of a Hobbyjogger: June 2023 update

As a forewarning, this is going to be a massive update with my entire photo album of the month of June! 😂

I opted to update the entire month of June at once as it's been so busy. To summarize June, I have been really living a lot of life!

I did not keep good track of my lifting workouts in June. I know I did at least pull-ups, push-ups, curls, overhead presses, front raises, v-sit holds, and the ab wheel (several times) - usually just one exercise a day after my short runs.

I have done just enough lifting and bodyweight exercises to maintain a basic level of strength, while primarily still focusing on running.

In the coming month, adding at least 2 days a week of heavier lifting would be a good "small level" goal.

I ran a total of 150 miles in the month of June, right on target, and also managed to get in a total of 3 speedwork sessions in order to keep up with my yearly goal of at least twice-monthly speedwork!!

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On June 1st, I ran with the Sunrise Striders in Garden of the Gods.

We did hill sprint intervals on the road after a long trail warmup. This was a tough workout! 6.8 miles total.

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On June 4th, Dionne and I ran up to A-frame and back.

We set out early and caught a great sunrise! The mists played with the Cameron's Cone summit as we ascended Barr Trail.

The ground foliage was popping with color. The weather continued to be misty, rainy, and cool. It reminded me of the Pacific Northwest.

Near Barr Camp, some friendly deer were unperturbed by my presence.

Because of the mists and clouds, the lighting was amazing for photography. The mosses were bright green, and the trunks of the aspens were almost golden in color!

Soon we reached the A-frame. A nice comfortable cloud had settled in.

We decided it was not a good day to attempt a summit!

So we headed back down the mountain in the cloudy weather.

We got a total of 19 miles!

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On June 6th, I ran a tempo road loop in Garden of the Gods with the Sunrise Striders.

This was my second time running this tempo loop and I definitely put forth a good effort.

Afterwards, I needed a little more mileage for the day. I went a few miles up and down Rampart Range Road to accomplish this.

The clouds that were forming and that were coming off the mountains were amazing!

I very much enjoyed the last casual downhill miles on RRR while I took lots of cloud photos. I got a total of 12.9 miles today.

In the evening, I went on a walk with my husband in downtown Colorado Springs. It was a great evening and we checked out the new bridge by the Olympic Museum and the city lights.

We walked a total of 6.3 miles, much longer than our average evening walk.

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On June 8th, I ran 10 miles through the Blodgett Open Space and Ute Valley Park.

The wildflowers and clouds were amazing. Colorado was really showing off!

I had wanted to make the summit of Ormes Peak. But I ran out of time on this day, so I just climbed the first major rock out cropping as I entered the National Forest.

I hung out here for a moment before turning around, and returning on the open space trail and then passing through Ute Valley Park on my way back.

In Ute, there was already a snake out on the trail even though it was still morning.

I always find it fascinating how the tan and bright yellow sandstone rocks of the bluffs make a sharp contrast with the red and orange sandstone uplifts that line the mountains.

I knew I would want to return to the Blodgett Open Space on another day when I had more time, to aim for the summit of Ormes Peak.

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On June 10th, my family went to the Colorado Springs PrideFest!

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On June 12th, I made another attempt at Ormes Peak starting from Rockrimmon.

The day was misty and cool and beautiful.

The fields of wildflowers were amazing. The whole countryside was dotted with purple and red.

The misty clouds in the distance created an interesting effect as I ascended the same rock outcropping that I had turned around at last time.

I continued to ascend after this, entering the National Forest and climbing to the saddle.

Unfortunately, I had run out of time at this point. The clouds had socked me in, and there weren't any views from the saddle.

But the clouds and the mists were calming as I descended from the National Forest and back to Rockrimmon.

I got a total of 12.5 miles on this day, and a good amount of challenging class 2 trail!

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On June 15th, I did a simple 7 mile trail loop in Ute Valley Park.

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One of my favorite Ute Valley Trails is the Black & Blue Loop.

June 16th, I started on Black & Blue, and then made a loop through Ute, totaling 8.3 miles.

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A quick evening 10k on June 17th. Dramatic clouds.

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On June 18th, I made my third and final attempt on Ormes Peak for the month.

When I started out, there were abundant wildflowers and unperturbed deer.

I soon reached the little waterfall, which was flowing nicely with the springtime melt off.

I continued to ascend to the saddle, which is where I had turned around on the misty day.

Today was clear and sunny, and views were abundant.

After the saddle, I went to the north and tried to join the trail that I knew was there, as I had been on it before when I had trekked to Road 303 through the National Forest in past adventures.

Instead of finding the trail though, I found an amazing view point.

It was at this point that I realized that Ormes Peak was still a ways away. With my time limit today, I was again short of time to make the summit.

Streaky clouds seemed to point right at Ormes Peak.

But I did have time for one short detour as I turned around and began to descend the trail back to the saddle.

There is a prominent outcropping that stands along the ridgeline in this portion of the Rampart Range. I'm not certain whether it has a name or a local nickname. But I've long looked at this rock when I ran down Rampart Range Road and desired to go stand on its pinnacle.

I had enough time to climb out to this overhanging ledge and take in the panorama of a gigantic drop to the forest floor below.

Amazing panorama from the overhanging ledge in the National Forest above Blodgett Open Space.

It was so cool to stand at the top of this rock outcropping and look out along the lines of rocks that make up the uplift faults.

Their patterns and colors are clues to an ancient geologic history.

I descended from the overhang and looked back down at all the foothills below.

I returned to the trailhead satisfied with today's adventure, even though the summit of Ormes Peak will still have to wait for another day. I got 6.7 miles.

Later in the afternoon, I went for a walk with my family in Ute Valley. The wildflowers are still popping, and the cacti were blooming!

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In the week of June 19th through 25th, I ran 30 miles of mostly short runs around Ute Valley.

On June 20th, we visited the Denver Zoo.

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On June 21st, we stopped by the Xerascape Demonstration Gardens in the evening.

The flowers blooming in the Xerascape Demonstration Gardens, with the exception of the Indian Paintbrush in the upper left, which was a wildflower from the morning run.

There was an incredible cloud growing to the east of us.

It looked more like an explosion by the minute. The eastern parts of El Paso County surely got hammered by this thunderstorm.

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On June 26th, I ran a short 6.5 mile run and caught some more amazing blossoms.

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On June 27th, I ran with the Sunrise Striders in Bear Creek Park. We did 20 hill sprint intervals! The first set of 10 were on the roads, followed up by 10 trail hill intervals.

There was a very cool rainbow 🌈 at the start of our run, with the foggy clouds lifting off the mountains.

This was a longer workout. 9.6 miles was the total for the day.

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On June 29th, I joined Sharon, J'ne, and several of their friends on Barr trail.

There were so many incredible flowers right from the start!

The columbines were really in bloom around No Name Creek.

The day was misty and foggy, like many of the days have been this spring.

I paced with Lisa up to Barr Camp. She gave me a nice extra push! We assembled the group at Barr Camp to get a photo.

From left: Myself, J'ne, Victoria, Sharon, and Lisa.

At this point, I split with the group, as they were headed to Elk Park and I wanted to hit the summit instead. (A little bit of summit fever! 😂)

I kept a consistent pace to A-frame. As I arrived at the A-frame, the Cog was just leaving the summit.

At the A-frame, I left the Barr trail and climbed directly up the "gut" of the mountain. The gut or gully trail is a combination of scree, boulder-hopping, and solid class 2 alpine climbing.

More beautiful and varied wildflowers decorated the slopes as I climbed up above treeline.

The views got better as I continued to ascend the gut of the mountain.

Soon I reached the 16 Golden Stairs. Some very intriguing gold beetles were hanging out together on a rock. They were really so metallic-looking that the picture does not do it justice!

I was above the 16 Golden Stairs when I went a little bit wrong.

I climbed to the north around a rock outcropping, and faced a wall with a few steep steps and a lot of exposure.

But I made it through, and next thing I knew, I was on the summit!

It had been so warm all the way up the east face of the mountain. I probably looked pretty out of place with only my shorts and running vest, surrounded by tourists in fleece jackets.

There was a lot more snow on the summit than I'd faced anywhere on the trail.

What a fun summit day 😃! I got 4 hours and 21 minutes moving time up to the summit, and hitched a ride down.

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We capped off the month of June by going to the Denver Fan Expo. (This used to be called Denver Comic-Con, but the name Comic-Con was trademarked and can't be used anymore.)