Abandoned Blog - Catch Up Post!

I stopped updating this blog for quite some time, over a year and a half.

So much has happened in that time!

I'll summarize as succinctly as possible and include a few photos.

Balanced Rock, February 2025

I spent much of early 2025 on the local trails. The midwinter was mild in town. The kids and I did yoga in the park, and I had a visit from Pippin, who'd moved to Denver by now.

When April came around, I joined the Sunrise Striders in the Garden of the Gods for their annual Garden runs.

I made it to every Garden run in 2025. It was during this time that I ran under 14 minutes for two miles, an improvement from the 2024 season when I was pushing hard for a single 7:04 mile.

As summer came, I did long runs at a variety of locations around the area. I saw a wild turkey on Old Stage Road.

I saw gorgeous summer sunsets.

I ascended some of the usual suspects: Cheyenne Mountain and Mt. Rosa.

Cheyenne Mountain, Robber's Roost, summer 2025

Mt. Rosa summit, summer 2025

I actually encountered bears three weekends in a row during my midsummer training.

Two of them quickly darted away into the woods, but the one I got a photo of was simply meandering up the trail on Upper Gold Camp Road. I kept a far distance and let him have his space.

We had summer festivities with the kids, and took a trip to go mushrooming with my mom, up past the unique rock formations called Cathedral Spires.

In late summer 2025, I had another visit with Pippin, and then we took a road trip to San Francisco!

Upon returning from vacation, autumn had come to Colorado.

Autumn blended into a mild winter. I did some hikes with my son, to help his endurance in fencing. He really enjoyed the sport and was making big improvements.

I neglected to post an annual running summary for 2025, but I had a decent year, tallying up 1,716 miles.

I stopped being consistent with the Striders, but I went once in early 2026 and was convinced by the group that I should race the Super Half Marathon, which happened to be on my 40th birthday. 

I ended up running just under 1:52, which was a 5-minute lifetime PR for me! Not a terrible way to start the second half of existence (over the hill, metaphorically speaking).

Since I didn't run a major goal race or ultramarathon in 2025, I decided I wanted to get back to the really long distances in 2026, and signed up for the Grand Mesa 50 miler.

Now that meant I had to put in the training!

I had a successful training block where I was spending three weekends in a row doing marathon-length runs, followed by a deload week.

I did long runs on Balanced Rock Road in Monument and Gold Camp Road in North Cheyenne Canyon, seeing some of my favorite views along the way.

And then, in June 2026, we adopted a new dog!

Her name is Mocha, and she is a rescue from a crowded shelter in Texas. The dog adoption agency we went through transported her here. I had no idea that while shelters are overflowing in Southern states, other states like Colorado adopt dogs out at much higher rates.

I knew she'd require a lot of training, and starting very gradually, but I'm so happy to have a new trail buddy!

As I entered my taper for the 50 mile race, I still did a lot of hiking with my family. 

For a final training session in the week before the race, I took Mocha for the Section 16 loop. She's grown so strong in just a month! We still go easy and take breaks, building her endurance over time.

I am now just a handful of days out from the Grand Mesa 50 miler. A few days of rest and gentle stretching and massage, and I hope I will be well-rested enough for the race. I know I've put in a huge training load in previous weeks, but the distance still intimidates me. Although the 14-hour cut-off seems generous, I still want to practice maximum efficiency during the race, and most of all, keep eating!

New emerging research seems to indicate that eating about as many calories and carbs as you can tolerate is the best fueling approach for ultra-distance races.

I hope to be able to write a separate update after a successful race, so you'll hear from me soon!