Sunday White Ranch Run

Sunday I met T. for a run at White Ranch, which was a first meeting and an opportunity to claim the results of the cookie grand prize drawing, which turned out to be three of the aforementioned "crack cookies" (review below). Nice to meet you, and thanks again!

The day was chilly first thing, but partly sunny and ended up being awesome running weather. Here's a pic of T's dog Argos, ready to haul:

Let's go already!
He was very focused and "on the job", and seemingly had enough energy to run ahead and lap us.

When I run with others, I tend to concentrate more on the details of the run itself, rather than photography, so it was a light day for the camera. The sky was also hazy, which I've never really been good at using effectively.

These shots are also mostly on the first part of the run, which is uphill. That's because although I may have had the advantage on the uphills, T. has a wicked downhill and I was just keeping up.


We did "the" 8-mile loop counter-clockwise, i.e. Belcher Hill > Shorthorn > Longhorn to the upper lot, Sawmill > Belcher.

Below, T. and Argos run ahead on the front side, after the trail levels off a bit from the initial climb:


The front is currently the only part that had snow, and it's only on the shady stretches on the northeast, most of which are pretty level. There was some mud, but it was limited to a few areas. No spikes were necessary.

The meadow just below the (lower) upper parking lot:


I don't think I'd ever run this park in the morning; I typically run it after work, when the traffic is mostly mountain bikers, some of whom still don't understand "yield" and "pass at the speed of foot traffic". Starting the run at 9:30 AM was better, since the traffic was very light after the first mile, with maybe two bikes, and then basically nothing until we encountered some horses and family groups on the lower trails at the end. A totally different mix than I'm used to. That's something about morning running I didn't appreciate until this winter.

Here are T. and Argos heading down the final stretch:


Total distance for the run was 7.87 miles, time 1:37, and gain/loss 1,526 feet. T. had different totals with another Garmin watch: basically 8 miles. Go figure.

This run is always a good workout, with about 4.5 miles being either rolling or climbing trail, and the rest being all downhill. Zigzagging in and out of the ravines on the front is my favorite part, with good variety and views.

So, the cookies.

Later that day I broke open one of the 3 packs and tried half of one cookie. My diet is predominantly low-carb + microbrew, about 1/2 protein and 1/2 veggies (and a bit of fruit), and if I have sweets I break them into small portions. Anyway, the cookie was great, and I can see why T. calls them "crack cookies". This is the type of thing I have to keep around in moderation (if at all), or I will just eat them all at once. The base is a soft shortbread that is not very sweet, which I actually like a lot. The icing supplies the sweetness. Great stuff. Thanks!

Friday Loveland Ski Outing

By Friday it hadn't snowed a significant amount for 5 days, so snow conditions consisted of firm, wind-blown powder and packed powder in bumps and on groomers. It was actually a lot of work, because the stiff snow yanks your skis around, rather than letting them slide as happens with powder. Tiring! And the chance for an injury goes up too.

Here's a shot off Chair 8 showing the sheen on the snow surface. This is basically powder re-frozen into a nice ski-snagging crust. Thankfully I didn't sink down more than a few inches, so my tips stayed above it:


However, I only skied it once before heading back over to kinder slopes off Chairs 1 & 4.

The valley next to Chair 8 is beautiful though. It makes me wonder what this must be like in the summer, with open meadows, and maybe some water flowing through here from melting snow:


In spite of the occasionally hard snow, the weather was spectacularly sunny and almost warm, bringing to mind spring skiing. And later in the day, some slopes softened and bumps became nice and easy.

This is a view from the Chair 4 area back towards where you start out, and Loveland Pass which is behind the ski slopes in the middle:


The square building in the lower left contains the fans that ventilate the Eisenhower/Johnson tunnels, which run under the ski resort.

Being the data junkie that I am, I track ski outings similar to the way I track running, partly for objective information, but also to make sure I'm getting my money's worth out of ski passes.

For the season: 9 days, 46 hours, 4.4 feet of powder.

Totals this year are behind some previous years by almost half (for this point in the season), but I find I'm getting pickier the longer I live here, skiing powder days and skipping days that are not ideal. Plus I'm running more.

I don't track vertical. I have a handheld GPS but I don't like to carry it skiing, my 405 is too easy to accidentally stop when I have coat sleeves and gloves, and I don't have a watch or device with barometric altimeter (might be a good idea some day). There's Epic Mix, but I don't always ski at the various Vail resorts, I ski wherever it snows and I'm not going to get caught in a ski traffic nightmare.

For comparison, my first season here (2006-2007) was 46 days, and the top powder year was 2007-2008, with 18 feet. That's just what I skied, not the total for the Rockies.

Loveland Chair 4 Trails

This video is from Friday at Loveland on the trails below Chair 4, mainly Perfect Bowl and Scrub. They are blue trails (intermediate), although in some snow conditions (deep powder or really slick) I might consider parts to be blue-black, judging from the number of wipeouts I see. Great view at the beginning!


It hadn't snowed in several days and weather had been warming, so any powder was now a firm and unyeilding crust, and it took effort to not snag a ski. Some sections throughout the day were a lot of work. The terrain in this video had been loosened up a bit, but you can still see the chunks I had to ride over in the first section (0:25).

The abrupt camera pan at the end was me looking left to see if anyone was merging from the other trail.

Sunlit Belmar Grass

Today I took a day off work and went skiing at Loveland, where conditions where spring-like, and when I got back to Denver it was in the 60s and sunny. I just wanted to go for a walk and enjoy a bit of warm sun.

These photos were taken at Belmar Park in Lakewood, CO, which is a large suburban park with Kountze Lake in the middle and gently rolling grassland and light woods around the outside. Somehow I always find something of interest here; it's a great place to walk or run. In this case the low, warm sun was beaming across the grassy hills, and lighting the tops of the grass.



The sun went down behind the mountains not five minutes later.

No run today, skiing was enough! I'm beat.

Objectivist Round Up

This week's Objectivist Round Up is hosted by 3 Ring Binder. The Round Up features posts by bloggers who advocate Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand.

Great mix of stuff this week. Parenting, politics and food.

Thursday AM Run

The legs felt a bit sluggish today, with lingering soreness from the ski boot walk (I felt those hamstrings and ouch!). I ran too fast in spots, but still I got in a nice 7 miles up to the top of the hill.


It was a great sunny morning. I do enjoy running through the deep grass. It's like that at Table Mountain too, but here in the morning I'm the only one around:


Distance was 7 miles, time 1:12, and elevation gain/loss 1,043 feet.

Wednesday AM Run

Run shortened due to Internet. I got caught up pondering an online discussion and lost about 20 minutes on my run today. I don't blog before running, and I think I need to expand that rule to include any type of composition.

So, I ran only slightly farther today than yesterday. I ran up to Hayden Park open space and turned around, about 1/2 on streets, 1/2 on trails. At several points I was following these tracks:


Fox, I think, since they are too small for coyote and there were no human tracks.

At the same cadence or faster (170?) than yesterday, breathing was almost back to normal. That was a quick recovery from a week off. Although I think my legs were unduly tired for such short runs.

Distance was 4.5 miles, time 44:24, and elevation gain/loss 515 feet.

I stopped for about 3 minutes total to take some photos and to just look; it was one of those bleak grey, yet beautiful, winter days were the skies are crisp shades of swirling silver and everything seems sharp and more real for the cold. The fresh snow had not melted, so there was the odd situation of having totally dry dirt under the snow.

Ducks Swimming In Circles

One day I noticed the local ducks were swimming in circles with their heads under water. Today I took some video:


I'm sure they're feeding on something, but at the same time I imagine what they're saying is something like: "Hey, look, I can see my feet underwater!", "Hey look, Joe can see his feet!", "Come over here, we're looking at our feet underwater and it's hilarious!", "Wow, you're right that's awesome! I had no idea our feet looked like that!"

By Calf Stretch I Mean...

This is just for reference, because I extol the virtures of stretching, and so when I drone on about stretching, and calf stretches in particular, I mean this:


Maybe you young kids can do what you want all year, never stretch or maintain in any way, and not have any negative impact. That's great. Dean Karnazes, physical freak of nature -- and of dedicated nurture -- that he is, says he doesn't stretch, but does Bikram yoga.

However, I'm pushing 50, and due to whatever combination of age, running gait, and physical build, if I didn't do the stretch you see above after running until all tension was gone (~5 minutes), I'd have raging plantar fasicitis in about a week. I'd probably be walking with a cane in a month.

Well... you get my drift.

If you have calf, Achilles, or PF issues, try it out; it works for me. And start slowly and gently, especially if you have an existing injury.

Glamorous Gulch

I wish there were a cost-effective and practical way to transmit phone and electric underground, so I didn't have utility poles in my photos, ever.

As it is, Glamorous Gulch is my ironic name for this stretch of open space below Green Mountain in Lakewood (visible in the background). This strip of land connects the lower neighborhoods to the park, and follows a tiny seasonal creek down the ravine on the left (where the trees are).


In spite of feeling like leftover industrial property, it's pleasant enough and a tad secluded, and just to the left is where I chased the coyotes last week. The wildlife doesn't care about the view.

I snuck in a short run uphill this morning, my first in a week. The cadence I used only a week ago was too fast for today, and my hamstrings were sore, probably from walking in my ski boots on Sunday. I expected as much.

Distance was 3.1 miles, time was 27:19, and elevation gain/loss was 237 feet.

Fastest pace was 6:09 downhill, and the "moving time" was only 17 seconds off the total time (it must have taken 17 seconds to snap this photo), so I guess at least I was well-rested and moving along OK.

Vail Powder Day

This is a long post about a great day. After a near miss with another nasty head cold last week, I finally let myself outside for vigorous recreation on Sunday. There was a good bit of new snow; 13" at Vail, for example, where I was headed.

The Start

I hit the snooze button(s) and overslept an hour and 15 minutes, which is unforgivable, and left by maybe 8 AM. Surprisingly, the drive up to Vail was painless, like springtime when many people have switched to golf, mountain biking, etc. There was a slight backup due to people exiting at East Vail, but that was it.

Being late, I ended up parking on the side of the road at the tail end of West Vail, and riding the milk wagon of a transit bus to seemingly every condo in the Vail Valley before getting to the Village.

But again, my fault for being late.

This is the view east up the valley while riding the Vista Bahn chair lift, the point at which any frustrations begin to melt away:


On The Hill

A view of a very small slice of China Bowl from the top of Vail Mountain:


The reported 13" of snow must have fallen partly during the prior ski day, because there was not a lot that was untracked; it was more like they got 4" after closing. No matter.

Below is a view over China Bowl to Blue Sky Basin on the green hills in the back:


Of course on a busy day, the bottleneck can be the lift lines. Below is the line at the pommel lift to Inner Mongolia Bowl.


At the top, I took my skis off and started to hike up the hill so I could could get a few extra powder turns. Twice now when I've started hiking I've heard pointed comments about risky behavior, as if I'm going to head out the backcountry gate with no avalanche gear. Maybe I should wear a sign: "I'm not going out the backcountry gate".

I walk uphill at a pretty good clip with my skis on my shoulder and passed a couple people (trail running comes in handy). No competitiveness here! It feels good to be able to hoof it like that at 11,700 feet; it's a good conditioning test.

Here's a shot of Mount of the Holy Cross with a bit of the ski slopes visible in the front. I like that slope angle:


Looking back uphill, my tracks are in there somewhere:


Man, I love the views from the Back Bowls. White frosting:


At one point I stopped in the trees in Siberia Bowl and got this tiny window through to the open slopes from the snowy woods:


I didn't realize these trees have some nice (gladed?) open lanes in them:


Well, I guess "open" is a relative term. Let's just say I've skied to the left of this, which is a wide-open meadow, and to the right, in which the trees are very close together, but I somehow missed the middle. Here, there are good places to turn all the way down, if you can make turns within about 15 feet on a steep bumpy slope.

I'm getting a bit more used to controlled risk in several areas: getting air over bumps and other small features, taking moderate drops and not worrying about it (bindings still on DIN 7) and just generally letting the skis ride on advanced slopes.

The Paradox

In so doing, I come up against one of the paradoxes of skiing, and of sports in general: that relaxation affords control.

By adopting a relaxed stance with feet together and letting the skis flow, you remain in a balanced position over the center of the foot, and you can weight the downhill ski into the top of a bump, or change direction quickly. It's counter-intuitive and I still fight it a bit, but "it" is gradually winning.

Some nice bumps in Siberia Bowl:


If my stance is relaxed, I can round a bump, stop at the top of it, or just ride over it, it doesn't really matter.

I was standing safely back from the edge of the cornice while taking the previous photo, and didn't notice until I got my pictures home that the guy next to me caused part of the cornice to collapse with his ski (see shower of snow to the right):

Oops!
It's only about 10 feet down max, but if you fell wrong it could hurt. I dropped down at the end where it's only maybe a 7-foot steep slope, no jumping necessary.

I skied until "last call" and ski patrol had roped off entry to the bowls.

I made my way down to Vail Village, taking any soft moguls along the way, carefully avoiding the occasional nasty bulletproof skid slope, of which there were many.

If you don't ski or ride you may not realize that the slopes typically get more scraped (and slippery) the farther downhill you go, because everyone has to funnel down to a few narrow exit points near the lodges. Some areas simply get worn out and scraped to a nice white marble texture by natural wear and tear, and by people trying to slow themselves by skidding.

The Walk

Last time I was here, I enjoyed my run through the wintry trails of the Village, so I decided to skip the bus and walk a bit.

When I got to Lionshead, I heard my bus was on a 30-minute schedule and was reportedly still packed. Since I didn't have running gear and I like to do stuff a bit off the beaten path (so to speak) I decided to walk to West Vail to my car. It would be my "run" for the day. I'd walked to Vail Village in the opposite direction before, and it wasn't that terrible, about 3.5 miles total.

Along the way, I saw an amazing sky, which I might have missed taking the bus. The blue layer of clouds was lit from above by the setting sun, like a science fiction flick where a fleet of spaceships was hovering above the clouds. There were different shapes and lighting in all directions:


The verdict: my touring boots are not exactly hiking boots, but they're survivable. My feet had some near-blisters during the last 1/2 mile, my shoulder was a bit tender from having my heavy ski setup on them, and my left hip didn't like the gait apparently required by my ski boots. Ah well, practice makes perfect.

The Drive

I drove over to Edwards to the Gore Range Brewery for dinner and to wait out the ski traffic.

Alas, when the traffic cleared up after 8 PM, there was a tanker rollover accident near Georgetown, closing I-70. The recommended detour route was via Fairplay, about 2 hours extra driving! Luckily, I-70 opened back up just as I reached the detour turnoff point.

When I got to Bakerville, I split from the line of slowly-moving, impatient tailgaters and took the service road all the way ahead to Silver Plume all by myself, saving about 20 minutes. The wreck was on westbound (uphill) I-70, right on the hill west of Georgetown; a tank truck on its side and half off the road. Yikes.

I have to admit the fickle nature of ski traffic wears on me, and when I get home at 11 PM, utterly spent from hours behind the wheel, I sometimes wonder if some day I will decide it's not worth it. I could have skied closer to home -- like Loveland or Eldora -- and possibly avoided a couple of hours of driving.

However, at this point I'm going to say... a powder day at Vail is still worth it.

Image DVD Backups

Having experienced the pain of losing valuable computer data, I've taken to backing up my files -- especially photos -- to an extra disk and/or DVD. The lost photos in question were the first year and a half of my time Colorado. Needless to say that was rough, even though I had copies of the best images, which I had posted online.

I had been backing them up to an external drive using robocopy, but had mistakenly used the "/PURGE" switch, which removes from the backup anything removed from the source. I tried all manner of recovery programs and basically only got back what I already had.

I also had issues with two USB external drives. I'm not sure if it was mere hardware failure or that they did not disconnect correctly (I use the removed device feature in Windows), but I had two disks go bad. Some backup, eh?

I finally got an NAS drive in the form of a Netgear STORA. It's not fancy, and has an over-simplified mass consumer interface, but it's networked and has full-size hard drives. It's worked well.

I've also started creating a set of offline backups on dual-layer DVDs. I like detailed records, and here's my Excel tracking of the backups done so far:


I also have a list of the DVDs and what months they have on them. The months in green have DVD backup coverage, i.e. either there are DVD backups or there were no photos (light green).

You can see in the middle in July 2005 when I bought my first compact digital camera, and started to have photos for every month thereafter (minus those I deleted accidentally). Heh. Before that, it's mostly summer vacations and Christmas recorded on an Olympus Stylus film camera and output to Photo CD. As I look back, those files were very small in pixel dimensions, dull, and grainy compared to fully digital images!

The lost year was 2007. I still can't believe I'm missing 8 months of photos. I can console myself by saying I've revisited most of the places I went that year, and the quality of image I shot back then was not as good as it is now, but it still hurts. So, photographer beware! Back up your stuff!

Objectivist Round Up

This week's Objectivist Round Up is hosted by Reepicheep's Coracle. The Round Up features posts by bloggers who advocate Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand.

Anti-Cold Break Continued

I got 9 hours of sleep last night, after 10 hours the night before, to try to squash a cold before it gains a foothold.

I feel fine, but earlier this week I could tell my body was fighting something again, and I felt a touch of tenderness in the throat. I think another good night's sleep and I'll be good. No running since Tuesday, and I likely won't until Sunday, and it may be something mellow and close to home. Possible partial ski day one of the two weekend days.

I don't know about others, but with me, colds tend to follow a pattern: a run-down feeling, optional sore throat (by which time the game is up), and then an extremely variable number of days of head and chest congestion. I can sometimes cut the aftermath in half by taking it easy during the early stages of the cold. If the cold does not move into my head immediately after the first wave, I know I'll be OK.

The initial stages I don't mind as much because they are limited. However, days or even a couple of weeks of congestion afterwards is very trying, and I try to avoid it if possible.

Loveland Cat's Meow

This is a video of a trip down one of the front side trails at Loveland, which is just to the right of Chair 1 when you're looking up.


I notice a few things: first, there is a lot of side-to-side motion, which is not ideal; it's best to remain focused downhill with your upper body relatively level, relaxed and floating. Second, the camera may point a bit too far up, which causes it to lose some of the energy of seeing the ground rush by. It's also a bit bright in some parts. I upped the exposure one notch, and it seems to have lost some detail on the snow. I might set it back down to the default.

I also didn't really pay much attention to the bumps, but kind of ran over them 2-3 at a time. That's a luxury you have when the snow is soft, but if it hadn't snowed in a week, the bumps would have been hard and that would have been punishing.

Loveland Ski Pics

Speaking of "go, go, go", I'm feeling run down again so I'm taking another breather in an attempt to head off another long illness. Feeling totally beat, I hit the sack at 9 PM last night, and did zero running Monday, Wednesday, or today. The throat does not feel good and I'm not taking any chances. Hopefully I'll be back for the weekend.

Note to self: get good sleep above all else. And stay hydrated. I think the high country really dried me out, which when combined with the long, fun, strenuous day was a bit taxing on my system.

These are photos from Tuesday. In spite of the dire weather warnings and the highways being closed until around 8:45 AM, the weather at Loveland was actually excellent for enjoying the 16" of new snow. Not too cold, not too windy (5-20 mph), scattered sun.

Below is the top of a trail on the front side next to Chair 1. Note the drop-off in the back -- yee-ha! I did only a so-so job of skiing it, but the new snow made it easier, and it was fun.


Over on Chair 8, where the powder was sheltered from the wind, was probably the best snow of the day. Other than cheers for crazies straight lining the steeps on Chair 1, this was where I heard the most "woo-hoo!"s of the day, including from me. Great stuff:


My track down the middle:


The view below shows Mt. Sniktau in the back, with the trails of Loveland Valley in the middle background. The ski area has an unusual layout, since it wraps around I-70 in a "U" shape, with the middle right over the Johnson/Eisenhower tunnels. Loveland Valley is the beginner area and it's a short drive down the service road, or a shuttle ride away.


Below are some trees off Chair 1. These are considerably steeper than the trees in my video from Mary Jane, although that ski area also has its share of steep trees.


I rounded out the day lapping Chair 1 until 4 PM with only a few other people, seeking out remaining patches of powder on the open slopes and in the trees. I was skiing the trail called Over the Rainbow, which ends at the parking lot, and from which you can walk back over to the chair lifts. So, my last run was on that trail, ending at the lot. What a great day.

Loveland Tree Skiing

Central Colorado got hit with some decent snow early in the week, and I had arranged to take the day off to ski. I had missed a bunch of other powder days, so I was glad to finally work it out. It was a 16" day at Loveland Ski Area and after initial highway closures and iffy conditions in the mountains, I hit the hills.

This short video was taken Tuesday at Loveland Ski Area on the slopes next to Chair 1, on a 16" powder day. I'm not real familiar with this terrain yet, so you can see I'm trying to get into a rhythm, but at the same time avoid hidden rocks, stumps, etc. which there are a lot of. The first 60 seconds is some skiing, then I cross an open trail and the rest is more or less exploring and coming to the conclusion that the trees are too close together to bother with. It's nice in the woods though.


The amazing thing to me is that even in such tight trees, there will be ski/board tracks everywhere. I need way more room than that to make safe turns.

And if I had known I was going to spend the day skiing powder and steep bumps, I wouldn't have gone for a run in the morning. My legs were spent by the end of the day. But, it was the best weekday I've had in a while.

Tuesday AM Run

Tuesday morning I had the day off and was going to ski after a Monday snow storm, but the highways were closed, and due to high winds the snow was falling horizontally at the Divide (I could see it on the live video cams). I decided to shift the day off later in the week when it wouldn't be so crazy up there.

So, I went about my business and did a run in fantastic morning weather. The dirt was frozen just enough to keep it from being muddy, and the sun took the chill away when I got to the top of the hill.


Here is a view over a small slice of west Lakewood, which shows the fingers of open space reaching down into the subdivisions:


Below is a windy Mount Evans, with snow blowing around it. That peak, at 14,264 feet, is over 6,100 feet higher than where I'm standing. Atmosphere is 72% vs. sea level at the top of my run, and a mere 56% at the top of Evans.


The summit of Green Mountain in Lakewood, with yucca bushes and a cairn of rocks created by trail users:


Run distance was 8 miles, time 1:24, and elevation gain/loss 1,176 feet.

As it turned out, the highways opened up right after I got back from the run, the winds in the mountains died down, and the sun came out, so I went skiing after all. My legs were going to be pretty tired, but hey -- powder day!

Sunday Sunset Run

I'm getting a bit behind on posts because it's just been go, go, go during waking hours lately. These are some pictures from a run on Sunday, and for the most part I'll let them speak for themselves.

Basically I ran near sunset, and as I'm running up my local hill, the sky just lit up in shades of gold, and then orange and pink as the sun slowly set. The colored light seemed to be everywhere. Amazing. I can't believe I get to experience this stuff on just a daily run. And I'm glad I bring a camera... everywhere.





The colors gave me an incentive to get to the top of the mountain, to see the whole sunset:


Run distance was 6 miles, time was 1:21, and elevation gain/loss was 1,124 feet.

Slow-Motion Tree Skiing

My very generous brother gave me a Contour HD helmet cam for Christmas (or more like several Christmases; thanks, brother!), and Sunday I took it on its inaugural run at Mary Jane. This is gently-sloped terrain (almost flat in some spots), possibly Kinnikinnick. There hadn't been deep snow in the days prior to my outing, so it was a mixture of soft snow and scraped areas, but it was still fun to get onto the hill.

The video is 720p HD. If you have a slow connection like I do, once you start the video select "360p" on the bottom right of the video window.


The video is dark because I haven't had time to adjust it; I may re-upload it later with adjustments. This brightness level was the default setting on the camera, possibly to avoid blown-out whites on snow.

I'm laughing as I watch myself hit branch after branch. Really, I'm not Danger Boy when I ski! And the camera is mounted on the right side of my helmet so the branches are not actually hitting me in the face like it looks.

I gotta figure out how to fit this thing on my head for trail running. If I don't, I'll be the guy running Denver metro trails in a ski helmet.

Mini-FA 18-Miler

I had a heck of a time deciding what to do this weekend, as often happens in Colorado for me. Too much to choose from, and everything I do depends on weather. On Sunday looked like it would be decent for skiing (even though there's going to be another Monday powder day, and I don't have the day off - argh!) so that left Saturday.

The Pikes Peak FA sounded interesting, but it's a long way and I don't think I could handle a 26-mile mountain course right now.

Anyway, at the last minute on Saturday AM I decided to just run out the front door for a few hours, just going wherever. It was one of those days I just wanted to see what I had in me. Think of it as a shorter PPFA tribute run.

Distance was 18.15 miles, time 4:15, and elevation gain/loss 3,522 feet.

I basically ran from the northeast side of Green Mountain in Lakewood, over the mountain, over Dakota Ridge and to the Trading Post at Red Rocks, where I filled up my water bottle in the sink downstairs and headed back. Convenient... if you get there before 4 PM.

The snow was soft at mid-day. It was actually pretty good; soft enough for my tread to sink in, but not so wet that I was slipping a lot. Nonetheless, spikes made progress much quicker and surer once I put them on.


This is coming down the Jeep road on the west. Pace was decent in spite of the slop, at around 7:50, and I ran down the strips of snow to keep from getting muddy:


This is looking back at "Green" Mountain from Dakota Ridge at about mile 6. The mountain doesn't look very interesting does it? The interest is in the details.


If you follow the Dakota Ridge trail across the highway and into Red Rocks Park, there is a continuation of the trail on the right side of the road that's easy to miss. I got a photo this time. There are two small signs at the entrance:


On the way back, the sun came out and my clothes were a bit warm. This shot is from the elbow of a turn in the trail on Dakota Ridge, looking both up and down:


I hit this mile-and-a-quarter Jeep road on the way back at mile 12, and I was hurtin'. I walked a good part of it:


This reminds me of the Windows XP default background, only browner:


Coming back over the shadow side of the mountain, the snow had re-frozen, and I found myself running back over my own frozen footprints from noon.

During the last two miles of the run, my legs felt numb, if that makes sense. They just had no energy at all. It's almost like they weren't there. Except for twinges of shin pain, so I started walking; no shin splints, thanks. My muscles were just too tight and I didn't want to pull anything, so I stretched and walked a few hundred feet at a time until it went away. At least I got a nice sunset while I was taking it easy:


When I got back I was beat, and felt awful. Once again my stomach unilaterally used its primordial judgment and decided that my 4-hour fun run was a life-and-death escape from a saber-toothed tiger or something, and basically shut down, resulting in nausea. I was incredibly tired, to the point where I lay down a couple of times, partly to warm up. I took a shower, fixed some real food, and with that my system slowly came back to life after an uncomfortable hour, and the nausea subsided.

Bottom line is, my body is not used to this much distance on so little energy. I need to eat more beforehand, and do longer runs on a weekly basis, i.e. 10+ miles on weekdays when I'm able. Again, I have to say the shorter runs I did in December -- although better than nothing -- were just not enough.

This also confirms that eating real food during the run helps. The best thing, oddly enough, has turned out to be jerky, like this. It's in strange extruded sticks, but it's easily digestible, calms my stomach, and in the summer the salt also seems to help. I popped a few Clif Shot Bloks (my favorite of the carb energy items), but they just didn't seem to do the trick. I need ACTUAL FOOD, not some weird jelly.

I know, extruded meat from some huge factory... ew. What can I say, I'm equally if not more afraid to stop at a jerky stand run out of some dirty, beat-up VW van parked on a highway. If I find a good local jerky place, I'm there.

On the up side, I kept a decent cadence for most of the 4 hours, probably 150-160. It deteriorated during the last few miles, especially uphill, but I'm still pleased and it worked pretty well to keep my pace as fast as I'm capable of at this time. Moving pace (according to Garmin) was 12:29 over the 18 hilly miles; maybe a bit optimistic on the part of Garmin's calcuation engine, but not that far off.