Green, Bear, South Boulder

From Chautauqua, Baseline, Amph, Saddle Rock, Greenman, Green; Green West Ridge, Green-Bear, Bear West Ridge, Bear; South Boulder; Shadow, "Bridge", Mesa.

Started at 11:25 am. Managed to squeeze this one in between the rain. Don't think I got rained on at all during this run. But the amount of water in the creeks and on the trails was remarkable. Probably the wettest I've seen these trails. Felt about the same as yesterday - good, not great. Interesting that my times for these runs were almost identical.

0:00 - Chautauqua
7:06 - Baseline/Amph (muddy)
16:33 - Amph/Saddle Rock
(dup) - Saddle Rock/Greenman
53:30 - Green
1:37:31 - Bear
1:51:07 - South Boulder
3:13:02 - Chautauqua

StreakOrangeB

Green, Bear, South Boulder

From South Mesa TH, Mesa, Bluestem, Mesa, Bear Canyon, Green-Bear, Green West Ridge, Green; Green West Ridge, Green-Bear, Bear West Ridge, Bear; South Boulder; Shadow, Mesa.

Started at 6:28 am. Rainy weekend. It drizzled lightly for this entire run. Tried to run with tunes, but my waterlogged headphones ceased working about half an hour into the run. Sorta like the tunes, but it's another thing to dork around with on the run. Felt pretty good on this run but not great.

0:00 - South Mesa TH
1:27:46 - Green
2:16:37 - Bear
2:30:28 - South Boulder
3:12:58 - South Mesa TH

StreakBlueB

Green (PR)

From Gregory TH, Amph, Saddle Rock, Greenman, Green; down the same.

Started at 5:33 am. Met Jeff V this morning. Got there a bit early so did some quick strides up Gregory, then Amphitheater, then Bluebell-Baird until I was gasping for air on each. Figured it was going to be a hard (PR) effort this morning (casual for Jeff) so might as well get a little warm-up in so that the legs didn't feel so dead at the start.

Jeff asked if I wanted to go hard or at a conversational pace as he headed across the bridge from the trailhead. I said something to the effect that it was going to be easy for him and hard for me. I then started my watch at the trailhead and chased after him. Jeff had waited up for me at the Baseline/Amph junction (to start the clock there). When I got there, he started up and immediately his left leg slipped out (on pine needles or loose dirt), and he nearly went down. He stopped, buckled over in pain. At first, I thought he might just be joking, but he said the slip drove his right knee into his chest. He was indeed in a lot of pain, but he continued up the trail after the initial shock wore off.

Up Amphitheater we go. Even in pain, Jeff was just jogging along seemingly effortlessly as I alternated running and hiking, huffing and puffing and sweating buckets. Looking at my split at the Saddle Rock junction, I knew this was going to be a good time given that we lost some time with Jeff's slip. Continued up Saddle Rock, mostly hiking for me but running when I could. Jeff was the perfect "rabbit" to keep me chasing hard. Ran pretty hard through the "flats" at the start of Greenman, then back to mostly hiking but running a few sections that I normally don't on my hardest efforts. Up the log steps, then the mini-switchbacks, then I tried to keep a run going to the summit from there. Walked a couple of times through there but didn't let off the gas to the top of the summit boulder. 39:36! (Jeff had a "post to post" time of 38:47 for me.)

PR by 48 seconds. Previous PR was 40:24 on 5/5/10.

0:00 - Gregory TH
8:15 - Amph/Saddle Rock
22:43 - Saddle Rock/Greenman
39:36 - Green summit (PR!)
42:43 - started down
1:11:24 - Gregory TH

StreakOrangeC

Double Boulder Skyline Traverse

South Boulder, Bear, Green, Flagstaff, Red Rocks, Sanitas, Red Rocks, Flagstaff, Green, Bear, South Boulder

From South Mesa TH, Mesa, Towhee, Shadow, South Boulder; over to Bear; down Bear West Ridge, Green-Bear, Green West Ridge, Green; down Green West Ridge, Ranger, Realization Point TH, Ute, off trail to Flagstaff summit; down Flagstaff to Panorama Point, View Point to Eben G. Fine, Red Rocks trail, Red Rocks; down Red Rocks trail, up south ridge trail to Sanitas; back the same.

Started at 6:45 am. Pretty tired legs from yesterday's run as I started out. And it was HOT! I ended up downing a bottle by the time I got to the bottom of Shadow Canyon. I knew I was going to need to stay ahead on hydration on this day. Refilled the bottle at the bottom of Shadow. Pokey time up South Boulder. Over to Bear. Over to Green, stopping to fill a bottle at Bear Creek. Up Green, passing Tony K on his way down the West Ridge. Coming back down, I ran into George B so stopped to catch up with him for a few minutes. Over to Flagstaff and down to Eben G. Fine. Filled a bottle here. Then up to Red Rocks. Screwed up and climbed to the southwest summit first, then over to the highest point. Over to Sanitas, where I tried to put in a decent effort, but was, of course, slow.

And return. Filled 2 bottles at Eben G. Fine and 1 at Bear Creek. Felt OK until I neared Bear. Bonked a bit as I hadn't eaten in a while. Ran into Dan B on the summit of Bear so took the opportunity to sit down and chat for a few. Couldn't really manage much of a run down Shadow. Legs weren't sore, but they didn't want to move quickly. Feet were aching. Glad when I finished this run.

Ate 3 packages of Clif Shot Bloks, 1 Ensure, 1 cup of peaches, couple handfuls of mixed nuts, 7 S-Caps, 1 Nuun. Think I drank 8 20 oz bottles.

0:00 - South Mesa TH
20:53 - Towhee/Shadow
33:34 - Shadow/Bridge
1:09:26 - top of Shadow
1:18:29 - South Boulder (stopped to chat with another runner in here)
1:30:43 - Bear
(dup) - Green (think I remember seeing 2:16ish somewhere nearing the summit)
2:48:15 - Flagstaff
3:34:54 - Red Rocks (split taken a couple minutes late)
3:38:18 - starting up Sanitas
4:05:57 - Sanitas (27:39)
4:32:48 - Red Rocks (split taken a minute or so late)
5:40:21 - Flagstaff
6:22:08 - Ranger/West Ridge
6:28:36 - Green
7:33:17 - Bear
7:57:47 - South Boulder
8:55:38 - South Mesa TH

StreakOrangeB

Brook Loop from home

Down Bristol, Indiana, bike path, Coalton TH; Coalton, High Plains, Greenbelt Plateau TH, across 93, Flatirons Vista North, Doudy Draw, Doudy Draw TH, South Mesa TH; Mesa, Towhee, Shadow, "Bridge", Mesa, Big Bluestem, Mesa; home the same.

Started at 5:31 am. Tried to keep the effort comfortable on this run. Physically wasn't all that comfortable but not too bad (right calf, plantar (?!) in both feet). Not used to running so much (ie, most of my "runs" involve a fair bit of hiking). Walked a few times on the run to South Mesa. These were mainly when messing with the FM radio tuner and headphones. This was the first time I'd ever run with tunes. Kinda liked it except the radio reception stunk for much of the run so lots of static. Need to get some tunes loaded if I'm going to do more of this. Anyway, walked the steeper hills on the Brook Loop. On the return home, I ran most everything and felt pretty good keeping it going. The tunes might've helped with this. Did take one Ibuprofen leaving the South Mesa TH.

Ate 1 package of Clif Shot Bloks and 2 S-Caps. Drank 60 oz of water (carried 3 bottles from home).

Something like 24-25 miles and 2600' of climbing. Probably should've added on a bit for a marathon PR. :-)

0:00 - home
6:56 - Coalton TH
38:52 - Coalton/High Plains
1:05:44 - High Plains/Greenbelt Plateau
1:43:30 - South Mesa TH
2:01:24 - Towhee/Shadow
2:12:03 - Shadow/"Bridge"
2:20:43 - "Bridge"/Mesa
? - Mesa/Big Bluestem (missed split)
2:29:35 - Big Bluestem/Mesa
2:36:15 - South Mesa TH
3:19:13 - Greenbelt Plateau/High Plains
3:44:16 - High Plains/Coalton
4:09:34 - Coalton TH
4:14:53 - home

StreakNavyA

Double Mesa (PR)

N-S-N.

Started at 6:18 am. Ran fairly comfortably from Chautauqua to South Mesa, except for the uphills, which never seem comfortable. Was hoping to be closer to an hour, despite not pushing too hard, due to my fitness (which is pretty good right now, I think). Clearly, though, it takes a really solid effort for me to get under an hour for the Mesa. Ran into Jennifer F just north of Bear Canyon on the way south. Given my time at South Mesa and how I was feeling, I thought breaking 2:10 was probably out of the question. Tried to run a little harder on the return. When I crossed Skunk Creek, I knew I had a chance at 2:10, so I pushed pretty hard. Nearly crashed hard in here but recovered without going down. Finished strong, psyched to have run fairly even splits for the out and back.

0:00 - Chautauqua
6:35 - turn from road onto trail
20:12 - Skunk Creek
24:34 - turn from trail onto Bear Canyon road
31:18 - turn from Bear Canyon road onto trail
35:27 - Mesa/North Shanahan
40:38 - Mesa/South Shanahan
44:29 - Mesa/Bluestem
48:54 - high point starting the descent (some rocks/logs in/by the trail)
1:03:45 - South Mesa TH
1:12:24 - Mesa/Bluestem (lower junction)
1:26:19 - high point atop the climb
1:30:01 - Mesa/Bluestem
1:34:46 - Mesa/South Shanahan
1:39:42 - Mesa/North Shanahan
1:44:21 - turn from trail onto Bear Canyon road
1:48:32 - turn from Bear Canyon road onto trail
1:53:41 - Skunk Creek
2:04:40 - turn from trail onto road
2:07:55 (1:04:10) - Chautauqua

StreakNavyA

Green x 2

From Gregory TH, Gregory, Ranger, West Ridge, Green; down Greenman, Saddle Rock, Amphitheater. Repeat.

Started at 5:23 am. Started out easy but gradually got to feeling that I didn't want to go slow today. After a fair bit of walking in Gregory, I ended up running all of Ranger (and a bit below, of course) and West Ridge to the summit. Took it easy on the down. Some discomfort in the knees on the descent had me wishy-washy about doing a second lap. But I rolled right through the trailhead without stopping. Probably ran more of Gregory than the first lap (although I was slower). Ran a fair bit of Ranger but walked the steeper stuff. Felt pretty good on this lap. On the descent, ran into Kraig K on Saddle Rock just above the 1st/2nd Flatiron trail junction and chatted with him for a few minutes.

0:00 - Gregory TH
19:55 - Gregory/Ranger
42:13 - Ranger/West Ridge
46:18 - Green summit
1:13:24 - Gregory TH
1:13:32 - Gregory TH
1:33:42 (20:10) - Gregory/Ranger
1:58:03 (44:31) - Ranger/West Ridge
2:02:37 (49:05) - Green summit
2:35:49 - Gregory TH

StreakNavyA