Wednesday, April 28, 2010

New shoes!

Laurel and I went to a panel discussion at Alta Physical Therapy on the merits of barefoot or minimalistic running vs. shod running. There was a raffle and I won a new pair of sneaks! Need to go down to Newton Running to get fitted sometime.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

M+D vacation, part 2

My parents returned from Colorado Springs last Tuesday evening. Wednesday was rainy, so it was a quiet rest day for them. We had dinner at Turley's (many gluten free options!). Thursday they went to Cheyenne to see the buffaloes and got soaked by a heavy rainstorm. That evening, Laurel went to a talk about swimming and triathlons. The three of us went to Neptune for a short movie about some climber who apparently didn't die when aid climbing in the Italian Dolomites. My parents stayed in Boulder on Friday, checking out Pearl Street and a new exhibit at the Boulder History Museum.


Saturday morning I went on the first long run I've done in a while (7.5 miles). Then the four of us headed downtown: We got bacon cupcakes at Tee & Cakes, had breakfast at Lucille's, and then walked the farmer's market. In the afternoon we did a hike around Wonderland Lake. That evening we heard Carmina Burana performed by the Boulder Philharmonic. It was fantastic, what an experience!


For Sunday, Dad and I had a big hike planned. We left the house at 7am and hiked Bear Peak. We were lucky to have great hiking weather the whole day, and only a few fresh inches of snow at the top. Mom and Laurel hiked the Eagle and Sage trails and then did a little shopping at Celestial, Pekoe, and Savory and Spice.


Monday I took my parents to NCAR, where Dad and I had started our hike the previous day. We followed the trail a bit to show Mom what we had hiked. After that we had lunch at The Med and walked around the Sturtz and Copeland greenhouses. Mom assembled a beautiful bouquet for us and I got some information about our "Christmas tree" (a Norfolk Pine we've had for years).


Tuesday was my parents last day in town and the first day that the weather was really nice. We went for a walk around the neighborhood and checked out the planes at the local Boulder airport before they took off for the big airport in Denver.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Weekend visitors

Mark (a friend from UConn) flew in Friday, a few days early for his GIS conference in Ft. Collins next week. We took him on a hike up to the top of the First Flatiron and then got dinner at Himalaya's. My parents are also visiting next week, so we lent Mark our Echo and some hiking gear for the weekend and made a few suggestions about where to go in RMNP.

When my parents arrived on Saturday they brought rain -- first we've seen around here since September! It didn't last long so after lunch we walked the Cottonwood Trail. We met a local farmer with a stand on Jay Rd. and got some fresh produce. It was sunnier in the afternoon.


Sunday we headed for the hills! We took the scenic route to Idaho Springs for a little shopping, lunch at Beau Jo's, and a gold mine tour. We drove up to Berthoud Pass for pictures and got to see some back country skiers making turns down a nearby slope. Then we got ice cream in Winter Park. On the way home we drove through Rollinsville and took Magnolia back to Boulder. Not a 4x4 road but it is mostly dirt, and very steep!


My parents took a side trip to Colorado Springs on Monday and Tuesday. They walked around Garden of the Gods, took the Cog Railway to the top of Pikes Peak, and visited the Cliff Dwellings. Back in Boulder, I went for a hike with Mark on Monday, where we saw tons of ladybugs!

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Anne U. White trail-run

Today Laurel and I rode our bikes 45 minutes to the Anne U. White trailhead and did our first trail-run of the season (not counting Cottonwood, which is flat). We're going to be doing a lot of this in the coming months to prepare for the Pikes Peak Ascent -- a half marathon up a 14er with 7800' elevation gain. Fortunate for us we're just running up the mountain; for the full marathon, runners turn around at the top and run all the way back down too.

Compared to Pikes Peak's Barr Trail, our run today was more moderate in elevation gain -- around 500' gained over 1.6 miles going up -- but still quite strenuous! The winding, narrow trail requires 10-20 stream crossing each way. Most crossings have a few rocks to hop along. Doing this at speed without getting wet can be a challenge. Parts of the trail were still snowy too.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Longs Peak trail

We did some hiking and snowshoeing Saturday, starting from the Longs Peak trailhead. Weather was beautiful -- definitely starting to transition from Winter to Summer. Hopefully when there's less snow we can try running this trail.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Saturday, April 3, 2010

This week in Boulder...

Daytime Owl.


Bloomin' orchid.


Laurel's new bike.