Mountain biking on the trails south of Nederland

Laurel and I rode some trails starting at the West Magnolia trailhead. Some really difficult sections! I had to walk a few parts but rode most of it, including some white-knuckle downhills. Our route. Pics.

Skunk Canyon to Royal Arch hike

Nice warm sunny day today! We rode bikes to Chautauqua and hiked to Skunk Canyon. The bottom of the canyon was still a bit snowy and we just had sneakers so we didn't want to go too far up -- plus there was a raptor closure farther west. A faint trail going steeply up the north side of the canyon took us up to some unknown Flatirons (we heard people climbing) and then up to a ridge. From the ridge we saw swarms of people around the Royal Arch to the North. We bushwhacked a few hundred meters across the valley to the bottom of the Royal Arch rock. That wasn't too tough, but once we were around the north side of the arch the terrain was steep and snowy. Finally made the trail and hiked it to the arch. About 5 miles round trip and 1400' gain in 3 hours.

USA Pro Challenge

The USA Pro Challenge is a multi-day cycling race in Colorado, covering nearly 700 miles and 42,000 vertical feet. We caught the second-to-last stage, which started in Golden, rode through Boulder, then up to Nederland and Lyons before finishing back in Boulder on Flagstaff Mountain.

Donna and Rachel joined us to ride downtown. Lots of people out on bikes, Pearl St. was closed off for blocks for a cycling expo -- it was a zoo!

We all watched and cheered as the riders zoomed down Spruce St. (There were as many support vehicles, cop cars and motorcycles as there were cyclists!) Then Laurel and I headed up to Chautauqua for a hike. We hiked up and over the First Flatiron to the Gregory trailhead and then headed up Flagstaff Rd a bit to watch the end of the race. There were a LOT of people, probably 10s of thousands of people on Flagstaff, some in costumes, lots of cowbells.

Triathlon!

Today I competed in the Boulder Peak Triathlon. It was a weird, wet, humid day but the skies cleared enough for us not to be rained on during the race. This course was harder than the one I did last year, as the cycling portion went up over Olde Stage road (900' over 2 miles; steepest section was 600' in 2/3 of a mile or 15% grade).

I finished in 3:07:06---9:30 faster than last year, despite the much more challenging bike ride. I'm very happy, but very tired :-)

Triathlon Training

Last week of tough training done! Now it's time to taper. Woo hoo!

Bike: 78 miles
Run: 17 miles
Swim: 2.2 miles
Hike: 7.5 miles
Climb: 3:00
YAYOG week 4 complete!

Triathlon Training

So, the Boulder Peak Olympic-distance Triathlon is in three weeks. I signed up a week and a half ago. Though I "train" year-round, it is nice to have a clear goal for my workouts. Here are last week's totals:


hiking: 10 miles (3500')
cycling: 71 miles
swimming: 2.7 miles
running: 18 miles (2400')
climbing: 1:40
yayog: week 2 complete!

Foothills runs

We biked to the Gregory Canyon parking area. From there, I ran the Mesa trail (11.1mi in 2:17) and Laurel did a steep run up Green Mountain (4.4mi in 1:52). We met back at the trailhead a couple hours later and headed home. Great day except for the spill I took on a downhill that ripped my hand up pretty bad (it's healed by now).

South Boulder Peak

We biked to the South Mesa trailhead for a hike up South Boulder Peak. 17mi round trip on the bikes, 7mi round trip hiking. It was clear enough to see Denver, Pikes Peak, and Longs Peak, and we caught a glimpse of a train going through the tunnel on Eldorado Mountain. We ran some of the way back.

Laurel's 2nd day biking to school!

This has been a very warm end-of-winter and beginning-of-spring! Laurel biked to school on Tuesday the 13th, and again on Friday the 23rd. Both days I met her halfway on the way home. We stopped for ice cream the first time but then realized neither of us had any money. This time we got delicious ice cream from Glacier though! Very nice to be eating ice cream outside in T-shirts in March.

Mountains!

I got into the mountains a bunch this week.

The day after we got back from our trip (Sunday 3/4/12) was gorgeous -- beautiful T-shirt weather day, blue skies and sunny. I only planned to run up Flagstaff, but once up there I decided to see what Green looked like. There was a ton of snow on the upper part of the mountain and it was quite difficult to run without any traction, but I continued on anyway. Took me about 2.5 hours for the 10-mile round trip with about 3000' vertical. Biked there and back.

The weather continued to be great during the week. On Thursday I did a 3.3 mile hike around Sanitas. Only took about 30 minutes to summit, but the East Ridge trail on the way down had some horrendous ice! Round trip 80 minutes, around 1300' gain.

Still awesome weather on the weekend, so on Saturday I did another big mountain run. This time I biked to NCAR to head up Bear Peak via Bear Canyon. This time I had my microspikes! The trails were decent but it still took a bit longer than expected to summit -- that last half mile is SOOOO steep. I continued over to South Boulder Peak. There were lots of people on Bear but I had SBP to myself. For the return trip I ran down Shadow Canyon. It wasn't as snowy as I expected, but in hindsight it's a south-facing canyon so that makes sense. 10.5 miles, 3h20m, 3400' vertical.

January stuff

Haven't posted much lately... we have been climbing a lot at the gym. Lots of 5.10's and sometimes we can struggle up a 5.11a or 5.11b. Some biking here and there when the weather is nice. Some running, whether or not the weather is nice.

Laurel got out to Brainard Lake a couple times to cross country ski.

Jan 14th -- we went on an hour+ long bike ride around town, including a bunch of tough hills. Something like 17-20 miles. It was almost warm enough that we could have climbed outside!

Jan 15th -- we hiked around Mt. Galbraith park (and summited the mountain itself). Just a short 4.5 mile hike down by Golden.

Jan 21st and 22nd -- Donna and JJ invited us to stay at their awesome SkiHaus for the weekend. We had 2 great days skiing Winter Park and Mary Jane. There was 5" of fresh snow overnight Saturday, so we had even moar powder to ski on Sunday.

Laurel's down in Colorado Springs for a few days this week at a music teachers' conference.

Winter triathlon day

It was soooo nice today! This morning we biked to the gym and climbed for an hour and a half. When we left the gym, it was so warm we didn't need hat or gloves. The roads and bike paths are still kinda a mess, but they're melting. We meandered over to Sanitas. It was t-shirt weather in the sun! I ran a lap on the Dakota Ridge trail and SVT and Laurel did some hiking, then we biked home for lunch.

Thanksgiving Vacation Week

On Monday Dan ran up around the Boulder Reservoir and I swam at the pool.

On Tuesday we rode our bikes to Flagstaff and ran up the mountain.

On Wednesday I rode my bike to Boulder Valley Ranch and ran the Lefthand trail. Donna cooked a yummy Thanksgiving dinner and then we drove up to Winter Park to stay at Donna and JJ's skihaus.

On Thursday we skied at Winter Park. There were a handful of runs open that were a lot of fun.

On Friday all four of us hiked up at the Roaring Fork Trail near Lake Granby. It was cool to hike on the "other" side of the Divide. There wasn't enough snow to warrant snowshoes, but it was very pretty. Dan and I drove home Friday night.

The roaring fork

Lake Granby

Bear Peak run/hike

Laurel and I rode over to the Shanahan Ridge trailhead for a run up Bear Peak. It was a gorgeous day and the trails weren't too snowy or icy, but we did need our microspikes in a few places.

Along the way I noticed a rock that I thought looked like a buffalo, and Laurel saw one that looked like a prairie dog. Honest, we're not crazy!

We ran along the Mesa and Big Bluestem trails until we got to the bottom of Shadow Canyon; from there we decided to hike to the ridge. It's a very steep trail, so even if you think you're running it, it's more like a fast hike (for us anyway). We skipped South Boulder Peak and instead headed to Bear. The summit was wonderful -- no wind, blue sky, fairly warm. We had great views of the Indian Peaks and could even see Pikes Peak far away to the south...

... and Longs Peak to the north.

After enjoying a snack break on the summit we hiked and ran down Fern Canyon, then ran back to the trailhead. In all we did about 8.5 miles on foot and 11.5 on bike.

Green Mountain Run

This morning Dan and I rode bikes to Chautauqua. We ran the Baseline Trail, hiked most of the Gregory Canyon Trail, and then ran/hiked the Ranger Trail to the summit of Green Mountain. It took 1:25, not bad for mostly hiking.

Sugarloaf Mtn. in the foreground, Mt. Audubon behind it. Paiute just to the left of Audubon and Sawtooth farther to the right.

It was quite windy at the top! Still a lot of people out enjoying the day though. We ran down the E.M. Greenman Trail to Saddle Rock and then Amphitheater.

Dan zooming down the Amphitheater trail.

It took about an hour to get down, and then we fought the foot traffic for the CU/Oregon game on the bike path back home. The leaves are still beautiful around town and the weather was in the upper 60s. Nice!

Mesa Trail run

Laurel and I wanted to take it easy for the two weeks prior to the marathon, so for our last big run one week before the race, we decided to "just" do the Mesa Trail. Last summer we considered the Mesa Trail a very long run (13 miles) that we'd like to be able to do someday, including biking to the trailhead from home. Funny how perception changes.

I woke up later than Laurel so she got a head start out the door, biked to the trailhead, and was running by 8am. I was half an hour behind but it worked out well since we finished within a few minutes of each other (2h47m and 3h13m) and got to ride home together.

After resting in the afternoon, we headed out to TEDx with Ann and Sean.

Bike Ride with Donna

Today we rode with Donna. From our house we rode down South Boulder Trail to Bobolink. From there we continued on down to the end of South Boulder at Marshall Road. It was a beautiful day and Donna was up for more riding so we rode south to Marshall Mesa. We decided to ride east as far as we could and then turn around when we got to the big hill, as this was a technical trail. Donna did great and made it up the long, steep hill so we made a loop and continued on the mesa trail. On the descent Donna slipped and took a spill, scraping up both knees. A true trooper, she washed them off with her water tube and road all the way back to our place. Dan made yummy smoothies to celebrate the 18.5 mile-2.5 hour ride.

Dan's Big Run

Since I had never run longer than 18 or so miles (and even that entailed a bunch of walking), and since the marathon's two weeks away, I wanted to do a longer run. At least 20 miles. I thought including the Mesa trail would be race-appropriate training with all of its rollers. So I half-baked this idea of running the whole Front Range of Boulder.

After having lunch with JJ one day, remembering a picture of a mountain he posted once from France with a caption of "I hiked here from my house", and remembering how that inspired my desire to say the same thing about Green Mountain, I continued baking my idea for this run.

This is what I did:

1. Put my bike in the Echo and drove to the South Mesa trailhead (20 minutes).
2. Left the car at the trailhead and biked back home (35 minutes).
3. Ran the Cottonwood trail and a few roads towards the Boulder Reservoir.
4. Ran past the Rez to the Eagle trailhead.
5. Ran the Eagle, Sage, and Cobalt trails to the N. Foothills trailhead.
6. Ran the N. Foothills trail to the Lee Hill trailhead.
7. Ran the S. Foothills trail, Wonderland Lake trail, and a footpath to the end of Spring Valley Road.
8. Ran down the road, crossed Linden Rd., and picked up footpaths to the Goat trail.
9. Ran up the Goat (OW!) and down Dakota Ridge to Sunshine Canyon.
10. Ran the Red Rocks trail to Settlers Park.
11. Ran under 119, along the Boulder Creek trail for a bit to pick up a dirt road providing access to the Viewpoint trail.
12. Ran to Panorama Point on Flagstaff and continued to the summit of Flagstaff (had to walk some).
13. Ran down the Ute trail to Realization Point.
14. Ran up the Ranger trail to the summit of Green Mountain (walked most of the way).
15. Took a 10 minute break to enjoy the summit.
16. Ran down Green Bear and Bear Canyon to the Mesa trail.
17. Ran and walked Mesa trail and Big Bluestem trail to the South Mesa trailhead.
18. Drove home.

All that running -- about 25 miles total -- took me 6h24m. And now I can say that I ran up Green Mountain from my house!

Boulder Run/Bike

We were both beat from our long run at Golden Gate. So, we rode our bikes to the Cottonwood Trailhead and ran a very slow two miles to loosen up our sore muscles. We were both hoping to bike a bit more so we pedaled to the Valmont Bike Park and tried our luck on some trails. Luckily this time Dan managed to stay on his bike!

Dirty Bismark run

Laurel was going to do a short Marshall Mesa run on her way to work, so I joined her. I ran the Dirty Bismark loop (15 miles) in 2h33m and then biked home. It's a nice easy run, not too hilly or technical. Very helpful that Laurel was able to stash water for me at about the halfway point at the Coalton trailhead!