Triathlon!

I completed my first triathlon--and an Olympic distance one, at that! It was hard. The swimming was probably the most difficult part. The water was really cold, and putting my face in to swim was tough to get used to. It was also hard to swim around all the other people, sight the buoys, and swim through the wake that everyone was kicking up. If I ever do another tri, I definitely need more practice in open water swimming!

By the time the swim was over, my feet were numb. Good thing I put cages on my pedals, because all I had to do was slip my feet in and move my legs. I felt really slow on the 26-mile route, but I did it 15 minutes faster than any of my training rides. I think I was just spent from the swim, so I felt more tired. Fortunately, my training kicked in and just got those legs moving!

The run was tedious. The course was an out-and-back and then another out-and-back (there were also people racing a sprint tri which required a 5K, so the course was really set up for them). It was hot, sunny, and boring. Oh well. At least I did it in under an hour!

So, the whole thing (.9mi swim, 26mi bike, 6.2mi run) took me 3 hours and 16 minutes. Not bad, huh, for my first one? It was a fun, but very tiring, day!

Triathlon Training

Sunday through Thursday...

Run/hike/walk: 25 miles
bike: 58
swim: 1/2 mile

Friday...rest

Saturday...
Triathlon!

Overall
Run/hike/walk: 31 miles
bike: 90 miles
swim: 1.4 miles

Brainard Lake

Mom and I drove up through Gold Hill on our way to Brainard Lake. We stopped at the Sunshine school house (built in 1900) to take a look.

Up at Brainard, we walked the road until we couldn't any longer. We couldn't keep going because there were several feet of snow and the big tractors were trying to move it.

Fortunately, I found the little trail through the campground, so we took that. Mom was a trooper, though, because this alternate route was covered in snow. She did a great job in sneakers and with hiking poles and we made it all the way to the lake. There was no one else there, but when we started to head back we ran into many different parties. A fun day!

Bolder Boulder

Today was Bolder Boulder Day! Dan, Mom and I all finished the race! Dan ran an impressive 48:48, just 8 second slower than last year. I ran 54:03, a minute and a half faster than last year (yay triathlon training!). Dan and I grabbed our bikes and met mom back at home, and then walked the race with her. We finished in just under 1:50 and stayed in the stadium for the elite races and Memorial Day observance. It was perfect running weather and we all had a great time!

Mom's Visit

Mom arrived on Saturday! As soon as we got to Boulder, we hopped on our bikes and rode to the Farmer's Market. We got some yummy stuff for lunch and picked up some stuff for dinner. Then we went to get Mom's race packet and walked on Pearl St.

On Sunday we got up early and rode bikes to Vic's and Moe's for breakfast. Then we toured the Mapleton neighborhood and ended up at Mount Sanitas. Mom and I hiked the Valley Trail and then rode home. The skies were still cloudy, so we drove up to Nederland to check out the canyon and the shops. Amazingly, it was sunny there so we had lunch at Sundance with awesome views. On our way back to Boulder the skies cleared, so we picked up Dan and hiked the West Ridge of Green Mountain.

Triathlon Training

Run/hike/walk: 17.5 miles
Bike: 108 miles
Swim: 2 miles

Skyline traverse / Birthday run

For her birthday, Laurel wanted to run the skyline traverse. Today was the day for it. We biked to Chautauqua, ran up Flagstaff Mt., over to Green Mt., over to Bear Pk., over to South Boulder Pk., down the Shadow Canyon trail, and back to Chautauqua on the Mesa trail. It ended up being 14.2 miles of running that took us 5:37. We're both pretty sore now!


View Flag Green Bear South Mesa run in a larger map

Triathlon Training

Run/hike/walk: 38 miles
Bike: 70
Swim: 2

Donna & JJ's visit

Donna and JJ visited us for a week. The weather wasn't great (typical spring) but we still got out for some fun.

Donna and I did a bunch of biking (here and here) and some running (part of Cottonwood and some random route).

Laurel and I took JJ up Bear Peak on Saturday. The rain held off until the last 2 miles of the hike.

Triathalon Training

run/hike/walk: 33 miles
bike: 85 miles
swim: 1 mile

Jamestown run

We biked to Jamestown for a trail run today. The ride was about 17 miles and almost all uphill (some 1600'). The run/hike was on old forest roads, up to Nugget Hill for some spectacular views, then back down other forest roads.

Along the way we saw some old mining equipment (or something). There was a small pad with the letters "RWH" and "BONDHOLDER 1934" written in the concrete, and nearby was a sinkhole or old mine shaft or something that probably went down 20 feet.

Our run ended up being around 9 miles and took us almost up to 8800' (we started at around 6900'). Hard to believe we climbed more on foot than on bike -- that ride was tough! Luckily the ride home was almost all downhill, just some small ups on US-36.

View Jamestown bike/run/hike in a larger map

Triathlon Training

Running/hiking/walking: 29 miles
Biking: 68 miles
Swimming: 2 miles
Climbing: once in gym, once outside

Climbing North Table Mountain

Yesterday we went to Golden to set up some topropes on North Table Mountain with Sean and Justin. It was a beautiful, 80-degree day and we had a lot of fun. The climbs are very accessible and bolted, but most of the rock overlooks the not-so-beautiful Coors brewing plant. There were times the hops smelled really good, but mostly it was noisy and there were lots of cars and trains racing by.

We climbed (R-L):

• Thelma, Louise (5.7, 5.8)
• Kid's Climb (5.10a)
• ? Redrum (5.7)
• Ian and Pat Spy Yet Another Easy Line (5.7)

I think we climbed the beginning of Redrum then veered off to the left to the anchors, instead of going right like the website says. Dan led the last climb.

Super Sunday run

We joined some of the Boulder Trail Runners today for part of this Sunday's "Church of the Holy Trail" run. Their plan was to go all the way to Nederland (about 26 miles away), stop at a pub, then take the bus back to Boulder. Our plan was to run with them for two hours, then turn back.

Most of the way up Green Mountain we hiked. It really didn't take much longer than a few weeks ago when we tried to actually run up the trails. Once atop Green, it was mostly rolling hills for the rest of the day -- even for the folks going to Nederland, which is within a few hundred feet elevation of the summit of Green.

Laurel and I ran with the group until we were near Walker Ranch. At that point we decided it was time to turn back. A few people suggested since we had made it that far, we might as well run through Walker Ranch, over to Eldorado Springs State Park, then head back to Chautauqua on the Mesa trail.

Somehow that sounded like a good idea, even though they told us the loop was 20 miles total. Maybe our logic was: we had already run 8 miles, so we could go 8 miles back the same way (boring), or 12 miles around the long way, which is only 4 miles more, which isn't much. We got directions for a key shortcut and were on our way.

As we were getting to the Eldo connector trail it started to occur to me that we were running out of time, since we had invited friends over for 5pm. Worst case, we figured we could run through the park and call a cab when we got to the main road.

When we got into Eldorado Springs, we decided to check out the Old Mesa trail. It's somewhat complicated to find, as you have to navigate through a neighborhood and go halfway up a private driveway, but we managed. In the end we took that back to the S. Mesa Trailhead, where we discovered that

1. you can't order a taxi without providing a numbered street address,
2. Boulder's main taxi company doesn't service that area, and
3. other taxi companies wouldn't be able to get us for at least an hour.

So instead we hitchhiked with some folks that were heading back towards Boulder, picked up our bikes at Chautauqua, and rode home.

Despite not taking the Mesa trail back, we still managed to cover 18 miles! Took us about 5:40.

Tim, Jill, Ann, and Sean joined us for pizza -- great end to the weekend!

Dirty Bismarck

A few new trails opened in Superior recently, creating a great mountain-biking loop knows as the Dirty Bismarck. We drove to the Marshall Mesa trailhead to give it a whirl on our bikes. The first bit of trail was pretty technical but the rest was much more approachable. The whole loop is something like 10-15 miles, took us about 2 hours to complete.

Triathlon Training

This week by the numbers:
Running/Walking: 22/3--25 miles total
Biking: 80 miles
Swimming: 1 mile
Climbing: 1.5 hours :-)

Anne U. White/Sunshine Canyon

I went to church today....Church of the Holy Trail, that is! Fred Ecks, a BTR runner, designs massive runs almost every Sunday. They always sound like a lot of fun, but I've never been brave enough to try one. Today I got up some courage and met Fred, a seasoned ultra-marathoner, and Scott, another ultra runner, at the Anne U. White Trailhead. They were planning on doing 26 miles today up and down Sunshine and Lefthand Canyons. I tagged along for the first hour and half and then turned around.

It was a beautiful, although cloudy and chilly, morning. The sun shined on us just as we left the parking lot (which I rode my bike to), and that was all we saw of it for the rest of the day. We ran up the 2 mile White Trail and gained a little bit of elevation. Here, the trees were dusted with a little overnight snow. I wish I had my camera! Then we continued on an unmarked trail up to a jeep road. As we climbed up to Sunshine Canyon, there was evidence of the Four Mile Fire everywhere. Trees were scorched, houses were gone. Because of the moisture, we could smell the char and smoke. It was amazing how much the fire jumped around. Some spots were black, and others were completely fine. Some neighborhoods had houses standing next to just foundations and chimneys.

We reached Sunshine Canyon Road and followed it for a bit. Then we turned onto County Road 83 (dirt) not too far from Gold Hill. We passed the old Sunshine School House. It was very cool! It was a one room, historic building made of local rocks. It looks like it opens occasionally to the public. We then reached Sunshine Saddle and I decided to turn back before descending into Lefthand Canyon. The run back to my bike was chilly, but mostly downhill. I managed to find my way back along the faint trails and got back to my bike before it got too wet at lower elevations. A fun day! I can't wait to attend my new church again.

Triathalon Training

April in Boulder is wet. It's the only time of year it's wet, and we really need the moisture since we've had an especially dry winter. I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised when I woke up to see snow falling, but I have to admit I wasn't all that excited about it.

Snowy rain doesn't make for good riding, and it's not fantastic for running up mountains. So, Dan suggested I run to the gym, swim, and run back. I did. It was hard and on June 5th I will still have to run an additional mile and also bike 23. However, it was good to start doing back-to-back workouts ("bricks") to get ready for the race. My swim was the fastest its ever been (33:11 for a mile, or 36 laps) and the run to the gym was fun. The run back in the snow with wet hair from swimming wasn't the greatest.

After a hot shower and hot lunch, the snow stopped and the skies cleared a bit. Dan and I rode our bikes to the farmer's market and got some goodies. We also walked downtown to see all the beautiful tulips before riding back.

4/20 owl

Some pics of the owl. The ravens were harassing it for some reason.

Green Mountain / Bear Canyon run

For this weekend's mountain run, we picked a loop up and down Green Mountain. After parking our bikes at the Gregory Canyon trailhead we started running up the Saddle Rock trail. It's steep, but not quite as bad as the Amphitheater trail. Where the two trails meet we ran into Dave from work. We said hi for a bit then continued up to the summit of Green.

In 58 minutes we gained about 2300' elevation over 2.1 miles of trail. That's a 20% grade -- that and the inch of slushy snow left on the upper half of the trail explains our 27-minute-per-mile pace! We stayed up top for 25 minutes, talked to Dave for a while once he made it up, then headed down the other side.

The Green-Bear trail is almost as steep but then mellows out in Bear Canyon. We cruised down to the Mesa trail, then went up and down its undulations. 82 minutes after leaving the summit we were back in the parking lot. In total we ran 8.5 miles.

South Boulder Peak run

Today we rode our bikes down to the South Mesa trailhead for a mountain-run. Once there, Laurel decided to go for a walk instead while I ran. I headed up the Homestead trail, then the Shadow Canyon trail towards South Boulder Peak. It took me 82 minutes to run almost 3.5 miles (with 2800' gain, that's a 15% grade, ouch!). I was feeling pretty good after a 10 minute break up top, and the day was beautiful, so I continued on to Bear Peak. At the end of my run I had gone 8.3 miles in about 2:45. Between that and 20 miles on the bike, I was covered in salt by the time I got home!

(I found a new website that makes trail map-making much easier, 'cause it has route data from OSM -- check out my run on Bike Route Toaster.)

Flagstaff run

It was 61 degrees when we got up this morning. Cold weather was supposed to arrive by afternoon, so we biked over to Gregory Canyon soon after breakfast. Our plan was to run up Flagstaff, over to Green, and back down to the bikes. Unfortunately, just shortly after 9am, as we were approaching the top of Flagstaff, the winds started to shift from West to North. Smelling the Greeley manure on the suddenly cool breezes, we knew it was time to head down. The Gregory Canyon trail took us right back to our bikes. It only rained slightly on the way down. Good thing we turned back when we did, since it started hailing a half hour after we got home. We ran almost 4 miles with 1000' elevation gain and loss, in about an hour.

Second Flatiron

We climbed today! It was 80 degrees and sunny all day, so it was perfect weather to spend the day on the rock. We hiked to the south side of the Second to try to climb up the Second Flatironette. Dan picked out a route called Dodge Block. We thought we had found it, but the bottom slab didn't have an place for pro. So, Dan climbed over to the north a bit and ended up on the Freeway Ridge.

This wasn't where we wanted to be, but it was good climbing nonetheless. After four pitches we got to a tree where we had anchored before. I suggested that we try to climb up north past the tree and see where it got us rather than traversing the rock and scrambling between the South Block and Pullman Car. Dan was game and headed on up. We found a neat gully and a finger slab for us to climb. Then we continued to the trail. A very fun day overall!

Winter Park

Sunday afternoon, once we had recovered (somewhat) from the race, we headed to Winter Park. We had a hotel room reserved for two nights. It's a good thing we decided to go up when we did, because Monday morning and most of the day Monday, Berthoud Pass was closed due to inclement weather and avalanche blasting.

We were woken up by snow plows at 6am Monday and saw that almost 10 inches had fallen over night. We started the day with a delicious breakfast at Rise and Shine Bakery and then were some of the first skiers on the slopes. We were laying fresh tracks for most of the day. It continued to snow all day and we had a blast in all the new powder.







Tuesday morning the plows woke us up again, but this time at 4am. Oh well. Another 13.5 inches had fallen since Monday morning, so the slopes were again full of fresh powder. Fortunately, the skies had cleared and we enjoyed a slightly warmer and mostly blue-sky day. There was so much powder, it was actually hard to ski. We ventured to a new side of the mountain, though. A side for "experts only" (woo hoo!). It was so fun skiing through lots of trees and 22 inches of powder (the Vasquez side wasn't open yesterday).

Boulder Spring Half

Laurel ran the half marathon today in around 2:12 (6 minutes faster than last time!), I ran the 10k in just under 57:00. It was a good race but a bit chilly -- a few snowflakes actually fell while we were waiting in line for food!

Long walk today around Boulder

Along our walk we checked out the Valmont bike park. Looks like it should open soon. It's huge!

Florida Days 4 & 5

Well, you could say that by Thursday I was in a Florida state of mind. Things move much slower down there because of the heat and humidity. I was getting into vacation mode and not moving too fast. Thursday morning I did take a sunrise run along the beach from Dania to Hollywood.

I also went to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea with mom and dad, and made a number of trips to the pool and back to the beach. I also managed to rollerblade while my mom rode her bike. It was a lot of fun, and I truly got to relax and get a lot of vitamin D from the sunshine! I also managed to eat a lot of fresh fruit and veggies. Yum!

Florida Day 3

Dan is in Malibu on business. It sounds like his hotel is right on the Pacific Ocean. I'm not even a mile from the Atlantic. Funny.

I ran to the gym this morning while mom rode her bike. We lifted weights together and then Adam came to get me. He brought me to his house so I could meet the chickens. Yes, Adam has three hens that live in the Florida room and his back yard that produce eggs every day. He loves them--and the eggs! We went rollerblading on the broadwalk for a while.

After lunch mom, dad, and I hung out at the pool for a couple of hours. The weather couldn't be better!

Florida Day 2

Adam picked me up at 6am with the mountain bikes in the back of his truck. He drove us 2.5 hours north to the Kissimee Prairie Preserve. It was out in the middle of farms, cattle, and tropical forests. When we pulled in we saw some wild turkeys and karakara birds.

We got on our bikes and tried to head west on the military road. Unfortunately, there was so much sand on the "road" that we couldn't pedal. We tried another way and got a couple of miles in before the trail turned into a swamp. So, we got back on the military trail and walked our bikes when the sand was too deep. It took us quite a while to get to the Kissimee River, but we finally got there.

We had a nice lunch on the riverside and then started to head back under the sweltering sun. We tried a different route back, because the military trail was such a pain. However, we knew there would be a large segment of the trail that included a water crossing.

The water crossing was gross. It was anywhere from 3 inches to almost 2 feet deep. There were places where we couldn't see our feet and we worried about all sorts of creepy crawlies. Adam took his socks and shoes off to walk through the mud, but I wasn't that brave. I kept my socks on and felt the goopy mud through my toes. Gross! Then, we're about halfway across and I saw a snake. I jumped a mile high and ran in front of Adam with my bike. Of course, I scared the snake more than it scared me, but I still didn't like it! Then Adam claimed he saw a baby alligator up ahead. Well, luckily we didn't get to see him or his mother up close.

We got to dry land without further incident. Then, after biking not even five minutes, I saw an alligator off to the side of the trail. I screamed and pedaled as fast as I could. The gator splashed into the nearby pool and Adam saw what he claimed was a 12-footer. I didn't see that one.

After 5.5 hours we got back to the car with all limbs in tact. Over the course of the ride we also saw deer, vultures, more wild turkey, and other birds. On the way back Adam drove us by Lake Okeechobee. I had no idea how huge the lake was. You couldn't even see across it.

We got home in time for another delicious dinner and walk on the beach.

Florida!

I left Monday to fly to Fort Lauderdale. It's amazing how the humidity just hits you when you get out of the airport. The air in Boulder is SO dry that the especially wet air down here is just incredibly dense feeling. Anyway, it's green and very, very warm down here.

Mom and Adam picked me up at the airport and we headed right to the bike shop to rent mountain bikes for our adventure the next day. Then, a quick ride on the broadwalk was in order! We went to Mom and Dad's place for dinner and then a nice walk on the beach. Yay FLA!

Ralph Price Reservoir

Long time no posts... I've been running a lot. I've been getting out at least once a weekend for a 2+ hour trail run. I've run up at Hall Ranch. Last weekend I ran up Green Mountain (and was passed by Anton Krupika!) and Saturday I ran up Bear Peak.

On Sunday, Dan and I went to explore the Ralph Price Reservoir area. I learned about this area through the Boulder Trail Runners and wanted to check it out. We had planned to hike the Sleepy Lion Trail, but just 100 yards on the trail Dan discovered a faint side trail, so we decided to explore it. Along the way we found a hidden bouldering area so we stopped to play on the rocks.

Eventually this little trail got us up to Hall Ranch at the junction of the Nighthawk and Buttonrock Trails. Good views of Longs Peak.

After a quick lunch, we hiked the Buttonrock Trail back to the end of Sleepy Lion. This trail dumped us out at the bottom of the dam, where there was an outlet spewing water at tremendous pressure.

We hiked up the side of the dam to see what was up top. The water was pretty, especially with Meeker and Longs in the background. We walked back down the road (yuck) to the car.

Niwot Ride

This morning it seemed warm enough for a nice, long bike ride. Unfortunately, the clouds swallowed the sun and it turned out to be a cool 45 degrees, especially after an hour and a half of riding. Here's my route.

Boulder Sunshine (Wonderland Lake)

Despite our sore legs and shoulders from a full day of skiing, we went for a bike ride and run. We rode across town to Wonderland Lake and locked up the bikes. Then we hit the trails in the area. We started off together on the Old Kiln Trail, but then went our separate ways to meet our separate goals. Dan ended up running 4.5 miles around the lake and all over the area, and I did 90 minutes up and down the side trails. It was a beautiful day, but neither of us thought to bring the camera.

Winter Park

On Friday we both took off work and headed up over Berthoud Pass. It was a fun day of skiing on both mountains--Mary Jane and Winter Park. Boy, are those bumps getting big! We finally got to stop at Beau Jo's on the way home to celebrate Dan's new job and my National Board Certification. Yay!

Bear Peak (again)

Forecast was high winds today so skiing wasn't going to be great. Instead we hiked up Bear Peak again. Once we got up to the ridge it got very windy, but it was a sunny day in Boulder so it was still a good time. Hardly saw anyone on the way up Shadow Canyon -- just a ranger who warned us that a tree fell and almost hit her. On the way down Fern Canyon we saw many more hikers.

Cross Country Skiing at Brainard

Today Ann and I went skiing up at Brainard Lake. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day with barely any wind. Most of the day we didn't need a fleece or jacket it was so warm. We skied up the South CMC Ski Trail around the west side of Brainard Lake to the CMC Cabin. Ann had never been there before, so it was fun to show her and have hot chocolate. We skied back on Waldrop, took the connector the road, and then skied the road back. On the way out we barely saw anyone. The road on the way back was a different story. Nick W. would have had a fit with all the people in jeans and sneakers! We even saw three guys who rode their mountain bikes on the snow-covered road. It was a very fun day! (Click on the pic for more pics!)

Powder day at Eldora

Eldora got lots of snow yesterday, last night, and today. Fun skiing today!

Moose hunt

There are no moose at Red Deer Lake. Not today anyway. A few people have told us they've seen moose in that area, so we thought we'd check it out on snowshoes.

We planned to drive up to the trailhead at Camp Dick but there was a winter closure gate, so we had to park at Peaceful Valley instead -- practically right on 72. No problem, just a longer day by a mile each way.

The well-traveled Buchanan Pass trail led us to a 4WD road, which then took us back to the trail. Good views of the Sawtooth and other mountains that were familiar to us from our summer backpacking trip.

We turned north up the drainage but never found the Red Deer Cutoff trail, so we made our own way up the steep hillside. Seemed to take forever but we finally got to the lake.

By that time we had gone 7 miles and it was already 1:30, so we didn't spend much time at the lake. Instead of going back the way we came we followed the lake's drainage for a while, then headed down the steep hillside back to the 4WD road. Since we were short on time and getting tired, we just took the road all the way back.

In all we snowshoed 14 miles in 8 hours. No moose. Some other time.

My Trip to the Capitol

For those of you who don't know, I passed my National Boards. This is a highly respected teaching credential that took me a year to complete and then 6 months to have evaluated by several different individuals. To celebrate the accomplishment the Colorado Department of Education invited all National Board Certified Teachers to Denver to go to the Capitol, meet with state legislators, have lunch, and get a nice certificate and pen :-) Here are a few pictures from my visit (3rd time in Denver!!!).

Winter Park powder

We made it to Winter Park today -- skiing was awesome. Lots of fresh snow, blue skies half the day, not a lot of wind, and great tree skiing!

Ski bummer

We tried skiing at Winter Park today. Fail. Got halfway there, stuck in traffic for so long it wasn't worth going, so we turned around. Hiked in Boulder a bit instead.

Arestua Hut overnight

Saturday we snowshoed out to the Arestua Hut with a bunch of people from our WTS class. Fun time -- we spent the night with a bunch of hooligans. (Apparently they saw on the reservation calendar that we (6 of us) were staying over that night and decided that it would be a good night for them to stay over too, despite the fact that they knew there's not really enough room for 11 people. WTF.)

But we had a good time anyway and got to catch up with folks more at lunch the next day in Nederland.

Road trip pictures

Pictures from our road trip are posted (finally).

We got the snow that was predicted and the high may have been 15 degrees today in Boulder, so we stayed in. It's going to be a quiet New Year's eve for us. Just the weekend left now before vacation is over.

Happy 2011!

Sand Dunes

Well, Alamosa was nothing to write home about in the dark and in the light it was not much better. We were glad to get back on the road. Our first stop was Great Sand Dunes National Park. It was so cool to see the Sangre de Cristo Mountains with huge sand dunes in front of them.

It was cold when we arrived at the park just before 9, and it was really windy. Despite the conditions, Dan wanted to hike the sand dunes and summit the tallest one we could see. At the car we put on some layers (we still had jeans on though---Nick Weighton would NOT have been happy!), and headed out for the sand.

Two families were turning back as we headed out. Boy, did they look cold. We managed to brave the 30mph winds and excessive blowing sands and made it to the summit in 40 minutes. It was really fun running and glissading down the big, steep dunes on the way back. Some of the slopes were around 30 degrees which seemed really steep (yes, we measured them with our new slopemeter).

We drove over the mountains to Walsenburg and then on north to Colorado Springs. We stopped for an hour to say hello to Melanie, Ryan, Josh, and Vincent and to see all the boys' Christmas gifts. It was a lot of fun to play for a while.

We got back to Boulder around 4:00 today. The weatherman is predicting 5-10 inches of snow and single-digit temps, so I'm glad we're back in our nice warm house. A fun road trip, albeit short.