Forecast for Steamboat

Weekend Plans

I received an email confirming what I had expected: the Boulder Sunset triathalon was cancelled or postponed as the area is being used for staging during the fire. This was fine with me, there are far more important things to deal with up there.

Sunday morning I'll be getting up early to run with Woody down in the Ranch, which will be nice, I love seeing new trails!

I'll probably run a touch on Saturday, but not much at all, probably just a loop around Wash Park from the house. (or maybe I'll head up Apex...)

*edit* Of course I will be out in Golden for my wife's maiden 10k voyage! Good luck babe! I love a sweaty woman!

Otherwise, tonight is the opening game for the forthcoming NFL season, so I'll be joining Gunner to watch his beloved Vikes down at Cap City Grille. Who knew there was a Vikes bar in Denver?

Had a nice run last night up at Bergen Peak with Gunner and Aaron, legs are finally coming around and I'm hoping to get to the line itching to let it rip. That's how I felt going into Sun Mountain and I really put something together there, if I can do the same in Steamboat I might surprise some folks, but to me, as long as I pull an hour minimum off last year's time, I'll be happy. More to come on Steamboat...

Karl has Nick at 3-1... good money?

Lucky Day!

Got into work this morning, sifted through my morning duties, and then found this... Whazzza??? Time to go buy a Powerball ticket!

Thanks Bryon and iRunFar! Guess I'll be rocking some La Sportiva gear this winter :)

Boulder Peak Bagging

A perfect start to the day

Really? Shadow Canyon was stupid, steep, and rocky.

Bit frustrated with how nasty Shadow was being.

View to the south from South Boulder Peak, doesn't get much better.

One down, two to go. South Boulder Peak Summit.

Decent bit of scrambling to get up SBP, but Bear was much nastier.

Looking back at South Boulder Peak

Bear Peak, still feeling alright, but it's heating up. Green Mtn in the back.

Green Mtn, had about enough climbing for one day...

A look back at some of the day's work

Traditional or Back Door?

After pouring over the Boulder Open Space maps (which suck hard by the way), I've come to one of two conclusions.

1. Traditional approach to Green from Chautauqua (Gregory/Ranger), then Bear and South Boulder peak in an out and back fashion (allows for a two step on Bear and Green) which I plot at roughly ~15 miles ish. Like I said, the map sucks.

2. Coming in the back door. Park at the South Boulder Creek West lot and go South Boulder Creek trail/Big Bluestem/Mesa/Shadow Canyon, hop west up South Boulder Peak, then Bear, Bear Peak West/Green Bear to Green Mtn, then back through Green Bear loop Bear Canyon to Fern Canyon, tag Bear again (and maybe SB too) and head back the way I came. This looks like roughly ~19 miles ish.

I'm thinking the traditional approach would be more fun if I were feeling springy and it'd be nice to see how my ascent compares to others, but my legs are a trainwreck right now and I'll be taking this one easy easy easy. My guess is that I'd deal with less traffic coming up South Boulder Peak (I'm leaning that way)...

Alright, I'm committing to the South Boulder Creek TH option. Hopefully I'll leave the crowds behind...

Run in Boulder this Saturday?

Thinking about getting up early and running in the Boulder area since I've never run north of White Ranch. Perhaps 15-20, I'm open for ideas/suggestions and company (but I'll be looking to get out early in the am ~5 or 6ish)...

Thoughts?

August by the book

Not sure what to think about the summer, I feel like it was just here. However, it was nice and crisp when I stepped out the door this morning, signalling to me the first hints of fall.

By the book, I show 297 miles for the month with 9 days off. 13.5 miles per day of running or 9.5 per day. My biggest month ever, guess I should figure out that I am still in shape. The legs are super sore today and I'm thinking I'll take one more day off and then begin the sharpening process... If I do run today, it'll just be cruising around easy.

As I Look at the below picture from Thomas Reiss' blog


I think to myself... holy &*#$! This is of course Hope Pass outbound, about mile 40 of the LT100. All you have to do is run over that, turn around, come back over, then run 40 more miles... What??? I know I did half of it, but it still blows my mind.

I'm certain that one of these days I'll completely lose it and sign up and do this thing, but I'm not sure if it will be next year. What I am thinking of seriously is Miwok if I can get in. Proximity to my family and so forth is really nice, and my fam has never seen me race. That may be my chance to tackle a new distance before child #2, but we'll see what happens there.

I'm really looking forward to spending time up in Steamboat with Rachel, Xavier, Jon, and Woody & Co. We'll all be in the nice little cabins of Steamboat campground and as has been said, I fall into the line of Fall=Best and there really is no place like Steamboat in the fall. Hopefully we'll be in for perfect weather like last year, but I think I'm due for a slugfest with 'ma nature...