2012 Year in Review Part 2: Running With Friends

Though most of my runs are solo, those times where I am able to share the trails (or bike paths) with my good friends stand out as some of my most memorable outings of the year.  Always great to talk training, racing, mountain goals, mountains, more mountains, family, shoes, mountains and a zillion other topics.  Thanks for all the great times!

Homie on Green (Feb. 4th 2012), one of the rare occasions we have worn snowshoes, most likely just to pack the trail so we have a better, more runnable trench for the following days.

Dave Mackey (David Riddle in back visiting town for a few days and joining us for a tour of Green)

Tony

Dave, Homie and Kendrick after Homie's 10th lap on Green in one day.  Almost certain to see a Mt. Lion with Kendrick along.

Me blinding the camera with my zillion lumen headlamp.

Homie on Lincoln

Not running or hiking, but this is the only shot I could find of Rob or Aron (Boulder Creek Fest)

Joe, Tony and Homie scoping out Nolan's routes on our way up Missouri Mt. in early June

GZ and Nick on the summit of Longs Peak

GZ negotiating the narrows on Longs (lookin good GZ!)

Homie, Nick and George at the Keyhole

Closing out the year on Green with Homie, GZ and Brandon



2012 Year in Review Part 1, Family Time On The Trail

OK, I'll jump on the annual review bandwagon.  2012 went by in a blur and I have to rely on dated photos, my blog and garmin data to remind myself of the highlights, but as I do so, the floodgates open and I am reminded of all the great times I have had in the past 12 months.  At first, I figured I could wrap it up into a single, tidy post, but once I got going, I figured I should spread it out a bit over several posts as to not feel too cluttered.

Since this is my outdoor adventure blog, I'll try to stick to that theme, but more and more the lines are blurring between family and outdoor fun (in a very good way).

Time on the trail with my family.   We had some fun small adventures this year on the local peaks and in the Indian Peaks.  These opportunities were stymied a bit (OK, a LOT) by spending just about the entire summer buying, renovating and moving into our home in Louisville, but we really hope to make up for that next year now that we are settled (mostly). 

Though I often times find my thoughts wandering to higher mountains, faster runs, longer outings, races etc.....  I can't express enough how fortunate I feel to be able to share time in the outdoors with my family and take great joy in sharing this love with my twin daughters.  They absolutely love being outside and introducing them to such an awe inspiring natural World is an amazing honor like no other. 

I can't wait until they are old enough to join me in doing bigger and better things under their own power, yet simultaneously realize that they will grow up way too fast.  I came across a parenting blog a while back titled "The Longest Shortest Time", so true.

"Your biggest challenge isn't someone else. Its the ache in your lungs and the burning in your legs, and the voice inside you that yells 'CAN'T', but you don't listen. You just push harder. And then you hear the voice whisper, 'can'. And you discover that the person you thought you were is no match for the one you really are." ~unknown~

Monday, 12/24/12 Green Mountain Hike with Amelie

5.3 miles/2,321 vert./1:39 (57 up)

Isabelle was sick and mom had some shopping to do, so Amelie, Sierra and I headed out for a hike up Green Mountain on Christmas Eve day morning.

Because we had the dog, we headed up Gregory/Ranger and I wogged a few of the flatter sections early on, but 95% of the outing was spent hiking, both up and down.  Could have gone quicker, but I was trying to keep things comfortable and enjoyable for Amelie and we sang Christmas songs much of the way, pointed out all of the Christmas trees, identified bird songs and fetched snacks and mittens.

Bumped into Chris Gerber in Gregory Canyon and chatted with him for a bit, saw a few other runners and hikers, but was overall a very quiet day on the mountain.  A bit chilly at the start, but soon I was feeling quite overdressed, though froze when we spent 10 or so minutes on the summit.  I was quite impressed that Amelie accurately pointed out Mt. Audubon from the summit (partially obscured by clouds).  She recognized it from our walks here in Louisville where both she and Isabelle can identify Bear, Green, Audubon and Longs.  Not bad for 2 year olds.

Had to be official and tag the true summit

Taking a little time to enjoy the summit

She loved exploring the summit and did not want to leave

Wednesday, 12/19/12 Mt. Everest Gigapixel Photo

This is waaay too awesome to not share.  Click on the picture and then zoom into basecamp, the summits, etc...  The clarity and zoom power is just stunning.

http://www.glacierworks.org/the-glaciers/pumori-spring-2012/

Hopefully this technology trickles down to pocket size by the time I need a new camera...

Monday, 12/17/12 Update and RMNP Pics

Not much new here to report. I have been getting out on occasion, just a few casual laps on Green per week, maybe a baby jogger run or two, but have generally been taking things very easy as of late. My left Achilles was a bit twingy after Thanksgiving (probably from stupidly running part of a turkey trot a bit too fast with the baby jogger). On a pain scale of 0-10, it was a very occasional 2, but have been through similar things enough times, I figured I would take that as a sign to get in a little downtime.

After about a week mostly off and wearing a night splint, I felt as though I had it beat and was eager to get back at it, then I got sick and have felt mostly lousy the last 2 weeks. Being sick zapped my energy and motivation a bit, mostly from the interruption of my sleep. This is all fine though, as things have been extremely busy at home and work, so even though it is quite difficult for me to refrain from getting on the trails, it has been (and continues to be) a welcome change of pace which I will just give in to for the remainder of the year (or until I feel otherwise). I am chomping at the bit to get back at it, but am also being patient at the same time.

Normally, by this time of year, I know exactly where I am at in terms of vertical, miles, # or peaks climbed etc… and tend to chase some stupid arbitrary numbers that not even I really care about any more.  This year however, I have resolved to not even tally it up until the last day of the year, or the first of next.


Over the weekend, Allison and I had a rare night away from the kids (our second time away together in nearly 3 years), so we headed up to Grand Lake for some hiking (not quite enough snow yet for snowshoeing) and a lot of eating. I had secretly hoped to get in a few peaks and went prepared for anything, but the weather was not great and we were not particularly goal driven, so we took things pretty easy and just enjoyed our time away with no real plan. It was cool driving into RMNP this time of year, as the snowpacked, but plowed road was open for 10 miles or so to the bottom of Trail Ridge Road. It was so quiet and peaceful, as we were the only humans out there on the unbroken trail toward Timber Lake.

The second day, we headed up toward Lone Pine Lake from the East Inlet trailhead. We had only planned on 2 or 3 hours, but ended up being out for a bit longer. We almost made it to Lone Pine Lake, but we had long surpassed our turnaround deadline and reluctantly had to call it a day. Referring to Google Earth when I returned home revealed that we were only a few hundred yards from the lake. A bit disappointing to have come so close, but still ended up being a very nice 10+ mile hike in the snow.

The snowpack in the mountains is quite thin, but seems like it might be starting up, at least a little bit.

Mountain Lion tracks?  I can't imagine what other large cat might be out there roaming.

Never Summer Range

Impressive land slide (slump)

More Mountain Lion tracks after the moose tracks ended.

Snowy after dinner walk around Grand Lake

East Inlet hike toward Lone Pine Lake

Starting to look like Winter

Adams Falls

Friday, 11/16/12 Three Peaks Plus One

Green/Bear/SOmelittlepeakIcan'tBOothertorememberthenameof/Green Again

10.28 miles
5,256 (dang it, just 24 ft. shy of a vertical mile)
2:49

I had a surprise and very rare morning to do as I pleased, with no real pressure to get home anytime soon, so I headed into Boulder to get in some leisurely hill running.

Headed up A/S/G on Green in an easy 38, down to the 4-way, got a little confused here and ended up on some hardly recognizable trail.  Miraculously, this trail dumped me off right where I had hoped, at the start of the West Ridge trail for Bear, which just opened a few days ago after being closed since the Flagstaff Fire in June.

**Side note, I was expecting total devastation on the W. Ridge, as it looks pretty wiped out from afar and heck, it was closed for 5 months, so it must be really bad right?  I was shocked to observe that, though burnt, it was not nearly as bad as I expected.  It is absolutely ridiculous that this was closed for 5 months.  2 or 3 weeks may have been more appropriate, then a simple "proceed at your own risk" sign, would have been more than sufficient.  All the trail work?  I noticed they minorly reworked/rerouted the trail in at least one spot, some nice steps, but 5 months?  Really?**

Back to the run, I again got a little disoriented, but I could eventually hear voices on Bear, as SOmeBOdy was talking loudly and I eventually topped out and enjoyed the views.  Looking over to South Boulder Peak, it looked pretty bad, IS pretty bad (from what I hear).  Sure wish they would open that soon, I am really itching to go check it out myself.

From Bear, I headed down W. Ridge which was really good to get re-acquainted with after not having run through there since before the fire.  Once back to Bear Canyon, I again got a little disoriented, but soon found myself back at the 4 Way and then headed up to tag Green once again.  Bumped into Ben K and Johannes R, so we stopped to chat for a bit.

On Green, I was feeling awesome and seriously considered tacking on Flagstaff and possibly Sanitas, but then 5 minutes into the descent, I bonked bad, probably my worst bonk in many years, as the early breakfast and lack of fueling caught up to me.  I was a stumbling fool and what is normally a 20 minute cruise, ended up being a 27 minute struggle to not trip and fall.

It was awesome to get out for a little longer run than the norm and I really hope I can do this again on Thanksgiving if I can talk the in-laws into watching the girls (if anybody wants to join, gotta earn that Turkey and those measly 5 or 10ks just do not cut it ;)).

Saturday, 10/27/12 Basic Boulder Mountain 14.22 miler

Flagstaff/Green/Bear
14.22 miles
5,330 vert.
3:06
Avg. HR 161

Photo copied without permission from GZ's fine blog

Was going to write something up, but don't really feel like it, so I'll just list a few highlights/details in no particular order.

• Fresh snow added to the challenge, yet made for an amazingly beautiful day.
• Had a great time catching up (if only briefly) with many good friends and acquaintences.
• Regretted not being able to socialize more with those I only said hi to, or missed seeing altogether.
• Pace was super easy up Flagstaff.
• Homie attacked hard above the Ranger Cabin and we were impressed.
• Homie blew up hard and bailed at the Ranger/Greenman jct. and we gave him crap ;)
• Ran with Dave for the remainder of the run.
• Johannes, Gavin and Andrew Skurka joined us for Bear Canyon descent, before continuing on the prescribed route.
• Dave and I wanted to get home to our families, so we amended our route to include Bear first, then head home.
• Gavin joined us for Bear.
• They kicked my ass up Bear above the saddle while I was sucking wind.  I managed to keep them in sight, but then stopped to put on my tangled jacket in the wind and they were gone.  Fortunately, they were nice enough to wait at the post while I quickly tagged the summit.
• Icebug shoes were great all day, but Microspikes would have been way better descending Fern (though I was more than happy to not carry them for the entire run).
• Dave had no traction, yet he was hard to keep up with going down Fern.
• Many people opted for Bear first instead of heading over to Shadow, as we bumped into Sage and a stream of others behind.
• It was wicked mucky and sloppy heading back on Mesa, but was fun once I gave in to getting dirty.
• Dave seems to be super fit and it was not easy keeping up (and I am sure he was taking it easy on me much of the time).
• Be careful around Rob when he has a camera handy.
• Impressed that Tony went easy and kept his run short.  This is more impressive than if he had dusted us all.
• Though I am normally the warmest dressed, I was in the minority wearing shorts.  I was fine all day, but froze on Bear above the saddle in the wind and snow.
• Even though we cut the run short, it was still double the time of my next longest run since Pikes in August.
• This morphed into writing something up.

Saturday, 10/06/12 Bear Peak

Bear Peak via Fern Canyon
4.65 miles/2,700 vert./1:45 RT

Long anticipated plans for a quarterly free day in the mountains fell through, so I shifted gears and figured a couple hour run over multiple Boulder peaks and possibly some exploring would be a decent plan b.  Sent out a few invites and Tim was on board right away.  Morning arrived and the day was quickly filling with family obligations and my chances of pinpointing a start time diminished to about 0.  Not to mention, it was in the 30's and rainy, so I bailed on Tim.

I am rarely ever dissuaded by the weather, at least for non high country stuff, if I have the opportunity and desire, it never matters to me whether it is 100 degrees or below 0 and blizzard conditions, I enjoy it, but the weather today was not particularly motivating.  As the morning progressed though, I was able to fit in some time to get out and fortunately, I was able to save Tim in time from going on a road run.

Met up at Cragmoor at 10:45 and started up the hill.  I was wearing my heavy waterproof Sauconys, heaviest Winter running pants, long sleeved Smartwool shirt, long sleeve REI hoodie shirt and then my waterproof Patagonia hooded shell, beanie and thick gloves.  Of course within minutes, I announced that I was hot and had to shed a layer.  Tim on the other hand, was in shorts and a light windbreaker and seemed to be quite comfortable.

In Fern Canyon, the rocks started to become coated with ice and we commented on being careful coming down.  Above the saddle, everything was coated with an increasingly thick and solid layer of ice, the rocks, dirt, grass, pine needles, trees, us.

The going was slow, but it was bearable, until we got to the final stretch of talus to the summit.  This is where Tim (smartly) called it a day, but I was determined to make the top, so I continued on, crawling much of the way.  Once at the post, the normal route along the ridge seemed to be a sure way to really get injured, so I carefully navigated some of the alternative routes I use on the West side, but as I got to within 10 or so vertical feet of the summit, I was stymied no matter how hard I tried.  It was just too slick and the chance of really getting hurt was significant.

I eventually backed off, then it took me longer to just crabwalk back down to the bottom of the talus field than it normally takes me to get to the bottom of Fern Canyon on a dry day.  The remainder of the descent to the saddle was really slow and deliberate, but was able to get down unscathed.  Conditions improved and I upped the pace trying to catch Tim, but he had gotten cold and had to keep moving, so had a pretty good gap on me.  When I finished, he was in the car trying to salvage his hands.

Tough conditions for early October and I really wished I had wore my Ice Bugs (considered it, but figured it would just be wet up there with a little fresh snow).  Still a great time and was good to catch up with Tim, it had been way too long.