~8 miles
~2,600 vertical
55:20 up
1:50 RT
After a flatish 4 miles on Tuesday and a trip up/down Green with Allison yesterday with no pain whatsoever in my suspect IT band, I decided to take my first real run in a few weeks up Green via Bear Canyon. Since this route is one of the more gradual trails up a peak that I know of in Boulder, I figured it would be a good way to ease back into things.
I invited Tim at the last minute and as usual, he was game. It was nice to be out, but I was a bit tentative, not quite sure how my knee would hold up while hoping for the best and fearing the worst. Our "warmup" pace had me huffing it a bit. My knee was fine, but I was feeling the last month+ of erratic workouts.... easy hikes, half assed runs, days off, bike rides etc.....
Even though I thought I have maintained some fitness, I still felt sluggish as my legs, lungs and brain were all trying to get back into sync. Once in Bear Canyon, I started to get into a groove, feeling a bit better, but still not particularly good. I was careful to keep my effort at moderate and not do too much too soon, although once or twice I found myself at the high end of moderate, a few heartbeats from flirting with what I consider to be going hard and quickly backed off.
As the terrain steepened, I walked the bigger steps and just geared down for the remainder. Arrived on top in 55:20 from the car and took about a minute to take in the views and bundle up a bit. Tim was not far behind and I started gingerly picking my way down, knowing that he would quickly overtake me.
On the steeper/more technical sections of the descent, I could feel my knee talking to me a bit, nothing too bad, but I did not want to push my luck, so I alternated walking and jogging my way back out. Made it back to the TH in 1:50 total, getting down just a shade faster than I went up, so I was happy with that. All in all a great day, although I was hoping to run down a bit faster without favoring my left knee. Oh well, I am making progress.
