June 2011 Summary

For June, running was OK, foot was OK, and mountain biking was fun.

I did my first real summer run near Mount Evans, but have not been doing much running in Boulder after work like last summer, I think because my work day is a bit later than it used to be, and I've been busy. Totals:

Activity	Count	Distance	Time	Elev Gain	Avg Speed
Run	18	137.1	27:57:23	17,658	4.9
Bike	9	60.9	9:43:29	6,929	6.3
Total	27	197.9	37:40:52	24,587	NA

Mountain biking was on the same, slow hilly stuff I run.

Mileage is not big but I am doing longer average runs, so there's some quality there.


Honestly, I'm not really focused on total miles. I like to run at an easy pace and if I can't get bigger mileage in, then so be it. I doubt I'll ever be running 100-mile weeks, or even 75-mile weeks, and I don't care.

Things change when I get out in the wild, which is inherently more fun, and I'm not against spending a full day out.

Been looking at race schedules for a trail race, even though I know it's late. I'm finding there are too many flat courses that will likely be flooded with weekend warriors from Denver looking for a pulmonary embolism, such as Copper and Keystone. I want something hard that will mercilessly crush people who don't run hills all the time. Ha! Maybe Eldora? Vail?

Because honestly, that's my only chance to surge above 90th percentile in any category.

The foot continues to be a nuisance, but I'm managing it successfully. If necessary I stop and stretch, or take the shoe off and do ART-type massage on the sole. This has kept it from becoming a problem, and I often end the run feeling better than in the middle.

I found that biking can stress my legs (and knees) more than running, at least at my current ability level. The tendons of my upper leg and knee get really tight (poor stretching after rides). I wonder what the "running will wreck your knees" contingent would say, even though I file such advice in the same location as "saturated fat will kill you". Maybe they'd recommend aqua-jogging?

Rained Out

I began a run after work, but started feeling big drops of rain, wind and was a bit spooked by the lacework of lightning dancing over nearby Green Mountain. I got about a mile into it and called it off. Rain is now pelting the sklight.


Plus it's laundry night again. It's either that or wear something like bike shorts, an oxford, tie and ski socks to the office. I could play it off as some sort of stoned Austin Powers look.

So Long, South Mesa!

It's been nice knowin' ya. You too, Dowdy Draw. You too, Flatirons Vista.

The new OSMP parking lot fee is now in effect, so it's $5 to park at South Mesa lot, and I assume the amount is the same at the other two lots but I didn't check. I basically rolled into the South Mesa lot, and drove away when I found out the cost.

In general I support the principle of paying as you go, or payment by those who are actually using a product or resource, but that doesn't mean I will buy it. What it means for my particular situation is that I cannot afford to pay $5 to do my daily trail run after work, so I will go elsewhere. I might park there on a special occasion.

That's a bummer, because I like Towhee and Homestead. No more last-minute runs or walks on my way back out of town to the south. No more 1-hour runs up Shadow Canyon. Not to be melodramatic, but to a tiny extent my life has lost something.

Granted, I can access those trails from elsewhere. There are other parking lots, as well as neighborhood access all along the Flatirons, although South Mesa is closest to where I live and work. I'll now have to drive farther and burn more rotten Jurassic plant juices in my PZEV-certified Subaru (take that, eco-guilt-trippers).

A pissed off sky
There's no big political point regarding a simple fee. Costs must be covered, and an organization certainly has the right to charge money for something of value that is provided.

However, since I am already robbed of 1/3 of my income to pay mostly for useless crap I would never support by choice (minus attacking the wrong countries, because that's priceless), I have to say I'm simply pissed off that I can't afford to run from a favorite trailhead.

In the end it's a matter of it being over my particular tipping point on most days. Bummed.

I parked at South Boulder off of 93, which is still free as of today, and ran the extra 1.9 miles each way over to Homestead and down Towhee. lol. Although west South Boulder is hot, open and rocky. Not my favorite trail.

Distance was 6.16 miles, moving time 1:09, elevation gain 826 feet, average HR 129.

Sunday Chicago Lakes Run

Due to work I didn't make firm plans last weekend, but at 3:30 PM on Sunday I was done with my to-dos and decided to drive up to Mount Evans, which is the quickest way to get an alpine run nearby. Gotta love 8:30 sunset.

My run was from Echo Lake to... wherever?

Trails were mostly dry, with a short, steep snow field up to Upper Chicago Lake and one other small patch, so I basically just kept going up until I ran out of time, and got up to Summit Lake.

Distance was 12.28 miles, moving time 3:22, elevation change 3,384 feet (between 10,300-12,800 feet), and average HR 124.


Below is the view at about 1/2 mile from Echo Lake, when you first get a view of the high peaks. What looks like a wall of mountains is actually two separate ridges: Mount Evans with a concave ridge line in front of it. My turnaround point was on the cusp of the ridge, just below the snow field right in the middle.


The Chicago Creek valley is a lot of trail like the one below, running in and out of the forest, and up occasional short climbs. Just for the heck of it I was doing the HR monitor thing (I kind of like having the extra task on long runs) and ended up hiking most uphills to keep under 131. This helped to preserve energy for the flats and downhills.


When I got up to Upper Chicago, I decided to follow the trail to see where it went (because I'd never been up this far) and ended up taking it to Summit Lake. This is the trail between the lakes:


Below is Summit Lake with Mount Evans behind it. The road is over the ridge. I smile thinking that this was the site of one of my first 14er hike after moving here, from Summit Lake to the top via Mount Spalding. OK, the ridge line was rugged, but it doesn't hold a candle to running all the way up here.


This is the view looking back down from above Upper Chicago Lake. My car is about 3 miles past the last shadow:


Mountain goats were everywhere up there. There were kids playing, and adults that I hoped wouldn't try to head-butt me as I was running through them. I just gave them time to move as I was running down.


I was racing the sun at the end of the day, as I often do, and I misunderestimated (thanks GW) my water supply so I was going to make do with just a few sips on the last 5 miles. It was only about 65 degrees, so it was not a big deal, but I was still glad to catch a family leaving the reservoir that had some leftover water to spare, since they were on the way home.


This run was only 12 miles and was pretty tough; I can't imagine running 100 through the mountains.

I felt good afterwards, but in spite of the S-caps and water replenishing afterwards, I had leg cramps that night. Still finding the balance I guess.

Cable Housing

I've had some flaky shifting on the mountain bike rear derailleur that I knew about when I bought it, and I've been working through the list of possible things that might fix it. Turns out I sort of side-stepped one item: it just needed new cable housing.

Symptoms: no matter how well it shifted indoors, once I got it outside under load, the chain would occasionally ride back and forth between gears, mainly the 2nd and 3rd-largest sprockets.

Close encounters of the nimbus kind
I had already done some tuning, replaced cables (PTFE-coated), cleaned the housings out with Tri-Flow and rotated them (which I wrongly thought would be sufficient), cleaned the whole drive train, and even picked up a cheap replacement cassette (it was getting worn), all of which helped a bit. However, though it shifted more crisply, it still jumped cogs. Bummer.

At that point I thought maybe the chain links were catching, and it was the next cheap thing to try (or so I thought), so I dropped it off at Green Mountain Sports for a swap. They called me and said the chain looked OK and they'd like to try a tune first (again). One of the owners went medieval on it, taking the cassette off to check the hub, tuning, straightening the hanger, trying this and that, and finally swapped the housing, working through closing time. Bingo, it worked. To top it off, he didn't charge me. Made my day -- week, month -- for sure.

So, after a couple of weeks of chain-skipping after shifts in the lower gears, I rode for a 1/2 hour Monday to test it and didn't have a single skip. Not one. Fixed!

Next up: rear shock service on the Fox RL pull shock. It absorbs bumps OK, but to lock it out I have to shut the rebound off entirely by turning the dial 32 clicks; a bit awkward while riding. Clark at Noleen said the lockout goes first when it needs service.

Video: Chicago Lakes

I ran at Mount Evans Wilderness on Sunday, because hey, I hear all the cool kids are doing it.

This video is of descending towards Chicago Lakes after my halfway point up near Summit Lake.


I love slopes like this that just seem to drop away, but are nicely navigable once a path is cut into them. Nonetheless, it was steep, and there was no running at all on the way up. In the video I'm slowing down for steps and places I could catch a toe, which was a lot of it. You can hear a marmot "alert" call at about 2:10, and I ran past a small group of mountain goats shortly after this.

Saturday Apex Run

I worked an extra day on Saturday and did an impulse run at Apex on the way home from work. It was an odd day of the month so bike traffic is one-way uphill on certain trails, which makes it mellower (no downhillers to look out for).

Distance was 8.23 miles, moving time 1:40, elevation change 1,601 feet.

My job involves a certain amount of waiting while software is compiling, so I'd refresh Twitter to follow Western States. It seemed like the same lead bunch of guys most of the way, but this time Geoff dropped and Kilian didn't make last year's mistake of not drinking enough, and won. Ellie Greenwood was first woman. I'm no authority on racing so I'll leave it at that. Congratulations to everyone who finished!


On my run, I focused on pace and HR as usual. Running by heart rate is actually really nice on uphill runs because it keeps the exertion level reasonable, and seems to preserve energy well. This allowed me to run pretty much every step up, for ~1500 feet up to Lookout Mountain Road. It was a fun run up the canyon, then I cut over onto Enchanted Forest (above), which goes rolling over several ravines on its way up.


This swallow started spreading its wings out on the ground and flopping when I ran near it. Not sure if it was injured or trying to distract me; I've heard of bird parents acting lame to distract predators from its chicks.


Today this trail really was reminding me of other places, primarly the beginning of the Colorado Trail in Durango: same open canyon to start, then shaded soft dirt through the pines, and steady uphill.

Near the top I passed a hiker (who seemed like an athlete taking a day off) on a parallel trail and passed him coming back down. He gave me a quizzical look as I said hey.

Don't bother wondering about me, I'm just some dude who's too impatient to hike.

A target HR of 131 gives me license to open it up a bit on the downhill, potentially faster than I should be running on rugged terrain. But it's fun, and I'm decent at the fast footwork, as long as my toe doesn't catch on a jagged rock. I hold back behind that point where I no longer have time to think about each step, and if a fall would mean serious harm. I don't like injury.

Green Lakewood Run

Ran up Green Mountain (Lakewood) and along some of the trails I've ridden on the bike lately; just a ridge or two south of where I usually run.

Distance was 8.39 miles, moving time 1:36, elevation change 1,298 feet, average HR 121.


No detours today, I ran straight up the sides of hills and just slowed down to keep my heart rate under.

Even though it was a blissful run, I guess I was in a borderline ornery state, because I kept mocking the dog that barks from 200 yards uphill every time I run through the open space. I mean every single time. Maybe I don't understand dog psychology, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't let my dog bark 24/7 at nothing.


Reminds me of a landlord's dog who lived below me at one time, and which I knew from when it was a puppy. I was always friendly towards it. Even so, it barked at me every day of its life, and tried to bite my rear when I entered their yard to empty my trash in the common trash bins. That dog was dumb as dirt, and I hated it. The owners were oblivious to how obnoxious their dog was, and probably contributed to it by a lack of any sort of training.

So the landlords had another child, and 1 week after the newborn came home, the dog was gone. Vindication.

But really, getting back to my run, it was blissful ;)


Will be following Western States occasionally from work on Saturday, via their site and Twitter. Should be interesting.

Thursday North Table

I've been enjoying the runs on the Table Mountains lately; not much traffic, interesting terrain. Thursday I started at the TH on Highway 93, and ran around roughly half of the mountain.

Distance was 7.29 miles, moving time 1:23, elevation change 949 feet, average HR 130.


At the end of trail over near Coors I bushwhacked uphill to the cliffs and found a new weak spot I hadn't ascended yet, but is above the south trailhead.


I think next time I'll head straight up the hill to the climbers' trail just below the cliffs, because it was tough going to actually get up to this break in the rocks through all the willows, cactus, and so on. It would be easier to go straight up to minimize time scraping the legs and getting pointed seeds and thorns in the shoes.

The light was ridiculous on this evening, everything sharp, rays of sunlight beaming out from behind the clouds.



On top there are some pools that were reflecting the sky, and also harboring mosquitoes. Very odd to be up in this otherwise dry, flat mountaintop and have bugs that are usually around rivers. There just aren't that many bugs out on the plains unless you get into an area with horseflies or something.


For the first time I went all the way down on the east side via Mesa Top, not really knowing what was there other than a trail on a map, and enjoyed it quite a bit. It descends almost to the plains, past a wet cove with a small seeping waterfall (who knew there was enough water?) on a long, rocky descent. I passed a runner going in the opposite direction, who I later saw all the way back at the west lot; he must have been running around the entire mountain.

Wednesday Bike

I got to bed late last night checking something at work and slept terribly, so today was easy so I can hit the sack at a reasonable hour.

And I'm working at least one day this weekend, so no grand plans. I think "agile" is Italian for "extra hours".

Ride distance was 6.15 miles, moving time 52:26, elevation change 739 feet.


Horses had evidently been riding up to the park from the fairgrounds, because the singletrack trails were chewed to heck by hooves. It's almost like you took a rototiller to the dirt. So, I got a full body massage riding down those and fought just to stay on the trail.

The wild ones were out for dinner:

A fox waited for me to ride by before crossing the street.

The usual lone coyote was trotting down a trail ahead of me on its way to "work" and darted off into the brush as I approached. I keep seeing the same animal, I need need to give it a name. Not Wile, something more typical like Bob, or Kenny, or Tim. It could be an Alice, I have no idea, and I don't intend to find out.

Tuesday South Table Run

I'm throwing in a picture of my lunch spot in Arvada because it was a nice day and I like the views of the foothills. I got take out, and sat on baseball bleachers at a park.


Lunch was Wendy's, because it seems like actual food and their chili is still great. However, my fast food experiences always kind of amaze me in that I get a 100% complete order about 1/3 of the time. Today I got a Single, chili instead of fries, and light lemonade with no ice. The damage:

• They gave me the fries anyway.
• No straw.
• Ice in the drink.

Not a big deal really, but I had visions of the shift from hell occurring on the other side of that window, with newbies-in-training, but the order was fast and the manager was smiling as always. Grace under fire.

I ran an out-and-back over South Table again, and took a shorter route earlier, so it wouldn't be dark at the end.

Distance was 7.67 miles, moving time 1:21, elevation change 951 feet, average HR 132 (my MAF target is 131). Yeah, whatever. I'm a data junkie.


I snuck up on a cactus and caught it in bloom. The petals always remind me of artichoke hearts. Same idea: hurt your consumer so they'll walk on by the next time.

Laundry Run

Did a token run while the laundry was going, which I almost missed due to rain, but I really needed to take the edge off from work stress. Mission accomplished.

Distance was 4.75 miles, moving time 47:54, elevation change 426 feet.


I tried a couple of grass/weed cut-throughs but it was a mistake and I just ended up with heavy shoes due to mud.

Interesting thoughts from Dakota, who coincidentally (I think) is currently living near the fictional Galt's Gulch. I may have to blog on the Ayn Rand angle a bit, since it's something I know a thing or two about. Although I'm only an ultrarunner in the most technical, token sense, since I think my longest runs have been 27 and change.

So if I put a sticker on my car that says "27.54" I'm guessing people will be scratching their heads.

On a side note, I've not made good use of my weekends at all lately. Far too mundane considering the cool stuff I have available. Time to step it up.

Doing runs while the laundry is drying is still OK ;)

Saturday Green Lakewood Ride

Saturday I rode up and around the home mountain after some cleaning of the drive train on my bike.

I enjoyed my bubble bath
Distance was 10.56 miles, time 1:41, elevation change 1,200 feet.

Tim only owned this bike for about, oh... 30 minutes -- and did some work on it, but I wonder if the previous owner had cleaned it since its purchase date in 2004. I found a cheap new XT cassette, cleaned the chain, and removed the pulleys and cleaned the Paleozoic goo off of them (new XTR M960 pulleys are $60 retail), replaced both cables and wiped all the parts down. The bike shop replaced a missing hanger bolt (although their Allen wrench broke off in it).

It shifts much smoother now, but occasionally it still can't make up its mind. I think the main problem was severely gummy junk on the pulleys. After the cables stretch a bit I'll take it in for a "final" tune.

And maybe a brake pad or two, because I swear I've almost been catching those things on fire coming down Green Mountain. I'm sure the hikers I passed were thankful for that.


I didn't much feel like climbing today, maybe because of my long-ish run yesterday. It wasn't Bear Peak, but it was tiring. So, I didn't have too much energy.

I stopped to look at flowers instead. There are a lot of 'em.


I got a new rear tire because I had been skidding, but it must have too much pressure because I felt like I was riding cobblestones on the Via Appia. Some of these trails are pretty rough.

I'm getting the hang of the bike, and hammer some parts of the trail pretty well now. However, I ride like I ski: more finesse than brute force, and I get up some speed but not enough to wreck myself severely -- although on the bike, that remains to be seen.


The views at the top were great today, with showers over Mount Evans and Evergreen. I feel so lucky to be able to hang out up here on a ride from my front door. Good stuff.

Green Mountain Lakewood Loop

I think since Tuesday I've done a short bike ride, and taken a day off; work has been a bit heavier than usual and I've just been tired. Not huge hours, but some extra, and mentally taxing.


After work Friday I felt like I needed a decent run to make up for it, so I spent a couple of hours out on my feet -- yes a couple-hour run is relaxing ;). I ran from home, over the top of Green Mountain in Lakewood, and ran around the north side of the mountain along C-470, I-70 and back through streets.


Distance was 11.51 miles, moving time 2:06, elevation change 1,604 feet.

My legs felt pounded even though I focused on treading lightly and quietly. It was a slow run, but not easy.


It felt good to get in some solid miles on a run, instead of squeezing in something short. The trails continue to be fantastic, and amazingly I didn't see a single runner or biker on the entire mountain. Crazy.

South Table Slow Run

Just when I thought it couldn't get any slower.

Kidding. I enjoyed the leisurely pace of this run Tuesday after work, which felt relaxing and sustainable. I ran over South Table Mountain in Golden from west to east and back, starting at the Castle Rock trailhead and turning around at Foothills TH on the east.

Run distance was 8.92 miles, moving time 1:41, gain 1,063 feet. Average HR 132; even managed to keep it close to that on the hills.

Your poo annoys our lions
It was a great day out, and I didn't quite have 2 hours to run but I tried anyway. The days are nice and long right now.

Castle Rock on the right, Golden on the left
There were some freaky clouds this evening reminiscent of winter. It must have been windy and cold up high.


As I ran down the rugged trail in this "light", as usual I thought about injury and slowed a bit. However, with experience and a lot of evening runs, you just get used to working with very little in the way of visual cues; a certain fuzzy patch of brown that stays constant for 1/3 of a second is flat, a shape that shifts an inch in that time span is a rock, etc. You start relying on your peripheral vision, which is more sensitive to light.


I wanted 10 miles today, but I thoughtlessly didn't bring my headlamp and ran out of enough daylight to be safe. That includes both descending a cliff band in the dark and the native cats.

Chatfield Bug Run

I'm firing up the weekly "long" runs again.

Although I've tried a few since my foot started being gimpy, I felt like I was going to re-injure it, whereas now I think I've pretty much got it under control.

To be honest, I wonder how much time I actually want to be spending on this. I run so slowly at MAF pace that a hilly marathon would be a significant chunk of my day, so for now we're talking 15-20 miles, and then we'll see.

I bought some stuff at the Performance bike shop in Littleton, so the impulse location for Sunday's long run was Chatfield Reservoir. I ran from the south (Waterton) trailhead and mostly followed the Platte River and surrounding woods and meadows.


The subtitle of this post is "Itchy and Scratchy". Between the overgrown plants including poison ivy, and the gnats and mosquitoes chasing me, this was more like an eastern wetlands run. I had to keep going, because if I stopped for more than a couple of seconds, the mosquitoes started landing.

Then there was that stick across the trail that turned out to be a garter snake.

After about 3 miles of trail, you reach the south end of the reservoir. Yes, on that strip of sand are seagulls, in Colorado. I hate to tell them this isn't an ocean:

I think I can see Europe
This was nicer than the concrete trail near the road:


On the upside, I like the sense of exploration on these trails.

I also feel like I'm crawling like a turtle when I run open roads, whereas I feel like I'm getting somewhere when trees are whizzing by.

At this time of year some parts of the trail also smell like you're running through a perfume shop, with different scents coming and going in a flash.


Afterwards I bought some of that scrub you can use to wash off the poison ivy oils, just in case I touched some by accident. Expensive stuff.

Run distance was 14 miles, moving time 2:26 (plus 5:30 for a water refill at the car and so on). Elevation gain/loss was 156 feet.

My pace at MAF heart rate was about 10:30, a mere turtle crawl.

I wore an HR monitor on this run and held myself more strictly to the 131 HR limit. Not totally successful, but better. But man, that's just awfully damned slow. The heat may have played a part; I was pretty hot and sweaty and ended up drinking a couple of quarts of water later, in spite of drinking a fair amount while running and taking salt caps.

The foot

About the foot, which I strained a couple of months ago, and still gives me some PF-style trouble (it's not always the plantar fascia).

I seem to have hit on a technique that works better than anything else to keep it feeling good and functioning normally (in addition to my usual calf stretches). I've been using sort of an ART-like technique of pressing down on the tendons and muscles under my foot -- with two thumbs -- while flexing the toes up, stretching the bottom of the foot under pressure. I did it after this run when my foot felt tight and achy, and it promptly felt normal. I now do this whenever I feel tightness or ache, and it has kept the discomfort at bay throughout the week. I'm hoping once I work out the tightness and irritation it will be on par with the other foot -- for good.

This seems to stretch more completely than simply rolling the foot, and although a cold pack helps symptoms (and I use it occasionally), it does not treat the underlying problem of tightness.

It also occurred to me that sitting at work with my left foot off the ground (bad posture anyway) may have contributed to the original problem, along with a perennially less-coordinated left leg. If my foot is off the ground with my foot relaxed, it gives the plantar tendons the opportunity to remain in a shorter position for many hours per work day. And I've been doing this on and off for years. That is a lot of hours to develop an imbalance.

San Diego 100 Finishers List

A San Diego 100 finisher's list is up, and it reads more like a survivor's list from a bloody battle. Only 33/159 completed the race, which sounded hot and punishing. Dylan Bowman won overall and Krissy Moehl was first woman. Congratulations to Tim Long for finishing 15th in spite of it all.

Shop-centric Runs And Bikes

Saturday was 2 short runs and 2 short bikes. I had scheduled maintenance to do on the car, and wanted to have a bike shop look at some jumpy cassette action on the bike.

Car dealer runs

First, I drove my car to the dealer and ran back and forth. I passed the county fairgrounds coming and going, I think this is Westernaires riding practice:


Weather was unsettled in the morning. In the direction of the photo -- and the car dealership -- it was sunny and hot. Behind me, ugly dark clouds were hanging over the local hill, so I decided against running over the top of Green Mountain (Lakewood) and ran trails along the edge of the park instead. Weather is incredibly localized due to the hills; we're talking about a distance of under a mile here, and the summit of Green is only 800 feet above the trailhead. But it actually helps with my air-conditioning bill because the area clouds up like clockwork during the hottest part of the day.

Total distance for the two runs was 11.2 miles, moving time 1:47, elevation change 939 feet, average pace 9:37, best pace 6:27 (was that crossing the street?).

Bike shop rides

I ate some lunch then rode the bike over to Green Mountain Sports for a checkup because the rear cassette jumps a bit. They did a really quick adjustment and check for $25 and noticed a missing hanger bolt. Nice guys.

I also had tried a new cable but no dice, so I'll probably throw a new XT cassette on there. Not sure I want to pay an extra $100 for the XTR to save 1 oz. and get titanium sprockets, especially since the current cassette is an M-760 (XT).

I rode back via Green Mountain. The east side trails don't get much traffic and they tend to be overgrown, but that also makes them fun (gotta watch the pedals though). I had to hike it up the cut on the right:


These photos should give some indication of why I said it's like Durango Mountain Park, because some of these slopes are steep.


I was pushing my bike up the slope below, and could barely even walk up it without slipping, let alone ride:


Below is the view looking back across the ridges. In the photo below you can see the loose gravel that plagues these trails:


The moderate trails were fun though, even as the brush closed in on them; my pedals and legs were getting scraped the whole time, and my legs itched afterwards! But, awesome fun.


Bike distance 8 miles, moving time 1:12, elevation change 627 feet.