A Basically Fun Day

Saturday I ran the Basic, which I saw happen last year but didn't really catch in time to actually run. It was good to participate in this long-standing Boulder tradition, catch up with some folks and meet a few others including Scott Barnes and Jay Rawlings.

Update: - Rob has a video and Jeff has a post on the run also.

Bottom line: great day.

Another bottom line: a lot of talent, at every level. Tony arrived after I took these, but otherwise I'll let readers play "Find Waldos" (and Waldas) in these photos (JV's back is to the camera in the first picture).




There are also couple of folks who are hard to spot or not in the picture, such as Helen, Dakota, JP, Shad and Wyatt (I only realized as he was leaving). I think we passed Darcy on the mountain, but not sure if she was there. All right, enough hyperlinking.

The route went up Flagstaff, then across the road and up Ranger.


There I made the mistake I told myself I wouldn't make by blindly following a crowd (instead of getting the map out at each junction), and a whole train of people took Ranger instead of Greenman, the correct route for the day. D'oh! I made up for it by making extra sure to do the designated Fern loop off of Mesa, which was easy to run past.


Even considering the fact that my route to the top of Green was 0.4 miles shorter, I was keeping up pretty well up to that point, and ran down Green Bear in reasonable proximity to Shad, Krissy and another guy.

Then I took a rest stop, and filtered some water (<5 minutes) from Bear Creek, and I was alone. Probably 20 people had passed during those stops including brownie, but I couldn't have made it in good shape without that extra water.


The ascent up the West Ridge of Bear is where the wind started to pick up, so I put on the ultra-light wind jacket and put the hood on. I was feeling hungry, so I chewed some jerky, lunch of champions.


Yeah, Bear was pretty cold, and in shorts and a couple of light/medium tops I was kind of on the edge of my comfort zone, but it worked.


I caught up to (spike-less) JT on Bear and we chatted a bit on the summits. It was really slippery and slow going without spikes, I don't know how he managed. I will again give a shout out to Kahtoola for their Microspikes, because every time I wear them on snowy runs I think how great they are.

Of course you still have to be careful; one guy Kendrick caught a spike coming down Shadow and really slammed his knee on a rock. Ouch. He was walking normally but said it really hurt. I hope the damage isn't too bad.


I walked down with JT to JP who was waiting up for him, and I bombed down ahead knowing they'd catch me farther down. The trip down the steep, rugged Shadow required the usual full concentration to avoid severe bodily harm.

As predicted, shortly after Fern I joined up with JP and brownie again, and we ran it in together. In all my time here, I'd never been on that little connector from North Shanahan to Fern.

The stats

Total mileage was 15.63, total time 4:49, and elevation gain/loss 5,392 feet.

With four peaks, that's a tough 15 miles. I'm glad it wasn't a full marathon, this was enough.

A lot of this route was fast-hiking, I passed people on the slippery downhills, and I ran the rest pretty steadily, so I'm not sure how I ended up towards the back. Ah well. Others weren't pleased but I was pretty happy. There's definitely something to be said for having someone both ahead and behind you on a trail. You try to keep up.

Peoples' mileage was all over the map, so to speak. I saw Wyatt on his way out and he logged 18-something! I don't know how much of it was due to device differences and how much was the route they took. Even the same model GPS can show 10-20% differences.


Gear and stuff

Clothing was Cascadias, spikes, shorts, a tech short sleeve, a TNF Impulse, gloves, baseball-style cap and the super-light Marmot Ion for the wind. On the summits it was barely enough. On Bear I felt my warmth slipping away and my fingers were going numb but I brought a pack of hand warmers and that fixed it, along with getting out of the wind on the descent.

Except for short runs at home, I don't have a lot of cold-weather trail experience, so I was a bit anxious about getting an hour out in the park and then freezing, but that didn't happen. I'm getting so I can dial in "winter" clothing better than before.

Drank 3 1/2 bottles, had 3-ish S-caps and ate some jerky. A bit thin for almost 5 hours, but because of the cool temps it worked.

Food and shelter

JP, JT and I got back just as Krissy, Scott and Geoff ran up the street with a goodbye wave, and I changed into dry clothes and we grabbed some chow and recovery beverages. Thanks to Jack for hosting (2 blocks from the hills, what a location!) and everyone who brought food and drink. Jay brought a crude-oil-dark stout from The Sun which was awesome. Looking forward to Stout Month (February).

I'm not a great mingler, but it was good to chat with a few folks, and Nick Pedatella convinced me I need to try the Brooks Trailblade, which is a softer, lighter version of the Cascadia, which I don't like as much this year (except for snow traction, which is better). He also confirmed my impression that they're not great on wet rock.

Speaking of not mingling, someone offered that mountain ultras (not that this was an ultra, or that I run ultras) are for people who like to be alone. lol. For me there's a bit of truth in that. Although this year I decided to make an effort at getting together for group outings, and I had moderate success at doing so. Ten group runs in a year is a veritable whirlwind of social running for me.

At the same time, being a blogger or following blogs allows you to get to know people beforehand. And I have to say the Front Range running/blogging community is a great bunch.

Chilling out

I wasn't done punishing my feet, so I walked off the brews with a loop of McClintock Trail, enjoying the now-sunny fall day.


Then I did a lap of the pedestrian Mall and saw an interesting Asian art gallery where Tesla used to be. There's a really cool photo of women washing up and braiding their hair by Rui Yuan. Here is his web site with more images; I think his work is absolutely amazing. This subject may not seem fascinating, but the way it was shot and the expressions are really interesting. It gets you thinking about how people live and cope impressively in parts of the world where life is considerably harder than it is here. The gallery is worth a visit if you're down there.

Activity Summary - October 2011

I won't be running over the next few days, so it's time for an October summary.

I may have only run 25% of the time lately, but between a run at Golden Gate, the Maroon Bells, GZ's 100-mile race, the Basic and a fun run with T, it was a great month. That's some damned good quality right there :)

Running

• Count: 8
• Distance: 92 miles
• Time: 31:54
• Elevation Gain: 19,697 feet

Riding

• Count: 4
• Distance: 48 miles
• Time: 7:46
• Elevation Gain: 3,173 feet

Once again, the vertical is silly because of the type of thing I've been running on weekends. So, I almost ran up Mount McKinley from sea level in 8 runs (actually 6, because two runs were flat). Good grief.

Last week I had my first run in two months where I didn't have knee pain after two days. That's a good sign, and if it continues, I may dabble in an extra run during the week to see how it goes. But the fact is, my body could not handle 4-6 workouts per week, and I'm still healing from its effects. In the end I'm more concerned with the longevity of my active life rather than its intensity. We'll see.

Friday Jog

Before I post about the Basic, I'm clearing this from the queue. I was busy last night fussing over gear.

Friday lunch in the park. With the geese. And the cold wind.

Fall picnics can be cold
I like that photo because of the leaves, which are cottonwood. Cottonwoods are very prevalent here, and I think if there were no people (to import non-native species), they would make up the vast majority of trees on the plains.

I went for my first cold-weather evening jog Friday, just a couple of miles -- "yay". Remember photos like this from last winter?


I was going to trash it, but somehow these night photos capture the cool look of the sky lit from below, and the peaceful quiet. It's really pretty at night, granting that it's a civilized, suburban night, not wild mountain night.

I also wanted to try some clothing out for the Basic on Saturday, where the temperature range was going to be between 30 (summits/wind chill) and 60 (mid-day flats), with 20 mph winds. Hard to dress for.

(Saturday update: I went light, and I chose correctly)

Snowy But Bright

When I ate lunch outside today, it was bright but chilly. I don't think it was much over 40, but I just have to get outside and I'll keep doing this until my fingers get numb, i.e. roughly December-February.


I made a quick recovery from last Sunday's 20-mile/3,500-foot trail run/hike. In spite of serious depletion on Sunday, I didn't have the expected soreness in the knees on day 2 (or any time after); why, I don't really know. Hopefully it's some combination of time and maintenance.

I still continue to run once per week, although I was tempted to go for a jog mid-week.

The feeling of invincibility I used to have, of being able to exercise as much as I want and simply wait out the inevitable full recovery, is still not back. Some would call it age, but I don't believe in that. One look around at the number of old fossils doing amazing things is enough to convince me otherwise. "Age" is really some combination of personal choice mitigated by cumulative wear and tear. Hopefully with some more rest, I'm still well on the "personal choice" side of the equation.

Snowy

We're getting real snow today, as opposed to a little dusting. Roads were not bad or very busy, I think some people stayed home this morning. Kind of slushy for running though, it's right around freezing.

Crown Hill Park Walk

Sitting at my desk all day was not the best thing after my run yesterday, and I hobbled down the stairs on stiff legs when leaving the office (good thing it wasn't an ultra). Time for a little exercise, so I stopped by Crown Hill on the way home for a walk.


It's pretty nice, and it's big, 242 acres or about 2 miles for a lap around the outside. There are two lakes/ponds, a small wildlife sanctuary section, and some cottonwood groves here and there to divide it up and keep it interesting. According to the sign it's based on an 1860 homestead and the lakes are natural.


There was a goose happy hour out on the lake raising causing quite a ruckus. Lots of water birds landing for the evening.


Some of the runners were more "serious" (speed-oriented?) than what I see out on the trails, moving a long at a good clip, doing strides, etc. Pretty good crowd but still plenty of room.

Gudy Gaskill/Beaver Brook Run

On Sunday I met WildChildT for a 2-hour run on the Beaver Brook Trail, and after she took off, I continued solo for a while. We hadn't run for a while, so it was a nice change of pace.

I also had not run over 20 miles since July (Crater Lake), and before that in April, so I wanted to see what I could manage. I've had arch pain and PF this year, and in August I also decided my knees were not recovering sufficiently between runs and were getting a bit noisy, so I dialed things way back, starting with not running for 3 weeks. I'm currently running once per week and recover to the point of feeling no aches or discomfort.

The initial loop with T was 8.01 miles in 1:58, gain 1,525 feet. Total run was 20.31 miles, moving time 4:22 (total 6:20), and elevation gain 3,578 feet (hilly!).


The little white speck in the photo above is T, which is about how I spent the run: trailing behind. On one-day-per-week conditioning, it was all I could do to catch up on the uphills. Flats and downs, not so much.

The views were great on this run, here's one looking back down the Clear Creek valley towards the plains:


The Indian Peaks from Bald Mountain:


I timed the run by water. When I was out, I made my way back to the car to fill up. I ended up drinking about a gallon.

On the second of 3 loops, I ran the section of Beaver Brook with canyon views, which were crazy. The overlooks are about 1,000 feet above the highway down to Clear Creek.



A view to the west from a different spot:


Lap 2 included the Gudy Gaskill trail. There are signs pointing to "Clear Creek Overlook", which I guess is a feature, not a trail name. Although any section on the north has views, there is one particular perch on a rock in densely-wooded section along ledges that I guess is the overlook.


This trail has a lot of terrain variety, including woods, cliffs and large sections of meadow and ravine, before rejoining Beaver Brook.


I think this is from my third loop, which was farther west on Beaver Brook. The western part is steep, rocky, less-used and more densely wooded. It really felt "out there". It's about 1,200 feet down to the low point if you're going all the way to the west trailhead (I didn't, I descended about 500 feet before returning), so there was really no running up on this section! Plus I was tired by then.


The intent of my run was hardly a fast time, I wanted to take it easy, stay out there a while, walk and hike if necessary, and go the distance. Mission accomplished.

My legs were fairly spent by the end and felt the effort, but I didn't really feel any particular pains other than the usual feelings of abuse. The day after (Monday) I feel a few aches and pains, but not bad. The PF was achy while running but not bad today. Muscles are tired by not very sore.

On a side note, I plan to avoid this particular access point in the future. Based on things I'd read, I thought it was now more open to the public, but the signs still indicate that you must be a Mount Vernon member to pass through their land to get to the public open space (including stating "No Trespassing") and I did not find any other legal access point. Bear in mind that this trailhead has been used for years by local trail users including running groups. One could rationalize that "everyone is doing it" or that "they don't really care" but if that were the case, there probably wouldn't be signs. I mulled it over and researched it online, even checking property maps for an alternative (other than making a dash through the buffalo enclosure), and decided that going forward I don't want to use it until Mount Vernon's official position is that it's OK or some other mitigating information surfaces. I can't very well expect people to respect my property then not respect others'. It is what it is, and I can live with it. I do wish there were a public trail easement and hopefully things will change in the future. Meanwhile, there are trailheads at either end of Beaver Brook.

Green Mtn Lakewood Ride

I had considered taking a few ski turns at A-Basin on Saturday, and then maybe doing a hike nearby, but decided a pre-dawn start and "go, go, go!" was not really the pace I wanted for the first day of the weekend.

This was another exploratory ride on streets and singletrack. Even after 5 years here, I'm still discovering streets and stuff in my neighborhood. And I'm still awestruck by some of the views along the mountains.


Suburbia on the slopes of Green Mountain, looking northwest:


I circled Green Mountain today, taking trails I used to run when I ran more multi-use instead of hiker-only stuff. I rode this when I first got this bike, and felt much more comfortable this time, hammering hard when nobody was around and there were no blind turns. If I do say so, I was rocking it a bit. River stones and all.

I walked the steeper uphills to save the legs since I wasn't sure what I was doing Sunday.


The pastel fall colors are kind of hard to capture, but it was really pretty on the shadow side of the mountain, zig-zagging through the ravines and all the prairie/desert vegetation changing color.


Lots of silvery green and blues mixed in with yellows.


Ride distance was 15.92 miles, moving time 2:04 (total 2:45), gain/loss 2,084 feet. Average speed 7.7 mph, max 25.1 mph.

A really satisfying ride.

Vuelta a España 2011 - Stage 17

The finish of this Vuelta stage is just amazing. The fun really starts around 1:40. I love the announcing; they are just so into it.


Brings back memories of riding up to watch the Pro Cycling Challenge stage 2 this summer, and my brother's awesome photos. Man that was a great day!

OWS: Camping With Marx

Opinions are a dime a dozen.

I have not done many political posts lately because I've trouble finding a voice that is more substance than opinion. I tend to take the easy route, which is to simply give my reaction. But ultimately, I have less interest in simply preaching to those who agree, rather than in trying to offer a perspective on something to someone who hadn't considered it.

There has been a lot of news lately about Occupy Wall Street protesters camping out in city parks across the country to make their case about why Wall Street is the source of our economic ills. I'd like to talk about some of the protester's demands and talking points, and offer an alternative voice on (some of) them:

1. The rich, specifically those on Wall Street, have too much influence on politics and the influence of money needs to be stopped.
2. Too few people have too much of the country's income ("We are the 99%").
3. The Fed should be abolished.

I've seen the last point mentioned a couple of times on signs and/or video, and since this is a free-market advocate's dream, it always seems like it a Libertarian spy to me, but I'm including it. Unlike the left's dishonest and nearly libelous smears regarding the Tea Party, I'm going to be fair and say that any protest movement has a variety of characters of varying ideas. This list of demands/points is an indication of that, and I'll address them one by one.

The influence of money

I agree with #1 -- that the left that the rich have an undue effect on government -- but don't always agree on how.

In a truly capitalist society properly understood, neither the rich nor the poor nor middle class would have control of the government. Individual rights mean everyone's rights would be equally protected, regardless of income, race or other criteria. This entails both a negative and a positive: that government should be limited from providing unfair advantage, it must refrain from stopping peaceful activities, and additionally must protect everyone equally.

However, many people no longer have any concept of individual rights, so this often translates into robbing the rich of their political voice (campaign finance reform and "transparency"), then taking their money. Now that is morally corrupt.

My point is not that bribery does not happen. My point is that the problem is not money; it is the substance of the laws that are being created. If government did not have control over commerce like it does, there would be no need or way to influence government.

One major way in which government unfairly supports big business is with "too big to fail" and "system risk". Failure is how capitalism cleans out people who don't know how to run businesses. What do we do instead? We bail companies out, so that failed business live on and continue to provide poor service and products and so non-performing executives are rewarded instead of punished. Businesses should be allowed to go into bankruptcy like they are supposed to, no matter now big they are. In the current case, I have no doubt this has greatly extended the recession. There is no way it could have done otherwise.

Income distribution

Point #2 is often considered a corollary of #1, but it isn't. Neither the possession of money nor its percentage distribution in itself constitutes and injustice; what matters is how it was obtained.

It may be possible that this number is too small; that in a free society, 1/10% of the population owns 99% of the wealth. As long as it is obtained by people paying someone for a product or service, then this distribution is just. What makes it unjust is if government supports a business by making it a monopoly, or keeps it from going out of business, or the like.

The notion that concentrated wealth is immoral is re-heated Marx, pure and simple. Such ideas are morally and economically wrong and have had utterly disastrous historical consequences, resulting in tens of millions of deaths and the enslavement of entire countries for the better part of the 20th century. It's pretty shocking to me that anyone would advocate such blatant collectivism without realizing what the end of that path is.

Instead of focusing on the how much, we should focus on the how.

Abolish the Fed

Yes, please.

As pointed out in the videos below, this item suggests the absurdity of claiming that unregulated markets cause our economic trouble. WE HAVE A GOVERNMENT-RUN BANKING SYSTEM. The Fed was created ostensibly to mitigate fluctuations in markets, but has become a tool of political policy and actually accentuates fluctuations, making them more devastating. This happened in the 1920s and it happened again in 2008.

The irony is that if banks were forced to rely on actual reserves and markets, the housing bubble never would have occurred because they would not have loaned to high-risk customers. But some people won't accept the verdicts of markets, and government policy pressure is exerted towards home ownership regardless, which means lowering of standards. That's not markets, that's government-created institutions implementing government policy.

Bottom line

The Occupy Wall Street movement is right on saying business has too much influence, but often wrong on how and what to do about it.

How the recession really happened

The other day I found the videos below of John Allison, former CEO of BB&T, speaking at Harvard Law. BB&T was one of the few banks that weathered the recession well because of staying away from government policy influences, and has a unique business philosophy derived from -- gasp -- Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. As a 40-year veteran of the industry, Allison gives an explanation of the causes of our predicament, and then goes on to give a remarkable series of philosophical recommendations in part 2/3. Part 3 is the Q&A.

Yeah it's long -- the main talk is an hour -- but if you are at all interested in the roots of economic problems, I think you'll find it worthwhile.

One of the more interesting things about it is that despite distortions in the media (both liberal and conservative) concerning Ayn Rand's ideas, her philosophy does not mean taking advantage of others, but rather -- as Allison puts it -- "creating win-win relationships". His talk is refreshingly value-driven, and bears a remarkable resemblance to some of the job-related talk in Steve Jobs' great commencement speech. Good stuff.

West Lake/Nightbird Gulch

West Lake is right off I-70 on the Clear Creek path, and on Wednesday I stopped there to stretch the legs after lunch.


This area is to the right out of the parking lot. Just past these trees next to a second lake there is a series of boardwalks over marsh to show us suburban folk what marshes look like.


I returned to Golden trails Wednesday evening with a tripod for the camera, this time up Nightbird Gulch Trail in Mount Galbraith park. The prior night I was on the other side of the valley.

This trail is just east of where the fire was this spring, and fortunately for the trail and houses, the fire was stopped at the top of the mountain.


The shot below was with a tripod. It was almost dark by the time I got to the bottom, so I couldn't have gotten a clear shot without a motionless camera.


For some reason the background of this shot, and my zoom shots (not posted) are slightly blurry, with focus supposedly at "infinity". I'm not sure if that's atmosphere, focusing, user error or camera malfunction. I need to shoot a couple at the same zoom level with another camera and compare.

PS - This was all walking. The rest between weekend runs is really feeling good.

Faversham/South Table

Two walks. Lunch at Faversham Park, with downtown Denver barely visible on the horizon:


On the way home I threw on the Five Fingers and walked up to the top of South Table. Downtown Golden:


Up on top was this red grass:



The trails up there are littered with marble-sized rocks, which don't feel great if you step on them in the Five Fingers.



I need to bring a tripod up some time, because I really couldn't do justice to the last scene just holding the camera. Out of focus and I need to shoot RAW next time instead of JPEG, so I can adjust the lights/darks.

I've used up 72% of my free gigabyte of Picasa space. Go figure.

Boulder 100 Pacing

I've never really had a hankering to run 100 miles.

Or to run all night by headlamp, even though I run in the dark sometimes. But if you know GZ or have interacted with him much online, you can probably understand why a bunch of people would gladly show up during his first 100 attempt to do just that.

So after my ride on Saturday, at about 6:15 PM I headed over to the Reservoir to check out how the race was going. I didn't recognize anyone at the start/finish area (not having met the family), so I rode along the course to see if I could find either Shad or GZ. Shad was running the 12-hour.

I ended up on-course until 12:40 AM. Ha!


Shad had finished a bit after 3 PM, so I missed him, but I caught up to George and Jeff Valliere (on bike) towards the back of the course:


George was doing great, not what I'd call... comfortable... but steady considering this was mile 55, already roughly a 10-mile PR.


He was probably not in a position to care, but it was a beautiful evening, with neon pink sunset clouds all around. Amazing.


After JV left, Wyatt and Lucho paced on foot while I rode along on my bike, Homie stopped by on course, then around 9 PM I changed to running shoes and started pacing on foot. I ran a bit shy of 2 laps or 13 miles. I called it a day at 12:40 AM with 3 laps to go, and JT, Brandon and Bob took him in for the finish.

Three generations of family rocked it too, hanging out the chilly air to cheer him on, TZ and JZ like the pit crew changing the tires and filling the tank.

Yeah, this course doesn't have Hope Pass, but the city lights behind the Reservoir, the night sky (nearly full moon), and the headlamps bobbing along in the dark were all pretty cool. It was a good time.


This is a good picture for last, because no matter how many people are around, it's still the racer that does the work and brings it in. Way to go, man.

Boulder Valley Ranch Ride

I headed up to Boulder on Saturday with the bike to find some nice singletrack, and to see how this guy and this guy were doing at their races. Never saw Shad, but caught up with GZ on his first 100.

I knew from running that Boulder Valley Ranch had some great trails that would offer something for a somewhat new mountain biker like me. It's a combination of gravel roads and fairly rock-free singletrack. Great riding.

Being on the plains right next to the mountains, it's prairie terrain, with big open spaces. On the left below you can just barely see Haystack Mountain, which looks like a tiny volcano. I guess some relatives of mine once owned part or all of it (sketchy on the details), but now it's better known for the goat cheese that bears its name.




The riding was fun. Nobody around, rolling, few bumps, and I could really haul on it. Only problem is the numerous ranch gates I had to stop for.

I was still hearing some sort of significant rattling sound from my bike on bumps, darn it. I thought I had that fixed. Need to switch rear shocks and see if it's still there (I have a backup), and go from there.

After the sun got low and mountain shadows started creeping across the plains, I headed over to Boulder Reservoir to see how things were going at the Boulder 100/24 hour/12 hour. I ended up accompanying GZ on bike (with a combination of other people on bike and foot) and then running. More on that later.

Total distance was 24.36 miles, moving time 3:15, gain/loss 685 feet.