End of May/June recap

I've been without a computer for the past few weeks, which is reflected in my lack of blog posts but I have been out hitting the trails as they finally dry out. Above 9000' is just about to open up, although a storm this weekend could drop a little snow, just to keep things damp.

I finished the month of May in fine fashion starting with a 4.5 mile night headlamp run the day after the 7 hour blast with Katie. Still feeling strong, I followed the next day with 11.46 miles. May 31st, I finally claimed Spring Creek Trail end to end. Made that run 13.17 miles in 2:10 to close out a nice 15 day streak of running.

I took June 1st off and came back the next day to run 6.33 miles of trails on Howelsen Hill, chasing mountain bikers for 1:22, then went home and ran a couple miles in the Vibram Five Fingers. June 3rd, I commuted to and from work by running and totaled 13.03 miles for the day, 1:49 of running and zero gasoline burned. Nice.

I relaxed again on the 4th and got up early on the 5th to drive down to Boulder. I ran the excellent Hall Ranch Loop, just outside of Lyons about 10 minutes north of Boulder. A great trail run with a couple of beautiful meadows and an amazing view of Longs Peak. Trails were single track and half of the run was on pedestrian only trails and I shared the trail with a few mountain bikes on the return. Super fun and fast 10.0 miles in 84:00. On Sunday, the Steamboat Marathon was going on but the weather was so nice in the morning, I had to go do my own mission and missed cheering on my friends who ran the half. Instead, I cut up Spring Creek again and then added 6 more miles up on Buff Pass. Ended up with a nice 16.7 miler in 2:38 and really felt strong the entire run. Free ran a couple miles on Monday with Benihana and went to Red Dirt Trail to run a 4 mile hill climb on Tuesday afternoon. Calves were already a little tender beforehand and I was going to run easy but the run soon became a challenge as the climbing would not end. Finally cresting the ridge in just over and hour, I booked it back downhill and finished 8.04 miles in 1:32. Whew. Last night, strange as it may sound (for me), I wanted to do a road run. I did the familiar out and back on Hwy 40 towards Rabbit Ears Pass and turned around at The Timbers. Beautiful, cool evening and I made it back home just before dark to make my run 13 miles in 1:55. Today, I just free ran a couple miles with Benny again in the VFFs.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to run Creekside Trail with Katy and then we are going down to Silverthorne on Sunday to attempt a double loop of Eccles Pass. Should be interesting as a cold front moves in on Friday and heavy rain is forecast for Saturday. High water from the spring melt already has me wondering how doable the creek crossings are going to be, the rain may complicate things. Either way, we're going to make a go of it. Even if we don't claim the route, there are enough trails in the area that we shouldn't have trouble getting 30 miles.