Weekly Update: 10/3-10/9

10/4 Tuesday - 3.5 mi (31 mins) Twin Lakes easy run - a quick little recovery run after Blue Sky on Sunday. All of my physical properties seem to be dandy.

10/6 Thursday - 6 mi (1:09, 1,200') Mesa, down Towhee - Nice to be back on the Mesa. Took it easy up over to North Shan junction. I have really been enjoying coming back down Towhee - a nice diversion from the gravelly annoyance back to South Mesa Trailhead. I brought the camera finally too!

10/8 Saturday - 5.2 mi (1:22, 2,400') Green Mtn via Gregory/Ranger - The first snow in Boulder! Absolutely beautiful with Fall colors in full swing. It's totally unfortunately I didn't have the sense to bring my camera on this run to capture the reds, yellows, greens, and white fluffy stuff above 7,000ft. The snow was a friendly reminder to stop by REI on the way home to pick up some microspikes.

10/9 Sunday - 5.2 mi (1:20, 2,400') Green Mtn via Gregory/Ranger - A bit indulgent, but I couldn't help running Green again, especially following the amazing run from Sat. Most of the snow had melted, but there was still some remnants near the summit. Cannot wait for more.

Coming off of my first marathon, this week was almost entirely devoted to recovery for a safe ramp up for training before Moab. I say "almost entirely" because another key motive was to take advantage of the required low miles and get more acquainted with Gregory Canyon and Ranger as I anticipate migrating more of my training miles onto these trails and less on Mesa over the course of the next few months. Oh, and I finally brought a friggin' camera on Thursday to grab some shots on Mesa.

My body seemed to bounce back fairly quickly from Blue Sky - as if it were another long run. I must not have raced hard enough (insert winky smiley face here). This low-mileage week helped me to press my mental reset button and start all over before some serious miles for the next two weeks in preparation for Moab.

Weekly Totals:
Miles: 20
Climbing Feet: 6,000'
Time: 4:22

Here are some pics from Thursday morning's run up Mesa (bear with me, I was a bit overzealous, so I uploaded a lot of them)....

(and good morning to you Flatirons, may I run on your Mesa?)

(I have yet to see the bulbous furry one)





(Some great colors on Upper Big Blue Stem)



(Mr. Sylvester Doudy's old place, circa 1850's)

(My other bathtub, South Boulder Creek)