They say April showers bring May
flowers, but it seems like in Colorado April blizzards bring May snowstorms (I
know that didn’t rhyme). Although the
ski season has been great on the tail end, almost all the mountains are closed
and we are still getting snow! While
this snow will be good to ward off fires in the summertime, it is playing
around with my running schedule a bit when I want to be running in the
mountains. Regardless, there have been a
few nice days that I was able to get some good runs in and get the gears in my
legs greased back up.
The first big run was in Ft.
Collins, Colorado, put on by local ultrarunning phenom Nick Clark. As a very active member of the running
community in Ft. Collins, he helps organize a race each year in May called Quad
Rock 50, which is more or less a torturous 50 mile race with lots of steep
climbs and fast descents with very little flat running. A few weeks ago, he organized a “fun run” of half
the course, so I went up there with a few of my training partners to check it
out. As expected, the course was pretty
rough and some of the climbs seemed like they were never going to end. After 5 hours of nonstop trekking through the
forest I began saying to myself “Damn, I’ve been out here for a while”. However I had great views of the Horsetooth
Reservoir for the whole run and some Toby Keith in my ears to keep me moving
forward. By the end of the run, I was
pretty cooked, but it was exactly what I was looking for. However, I will not be running the Quad Rock
50 in May because I have something big planned right around then, but I can’t
tell you what it is yet :). For a treat
afterwards, I treated myself to a burger and beer from Road 34 bike shop and
tavern. Just like the name implies, this
is a bike shop in Ft. Collins with great downhill, cross-country, and BMX parts
that is directly attached to a tavern with a restaurant, pool tables, and
big-screen TV’s. It’s a one of a kind
place that I would liken to the ultimate bachelor pad. I have attached a few pictures from the run,
but for space-saving purposes, here is a link to the Facebook page for more.
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| Horsetooth Resevoir |
Distance: 26 miles
Time: 6:18
Elevation Gain: 6,300 ft
Besides for this big run, I have
been able to make my way up Bear Mountain (11 mi, 3,500 ft gain) and Green
Mountain (5.4 mi, 2,400 ft gain) a bunch of times as well. Green Mountain is Bear’s little brother
separated by Bear Canyon between the two.
Even though they are just starting to thaw out, I made it up the mountains
thanks to my microspikes, which are like chains for truck tires wrapped around
my running shoes. Here is the Facebook
link to more pictures.
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| Some hikers built this guy about 2 miles up Green. |
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| Chain law in effect |
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| Almost at the top of Bear |
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| Coming down feels like a penguin sliding on it's belly |
Since it looks like we are supposed to get 3-6 “ of snow tonight, I went on a long run yesterday to get some miles in before the trails were covered again. This time I chose Picture Rock Trailhead in Lyons, about 20 min outside of Boulder. The first reason was because it was mostly dry, but more importantly, it closely resembles the race I will running this weekend. On Saturday, I’ll be running the Greenland 50 K in Larkspur, CO. For those of you who have run a 5 K before, it’s just like running ten of those, back to back for 31 miles. The trail is fairly mellow by trail running standards and consists of 4 loops, each with about a 400 ft climb over 5 miles, followed by a steep descent back to the start. The overall elevation gain is about 1,600 ft, which is very close to the elevation gain of Picture Rock. The run yesterday felt good on my legs and lungs, so I haven’t lost too much to the snow over the last couple of weeks. The rest of this week will be fairly mellow so I will have fresh legs to run on Saturday. Time to go out for a quick 5 miles before the snow comes in.
Distance: 15 miles
Time: 2:35
Elevation Gain: 1,400 ft  |
| Elevation profile of run at Picture Rock |
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| Elevation profile for Greenland 50 K this weekend |
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| Such a fun trail (opposite direction is background pic for the blog) |
