Acclimate

01 Sunday Jun 2014

Tags

2014 Bolder Boulder, Brainard Lake, LoBo Trail, Millsite Inn, Salomon

Not the best week to jump from 3 to 8 mile runs. At first I thought maybe I fell drastically out of shape. I was running so slow it was hard to keep my balance. I ran faster though under cooler clouds Thursday. That confirmed for me that I am acclimating to the heat. And that I need to increase my focus on hydration.

I ran 12 miles Saturday on the LoBo Trail. The weather was in the 70°s. I can handle that. I wore my camelbak to remain well hydrated. Felt strong. Safe to say I’m recovered and I’m back. My expectations were to not be running for three months after my surgery. It’s only been two months and I’m back to running my old workouts. Maybe I should be bummed over having had cancer. Instead I feel fortunate. And 28 grams lighter.

Acclimating to the heat is one thing. To prep for my 80 mile backpacking trip along the Continental Divide at the end of June, I need to acclimate to the altitude. One mile high isn’t good enough. I need to get closer to two miles high. So that’s what I did this morning with Ellie. We drove up to Brainard Lake and hiked on the snowshoe trail. We could have used snowshoes in fact, the snow was several feet high in spots. It was good we both wore hiking boots and that we brought trekking poles. I didn’t expect this much snow at 10,000 feet, but apparently Brainard Lake is on the northeast side of the mountain. The road up to the lake itself is still closed.

We lunched at the Millsite Inn. The waitress said they just got a four foot dump of snow over Mother’s Day, and that it even snowed a bit early this morning. The Inn was out of many of their menu items – as usual. They said they were low on supplies due to the winter. Never mind they are open throughout the winter. Still, we had some good cheese burgers and listened to live music.

I was happy to test out my new hiking boots today. I post-holed several times into hidden streams flowing under the snow packed trail. The water-proof feature works. I’m not used to wearing boots and they feel a bit odd. Still, these Salomon Quest 4D GTX hiking boots are extremely light. I just need to get comfortable with the large footprint. Ellie and I plan to hike together the next couple of weekends. I need to find some trails at higher elevation that aren’t buried in snow. I’m currently reading through a trail book for Rocky Mountain National Park. Any suggestions, let me know.

Walking Boulder

26 Monday May 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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Tags

2014 Bolder Boulder, knee pain, Kristy Humes, Massage Envy, RMT, sartorius, Sebesta

When does Memorial Weekend start? For Ellie, school ended for summer break Thursday. For Karen and me, it started Friday evening with a couple’s massage. We’re currently on an alcohol abstention binge, so it seemed smart to substitute one form of relaxation for another. Happy Hour for Massage Envy. It worked out nicely. Kristy Humes, my registered massage therapist, gave me some tips on the knee pain I’ve had since last fall. Kristy suggested it is my sartorius which is a two-jointed muscle extending from the outside hip down and across the thigh to the inside knee. This video shows me how to stretch it.

I ran my longest distance of the last 2 months Saturday – five miles on Eagle Trail. I included the 200 feet in elevation climb up to Mesa Trail. I averaged just under a ten minute pace. That’s a good measure ( 2 minutes per mile) of the conditioning I’ve lost since my surgery. Adding injury to insult – I chaffed my inner thighs. Darn it. Still, I enjoyed extending my distance. The trail was muddy from all the rain but it didn’t bother me. I got in another good run Sunday. Eight miles. Huge! I intended to turn around after three but pulled a Forrest Gump and kept running.

Ellie and I woke up early today to walk the Bolder Boulder. We met up with Amy and the Sebesta girls for the bus ride down to the start. We jumped in the final wave and joined the party. The girls wanted to run at times and we ended up finishing quite a bit faster than I expected, in 1:50. That’s a 17:27 pace which is a few minutes faster than an average walking pace. Not bad considering the tens of thousands of walkers/runners we had to wade through. A pattern emerged wherein the girls would run on the downhills.

We met up with Wendy and Chase somewhere in the middle. They were dressed festive. This year’s Bolder Boulder reminded me of the last time I walked it about ten years ago with Brittany when she was Ellie’s age. I don’t know how many runners entered this year but the crowd in Folsom Stadium at the end was as large as for any CU Buffs football game. We watched the elite men and women races finish. I don’t think it was a fast day due to the heat, but those elites looked impressive. Makes me want to get into racing shape.