The Skyline Traverse above Boulder, CO is about as iconic of a trial running route as they come. The route collects the five major peaks which sit above The People’s Republic: South Boulder Peak, Bear Peak, Green Mountain, Flagstaff Mountain, and Mt. Sanitas. These five mountains cover the entire breadth of the city and the route takes an obvious and natural course to link up the full set. When you combine the city-wide presence of these 5 peaks plus the A++ trail system in the county’s open space, it is an all-too natural link up for a complete tour-de-Boulder. Read more…
I convinced a couple folks to sign up for the Copper Triangle this summer. 80 miles and 6,500 feet. Seems attainable and as a loop, doesn’t involve a complicated car shuttle. One of the training rides was the ultra classic Lariat Loop, one of the 25 Scenic Byways in Colorado and the crown jewel of the Front Range as far as cycling loops are concerned. There’s more history packed in to this one than quite possibly any other Byway in the American West. You could spend an entire weekend fully immersing yourself in the sights, sounds and smells – but we were just interested in the training this go around. One thing I love about cycling is it makes what seems like otherwise mundane trips more interesting. Keep reading…
This past Friday I headed up to Blackhawk to run in the 13th annual Golden Gate Dirty 30, a tough 50K race in Golden Gate Canyon State Park that makes for a perfect spring training tune-up and excuse to dive from ski season into running season. It was my 5th time running the race, which made for a cool milestone and came along with a special bib and “5 year finisher” embroidered jacket. Megan’s attention to small details like these is what makes Dirty 30 a great race and one that’s easy to return to year after year.
It was a good day out there for me. Snow season in the Vail Valley ended awhile ago below 10,000 ft so I was able to log several long runs with decent vert heading into race day. Each year the course seems to get slightly easier too, mentally if not physically as well. The weather was also nearly perfect this go around, even for 8am starters, as things stayed nice and cool in contrast to the 80 degree heat of the past few years. Keep reading…
Well after 15 years of slogging up piles of rocks and the hundreds of summits beginning to all blend together, I decided to pick up a new hobby, inspired by good pal Ben Conners. He reminded me that I used to poo poo on running and that within a few years, I’ll probably be signing up for 100 milers. I don’t doubt that I viewed running as silly, but I do doubt I’ll ever run a 100’er.
Anyways, my first ultra was everything I thought it would be. Happy, sad, angry, exciting, terrifying, painful, rewarding. I’m not sure many other activities can elicit all those emotions in one. In retrospect, I’m also not sure why I chose the Indian Creek 55k. I guess it just sounded intriguing and I had never visited the area before. Now it’s a place I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Funny how that works. I spent the majority of the summer working up to the race via Half marathons, local races around Westminster and trail runs in the foothills. Keep reading…
