Category: Mesa Trail

Slow and low…

Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. ~ William Faulkner

Sun: 3:00, 18 miles, LSD road and trails

Ah, the long slow day. Time to reflect, mingle and just keep putting one foot in front of the other for 3 hours or so.

Today I met up with the group in Boulder to get in some time on the old feet. I parked at the mall then jogged over to Pott’s Field for the meet up. After a short delay, we were off, making our way through the mostly abandoned Boulder surface streets on a crisp, cool Sunday morning.

We headed west and ended up at Eben G. Fine park at the mouth of Boulder Canyon then meandered up to Chautauqua. Enchanted Forest to Mesa to Bear featured mixed running with variable conditions. Many areas were completely dry but north-facing sections were icy. If you are planning to log longer hours Mesa-west, traction might be advisable.

One item of note: there were TONS of runners out today on Mesa. Many traveling in packs and most who really appeared to know what they were doing (vs. casual runners). Boulder is a running town but this was an interesting phenomenon, even for Boulder. Great to see groups of people out there getting after it for sure.

After jamming back down Bear Canyon Drive we worked surface streets again to Martin Park then jumped back on Boulder’s extensive network of bike paths. With about an hour remaining in my scheduled run, I headed back north flying solo and picked up the tempo to try to log a full 18 miles in the 3-hours scheduled. Mission accomplished.

I learned some things today: I can sustain a mellow pace for a significant amount of time; public restrooms are available at the Chautauqua dining hall if you need them; miles tick off quickly when running with a large group (I actually knew this one); I sweat like a hypertensive gorilla even when it is cold out (um… I knew this too).

All in all, it was a very good run. I did have some lingering issues later in the effort with the spot between my shoulder blades catching fire and some slight abdominal and sciatic nerve involvement but post run I wasn’t completely wiped out nor do I feel damaged in any way. I even had the energy to do a little more work on the house I started yesterday. Project finished. Bring on the snow!

~stubert.

Sunday run report…

Bob and Stu go running.


Let it flow. Let yourself go. Slow and low, that is the tempo. ~ The Beastie Boys

And a weekly summary! Whee!

Bob and I hit the trails this morning for what turned into a pretty long run. Long enough that we ran out of water and I, being one who can process fluids like wildfire, got into a little trouble.

Click on the photo to get the full effect. Hawk 1, snake 0.

We headed out from Bob and Lindsay’s about 9:30 and did a clockwise loop into the foothills of Boulder. Really a gorgeous day (a little warm for my tastes but I am a great big weirdo – see above). We ran south on Moorhead to the South Campus (or whatever it is called) and then headed up to Big Bluestem. Along the way we stopped for some photos then saw a hawk that had grabbed a snake and was circling above. Cool to see and great for the hawk. The snake… not so much.

It’s getting green out there.

We made our way west to the Mesa Trail then dodged hoards of hikers all the way back to Chautauqua. Seems like every third person we passed knew Bob so we had some nice breaks to check out the scenery and enjoy our time in the outdoors.

Once we hit the Chautauqua, we went over the saddle to the Gregory Canyon trailhead then up and over the first ridge of Flagstaff. By this time, I had run out of water and was starting to bonk a bit so we jammed down to Lolita’s for a fill up. Bob treated me to a great big Gatorade and then I had to find a bathroom. Finally opted for the Library, which had a cool display detailing the inner workings and history of the Boulder ditch system. Yeah, I did say “ditch”.

I saw a lot of this later in the run.

So we meandered our way back to Bob’s and my abs started acting up. Coupled with the dehydration, I was only able to run in short spurts. Oh well. 16 miles total with an unimpressive time of 3:40 or something. That’s okay though, it’s all about time on your feet.

Post run, I had some problems reminiscent of last year’s 50-mile race where I feel like I really have to pee but then can’t. I have to really start working harder on consistent fluid and food consumption. Gonna see if I can set a timer on my watch or something. Running the marathons last fall got me out of the habit of taking sips every 3 minutes and powering down food at a regular clip. Dargh!

So here are the week’s numbers:

Monday: Run, 3.15 miles, 33 minutes
Tuesday: Run, 5.2 miles, 51 minutes
Wednesday: Hike, 8 miles???, 2.15 hours???
Thursday: Run, 4 miles, 35 minutes
Saturday: Run, 6.86 miles, 1 hour 20 minutes
Sunday: Run, 15.9 miles, 3 hours 44 minutes
TOTAL: 43.11 miles, 9 hours 20 minutes

All in all a pretty solid week. I think this week will be fairly mellow leading up to the Dirty 30 on Saturday.

Rach is making origami bunnies right now, which is super awesome. Yet another of her many talents.

~stubert.