Finally...

Today I finally found the trail that took me to the top of the Rampart Range Ridge that we look at everyday. With the weather cooling, I thought it a good day to head up the hill to see what I could find.

In the past, I lost the trail somewhere in the area of the clearing where the geocache "Scouts Secret Stash" is found. Today, I took more time looking around and found clues to the trail that goes from there to the top. I noticed a couple of plastic bag strips on trees. At this point, there was no clear trail but I followed in that direction and looking for rock cairns and more plastic strips. The strips were not very plentiful but got me to where I noticed a very faint trail. The trail took me more south of where I had been looking for trail signs. This was it...finally after several trips up to this point, I topped out and could look over the mountains to the west of the ridge.

Because this trail is very faint, I found it very useful to use the backtrack feature of my GPS. If you have not used this or are not familiar with how this works, I strongly suggest you take the time to get familiar with this. In sections where the trail seemed to disappear, I just needed to refer to the trace on the GPS to be sure I was heading the right way.

One thing about this route. It is tough. The climb is steep so up and down is work. There is a lot of area at the top that looks to be explorable. I think that the old Palmer Trail comes through there and also I hope to get over to the wreck site(s).

In other news, I have been working on a revised template for the trails on farrunner.com. With the new Google Map API, I can put most of the information on a single map, saving some navigating around. I have a few more ideas that I am working on so keep watching for new things. I have also added several new trails.

With Fall and the cool weather, I am looking forward to exploring more trails and getting them onto the website. The new format has been good in this respect, it takes less time to put together the page.

Silverton 1000

Last weekend, we were up in Silverton to help my daughter in a race. The Silverton 1000 is a new race this year. It is actually a number of races that take place simultaneously. The headline race is the 1000 which is where the runner has to run one mile each of 1000 consecutive hours. Also there were a 6 day race, a 72 hour race, a 48 hour race, and a 24 hour race.

Most multiday events like this take place on a loop course for the sake of logistics. These events have their history going back to the last 18th Century and early 19th Century when "pedestrians" would take bets and compete in multiday events or bet on time to cover distances between distant points (like from Chicago to New York) by foot.

The course here is a one mile loop at Kendell Mt. Ski Area. Unlike typical multiday events, where the course tends to be fairly flat, the course for this one was challenging with a 250+ ascent on the loop. I did a number of loops on the course and it was definately a challenge. Multiply that by 50/100/150/200 times and you have a tough challenge. It is one that would appeal to the
ultrarunner who races the mountain trails. But surprisingly, there were a number of entrants who were there just to enjoy the event and log whatever miles they wanted to do.

The effort put into making this a great event was awesome. A large tent provided the start/finish point for the loop. It was big enough for hold all the timing equipment, food, space to setup for each runner and shelter when needed. It was impressive to say the least. The use of chip timing and the display of your progress every loop was great. I remember at my 6-day effort the timing was manual using people to count your laps. Made me nervous that the laps were being counted correctly but the counters did a great job.

I really enjoyed the down home/family atmosphere of the event. A lot of effort went into making this a fun time for everyone there. I expect that this event will grow over time but I hope it maintains it low-key atmosphere. A good place to test yourself if you are just getting into ultrarunning.

Coleen was entered in the 48 hour event and finished with a 105 mile effort to place 1st in the 48 hour and 3rd overall mileage for all events.

Some links for this are: here and here

Some changes to my website

With the new API from Google, I have started to think about how to change how I present data on the farrunner.com website. Currently, I have static maps to show a trail in topo, street, terrain, satellite and so forth. I have put out a new style page for the Seven Bridges Trail using a preliminary google map to display some of the trail view types on a single, dynamic map. I hope this can present more data in a concise way than the current methods. Over the next couple of weeks, I plan on refining this page with new techniques. Any comments are appreciated.

Speaking of Seven Bridges, I wandered a bit further south of my normal haunts to check this trail out and it was worth it. There are a number of trails in this area that I hope to check out this fall and get onto the website. I apologize to those who are looking for longer distances, my time commitments have forced me to keep to the shorter trails. For longer distances, there are a lot of trails that can be linked together.

I hope every one enjoyed the summer and are looking forward to fall when the weather is a bit cooler. I find this the best time to hit the trails but watch the higher elevations, weather can change quickly. Several recent deaths in the hiking/climbing community bring home the point that it can be dangerous out there even for the most experienced. Most of the trails that I have mapped for the website are fairly safe but there are a few places where caution should be exercised.

Urban trails

Well it has been a little wetter than usual around here. The other day I cut through Ute Valley Park and found some decent patches of mud. With this in mind, I decided today to check out a couple of Urban Trails. I thought that the Cottonwood Trail and the Homestead Trail looked like a good bet since I could access them from the same parking spot. Since this was a hiking / dog day and a bit warm, I checked out a few miles of each.

The Cottonwood trail will in the future stretch from the Greenway Trail east for many miles. Right now the section from the Greenway Trail is nonexistant. I parked at Cottonwood park and went east about a mile and a half. It is a nice, paved trail that would be great for running with stroller, roller bladeing and general family fun. At the start, the park offers many amenities for family fun.
I turned around at Woodmen Rd but the trail continues on from there but will require crossing Woodman and Austin Bluffs.

About 1/4 mile into the Cottonwood Trail section, the Homestead Trail branches off to the right. It is also paved but a little further along, the pavement turns to asphalt in good condition but some cracking is evident. Followed this about a mile where it crosses Austin Bluffs and turned around. The Trail is supposed to go all the way to Academy and Constitution but currently it has a couple of breaks. I plan to explore this one on the bike in the near future.

Both trails work are in urban setting, some open green space helps to make it feel like a trail. Nice for times when the dirt trails are muddy. I will need to check out their conditions in winter to see how they would fair for bad days.

Change of pace

Recent changes to my life will hopefully give me more time to spend on my blog and website. After deciding that 40 hours per week in a part time job was a bit much, I found a real part time job that leaves my with weekends free.

Based on this new found time, the past 2 weekends have taken me to the "Monument Preserver" and "Fox Run Regional Park".

I am not sure of the status of the Monument Preserve. My web research leads me to believe it is an evolving area in the town of Monument. There are no real maps or signage but there is a well developed series of trails that would appeal to moderate hikers and families. I observed the trail head when I did the Mt Herman Loop last year so decided to take some time and explore this area. The trailhead was on the way to the trailhead for Mt Herman. I will be documenting this more on the website as time permits.

The other area I recently explored was Fox Run Regional Park. I have been there before but not to explore the trails. I was expecting gentle rolling hills but not sure of how long a trail. To my surprise, it was a little more rolling that I had envisioned but all in all a reasonable trail for hiking, running, biking. Included is a pavilion and picnic area where family can play. My initial impression was that the loop was all uphill but even if this IS Colorado, that is not the case. I went the counter clockwise direction from the small trailhead at Baptist Rd and Roller Coaster. There is good signage to help in finding the way around. Only a couple of steeper hills on the course so it should be a good run and ride course. Again I will be documenting this as time permits.

The thing I like about these two courses is that they have trees so for summer, this is a plus to avoid the direct sun.

Winter to Summer in 2 days

Well, looks like we skipped spring and went directly to summer. Weather has warmed up considerably and most of the trails are quite dry. It will probably take a little while to wear down the ruts created during the wet times but it is time to head out.

I noted in the farrunner forum that the trails around "hole in the wall" have been blocked and posted with no trespassing signs. No indication why or who. I am researching but if anyone has any additional info, please post in the form or comment here at the blog.

Picked up a new GPS the other day at REI because of the sale but was a little disappointed. My Garmin Forerunner 205 and 305 have served well and are easy to use. I bought the GPSMAP 60CSx which is highly rated but for the uses I have here, did not really work well.

The major complaints I have are

1. When you turn it on, it starts collecting data unliked the 205/305 where it starts when you push the start/stop button. Did not see in the manual any way to turn it on/off other that the power switch.

2. It does not come with any high quality maps and the default map is not very detailed. A $125 optional map seems a bit much for a high end device. There are some open source options that can be loaded. I knew it did not come with the map software but was disappointed with the default maps.

3. The computer interface was spotty. It would not sync with TC (garmin's training center software) and interfacing to sports track required downloading Garmins Communicator API plugin.

4. The downloaded tracks were "strange". There were a bunch of small (3-10 sec) tracks along with the main track. Not sure why there were there. I do not think I turned the unit on/off a couple of times at the end of my test hike.

5. The provided software is MapSource does not play well with Windows 7. After loading tracks from the device and then tying to save them in the default directory, it has permission issues which implies to me that it did not setup the directory permissions for Vista/Win7 which is probably because it came out before Windows was released.

The unit was accurate and collected data during the hike while attached at my side via the provided clip. For many, it may serve fine. For my use where I want to be able to define the start and end point of the journey for adding to the website, it was not that user friendly. I may be that my objections because of lack of understanding but I did not see anything in the manual that would clear up my views of how it works.

The 60CSx is on sale because it is being replaced by the 62 series units. These still lack good maps in the unit.

Spring is Here?

It seems like we have had a lot of false starts for spring this year. Just when you might think that the weather has turned, another snowstorm hits us at the knees. But have faith. The bears seem to think it is spring. I had one pass within 50ft of me a couple days ago and he looked like a well fed 400 lbs. Fortunately he was more interested in some trash (potential food) than me and chose to ignore me as he passed.

Been busy carrying the flowers in and out of the house every day in an effort to keep them alive and blooming.....Think Spring!

I should be ready to start searching out new trails as it looks like most of the trails have shed their moisture and are not a muddy mess.

Happy New Year

A few days late but let me wish you a Happy New Year for 2010.

I hope that among your resolutions, you have one "to spend more time hiking, running and biking.

It is always difficult at this time of the year to get enthused about going out into the cold and/or dark for that workout. One glimmer of hope is that the days are getting longer again so you may gain a little more light on those workouts. I have been blessed to be able to chose my workout times so that I can get the most daylight. Temperature and snow...that is a different story.

Running trails under these conditions require a little more planning than when it is nice and sunny. The trails seem to have a bit more snow and ice on them than in past years. Depending on the trails that you choose, you might want to consider some sort of traction device such as yaktracks or similar product to help you to feel more stable and comfortable while on the trails.

I have tried several types of traction control and in the next couple of posts, will share my opinion about the pros and cons of the various devices available.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

This is the season to be thankful for all the blessing that we have here in Colorado Springs. It is so nice to be able to go 5-10 miles and be into wilderness / backcountry trails. We have such an abundance of trails to chose from and I enjoy every day and trail that I find myself on.

I hope that my efforts to map and describe the trails that I have enjoyed has created the desire on your part to check out new trails and experience different parts of our natural abundance.

It seems like I go in spurts. I pick a trail then spend the next month or so exploring all the options that the trail presents. I look for different trails in an area and you may be surprised to find some new and interesting views. I know I have found some unexpected gems in my explorations.

On the website (http://farrunner.com), I am always looking for better ways to present the information about trails to make it easier to find and follow the trails. I am thinking about adding the track information to the website so that it can be downloaded into most GPS units. I have found this useful in repeating a trail where is may not be very well defined and for backtracking when I get away from familiar landmarks. I have heard that there is going to be an advanced GPS seminar at REI possibly next month. You might want to check their website and put it on your calendar.

I wanted to give a special high five to Ben who we met on the incline Tuesday. He is 7 and here he is reaching the top of the Incline in fine form. Good work Ben and I hope you enjoy many more climbs in the years to com.

In revising some of my incline pictures on the website, I have tried to include more photos of some of the people I have had encountered on the trails.

I think I will sign off for now. I hope in the coming year I can be more consistent on this blog. Remember the forum where you can post information about the trails you have been on and keep us all informed about condidtions you have encountered to help us plan a more enjoyable hike/bike/run.

The Incline

I have been avoiding any posts about the incline because officially it does not exist as a trail. Since this "trail" crosses multiple properties, it has been the subject of great debate in the community. I am never sure why such debate takes forever to complete. It is not like there are many alternative uses for the trail. Although I am not party to the debate, I would imagine that there are about 5-10 issues that are at stake here, but it has taken years to debate them and I am not sure why.

Recent news is that all this is close to resolution. All the parties seem to be in general agreement and maybe it will be official shortly. Now this is what worries me. As soon as it becomes official, I can see the "officials" declaring that we need to put together a plan for the trail...in the meantime, we must shut it down to protect the trail and the people. In the nanny state mentality that exists in most govenment agencies, I do not think that this is out of the realm of possibility. I look back to Cheyenne Mtn State Park and how it was closed to the public while it was updated and planned.

I have posted before how amazed I am at the number of people who come out to climb the incline. I expect the hard core runners and hikes but in addition are people of all types challenging themselves against the climb. More power to them. I would be a shame if the "nannies" try to restrict or curtail this. I know this can be dangerous but it is ones choice and that is how it should be.

All that being said, Tuesday was a beautiful day to be on the incline. Weather was near perfect and views were as usual, stunning. There was some icy footing especially at the top 1/3 of the trail where it is shaded. Ice was prevalent on most of the ties and not any places where the ice could be avoided. Today with the snow falling, I am tempted to head over and do it again, the views when there is a fresh snowfall are just awesome. I have posted some pictures on the website taken at various times of the year.

I have started documenting the Incline for my website. Took pictures, captured the GPS data, and starting to writeup the description for the webpage. Hopefully I will soon have this up on the site.

If you chose to challenge the inclie be aware that it can be dangerous. Loose railroad ties, steep terrain, icy conditions and rapid weather changes can exist. But if it was easy, would we be there?

What's a "Hole in the Wall" you might ask. I became acquainted with this trail last year when Jerry and I stopped by after a run in the Garden and do a quick look over. I wanted to come back to explore more of the area but I never found the time. So this last month, I decided to spend some time here and have been back 3 times now. The more time I spend, the more I discover.

The area is a combination of secluded property between the old Queens Quarry and the Flying W Ranch property. From my studies, it looks like 22 acres of it is part of a small ranch that was bought a number of years back and used to build a private school on the front side. This is now a church. The far west area is part of the Pike National Forest.

Since it is close to where I live and does not get a lot of traffic, I find it a great place to get away with the dog and admire the scenery. The web page at http://farruner.com/courses/CSTRholeinwall.html has detailed information about the trails so check it out.

A lot of the area is accessible on a dirt roadway that forms a large "C" shape. During my first trip around the area, I discovered some small single tracks that cross between the the roadways and offer the option of making the "C" into a loop course. There is a small rock passageway and an impressive rock wall on the single track trails that are not obvious until you wander into them.

The north end of the area ends at the Flying W Ranch where there is fencing that I believe is still used for range land and cattle. I have not explored that area because of the fencing and respect for the implied private property issues.

There is an old roadway that climbs up from where the cattle guard and fencing starts. I did not follow it too far yet but from my looking at google earth, it looks like this could lead up to the top of the peaks in that area. From there, there could be some interesting access to the areas behind the front range. When I have a long day available, I plan to explore this more fully.

Because of the private land involve here, I caution everyone to be respectful of the property. If you follow the dirt road along the higher part of the "C", I think you would be into the National Forest land but the lower trails might be part of Flying W or the church property.

Good MTB area and Hiking area, lot of uphill outbound for runners similar to parts of the Barr trail.

A week ago, some of us explored the area around Mt Herman. The area is not well documented anywhere I could find but it appears most of the trail that we used is known as the Monument Trail but the last part after rounding Rasperry Mountain back to the trail head is not shown anywhere. There is also some references to the area fronting Mt Herman as the Monument Preserve and it appears like there is ongoing efforts to define the usage in this area. Lots of references to too many social trails and the need to control trail usage.

Aside from this, the trail is narrow and rocky but my main point here is that as we ran it, you could sense that fall was coming quickly. Behind Mt Herman which is Limbaugh canyon, a small furry caterpillar displayed its furryness as to say that this winter will be a colder and snowier one.

Since that day, the temperature has dropped dramatically and yesterday, the rain was mixed with snow. As I look out to the front range, there is a lot of snow in the higher elevations. While an early snow can be a false promise, with the amount of rain we have had, I feel a lot of snow may be in the offing this winter. To look at the bright side, this may mean that I can actually do some cross country skiing and snowshoeing without having to travel up the pass. Cross training without having to travel...sounds good to me.

Typically, we can expect a lot of nice days for the next several months even if we get spells of snow and rain. A perfect opportunity to enjoy our abundance of trails. Happy running...

Random Thoughts

Well it has been awhile since I posted here. Been a busy month with a new job and getting up to speed with its demands. This working stuff puts a crimp on my trails exploration big time. Since I have to be at work at 4:30 am, it has also left me wanting to just sleep when I get off. I have managed to get out and do runs or hikes most days but nothing new to report.

As a proud papa, I can announce my Daughter, Coleen's successful finish at the Leadville 100 last month. Check out her blog for a good write up (cynical dirt doll). She is one tough cookie despite here protestation to the contrary.

With fall approaching, I am looking forward to more runs where the weather is cool and dry. Hopefully there are more trails to lurking around the area to discover.

Just got a call from Jerry...time to go out and do a run...will hopefully not be so long til my next post.

Reminder, with the approach of winter, please add comments to the forum with trail conditions so we can all benefit and avoid going over to trails that are not in good condition due to weather or construction.

Cross training

I was reading a recent article about crosstraining and what it can do for a person. I think because I have been having issues with a sore heel, the article attracted my attention. There are many types of cross training, but I think I am most interested in aerobic training which means bike, swim, fast hike or indoor machines such as a stair climber.

One of the things that struck me in the article was about the fear that seems to be quite prevalent about riding the roads. This has been a concern of mine also but maybe not to as great an extent as others. On my website, I have added a section on bike road courses. My intent is to find good road courses that I would feel that most people could feel comfortable riding. I am looking for minimal traffic and a wide roadway, hopefully with defined bike lanes.

This criteria does not mean that there will be no danger but should minimize the exposure to traffic and allow you to concentrate more on the training. As I pointed out in the previous blog, riding is not as natural as running and you need to pay attention to the mechanics of riding. Gears need to be adjusted, you need to pay attention to object in the road, and you need to work on form to get the most from the ride. It is not much different that mountain running on some of the more technical trails. You cannot just mellow out and get into a rhythm. There is nothing like a nice wide trail to zone out on and just feel the flow but when you are on steep mountain trails, you need to pay attention. The same is true on the bike even when the course if fairly benign. A friend of my recently crashed because he wasn't paying attention and hit a curb...hard to imagine since curbs should be fairly obvious.

One of the thing I read about cross training is that as we age, we lose some of our flexibility and ability to absorb shock. Cross training can help to keep us up aerobically but rest from the shock of every day running. I tend to prefer biking as my alternative since it does work many of the same muscles and some of the opposing ones, it does not require too much in additional gear...ie you can ride from your door step or a close location. It also provides some exhilaration expecially on the downhills around here.

If you are thinking about cross training, consider the bike courses I have mapped out. They are not easy and will challenge your riding if you do not ride regularly and will definitely challenge your aerobic system if you challenge the hills.

Running or Riding

Today was a Bike Ride day. I decided to map out another section of the area that I think would be good for someone who does not feel comfortable with traffic. In choosing these routes, I am looking for wide roads or bike lanes that help to keep cars at a distance.

It was a good ride, the sky had clouded up so the heat was not as intense as it had been earlier. The course I chose met the criteria I had set so all in all in was a good day.

When I was done, I started thinking about runs and rides. A question formed in my mind...why is it that I enjoy running more than riding? The question startled me for a moment. I had never really thought about running or riding in that way before. The more I thought about it, I came to realize that I preferred running. Having answered myself...I let my mind considered what it was about running that made me enjoy it more than biking.

I came to the conclusion that running was a matter of me and the run whereas riding added the element of the bike between me and the ride. Sounds a bit strange but I realized that when I am running, I am concentrating on the run, on me, on the sensations that arise as I am in motion. I do not feel this same oneness when riding. The bike adds a mechanical element to the equation that seems to prevent me from feeling the oneness I get from running.

I guess this is also why I have never been able to carry a radio or mp3 player while running.

It would be interesting to hear what others have to say about this. If you feel like it, add to the comments.

Sunday Delight

It was a nice Sunday morning so I decided to head up the foothills to the west of Blodgett Open Space area. I have been pushing further up the ridge with each trip and then looking to see where I have been on the map.

Starting from a small trail head on Coldwater Drive, the trail climbs and climbs and then climbs some more. I have been trying to discover the best route to the top of the ridge. Up there is a spot knows as lone pine. From the other side, there is a jeep road that ends at that point. It is also an alternate route to Blodgett Peak.

Today's journey ended when the weather started to get bad. Clouds were building rapidly and I decided it was time to head back down. Later, the lighning and thunder is the area confirmed my decision as being the prudent course of action.

But in the beginning, the weather was great, the wildflowers were in full bloom. Plenty of bluebells and paintbrush with many other varieties. The terrain was steep enough that it was mostly a fast hike on the upward trip especially after the first mile.

There were several things that I learned today.

First, I had loaded the locations of some of the geocaches in the area so I could see if I could find them. This means that I had to learn some of the navagation features of my forerunner 205 which I knew existed but I had never tried to use.

In the watch I could see a little triangle where I was located at the point indicated the direction I was moving. There was a light circle about at a set distance. As I got near a geocache, I could tell about how far and in what direction the cache was located. It is kind of funny to look at the GPS track of trying to figure out how to use this to find the location of the cache. Since it was the first time for me, I was literally all over the map....

Of course once you have located the approximate area of the cache, it does not guarantee you will find the cache. There are generally hidden in some manner and the trick is to figure out how. I will not go into any detail as that I think is part of the fun of geocacheing. If this sounds interesting, go to http://www.geocaching.com and join the fun.

I met a mountain bike rider in the area of the geocache who also is an experienced geocacher so it became a team effort to find the cache. He, for some reason did not have this cache loaded in his unit so by using mine, we found the cache. Thanks "OLDATBPRO"...

From this point on, there was no clear indication of where the trail to the top went so I started just bushwacking. Some people have indicated that there is not a regular trail after this point.
I almost made the top but it was getting pretty steep and rugged with lots of fallen trees and scrub. And with the weather starting to get bad, I decided to head back down.

This is where the second part of my learning took place. As I was bushwacking up, I knew that it was be impossible to find my way back down by the same route so I remembered that the GPS unit has a "breadcrumb" feature. When I was ready to head back down, I just kept my little triangle in the area of the "route" line that was my track coming up and lo and behold, I returned to the cache site with no problem. From there I could just follow the trail back down.

Learning to use the navigation features of the watch has inspired me to follow other lesser know paths having the confidence that I will be able to backtrack and not get lost. I use to go up the Hitezer trail out of Cascade into the resevoir area but could never seem to find the way back and would end up on the Pikes Peak Tollroad and have to hitchhike back to my car. I think this will solve that problem.

On my next trip up, I plan to angle a little north from the area of the , it look like there may be a better route to the top in that direction I was so close today...and would really like to crest the next time I do up.

One small step...one giant injury for running

In the past couple of days, I have encountered links to an article that is trying to make the case that high quality running shoes are the source of many of the injuries suffered by atheletes.

As with all things found on the web, I try to approach these things with an open but skeptical mind. Even if the conclusions were faulty (not saying that they are) there is some lessons to be learned from this article.

To read the whole article, go to this article at the daily mail website. It brings up some interesting points.

There seems to be some presenting of examples and opinion where there seems to be a link between injury and running shoes. In my experience, running shoes can be a source of injury but maybe not for the reasons stated. Choosing the correct running shoe for you foot is a hit and miss proposition. And as soon as you find the right one, the shoe manufactures manage to discontinue or change it. I was very lucky in that the Asics GT series performed very well and for about 10 or so years, I used that shoe. Last year, the shoe did not work the same. Looking at comments from other runners, the consensus was the shoe behaved differently. I ended up with plantar faciatis. The latest model seems to go back to earlier performance characteristics.

So in evaluating the claim that the shoes cause injury does not follow from the anecdotal evidence given. Even the statistics do not have the rigor of proper testing. I would be the first to admit that this sort of testing might be quite hard to design and execute. I would also not throw away the studies completely but become more aware of the effect of my shoes on my injury. Remember we are an experiment of one.

With all that having been said, I think there is something to be learned from this article.

I have to agree that spending time barefoot could offer benefits to the runner. The explanations about how the foot molds and grabs when running barefoot reminds me a bit of ball exercise. The premise is that the extra effort to maintain balance exercises small muscles that do not get worked properly. I can see if we always encase our foot in a rigid shoe, it might prevent proper exercise of small muscles, tendons, and ligaments in the foot and ankle. This is speculation on my part but for me, it seems worth adding some activity barefooted. I does not at this point say I am throwing away my running shoes. It might be that I have not suffered the injuries as noted in the article because I am very aware of my feet and try to adjust when I sense something is not right.

In my early running years, I did experiment with running barefoot and as near as I can recall, I did not have any issues. In those days, shoes were not as sophisticated and more like than not, I probably had an old pair of converse sneakers as my "running shoes". I generally ran on grass at the high school but did try to spend some time on the cinder track to toughen my feet.

If I start adding some barefoot adventures to my training, I will be sure to post here what I find out.

One last gasp for Winter

At least I hope it was the last gasp. Seems even that little flower did not know what Colorado weather can have instore... 12+ inches of snow and even more in the high country. I guess winter is not going to leave without a fight. This was probably a good time to practice active rest.

Even though I feel that you can run through just about any weather conditions, there are times when a little prudence goes a long way. This recent snow storm was not too bad in this area so it was possible you could run. I don't think though that the streets would be where you would find me for this one. The snow being very wet and the streets were mostly slush so unless you have a full gortex or other water sheding suit, you would probably come back from the run a bit bedraggled. Such a suit is a very nice thing to have and if you are into trails on a big time basis, I would even say a necessity.

The mountain trails can be dangerous even in the height of the summer. Fast moving thunder storms and low temperatures are the receipe for hyperthermia. When ever I am going up into the higher trails where civilization is more that a mile or so away, I alway take my full gortex suite. In addition, I have what I call my backup in the form of a 55 gallon plastic trashbag.

If the weather gets really bad, the gortex is great but in the worse conditions where I might have to hunker down for a while the added layer of the grarbage bag provides the barrier to wind and rain even gortex can sometimes not handle. The nice thing about the garbage bag is that it is light and compact. Since it is alway in my waist pack and I never go without the pack, even when I don't think I will be far enough out to need my gortex, it is there for an emergency. I have even given it away at times to people on the mountain who did not plan ahead and were in danger due to the weather.

I am bringing this up now because as the weather starts to warm, the urge to head up the mountain will grow. The mountain is not forgiving and if you don't respect it, it will win. Always consider the worse might happen and plan accordingly.

Another reason to bring this up now, is that gortex or the now similar fabrics will go on sale for the end of winter. Good time to buy. I saved over a $100 the last time I bought one because it was spring.

Check out the website at farrunner.com. I have been busy adding some new features and trying to improve the presentation of the material. With the advent of spring, I plan to take new pictures and gather more GPS data to put on the site. I have been reworking the format in hopes that it presents the information in a more usable manner.

bob

Me and a cast of thousands

The other day, it was one of those warm sunny days that call for action when they first appear in the spring time.

My running partner called and made a case for heading over to the incline after work for a bit of a climb and run. Well it seems like him and 10,000 of our closest friends, neighbors, and others decided on the same thing. I actually found this somewhat amusing and interesting.

The incline is not the sort of place you would expect to be a popular gathering spot. It is steep, dangerous, unmaintained and 2 degrees short of a cliff and of course, private property...but what appears to be, is the most popular place to go on a nice spring day in Colorado Springs.

I had to marvel at the people that were there. Everyone from training atheletes to family groups all making their way up the incline at their own pace. I kind of had a vision of the "if they build it, they will come" senario. Since I shouldn't have been there, having a serious cold/flu, I was taking it easy so I could observe what was happening.

Men, women, boys, girls, short, tall, skinny, overweight, solo, couples, friends, and some families
all taking on the challenge of one of the more difficult climbs in the area. I had to wonder at what it was that brought them here. Some I can understand as training for some race but others, it was not so obvious as to what their motivations were. The thing that really stood out was the chatter and support everyone gave to each other and the sense of enjoyment and accomplishment they seem to show for their efforts.

Even now, it is difficult to find parking and when the incline is officially open to the public, the situation can only become worse. I know parking is one of the main factors holding up the opening of the incline. I hope a good solution can be found.

I think that maybe I should post a few blogs about the incline that talks to the best way to enjoy it and some safety considerations. Sounds like a good idea for future posts...

It's Official

Well despite the calendar, spring has not been knocking on our door with any regularity. Sunday during a small trip up into the high country, nature announced that spring is here. The discovery of these small mountain flowers has always meant that the worst is over and better weather is ahead. Unlike the woolly caterpillar, these flowers seem to pop through the last of the winter snows. After the blizzard like conditions a few days before, I hope they are right.

So put away the tights and gloves and be ready for warmer runs, longer days and the upcoming races season!