Mile High? Try Almost 2...

Going way back on this, think it has been four days since last blog.  Surprising, but I ended up having better things to do than blog once I finally got home Friday evening.   It has been an interesting couple of days though…

After taking Wednesday off in Oakland, made it back to Denver on Thursday.  Had originally planned to re-run the Cherry Creek Trail in an attempt to get it right the second time around, but ended up stumbling into an offer I couldn’t refuse.   I ended up getting the email address of my second cousin Josh Gross who lives outside Boulder.  I gave him a shout and it was my lucky day as he had a free afternoon and was willing to come to Denver to pick me up.   I probably hadn’t seen him in almost 20 years, but I see his sister here in PA pretty regularly and have heard about his exploits.  In a nutshell, he is an outdoor beast – pro rock climbing guide, Rocky Mountain National Park Patrol, and master of every other piece of extreme gear (bikes, skies, hang glider, etc.).  Essentially he’s the guy all other normal guys hate, doing all the stuff for a living that every other dude usually only reads about in Outdoor Magazine because he’s either too broke or chicken to give it a try…

The Mesa Trail - I’ve confirmed these trails actually exist in real life, not just on the glossy pages

He suggested we run the Mesa Trail, which sounded great to me.  The Mesa Trail turned out to be the trail I always thought was photo shopped into all those running magazines and trail shoe advertisements.  Unbelievable (unless you live in Boulder, you lucky SOBs) – groomed trails through cool hills, with every “degree of difficulty” you could imagine.  No wonder endurance guys and gals come here to train – with these trails and the altitude factor, I could see this being mecca for runners.  Anyway, Josh and I set off around 2pm – I figured that even though I was 8 years older than he was I would have no problem holding my own since he was a climber, not a runner per se.  Well, he was no dummy – our “run” lasted about 15 minutes, before we conveniently began to subtly start climbing.  First jogging, then hiking, then no-kidding climbing.  About an hour later we reach the summit of Bear Peak, almost 8,500 feet above sea level.  Needless to say, even though we were “hiking”, the heart rate monitor though we were banging out 6:15 miles.  The descent was much faster, with a mix of running and hiking.  Overall 7.8 miles, total time 2:18:00.  Holy cow – definitely found some thigh muscles that don’t get used running straight and level.  Did not feel a single pang of guilt when we met Josh’s wife for a big greasy burger afterwards.  An awesome experience, will add Boulder to my list of places that I will consider living after I win the PowerBall.  Thanks Josh – I don’t think I will be able to return the favor from the cool perspective if you get back east, but we’ll try to find something to challenge you (might take something on the order of Mt Kilimanjaro though…).

Bear Peak (the high part) - Josh Gross’s “homecourt” advantage

Left Denver Thursday evening for what can safely be described as a “long one”.  Denver-Dallas-Oakland in the cockpit, then straight to Oakland Int’l for Oakland-Denver-Washington DC-Harrisburg back in the cheap seats.  Left at 10pm EST, got back to the house at 6pm.  The next day.  Yawn….  Did not run on Friday, think I can be forgiven.

By the time Saturday rolled around, the thighs were in full mountain climbing pain.  This was a job for the pool – up to the HydroWorx tub, set the treadmill at a very easy pace and just started running.  With the Masters on the flat screen (perfect, since you can’t hear it over the sound of the resistance jets – no sport can be appreciated on “mute” better than golf), ended up going for 75 minutes.  Hit the thighs with the massage hose afterwards, hurt so good.  Despite being exhausted, definitely left the pool feeling better than I did when I got in.

Put in 6 easy on the roads today.  Plan on hitting the track tomorrow morning, wanted to be fresh.  Have read a bunch lately about making your easy days truly easy, so this was part of my new recovery program.  More on this later, but it actually felt good to go at a slower pace.  The legs did feel a lot better today than yesterday, so I think tomorrow will be a good session.

It’s good to be home, will enjoy what hopefully will be a productive week.  Added a fun race to the schedule on Wednesday evening – a road mile down in Maryland that a little birdy told me just might have a little “grade” to it.  With my recent downhill training I think I should be ready to go…

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