Photo Op With Blog Stars

Steve, Kathleen, et moi at the pioneer house from 1870

We'll get back to the title in a minute.

Good week for me.  75 miles / 13 hrs / 16,000+ feet climb

After yesterday's 17 miles and 4,500 ft (I know it's more but I'm too lazy to look it up), I needed an easier day.  Unfortunately, I also wanted to run with my friends Steve and Kathleen (happytrails88.blogspot.com), so I headed down to meet them on some nice trails next to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.  They further enticed me with the lure of mexican food post run.  I met them at the guard gate at 10:30am and we drove over to the trail head.  The run was casual with some nice climb to it in rolling hills and a couple of nice little switchbacks.  My legs never came around and I'm still sucking wind after spending the last year at 23 ft elevation.  However, even at apx 7,000 ft elevation and 2 hours on the trail, I managed to really enjoy the day.  The conditions could not have been better, light wind, blue sky, near 60 degrees, great conversation with two of the nicest people I think I've ever met.

After the run we went out for some highly desired Mexican food.  As we're getting out of the cars a guy keeps looking at Steve and Kathleen (Kathleen mostly) and finally gets to the door and holds it open for us (for them mostly) and says, "do you guys have a blog?"  His name is Luis and enjoys their blog on a regular basis.  To Steve and Kathleen's credit, they said, "He has a blog too" while jabbing a thumb in my direction.  Luis never acknowledged that he ever saw my blog, or my existence in the doorway at that point for that matter.

The rest of the week was a patchwork of catching up with friends and making new ones, all under the needle and thread guide of running.

Mon:  1:20 on Mesa trail alone at a good clip

Tues:  50 mins with a trip up Sanitas

Wed:  4:14 with Tim Waggoner all around Mesa trail and up Green Mtn.

Thurs:  rest

Fri:  1:20 trip up Green Mtn with Jeff Valliere

Sat:  3:10 Eldorado Canyon to Walker Ranch loop and back

Sun:  2:20 Falcon Trail (CO Springs) with Steve and Kathleen

With the 50k two weeks ago and a couple of good weeks I've decided (90%) that I'm not going to run the double crossing of the Grand Canyon on the 17th, just two weeks before Miwok.  I knew deep down that doing a tough run like the R2R2R so close to Miwok would have definite negative effects on my run there.  I'd actually like to do well, i.e. finish and maybe run decently enough to go under 10 hours.  I'll likely still go to the Grand Canyon and maybe run down to the river and back and take a bunch of photos and be a sightseer.

This coming week I hope to do more steady runs with a bit less vertical climb.