An Old Woman Taught Me How to Fly

Lately I've felt a little flat on the uphill sections of all my runs. The logical thing to do would probably be to scale back the mileage, rest up, or something along these lines. In my wisdom I've instead decided to include more uphill in all my  runs and throw in some runs up the local mountains for good measure.

Bringing us to Thursday's long run up Brushy Mountain.

This route makes you feel as if the mountains are rejecting your presence, the closer you get to the summit the harder it gets. The run begins with a little blacktop, transitioning to a few riverside gravel miles, a bit of fun singletrack, and then ending with a little good lord this is nothing but rocks and briers! 

After an hour and forty five minutes of "running" I found myself on the summit of Brushy Mountain.

Sand Myrtle in bloom on Brushy Mountain

A trip to the big mountain (LeConte) was tempting

Gazing toward Guyot

I needed to back by 1PM to meet Dad for our weekly bike ride, and perhaps I started late to begin with as well as spending a little too much time taking pictures on the summit. This meant I was really going to have to make up some time coming down the mountain. While I wouldn't say technical downhill is my specialty, I do enjoy it. It's one of the few aspects of trail-running that is more play than work.

I was flying coming off the mountain, bounding over rocks, roots, and down trees with ease. Then all of a sudden I was literally FLYING... I mean airborne... I mean in the air long enough to think this is going to hurt! Lying in the trail in my superman pose I slowly did a system check due to hearing something snap when I landed. Legs... ok. Arms.... ok. Face... covered in dirt, but ok. Turns out the snap was the strap for my water bottle. Of all the things to go snap, this would've been the one I'd pick. 

Scrapes and all I made it back on time to meet Dad for our ride. I was glad to finally have someone to show off my battle wounds to.

Just a flesh wound

Our planned ride was an extremely hilly 31 mile circuit of the local backroads and highways. After surveying my scrapes, Dad mentions we really don't have to do the whole ride. I reject this notion. He simply says, "I was afraid you'd say that."

Not quite recovered from last weeks 100k ride

The hills on our circuit seemed endless at first, but we eventually got the pay off with a several mile long downhill through Rocky Flats. The weather was perfect for our entire ride, making the journey somewhat enjoyable despite the ruination of my quads from the morning run. We completed the ride in a little under two and a half hours, long enough to make Dad say very horrible and unrepeatable things about his bike seat. 

Despite a little crash and burn on this weeks adventures I can't wait to be back on the roads and trails again!