Haliku’s random wanderings...

Castlewood Canyon State Park is a hidden gem in Colorado.  Many in Colorado think to enjoy the state they have to head into the mountains.  I used to think this way until I discovered the park which is located south of Parker and east of Castle Rock near the village of Franktown in what is known as the Black Forest due to its Ponderosa pines.

There are two access points to the park,one just outside of Franktown (West Entry) and one farther south on CO83 (Main Entry), the park runs in a north-south orientation.  I use the northern access parking at the Homestead trailhead.  A self pay station for daily permits ($6) are the first stop unless you have a annual pass.

All the park specific details can be found on their website as well as a trail map which you can use to join together the shorter segments into longer runs.  The trails are well established and maintained with waterbars and rock stairs as needed.  The trails vary from lush and green in the canyon to open and sunbaked on the mesa top.  Examples of the trail variety are below.

The loop I usually run or hike forms a 'figure 8' and is approximately 6.5 miles long.  Starting at the Homestead trailhead leave the parking lot on the Homestead trail which goes past the old homestead seen in the first picture.  Once down the hill along the stream a left at the first junction starts you on the Rimrock trail which gains the mesa top in a short and steep switchback segment.  Once on the top the running is fairly level and easy with great views of the canyon.  Soon you will be running down and past the old dam.  Here you can either make a simple loop back to the trailhead by running the Creekbottom trail or go left to loop around the main park entry (the upper part of the figure 8) which will return you to the trail junction by the dam where the Creekbottom trail completes the 'figure 8' loop.  This is just one example of the trail combinations you can link up to have an enjoyable run.

Caution: One thing to watch for in Castlewood is the strong presence of poison ivy.  It is along the trails as well as in the woods among the Gambrel oaks.  If you stay on the trails and are careful you can enjoy the park and never have a problem.  Several educational trail signs are in the park to warn visitors of this plant.  If you are not already familiar with what poison ivy looks like more information and pictures are found at this site. 

 

 

 

I've recently returned from a climbing trip in Bolivia.  Rather than repost the trip report on here go to this report to read it.  Cheers!

I recently lead a mountain climbing trip to Bolivia.  My partners for this adventure where my brother and our dad.  While climbing is our primary goal it isn't the sole purpose.  We rarely miss a chance to add local cultural flavor--a museum, archaeological ruin, good restaurant, wine, tequila, etc.

So we were in La Paz when we found our schedule changing.  No matter how sound your plans and schedule may seem back at home once you are 'in country' the day-to-day realities of weather, health and group dynamics will cause a schedule change.  While at Oliver's Travels, a mediocre English pub, we noticed they were resellers for Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking.

So we signed up for an all day 66 km ride starting at Zongo pass (almost 16,000 ft) and ending in the jungle village of Coroico.  The first 22 km is on paved road that you share with all the cars and trucks.  The remainder is the 1 to 1.5 car wide dirt road that was carved into the side of the mountain. 

 

Guard rails? There aren't any...

 

After meeting our guide, Dale (a Brit), we (14 clients from USA, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Holland, England)

were taken to Zongo pass via a private bus that had all of our bikes on top.  From the detailed paperwork we filled out when we signed up we were given a helmet, gloves, neck warmer, black pants & jacket with a high visibility vest.

After a very thought provoking orientation---how many times did Dale say people died or ended up in a hospital?---we gave an offering of a rot gut Bolivian liquor to Pachamama (Mother Earth) by spilling a little on the front tire of our bike. 

Is it eating through the rubber???

Soon were were off and spacing ourselves to avoid any multiple rider accidents.  One thing we soon learned was to share the road.  Bolivia is so mountainous that there aren't many highways or even roads in the country thus the few roads that do exist are busy!

 

 

Soon the easy part was over and we were about to start down the unpaved (i.e. dirt, rock, mud) section of road.  Dale briefed us on more techniques on surviving to Coroico.  Once out of the Altiplano it started to rain.  The pants and jackets that gravity assisted provided were excellent in keeping the dirt and mud off you.  Every other group that rode by only had the high vis vests and helmets while their personal cloths were getting muddy.

Being carved into the side of the mountain the road was very windy with plenty of switchbacks.  Controlling speed was very important as well as staying in the left tire track through the rock and mud.  Even with very fat tires the rocks could easily cause a loss of

balance and send the biker crashing.  Not good when the drop off the side of the road was 50 - 1000 feet of near vertical cliffs and jungle plants.

As a safety measure we had frequent rest stops.  This also allowed the guides, one in front and one at the rear, to do a head count so see if they still had 14 clients. 

We didn't lose any clients this trip...

Gravity Assisted has been in business for almost 10 years and has had only one fatality.  A bus passing a group of bikers on the paved section blew a tire at the same moment which sent the bus into a biker and over the edge of the road.  Talk about being in the wrong place and the wrong time!

 

Our adrenaline filled day soon ended. 

A nice add-on Gravity Assisted included in their cost was a shower, beer and buffet at a wild animal preserve/shelter outside of Coroico called La Senda Verde.  (Additional beer was only 15 bolivianos) Getting the chance to relax, eat and interact with various birds and monkeys was worth it.

 

The ride back to La Paz was up the road we just rode down. 

The price for this full day of adventure?  $75 USD--worth every penny!

Get out and explore the world!

I did it!

Its still hard to believe that I ran 50k and actually enjoyed it!  I didn't feel this way running marathons.  I'm a new convert to trail running and trail races.  The lack of pounding my feet and knees took from trail running is obvious.  I actually wanted to go running a couple of days after the race; so I did a light 4 mile warm up.

I've had many people ask me in amazement that people run that far?  There are races longer than a marathon?  Unless the person is a runner it is very hard to explain in any way that they will 'get it.'

• I realized a few things about my running during the training and the race.  The first is hard surface running is painful compared to trails.  I'm now a convert to trail running. 
• Walking is key.  I didn't walk much during my training and can see where structured walk breaks are helpful.
• Food.  You need it and it might as well be tasty.  I am sick of gels, blocks and gu.  Cookies, sandwiches, chips, etc all sound better.
• Sunblock.  It was great that I put it on my face and neck but I forgot my legs.  That was a burn I could of avoided.
• Solo training gets old quickly.  Find someone to run with even for some of the weekly runs.  I ran almost all of the training weeks solo and found the motivation to get out was a challenge at times.  It was great to run with

Ultrathoner during the first half of the race.  Any shortness of this post is directly related to the detailed race write up he posted.

The race coordination and logistics for the Greenland race were great.  The staff and volunteers did a great job.  While all the 'short distance' runners and the 50ks started off together the bunch broke up quickly and crowding on the trail wasn't an issue.

So for a 6+ hour time on my first 50k I'm very happy.  Now I just have to find another race to sign up on....

 

 

My favorite part of race training as I know my long runs are behind me and all I need to do is stay healthy for race day.  The last three weeks really showed the conditioning coming into play.  The 20, 22 and 24 mile runs felt better each week.  I took a small taper (life was too busy) that I hadn’t planned on in early March.  It hurt when I kicked it back up but I feel ready now after the 24 strong miles I put in this past Saturday.  The only part that concerns me is I haven’t done as much trail running, compared to Ultra'thoner, during this training as I should of fit in.  I just don’t have any trails close to home so I’ve been running mostly on roads and sidewalks.

 

From the lack of blog activity I know writing isn’t part of my training routine yet.  Since any run under 15 miles seems short my 4-8 mile runs I need to do the next two weeks are easy.  I just might have time to write.

 

The weather has been great recently in the Denver area.  But this being April it can be 70 one day and snowing and blowing the next.  I’d like to request partly cloudy and 60 degrees please?!?

 

At least it’s taper time and I can catch up on the eating and sleeping.  Training for a run during the winter months takes a lot of work and mental fortitude during these cold mornings.  It all ‘builds character’ and conditioning that will help with my next project.  I am leading a trip to Bolivia to climb several mountains between 17600 and 20900 feet at the end of May.  See Illampu, Bolivia 20892 feet for one of them.  Now it is time to tune up my road bike and start hitting the gym.  Run, bike or climb…it’s all good!

It felt like this week was 14 days jammed into 7.  There is way too much going on right now.  But the running didn't take a hit as I woke earlier if needed to squeeze the miles into the day.

As I mentioned earlier I have a hard time with the walk concept of ultra running.  So to make sure I got my walking in I skipped an 8 mile run this weekend and went snowshoeing to climb a 12er and 13er yesterday for 8 miles instead.  It wasn't that cold (max 17 F) but the winds were real strong.  Sustained 30 mph winds with gusts from 30-60mph during the day.  Really!  The forecast is here.  It took me hours to warm up after I got home.  I looked up some wind chill numbers and was surprised at how brisk it really was once we were above treeline.

Today's run was 14 miles which ended up at at 9.5 minute pace.  The pace felt strong and very manageable with plenty of energy left at the end.  I could of gone longer but 4 miles from finishing it started to snow which is not one of my favorite running conditions.  I think I could of run the 50k ultra today and survived.  I would of paid for it tomorrow I'm sure.  I have 8 more weeks of training before my race week taper.  Without injury or illness 8 more weeks at this training level will let me have a chance at a strong race.

I need new shoes.  Instead of replacing my road shoes I'm looking at the trail running models.  By the time the rest of the training is over and then the race it'll be almost time for another pair as I try to replace them every 500 miles.  Then it'll be time to wear out my road bike tires...

My week three of training, 28 miles, just wrapped up.  It was a very good week.  The long runs this weekend (12 and 8) felt strong and were all 10 minute miles or less.  I'm not sure I can run much slower and still feel like I'm running.  As I mentioned before the run slow and walk sometimes idea needs some work.  With temps in the 40-50s this weekend I can only hope that race day is similar.

In reading A Step Beyond: A Definitive Guide to Ultrarunning, ed. by Don Allison, I'm adjusting my food intake while running.  Normally I don't eat or drink anything on runs 8 miles or less.  I now eat a Clifshot and some fluid around mile 3 and every 3 miles after that which seems to keep the legs strong.  Even better is that I feel less post run fatigue.  It still only takes 1 glass of wine at that point to permanently park me on the couch for the night but my muscle soreness is significantly reduced.  Eating more post run has helped also.  It seems like all I do when I'm awake is eat.  Plenty of eggs, pasta, chicken, whole grain bread, bagels and Chipotle burritos keep me going.

On the wine note I've found a new 'house' wine that it worthy of taking to a party or just every night at home.  Its the 1995 Yalumba Shiraz 94%/Viognier 6% from South Australia.  Depending on where you live it should be in the $8-12 range.  An excellent red for the value.

As a final note my little bro ran the Tampa Bay Marathon this morning.  While he had a very strong run he missed his goal of a Boston Marathon qualifying time by only 7 minutes.  A recent leg injury sure didn't help the end result but Congrats on such a well planned run!

My second week of training for the Greenland 50k is done.  I'm still not sure how I got to this point other than it had to do with Ultra'thoner talking up the long run concept with his detailed emails and blog posts.  So being a good brother I said I'd give it a try.  Why?  The thought of training to run short distance races seems silly to me.  My first race was a marathon; my second was a marathon--see a pattern?  As well as the chance to run a race together was a strong incentive.

This is only my 4th year as a runner.  For years I used to try to run for health; I also tried out for track in high school for all that helped or harmed.  It wasn't until I was much older that I figured out the mental aspect of running.  Up to this point I've always been a hiker, backpacker and, this decade, a alpinist.  When I'm not actually climbing I plan and research future adventures on Summitpost.  So after climbing up a high altitude mountain for the better part of a day I figured I had the endurance and mental ability to run a marathon.  So I try to train and run one race a year since the conditioning really helps my climbing and my cycling.  Yes, you could correctly guess at this point that I don't sit still very often except after a long climb, run or ride.

The snow in Denver this winter has not helped the training these past two weeks.  But even running outside in a couple of inches of the white stuff beats the 1/10 mile track in the local rec center.  This weekend's runs, 8 and 9 milers, wore me out.  I haven't run that much back to back in over a year!

I'm using the Santa Clarita Runners schedule that Ultra'thoner directed me towards.  I was using a marathon schedule from Runner's World that I've used the last several years.  So far, so good.

The biggest part of training for this 50k is the whole run slow and actually walk concept for me.  I've worked to increase my speed for each race, for less than a four hour time, so now I need to really slow my pace.  Hmmm...  This seems to be the biggest challenge so far.  Since I know I can run the 26.2 strong I know the 50k will work out fine short of any weather, (this is Colorado) health or injury issues.  Its just a concept I still need to work out...slow is good?

I don't know how often I'll post here but as the training continues its hard to say what will happen.  Cheers!