I Left My Quads in Colorado - - - New Mexico Wants Them Now

Hope everyone is running well. My trip has been wonderful and the runs have been fabulous. Santa Fe has lived up to its reputation. I've found a wonderful downtown cafe to hang out at for a bit. My body is feeling good here in New Mexico after some pretty tough runs in Colorado (the place my quads will remember forever...) This entire trip has been completely energizing. I stopped by a great running store (The Running Hub) a couple days ago and was able to physically look at and touch some of the specialty gear that isn't readily available back in Pullman. And I found a great hydration belt that works great.

Anyway, it may be a few more days before I can get to everyone's blog but I look forward to seeing how everyone is doing. I'll give you a quick pictorial rundown of my runs since last week's entry.

Wed. May 30
Arroyo North of Santa Fe (near our lodging)
5 miles

Near the river the arroyo is flat and wide

A couple miles out the landscape becomes more dramatic

Near my turn-around point I climbed up above for this shot



Tue May 29
Sangre de Cristo Mts, New Mexico
13 mile loop

Most of the 13 miles were along 3 different rivers

Some amazing rock formations

The last 3 miles of this loop was upriver next to dozens of waterfalls


Mon May 28
Ancho Rapids Run - Near White Rock, NM
6 miles

This run starts on top of a mesa

Coming to the edge of the mesa

Looking down from the edge to the river (Rio Grande) and Ancho Rapids

From the river looking back up. The mesa I came down from is the one on the right.



Sat May 26
Near La Veta, CO
4 miles

Got up early for a quick run before the drive to NM

I never get tired of the views of the Spanish Peaks


Fri May 26
Sangre de Cristo Mts, CO
12 miles

This has been the the most grueling run of my trip so far. The weather was moving so fast; I ran through two hail showers, one rain shower, a bunch of sunshine, and lots of quad pounding downhill.

West Spanish Peak in the top right

Sadie and some Aspens

West Spanish Peak in the background

Hope you enjoy. Keep running!

Scott

Cafe on a Mountain -- with Wireless!

Here's a shout-out to wireless Internet! An afternoon rain storm has me down from the mountains (barely) and into the local cafe with some time to update everyone on the trip.

It has been great so far and I'm getting in some wonderful runs. We made it to my grandparents house Saturday afternoon. The have an amazing place about 30 miles south of Jackson, WY. I shook off 10 hours of driving with a 3 mile jog surrounded by 360 degrees of mountains. We spent Sunday wandering around Grand Teton National Park. If you've been there before you know there's nothing I can say here that can even come close to describing it. If you haven't...well, try not to wait as long as I did to visit. I have a few photos at the bottom. We took a ferry across Jenny Lake and went on a short hike. That hike was about enough for Grandma and Grandpa, so we spent the rest of the day driving around viewing wildlife. We had lunch at the famous Jackson Lake Lodge. The drive from the park south along the Snake River is almost as great as the park itself. The plan is to stop in Wyoming for a couple days on the way back and visit Yellowstone NP.

Monday was a long drive to southern Colorado. Long. But by then the dogs had a couple long days in the car so they slept most of the way knowing that there wasn't much fun to be had. So that was a nice surprise. Tuesday I took Sadie for a 5.5 mile run out of town. Absolutely beautiful. The valley sits at about 7,000ft and is dominated by the Spanish Peaks. The altitude was a little tough to deal with at first but after about 2 miles I felt great. The air may be thinner than I'm used to, but it seems to be so clean and crisp that it makes you want to take deeper breaths than usual anyway.

This morning Sadie and I went on a great (but very tough) 8-mile run on a trail called Indian Creek. The trail head is at 8,500ft. I ran/hiked to the 4-mile marker, which is just over 10,100ft. Yes, I'm wearing a watch now - a Suunto Observer, very cool. I think I'll have to work my way up to the ultra-cool Garmins that everyone else seems to have. :) The quad burning run down was nearly as tough as going up. There was also a lot of snow on a few parts of the trail that I had to scramble around because the drifts/patches were too steep and slick to cross (not for Sadie, though). And I'm officially scared of bears. For about a mile on the trail I was following bear tracks. I didn't see any on the run, though, but every time Sadie scared up a grouse, or any bird for that matter, I about had a heart attack. And when she stopped in her tracks ahead of me to look at something off the trail I about had a heart attack as well. So I'm not sure if it was the altitude or the heart attacks that made the run to cardiovascular. :)

I'll probably be off for a couple more days, but will continue running and taking photos. We'll be in Santa Fe next week. Can't wait!

Enjoy the photos and keep running!

Scott

Wed. May 23
Indian Creek Trail, Sangre de Cristo Mountains, CO

Tues. May 22

Cuchara River Valley, CO

Spanish Peaks.
Left, East Peak - 12,683'. Right, West Peak - 13,625'.

Sun. May 20
Grand Teton National Park, WY

Pretty Jeanie!


View from inside Jackson Lake Lodge

Road Trip!

We will be on the road for the next couple days. Stopping in Wyoming for a day or two (my grandparents) on the way to Colorado for a few days (Jeanie's parents) on the way to a few days in Santa Fe, New Mexico (really good food).

My running shoes are packed and I'm looking forward to posting some great photos of some great runs. It's going to be interesting how I do in the altitude. So, it may be a couple days until you hear from me, but that won't mean that I'm not running. (okay, it probably will mean that I'm not running...)

But for everyone else - keep running!

Scott

Iron Lotus Thursday

Quick post this evening. We're gearing up for our big cross-country road trip beginning Saturday and have waited until the last few possible moments to get oil changes, snacks, toothpaste, dog baths blah blah blah(g). So I'm being heckled at this very moment to get off the computer and do my laundry. :)

I did get a quick 4 mile run in, though. At least it felt quicker than usual. I'm beginning to judge the intensity of my runs by how long Sadie lays under the kitchen table when we get home.

Here's the Sadie scale:

Easy run - skips the table and wrestles with Shasta.
Moderate run - drinks some water and then sniffs under the table before laying down for maybe 10 or 15 minutes.
Difficult run - skips the water and stays under the table for 45 minutes to an hour.
Extreme psycho run - goes straight for the bath tub and fills it up with cold water and jumps in.

So even though tonight I felt like I ran at a nice brisk pace it was an easy run on the Sadie scale.

But it felt good anyway. Keep running!

Scott

Wet Dog Wednesday

It's funny when I cross paths with other runners and they noticeably speed up when they pass me. Like just in case I'm a running god giving away "Way to Go!" ribbons as I trot by. I suppose it's only natural to try to perform a little better when you know you're being watched. Thing is, I do just the opposite. When I see someone running toward me I purposefully slow down a notch, because the way I see it, who knows, maybe I'll meet that person in a future race and it will be between the two of us on the final sprint to break the ribbon and they'll underestimate me because they remembered how slow I was six years before. :-) Is that logically flawless or what?

Anyway, nice easy 4 mile run today. According to my new training advice guide I need to step back the weekly miles every few weeks - so that's this week. I've been increasing and increasing and this week I'm going to scale back a bit. Even took Shasta the Running Pomeranian today and she and Sadie found a nice semi-transparent creek to jump in. Ah, black wet dogs in the sun.

Keep running!

Scott