Mags!

Today Stacey and I headed up to Boulder for a nice jog along Magnolia Road. That name should be familiar to anyone that has read Running with the Buffaloes, which covers a season of CU's cross country team in the late 90s (though I'm not positive about the date). It's a great read for anyone interested in running. Anyhow, Magnolia Road was the team's standard long run each Sunday. After today's run, I can see why. It's a rolling dirt road at around 8,500 feet with almost no flats. Check this site out for an elevation profile.

Stacey and I started our out-and-back run at the Nederland end of the road, and on the way out I was flying. I was holding just over 7:00 miles at 8,500 feet over some tough hills, and that's while restricting my effort to tempo going uphill and relaxing on the downhills. What I didn't realize is that the rolling hills obscured a nearly 500 foot elevation drop. Needless to say, the way back was tough. Instead of mid-6 to mid-7 minute miles, I started seeing more 8s and 9s. I even had to walk twice for about 30 seconds to keep my HR below threshold.

My favorite moment of the run came as I was charging up a hill about 6 miles into the run. A car stopped in the middle of the hill and the driver motioned that he was in need of some assistance. I paused my watch and said hello. "Is there any place to run around here?" the guy asked. Seriously?!? This guy asked a runner obviously in the middle of a run along a beautiful, up-and-down dirt road at the edge of the Rockies with panoramic mountain views every few hundred meters whether there is any place to run? "Right here," I replied, "on this very road." Not a lot of common sense, that one.





(The second photo is from a nice downhill section which looks totally flat in the photo, while the third photo is not from the run but instead from the drive home along an amazing new running route I lucked upon.)

Stats: 1:41, 13 miles, 7:50/mile, 155 bpm average, felt great until the last 15 minutes when my legs started to really feel the climbing. Oh, and here's a better write-up with better photos to describe the run.

Afterwards we went to the best taco place on Earth. It's located in a not so nice part of Denver at 4th and Federal. Stacey and I were the only non-hispanic people there (a good sign!) and while we waited for our food we were offered both counterfeit DVDs and homemade Mexican cheese by two separate street vendors that wandered into the restaurant. If these tacos receive a 10/10, then the next best tacos I've hard are at most a 7/10. (Sorry, mom.) Stacey's burrito was only pretty good, though.

Yesterday: Trail run up some small peak near Golden. Very, very steep at times. 1:00 of running covered just 5.5 miles. Average HR was 150 but again that's basically a 50/50 mix of 160+ and 140-. I had to walk some during this run, too.


(Looking over to Lookout Mountain, where many of the best cyclists in the world will be battling it out next Saturday. I'll be at the second switch backs watching.)


(Yes, that's the trail. There was a lot of this straight up rock stuff.)


(The start. I climbed the peak that's cut-off on the left side of the picture.)