Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Biked with Tyler and Matt in the early afternoon. In the late afternoon, Tyler and I linked up again, this time for a loose map/terrain run out at Diamond Bay, for about 2 hours of running. He found a mule deer shed and I found several aluminum cans for bonuses on top of the running. Because it was the weekend and it is Laramie in April, there was some snow late into the run, but all it amounted to were a few wind driven flakes and not close enough to make a visible difference in the areas where there was still snow on the ground.

I think grooming at Happy Jack will cease after today.

It was tough to decide what it was today. There was some sun, and also some nice wind, so promising. I cycled to do some errands, and managed with shorts and a light jacket, even if that left me feeling on the cool side.

Later, I went running, and made it up top today. Funny, from the way it looked by the end of the day, there was no way to guess the interstate was closed yesterday. It was gray by then, and windier. Now I had on a long sleeved shirt, jacket, long pants, knit cap, and gloves. Plus, all the firs in the forest had snow covering their boughs. Adding it all up, it spelled winter.

So I describe it as another day of winter. Tomorrow may bring changes.

My route took me past a viewpoint over the interstate and you can see some parts of Colorado far away, like the tip of Longs Peak. And:

Off to the South I saw a Snow Squall,
Off in the distance, neither large nor small,
Somehow it reminded me of Apple,
Until I realized it wasn't Snow at all,
But rather, it was only Grapple.

My, oh my.

C • Umm... 1

Snö och blåst hela sagen. Though the snow never amounted to much in town--just some white frosting on the grass. Temps never made it out of the 20s. I was planning to run up top in the late afternoon, and unsuspectingly left home in my truck to do just that, only to be greeted by flashing lights and gates down across the interstate. And just in case anyone was tempted to bypass the gates, there were three state trooper cars at the ready there. So turned around and headed back to town, just like anyone else. I was curious as to why the interstate was closed with so little snow during the day, and checked the cameras when I got home. It looked like icing was the problem.

I considered my options. It was gray and very windy, and there's no place to run outside of town where you're not fully exposed to the winds. Probably a good idea to check the temps,,,which read as 27F, and with a "feels like" 2F. 2F? I could take 4F for sure, maybe 3E. But 2F, in April? On Friday the 13th? Too much. I decided to burn some calories inside on the bike trainer inside. At least that would help warm up the house a little.

C • Snö och blåst 5

By mid-day conditions were approaching summer and might have achieved that designation had it not been for winds fully engaged and frantically trying to keep things from boiling over. That made for some very fine biking, thanks to some outstanding gusting and swirl to the winds. That did mean, however, that I thought it was the better part of wisdom to stay off of any of the overpasses over the interstate, less one were to become "one with the interstate."

Ran trails for a solid 2 hours up top in the late afternoon. Footing was mostly firm but rotting ice, some amounts of slush, some fun mud here and there, and occasional sections of deep drifted snow that was disintegrating from below and which would have been incapable of supporting the footstep of a tiny butterfly. Lots of meltage (rhymes with garage) had taken place earlier in the day when the sun was searing away.

Spring.

C • Saw this, and something mad... 2

I was trying to decide if it was winter or not today when I saw the temperature: 65F 65F? That's almost summer!

I got my things together and hustled on out to Pelican Bay and ran a 12.6 km course with 53 controls. I think originally there were supposed to be 54, but whoever handled the printing (I think it was me) left one outside of the paper sheet. Good thing it wasn't WOC!

There was plenty of snow in the forest, but it was quite scattered and for the most part, easy to avoid. Or, if you wanted to go the other way, it usually wasn't too hard to find patches to plow through almost right along the chosen line.

The best part was seeing a yearling moose. I don't think it was expecting to see someone wearing Hakarpspojkarna clothing out there today. In fact, I'm positive of it. The second best part was seeing a few pasque flowers blooming in the snow. A classic spring scene for the May queen.

Considerably milder today. I expected to see vast amounts of snow up top melting away, and was surprised to see how little things had changed since yesterday. Light clouds and some haze were filtering the sun already by midday, and that sucked away all the melting oomph the sun had to offer. And what had felt very mild down in the valley earlier felt quite a bit cooler higher up with generous breeze and by then gray skies. Still, spring it was.

Biked in shorts, which was fine when the sun was out. But for the 3/4s of the time clouds intervened, it was less fine, and more clothes would have been better.

Even so, I was undecided as to whether to come down on the side of spring or winter until I went to run. By then, the wind was stiff and the snow was dry and it was fully cloudy. Felt like winter, therefore winter.