Training Log Archive: PG

River Road - Old Deerfield loop (38:10, 33:15). Nice day, breezy. Plus the usual morning walk, this time off at 6:45, first ones out, done by 9:45, exceedingly pleasant, even with carrying the usual 15? pounds.

Getting plans set for Estonia (thanks to Barb), getting psyched.

So got an appointment with this guy for a consultation, but not until October 16, with surgery to follow at some point would be my guess. Part of me wants to see if I can get it moved up, just to get going, get it done with; the other part thinks it makes more sense to enjoy an extra month with all my plumbing working.... :-)

C • the guy 3

Atkins Reservoir from Mill River, 28:01 up, 24:18 back. Not so bad on a humid day. Actually ran at a steady reasonably hard effort. Upper left leg still not right, but perhaps not quite as bothersome as during/after Tuesday's run, the hamstring was quite sore for a couple of days after that outing.

Up: 8:43, 7:52, 6:19, 5:07. Back 5:27, 4:56, 6:36, 7:18.

C • Email 2

South Deerfield - Whately loop. Another beautiful afternoon, the lower humidity is definitely good for both energy levels and morale.

Leverett loop, counter-clockwise. A few hills for the first time, not so bad. And another nice late afternoon.

Followed by a three-hour board meeting, always interesting, often challenging.

C • Good work 4

Been a while since I've been at the gym....

Legs sore from yesterday evening's run. But not awful.

Another mostly flat ride, South Deerfield, N Main-Mill Valley-Lee-Stillwater-Rt 116-Elm. Also another gorgeous late afternoon.

Mt. Toby Tuesday evening loop. Really nice evening, cooler, low humidity. Wasn't sure how much I'd do, but the energy levels were ok for once. And the aches were tolerable -- left hip still a little sore, bionic toe hurting some (but that is nothing new). Pace was actually a bit quicker at the end, trying to keep up with Dave and Phil while I contemplated what I determined was the question of the day --

"Is anti-social behavior while trail running something you are born with, or do you have to work to develop it?"

Just thinking about that kept me going for the last 20 minutes.... :-)

Once again on the non-orienteering front....

Perhaps a bit of clarity.

So I'm back visiting my urologist, trying to figure out what to do, or at least trying to figure out a process to decide what to do. I've been leery all along of radiation. It's a totally irrational feeling, but it exists, and it's existed all along. But at my U's urging, I'd gone to investigate the seed treatment. So we talked about the results of last week, yup, just like I'd been told, prostate too big, access to it partially blocked by the pubic arch, get a hormone shot or two, shrink the prostate in 3 months, yup, just like I'd been told, then repeat the measurements of last week to see if the location was now such that the pubic arch was no longer in the way and if that's ok, then put in the seeds.

Whoa, I hadn't been told that. So I asked, you mean, I could get the hormone shot(s), feel like shit for 3 months, and still not be able to do the seed treatment, so all that would be useless. Yup.

Man, it pisses me off when people gloss things over. Never a mention of this from the radiation oncologist, despite specific questions about what the possible problems might be.

Now, it was already clear I wasn't going back to her again.

On the other hand, I've been trying to weigh treatments on the basis of expected outcomes and expected problems, and not on the basis of whether I like someone or not. So I didn't want to reject a treatment just because I had lost all faith in one of its practitioners. But in this case, the thought that I might go off on this road towards seed implants, and spend several months and feel quite miserable in the process, and then have it be all for naught, well, that seemed very unappealing, especially combined with my existing irrational fear of radiation.

So the road is now headed toward surgery, my guess in a couple of months, not irreversibly so but pretty likely so. And I am getting an appointment with a guy at the Lahey Clinic north of Boston who is supposed is one of the top in the field of doing this. And we will see what happens.

One step at a time.

Whately, South Deerfield, mostly flat. And something that is appreciated by almost all bikers, good pavement in general and a couple miles brand new.

Nice late afternoon, fresh air after a front came through, breezes out of the northwest. I'd guess the summer humidity is winding down. Unfortunately that means summer is winding down too.

More on the non-orienteering front....

Went to see a "radiation oncologist" last week to see if I was a good candidate for seed implants. And that depends on the size, shape, and location of your prostate. And to determine that they have to stick some sort of ultrasound probe up your rear. And to keep you AOWN while they do that, you take a couple of sedatives beforehand (and get someone to drive you there and back, thank you Gail).

So I did that, and so by the time I stripped down to get on with things I was reasonably groggy. At which point, the doctor comes in and, first things first, she hands me a clipboard with some papers on it and asks me to sign.

Well, over the years I've developed this annoying habit of reading things before I sign, even apparently when I'm quite groggy, and lo and behold, it seems I'm agreeing to not what they are doing right then, but to the whole seed implant process. Imagine my surprise, especially since I still have no f**king idea what I am going to do, or where or with whom. So of course I refused to sign. And then they just went on with what they were doing. Which determined that if I want to do the seed implant thing, then first I have to get a hormone shot (or two) to shrink my prostate and more or less turn me into an elderly female for 3 months complete with hot flashes.

Isn't life wonderful sometimes!

It wasn't until a day or two later that I really thought about the papers I was asked to sign. I believe the term is "informed consent." I can't conceive of a reason for waiting until I was loopy to get me to sign. The word "unethical" keeps popping into my mind. I doubt that I'll be going back to that doctor, no matter what I decide to do.

-------------------------------------------------------------

On a totally separate subject, and certainly more pleasant, when I could have been driving up to Fundy and back and competing in the COCs, I was actually competing in something quite different, no, wait, I forget, it's virtually the same sport.... :-)

C • yep, the term is 'informed ... 4

I went to the Canadian Champs when they were last in Fundy National Park, in 2000. Fun trip, with a side excursion to PEI, some rogaine practice, and also some O' that was, well, not lacking for challenge. Mainly because the forest was hilly, rocky, rough, thick, low visibility -- and that was the part that was mapped white. :-)

Not "life-threatening thick" like a bit of forest at the recent CNYO rogaine or the pricker fields at the Sons of Norway meet many years ago, just really rough going. If Laramie represents one end of the spectrum of runnability/visibility, then Fundy can't be far from the other end. Someone going to both the US and Canadian Champs this summer was certainly going to see some different terrain.

Here are my maps from 2000: Day 1 and Day 2.

Both were Course 5, M55-64 (and a few other classes). Day 1 I took 52:33 for 3.8 km, Day 2 was 54:18 for 4.1 km. Which works out to 13+ minutes/km. Not real speedy.

I had sort of hoped that the woods had magically gotten more open for this year, but it looks from the results that they were still a challenge, and maybe more of a challenge than some cared for. On the other hand, orienteers tend to like to get good value for the dollar, and many folks seem to have had the chance to enjoy more time orienteering over the weekend than normal.

Note that, since I got some flak for saying the the US Champs, day 2 at least, were less fun (for me) because it was so easy, I will not say that the Canadian Champs might have been less fun because it was so hard. I assume that everyone enjoyed themselves immensely.... :-)

Same as yesterday, in the opposite direction. Rear end was complaining within the first minute, but calmed down after a while.

Dugout the bike for the first time in a couple of years, pumped up the tires, fiddled with the brakes until they didn't bind, and headed out. Sure felt like I hadn't been on a bike in a long time, but at least no falls.

Falls, Meadow, Book Mill, Old Sunderland.

C • Bike ride 6

A few laps with Dave. Went by very quickly.

"How was Dave," Gail asked afterwards.

"I don't know, I spent the whole time unloading on him...."

2 x 1600 with 90 second rest. 6:58, 6:58. No zip, meant to do more, quit.

Just a bad week. So far at least. One can always hope for improvement. I suppose.

Over to the high school track in Litchfield, and back.

2 x 1600, a couple of minutes of rest in between. 7:08, 6:49. First one was pretty feeble, a little sore and just not putting out at all. Second one I worked a little harder. Barely worth doing.

Eventful ride home, taking my brother and Donna to the airport in Hartford on the way. After about 10 minutes various lights started coming on on the dashboard - battery, brakes, ABS, airbag. And about 5 minutes later, while I was trying to figure out if the car was about to croak, there was a massive traffic jam on route 8 in Torrington, seemed the road was totally closed.

So after a bit of wondering what to do, and thinking maybe panic might be called for, the voice of reason returned -- I pulled out the cell phone and called Charlie. And he was, as always, brilliant.

So first he pulled up his street map of where we were, told us where to go. Then we made plans to meet in New Hartford, assuming our car could make it that far. We got there, though the car was acting a little strange and starting to overheat, met up with Charlie, transferred everyone and luggage into his car and headed off to the airport. Unloaded Michael and Donna in plenty of time. They seemed quite impressed at our ability to summon someone like Charlie at the drop of a hat....

Then, back to our car, up with the hood, three non-mechanics looking and poking and wondering what might be wrong, and making useful comments like, hmm, seems to be plenty of windshield washer fluid....

So I thought we'd try going a little farther, so off we went, up 219 as far as the turn-off to where Charlie lives. And the car was still overheating on the uphills, and maybe smelling a little funny.

Another discussion. I proposed we try just heading home, Gail wasn't happy with that, Charlie proposed plan B/C/D, whatever we were up to by that point, up to his house, he'd lend us a car, tomorrow morning he'd take our car in to his mechanic to get it fixed, then we could come back and trad cars in a couple of days.

Did I say Charlie was a saint?

So we went up to Ratlum Mountain, and hung around for a bit, and then went off for 9 very pleasant holes of rogaine practice, and then eventually headed home is a borrowed chariot. Got here safe and sound.

C • Saint 2

At Five Ponds. A little sore, but managed an hour. Followed a little later by a short excursion to pick mushrooms.

C • mushrooms? 2

Figured out how to set the timer on my camera, so got a family portrait. There seemed to be patience for only one take, and one take was all it took. (My mom and sister Genia in front; me, my niece Alex, Gail, my sister-in-law Donna, and my brother Michael in back.)

Off to Litchfield for a family weekend. Have been taking a few days off, legs tired and left hamstring/hip sore. Not sure that it did any good.

Back home. G is good.

I was thinking some more about the courses on the weekend (and this relates really to just GreenX, because I didn't look at other courses more than a quick glance).

The pre-race hype was that Sunday was going to be, well, remarkable. I thought Saturday was more interesting orienteering though still nothing special. If you want to see how good Laramie terrain can be, just go across the road to Pelican Bay and First with the Most.

Red courses from Team Trials in 2004: Middle (First with the Most) and Long (Pelican Bay).

I remember after the Champs last year at Quantico I wrote something questioning if the courses were too difficult (and in too unpleasant terrain), and there were several comments to the effect that it was the Champs and the courses ought to be tough. What a difference a year makes.

C • G 1

C • What a difference a year makes? 4

Just time for one more outing before heading for home, a pre-breakfast outing to Gem Lake (route). 32:21 up, running just a little, 22:50 back, running very cautiously, didn't want to do anything stupid (which would have included falling and trashing my camera, which I was carrying in one hand as I had no pockets).

Very pleasant, different kind of terrain, lots of granite outcrops that rock climbers enjoy, vegetation was thick in places, would have been very tough going for orienteering. All by myself, just saw a couple of people as I was finishing up.

The trail went up there somewhere....



No mountains, but lots of interesting rock formations.



Gem Lake, pretty spot, the lake was only about as big as a large swimming pool and not very deep, you definitely would not want to dive in from the cliffs.



And the trail, well, someone had put a whole lot of work into it over the years (the same was true of yesterday's trail). Lots and lots of serious rock moving.

Hiked up to Chasm Lake (just below Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain NP). Start at 9,400' lake was about 11,800. Gail dropped me off, I told her I'd be back down in 2 hours 20 minutes. Seems I miscalculated a little, thought it would take me 1:20 to get to the lake, but either the slightly longer than anticipated distance (4.2 miles vs. 3.9) or the fact that my legs seemed tired after the weekend of O', or probably both, meant I didn't spot the lake until 90 minutes had passed. Stayed there at most a couple of minutes, time enough to take a few pictures, and then hustled back a little faster than I cared to, but still was a few minutes late. 90:10 up, 56:40 back. Quite tired, then had to hustle a little more to make our tee time.

But still, a beautiful outing. Perfect morning, not a cloud in the sky. Lots of people on the trail (it's the primary access for those climbing Longs Peak, which is not a trivial climb), but I had expected that and it was tolerable. Did a little rock climbing myself on the last little pitch up to the lake, got of the "trail" and the next thing I knew I was looking for handholds and footholds and getting a little nervous. Fortunately didn't last long.

A few photos:

The first mile or two are at a modest incline up through the forest, no views. Then out in the open, Longs Peak way in the distance.



Getting a little closer, the trail to Longs Peak goes sharply right and eventually climbs up from the far side, Chasm Lake is straight ahead.



Getting closer....



Past one little lake....



Then up one little pitch, the kind of stuff that makes me nervous (compare to the serious rock in the background!)....



And then finally at Chasm Lake. Quite nice.

C • Just missed us 5

Day 2 of the US Champs. My orienteering was much sharper today, and as a result my run was not so much fun.

Huh?

My route.

By "sharper" I mean that I was simplifying things much better, picking out features to make the orienteering easier, looking not just at the point I was looking for or route I was trying to follow, but also at what was around the point or the route.

So, for example, to #2, which at first glance looked like a tricky approach if one were coming in right on the line. But another glance determined that just to the right of the point, maybe 50 meters, was the corner of a big patch of aspen, couldn't miss that. So I just headed to that, using a couple of other aspen groves along the way to stay on line, and at the last bit I stayed a little left, and the control couldn't have been easier (or quicker).

To #3, through the aspen, up onto the broad spur, don't worry about the rocks on the way up, just look for the rocks on the far side of the spur and go to the right edge of them.

And so on, using the big rocks or the aspen (light green on the map) or the hilltops. Made it real easy.

Two bits could have been better. The first was going to 11, had a moment of weakness physically going up the gentle slope to the high ground, and then maybe because of that a moment of mental weakness going along the high ground, not paying attention. Didn't really miss the point, but a bit of uncertainly and a little time lost. The other was at #16, left 15, through the rocks, down the reentrant in the aspen, got out in the open, looked to the right, and things just seemed a little different than I expected. Partly, some bits of aspen that weren't mapped, partly not sure which rocks were which. Blew off a minute there. Really pissed. Made a really good time just a good time. Still good enough to win M60 handily, but about 5th or 6th on the Green course.

So why not so much fun? Maybe because, since the course already had a few dead spots (big open areas that had to be crossed), and I was simplifying the orienteering even more, the run reminded me of what I have read about biking, especially when the road turns uphill -- the ones that do best are the ones who have learned how to suffer the best, that it is just pure and simple pain. Which is how today seemed. I had almost the last start, knew that 45 minutes more or less was the target, and just had to keep trying to keep moving as well as possible. I'd guess that of my 46 minutes perhaps at most 15 minutes were spent being concerned about the mental/technical side of orienteering (as well as the physical). The rest was knowing exactly where to go, just getting there. And a good bit of suffering.

One other subject. I sometimes see other people do things that lead me to believe that they haven't properly done all they could have to prepare for a race. I'm not thinking here of the big stuff -- the training, the mental preparation to race on this particular type of terrain, the studying of old maps or air photos or whatever. I'm thinking of the smaller, simpler stuff, like knowing where the last control is (or maybe where it is in relation to the loudspeaker), if it's possible to see it, or learning what you can from watching runners that started earlier. All the M60s started very late, so we could watch earlier runners on the Green course do a couple of spectator controls towards the end. You could see 13, and 14, and it looked like it might be possible to miss 14 a little one way or the other, and as I was looking from our car, I noticed that the route from 13 to 14 lined up pretty close to our car, and when I went to the blue porta-potties, I noticed that the route lined up almost exactly with them. An hour later, I punched at 13, turned and headed right for the blue toilets in the distance, and 14 popped up right in front of me. :-)

C • 10 looks a little bigoish o... 4

Warm-up.

US Champs: GreenX Day 2 - Splits

Felt better today, fortunately. Maybe still a little off, but not much.

US Champs, day 1, M60 (GreenX). Ok run except for #5, just real sloppy all the way. Then got into the rocks a little further west of where I though I was. Checked a couple of cliffs, no control, went out to the north to see if the open land made sense, nothing definite enough. Then back west a little, fixed my spot at a little knoll, then in from there though it was still farther than expected. Just not reading the map well.

The rest was pretty good. Running was suffering as usual, not the hills but the altitude. But overall ran not so bad, and a whole lot better than I would have guessed 24 hours ago.

My route.

C • course looks fast 1

Warm-up, absolutely necessary.

US Champs Green X - Splits

Bad day. Woke up, got up, stepped out the door, balance was screwy, I'd turn my head and it would take a while to adjust for looking in a new direction, walking as if I'd had way too much to drink. Stomach off too. A few hours sitting in the car, a few lying down. Hope it disappears as fast as it came or no O' tomorrow.

C • Altitude issues? 2

Stan's climb, excellent.

Stan is an old friend, former co-editor of Ultrarunning magazine, now lives much of the year in Silverthorne, CO, elevation about 9,000'. Decent runner (though we are all getting old), also good skier, mountaineer, rock climber, also very competitive just like yours truly. One of his test loops for running, though it isn't actually a loop, just a climb, is across the valley from his house -- start at 9,000, climb to 9,600, a short drop to 9,500, and then a steady climb to 11,400, a distance overall of just shy of 3 miles.

When we made plans to visit a week ago, he immediately booked me for the climb, his best for the year so far was 61 minutes and he wanted to get under an hour. But then about 4 days ago he did 58:30, so the pressure was off, but knowing him and knowing me, it was impossible for us not to do it anyway, just to see what we could do. I figured I would end up someplace between upper 50s and mid 60s, although having spent a few days high up made me a little more optimistic.

So we were off just after 8, perfect morning for a workout, overcast, low 50s. Warmed up for a few minutes and then headed up. I let Stan lead and pulled in right behind him.

Now our history on hilly courses was that I was always a little better on the ups and he was a little bolder on the downs. His approach on the ups was, for ego reasons I assume, to run as much of the way as possible, no matter how slow he was actually going. Hence the term "Wagon steps," where the length of the stride is less than the length of the foot. And my approach has been to not hesitate to walk when things tilted up, but to try to walk as briskly as possible.

So I was curious to see if things had changed. And, maybe because one's essential character rarely changes, things had not changed much. Stan started running right from the go, up a moderately steep slope, I started walking right from the go, and we stayed pretty exactly even, but hustling pretty good. Hit the top of the first hill, he had run most of it, and he was pleased with the time. Down through the one dip, then up the rest of the way. Stan would run every time the grade moderated, I almost never ran, and we stayed about even -- he'd pick up a few yards sometimes on the running, I'd get them right back when he resumed walking.

I should add that throughout all of this I saw not a single Wagon step, not even close. And we were making what he said was good time.

Hit the last of my checkpoints (I had tried to memorize a few turns, and their elevations) at 42 minutes and a few seconds, a little over 600' to climb. Stan had said the last section took 15-16 minutes, so I figured 57 should be possible. But I wanted to do a low a number as we could. And so a couple of minutes later I shifted gears and passed him and pretty much red-lined it the rest of the way. A good effort, also good fun except for the couple hundred yards just before the last pitch where the trail leveled out and I was obligated to run to hold on to what was by then about a 40 yard lead. Up the last pitch, Stan had said to stay to the right of the rocks, the finish being on top of a rocky knoll just off the trail. So I stayed to the right and at the last moment hooked left and climbed up on the rocks, only to discover that there were two little rocky knolls further to the left, and a little higher. By the time I scrambled over there, maybe 15 seconds, Stan had almost closed the gap, but I still got him by about 5 seconds.

As we caught our breath, he asked what I had for time. 55:48, I said, very pleased. What did you get? 55:30. What? I got up here ahead of you. Now Stan is an very accomplished mathematician, and I used to be a pseudo-mathematician, and somehow we couldn't even keep time. And he was clearly quite happy claiming 55:30, I mean these watches don't make mistakes, and I clearly wasn't going to be happy with him claiming a faster time than me. So we argued a bit, well, maybe discussed it a bit, and after a while determined that his super-complicated watch with lots of extra buttons and him taking all sorts of splits, well, somewhere along the way 22 seconds had disappeared. Had we been going that fast? I was trying to remember what I had read about Einstein's stuff. Actually it just seemed that Stan had pressed a few too many buttons.

Nevertheless, still a mutual triumph. He was delighted (best time he'd done in 6 years), I was delighted. It's good to have friends.

The route, including the round-about way back down.

C • Wagon steps? 7

Back down a different trail, excellent again.

Actually had to climb just a little more before picking up the return route. And it was gorgeous, moderate to gentle grade, switchbacked a few times, and then working back south along the hillside, gradually dropping. Brought back memories of some 100-milers, especially Western States and Angeles Crest, just beautiful trails. Chatting all the way back, the time passed in a flash.

Then to Laramie, back to the O' world....

A shorter outing today because my hill climb with Stan is tomorrow. Went south from Independence Pass, very nice, a bit flat and then gently up, reached the top of the first hill at 30 minutes, would have liked to gone on to the next one, just over 13,000 (even though the weather was a bit iffy, solid overcast, little bits of rain, but no thunder), but I stuck to the plan. Back in 20 minutes. Ran about a quarter of the time on the way out, then all the way back. Elevation from 12,100 to 12,800. The air in Laramie is going to seem so thick! :-)

The route.

One nice AOWN sighting, a flock of about 8 ptarmigans....



And the country was very pleasant, not much vegetation, lots of places you could go. Looking back north to the pass from as far south as I got --



And looking south, would have been nice to keep going --



Had hoped to do a little afternoon rogaine practice in Leadville at a place that claims to be the highest course in North America (just under 10,000'), just to see how far the ball would go, but the rains moved in in a serious way.

From Monarch Pass again, this time to the north. Actually, the plan was to start at the base of the ski area, hike up the northernmost lift line, and the go north on the open ridge for a while. But Gail was looking for a nice spot to paint, and the ski area was, well, on the ugly side. But she found a good spot up at the pass, so I went from there.

Much more running today as most of the route was rather gentle, the first third on a nice single-track, the rest on jeep roads around the top of the ski area. All was part of the Continental Divide Trail. 43:47 out, probably walked 10 minutes or so, 38:34 back, just walked 2 or 3 minutes. The pace was slow, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't lots of deep breathing, as the altitude was all about 11,500'. So overall good to be able to do some running, though the hard work made the actual doing a little less pleasant. At least I got back before the increasingly dark clouds developed into anything more threatening.

The Route.

The view to the north from the top of the middle chair lift showing where I had hoped to get to -- the round guy with snow on the SE side, not quite 13,000, but that was with starting a lot closer to it. As it was, I was 35 minutes to this spot, just time for one more down and up.



The view back to the south from the north end. The pass is visible in the distance.



Pretty country. The towers were visited on Sunday's hike.



And finally, at one point I spotted a small contraption that looked like it might have a map on it, or something else interesting, and indeed it did -- a pair of keys.

Readers of this log with good memories will recall that I had an instance a while back of leaving car keys that were not there when I returned, thanks to some well-intentioned senior citizen who spotted them and turned them in to the authorities when he should have just left them alone.

So did I grab this pair and turn them in to the folks down at the pass? No way, I sure the guy is coming back for them.

C • Keep 'em coming 1

Event: 2008 Laramie Daze & US Champs
 

In Crested Butte, another hike up, jog down, this time to the top of Snodgrass Mountain and back, 2.97 miles one way, 1,550' climb, 50:22 up, 26:15 down. Jeep road all the way, not particularly scenic, not particularly interesting, but I had a very nice time. In fact I was thinking while I was climbing, and working reasonably hard but not too hard, that this was more fun than orienteering, because there was none of the physical suffering of orienteering. Hmm, can I skip out on Laramie? What I'd really like to do is go hike up Mt. Elbert, another nothing special hike, only done because it gets you to the supposedly highest point in Colorado. I hiked up Elbert when I was 13, and for some reason coming back down the same way was too boring, so we ran down the endless scree slope on the NE side of the mountain. That part I would not do it again.

But I doubt I will do it, because Stan has me scheduled to do his test climb on Thursday which we are supposed to do in under an hour, I think it climbs about 2,500 feet topping out at 11,500 (same distance as today's hike, just steeper), should not be any problem except the legs aren't there any more. Not that they ever were real good, I think I once did a little over 1,000 meters in an hour in Switzerland, but that's still pretty meager. But if I was to do Elbert on Wednesday, than I might pass totally on Stan's plan, and he would not appreciate that. Oh, well. Actually, I am looking forward to his course.

Today's route.

Top of Snodgrass (can you imagine going through life with that name?) was totally treed, one slight view to the NE....



But halfway down things opened up, nice views of the ski area and lots of flowers in the meadows.

Nice (and short) trip up from Monarch Pass, 1.4 mi each way, hike up (23:09), jogged down easily (13:46), stopping to take a few pictures. Nice day, got done just before the thunderstorms rolled in. Altitude 11K+, didn't feel too bad, though I wasn't exactly pushing it.

Route.

A few photos from the last couple of days....

My nephew Daniel, who we visited in Denver. He just finished taking the bar exam. Assuming he passed, he'll start working for the Public Defender Office in Golden. A fine and smart young man.



Stopped in Canon City for some rogaine practice. Interesting course, lots of slopes, excellent rogaine practice as I was searching in the bushes much more often than I cared.



Next stop was Royal Gorge, pretty neat canyon, though we passed on the tourist trap at the suspension bridge (which I wouldn't have walked out on anyway).



Meanwhile, Gail was trying out her new brace (on the right knee), mixed reviews so far.



Last stop was at Monarch Pass, where if you pee at the sign (misplaced by about 100 yards) it all goes in the Pacific.



And the ad for the gondola lift was technically accurate....



I hiked up, passed the fork to the right for the Continental Divide Trail, where the sign says no 4-wheeled vehicles (duh)....



And made it up to the top, where I assume I got radiated pretty thoroughly.

C • sign 6

In Denver, from my nephew's house to the state capitol and back. Nice way to see a few city sights on a hot (but not humid!) late afternoon. Easy pace. Hamstring, which has been twingy the last week, still isn't right.

Route.