Up hill and down dale....

Adventures in The Ranch's open space today.
Ah, how quickly Thursday night rolls around. It means work looms again tomorrow. With this in my forbrain I find myself increasingly doing odd things on Thursdays. I guess it's to offset the time I cant get out during my 3-day work week.
Today I ventured into the open space trails on the East side of the valley. What is commonly known in these parts as The Hogback is really a misnomer. You have to be more specific than that as there are TWO Hogbacks (Hogsbacks, Hogs Backs?????). To the West side of the highway only one is visible, this is the Dakota Hogback. The other upthrust of land to the West of The Ranch is called the Lyons Hogback. Today's adventure took place on and around the Dakota.
I set out across the open space and the earth dam, a little like yesterday. Instead of turning up towards the equestrian center I went up the bank to the crash barrier at the roadside. I hopped it and set out down hill towards the ambiguously named Hogback Trail.
This is one of the lower points in the valley which means ITS ALL UPHILL FROM HERE. And it was.
As soon as I entered the trail, the world disappears. To the East is the ridge of the Dakota Hogback some 300 feet above. To the West, it the Lyons Hogback Ridge at around a hundred feet above you. This trail sits almost plumb between the two and climbs steadily some 150 feet. This is a nice gentle and constant hill to work against.
It was cooler again today. It was quiet with only the sounds of the birds twittering (where do they get cell phones from?), the chattering of the prairie dogs, the wheezing and the heavy Hippo-like footfalls of me. Fortunately the last two were masked by my companion, the MP3 player.
I made it to the top (it's about 1.5 miles long) and felt great. The trail is basically an infrequently used single track that only the Rangers can access. They do however gang-mow it to almost 3 times the width to allow horses and other users to pass safely. Quite a good thing as it allows people who have trail shoes but prefer NOT to slip-n-slide in the mud to keep clean and safe. I alternated between the center hump of the track and the flattest side I could find.
At the top I looked onwards and upwards. I headed into unknown territory of the more northern area of the valley. They are a little snooty up there so I minded my P's and Q's as I went. The trails followed the terrain and became mere foot tracks that had also been over mowed.
I eventually came to the end of the valleys main trail system. The even-more-northerly-valley (even snootier, it has it's own golf course - Purlease) beckoned. I entered an area that is Jeffco's but The Ranch's Rangers maintain it for them (at least that's what the signs say). I headed up up up to a place where I spotted some flattened grass that was an obvious trail that headed up the dizzying hights of the Dakota. I headed up it and began to climb quickly. That's another 400 feet in 6/10ths of a mile quickly. I reached the scrub line and turned to look South West. This was THE view of the Ranch I had been looking for. A perfect pic. Now if I had only had a camera :)
After taking this in I looked to the North and saw ugly clouds heading over the Lyons Hogback. I decided that I should not be on the highest ridge for miles as this looked like a storm front. (It wasn't). I turned South and West for home heading on as much trail as I could and avoiding the roads.
The stats: 6.83 miles in 1:54:44. Not fast but the trails were harder going. More walking than running but with that high BPM accompaniment of MP3's. The Garmin claimed 1413 Calories for the trip with the miles passing at a sluggish 16.48 pace. However despite these seemingly less than stellar stats I did complete over the distance of a 10k in less than 2 hours. Not too shabby for the state of things. The BGL afterwards was 98! I have even stood on the scale as I cam out of the shower. Down to 227, dripping wet.

Mad dogs and Englishmen............

...... go out in the afternoon drizzle.

OK so it's not quite the line from the song about Brits going out in the midday sun but we have had precious little of that in the past couple of days. It's been the coolest July for ages. We have had so much rain it's looking more like Seattle here than Colorado. 12 months ago we were in drought conditions and we looked like the high plains desert we should. In fact Seattle was 20 degrees warmer than we were today. Weired.
Speaking of weired I have the bug good and proper. The running bug. Going out on the bike and hauling Sam yesterday was ok. It is good for stamina building and it lets my knees rest. It isn't running though. Alone. Feet on the trails and just the world passing by to the sounds on the MP3 player.
It had poured most of the afternoon. Really poured. It's feeling like England here at the moment only the temperature is too high. :) I had waited and waited for a break in the rain because I really wanted to get out there.
After 6pm the break finally came. I changed into the running clothes. Alison looked at me like I was quite, quite mad. I put on my Asics and thanked my foresight in getting a pair of trail shoes that have Gore-tex in them. I am not a fan of cold, wet feet.
After some stretching while the Garmin found it's bearings, I started the Sony MP3 and off I went. Then something happened. I ran
I ran from the house and out onto the open space. I ran out onto the dam and crossed the open space to the other side. I then glanced down at the Roadrunner and stopped. I had been running for three and a half minutes. What the F%*k? What just happened? I stopped and stared. I HAD been running. I had loped along for 3.5 minutes solid.
Now Ok I realize this is no WR or anything but we are talking about me here. The Hippo. Who doesn't run. Wow. The running too is, well, odd. The stiff-leg gait is gone. The knees have come up, the shoulders have dropped and the stride has lengthened. Whats up with that? It's like I came out of third and found fourth.
As the shock cleared I punched the MP3, dialed up some high BPM music and off I went, walk running around the valley.
It felt AMAZING. The feeling of freedom was back. The tension left me. I have read people who describe running as if it's a drug and I think I know what they mean. It's all you. Your muscles. No wheels or bearings helping you along. The machine that is US moving you along. There is effort. There is reward. I think it's the hypoxia talking but hey, this is damn fantastic.

The stats: Ok here we go. 3.02 miles (yes its the short-course) in 40:37. The average speed was 4.5 mph. This is a new PR. (Now there is something I NEVER thought I would write).
OMG Wow. The BGL afterwards was 97. I am SO happy tonight. I am so encouraged.

Hauling a small child.

It's Tuesday and it was time to emerge from the week long lay-off.

We had all travelled down to Durango in South West Colorado for a week long break to help give Sam another railroad "fix". Alison and I had been on the Durango and Silverton railroad a number of years ago but we had travelled in the winter when the train runs only part of the line due to snow slides over the track. We had an incredible time and we were able to indulge ourselves in hours of steam trains, travelling and photography. Some of our family's favourite past times.
We also managed a visit to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. I set out at each overlook with a camera, two lenses and the old Manfrotto tripod. I hiked out both at altitude and relatively high temperature. I felt so good and was able to hike out with abandon. The hours pounding around the valley at home were perhaps starting to show results!
Well we made it home late Thursday night and Friday was a day off with a full and busy day. Saturday and Sunday were the usual work days and Monday was also filled with "stuff". Are you seeing a pattern here?
Well Tuesday opened with overcast promise. Around 3pm I packed Sam, the mountain bike and Sam's replacement trailer into the car and set out for new trails.
Just to the North of us to Bear Creek Park. It has a large lake behind a Corps of Engineers dam, playgrounds, a campsite, a stables and lots of trails.
We arrived and Sam was installed in his new trailer. This is SO much better then the old one yet was made by the same company and cost only $30 more. It has real 20 inch wheels and the interior fittings are better. The safety straps are easier to set too.
I helped Sam put on his new helmet, put on the seat straps and off we went.
It was mostly relatively flat trails with only a couple of off-road excursions along the way. The new trailer sits right behind the bike. Sam is pretty much at rear-wheel mud-in-the-face-level but there is a mesh cover that fits snugly over the front of the trailer. To supplement this there is also a clear plastic cover that clips and Velcro's over the mesh. It makes the trailer totally weatherproof. (And child throwing things out proof too).
We headed out towards the big dam and after a lot of huffing and puffing we reached the top of the dam. Unfortunately that didn't get us very far as the trail stops there. We doubled back and found the much lower trail that took us along the shore level of the dam. We found ourselves on the main road for one section of the ride, that's when we decided to go off road a little. The trailer was fully buttoned up and off we went. Sam was squealing with delight as we ran along the multi-use trails that were heavy with mud. The front of the trailer, the bike and parts of me were plastered.
At one point in the trail we stopped on a bridge over Bear Creek. Sam & I were watching the high water flow beneath us when I felt a sharp pain on my left ankle. Thinking horse fly or mosquito I looked down to see a half dozen wasps hovering around my leg. I spooked and jumped on the pedals. That was when the wasp on my left calf stung me. Two stings, great. Fortunately Sam was safely enclosed in his trailer.
We made it to the end of the trail without further stings! We had made such good time and had covered the ground so quickly we headed for a second tour of the lake. We got to the foot of the dam and I glanced behind me to see a small child sound asleep in the trailer with his helmet still in place.
I took pity on him and turned the bike around and headed back to the car. We had covered 9.6 miles in 1:08:10 When we got home my BGL was 126. Not stellar but before the ride I was 146. Aside from the sings, a ride that will be repeated.

The Work Week Is Over

Well it's Sunday night and another work "week" is over. The longer I do this job the more I realize that, aside from "it's all about the people in pajamas", it should ALWAYS be considered a good day when no one dies. This weekend has been good.

Now I can hear you thinking "What has this got to do with weight loss, running or Hippos?
Well the unit I work in is a long hallway. One end has a nurses station with computer, charts and at the other is a medication preparation room. One hall has 10 rooms and there are 12 in another.

We do a lot of walking in this job. Several of us have carried pedometers during shifts. We have AVERAGED between 13,000 and 17,000 steps per shift. The median of 15,000 steps multiplied by the three shifts equals 45,000 steps. My walking pace sits at about 3 feet. 45,000 times 3 equals 135,000 feet. 135,000 divided by 3 is 45,000 yards. 1,800 yards to a mile equals a whopping 25 miles! Ok, so it's all on the flat but hey, movement is movement and miles are miles.

Keep on waddling.

"Rest day"

Yeah, right.
No running, riding , jogging or purposeful walking today. Today is my Sunday and, as may be tradition in some quarters, I attacked the yard work.
I removed four Aspen trees the HOA decided were dead (they were too). The biggest was as high as the house, some forty odd feet. I chainsawed it onto the drive (after removing the cars first). Just as I made the last cut into the wedge (the direction I wanted the tree to go) the tree decided to make a 180 and head for me. I ran (it has payed off) and killed the saws motor as I went.
The tree twanged onto the roof as it fell. Fortunately there was no real damage. We replaced the roof a couple of years ago with a composite metal one after the hail destroyed our shake shingle. Phew!
Al and Sam appeared at the window having heard the tree hit the metal roof. After gingerly opening the front door Al helpfully suggested I should have called her and she would have gladly pulled on a rope to have prevented the near disaster. Thanks Love!
I was limbing the tree when one of my neighbours stopped to chat. He too offered to pull on ropes. Great. Next time perhaps.
Well after the next three trees toppled to the mighty chainsaw I was left to pick up the hundreds of dry twigs left everywhere. I guess those trees had to come out after all.
I mowed the front yard, repaired three sprinkler heads and finally collapsed after a shower.
Zero miles today BUT the BGL was 98 after all of the work.
Tonight's treat was Pizza!