October Summary

A solid month in the books.  I passed 2000 miles on Sunday, about a month earlier than last year, and have already exceeded my 2010 vertical of 65 miles.  In fact, this was my strongest month of vertical since June.  I'm finally seeing progress in the weight room again, as I hit it pretty hard this month.  I also endured the pain of several track and incline treadmill workouts.

October was about the daily grind, without really any blogworthy adventures, except for my Buckhorn run.  I can relate to Geoff's post a few days ago about the "daily run".  Why get up so early to run some trail you've run a hundred times?  Especially, knowing that it is still gonna be dark when you get back to the trailhead.  It's because I know that at some point midway though the run after shaking off the sleepiness, I'll look up at the star-filled sky, take a deep breath of the fresh air, flow effortlessly along the singletrack, and think of how lucky I am to be doing what I am doing at that moment.

October by the numbers:
188 miles, 6.7 vertical miles

Trail (11 runs), 127 miles, 4.4 vertical, 23 hours
Treadmill (5 runs), 27 miles, 2.3 vertical, 5 hours
Track (4 runs), 22 miles, 3 hours
Road (2 runs), 12 miles, 2 hours
Lift (15 workouts), 10 hours
Rest Days 9

Monument Gulch/Flowers Road/White Pine

This is kind of becoming a Columbus Day tradition.  Last Columbus Day I hit this area in full autumn glory (and no snow).  This time most of the aspens were past their prime colors, but still a gorgeous fall run.  It's hard to beat the Buckhorn region for a trail run this time of year.

Except for a couple miles of singletrack on the north slope of the White Pine mountains, this run is all fire road/jeep trail.  I did meet a couple of Jeeps but these roads are closed to ATVs.  This time I made a clockwise loop of it (as Pete and Nick did last year) starting from the Buckhorn Ranger Station and running to Monument Gulch, Flowers Road, and then up over the pass of the White Pine Mountains and back down to the Ranger Station.  Just under 17 miles with the added tag of the summit of West White Pine Mountain (elev 10,305 feet).  It was quite the trudge getting up the mountains with probably 6 inches of snow left from Saturday's storm.

16.68 miles, 3917 feet climbed, GPS data here

First Snow

The first snow of the season here in Fort Collins yesterday.  Well actually it was only rain in town, but just a little frosting on Horsetooth Mountain.  I had planned a loop over White Pine Mountain (a great fall run), but the storm was significant enough out there to change plans.  I'm never disappointed, however, running the local trails in Horsetooth and Lory Parks.  The cool air this morning felt great!  I even had some company near the end of my run when I hit the Soderberg/Spring Creek junction.  My second bear sighting this year in Horsetooth Park.

Just a week ago we were pushing 90 degrees at the Blue Sky Marathon.  I've added some photos to my sidebar (they are also on the race website) as I once again enjoyed hanging out at the Towers Road aid station.  A great opportunity coming up to run some Fort Collins trails on October 22 and save a life.

A successful controlled burn on Tuesday.