Is it really December? The weather would sure have me thinking otherwise...sunny and gorgeous in the mountains today in Boulder.
I finally got around to tagging the 3 Boulder peaks today and had a fun time. Steve came along and was gracious enough to wait for me at the top of all the summits and various other times.
Steve and some hikers on S. Boulder peak
The view West from Bear Peak with me obstructing the view
Steve and a random dude on top of Green
Right from the start of the climb up the front side of Green mountain my calves started screaming at me. They felt like they were so tight they would either explode or lock up, so I suffered through about 24 minutes of pain until they finally started loosening up around the greenman junction. Ouch. I guess the hill sprints on Thursday were still taking their toll, and I definitely needed more warmup before launching up one of the steepest hills in town.
Oh well..getting beyond that, I found a decent enough rhythm on the top section up to green mtn.
After that my legs felt pretty decent, but lacked any real bounce in the step...but I was enjoying myself a lot more now that the intense pain of the calves had subsided and everything was moving smoothly.
The west ridge up to Bear peak is quite the hike! Pretty steep stuff to get up to the peak there. And I was glad to finally make my way up to S. Boulder peak for the first time.
We came down Fern canyon which was a nice change of scenery. I wasn't sure if it would be too icy, but it was totally fine, not much ice at all. The worst patch of snow/ice for the day was going up to S. Boulder peak from the saddle. Steve smoked me going down fern, he is really fast going down the technical steep stuff. And I took a super minor fall, which was no big deal.
That was a great cap off to a pretty solid week of running for me, a mile off my biggest week in mileage ever, but with a lot more vertical this week.
For the day: 11 Miles - 4750' ascent - 2:49 including a lot of stopped time on each peak
Weekly totals: 51 Miles - 11,400 feet vertical.
