Training Log Archive: WileyKyO-T

This morning, I ran the Manitou Incline with my new warrant officer friend, Jason. He is also new to the area, and he'd proposed hiking up this 1 mile, 2000ft slope furnished with railroad ties. He started out a little bit slower than me, so I would wait for him every so often. Then, as the Incline got steeper, I was suddenly struggling to keep pace--I had to exert an unbelievable effort to keep up. I was aware of the "false summit", so I wasn't too disappointed when I crested a hill only to see the incline continue. At the top, I briefly rested on a bench with my fellow hiker. As I walked around, I suddenly saw him get up to go back down the steep Incline. This bewildered me, as Jason and I had discussed how we were going to take the longer, gentler Barr trail down to the trailhead. It was still dark outside, and I had thought we were going to stay up at the top of the Incline until daybreak to take pictures. I paused to take a couple pictures, as best I could, in the darkness, while considering how to catch up to my plan-changing friend. I had left my cell phone in his car, as he brought his and I had thought we were going to stay together.

One thing was for sure: I was alone on the Incline with my friend and my transportation (we rode in his car) below me. I had to intercept him, or at least get down the mountain soon...

...so, knowing that taking the Incline down along its steepests portions would be knee suicide, I reverted to the original plan of taking Barr trail back. Steep at times but generally not, this meandering and switchback-ing trail was fun to run on and provided excellent views for my camera, but it was icy in places and I was starting my run in the dark. I jogged my way down the trail to the bail-out point of the Manitou Incline. Basically, the Barr trail touches the incline at the top and at this roughly half-way point. Here, I asked an incline hiker if he had seen a man in a long-sleeved white shirt on his way down. He replied that he had, and that he was five minutes downhill. A little dismayed that I hadn't caught up with him yet, I kept running down the Barr trail, down switchbacks that took me periodically closer and farther from the Incline. I jogged most of this, though I ran into one ice patch that felled me flat on my back, as though someone had pulled a rug from in front of me. I shook myself off and kept going with my first scratches of the day. At some point, however, I made a decision: I had gone far enough down to intercept him and wouldn't have far in the woods to traverse from the trail to the incline. Unfortunately, I was wrong on both counts; what had started out as a trail towards the incline off Barr trail soon ended, replaced by enticingly possible paths through the woods. I was soon beset with thorns, thick vegetation, and hillsides with shifty ground. This became orienteering with no map or compass, just a linear catching feature, and I got a few more scrapes at difficult parts of the woods. I eventually found my way to the incline, about 200m north of the "No trespassing" sign (that's right, hiking the Manitou Incline is illegal, though 70,000 hike it every year). Looking up and down, I saw no sign of Jason. So, I made my way down the incline, still without sighting my "friend" who had seemingly deserted me. I walked back from the incline to the Barr parking lot, hoping to at least meet him there. However, he was nowhere to be found. Having essentially confirmed that he'd made it down the Incline before me, he would have had to have returned to his car. I walked up to the car, but there was no Jason. There was only one explanation that I could think of: having made it back before me, maybe HE was trying to find ME now, and the only place that made sense to search was Barr trail, towards the incline. He would have had a head start, so there was only one option: run back up the trail...

...and so up the trail I ran, yelling out Jason's name for a while with no success. Finally, I asked a lady on her way down if she'd seen a man with his description, and she replied she had--and he was yelling out someone's name as well! Armed with the information that he was only a couple switchbacks in front of me, I ran ahead to find him on his way down. Why had he been on his way down looking for me? Let's go back to the climb up the incline.

Somewhere along the Incline, a man who also wore a long sleeved white shirt and black pants passed us. But I had thought this was Jason, so I kept pace with him even as I felt completely smoked, thinking Jason had saved his energy for the steep parts. When we reached the top, we both stopped, but the man who I thought was Jason left to run back down the Incline as the real Jason was still 10 minutes away from the summit. Since it was dark and none of us had headlamps, I had relied on the basic colors Jason was wearing to recognize him. Also, there had been no one in front of us, so I didn't even think to take a closer look or realize that the voice answering my questions was someone else's! At the steep parts of the incline, it was all I could do to look down as I powered through each steep step, which made it easier for someone else to go unnoticed. So, having thought I had been ditched, I had taken a couple of pictures before making my way back down Barr Trail.

So, when Jason got to the summit, I was nowhere to be found. He looked all around near the top for me--with no luck. He, in turn, had been pissed that he'd been ditched, and he slowly made his way down Barr trail calling my name. Along the way, hikers he asked told him that I was seen running down the trail and "was probably at the base". When I came up Barr, it was to find him looking for me...and this is what happened in a way I hadn't expected.

We shared lots of observations and laughs about what just happened as we started to walk down the trail together. We both expressed the desire to see more, though, so we walked back up Barr trail to the top of the incline, making a detour along the way when we took a wrong turn. We took a break at the top of the incline and decided to follow a trail into the woods for a little ways before heading back down. On this trail we found a sign for the Eagle's Nest, which sounded cool, so we followed it to a towering, massive rock formation. Determined to get to the top, I worked through some technical climbing while worrying I was going to slip and fall. I made it part of the way up that way, while Jason elected to take a different route. He came up through a vertical passageway in the rock formation, with some assistance from me once I knew where he was. At the top of the Eagle's Nest, we took pictures before finding a safer route back down the formation. Our hike back down Barr trail was uneventful, and we ran much of it towards the end. Finally making it back to the trailhead, we took pictures at the sign and called it a day. Definitely a unique introduction to hiking in Colorado!

Today I explored more of the Front Range trail; about 3 miles of the run were on this trail. From another trail, I ran to its intersection with the FRT underneath a RR track. I turned right (accidentally taking a side trail that was closer to the river), ran to the highway and a trailhead, and turned around. Running north on the trail for about 2 miles, I ran to the spot I'd found the trail a few days ago and got back on road. Instead of running to the elevated walkway (I probably would have had to stop for traffic), I made a big loop and approached it from the south, finally running along a very unimproved trail. At the walkway, I just ran back, with a couple extra turns in my housing complex to get to 7.5mi.

Run from home to Quail Lake via trails. Negligible mud and snow made for a faster warmup than usual.

CCW Quail Lake Loop 1: 44 seconds faster than any of my previous QLL runs!

Second Quail Lake loop, this time clockwise. Surprised that this lap was faster than the previous one.

Jog on roads generally around Quail Lake park to Cheyenne Meadows park. As with my warmup and cooldown runs, I carried my camelback with a little water.

When I arrived at Cheyenne Meadows Park, I was dismayed to find my aerial recon had been insufficient; the 1/2mi route I'd planned was not possible. Instead, I ran in the large open area next to the park proper, on some pre-existing trails. When I saw my time, I thought the distances was probably about right. However, when I got home, I was dismayed to find the distance was shorter.

Cheyenne Meadows Park interval 2/3

Cheyenne Meadows Park interval 3/3.

After running my CMP intervals, I walked along a narrow strip of land and creek between two subdivisions. This actually took me further than I'd expected and I ended up on a bridge, but with a clear idea how to get back. I took a couple measures to eke out some more distance.