waterton canyon run

I was up in Denver on Friday morning visiting family for the three day weekend and decided to run in Waterton Canyon. I hit the trailhead around 8am and headed into the canyon. I was fully expecting some singletrack and nice altitude gains since this is the trailhead for the Colorado Trail but it remained a well maintained gravel road that I ran on all the way up to the Strontia Springs Dam a little over 6 miles in. I took a quick break to take in the sight of the water pouring over the spillway and then headed back. The morning clouds had burned off and it quickly got muggy in the canyon. I had not planned on going 6 miles into the canyon but couriosity got the best of me and I really wanted to see that dam. Preparations before departing left me without any nip protection so I was reduced to walking and holding my shirt away from my chest after two miles into the return trip. The damage was already done and any length of time running felt kinda like somebody was taking a cheese grater to my nipple.

I walked long enough to let my shirt dry out and was able to run/walk the remaining miles and finally got back to the parking lot almost 3 hours after I had left. I again focused on keeping HR in check. Not sure what the numbers are since my Garmin is still in the car.

I'm gonna try to get in a few miles tomorrow and then a really short run on Thursday to keep things loose before the Barr Trail Mountain Run on Sunday morning.

Got a round of golf planned for Friday morning before heading up to Cripple Creek to celebrate my birthday with a little gambling on Friday night. Going to take it easy on Saturday night and check out the UFC fight at the homestead and kick everyone out as soon as they are over.