November

Usually November is a pretty low-key month for me. I try to rest up and cut down on the miles. But the word "rest"... what does it even mean? For me it just means that I don't have a prescribed plan of workouts for the week. It means that I run whenever I feel like it. Looking back at the month, I guess I just felt like running. I guess I also didn't feel like writing, so here are some highlights.

Some exciting news is that I am now a sales rep for a women's running apparel company called Run Pretty Far. I'm really proud to be bringing some great gear to stores and races across the state of Colorado. I've been in love with pretty much everything this company churns out and I can't wait to see how things take off.

Running-wise, I've been ramping things back up in preparation for Moab's Red Hot 55K in February. I'm pretty excited to get a dose of desert this winter. I haven't really finalized all of the races that I want to do, but for now after Moab I'm planning to do the Run Through Time again in Salida and the Dirty 30. These races are awesome and I just can't stay away. Other than that I'm planning to do a 50 miler this year and/or maybe a 100k. I like the idea of doing Leadville 50 and the timing seems about right, but I'm not usually a strong high-altitude runner. Run Rabbit Run 50 would be another good one at a little lower elevation, but I usually feel pretty fizzled out at that point in the season.

Here's some photo highlights from a loop I did in Boulder before Thanksgiving just after the trails re-opened. Went up Bear Canyon, snagged a Green Mountain summit, took the ridge over to Bear Peak, grabbed S. Boulder Peak before heading down Shadow Canyon. The trails were still pretty gnarly after the floods. Along the way I flew around a corner and almost ran into Tina Lewis. I also saw Buzz Burrell, the brand manager for Ultimate Direction.  Oh the perks of living in Colorado.

Snow's a coming

The fires here contributed to the severity of the flooding

Oh little town of Boulder

Crowded Bear Peak

The flat plateau is Table Mountain and the taller one behind it is my Green Mountain

Windmills with Denver in the background

Bear Peak is on the right and Green Mountain on the left

Does it get any more beautiful than this?

Alright, enough pictures. For Thanksgiving we went to Kentucky to visit Cory's family. It was actually colder in Kentucky than in Colorado. We spent a few days in the hills at a cabin near Red River Gorge. Running there was tough! Relentless hills (have these people ever heard of switchbacks?) and rooty trails strewn with slick leaves. Lots of turned ankles. The weather turned bad and we decided to head back to Louisville. Cory's parents live near a park designed by Frederick Law Olmstead (Central Park designer) and the trails are about as good as an urban park gets. 

We did a Thanksgiving Day 5 mile race on the roads in the park. This year the race drew the most participants ever but race day was so cold that many people didn't show. The course goes to the top of a hill and back and I remember the first time I did this race a few years ago, that hill felt like hell. This year, though, it seemed easy.  I managed to run it in 35:19 which put me in 12th place overall and 2nd in my age group. For the first time in my life I won some money! $20 isn't much, but to get a piece of the cash purse for a road race is pretty exciting for me. Cory got 4th place overall and 1st in his age group with a time of 27:50. Two of the guys who beat him were former Kentucky high school state cross country champions.

So that was the month of November! Now we finally have some snow and I'm looking forward to breaking out the snow shoes.

Here was the sunset the other evening.