Doubletime

Today started off taking advantage of the extra hour of sleep and hitting the trail early.  Valerie and I met in Morrison for a hike into Bear Lake Park and had a pretty good ramble, for me, discovering more trails that I never had a clue existed.  There's a lot of winter training potential in the park and I plan on taking advantage of the system a lot this year.

We scared up a buck and his harem just after the halfway point.  It's clear the rut for mule deer is here.  Final figures on the hike were 5.22 miles, 1:31:49, and a 17:36 pace.

As is quickly becoming my weekend habit, a single hike or run with someone else just doesn't seem to satisfy me, so after getting a quick lunch, I drove up to Buffalo Creek for a hike/trail run.  I walked pretty much the entire ascent going up FDR 543 along the river until I got to Baldy, then proceeding up the hill for about another mile before deciding I didn't have enough in my legs or light in the day to make the connector to Sandy Wash and turned around.  That left me with a 10.74 mile walk/run (about 65% walking, 35% running), which I covered in 2:42:57 which worked out to be a 15:10 pace.

Completing the day with 16 miles felt pretty solid.  Early on in the second hike I did have some tweakiness in my left foot (4th metatarsal) and right patellar tendon, but both seemed to fade with time and by the time I was on Baldy were gone entirely.  While my legs definitely need to continue to develop and my cardio is a long way from where I want it to be, between yesterday's run and today, it's clear that I'm well on my way to  returning to the fitness level I want.