Gravel Ride Nine: It's Christmas Day, and I'm Feelin' Fine

Christmas Eve commuter

Gravel Ride 8: Great, if not the GOAT

Errand ride with Ramona

Gravel Ride Seven: Dirt Heaven

After a very fruitful Golden Hell Week Monday morning run last year it was back to my normal routine, trucking it from Centennial in rush hour traffic to Golden for what I hoped would be about a 6 p.m. launch from Apex, one of my more familiar trails. If you can't run early, run late, I say. Any way to get some cooler conditions.

But when I got to Apex, the parking lot was packed! And there was a large group of people stretching in the lot. I thought maybe it was a Hell Week group run, but it was some kind of 5K fun run. Either way, I... really didn't want to run with so many people. So I changed plans.

I hopped in the car and drove to Mountain Toad, pretty much read to roll when I got there. I took a few minutes adjusting, then hit the trail.

I felt good! I thought a lot early on about my slow-and-steady approach and even saw an Instagram post about today about how important it is to keep RUNNING, even if the steps are small and the pace slow. This wasn't even close to my slowest, and even a bit above average for me. All I could've hoped for.

I did fall once on the way up, when the light was still up and I could see just fine. I let me toe drag and caught a rock. Lucky for me, I remembered my leather weightlifting gloves, fell right into a push-up, and popped back up to my feet. My heart rate got up a little, my shoulders hurt for a sec, and my right glute stung from a tad overextension, but I was able to shake that off within seconds and without missing any steps. 

The sunset at the lookout was incredible. I think. I kept my eyes mostly down and turned around immediately. There's no time for pictures if you wanna compete in Hell Week. And I'm always game.

On a scale of first-day runs, this was up there as a good one. It's a little nerve-racking sometimes, and it's nice to jump in and find some rhythm.

Looking at a half-day of work tomorrow so I can return to Golden and run two. Probably the Table Mountains. But as I learned today, it's best to be flexible.

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Jeremy JJ Johnson

Golden Hell Week #1-Chimney Gulch

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Gravel Ride Nine: It's Christmas Day, and I'm Feelin' Fine

Christmas Eve commuter

Gravel Ride 8: Great, if not the GOAT

Errand ride with Ramona

Gravel Ride Seven: Dirt Heaven

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