The mountains were out; I was tired of driving, it was 35 even skiing in Vail on Saturday, and for the first time this season there was slushy snow near the bottom of the mountain. It would take me forever to run any sort of decent mileage on that slush.
Chatfield Reservoir has paved bike paths, so if the dirt trails were too messy, I could use them. One look at the snow-covered dirt, and I knew my run would be on the bike paths and gravel roads only.
This is the worst of the snow. There's a gravel road under there somewhere:
It had turned to a small "creek" by the time I returned later in the afternoon.
The gravel roads were soft and slightly muddy, and paved paths were often snowy or wet, sometimes with an inch or more of water. But it was generally not that bad and at one point it was even kind of cool seeing ripples of melt water come downhill on a path.
I sure have a lot of center-based compositions today. A subject right in the middle, and other things to balance it out on the sides. Kind of like a medieval altarpiece.
So anyway I did one lap around the reservoir. It was a fun run, but I had to struggle towards the end to maintain concentration and motivation. Amazingly, I barely felt the ski outing yesterday in terms of legs or muscles, though my overall energy level was maybe not super high. I'm just happy I can do this stuff at all, and do something strenuous two days in a row.
Distance was 15.35 miles, time 2:57 (moving 2:39), elevation gain/loss 326 feet, avg. pace 11:34 (moving 10:23), and best pace 7:49. Most of the time my pace was about 9:45-10:00, and frankly for long runs, that's what I am comfortable with.
