One of the greatest things about living here in Northern Colorado, as an endurance athlete, is the seemingly never ending supply of trail systems just minutes from the front door. Horsetooth Mountain park is just one example. Over 50 miles of singletrack dirt trails surround this one area of Fort Collins. It is a great place to get in a great trail run, winter or summer.
This morning was no different. A cool and crisp 62 degrees at the start of my run. I have yet to purchase a season pass to park at the main trailhead (something I am heavily considering), and so I park about one mile away at the Horsetooth liquor/convenience store. It takes about 9 minutes of jogging the uphill mile climb to reach the trailhead. The parking lot was packed which meant a ton of hikers and mountain bikers prowling the trails ahead.
I decided to take the South ridge trail (multi purpose) most of the way to the summit of Horsetooth rock, in hopes of avoiding the crowded more popular trails.
The trail is fairly wide as it is used as a service road for the forest service.
It is mostly composed of ruts and jagged loose rocks here and there, with occasional smooth sections. Nothing too technical. My ankle was feeling pretty good this whole run, however I did notice that the 4 weeks of time on the couch nursing a bum ankle definitely impacted my endurance, specifically my uphill climbing endurance. My breathing felt way too labored for the relatively easy pace I was poking along up the trail. I am sure a few more times out on these hill climbs and my lungs should adapt to the consistent uphill grind once again.
It has been awhile since I have tagged the summit of the rock, as I always choose to cruise on by. But today I felt like it would be a great day to reach the summit.
I forgot that the last 1/4 mile is mostly bouldering and light jogging here and there.
The summit is a tad over 7,200 ft.
Summit tagged in 43 uphill grinding minutes from where I parked.
The run back down was good and my ankle felt fine maneuvering around the ruts and rocks along the trail as I motored back down the mountain. I still dont trust it in certain circumstances. And in places where I would generally fly over (rocks, roots..etc) without giving it too much thought, I now find myself checking the footing on every step that my right foot takes(landing, pushoff, angle...etc), which is not only annoying but is an instant way to slow down the pace of a run. Something I hope to get over in the up coming weeks.
Total Time: 1hr 15min
On a side note: I think Eliana, who just turned 9 months old last week, is going through another teething phase. As I was up with her at 11:30pm, 1am, 2am, 4:30am. And Andrea also got up with her at 5:30 am. So yeah, poor little girl...tired Mommy and Daddy.
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