Half-way There

Yesterday morning was my 50th ascent of Green Mountain in the last 48 days, which makes me half-way to my objective of completing 100 ascents in the first 100 days of the year.  It was pretty much like any of the other 48 past mornings, except that on this morning Jocelyn joined me.  She left the apartment in her car to drive to the Gregory Canyon trailhead while I opted for my usual mode of transportation there: my two feet.  This, however, gave her a 10-15 minute head start on me and allowed us to coincide our time of summitting.

(Jocelyn's first summit of Green Mountain this year.)

(My 50th.)

After snapping a couple of pictures, we then ran down the Greenman and Gregory trails together.  Jocelyn was pretty impressed with the performance of her new Microspikes.  Back at the trailhead, she headed off to class and I scampered home to complete my usual two-hour outing.

(Jocelyn sure-footedly descending the upper Greenman trail.)

After a mid-day acupuncture session, I got out again in the afternoon before my evening Watershed Biogeochemistry class, opting for the more challenging front side (Amphitheater-Greenman).  Allison's hour-long brutalization of my left hamstring and right vastus medialis obliquus (VMO) had left me fairly sore but didn't seem to have much of a slowing effect on the subsequent 32:49 climb to my 51st summit.  From the top of the surprisingly warm peak I had a great view of the ominous, somewhat sickening, temperature inversion-induced Brown Cloud of the Denver/I-25 corridor (that I subsequently, coincidentally, learned the atmospheric chemistry of in class last night).

(Why I am so annoyingly insistent upon not driving to the trailhead.)

I rounded out the two hours with a couple miles of barefoot striding around Kittredge Fields by the CU Law School where I had the pleasure of meeting and running with Austin Baillie, fresh off an impressive 1:04 half marathon performance last month in Houston.  Nothing like a little reality check as to where I truly stand in the pecking order of the distance running universe.  (Interestingly, though, Austin had plenty of respect for ultras, having paced at both Leadville and Hardrock.)  Nevertheless, I hope the next seven weeks of Green baggin' continue to go at least as smoothly as the first seven have.