Steps

Ah, that was the kind of "overtime" day I enjoy.

It was an "off" Friday, which means that I wasn't supposed to be at work. But we were expecting a lot of proposal tasks, so they asked us to come into the office anyway. But fortunately, we had enough people to handle the workload, and I was able to take off after just a few hours. I had a most excellent lunch, and then headed north to the eye doctor's office to get new lenses to replace the ones I had scratched while running at Waterton.

As usual, they were very efficient, and I had spotless glasses back on my face within a few short minutes, and the sun was still a long way from setting. It was cool outside, but tolerable, so I called Tanner on the phone and invited him to come run some stairs with me over at Red Rocks. Unfortunately, he had already planned to play tennis with his buddy Kallas, and politely declined. I told him that I'd call again after my run, and maybe come over to join them for a game or two.

As everyone knows, Red Rocks is probably the most beautiful outdoor concert venue in the world. But it is also a Denver city park, and is open to the public when not being used for face-melting rock n' roll. From the charming town of Morrison, it's a short drive up a winding road to the amphitheatre parking lot, which was almost empty. I changed into my running clothes, and then jogged slowly up the steep ramp into the seating area.

With the 100 x 100s swim event coming up, I didn't want to overdo it and make my legs sore, so I decided to only run up the steps a couple of times. There were a few tourists wandering around the place, and a couple of other people exercising on the opposite side of the bleachers, but I had the southern stairs all to myself. That turned out to be a very good thing, because I discovered that I really need to watch my feet as I go up stairs, especially those with uneven sections (like the "access platforms" that occur every dozen steps or so). With my head down, I could easily plow into someone if I wasn't careful...or could fall on my face if I spent too much energy on avoiding other park patrons. Neither problem surfaced, though, and I was able to make my quads ache and my lungs burn, even at the laboriously slow pace I was going.

The good news is that I've now gotten a taste of what I need to do to train more for the upcoming stairclimb race. The bad news is that combining my total day's lung-toasting climbs only amounts to about a quarter of what I'll have to do all at one time on race day. Ugh.

Still, it was a start, and I felt reasonably confident that I hadn't hurt myself for the 100 x 100s. I began to jog back to the car with a smile on my face, planning to savor the spectacular view of Denver as I returned to the vehicle. But alas, 'twas not to be: the vista from "the Rocks" out toward the plains was obscured by some sort of white flakes, falling from the sky. What???

Yep, it was snowing. And by the time I reached the car, it was snowing pretty hard. A quick phone call to the boy confirmed that the tennis game had been scrubbed, and that the blizzard was not confined to the Morrison area. Oh well, at least I'd gotten some exercise in before the weather had gone all poopy.

I headed home, and spent the rest of the evening working on stuff around home. Not very exciting, but when you total up the day's activities, I'd have to say that I'm pleased with the way everything had gone. I need a lot more stairs to run during the next few weeks, though; let's hope the snow doesn't decide to stick around. In the meantime, well, it's winter -- let's just enjoy the white stuff and have a good ol' time, OK?

Have a great day, my friends!