What to do with all this SUNSHINE?!

Yesterday morning, I woke up and decided I would kick my workout routine into high gear so I can climb those mountains and bike some mean single track. I'm still running on "Michigan Time", so I keep waking up at 5-6 am (I would be 7-8 am in MI) and going to bed around 9-10 pm (11-midnite MI time). What could be better than an early morning run in the mountains?!

Ends up, a whole lot of things are better than that when you aren't used to the elevation!

There is a trail in the park that is right outside my apartment. I get cold induced asthma as it is but I was stubborn and ignored the fact that it was still only 40-45 degrees outside... and that running at 8,600 ft for the first time is like trying to breathe through a pillow... I ran for about, ohhhh maybe a minute or two... And had to stop before my lungs exploded!

Frustrating, but now I remember that's how it was the last time I was here. It took me about 2 months to run more than 3 miles. Fortunately, by the end of the summer I was one lean mean mountain running machine! Ok, maybe not that intense... but much better than I was before!

Anyway, my "run" ended up being a 25 minute hike with a couple minutes of labored jogging and much panting. I'll get there again. I'm too stubborn not to. :)

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Joe moved into an apartment about 1 1/2-2 hours south-east of me, outside of Denver, and I offered to help him move some of his stuff... Which meant I had volunteered to carry his stuff up 3 flights of stairs of course. He's in a pretty suburban area, so once the work got done we went to play in the foothills and wound up in the mountain town of Evergreen for dinner. There is a bar there called the Little Bear, and we paid $4 cover each to listen to some old hippies sing a song that went, "Arf arf arf arf arf arf arf..... WOOF!"  The band was a little goofy but the bar was cool, with upstairs wooden bleachers and live music.

And now today, I'm in Boulder at the Folsom St. Coffee Shop, catching up with the rest of the world and doing some shopping. I think I will take a hike before I try to do any more running. :)

Hope to have some more photos to share soon!