Long run. Average pace: 9:52.
Outside temp: Motionbased says it was 46°, but that's at Centennial Airport, and I was quite a ways from Centennial Airport and in a canyon. I think it was colder than that.
I ran up and back down Waterton Canyon. It was a dirt road, that vehicles can drive on, but only authorized vehicles. I saw one truck. It connects to a fairly difficult mountain biking trail after the 6th mile, so runners typically turn around at that point, like I did today. I saw a lot of runners, and interstingly, most of them were women. It was shady most of the time and icy in some spots, but sunny in some spots. It was a little muddy on the way back down the cabin. The road goes along a river and at one point, there was a layer of ice on the river.
A woman that I know who is a triathlon coach recommended that I run Waterton Canyon as a way to practice downhill running in preparation for the Ogden marathon. But of course, in order to run down Waterton Canyon, I first had to run up Waterton Canyon. It never seemed very steep, but according to my Garmin, there was an elevation change of 3,000 ft. from the bottom of the canyon to where I turned around. The uphill never felt really hard and the downhill never felt really easy. However, I guess there was more of a distance than I perceived because my splits for the first six miles were all between 10:05 and 10:22, and the splits for miles 7 through 11 were between 9:36 and 9:48. I made a conscious attempt to run faster on mile 12 and ran it in 8:47.
My shoes are a little muddy.
I love Colorado. | 