Another fitness test today and a thoroughly enjoyable test it was: returning to the trails up the west side of Boulder, something I often did on Sundays when I was running fit. The loop I chose used to take about an hour. Today I took a very leisurely approach to the outing and was out there, well, quite a big bit more than an hour. Doesn't matter. I was on the trails and savoring every minute!
Towards the beginning of the run, I got to see a magpie breakfast balancing act that got me chuckling. I took it as a sign that this was going to be a delightful outing.
I headed to what I call "Boomerang Hill." I figured this would offer up four route options giving me the opportunity to make a choice depending on how I felt when I arrived at each decision point. Options included:
- going all the way up Boomerang to the Enchanted Mesa Trail then down to Chautauqua and home - a decent option with hills and views but I've been up Boomerang recently doing hill repeats.
- going toward Skunk Creek but looping back around at the base of NCAR and going back home - the option to choose if I just wasn't feeling it today.
- going up Skunk Creek to Kohler Mesa then to Enchanted Mesa, Chautauqua and home - offering plenty of climb, forest lined trails, then a smooth trail back downhill to Chautauqua.
- going up Skunk Creek to the Mesa Trail to the top of NCAR hill then back down to home - the longest option and with a lot of downhill on concrete sidewalk/road to get back home.
I ended up picking Option 3 - hilly plus maximizing trail plus a smooth dirt downhill for a chunk of the way back toward home. 'Twas a lovely lovely run.
My Sunday sanctuary
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