4/26 to 5/4

4/26, Saturday - Green Mountain Hike, 7 miles, 2,500ft, 3:30
Wonderful night hike up Green Mountain. Started with of course my favorite, the 2nd flatiron then made my way through the sneak route to the summit.

Sunset over the northern peaks of Boulder

Somehow I got a really good time up the mountain (57 minutes), while strictly hiking the same time. I suppose the cool night weather paired with a "lucky" day in which my legs had some serious kick simply struck at the same time.

Green's summit marker illuminated in the darkness

The descent back down took excruciatingly long, I've never walked the whole downhill before. Each time I hit a landmark I was struck by how much time it took to reach it. I passed the time by singing, as I often do on such lonely and isolated adventures - the woods aren't so critical of poor singing as people are.

Standard sight on the descent, white branches lit up by my headlamp contrasted with the black beyond

I returned to my bike at the trailhead around 11; I was pretty hungry, having been out for around 3.5 hours and brought no food or water as well as having yet to eat dinner. Zipped back home for some scrumptious nutella!

4/27, Sunday - Creek Path, 3 miles, Very slow
My roommate's snoring was akin to a Harley Davidson engine so I woke up around 5 (about 4 hours of sleep) and jogged a quick 3 miles before returning to subsided snoring and finishing my slumber. Legs felt like stone from the 5,000ft of vertical the past 2 days, and my mind was still very much in dreamland throughout the jog - on the plus side the hip felt descent and I got in my first run in almost a week.

4/28 - 5/2,  "Off"
Finals studying, robot building and late nights. Did some stuff but nothing worth talking about

5/3, Saturday, 2nd Flatiron, 2.5 miles
Up at 6AM, biked to Chautauqua, power hiked up in flip flops. I watched a video of Anton (who passed me this morning) doing the 2nd Flatiron, and noticed his starting moves are totally different and way faster from what I normally do, I tried the new route. New PR of 11:06. I had a lot of goals this semester, nearly all of which fell by the wayside due to injury and the weather on Mt. Quandary - all besides the 2nd Flatiron that is. My original goal for this was to break 25 minutes, this goal has been solidly crushed I will very happily say.

Morning reprieve from studying atop the 2nd Flatiron. Also not that shorts are present at the bottom right!

5/4, Sunday 1st and 2nd Flatirons, 4.5 miles, 2:36:22
Yesterday I studied from 8:30AM to 4:00PM and then took a 2.5 hour final exam, all while fueled on crap food and caffeine; when I woke up I drank no water and ate no breakfast (poor planning). Oddly enough I also chose today to actually run instead of hike. I love running! Half-ran half hike to the base of the 2nd. I wanted to try and push it, but within about 45 seconds I knew that wasn't going to happen, so I took breaks and enjoyed the sunrise to finish in a lazy 23:14. Climbed the back of the 2nd and the back of the 1st before...oh yes, running the entirety of the downhill. Hip felt very good, about as close to good without being good as far as descriptions go. Stood at the base of the 1st for a while before deciding to do it. I did the North Arete route this time which skips the friction dependent smooth slab at the beginning, I felt totally comfortable in my heavily worn running shoes the whole time and made it up in 41:04. At the summit I was feeling the symptoms of my dehydration and lack of calories. Ran all the way back down to the Chautauqua trailhead with a smile on my face but seriously in need of some water and food. I love running. I love running. I love running.

On a completely different note, I finished building this treasure this week: