Flagstaff Fall and the kick off of the AZ running season

Fall in Flagstaff is beautiful. There is about a one week window where the trees look like they have golden leaves. The weather here is mostly sunny in the first place, but the combination of sun and golden aspens seems almost magical. 

 There are many great spots to check out the beauty, but my favorite is the inner basin at lockett meadows, especially on a wednesday or thursday when no one else is there.

 I went on the hike with my friend from nursing school and my other friend, Joy, who is most likely going through the program next year. Funny how we ended up in the same place: we went to Black Hills State University at the same time, then ventured off into different directions and now we are both in Flagstaff.

 We got to play in our fist snow of the season!!!

 JR said he didn't do it but apparently another JR had been here before :-)

Next week I will explore the newly opened Waterline trail on my Mnt bike, which should end up at lockett meadows again. About 30 miles of Mnt bike fun!!!

Yesterday after clinical I drove to Phoenix to participate in the first race of the season: AZ Xterra trail run. I had been running 50-60 miles/week, but not much over an hour at a time, so it was interesting to see what I could do in a 13 mile trail run. Last year I won the overall women's in 1:42:09. This year I felt great until mile 6 where my speediness literally left me in the desert. I switched to training mode and  just finished the day off with a 7 mile fun run, enjoying the surroundings. I thought my time would be much slower then last year, but to my surprise it was still 1:42:49. But I ended up 5th place overall women :-( After the race I met up with Coach B and we came up with a plan for the winter. I am excited to get in a lot of racing over the next 6 months, both in Ft Collins and in AZ.

Ft. Collins/Flagstaff

My second semester of Nursing school is in full swing and we finally get to do a lot of hands on things. The past few months have been a little stressful with overall 3 drives from and to Ft Collins (I got to fly once :-) JR and Jack are now settled in Ft Collins and they are exploring new things every day...and the more they explore and the more they tell me about it, the more I fall in love with the town as well. Here are some images from what has been going on during the last month:

 Beautiful sunsets by the Poudre River.

 Jack playing in one of the many streams during our runs.

 Unsuccessful first house hunt in the two weeks we were up there prior to moving.

 JR told me the piggy bank cannot come with from Phoenix to Ft Collins unless it is empty...so...

 I emptied it. I found a lot of Euro's in it as well as US bills...I am pretty sure my family put those in their :-)

 Because I am too cheap to bring it to a counting machine, I hand counted EVERYTHING and rolled it. Over 500 $ :-)

 Our house was under contract within 24 hrs of putting it on the market. One month later it was time to move out. I will miss our first house :-( If I could I would have moved it with us!!! The yard, the citrus trees, the brick house, proximity to the trails ... we will definitely miss it.

 The Penske truck was loaded at 1 am, I had to leave for class at 5 am, sit in class all day and then start the drive to Trinidad, Co. Yikes, I was soooo tired. Here is the "stationay monsoon cloud" that I encountered in Albuquerque. It caused a massive flood and if I would not have been in a Tacoma I would not have made it through the water.

 Following the truck :-)

 The flood damage in Colorado was crazy. On our way there we saw the Thompson River, which had more water then the Mississippi flowing!!! Cars were on the side of the road, upside down, stuck, craziness. JR brought me to the airport and I had to head back to class and Flagstaff without him and Jack :-(

Right now class is Mon/Tue and rotation is Fri/Sat...so we have Wed/Thu to explore. I have a fantastic group of people in my program. They are so nice, love the outdoors and help you in any situation. Here we are exploring Fossil Creek. Unfortunatelly we couldn't hike to the "blue" part of the water but we got to see the original Dam.

 Lunch break at the water. 

 Igor found an apple tree in the middle of nowhere!!!

 The apples were ripe and delicious!!!

 The dam and "the toilet". See the hole on the bottom left of the pic? You apparently can jump in it and you get flushed out on the other side of the rocks...aehhh...no thanks. The sound of the toilet was crazy - talking about power flushing...

 After a few water crossings and loosing the trail a few times we made it to our campsite.

 Igor made us coffee in his fancy glass coffee maker. I am still amazed he got it there inane piece!!!

 We jumped into the water, found some swings and had so much fun on the way out.

 Fossil Creek is great and I think we are trying to get back before it gets too cold down there. I need to take them to the really colorful part of the creek where Pam took me a few years back. Sooooo beautiful!!!

Today I decided to get my Mnt bike out. Since I wanted to get a good workout in I decided to ride up Schultz road to Mnt Elden. It was a total of 2 hrs on nice steep forest road. The aspens are starting to change, and thankfully the snow we got earlier this week was melted again for the ride.

 View from the top!!!

 San Francisco peaks in the background.

 Sunset Crater and Painted Desert.

 Aspens are slowly changing.

I am very excited to fly up o Ft Collins in less then 1 month to see JR and Jack. Two more months before Christmas break and then it is only one semester to go. I am starting to get excited about returning to running races and triathlons and am planning my 2014 season...unfortunately a lot of dates are not up yet and I am very impatient. It looks like I will start off the season with running and then kick off the tri season in May. Colorado has a ton of racing to offer and I am very excited to see what we are doing. I hear the XTerra in Ft Collins is one of the easier courses to ride, so I might even try my luck at my first Xterra Tri.

More Ft Collins Love

Today I checked out the Foothills and Horsetooth Reservoir by foot and bike...the US Pro Tour will come by here next weekend and I rode part of their stage for that day...I expected the roads by the lake to be flat, but man was I wrong:

 See the hill in the background with that road going up? I love hills!!!

 The pavement has NO cracks, the shoulder was nice, the traffic was very very light. Ft Collins is in the background.

 More climbing!!!

 And some more climbing!!!

 Beautiful views, about 10 min riding distance from Ft Collins!!! Check out the road again :-)

Then I went running along the Foothills, and I decided to follow this path that seems to go all through town and around town. What I really really like is that you always have a "gravel" option right next to it.

Or you can just venture off into the foothills and run to the Lake, which might be a 30 min run (or less) to Horsetooth. There are trails everywhere and miles and miles of running without seeing one person is possible right out your front door.

I am in love with this town. Now we just need to find that one house we have been looking for!!! Tonight I am trying out Track practice, which apparently happens every Tuesday and is followed by burgers and beer...it doesn't even shock me anymore. Breweries EVERYWHERE. Beer consumption in Ft Collins must be pretty similar to water consumption. They have happy hours here where you get 2 Dollar New Belgium Pints. Unheard of...unless you are in Ft Collins!!!