Trailrunning progression suggestions

[benmangelsdorf]

Hello there, I am a trailrunning n00b looking for suggestions for trails that will help me gradually increase my abilities/fitness. Right now my benchmark trail is Lion's Lair on Mt. Sanitas, which is like 700 elevation gain over the course of 2ish miles (4ish roundtrip). Running this trail was a major goal for me, but now I can do it *relatively* easily so I am looking for trails that are a bit more difficult! Largely looking for more elevation gain (my loose goal is 1000 feet in a single run, which I think I am capable of right now as long as the grade isn't too crazy), although I am fine with more distance as well up to like half marathon length. Obviously Bear Peak or Green Mountain would be good ideas in the area, but they feel a bit more beyond my skill level so I am looking for something to help bridge the gap I don't mind driving a little bit, but Boulder area is preferable as that is where I live. Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks

[Logan5280]

Nice work on your progression! It's worth noting that a lot of uphill trail running involves quite a bit of hiking, even up to a high level. Therefore, if your goal is to run a peak without walking at all, you'll probably want to opt for the most gradual trail you can find. Green mountain from the east side (I forget what the trail is called, but it goes up a canyon to the south and then snakes around to the back side of the mountain) is mostly gradual, until the steep final quarter mile. So, if consistent running is your goal, that trail is pretty good until the end. However, high-effort hiking and then running down can also get you pretty far as far as speed goes.

[seano]

It depends upon what you're trying to accomplish, but if I were you, I'd ignore whether or not you are running, and focus on how quickly you finish a route you care about. For something short and steep, measure your vertical feet per hour; the limiting factor will be your power to weight ratio. For something long and varied, measure your total time; the limiting factors will be calories per hour and efficiency. If you can find Matt Carpenter's notes on training for Leadville (somewhere on www.skyrunner.com), those should be helpful.

[justiner]

Starting from the turnoff to the road to the upper lot of Flagstaff, you can run Long Canyon up Green. The pitch is similar to Lions Liar. You'll hit Flagstaff and run the road a bit, but then can connect that to the Green Mountain West Ridge Trail. Taking that to the trail junction with Green Bear is 1,000' of elevation gain in 3.1 miles. You can keep going up to the junction of Ranger Trail for another 300' of elevation and make a decision to summit of Green (things get much steeper here) or take Ranger down to loop to your starting point if you'd like,

https://www.strava.com/routes/3127065854662197860

[LarryM]

Obviously there are so many good options near Boulder, and the above ones are good; here are some more:

-Anemone lollipop from what used to be called settlers park - about the same distance as LL out and back, but you should (barely) get your 1,000 feet of vert. Very runnable.

-This is dirt road (obviously closed to traffic) rather than single track, but is super runnable, and almost exactly 1,000 feet of gain and a 5 mile round trip: start at South Mesa TH. Run up the Mesa trail to a junction with shadow canyon south. Turn left; that isn't actually shadow canyon, but the trail to it. Run to the entrance to Shadow Canyon proper, just past an old cabin. Touch the post*. Turn around and run down. Variation - take the Homestead trail from and back to the Mesa trail, then proceed the same way to the entrance to shadow canyon. About the same distance and vert, adds some single track, but consequently slightly less runnable.

-Flagstaff - you'll get your 1,000 feet & a little more, steeper than Lions Lair and less runnable, but still pretty runnable for many people (not me so much any more). And as others have said, you shouldn't worry about hiking some.

-add on to LL: start at Centennial trailhead, out and back, take the sunshine canyon trail to LL & go up. 7.6 mile round trip, 1,250 feet of gain.

I may edit this to add some more. My weekday daily goal is to get 1,000 feet of vert, sometimes more but I have a TON of routes to just get that 1,000 feet. Above are some of the more runnable ones.

*This is mandatory; you are touching the post atop Sanitas, I assume?

[ccerling]

I believe someone already suggested starting the same Lions Lair Trail from the Centennial Trailhead further down Sunshine Canyon. That's a great option and one of my go to mid-week runs.

Another good option for runable uphill is the South Mesa Trailhead off Eldo Springs Drive. From the trailhead you can take the Homestead Trail up towards Shadow Canyon and there are 3 different options to turn off and loop down Upper Big Bluestem and back to the trailhead. It gets you anywhere from 3.5 to 4.5 miles and 700-900 feet of elevation.

Betasso Preserve is great too, I'd just recommend going on Wednesdays or Saturdays when bikes aren't allowed.

[Gibson135]

You named the first things that came to mind around here, Green Mountain and Bear, but if you're trying to hit something local and not quite as challenging, there's always the Mesa trail going for a longer distance without turning up the trails that head up to the peaks. If you want to make that a little more challenging, check that trail out and stay right when it comes to the turn for Bear Canyon. Then you can build up taking that to Bear or Green Mountain. There are many options to work your way up around here.

Another one you may want to check out is the Walker Ranch Loop - https://bouldercounty.gov/open-space/pa ... ker-ranch/

There are many places like that.

Also look into the Hessie Trailhead and 4th of July Trailhead. The different opportunities and variations are pretty endless there really from a pretty straightforward run up to Lake Dorothy, a great loop going to Devil's Thumb and King Lake (aka the High Lonesome Loop), a quicker run up to Lost Lake and many others.

There are two great CMC books that will give you plenty of choices of every level:

The Best Front Range Trail Runs (https://www.cmc.org/books/books/the-bes ... trail-runs)
Colorado Alpine Trail Runs (https://www.cmc.org/books/books/colorad ... trail-runs)

[Gibson135]

Hello there, I am a trailrunning n00b looking for suggestions for trails that will help me gradually increase my abilities/fitness. Right now my benchmark trail is Lion's Lair on Mt. Sanitas, which is like 700 elevation gain over the course of 2ish miles (4ish roundtrip). Running this trail was a major goal for me, but now I can do it *relatively* easily so I am looking for trails that are a bit more difficult! Largely looking for more elevation gain (my loose goal is 1000 feet in a single run, which I think I am capable of right now as long as the grade isn't too crazy), although I am fine with more distance as well up to like half marathon length. Obviously Bear Peak or Green Mountain would be good ideas in the area, but they feel a bit more beyond my skill level so I am looking for something to help bridge the gap I don't mind driving a little bit, but Boulder area is preferable as that is where I live. Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks

To answer more directly: for bridging the gap, the Walker Ranch Loop really is a good one for that in my opinion. it's about 7.5 miles and rolls up and down without ever getting too steep.

[jimwei]

It depends upon what you're trying to accomplish, but if I were you, I'd ignore whether or not you are running, and focus on how quickly you finish a route you care about. For something short and steep, measure your vertical feet per hour; the limiting factor will be your power to weight ratio. For something long and varied, measure your total time; the limiting factors will be calories per hour and efficiency. If you can find Matt Carpenter's notes on training for Leadville (somewhere on www.skyrunner.com), those should be helpful.

Second what Seano said. On mountain terrains, feet gained per hour is a good measurement, doesn't matter if it's from running or hiking. Feet gained per hour is different depends on duration and altitude. I'm a back of the pack trail runner. At the maximum, I can gain about 2800 ft per hour at 6000 ft for no more than one hour (measured by my Incline time). However at above 10,000 ft, on long outing, it's more like 1500 to 1800 ft per hour depending on the terrain, assuming adequate calories intake. For me, 200 calories per hour works to maintain my energy level for maximum sustained long effort.

Running on local trails here in Colorado Springs helps me overall when I go hiking/running in the mountains. Generally I walk up hill and run down hill for long mountain outings. I only try to run uphill for short training sessions, less than 90 minutes, and these are gentle hills, less than 300 to 400 ft per mile.

[curt86iroc]

mt. morrison is the classic test piece in the golden area. its very hard to run the entire thing uphill.

others include apex, chimney gulch, (our) green mountain, morrison slide and the hogback. these are all 800ft+ gains in 2 miles or less.

[LarryM]

It depends upon what you're trying to accomplish, but if I were you, I'd ignore whether or not you are running, and focus on how quickly you finish a route you care about. For something short and steep, measure your vertical feet per hour; the limiting factor will be your power to weight ratio. For something long and varied, measure your total time; the limiting factors will be calories per hour and efficiency. If you can find Matt Carpenter's notes on training for Leadville (somewhere on www.skyrunner.com), those should be helpful.

Second what Seano said. On mountain terrains, feet gained per hour is a good measurement, doesn't matter if it's from running or hiking. Feet gained per hour is different depends on duration and altitude. I'm a back of the pack trail runner. At the maximum, I can gain about 2800 ft per hour at 6000 ft for no more than one hour (measured by my Incline time). However at above 10,000 ft, on long outing, it's more like 1500 to 1800 ft per hour depending on the terrain, assuming adequate calories intake. For me, 200 calories per hour works to maintain my energy level for maximum sustained long effort.

Running on local trails here in Colorado Springs helps me overall when I go hiking/running in the mountains. Generally I walk up hill and run down hill for long mountain outings. I only try to run uphill for short training sessions, less than 90 minutes, and these are gentle hills, less than 300 to 400 ft per mile.

I want to ... not so much dissent here, this is 100% correct, unless you're an elite athlete, you'll mostly be fast hiking uphill on longer/steeper runs, but maybe emphasize the last sentence. Running uphill can be good training, not necessarily on long or steep runs, but on shorter, less steep runs, not every day but sometimes. And it sounds to me that that is (at least in part) what the OP is looking for.

I would add that, even for a slow poke like me, running at least a significant portion of a slightly steeper uphill - say 500 feet per mile - can be good training. And I know for sure that many younger / fitter runners than I can manage even more. e.g., Chimney Gulch, referenced above, is 2.5 miles with 1,200 feet of gain. I mostly hike it, but run part of it, and looking at the Strava leaderboards, there are plenty of people who can run the whole thing.

[AnnaG22]

I am looking for trails that are a bit more difficult! Largely looking for more elevation gain (my loose goal is 1000 feet in a single run, which I think I am capable of right now as long as the grade isn't too crazy), although I am fine with more distance as well up to like half marathon length... I don't mind driving a little bit, but Boulder area is preferable as that is where I live. Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks

Hi Ben, just seeing this thread from last summer. Are you looking just for slight increase in difficulty/vert or also longer mileage and higher elevation?

For the former, Green Mountain in Lakewood/Arvada is a great complement to Lion's Lair, albeit a little further away. Close to Boulder, the Mesa trail loop has good up and down adding up to around 1k vert. Marshall Mesa is around 15 miles as a loop with good vert and variability.

For the latter, you could head up to the IPW and run the Blue Lakes trail to the base of Mount Toll. Super pretty and fun. A bit harder and further away, if you're wanting to push elevation: Berthoud Pass for Mount Flora or Loveland Pass for Sniktau. Each of those 13ers will involve some powerhiking on the uphills, but the flats and descents are very fun trail running. Enjoy your summer adventures!