Hot running with Durango Motorless Transit

It's hard to get your workouts in on the road. I'm in Durango, almost as far south-west as you can get in Colorado and stay "civilised". That's in quotes because this area still has that frontier, mountain man feel. Abby and I are celebrating our wedding annivesary with a road trip to Mesa Verde, the astounding World Heritage site where the Anastazi Indians built pueblos into ledges on inaccessible sandstone cliffs.

The schedule called for 3 x (4 x 200s). I could see myself trying to do these on the mesa at 7000 feet pursued by park rangers. Instead, thanks to a quick Internet search and a couple of emails, I was welcomed by Durango Motorless Transit to join them in their Tuesday afternoon track session at Durango High School. Isn't the running network great?

DMT is the biggest running club in the Four Corners area. (There is actually a point on the map down here where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah all meet.) So thanks to those guys -- and especially Marjorie, who paced me through a couple of 1200s -- I got my workout in in style. The high school track is right by the river, a scenic 1.6 miles upstream from our hotel, all on a well-maintained river path. I had no complaints except the temperature. Prepped for 50 degrees and feeling the effects of seven hours in the car, the 70-plus heat felt really baking what with the extra 1000 feet of altitude.

Wednesday evening, back from the marvels of Mesa Verde and by now mildly sunburnt and dehydrated after a very full day exploring the cliff dwellings, I got my easy 6-miler in by running along the river, this time past the track where the trail peters out but you can run along the narrow-guage railway line that only runs to take tourists on a spectacular route through the San Juan mountains between Durango and the former mining town of Silverton.

I should be back in Boulder for a track session on Friday morning; I wondering if I'll notice the benefits of this brief stay "at altitude". The only problem is that long car journeys are such killers.