i'm rich!

Minimum wage in Colorado goes up at midnight, from $7.02 per hour to a whopping $7.28 per hour, making my weekly check from Trinity Brewing that much more impressive. One step closer to my dream of living in Manitou with a condo in downtown Pittsburgh and a ranch in Bandera!

the final stats

That's it, I'm finished, I'm not running again 'till next year! Finished 2008 with 2,386.3 miles. Total time was 460:49:31 (19 days and four hours). That averages out to 11:35 per mile, running the range from around 5:30 per mile for a short race to well over an hour per mile for some of the passes at Hardrock.

To put that number into perspective, the Appalachian Trail is 2175 miles from one end to the other. The Continental Divide Trail is 3100 miles. The Pacific Crest Trail is 2650 miles long.

My mileage goal for 2009 will be to cover 3000 miles. Shouldn't be too hard, I would have hit that number this year had I not had to spend January and Feburary recovering from my cankle injury.

Of course, my big running goals for '09 will be the same as last year: finish Hardrock and get the big buckle at Leadville.

bouldering rocks!

Yunz crazy climbers can have your harnesses and ropes. I'll stick close to the ground. Check this out.

AdAmAn on their way

Here in the Pikes Peak region there's a super cool group of peeps who climb the mountain and set off fireworks at midnight to ring in the new year. On a clear night you can see the fireworks all the way up in Denver. They've already left for Barr Camp. See the Gazette story here.

Still debating on what to do for NYE after I've already tied one on watching the Pitt game: either Low Down High at the Ancient Mariner or summit Rocky Mountain (via the Incline, of course) with a bottle of cheap wine to watch the fireworks.

first time go!

Tons of new problems at the rock gym, and I nailed two of 'em on my first try! A V0 and a V1, then made some quality attempts at a V2. I'm doing the best climbing of my life just in time for Hueco! Also upped my sets of push ups and crunches to 60, so I'm now doing 120 a day instead of 100.

shoot first, ask questions later!

Another sad story, right here in Colorado Springs. See the Gazette article here.

we're #1!

Pitt has climbed to the top of the college hoops RPI rankings! See the list here!

HPb 34 - Red Rock Canyon

Nice easy run through Red Rock Canyon this morning. Horrible headwind, but even with that it was more than warm enough to run in shorts. Still some snow and ice back in the Canyon though.

Start time - 5:45AM
Distance - 5.5 miles
Time - 1:05:58
Pace - 12:00 per mile
Weather - heavy winds, but 50F even before the sun came out
Weight - 172 lbs

HPb 33 - Sinton loop

Nice run along the Sinton loop from Corepower. Did 8 x 1 minute sprints on the backstretch, then followed the run with an hour of yoga. Another good four workout Monday. Stopped at Trinity on the way home to try their new Farmhouse 32 Noel Blanc. It's brewed using juniper berries, rose hips, corriander, and grains of paradise. Way too fruity for me, so I had an Alaskan Amber to get the yuppie taste out of my mouth.

Start time - 5:30 PM
Distance - 4.2 miles
Time - 35:15
Pace - 8:24 per mile
Weather - still enjoying the warm weather; windy but 45F
Weight - 172 lbs

Trinity

Woohoo! Trinity brewing has live music every Tuesday in January, including shows by Grass It Up and The Jack Trades! And the employee party is January 4, perfect recovery for the snowshoe race.

21

Forgot my climbing shoes today so I hit the 21 workout once again. Felt weak on the push ups, perhaps because of yesterday's climbing, but my sit ups were a lot better and as a result I PR'd this workout, hitting it in 18:51.

Those fuckers at the gym took down the V3 route I was soooo close to bagging! Arrrrgh!

even more HR pics

Christian had these on his "favorite pics of '08" facebook section, so I stole 'em. I feel like one of those old guys who keeps telling everyone who'll listen about how he played high school football and how good he used to be. But truth be told I've really done a whole lot of nuthin' since July.

My '09 rego is ready to go, and it's killing me that I can't mail it until Thursday...

squawk

My most recent parrot predictor says I'll run Austin in 4:28:31. That should start to drop significantly in the new year since I have quite a few sprint distance races coming up (Rescue Run 10K, and the first two events of the PPRR Winter Series - a 10K and an 8 miler).

HPb 32 - Garden 5

Ran a good five in the Garden this morning. Shorts at 5:45AM in December, can't beat it. Put in 6 x 2 minute repeats at 10K race effort, those felt pretty good.

Start time - 5:45AM
Distance - 5 miles
Time - 43:45
Pace - 8:45 per mile
Weather - beautiful, just shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt
Weight - 172 lbs

HPb week 4

Despite the debacle that was the triple century, I actually had a decent week. My 4th straight week of 50+ miles, and I went over 200 miles for December. Last December I didn't run as many miles for the whole month as I ran this week.

Weekly distance - 54.2 miles
Weekly time - 9:08:54
Average Pace - 10:07 per mile

USATF reconsiders headphone ban

Got this e-mail from the A-town marathon peeps today. I know they DQ'd a few people last year for wearing headphones, which I found surprising considering how important they value music down there. Then again, Austin is now a city whose Keep Austin Weird 5K is sponsored by budweiser and whose hash had their x-mas party at TGIF's, so I guess the city has really changed since I lived there.

Anywho, they'll be having 40 live bands along the course, so I'm not sure why anyone would need to bring their iPod along for the ride.

"USA Track and Field has amended the rules regarding headphone use to allow them in non-championship races. In other words, participants in the 2009 Austin Marathon will be allowed to use headphones."

pics

Christian Murdock, the Gazette reporter who covered Hardrock, just finished his year end recap.  Pretty cool stuff, see it here.

One of his pics of me is up for photo of the year.  Go here to vote.  I understand that women are gonna flock to the baby foxes pic, but hopefully my pic can at least beat out the George Bush photo.

HPb 31 - "I'll fucking bite you!"

Running Ute Pass is tough enough, but doing it hungover really sucks.  To top things off, I'm on the way back and this little shit dog starts running at me and barking like it's gonna bite.  So I take my defensive stance and get ready to throw my water bottle at it.  Usually this scares small dogs off, but this one is still charging me.  The situation is already bad enough, but then the dog's owner comes running around the corner yelling at me "don't you hurt my dog!"  The dog stops just out of reach but is still jumping around and barking.  I yell at the owner, "If your dog bites me I'll fucking kill it."  The guy then gets his dog under control and replies, "I'll fucking bite you, motherfucker!"  I actually started laughing at that comment, which somewhat diffused the situation.  We still talked some shit though, the guy was a lot bigger than me but I could be a lot tougher since there were a bunch of runners that were not far behind me.  

Start time - 8AM

Distance - 8 miles

Time - 1:36:21

Pace - 12:03 per mile

Weather - beautiful, just shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt

Weight - 170 lbs

150+

Went to Thirsty's tavern last night, a nice little dive on the corner of 21st and Cimarron.  It was the 151st bar I've been to in Colorado since I moved here.

HPb 30 - salvaging a lost weekend

Been a shitty long weekend so far, but I managed to accomplish something this morning by getting in a decent long run.  From Manitou down to America the Beautiful park, then north on the Sante Fe trail to Garden of the Gods road, then back through the Garden to my house.  Garden road was horrible - a long hill with strong headwinds.  But other than that it was a good run.

Crossed my final major landmark for 2008 on this run.  Since January 1, 2008, I've spend over 19 entire days running.

Start time - 10:30 AM

Distance - 20.0 miles

Time - 3:13:51

Pace - 9:42 per mile

Weather - might have got up to 30F, but the wind chill was in the teens.

Weight - 169

beers: 12

miles: 22

Off to Trinity, then the Townhouse.  Maybe a comeback towards respectability...

holiday trivia

There are currently six teams ranked in the AP top 25 for both football and basketball.  First person to name them gets to split a pitcher of Icehouse with me at the THL.

Hint: I wouldn't be asking this if my beloved Pitt Panthers weren't on the list!

beers: 11

miles: 22

HPb 29 - Garden trails

I became so dehydrated yesterday I had a friend stick an IV in me, but I still felt super weak today.  Ran around the Garden on the trails.  Had to walk just about every hill.  Was way overdressed, which didn't help my cause.  But still, a bad run in the Garden is a lot better than no run at all.  And I didn't hafta stop to take a crap, which was a huge bonus.  Espcially today, since the good weather brings a ton of tourists to the Garden.  What would you say if you got caught dropping a deuce by a tourist?  "Hi, welcome to colorful Colorado.  That's kissing camels over there, that's the way to the siamese twins.  Hey, think you could find me some dry leaves?"

Start time - 10AM

Distance - 8.9 miles

Time - 1:35:17

Pace - 10:43 per mile

Weight - 170 lbs

unofficial DNF

I've fallen way behind on the schedule already so I've decided to not stress over the triple century.  I will continue to report on my mileage and booze intake up until 4:20PM on Sunday just for shits and giggles.  

beers: 10

miles: 13

Yerba Mate is open if anyone needs coffee.

double digits

beers: 10

miles: 10

It's officially Christmas, so peace on earth and all that jazz.  If it's crazy to be running at midnight on Christmas day, what should I call the guy at the Speed Queen doing his laundry?

beers: 8

miles: 8

beers: 5

miles: 7

beers: 5

miles:5

wizard stick

Just to set the record straight, click here.

two mile course

beers: 2

miles: 4

$100 joined me and we measured the two mile course.  Perfect, as it was 2.03 miles out around the dinosaur and back to my house.  Now it's time to go drink two beers while watching a movie.

wizard stick

Why play one drinking game when you can play two!  I'm gonna build the greatest wizard stick EVER!

2

beers: 2

miles: 2

Already deviated from my original plan of one beer and one mile per hour.  Thought it would be better to keep the schedule from the top of the hour and not at twenty after.  

Nailed the route down to 1.05 miles, much better.  Long way around the town clock, then the shorter route back to Lover's Lane.  Lots of ice on LL, we'll see how that plays out when I get drunk.

current count

beers: 1

miles: 1

Loop one complete.  My garmin says the course is actually 1.11 miles, so I may see if I can shave some distance off on the next loop.  Not sure where I can do that, might just hafta cut the corners a bit closer.

and so it begins...

triple century warm up - Trinity Cherry Awaken

Bolted out to Trinity over lunch to try their limited edition Cherry Awaken Stout (extremely limited - they made one keg and it was selling very fast, so they're probably sold out by the time you read this). Very yummy, but in my opinion the only way they could make Awaken any better would be to give it away for free or have it served by naked hot chicks. So it was certainly worth the drive, but I had to have a second pint of regular Awaken to get the fruity flavor out of my mouth.

After having spent yesterday tapering my liver for the upcoming battle (only two pints last night, very low for me), today's liquid lunch served as a nice warm-up for the upcoming triple century.

I'm hoping to get out of work a bit early and kick things off at 4:20PM mountain time. Figure that's a great time to start something so stupid. After that, it's one mile and one beer per hour for the foreseeable future. I do have a two mile out and back from my house as well, I may throw a few of those in every now and then. Need to get a few extra miles in before Friday, since I hafta work at Trinity. I can drink there but probably can't sneak out every hour for a mile run. Also hafta put in an appearance at the Incline happy hour tomorrow night - so that'll give me a nice five miles and who knows how many beers at the Royal Tavern. Thinking of also doing the Pikes Peak hash on Saturday. Yes, such is the awesomeness of my life that sometimes I hafta take a break from drinking and running to go drink and run.

I'll be taking pictures of the town clock in Manitou each time I run past (or other various landmarks, such as the dinosaur in front of the gas station that serves as the one mile mark from my house). I've also invited a lot of friends to join me at various times to run/drink with me. There's no perfect way to do this, but I'd like as much proof as possible just in case I'm actually able to pull this off. $100 will also be overseeing things at various points through the weekend, and those who know her know she wouldn't back up a false claim by me over this.

quote of the day

"Only those who risk drinking and running too much can possibly find out how much one can drink and how far they can go!"
-unknown

The triple century begins tomorrow!

HPb 28 - easy six

Nice and easy six miler this morning.  Short Garden loop plus some extra credit around Manitou.  Beautiful weather.  I don't remember overdressing at all last winter, I've been doing that regularly this season and I love it!  Didn't see a soul out there until I was almost done and I saw Katie running along.  I stopped to talk to her, then when she stopped I yelled at her for stopping.  She's gonna pick up our Rescue Run packets at the CRC today, so if anyone hits Grass It Up at Trinity tonight you can see the shirts.

Start time - 5:15 AM

Distance - 6.1 miles

Time - 60:04

Pace - 9:51 per mile

Weight - 174 lbs

HPb 27 - Garden

Nice loop through the Garden tonight.  Great weather.  Time woulda been a lot faster had I not had to stop to drop a deuce.  Yes, that's a common theme with a lot of my runs.  Though it does slow my road times down a lot it's real good practice for trail ultras.

Start time - 6:30 PM

Distance - 8.0 miles

Time - 1:09:21

Pace - 8:41 per mile

Weight - 175 lbs

Leadville MOPP - America's highest pub crawl

Wankers,

 

Come join us on January 3, 2009, as the MOPP hash takes binge drinking to a new level - above 10,000 feet!  We'll be starting at the Pioneer Bar, located at 118 West 2nd Street, 80461.  Pub historians will recoginze this place as the last remaining brothel in Leadville.

 

Start time is 7PM.  There are a bunch of hashers staying at the Leadville hostel, google that if you're interested in joining us.

This pub crawl is not for the meek.  There will be at least seven bars, and temps in Leadville have already hit thirty below.  NO WHINING ALLOWED!

HPb week 3

Another decent week. Hit 50 miles for the third straight week. This time of year, with all the holiday parties, can really cut into the mileage but I've done alright keeping in shape. On pace to break 200 miles for the month. This week will be a little off due to the Triple Century attempt, I'm not counting those miles since the amount of beer more than negates any health benefits. Gonna fall short in my goal of 2500 miles for 2008 as well (in my defense, I didn't make that goal until November), which means I'll have to punish myself by shooting for 3000 in 2009.

Weekly distance - 50.2 miles
Weekly time - 9:03:53
Average Pace - 10:50 per mile

Hi Laura!

Remember to bring some Yuengling back from PA!

rough day

Already having my run out of the way, I only have two more things to accomplish today:

1.  Mail in my Leadville rego.

2.  Get fucked up.

Gonna be a great day!

HPb 26 - Garden trails

Nice run this morning, went over to finish scouting today's Kimchi trail and then explored some of the Garden trails on the east side.  Lots of fun today, felt good.  Just started snowing in Manitou as I finished.

Start time - 8AM

Distance - 11.4 miles

Time - 2:17:03

Pace - 12:02 per mile

Weather - sunny, 35F

Weight - 172lbs!

Incline happy hour

Leadville!

Leadville rego is now online. Click here for the beta. $225 bones if you get it in before the end of January. My mom was nice enough to cover this for me as an x-mas present. I think she likes to watch me suffer.

triple century course

Beta on my main loop for the upcoming triple century attempt can be seen here. I'll walk the course with a GPS this weekend to confirm the distance. I also know it's two miles exactly out and back to the Manitou pool in case I need to play catch-up with mileage, which I may since I haven't been able to weasel out of work (luckily I can drink at work).

HPb 25 - sweatin' out the hangover

Horrible run through the Garden this morning to get rid of my hangover from last night's happy hour. Definitely in the hate mode of my love/hate relationship with gin. Still, not too shabby of a pace since I spent a good chunk of change checking out some new rocks to climb and had to stop for a bit to let a pack of coyotes pass.

Start time - 7:30 AM

Distance - 7.8 miles

Time - 1:15:51

Pace - 9:44 per mile

Weather - sunny, 40F

Weight - 169 lbs!

HPb 24 - Incline happy hour

Once again, good times at the Incline happy hour.  Took the Garmin 405 that Katie got me for x-mas on this one.  1.25 miles from my house to the bottom of the Incline (.40 miles from my house to the Townhouse; .45 miles to the Royal Tavern; .49 miles to Kinfolk's; and.51 miles to the Mariner).  2.0 miles to the false summit.  2.2 miles to the real summit.  And back down to Kinfolk's is 5.5 miles.  Had a real good effort up the Incline, and then a real good effort at the pubs in Manitou where I proceeded to get pretty wasted with the Upadowna guys.  Good times!

Next week's Incline happy hour will end at the Royal Tavern since Kinfolk's is closed.  Family schmily, the holidays are better spent drinking G&T's at the Tavern!

Start time - 6:15 PM

Distance - 5.5 miles

Time - 1:31:12

Pace - 16:35 per mile

Weather - near perfect for December, start temp was 37F!

Weight - 174 lbs

YES! A tax on fat people!

Saw this article today and got super excited! Unfortunately, it's not an actual tax on obesity, which I think is a great idea, but a tax on soda in New York schools. But hopefully it begins a trend leading to the point where we can persecute fat people as much as we do smokers. I'm immediately going to start a letter writing campaign to the gov of Colorado asking him to make it illegal for fat chicks to be in bars past midnight - that sure would save me a lot of awkward mornings!

quote of the day!

Got this nugget in an e-mail. Can't reveal the source, as the topic deals with a deep personal issue, but her hash name rhymes with Happy Sock.

"If he’s going to act like a turd, he should go lay in the yard."

21

Hit the workout in 21:04 over lunch. Thought I was gonna break 20, finally, but my last three sets of sit-ups were S-L-O-W.

HPb 23 - more Red Rock Canyon

"There's no such thing as bad weather. Just soft people."
- Bill Bowerman

That's my new favorite winter running quote, courtesy of the latest issue of the Incline Club news.

I keep going back to Red Rock Canyon because I love running there so much, even though it's usually significantly colder in there than a Garden road run would be, and even though the rough singletrack is currently covered in ice and snow. So it makes for slow and miserable going, but the effort is always there so I'm not worried about it. Like AJW said on his blog the other day, "It's all about base-building at this time of year anyway and there's something that tells me running with frozen eyelashes builds character." Ran the contemplative trail to the round-up trail, then cut across through the Quarry. Great trails back there!

Start time - 6 PM
Distance - 5.5 miles
Time - 1:00:20
Pace - 10:59 per mile
Weather - 19F
Weight - 173 lbs

trivia time!

Some parolee dude just tried to stump me with this question. I got it right, but it took some thinking on my part, something I really don't like to do at work. Free pint of Icehouse at the Townhouse Lounge to the first person to answer correctly.

What are the four NBA teams whose nicknames don't end in the letter "s?"

first time send!

They put up a bunch of new problems at the rock gym today. I took my chances at a V1 and before I knew it I had nailed the problem! It used to take me weeks to finish a V0, now I'm hitting V1's on the first try. Chris Sharma, watch your back! They have some new V2's that are gonna prove a little more challenging, and that damn V3 I keep trying keeps kicking my ass over the final two moves.

Oh yeah, I did 101 push-ups and those were the easy part of the workout.

HAIL TO PITT!

Pitt hoops makes their first appearance of the season on national TV tonight, taking on the always tough Siena Saints. ESPN2 at 7:30PM mountain time, beotches!

HPb 22 - Quarry loop

Easy run through the Quarry loop at Red Rock Canyon. Lets were tired from last night's track workout and once again my motivation for actually getting out of bed was lacking. The Quarry is such a cool place to start your day!

Start time - 5:30 AM
Distance - 4.1 miles
Time - 42:13
Pace - 10:18 per mile
Weather - 19F
Weight - 173 lbs

HPb 21 - 5 x 1200 meters

Yes, I have been whining a lot about the cold weather lately. In my defense, I've at least been toping that crybaby stuff with decent workouts. CC track again tonight. It was 20F when I left work, which actually felt nice and warm since the recent night/early morning temps have been much lower. The track was in much better condition than last week, though the first turn was still super slow and the back stretch had lots of ice. Didn't see another soul out there tonight, they must have canceled Quinn's. Ended up averaging 4:40 this week, much better than the 4:59 I averaged last week, though that had everything to do with the second turn being ice and snow free and a little less to do with any fitness gain.

Start time - 6 PM
Distance - 5 x 1200 meters, three minute rest
Time - 4:47, 4:37, 4:44, 4:34, 4:40
Pace - averaged 4:40
Weather - heatwave brought the temp up to 20F
Weight - 173 lbs

let's get it on!

2009 Hardrock applications are now online. See it here. 250 bones this year, but you can't really put a price on the experience.

Yes, I have already filled mine out even though I can't mail it until January 1, 2009.

parrot predictor

My current parrot predictor thing that Wiley sent me says I'll run Austin in 4:05:12.

-27F

Leadville dropped to -27F yesterday. I hope it gets that cold for the snowshoe race in January. That race is gonna suck regardless of weather, so it might as well be an epic suck.

new record

Colorado Springs set a record low yesterday, bottoming out at -8F. The old record was -6F, set back in 1899. Global warming my ass! Fuck you, Al Gore!

HPb 20 - Garden

Took a massive amount of willpower to roll out of a warm bed this morning, but I made it happen.  The roads are still a mess here in Manitou as the temps aren't allowing anything to melt.  Really making for some slow runs since I spend a lot of time slipping all over the place.  

Start time - 5:30 AM

Distance - 8.0 miles

Time - 1:13:43

Pace - 9:13 per mile

Weather - -1F, "feels like" -10F

Weight - 173 lbs

HPb 19 - Sinton loop

A study in contrasts last night as I ran the Sinton loop in subzero temps and then did an hour of hot yoga in 100+ temps.  Lots of snow on the Sinton trail made for some slow going.  The time also includes having to stop to drop a deuce, not the most pleasant thing to do when it's ten below outside.

Start time - 5:30 PM

Distance - 4.2 miles

Time - 40:13

Pace - 9:35 per mile

Weather - freezing cold, temps were below zero

Weight - 173 lbs

CRC party

manitou pub crawl

Just a few of the drunkards from last night.

woohooo!

My rock gym workout was horrible due to my hangover, but the hottie chick who works there gave me a free half month when I upped my membership!

Gonna hafta get new shoes before Hueco. Mine don't grip for shit anymore, and I've actually worn a hole in them. I got them at REI, and they have a 100% lifetime satisfaction guarantee, I may hafta look into that as I'm not satisfied with them anymore...

biker OK

Turns out that biker who got hit last Thursday, who I was sure was dead, is fine. He spent 20 minutes in the ambulance and then went home, not even taken to the hospital.

Manitou pub crawl

Did the first annual Verly Hudson memorial pub crawl last night, had a fantastic time.  Bars I had at least two drinks at:

Townhouse (twice)

Kinfolk's (twice)

The Loop

Ancient Mariner

Royal Tavern

The Keg

It was a who's who of Manitou drinkers and I can say now with total confidence I'm at the top of the list of town drunks, pretty impressive for this place. 

Unfortunately, work is gonna suck ass today.

HPb week 2

Not too shabby of a week.  Mileage was a bit low due to starting speedwork on Tuesday and the CRC party on Thursday.  Horrified with my long run on Saturday, but given that my past two races (Rim Rock and Pueblo) were decent I'll chalk that up to having a bad day.

I am off to a much better start this time around.  Last December I ran 53 miles for the month (I was still recovering from my cankle injury).  January '08 saw me cover 126.8 miles.  I didn't hit 200 miles in a month until February and 250 miles, the point where I can really start to feel like I'm getting into ultra shape, until March '08.  This time I hit 142 miles in October, 194.1 miles in November, and I'm on pace to hit 200 miles in December.  Probably go for 250 in January and keep that number through July.  I feel like I'm two months farther ahead than this point last year.

Weekly distance - 51.7 miles

Weekly time - 7:40:06

Average Pace - 8:53 per mile

HPb 18 - Incline Club

"Seems to be a lot of people missing this morning.  That's OK, we'll be laughing at them in August."  That was from Matt at this morning's Incline Club run.  Very small group, a lot of people (for example, BLOS, Susan, Gordo, John, Jillian, the list could go on and on...) pussed out due to the super cold weather.  I was still sore as hell so I just ran to the Garden and scouted trail for the Kimchi red dress run.  Found some sweet new trails and figured out a much better way to take the trail from the Garden back down to Old Colorado City.  Felt a lot better after this run.

Start time - 8 AM

Distance - 9 miles

Time - 1:25:54

Pace - 9:33 per mile

Weather - bit on the chilly side, 5F, felt like -16F, fresh snow (about 3 inches in Manitou)

Weight - 174 lbs

HPb 17 - the long suck

Horrible experience today.  First eight miles were alright - it's pretty hilly through the Garden and the stretch along the road down to the Sante Fe trail is real boring - but I was still clicking off eight minute miles.  Then I got onto the trail and was blasted by a fierce headwind, and that took the life out of me.  Really struggled the entire time I was on the Sante Fe trail, all the way down to America the Beautiful park.  Things kept deteriorating through Old Colorado City and instead of finishing in Manitou I bailed at Katie's house.  How the fuck did I ever run 100 miles???

Good news on the white trash front though, as there is new nazi propaganda spray painted along the Sante Fe trail near downtown.  And the a-hole who always protests outside the Planned Parenthood got a new sign for his truck - this one has a hacked up abortion pictured under the words, "My mommy and daddy paid to have me killed."

Start time - 9AM

Distance - 17 miles

Time - 2:37:23

Pace - 9:16

Weather - nice, temps in the 50s, strong winds

Weight - 174 lbs

the streak is over

I didn't run on Friday, ending my streak of running at 13 days.

Kimchi Red Dress

Wankers,

The Kimchi red dress run starts this Saturday, 2PM, at Mo's Diner.  Mo's is located at 108 Manitou Ave, 80829.  However, you must park at the Manitou High baseball field.  To get there from I-25, exit Cimmarron and head towards the mountains.  Turn right on 31st street, then turn left (towards Manitou) on Colorado Avenue.  After a mile or so on Colorado there is a stoplight at the T-intersection with Beckers Lane.  Turn right on Beckers and head half a block to the baseball fields.  Park there and walk back to the stoplight and you can see Mo's from there.  Mo's is directly across the street from Castaway's.  

Hash cash is five bones.  There is also a bar on trail, so bring some extra loot.  Trail is relatively tame but keep the high heels at home.  Your feet will probably get wet and circle is outside, so plan accordingly.

joy

I'm sore as fuck from yesterday's run.  I'm terribly hungover.  And the current temperature in Manitou is 5F, feels like -16F, and it's snowing.  Off to the Incline Club!  Yes, those who do not show will be called out later on...

woohooo!

Creating a Newsense at the Ancient Mariner tonight!

HFC

Good article on Rick Trujillo, the original Imogene Pass runner, can be seen here.

Hardrock snowfall

I get a monthly e-mail to track snowfall in Silverton, just to see how things are doing down on the Hardrock course. The latest numbers say 28.8 inches have fallen over the past month. Good news, as that's well below the average of 34.5 inches! Of course, last year's reading was 17.7 inches at this time, and that was followed by record snowfall that left a lot of the white stuff on the course in July.


Here's a graph that has something to do with the weather data in Silverton. Not really sure what it means, but Net and my sister have been making me feel stoopid for my lack of book reading lately, so I thought I'd try to make myself look smarter. I figure a lot of people just glance at this blog for the pics, and if they see that graph and all these words, they'll think, "damn, brownie understands that graph with all those lines and colors, he must be one intelligent cat."

another biker hit

Real morbid end to the CRC party last night, as a road biker got hit by a car at the corner of Tejon and Cache La Poudre. Sure hope he's OK, but to be honest things didn't look too promising. The bike was about 15 feet from the body and hit a parked car so hard it just kind of imprinted itself on the car. Nothing in the Gazette this morning about the accident.

HPb 16 - Sante Fe Trail

Took the bus to work yesterday morning so I could just run from work to the CRC holiday party. Nice, easy run along the Sante Fe trail.

Start time - 5:30 PM
Distance - 5.7 miles
Time - 46:40
Pace - 8:12 per mile
Weather - 40F
Weight - 174 lbs

bogosity

BLOS used that word in an e-mail earlier today, and I immediately fell in love with it. I thought he was making it up, but when I checked out dictionary.com it turns out it's an actual word. The definition:

bogosity /boh-go's*-tee/ The degree to which something is "bogus" in the hackish sense of "bad". At CMU, bogosity is measured with a bogometer; in a seminar, when a speaker says something bogus, a listener might raise his hand and say "My bogometer just triggered". More extremely, "You just pinned my bogometer" means you just said or did something so outrageously bogus that it is off the scale, pinning the bogometer needle at the highest possible reading (one might also say "You just redlined my bogometer"). The agreed-upon unit of bogosity is the microLenat.Also, the potential field generated by a bogon flux; see quantum bogodynamics. See also bogon flux, bogon filter.

I am now going to rate all my friends' lame excuses for bailing on cool adventures. And with the group I hang with, I'm sure I'll see my bogometer redlined all the time. I may even have to use the macroLenat unit of bogosity.

more Manitou!

Just agreed to a six month extension on my lease. This will be the longest I've lived at a single residence since I graduated from Pitt in 1997. Unless you count the five years of weekends I crashed on couches at either Twin Peaks' or TAF's while I lived in Texas...

Manitou Mardi Gras

Since a bunch of peeps have been asking, this year's Manitou Mardi Gras is February 21, 2009. Drinking begins at 7AM.

e-town

Went to a taping of etown last night. My only experience with etown has been listening to it on KBCO while driving home from the Denver hash a few times. I always thought it was kinda boring. In that sense, I wasn't disappointed last night.

Matthew Caws, lead singer of Nada Surf, opened up. I don't know much about Nada Surf other than they have a bunch of crappy pop songs and had a huge hit a few summers ago. If your music is average at best when you have a plugged-in band behind you, doing a solo acoustic show isn't gonna make it any better.

But the reason I was there was to see the Flobots, who have been my favorite band recently. Think they'd put on a killer live show, but the format of etown really crushed the vibe. I felt like I do when I hafta wear a suit - I'm miserably uncomfortable but I can't let on that I'm having a horrible time. The Flobots got to play five songs, including my two favorites, Handlebars and Mayday, but again the way etown ran the show made it more like I was watching a recording session than a concert.

The Flobots have a much younger following then etown is used to, and that made for some funny moments. The two hosts, who seem as if they've had a stick up their ass for their entire lives, got pretty frustrated with the crowd being noisy when they weren't supposed to. At one point, they were taping the plug for the sponsors. "We'd like to thank Ben & Jerry's, Webroot, Chipolte, blah, blah, blah...." When the chick mentioned Silk (that soymilk crap), some dude way in the back started screaming "SILK! HELL YEAH SOYMILK!" and generally going crazy. Guess you had to be there, but I almost pissed my pants laughing.

That being said, the finalie of "So Happy Together" with everyone on stage was pretty cool.

Still, I can't believe I threw down about the same amount of money for the Spearhead show, which was one of the most electrifying shows I've ever seen, for this clunker. The Flobots have a few shows coming up at the Gothic in Denver, hopefully I'll get to see them in a better venue soon.

my modeling career...

...has finally taken off with the release of the CRC Pikes Peak schwag webpage, which can be seen here. Though I'm very disappointed with being stuck on page 2, even Derek Zoolander had to get started somewhere. I heard CRC has already sold out of all these sweatshirts.

wtf?

Saw this on the previews for "Run Fatboy Run" (a great movie, by the way) and was appalled. Non-smokers are such righteous assholes (as are the teetotalers/folks from MADD, but that's another post...). Can you imagine if someone did this kind of ad dealing with breast cancer or obesity or diabetes? I still smoke one cigar or cigarette per week to make sure I never join the ranks of the non-smokers.

But I have to admit, even though I was offended at this, I laughed my ass off...

spooooooooooon!

KRCC is playing a live Spoon show right now! Haven't seen those guys since I last attended the ACL festival.

Salida marathon!

The Salida Marathon will be run on March 14, 2009. Details are here. There will be a MOPP pub crawl later that evening.

HPb 15 - Red Rock Canyon

Nice easy run through Red Rock Canyon this morning. The streak is now up to twelve days.

Start time - 5:30 AM
Distance - 7.0 miles
Time - 61:35
Pace - 8:40 per mile
Weather - 20F
Weight - 174 lbs

HPb 14 - CC track

Nice comical episode at the CC track last night. Almost the entire track was covered with ice and snow. Every time my foot touched the ground I didn't know if I'd be able to grip or if I'd slide around. Made for slow times, but the effort was definitely there so I'm happy. About time I stopped the excuse making for missing Tuesday night speed workouts. Even managed to hit the Y to throw some weights around afterwards. Had my body fat % tested, and I clocked in at 12.7%. Would like to keep that number there or even a bit higher so I don't freeze this winter, then drop down to the single digits for the ultra season.

Start time - 5:45 PM
Distance - 4 x 1200 meters, 3 minute rest
Time - 5:06, 5:01, 4:53, 4:56
Pace - averaged 4:59 (would have been 4:29 on a decent track)
Weather - fresh snow, lots of ice, temps in the upper teens
Weight - 174 lbs

CC track

I'll be starting my weekly Tuesday night track workouts at CC tonight if anyone wants to join me. I should get there around 5:45, warmup for a mile or so, then knock out 4 x 1200 meters with three minutes of rest in between.

kudos!

Congrats to a couple of buddies who finished marathons this weekend.

Josh ran a pretty good Tucson marathon, despite telling everyone within hearing distance how bad his pussy was hurting. He ran 3:15, not too shabby coming off a recent Boston qualifier at San Antonio. Josh and I have talked about running Boston in 2010, but we'll see, as most people who have children instantly become lame.

BLOS, well, I think he might be finished with the race by the time you read this. Go to his blog for more info. Once he gets some experience under his belt he'll be sub-3:10 easily.

And of course Wiley had one helluva race at the California International Marathon. Check out his splits over the last 10K, pretty impressive.

HPb 13 - Ice Capades

More of an ice skating session than a run this morning, as a storm left the roads through the Garden a mess. Fell down twice and spend the rest of the time just trying to stay upright and not freeze to death as the wind chill had the temps in the single digits. Still, a miserable run through the Garden sure beats sleeping in.

Start time - 5:45 AM
Distance - 5.00 miles
Time - 48:58
Pace - 9:48 per mile
Weather - fresh snow, lots of ice, temps in the upper teens
Weight - 174 lbs

I'm onto you, KRCC...

KRCC always plays Cake right after playing the Flobots. Unfortunately, it's always the highlight of my workday.

HPb 12 - El Paso out and back

Nice, easy run out and back along El Paso blvd.  Still sore from the half, but feeling much better than yesterday.  Don't especially like this run but it's about the only thing I can do to not hafta tackle any big hills, though Stop Sign Hill does always kick my ass on the way back.  Katie got me a Garmin 405 for x-mas so my mileage estimates should be a little more on from here on out.  Of course, I've always called this run 5 miles, and my new Garmin backs me up with the run being precisely 5.00 miles.

I'm now streaking again, having run every day over the past ten days.

Start time - 5:30 AM

Distance - 5.oo miles

Time - 50:50

Pace - 8:08 per mile

Weather - summerlike, was 50F at 5:30AM (even though the high today was listed in the mid-30s)

Weight - 172 lbs

ute valley pics

Ute Valley Bouldering

$100 and I went over to Ute Valley Park this afternoon to enjoy the awesome weather by climbing some rocks.  I finally completed my first outdoor problem, nailing the left face of the Hueco Boulder after an hour or so of trying.  Yeah, it's rated V0, but it was still a blast to finally get one under my belt.

HPb week 1

Pretty good week to kick things off, highlighted by the good effort at the half marathon.  Still have a long ways to go, luckily I have pleanty of time.

Weekly distance - 54.4 miles

Total time - 8:18:05

Average pace - 9:09 per mile

HPb 11 - Incline Club

Rolled out of bed after drinking at the Townhouse last night, hungover and sore as fuck from the half marathon.  Ended up signing in at the IC and jogging over to Red Rock Canyon for a loop around the park.  Sore the whole way.

Stat time - 8AM

Distance - 8.1 miles

Time - 1:15:00

Pace - 9:16 per mile

Weather - awesome, blue skies and temps in the mid 50s

Weight - 175 lbs

HPb 10 - Rock Canyon Half Marathon

Ventured south for the Pueblo Rock Canyon Half Marathon and had a pretty decent time.  Had a slow first mile due to all the crowding (7:04), then ran well for the next ten miles.  At eleven miles I really tried to go for a sub-90, but I just couldn't will my legs to turnover quick enough.  Which I kind of expected, nowing I wasn't in very good shape and it having been a long time since I ran a short race.  Plugging in my time into the RW predictor, I should be able to run a 3:08:02 marathon right now, and I still have two months to get in better shape before Austin.

Ended up finishing in 32nd place (out of 501 finishers), which was good enough for 3rd place in the 30 to 34 age group.

Kudos to the others from the area who travelled there:

Rick H - 1:23:48

Paul D - 1:25:38

Yeti - 1:53:56

OCD - 2:01:45

STD Bitch - 2:06:35

Midnite - 2:14:30

$100 - 2:16:58

QnA - 2:39:32

Start time - 9AM

Distance - 13.1 miles

Time - 1:30:11

Pace - 6:53 per mile

Weather - beautiful, mid 50s

Weight - 174 lbs

Swiped this off Geoff's blog.  He called it Matt's $10,000 smile.

just another Thurs night in Manitou...

Great pic taken by Yeti from the last Incline Happy hour.

Rock Canyon half

Group shot from today's Rock Canyon half-marathon.  Not pictured are STD Bitch and OCD.  Notice the schweet 3rd place age group medal around my neck...

hooray for the manitoids!

Matt Carpenter won the North Face 50 miler!

1st - Matt Carpenter 6:49
2nd - Uli Steidl 6:53
3rd - Japanese dude 7:01
4th - Kyle Skaggs 7:03
5th - Geoff Roes 7:12

1:30:08

Real good effort, bittersweet result.  Report later, I'm off to the Kimchi hash...

equal rights for all! put pregnant bitches to work!

I saw Lauren last night and asked how the whole pregnancy thing was going.

She gave me this long winded answer about the changes her body is going through, the difficulties of being knocked up, how she can't wait for it to be over, blah, blah, blah...

So I tell her the next time I ask her that question to please answer in one word. I say, "I'm only asking to be nice, the whole pregnancy thing grosses me out and I really don't want to hear about it."

She says, "I know, and that's why I'm always gonna give you all the details!"

good luck this weekend!

Lots of folks racing this weekend:

-Of course first on the list has to be Matt's race out in San Fran at the North Face 50 miler. Big duel with Uli Steidl and maybe even Kyle Skaggs if Kyle can keep up on the shorter distance. I predict a win for Matt, 'cuz that's just how us Manitoids roll. Plus, I saw him run up the Incline, so he's somewhat in kinda good shape.

-Josh and Matt are off to Tucson since they haven't ran a marathon in almost three weeks now. I'm actually hoping Josh has a bad race, because if he doesn't go sub 3:10 he has to go to a gay bar and stay on the dance floor for ten minutes (and Lauren has promised lots of pictures). Heard BLOS has a bum ankle and a sandy pussy, hopefully he gets over those issues before the weekend.

-Wiley and a bunch of Austinites are off to the CA International Marathon. They've been training hard for a long time, here's hoping all that work pays off!

-A bunch of us headed down to Pueblo for the Rock Canyon half marathon: $100, Midnite Stroker, STD Bitch, Yeti, All Nighter, OCD, and some of the guys from CRUD. Supposed to be mid-50s weather, so that'll be a nice change. Should show me where I stand in terms of how fast I can run Austin, so I'll be pushing pretty hard.

Everyone run hard this weekend!

HPb 9 - Manitou morning 5K

Quick run through the streets of Manitou this morning. Those Nike Free barefoot shoes didn't handle very well on the slippery streets.

Start time - 5:45 AM
Distance - 3.1 miles
Time - 24:13
Pace - 7:49 per mile
Weather - chilly, slippery, 15F
Weight - 176.2 lbs

HPb 8 - Incline Happy Hour

Despite bitter temps and a fresh layer of snow we had a good turnout for the weekly Incline happy hour. Think we set our all time record for number of females with three. And for those lazy pussies who bailed because of the conditions, please note that you were outdone by a knocked up chick, as Lauren swiped the HFC of the day award by not letting pregnancy slow her down. Slow going, took me 42 minutes to get to the top.



Start time - 6:30 PM
Distance - 5.5 miles
Time - 1:29:44
Pace - 16:19 per mile
Weather - chilly, snow, 15F
Weight - 175 lbs

WWFSMD?

I tell you this much, if He had land that would make for an awesome local open space park, He wouldn't team up with greedy land developers in an attempt to bleed more money out of the deal!

HPb 7 - CRC/Goose out and back

Easy run to Goose Gossage park from CRC and back along the Sante Fe trail. Friggin' cold. Wondered how I was running so fast going out, the headwind made for a struggle on the way back.

Start time - 5:30 PM
Distance - 6.0 miles
Time - 47:54
Pace - 7:59 per mile
Weather - chilly, windy, 25F
Weight - 175 lbs

rock out...

Being the silky smooth muthafucka that I am, I managed to scam a free training sesson with the hottie rock girl today over lunch. Unfortunately, she had to use the "it's easier if you're short" line again. I can't convey the tone of voice she uses when she says that, but she's basically telling me I'm pathetic. However, shortly later she told me to "watch as I rotate my hips and bring my foot up by my ear...." I'm thinking, "shit, you don't hafta tell me twice babe..."

So as we're winding down I tell her I'm trying to get into climbing shape because of my upcoming trip to Hueco. She tells me she's never been there and it's her dream to go one day. So I invite her along and say she can stay in my room at the 5 star Mesa Inn. I pique her interest even more after I tell her about the sweet hot tub at the hotel. And she accepts!

OK, that's not quite exactly how it went down. She's never been there before, but she's going for three weeks in January, which will overlap the time I'm down there. So sorry Gaylord, I know you were hoping to get down my pants at Hueco, but you're now down to 3rd on my list. And it's a long way from #2 to #3.

ouch!

My current parrott predictor says I'll finish Austin in 4:29:28! I should probably get rid of that thing before it makes me feel old and slow.

screw the man!

The events of yesterday didn't stop me from bringing a growler of Trinity Awaken to work today!

HPb 6 - Red Rock Canyon

Sheesh, what a difference a few hours makes! Did the same loop as last night in reverse, but the weather was a lot colder and I was super sluggish the first few miles. Still, no better place to start my day.

Start time - 5:30 AM
Distance - 5.1 miles
Time - 48:28
Pace - 9:31 per mile
Weather - chilly, windy, 30F
Weight - 175 lbs

HPb 5 - Red Rock Canyon

Was supposed to hit the track today, but with a somewhat stressful day at work and some nice weather I decided to do Red Rock Canyon instead. Did my Quarry loop in reverse, real nice run. RRC is definitely one of my favorite places in the area.

Start time - 7 PM
Distance - 5.1 miles
Time - 46:14
Pace - 9:04 per mile
Weather - warm, 30F
Weight - 175 lbs

the axman cometh...

EVERYONE at my office, save for me and the new guy, just got shitcanned!

happy b-day!

Laura M turns 23 today!

woohoo!

KRCC just played the Flobots and Michael Franti & Spearhead back to back!

Jemez or bust!

Just rego'd for the Jemez Mountain 50 miler! Woohooo!

21

Knocked out another "21" workout this morning, starting with 20 push-ups and 1 sit-up and running the table until I do 1 push-up and 20 sit-ups. This was much harder to do on a soft carpeted floor, but I still set a new PR for the workout in 22:25. It takes me FOREVER to do regular sit-ups these days.

HPb 4 - Sinton loop

Nice loop around the Sinton trail tonight.  6 x 1 minute sprints on the back stretch.  Last time I did that workout I got a call from Usain Bolt thanking me for sticking to ultras and not trying to take his "world's fastest human" title away from him.  Did an hour of hot yoga after the run, making for a four workout Monday, not too shabby.

Start time - 5:30 PM

Distance - 4.2 miles

Time - 35:04

Pace - 8:21 per mile

Weather - chilly, windy, 30F

Weight - 175 lbs

woohoo!

$100 just bought her first pair of climbing shoes! It'll do my ego good to whoop her ass both in the gym and at Hueco. Of course, at least she's not afraid of Hueco like some California peeps...

Almost climbed a V3 at the gym today, was only two moves away from bagging it. And it's a real V3, unlike the poser ones my sister says she can do.

HAIL TO PITT!

Pitt has moved up to #3 in the latest AP college hoops poll. The Big East has a record eight teams in the top 25.

hell yeah!

Like it wasn't going to be awesome enough tracking the battle between Uli and Matt this weekend at the North Face 50, I heard that Hardrock superhuman Kyle Skaggs in now in the mix as well. I'll be rooting for the hometown hero, as Matt lives less than a mile from me. Of course, they're all avoiding me as the real race that weekend is the Rock Canyon half down in Pueblo...

HPb 3 - Garden out and back

Real easy run this morning, out and back through the Garden. Friggin' cold out.

Start time - 5:30 AM
Distance - 4.2 miles
Time - 41:17
Pace - 9:50 per mile
Weather - 19F, "feels like" 3F
Weight - 175 lbs

WTF?

For the last two weeks or so I've gotten the following message whenever I tried to sign in to gmail, facebook, hashspace, blogger, or anything where I have to log in:

You attempted to reach www.google.com, but the server presented an expired certificate. No information is available to indicate whether that certificate has been compromised since its expiration. This means Google Chrome cannot guarantee that you are communicating withwww.google.com and not an attacker. You should not proceed.

Anyone know what's going on?  I've run Norton almost daily since I started getting the messages, but so far it hasn't found anything.

Michael Franti and Spearhead

Holy fucking crap, that was one helluva Spearhead show last night!

HPb 2 - Incline Club #1

First run of the Incline Club season!  After plowing up Rampart Range yesterday and not getting to bed 'till well past 3AM last night I was just happy to show up.  Had an uninspiring effort around the Garden 10 mile course.  My fitness is definitely lagging well behind my motivation for the Hardrock/Leadville adventure, hopefully that'll change soon.

Start time - 8AM

Distance - 10 miles

Time - 1:32:55

Pace - 9:18 per mile

Weather - wet and slippery, start temp of 27

Weight - 175 pounds

HPb 1 - Rampart Range Road/Quarry Trail

Met up with Rick and Harsha at Memorial Park for the weekly CRUD run.  Checked weather.com right before I left and they reported the temp as "19F, feels like 9F".  But it turned out to be a good run.  Never takes long to warm up going up to Balanced Rock and then Rampart Range.  Rick said he knew a cool trail to take instead of the usual Williams Canyon.  Of course, whenever Rick says this it usually involves jumping a fence with multiple "No Trespassing" signs, and this was no different.  Awesome trail though, lots of snow covered singletrack and a traverse around an old rock quarry.

Start time - 7AM

Distance - 9.0 miles

Time - 1:50:13

Pace - 12:15 per mile

Weather - chilly, 19F; fresh snow

Weight - 175 pounds

HAIL TO PITT!

Incline happy hour!

Good times for the turkey day edition of the Incline happy hour!  My first time ever puking on the Incline, the first snow angel of the season, and lots of turkey, mac & cheese, gin & tonic, and jager at the Royal Tavern!  We also FINALLY nailed the synchronized drinking photo, only took us seven weeks of practice...