Manitou Coffin Races

Good times over in Manitou!

3000

5.2 miles home from work, then took the dog up the Incline for the first time last night. Hit 3000 miles for the year somewhere along the way. Holly also had her first trip to the Royal Tavern, big night for her.

Rest day today. Carpooled with $100 to complete the month of October without driving to work. Wanted to take the bus, but $100 made me ride with her so she could park in the special carpool lot at the hospital. I can be bribed with bacon pretty easily.

Picked up a pair of NB 507 at the CRC for an upcoming cross country race I'm doing (I can wear them for short road races as well). Very light, could be the final step towards busting 13 in the 5K.

Found out the Lampanelli show is at the Comedy Works South venue tonight. Changes the brewery plan a bit. Now deciding on one of three close pubs:

Bull & Bush (the top choice, but it might be too far away with the traffic)
Rock Bottom Englewood
CB & Potts (probably where we'll end up, since it's the closest)

Not the biggest fan of the chain breweries, but since I'm trying to visit every brewery in Colorado, it's a necessary evil to visit them. I will say I was surprisingly impressed with the brews at the new BJ's in Colo Springs (even though the beer is made in Boulder and trucked down here).

Thurs

Wed PM - easy 4.2 miles, 40 minutes. Two of those miles were with the dog. Holly ran three times yesterday for a total of 7.5 miles. Then went to the Bear Creek Dog Park. Then helped stuff the PPRR newsletter at the CRC.

Thurs AM - easy run with the Sunrise Striders. 8.8 miles, 1:15. Costume run, I ran as Bob Marley.

One more day to commute and it's an easy one - taking the bus to work tomorrow, then having $100 pick me up as we head to Denver to catch Lisa Lampanelli. Maybe a new brewery on that trip as well...

for Brooks...

...since he's the only dude I know who tools around on a moped.

I was having a drink and I noticed a pretty woman looking at me across the bar. So I gather the nerve to get up and offer to buy her a drink. She accepted and we talked for a while. We really seemed to be hitting it off, joking, laughing and good flirting. After a few more drinks in me I asked if we could go to her place. She said "I can't right now I'm on my menstral cycle". I replied "Thats OK I got my moped right outside, I will follow you!"

tempo?

Easy 15 minutes with the dog to warm up. Was planning on a four mile tempo run through the Garden, but the wind and soreness from the track led to a horriffic first mile. Then the big hill in the second mile didn't help. Did the four mile loop in 31:16, which is almost 90 seconds over my five mile PR. Lots of work to do. This four miler is gonna be a staple from now on, we'll see how I progress from this morning 'till NOLA.

Now it's time to bust out the spandex and PEDs, I'm biking to work...

Tues PM

Commute #39 in the books. 5 easy miles home, 41:19. Tomorrow marks twice the goal I made at the new year for commuting to work. Which is good, since I've failed miserably at the push up goal and the yoga goal is in serious jeopardy...

track

Triumphant return to the CC track this morning. Shitty weather, temps in the low 30s and very windy. But that's only because my crappy-weather-meter isn't calibrated yet, I'm sure I'll be pining for nice days like this come December and January.

15 minute warm up. 2 x 1600m in 6:15 and 6:14, hitting 800m in 3:09 both times. Then 2 x 800m in 3:04. 30 minute cool down.

Not the best workout ever but I'll chalk it up to the wind and being at the track for the first time in a while. Look for those times to improve.

Nice quite from an ex-girlfriend in the recent Clarence Thomas controversy.

"Clarence became not the person I knew when I first met him," she said, adding that he "drank to excess" when they first met and might have been a "raving alcoholic" at that time. When he gave up alcohol, she said, he became "angry, short-tempered, asexual" and obsessive with ambition and what she called "weird things," such as long runs in the dark before dawn."

What's so weird about long runs in the dark before dawn?

CRUD party

Harsha's pics can be seen here.

His video of the pizza eatoff, which clearly shows Fast Eddy sneaking pizza to his kid, can be seen here.

The dog ended up doing pretty well with the crowd, so the 1st annual wine & cheese party is a go. If you're not on FB and didn't get the invite let me know.

38

Finished up commute #38, 5 easy miles straight home, 41:17. That cold front is moving in fast!

Think I already have the commuter challenge clinched, but since I'm this close I just wanna get through the month without using my truck. Had to start her up this afternoon to make sure she still worked...

back at it...

Three post-Bear weeks of 42, 33, and 52 (high due to Mt. Lemmon) miles. A whopping 12 miles last week. Lots and lots of rest days. Think it's time to pick the mileage back up.

Decided I'm gonna go 2:54 at NOLA. That number is screaming at me since it would be a new PR and an automatic qualifier for NYC. Not too much of a stretch, I thought that was what I was gonna run at Boston before I got hurt.

Will be finishing up this week running to work each day (going one month of not using my truck for work), probably hit around 70 miles. Then it's time to start hitting the track and doing some shorter races. I should probably find some 5K and lose to Brandon, that motivation served me well during training for Leadville.

Sitting at 2953 miles for the year. Averaging 9.9 miles a day for the year. Should be able to finish out 2010 averaging at least 10 a day...

Today's morning run was an easy 7.1 miles in an hour. Crazy wind storm last night, lots of tree branches all over the place.

HAIL TO PITT

I always knew Pitt hoops coach Jamie Dixon was awesome, but check this out! I think that automatically locks up coach of the year, but just in case he's gonna win his first national title as well.

CRUD pizza eating contest

Couple of shots from Saturday's CRUD pizza eating contest. I held with Fast Eddy for the first few minutes before falling behind, but I was happy with my performance. The final standings:

1. Fast Eddy, 8:40

2. Rick H, 9:55

3. jt, 12:40

4. Paul D, DNF

Good times at the party, great to see everyone again. Not sure what's up next on the eating front. Pancakes seem to be leading the rumor mill. But I'm going to start pushing for a milk challenge. And one of these days CRUD will finally get around to doing a beer mile...

I weighed my dump a few hours after the challenge, but it came in at a very disappointing .9 pounds.

In other news, I can't figure out how to turn off this underline thing on blogger...

dump

Mt. Lemmon pics are up. Go here, then click on Mt. Lemmon, then search for bib 455.

Big kudos to Footfeathers and Brooks for going 1-2 at Deadman Peaks.

And congrats to Fast Eddy for taking the win in the pizza eating contest. I finished third out of four, also losing to Rick H and beating Paul D. Pics to follow shortly.

Nice run in the Garden with CRUD yesterday. Easy 7.5 miles. Taking today off before slowly jumping back into things next week.

LAHF or die!

A few shots of the Larry & His Flask show from the Nickel on Monday night. Good times! Definitely check these guys out if they come through your town!

136

Had to go bowling for work today. Rough stuff. Set a new PR of 136. I'm pretty sure that is gonna last a while, at least another decade or two until I'm forced to bowl again.

still going

Still haven't used my truck to get to work this month. This past week I have been carpooling with $100, mooching a ride to the hospital and then walking the half mile or so over to my office. Gets me here an hour early, but it still keeps the pressure on Jeremy.

Have only ran twice since October 14th. Would like to say the rest has been nice, but I actually feel worse now than when I was doing high mileage. Think I'm gonna hop back into things on Monday. Decided to attempt a PR in NOLA, which would also qualify me for next year's NYC marathon...

Training should get a boost as Ryan Hall has left the Mammoth Track Club and will be joining South CRUD shortly...

HAIL TO PITT!

The mighty Panthers are the pre-season favorites to win the Big East. See the rankings here. Might not want to look if you're a UConn fan though...

google earth view of Lemmon

Lemmon schwag

Stolen from Jeff B.

Good NY Times article on the race over here. The guy in the blue shirt at the top of the article? He passed me at the beginning of the downhill but I would recover over the final three miles to catch him and somehow stay ahead of him to the finish.

Lemmon

Wasn't expecting anything from this race. Knowing nothing about the course, I had no idea if four, or five, or six hours would be a good time. But running a good time didn't matter, as the only running I had done since the Bear was a few miles to and from work. The main objective was to cross off state marathon #9.

Started very slow, was very happy in the middle of the pack. Hit the first mile in 9:45 and I figured if I could keep under ten minutes per mile to the end I'd be fine with that. Settled in next to a Tucson ultrarunner who had a few Leadvilles under his belt, and behind a smoking hot Tucson triathlete babe. Good place to spend a few miles.

It wasn't more than three or four miles until I started passing people. The Leadville guy and I hung around together, constantly hitting between 9:45 and 9:50 per mile, and lots of people were already starting to slow down. I started to enjoy the scenery of the course, really loved that desert landscape. Thousands of huge cactuses (cacti?) all over the place, lots of mountains, and a cool view of Tucson. It was a very windy road, but I wasn't running tangents as I opted to go for more shade. Was worried that the hot Arizona sun would pop out and fry me, so I really made an effort to stay cool and hydrated. This plan would later be ditched, as I didn't take in any water the final 13.1 miles.

We continued to pass folks as we kept on our steady pace. Around the ten mile mark I figured I'd hit the halfway point in just over two hours, and wondered if I could negative split to get under the four hour mark. Hit halfway feeling decent in 2:02:42, not too shabby since it was 13.1 miles of continuous climb.

I immediately picked up the pace. I knew the hill only lasted another seven miles and I wanted to get some of that sub four time in the bank here. Unfortunately for me, the hardest and steepest part of the climb was that final seven miles. I did run well there, dropping well below nine minutes per mile, but it took a lot out of me. It was around 15 miles or so where I realized that if I really wanted to get under four hours, it was gonna take a much bigger effort than I had planned to give that day.

I debated that issue while keepin' on. Was still passing people, but these people were better runners and not just rookies dying on the mountain. Finally hit the top of the first hill, around mile 20, hurting pretty bad. It was the longest I've ever continuously run up. Imagine putting a treadmill on a steep incline and running that for three hours, that's what the first part of this race was.

Finally hit a downhill and it took some work to make my legs respond. I had about an hour to do the last 10K, and I wasn't sure I'd make it. I was mentally screaming at my legs to turn over, hoping the speed would come soon after. I did still continue to pass folks, though they were now pretty spread out. I was really hurting as I came to the 23 mile mark and saw a gal stretching on the side of the road, completely cramped up. Turns out she would recover and hang on to win the female portion of the race (but still finish behind me!).

I hit mile 24 right around 3:40. Twenty minutes to do 2.2 miles, should have been a piece of cake. But the worst part of the course is the final 2.2 mile out and back. I completely fell apart around 24.1 miles as we made the final steep climb. I was hurting so friggin' bad here it sucks to still think about it. But I did, at the very least, continue to run. And that allowed me to pass two more people who had resorted to walking this section.

At the 25 mile mark I had about 12 minutes to finish up, all downhill, but with my mind and body in such sorry shape I couldn't do math and figured I had blown any chance at 3:59 on the last climb. But I didn't quit and gave it all I had that last mile. Finally hit the 26 mile mark and noticed I had over five minutes to finish up. There was nobody in front of me and nobody behind me so I finally allowed myself to ease up on the throttle. Bart Yasso greeted me at the finish line, which I crossed in 3:56:29. Averaged about 9:20 per mile the first half, 8:40 the second half.

I was pretty smoked after that, so I grabbed my drop bag, full of PBR, and collapsed on the road to watch everyone else finish. 16th overall out of 394 finishers. Wish I had started out just a bit quicker, might have had a chance to beat my Boston time.

Had a blast on the entire Tucson trip! Awesome way to end the season!

35

Still haven't used my truck for work this month. Hurtin' from Lemmon so today I mooched a ride to the hospital with $100, then walked over to work. Running home. Haven't heard from Jeremy in a while, so I assume I've broken him.

Thanks to runcolo.com for the free rego to the Backcountry half marathon. It's Fast Eddy's home course, but he's avoiding me there for some weak race out east.

3:56:29

Official results are posted here. Hit the halfway point in 2:02:41, which was retardedly slow. Passed a lot of people in the second half though...

Will post a race report soon.

Che's Lounge

Flanagan

After Kara's recent birth of her child and the new cover of Runner's World, the official babe runner of this blog is now Shalane Flanagan. Best of luck to her at the NYC marathon!

Friday

Had to call in sick today (cough, cough) but was still feeling good enough to take Holly up her first mountain, Mt. Cutler. Relaxed post-hike with PBR and dog biscuits at Kinfolk's.

Off to Arizona tomorrow. Good luck to everyone racing this weekend: Mt. Lemmon, Peace Officer 5K, Palo Duro, Moab, Denver, and the Fall Series!

no Manitou 5K this year...

My next attempt at a sub 13 minute 5K was going to be at the Manitou Mayor's Cup 5K, but I was just informed by the fastest mountain runner/city councilman in the world that the race will not be held this year. Guess I'll just harness all that speed for the coffin races...

33

Up late with the dog so I took a rest day and traveled by bus this morning. Read in the new Independent that 51% of the folks who ride the bus make less than 15 grand a year. There's a possibility of getting back some of the lost bus service next year, including Saturday service, but I'm not getting my hopes up too much what with the local gov't leaders in these parts. Once the folks at the OTC or the rich neighborhoods of the village hear there's more money out there, I'm sure they'll find a way to get it.

Anywho, commute #33 on the year, 10 for October. I'm up two on Jeremy, but he can gain one on Monday as I'm not working...

Here's a few of the "best of" awards I agree with the Indy:

Best Diner, Best Late Night Dining: King's Chef (Purple Castle)
Best Bang-For-Your-Buck Bar: Tony's (Benny's or the Royal Tavern would have been acceptable)
Best Bar For A Margarita: The Loop
Best Local Brewery: Bristol
Best Local Original Band: Grass It Up
Best Venue For Live Music: The Black Sheep
Best Location to Kick Brandon's Ass: Leadville

new training partner...

quote of the day

From the latest issue of Running Times:

"We Aussies might not be as fast as the Ethiopian team, but I'll bet you we beat them to the beer table when the race is over."
-Lee Troup, at the press conference before the team challenge at the Bolder Boulder 10K.

Troup would later throw a boomerang at the BB race director after finding out the beer table had nothing but michelob ultra...

Nolan's

Looks like someone made another run at Nolan's 14.

This is next on my "mountain trails wish list," I'll attempt it in a few years. Don't think I can hit it in the time allowed, but then again I never thought I could do Hardrock or the RMS either.

music

Some great shows coming up. Big news is that I got tix to see Widespread Panic with G. Love & Special Sauce in Denver on Dec 30th. Real psyched for that show, it's pretty rare that I get to see some Panic. Just might have to head up early to hit the Broken Arrow that evening...

Larry & His Flask will be at the Triple Nickel on Monday (Oct 18th) night. I'll get there right after hopping off the plane home from Mt. Lemmon. I've seen a lot of live shows during my day, and these guys might put on the craziest concert out there.

Heading up to Broomfield for the Harvest Ball on Nov 27th to catch Michael Franti & Spearhead. My sister should be at this show. I'd highlight her name as a link to her blog, but it hasn't been updated in 20 years. Maybe GZ will bring some of his homemade brews over to the parking lot tailgate party...

Speaking of GZ, I finally got around to checking out some Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers (found a CD of theirs at the local library). Listened to it on the way to work this morning, real good stuff. I thought they were the house band at the Black Sheep, as it always seemed they were playing there, but of course now that I want to check 'em out they're not around.

marathon dorks

Can't say I totally disagree with this guy...

Newest member of Team Shart over here.

And speaking of big marathons, NOLA is my next shot at a sub three. Definitely gonna check out the zoo while I'm down there, as they have a place called Monkey Hill, which, according to the plaque on the hill, "was built so the children of New Orleans could have the experience of a hill."

oddly enough...

After posting about how I drank cow shit filled water during the Bear, I was running home along the hike and bike just off HWY 24 and found a sealed package of Coleman H2O purification tablets.

Since water purification is for sissies, I will give the package away to the first person who can answer this question: who is going to win the super bowl this year?

da Bear

Before I forget all about it...

Not much to report. In the weeks and days prior to the race, I was just looking to get it over with. It was a rough summer, always having another hundred miler hanging over my head. Especially after Leadville, since pretty much every runner around here ends their season after Pb or Pikes Peak.

I somehow ended up misplacing my Nathan belt during/after Leadville, which I didn't figure out until the last minute. So it was decided for me to run light during the race, carrying two water bottles and using the aid stations for everything else. I also took a chance and didn't bother to get a pacer (Katie would end up pacing me the final eight miles of the race, but I could have finished from there - it's the night I have trouble with). Twice I had attempted a hundred miler without a pacer, and both times I ended up DNFing.

The race itself was fun but uneventful. I stayed well within myself just to secure a finish. I knew this was the only summer I'd have a shot at doing all these races, and I didn't want to blow it. Ran roughly right on schedule for the entire race, which put me through the halfway point in just under 13 hours. Katie had missed an aid station earlier, making me wonder if she had been run off the road and was dying in a ditch somewhere, but other than that I just enjoyed the great course and made some new friends. Got to run with Larry for a bit, good to catch up with him. We even had to navigate a cow stampede.

The night was not pretty, but I survived. My goal was relentless forward motion, and there were times I was really pushing the limits of how slow I could go without falling over, but eventually I got there. As the sun rose, I got my usual second wind and passed quite a few of the night owls who had passed me earlier.

Arrived at the final aid station, finally relieved to have the finish close by. Filled up on bacon and then Katie and I took off. I did very well on the final steep climb of the day before struggling horribly on the final descent to the lake. The quads and knees were beat up pretty good from a summer of mountain running. Did end up smoking the final mile due to a miscalculation in the distance and time I had remaining to go sub 30, which gave me pleanty of time to stop at my truck for a PBR before hitting the finish in 29:15. Not too shabby, as I'm sure once I do the math I spent at least three hours goofing off at aid stations.

Glad to report now that I never got giardia or any other disease during the race. I had been drinking from streams until about mile 80, at which time I wondered if the millions of cow patties all over the place could have a bad effect on the water...

Can't say enough great things about the Bear and the people who put it on. It was such a refreshing change to hit a low key event after the hollywood glamor of Leadville. And nobody yelled at me for drinking at the finish line in Idaho.

Thanks to everyone who crewed, paced, gave me free shit, bought me drinks, and supported me in any other way during all these summer races. I have a lot of good karma to pay back.

30

Commute #30 on the year, #7 for the month. Still holding a one day lead on Jeremy, and that's not counting yesterday, when I biked over to Trinity to get a few hours (and a few beers) in.

Hope to get my Bear report up soon, if I can remember back that far...

snow

new blog

Alex and Maddy go to Europe.

victory is mine!

Commute #30 this morning, via the lovely bus system in the Springs. It actually costs more in time and money to take a bus here, but I still get some easy points in the commuter challenge. Which I am up by one day now, since Jeremy wussed out and drove to work.

more commuting...

Commutes 28 and 29 on the year. All four work days in October. Continue to force myself to go straight to and from work, 4.8 miles each way. Want to do more but also want to give my body a break this month.

Jeremy and I are still tied for October. But it seems I may have already gained the moral victory as he seems to have admitted that running is way cooler than biking.

Durango Herald

Just found this out, but $100 and I were in the Durango Herald after Snowdown last year. See the article here.

CRUD party

The annual CRUD party is on October 23rd at my place. Party starts at 1PM, probably go for a run in the Garden and/or Red Rock Canyon before that. We're working on some kind of eating competition, details TBA. Hope some of yunz can make it.

2011

Not a whole lot going on right now. October is a down month, taking some much needed recovery time. Though the month will see state marathon #9 and, hopefully, my feet and legs are providing the bulk of my transportation as opposed to my truck.

So naturally I've been thinking of what to do next year.

Going to spend Nov, Dec, and Jan trying to finally get a Bolder Boulder A wave qualifier, as well as getting ready for the NOLA marathon on Feb 13th.

Here's the very early tentative plan so far, which is all based on once again striking the lottery at Hardrock. I'd like to finally knock out the 33 hour HR I think I have somewhere in me, I realize I ain't getting any younger.

Mar 15 - Salida Marathon
Mar 26 - 24 hours of Moab
April 15 - Desert Rats 50
May 3 - Collegiate Peaks 50
May 21 - Jemez 50
May 30 - Bolder Boulder
June 4 - Golden Gate 50K
June 15 - San Juan Solstice
July 8 - Hardrock
Aug 20 - Pikes Peak Ascent
Sept 16-18 - Telluride Blues & Brews
Oct 24 - Wisconsin Dells Marathon

Much less racing, and far less traveling, than 2010. Somewhere in there would be the Zion crossing. And everything after August would be geared toward finishing up the rest of the 14ers.

But it's early, so who knows.

commute #27(2)

Easy 4.8 to work, 4.8 miles back home. The commuter challenge is still tied after two days, wonder how long we'll go before one of us breaks...

400 miles. 1 shirt.

42:10

Easy effort at the Royal Gorge today. Quads are still screaming on the downhills.

Arches

Bear pics

September

320.1 miles in September. Pretty decent month. 2829 on the year, a whopping 23 days and seven hours (559:43:25) on the roads and trails in 2010.

October should be pretty tame. Going to try to run to work every day. Also have the Mt. Lemmon Marathon, though with Josh and BLOS along for the trip I'm guessing that alcohol may decrease my performance a bit. Should be a fairly chill month running-wise, really looking forward to it. Of course, the most serious race of the year - the Manitou Coffin Races - will test my limits.

Already thinking ahead to 2011 and what I'll do. Leaning towards taking an "easy" year. NOLA, Salida, and Hardrock are the only definites right now. Leadville is out, as I'll be looking to PR in the Ascent and then crew/pace at the 100.

commute #26(1)

Easy run to work. 4.7 miles. Jeremy and I are tied after day one of the commuter challenge.