peace on earth!

Taos Mountain Music Festival

Aug 20th and 21st this year. Head down a day early for free car camping at the Wheeler Peak trailhead. Rumor has it Matisyahu is playing this year...

quote of the day

Hanging out on the letsrun message boards watching the clock tick down to 5PM. Found this nugget of a comment:

"Leaving aside the fact that you can't be of drinking age, I know you made this shit up because no self-respecting chicks in a bar, or even skanks for that matter, would suffer through an argument between a triathlete and a distance runner. It would be more arousing for women to watch little kids argue with each other about whose dad would win in arm wrestling."

Lots of good smack over here, and it all starts with the story of a guy from Boulder.

Denver

Besides my Saturday trip up to D-town, I'll be back in Denver on Wednesday and Thursday for a conference. Staying at the downtown Sheraton. Guess it's an expensive hotel, as my company is making me take the bus up there to keep costs down.

So if anyone wants to meet up for a run (Wash Park???) or a brew, let me know.

Garden

Nice run with the Sunrise Striders this morning. Got there by 5:30AM for some bonus miles, then hit "the track" in the Garden for some 800m simulators. 7 x 3 minutes, one minute RBI. Total of 9.2 miles in 80 minutes.

Now it's time to start the taper for the Kohl Elementary 5K. Very tall order to take down GZ in his back yard, but you never know - maybe he gets caught up in a tactical race for the highly coveted Kohl's Fastest Dad trophy and I can sneak in a cheap win. Think with all the competition there I can get my Colorado PR, which currently stands at 18:30. Brandon keeps squawking but I have yet to confirm he'll show up...

racing into shape

Signed up for the Colfax Marathon today. Always wanted to run that, but for one reason or another I never have. I feel bad that such a cool city is only an hour away but really the only connection I have to Denver is when I drive by it on I-25. Hopefully the marathon lets me explore the town a little bit.

Haven't had the consistency I had last year, mostly due to the PF. So I feel a bit out of shape. That could change soon as here is the schedule for the next couple of weeks:

April 30 - Kohl Elementary 5K

May 7 - Collegiate Peaks (still leaning towards the 25 miler but we'll see...)

May 14 - Sprial Drive 4 miler (Salida)

May 15 - Colfax Marathon

May 21 - Jemez Mountain 50

May 28 - Arkansas River Marathon (Salida)

May 30 - Bolder Boulder 10K

June 4 - Golden Gate 50K

June 12 - Garden 10 miler

June 18 - San Juan Solstice

June 25 - Western States pacing

Won't be making much noise in any of those. I go to a lot of races, but it's pretty rare that I give an actual race effort. I can go all out like I did at NOLA probably two or three times a year. Next A race is the Ascent. May give one last monster effort at a winter road marathon, either Wisconsin Dells or Vegas, but we'll see.

Was originally thinking of going for a PR in the CP 50 miler, but the PF put an end to those thoughts early. Only going out to that one because with all the locals headed over there, the post race shindig at Eddyline will be a blast.

Will probably run the marathons on that list in 3:30ish. Not real hard but considering that when I was training for NOLA I'd do 20 mile road runs in 3:30 at least the pace is a bit faster than usual. Good, well supported tempo runs and a nice chance to check out some Front Range towns/breweries.

Longs Ranch

Really gotta start hitting the hills if I wanna do anything at Pikes this year. Longs Ranch Road this morning. 35 minutes up, then back down in 21:39. Little farther up than when I ran this a few weeks ago.

pic of the day

Googled the ever popular Westboro Baptist Church since I heard they're coming to Colorado Springs and this pic popped up. They're not making another appearance here, but they will be up in Denver for a high school graduation.

Anywho, probably my favorite protest sign since this classic:

Monday

Easy 5.5 miles out at Section 16 with Yeti and the dog. 63ish minutes.

Sporting the sanuks at work today for the first time since Leadville. Maybe I'm finally getting the PF under control. Still leaning towards the 25 at Collegiate Peaks though. Would rather be healthy for Jemez and San Juan.

Rumors of Fuller/brownie IV are starting to fly. Kohl Elementary 5K this Saturday. I've been signed up for a while, but I bet B finds some lame reason to back out.

Cheyenne Mountain 50k

Getting too old to do this crap hungover. 6:33 for the 32.5 mile course. Was good through about 35K, then I decided to try Jeff Galloway's run/walk method of training. By 45K I had switched to the brownie walk/meander method.

Did the entire run on coke, PBR, and M&M's. Just didn't feel like drinking water today. Got a nice compliment from an aid station worker when she said to $100, "that guy doesn't look like a runner." Evan would have been proud.

Very nice event out there at the mountain. Nice, local run to add to the calendar. I can see it growing similar to the Salida marathon. Great to see so many familiar faces out there today!

Friday

Easy 4.5 miles with the dog on the Garden trails. Did the systems wall at the rock gym last night, not sure if my legs are feeling better or other parts of my body are hurting so much I don't notice them. Guessing a 5 hour 50K at Cheyenne Mountain. Maybe 5:30 if I can find some of this before tomorrow:

Four flavors, four laps in a beer mile. Coincidence???

Thurs

Easy 7.5 miles on the Garden trails this morning, 90 minutes. Yeah, still pretty sore from the Canyon.

16:55 for the 21 workout at lunch.

Green Monster #40 on the year.

blues & brews

Telluride Blues & Brews lineup has been released, see the schedule here. Can't friggin' wait! Even heard a rumor of a new brewery opening up down there...

Climbed my first V3 at the gym this afternoon.

quote of the day

"The fastest known time for someone to go from the South Rim to the North Rim on foot is seven hours."

$100 overheard a GC Ranger say that while giving a tour. I don't mean to brag, but I was giving a very minimal effort and I crushed that mark by almost two hours...

Tues

Still hurting from the Canyon. 30 minutes this morning, 2.7 miles. Little slower than the guys upfront at Boston were running.

music

Heard on the radio on the drive home yesterday that Widespread Panic played Chilly Water for the 1000th time over the weekend. Good stuff.

Telluride Blues & Brews lineup comes out in less than 24 hours!

Heading to Vegas in December. Not for Brett Michaels, though I was a pretty big Poison fan when I was in middle school, but for the marathon. Might be able to find some quality drinking time in there as well. The race actually starts at 4PM, and I doubt I'll be able to sit around all day being sober, so it could be quite the debacle. Started off the year with a bender in NOLA, might as well end it with a bender in Sin City.

R2R2R

Third trip across the Canyon and back. Not too shabby, lots of goofing off. 5:10ish to the North Rim, spent about 80 minutes drinking Tecate at Phantom Ranch on the way back. Was 13:05 to the Bright Angel trailhead, then it took me forever to fight through the tourists to get to the bar.

Great job to everyone at Boston today. Have a lot of catching up to do as I went without the interweb this weekend, but it seems like everyone PR'd by a lot. New member of Team Shart as well, and she gets bonus points for rockin' the Air Force shirt:

Lukas Nelson

Got me some tix for Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real today. Glad to see 'em coming back to the Springs. Was gonna pick up a ticket for PG, but he's been waffle-ing on whether or not he's gonna go, and we all know those North CRUD guys won't stay up past 9PM on the night before a race.

Saw these guys not too long ago at the Triple Nickel. Remember watching Lukas tearing it up on stage, then noticing half the crowd (including my sister, once again bringing shame upon the family) playing with their smartphone and not paying any attention to the show. It's the last time I've had my phone inside a bar. Bars are for drinking, and if you're lucky enough getting to watch some live music while you're doing that, not for texting or updating your facebook page or whatever. So if you ever call or text me when I'm at a bar, I'm sorry but I'm too busy getting wasted and I'll get back to you when my hangover goes away.

bumper sticker of the day

platte river pic

Here's me at mile 13.05 kicking against the clock. Not even in the top 70 but I'm pretty sure I was the first finisher sporting a cheap yellow beer cotton t-shirt. And there was competition there, I passed a guy at mile 10 wearing an Old Style shirt.

Wed

Still getting out there. Tuesday was a nice hour long trail tempo run in the Garden with the PPRR folks. Ken and I were cooling down when two geese (gooses) flew right into a huge rock formation. Good stuff.

33 minutes straight up Longs Ranch this morning. Some of you may remember that hump from the Fat Ass. 33 minutes up, 27 minutes down. Am I a worse uphill runner or downhill runner, discuss amongst yourselves...

Leaving for the Grand Canyon tomorrow after work. Camping at the lovely UFO Watchtower in Hooper, then finishing the drive on Friday. My R2R2R is on Saturday, $100 does the S. Kaibab/Phantom Ranch/Bright Angel loop on Sunday. Monday we're heading back through Ouray to hit the new brewery there.

I'll be offline most of the weekend, so good luck to all the folks at Boston!

TransRockies

It's official, I'm on the start list for TransRockies. Gonna have to really push Pete to get to the finish of Leadville so I can grab some zzz's before that race starts...

CRUD shirts

Doing our annual CRUD shirt order. Need to get me a t-shirt and three bucks by April 27th if you want one.

Here's the front of the shirt (the design, Grimes won't have his pic on the shirts):

This circle is on the back of the shirt:

Platte River results

1:29:34. 71st overall (2235 finishers). Chicked not once, not twice, but TWELVE times! Ouch!

I think without the wind I would have ran right around 1:27 flat. So I'm not too disappointed. Been thinking of possibly trying to go sub three at one of my next road marathons - either Salida or San Fran - so it's nice to see I haven't lost too much fitness since NOLA.

Great Divide was at the beer tent afterwards! Woohooo!

week

Not listed on the results page for Platte River, but I was probably 1:29:39ish. Would have been good for 50th place out of 1500+ runners. The constant wind made for a slow day. Hit the half in just over 44 minutes but was already dead. Even though I slowed down, I passed quite a few people the final six miles and had nobody pass me, so I guess everyone was suffering out there.

65 miles on the week. Sunday was the first time all year that I was finally on pace to hit 3000 miles in 2011.

Platte River

I hate wind.

carbo loading for Platte River...

19:59 at the Tortoise and Hare. Was busy volunteering before the race so I didn't get a chance to warm up and actually started a few seconds after my official handicap start time. Not as fast as I wanted but I had a lot of fun out there.

Was reading the Mountain Gazette and came across this nugget:

Actual tourist questions at Grand Canyon National Park: "Was this man-made?" "Do you light it up at night?" "Is the mule train air-conditioned?" "Where are the faces of the presidents?"

run to work

5.5 miles easy to work today. Hoping to take the long way home, through Bear Creek Park, Section 16, and Red Rock Canyon.

Been a rough week with the tree and my brother visiting, sleep has taken a back seat.

Two races this weekend, both of which I'm going to take out too hard and suffer the rest of the way. Tortoise and Hare 5K on Saturday, Platte River on Sunday.

Still keeping an eye on the possible gov't shutdown. The GC is the pic on this article about what could possibly happen. Looking into some other cool stuff to do in that area if the worst comes to pass. Not too worried about it, since things could definitely be worse:

If the government shuts down for an extended period of time, the Department of Defense says troops, including those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, may not be paid on time. Troops are guaranteed back-pay but the pinch will be more immediate for military families at home, who may be forced to choose between food and rent if they don't know when to expect a check in the mail.

Don't worry though, all those politicians making the call will still get paid.

jbt

Got my first Red Rocks tickets of the season - John Butler Trio on August 12th. This will be the seventh time I've seen the band, including the first time I stumbled onto these guys playing a free show at Waterloo Records in Austin several years ago.

Gotta love ticketmaster math. Two $30 tickets equals $86.75.

To further prove I'm not an ultrarunner anymore, I'm going to post video of a band that people have actually heard of before:

Savelli's!

GC

Anyone have any guess as to what happens to the Grand Canyon if the gov't shuts down? Not too worried about my trip since it's not until the 16th, but we have some CRUD guys going R2R2R this Saturday - and the gov might shut down at the end of Friday...

Still, it would be quite entertaining to see Mountain Man Steve's facebook updates if the republican party crushes his dreams of a GC run!

Got this answer from Davy Crockett, who has probably run more miles in the GC than anyone else:

"Yes, I believe it would still be open, they just wouldn't have anyone taking your $25 entrance fee and services would probably be less. The North Rim services shut down each year on Oct 15, but they let people come in until the road closes because of snow. I would guess it would be the same thing."

Hopefully the reduction in services doesn't include a lack of Tecate at Phantom Ranch.

weekend

Despite a tree crushing the house, it was actually a decent weekend. Solid long run on Saturday. Red Rock Canyon, Intemann, up and over Section 16, High Drive, 666. 10 miles out, 10 miles back, 4:20. Ran out of water after 15 miles, got severely dehydrated. Good training. Saw Happy Trails out there, check out his blog for some sweet pics of a sweet day. $100 and I meandered over to Manitou on Saturday night to jam with Shakedown Street, who were celebrating their 25th anniversary. Good times! Also found out that the Townhouse Lounge now serves PBR! Woohooo!

Spent most of Sunday cleaning off the roof before heading to Trinity for a few beers. Got out for nine easy miles on the Garden trails, some of it through snow.

61 miles on the week. Up to 33 Green Monsters.

Kudos to Brooks for his big win at Brew to Brew!

looking better...

keep training!

Pikes Peak survived the windstorm.

tree

As much as I hate to see a tree taken away, at least those stupid pine cones won't gum up the lawn mower anymore...

Pretty sure the roof is totaled. This is the same tree that caused the $8000 plumbing issues one year ago (almost to the day). Not sure what we did to piss off that tree but hopefully this is the end of the feud.

wind

At roughly 12:30AM our neighbor's tree snapped and fell into our house. Lots of damage. Good thing $100 and I had been drinking heavily in Manitou so we're pretty chill about it. Pics didn't come out very good since it's dark, but I'll post more tomorrow.

Not to worry, I'm sure this will be fixed in time to host the fat ass next year. And we can count our blessings, as there was no damage to the recently acquired case (actually, now much less than a case) of Yuengling.

Denver brewery tour?

Been thinking about breweries all day since JMock sent me this article on the Arvada Beer Company, which will open in June.

Really falling behind in my quest to visit all of Colorado's breweries. Six months ago I was over halfway. Now, I'm well below that mark and looking to fall further behind since that article states that Denver is getting five more breweries this summer. With those five, my very unofficial count is that this great state has 155-ish total breweries.

I'll start hitting the Denver pubs now, as I have several trips scheduled up that way over the next two months.

One of those trips is for the Kohl Elementary 5K , where I plan to challenge Kohl's Fastest Dad for about a mile before dropping back to 51st place to collect some big prize money (last year that time was 24:24, think I can handle that). Later that evening, the Rockies take on MLB's surprise team, my beloved Buccos (who are currently undefeated, FYI).

So what to do between the end of the race and the 6PM game time? Anyone up for a tour of downtown Denver microbreweries???

March

268.5 miles for March. I'm guessing this will roughly be my monthly average for the year, as I can't find the motivation to get out for much more. Puts me right around 3000 miles on the year so I'm good with that.

Thinking of trying to run another fast (for me) marathon this year, get some of the fire back. Enjoying running right now, but I miss having a purpose for all that training.

Arson in Bear Creek Park. Fire at the Garden (probably caused by Harsha smoking). Recent car break-ins and gang graffiti in Cheyenne Canon. All areas my long run on Saturday goes through...

32 Green Monsters on the year.

Thanks to my epic performance in Moab, I can now count that as my Utah marathon, and move The Bear to my Idaho marathon. Up to 11 states in the quest. Don't blame me as I didn't make the rules, but yes it's weak and if I ever do get to #50 I'd go back to Idaho and run a marathon there.