wedding plans

Threw up the itinerary for the big road trip wedding over on Pikes Peak Sports.  Tim does a great job at covering the local scene here in the Springs, so I'll post most of my longer stuff over there for a while, try to drive some traffic his way.  You're all welcome to continue to visit here to read about my awesome 30 minute dog jogs though.

Thursday brick

Easy three miles with the dog, then the 5.5 miles to work on the bike.

Thursdays are always fun for me.  Running, biking, hitting the slackline, and a good two hours of climbing at the gym.  If I could just get rid of that big block of work in the middle of everything...

HART

Decided to start doing the Wednesday afternoon workout with the HART guys.  It's on the way home from work so I can keep the commuter streak going and get in a hard tempo run.  Today was a 3.5 mile warm up from the office, then 3 x 9 minutes hard, with one minute RBI.  I'm not used to that kind of workout, and it hurt.  They have a few guys faster than me, so it will be good to push myself against them.

So the NYC program is set.  Mile repeats on Tuesday, tempo stuff on Wednesday, and a long run on the weekend.  With lots of half marathon and shorter races thrown in.  All the other days are super easy dog jogs, usually well over ten minutes per mile, and one full rest day thrown in.  Plan on averaging 60 or so miles per week from now until November.

signs

CU didn't waste any time putting up new signs. They didn't announce the election results until late last night.

Maybe they'll fix the spelling of Pikes Peak.

commute #36

Easy 5.3 miles to work, 49:30.

Tues PM

Had to work late so I bailed on the track.  Hit the Garden roads instead.  8.6 miles, 1:16.

I know you're all jealous of the sweet poncho I'll be picking up in November.

Tuesday

Mon AM - Easy three hours, 19.5 miles.

Tues AM - Two mile dog jog, 20 minutes.  Pretty sore.

Looks like the much awaited Ryan Hall movie won't be out for a while.

how to mock your rivals

I may be all wishy-washy on what to do for the first 26.19 miles of NYC, but at least I've decided on my finish line celebration.  Pretty sure I'll do this at Hardrock next time I go over 40 hours as well.  Damn, this is ten times better than anything Bolt has ever done.

Incline Beer Mile

We've talked about doing this FOREVER, and we're finally going to throw down.  Saturday, September 8th, 11AM.  BYOB.  Same rules as a normal beer mile, though our course is a little harder.  $10,000 bonus to anyone who breaks Nick Symmonds's new American record of 5:19.

Beer number one at the first railroad tie.

Beer number two at the No Trespassing sign.

Beer number three at the Barr Trail bail point (halfway up).

Beer number four at the false summit.

Special rules, courtesy of Paul D:

Rule Addendum:

In event of a "reversal of fortune" runner must go back to the bottom (if you puke in first half) or back to Barr Trail Bail out (if you puke in top half).

Rule Addemdum Part 2:

If you puke on a tourist no penality at all.

2:49 + 10

Been thinking things over since Pikes, and I've decided to put the brakes on a sub 2:50 attempt at NYC.

Took a bunch of rest days since mid August.  Heading to three days of Phish this weekend, which will do about two weeks of damage to my body.  Then there's the roadtrip wedding coming up at the end of September, and it will be ten days of very little running.  Too many breaks for someone who already has a close-to-zero chance of running that fast, so I'd rather not stress about it.

Not pussing out totally, as I will definitely be shooting for a sub three.  I've only gone that fast three times, so it's not really small potato(e)s for me.

Possible attempt at Eugene in April, but that depends on how some lottery stuff plays out.

Friday

Incredible day.  Started the day with a solid 12 miler through the Garden and Manitou.  The Garden was closed for traffic and a lot of the weekend warrior types had taken the day off work, and you could feel the excitement over there.

This was not part of the 12 miles:

I did a nice 200 meters with the peloton.  And I was running hard, those guys are moving even uphill.  I hopped on my bike and hammered as hard as I could and saw the guys again at 30th and Pikes Peak Ave.  The size and speed of the peloton is so incredible I probably would have been scared had I not been drunk.

We then went downtown and took in the festivities.

Below are a couple 'o pics stolen from Tim B and the crew at PikesPeakSports.us.  Tim and his site have crushed the Gazette this week on coverage of Pikes Peak and the bike race.

Maybe cycling is where it's at, this has never happened to me while running:

Red Rock Liquor

Dog's first trip to a liquor store.  I gave in to her begging and got her some PBR.

new bike

Thursday brick

Easy 2.5 miles on the Garden roads.  Dog didn't feel like running and I didn't feel like pushing her.  Pretty tired from the last two days, so an easy day fits well here.

Then I hopped on the bike to work.  5.4 miles.  Pretty sure some of the guys in the Pro Cycling Challenge will beat my 30th street to Tejon time.  Added some clips to my pedals, so at 10mph I can actually stop in less than half a block now.

commute #35

AM - Easy run to work.  4.7 miles, 43:30.

PM - Six miles, 52:51, with some hard fartleks between four minutes and two minutes thrown in.  Good effort.

Tuesday track

Went to Cheyenne Mountain, but the track was full of field hockey players.  So we bolted to Manitou.  Andy and I did an easy mile warm up, then ran 3 x 1600m with 400m RBI.  5:37, 5:42, 5:43.  Really suffered on this workout, haven't done this kind of work in a long time.

Andy and I will be meeting at the Manitou track every Tuesday at 6PM for the 4 x 1600m workout, if anyone is interested they're welcome to join us.

Tuesday

Easy four miles with the dog on the Garden roads this morning, 40:00.  Hitting the track later on for a few mile repeats.

Pikes report

A very short write-up is over at Pikes Peak Sports.  I am now free to wear other t-shirts at races, if anyone from Nike is reading this feel free to give me a call.

Pikes pics

See my race pics over here.  Hope to get a quick report up today so I can move on.

back to the drawing board

Once again Pikes kicked my ass.  3:28.  Was on sub three pace through No Name Creek but I could tell I wasn't going to be able to keep that going.  I blame PG for not having a beer for me like he promised.  Struggled to get to Barr Camp in 1:38, then hiked the rest of the way up the mountain.  Blech.

Pikes!

Friday

Easy three in the Garden with $100 and the dog.

Best weekend of the year!  Good luck to all the Pikes Peakers and Leadville guys!  Git 'er done!

I think Selena Gomez is stalking me

One day after I get my Phish tickets, this story makes it's way around the interweb.  Selena, if you need a place to stay over Labor day, the back of my truck will be available.  Keep that Beiber dude away though.

Thurs/CRUD challenge

Thursday brick.  4.5 mile run in 42 minutes, followed by a 5.2 mile bike to work.  Fourth time riding to work, 196 more times and that bike has paid for itself in gas savings.

Took a different route home from work yesterday, dropping by Bristol.  Good thing - they found a dead body on the hike-and-bike trail next to wal-mart on 8th street.  I use that trail to get from the Santa Fe trail over to Bear Creek Park.  Lots of homeless in that area, my guess is that it's one of those guys.

CRUD will be gathering at my place on August 25th.  The challenge this year?  Pancakes!  Not sure of the rules yet, but I think it's going to be three pounds of pancakes for time.  Paul D has been pushing for this for years, I think he's got to be the favorite.  I'm not good with pancakes, guessing I'll be a DNF after two pounds.  Possibly some reversal of fortune action thrown in for good measure.

commute #34

Easy five miles to work, 46 minutes.  Have to drop by Bristol on the way home, so we'll see if I'm able to make it all the way to the house or I have to call $100 to come get me.

Boom!

Three days of Phish? Yes please!

game over

Not really a secret, but finally figured out how to get a pdf file onto blogger.  I'll post beta on the wedding roadtrip soon.

Very honored to have a PBR included in the engagement pic.

65

Easy 14 miles during the heat of the day, giving me 65 for the week.  Best week since Hardrock.  Trying to walk the fine line between being ready for Pikes and not getting too out of shape to start NYC training.

stuff the ballot!

I am starting a campaign to have Grumpy Kirk Schipke from Trinity
Brewing elected as best bartender in the CS Indy "best of" issue.  You
can vote here:

http://www.csindyballot.com/

Put Kirk's name under bartender in the nightlife category.

You have to vote in at least 15 categories for your ballot to count,
so here are some further recommendations:

King's Chef (for every restaurant related category)
Roman Villa (pizza/Italian)
Springs In Bloom (flower shop)
Colorado Running Company (local sports store)
Jack Quinn's (gay bar)
Murphy's (Irish bar)
American Legion Post 39 (military bar)
Knob Hill Lounge (neighborhood bar - east)
Red Rock Lounge (neighborhood bar - west)
Royal Tavern (neighborhood bar - Mantiou)
Pabst Blue Ribbon (domestic beer)
Red Rock Liquor (for every liquor store category)
Pikes Peak Road Runners (running club)
Jerri Marr (hero of the year)
Blue Plate Special (local radio show)
anything east of Circle Drive (claim to shame)

Of course, we all know Quinn's will win the running club award and
applebee's will sweep the bar awards, and I'll be forced to start
pulling out my hair over how much this town sucks.  But we can at
least try.

Thanks for helping out.

numbers

Article in the September issue of Outside on Bahram Akradi, the dude who runs Lifetime Fitness.  (Article is on page 26 of the print magazine, I can't find it online).  Talks about Lifetime Fitness buying up a bunch of races, including the Leadman stuff.  Lots opinions, I tend to have a negative view of the whole company based only on Akradi's "finish" of the Leadman a few years ago despite a 30+ hour run.  Though I do think they did a good job on the run the first year they took over when I paced Footfeathers.

Anywho, a stat in the article caught my eye.  Concerning ultra events, "over the past decade, some 317 domestic events attracted roughly 32,000 racers."  Not sure if ultra events refers specifically to running or not, but either way that's not a lot of people.  Folks are always talking about how the sport is blowing up, but to put that number in perspective I've had more than 32,000 runners beat me at Bolder Boulder before.  That averages just over 100 runners per event, about the size of low key 5K races here in the Springs.

blog

New post up on Pikes Peak Sports over here.  Just some filler to make it look like I'm earning that paycheck.  Currently working on a much longer post that might give some of you a heart attack.

track

1.5 mile warm up to Holmes middle school, 6 x 400m with 200m RBI, 1.5 mile cool down.  93 (ugh!), 87, 86, 86, 83, 82.

Only 12 more weeks until NYC, I'll be spending a lot of time on the track between now and then.

Today is a brick day, here is the beta on my bike to work.  Really leaning towards picking up a rear brake and making the bike a single speed, just not getting the hang of the fixie thing.  Guess I'll need to drink even more PBR to maintain my hipster status.

signs

Pleasant Valley is now a Panic friendly neighborhood!

commute #33

Easy 5.4 miles to work, 52 minutes.  Strava stuff here.  You can see where some dogs chased me off the Midland Trail and forced me  to go around them.

Incline

Incline long loop, from Memorial Park and ending at Kinfolk's.  Strava beta here.  I didn't wear a watch and I can't see my phone while hiking/running, but Strava gives me a sub 30 on the Incline without too much of an effort.  I believe Strava, as do most people, puts the official start of the Incline somewhere well up the trail.  Maybe the first railroad tie?  Maybe the old trail to the parking lot?  Those people are known as pussies.  The Incline starts at the Green Gate.  I'm guessing my listed 29:32 was closer to 33 minutes from the big boy start.

Cheyenne Canon

Nice hill work over in Cheyenne Canon.  8.5 miles in 90 minutes.  Got my first KOM from Strava.  I know you're jealous.  See the beta here.

victory dance

Been practicing this dance for the next time I crush the speeplechase.  I definitely have the beginning part down where he lies on his back and pants.

still undefeated in Wisconsin

Reedsburg, WI

bike to work

Nine mile ride to work, just shy of 45 minutes.  Second time I've taken the bike to work, I figure it will take 200 trips to pay off the 300 bones I dropped.  Still can't figure out how to stop a fixie.  If something comes in front of me I'm going to stop by hitting it.  Good times!

Strava info here.

Strava

I've made fun of it before, but after day one I'm digging Strava.  You can see my run home over here.  11 miles, just under two hours.

What Strava doesn't tell you about this run is that I caught Simon G from behind on the Sante Fe trail!  Boom!  OK, maybe I was working just a bit harder than he was, but I still caught him.

commute #32

5.2 miles to work, 44:48.  Tried the Strava run thing from my iPad, and it measured the same course as 5.4 miles.

Big happy birthday to Jerry Garcia!  He would have been 70 today.