Tuesday, June 30, 2015

ribs and whiskey

After a week in which the ribs seemed to get more and more painful each day, I've finally started noticing an improvement the last two days.  I'm now able to cough and sneeze and laugh without having a nauseous wave of pain wash over me.  It still hurts, just not as much.  I've even had two consecutive decent nights of sleep, so hopefully recovery is well underway.

Sad moment watching the start of the San Juan Solstice on Saturday, but I definitely made the right call.  $100 and I did an easy hike on the Colorado Trail that morning, and even that was rough on me.

Think I can recover quickly enough to take a shot at sub three at Pikes, but not sure where this leaves me for the Never Summer 100K.  I was already behind the eight ball on the long run front, and missing San Juan doesn't help.  

Friday, June 26, 2015

San Juan no-go

A short and painful run yesterday, and an attempted run that quickly turned to a hike this morning.  Something is definitely wrong, so I'm not going to be running the San Juan Solstice this year.  I'll take a week off of running (which means almost two weeks total off) and revisit the problem then.  Lots of biking and hiking in my near future.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

San Juan?

Ended up getting 27+ miles on the bike on Wednesday.

Wrestling with a decision on San Juan.  I'm going to run tonight and tomorrow morning and see how the ribs feel, then make a decision on the drive down to Lake City on Friday morning.  I'll be OK with a DNS as I've done that race quite a few times and I don't really feel like needlessly suffering along for a 15 hour finish.  Would be just as happy if I spent the weekend hiking around with $100 and the dog.  $100 is convinced I broke a rib, but I don't think it's that bad.  Hurts though.

Looks like there was another death on America's mountain.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Bike To Work Day

Still having lots of pain in the ribs from the crash on Saturday.  Only ran 20 minutes on Sunday.  Five easy miles in the Garden on Tuesday.  No running today.  Not sure how San Juan is going to go as I just haven't been putting in the long miles, but having a jacked up rib cage sure isn't going to help things.

Did get in 20+ miles on the bike yesterday.  To work and back, then $100 and I rode back over to Stargazer's for a movie.  Slightly buzzed and riding back at night on the deserted streets is a great way to end a Tuesday.

Today is Bike To Work Day here in the Springs.  Got out to Goose Gossage at 6AM to ride downtown with our new mayor.  Great turnout for the event.





Even had a good chunk of my office participate.



Monday, June 22, 2015

Bailey

Complete day of rest today.  Had a bad wreck at the Bailey Hundo on Saturday and it still hurts when I breathe.  Figured I could use a day off.

Nothing incredible about my performance on Saturday, but eventually I did get the job done.  "Eventually" is probably the best word to describe my mountain bike prowess.  85 miles, 10K feet of climbing, most of it singletrack.  I beat two other riders.


Got a pretty sweet jersey out of the deal.



Whitesnake

I think the last record I bought was the Whitesnake album 1987.  I'm not one of those toolbags who still buys records because they think it's cool, records were just the way we listened to music back in the late 80s.


Shit, look at these guys from back then.  Holy hair!


Anywho, not long ago Whitesnake announced a show at the Pikes Peak Center.  I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and see 'em.  Hell, it's not like we have a lot to do here on Monday nights in the Springs anyways.  But then I saw the ticket price and said, "thanks, but no thanks."

Guess a lot of folks had the same thoughts, and a week before the show tix became buy-one-get-one.  So I took the bait.

Good show, good way to blow two hours on a school night.  They played all of their hits, plus some stuff from a recent Deep Purple tribute album.  I was hoping this would happen, but no such luck:


Some pics from the gig:




And even a few videos:



Friday, June 19, 2015

Friday

Thurs PM - Six miles on the Section 16 loop with the dog.

Fri AM - Easy 40 minutes on the Garden roads.  Saw a ton of cops there, and I was hoping it was related to the big prison break fugitives I've been obsessed with.  But it looks like some drunk in a mini cooper drove off the road last night and ended up in the middle of some bushes and trees.

Off for some camping this weekend, with the Bailey Hundo tomorrow.  They've really had to change the course due to flood concerns and as of now I'm not even sure how far I have to ride.  Might just end up doing the 60 mile Hundito course, we'll see.

I read in the gazette that on Monday we surpassed 17 inches of rain for the year, and we're not even halfway done.  We average 17 inches per year here in the Springs.

Good luck to those at Bighorn and the Leadman wannabes this weekend!

Had to go to the east side of town this morning, which I hate doing.  At least the views are nice over there.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Track

Wed PM - $100 didn't get the chance to run the Garden on Sunday, so she wanted a good effort on the course.  Ran the ten miles with her in 1:53, including a negative split.  Very good time for her.  Post run celebration (and another stamp in the passport challenge with Timko) at Kinfolk's.



Thurs AM - 5 x 800m, 400m RBI.  3:06, 3:02, 2:58, 2:56, 2:52.

Took this at the corner of 31st and Colorado.  Yes, Vanilla Ice has taken up residence in Pleasant Valley.


Wednesday, June 17, 2015

dog!

Ended up riding almost 30 miles on Tuesday, including the quick jaunt to work and a longer ride home.  Assuming I finish Bailey on Saturday, I'll finally be on pace to finish 2015 with 3K miles of biking.  Well on pace for 2K of running.

Dropped by Marc & Amanda's (she cooks for me - I had a bacon cheesburger yesterday - and I raid his beer fridge) last night to meet my newest buddy:


Cooper is a six year old weim who seems pretty awesome.  Mr. & Mrs. Ewing are fostering him, which means they will either find someone to adopt him, or they will end up keeping him.

Wed AM - finally starting to feel normal after the race on Sunday.  Easy hour on the Garden roads.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

whiskey

My in-laws will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary this year, and we are planning to meet them in Madison to celebrate.  They are big, big fans of whiskey, specifically Stranahan's.  Last time they visited the Springs, they took back two cases of the stuff.  And on one of the tours we did, they seemed really interested in the special edition snowflake whiskey Stranahan's puts out. 

$100 thought this would make a killer gift.  So on Saturday morning, at 2:30AM, I got out of bed and headed up to the distillery to grab a bottle of the latest snowflake release, Longs Peak.  I arrived at 4:30AM and there were several hundred people ahead of me in line, waiting until 8AM when the booze went on sale.  Anything for a good anniversary gift.  And you could buy two bottles, so I grabbed one for our liquor cabinet.  So expensive that we won't open it until the next natural disaster.  Which, given all the rain lately, should be within the next week or so.








Ended up spending almost eight hours at the distillery.  Dropped by Roxborough State Park for a two hour run afterwards, followed by some brews at Living The Dream.  And when I got back to the Springs, $100 and I jumped on the bikes for a trip to Fieldhouse Brewing.  Not a bad way to blow a Saturday. 

sore

Monday - super sore from the Garden, so I took the dog over to the Garden trails for an easy four miles.

Tuesday AM - still sore, but I went to bed still planning on hitting the track.  But we got a ton of rain, and that makes the old school cinder track I run on a mess.  So I did an easy five miles on the Garden roads instead.

Monday, June 15, 2015

66:51


Thanks to Ryan for the pic.

66:51 at the Garden Ten Miler.  Fastest I've ever gone on this course by about a minute.  Felt like I struggled on the second half, but looking at the splits I wasn't too bad.  33:27 for the first half, 33:23 on the back half.  Mentally it was difficult for me over the final miles, but being that this is my backyard and Brooks was lurking not too far back I pushed through it.  Definitely a solid visit to the pain cave though. 

Sunday, June 14, 2015

60

Commute #60 on the year on Friday, with a nice 23 miler on the ride home.

I typically have good things to say about the Academy and our Air Force, but it's about time they open this trail back up.  If you're unable to defend against ISIS launching an attack via the Santa Fe trail, perhaps you should ask your local Army buddies for some help.  The length of time they've had this closed has risen to bullshit levels.


Friday, June 12, 2015

hey, it's raining again!

AM - Easy seven on the Garden roads.

Got in my 60th bike ride to work today.  In a driving rain.  Even got to do a few stream crossings on the streets.

But even more awesome than that?  Here's what I had for breakfast when I got to the office:


Sometimes it's awesome being an adult!

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Garden


AM - Drank a few too many beers last night and overslept, so only had time for a quick five miler in the Garden.

Half hour in the gym at lunch.

PM - Hour bike ride home from work.  Was going to run after this, but as I stepped out onto the porch the clouds looked like some shitty weather was about to break loose.  Of course right after I ate dinner everything cleared up.  So I went over to Fossil and had their newest SMaSH release, a collaboration with Front Range BBQ.  Delicious!

Picked up my schwag for the Garden Ten Miler.  Think I'm in pretty good shape for this, but I'm going to sabotage my race on Sunday with a long run on Saturday.



Some awesome pics of my backyard, the Garden of the Gods, can be seen here.  I'm there most days of the week and it never gets old.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Canon/Incline 13

Tues PM - Awesome ride home from work.  Shooks Run to downtown, up Cheyenne Canon, up High Drive, down Capt Jacks, then the screaming downhill home.  20 miles, 2K feet of climbing.  1:28 from the office to the top of High Drive, eleven miles and 1800 feet of climbing.  First time I've ever gone sub 20 on Capt Jacks, with strava telling me today was 16:23.  That's good for 954th overall (out of 1330) if you're scoring at home.  But every time I ride up the Canon I see tons of expensive mountain bikes on top of cars or in the back of a truck.  Pussies.  You should have to earn your trip down Buckhorn and/or Capt Jacks.

Next goal will be to go sub 15 on that section.  Incorporates a lot of stuff I'm not good at - fast downhill, tight turns, some technical stuff at a high rate of speed, lots of gravel that makes it hard to control the bike, and a high percentage of crashing.

Wed AM - Incline number 13 on the year with the dog.

Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Tuesday Track

I was still really stiff and sore when I woke up this morning and was about to bail on the track.  But I thought about how I really need to get some continuity at the oval, and I thought that even if I just went there and ran a few 800m at four minutes, it would still be better than slogging out some ten minute miles on the Garden roads.  So off to the track it was.  5 x 800m with 400m RBI.  3:16, 3:12, 3:09, 3:03, 2:58.

These are the most delicious things in the universe. 


Got some yesterday thanks to #Amy.  I hear you can get them in Denver now, and they are easily acquired on the interwebs,  but for some reason I treat these almost with as much pleasure as when I get some Yuengling out here.  As an adult I'm supposed to be all like, "well, there's six packs of Krimpets, and if I eat one pack a day they will last almost a full week..." but I picked them up at noon and they were all gone by 5PM.  Same for the Kandy Kakes.

Local blues dude Grant Sabin rocked out with Blue Frog Sunday night at Front Range.  Good times!


Monday, June 08, 2015

weekend update

Solid weekend of training and beer drinking.

Saturday was the ERock Sunrise to Sunset, an eleven hour mountain bike race.  The thing used to be held at Greenland Open Space, though they now have it at the new $30 billion dollar park in Castle Rock.  I was fairly hungover from a late night at Red Leg, so I didn't have the ride I wanted.  Made it 57 miles.  No way would I have made my goal of a century on this slow course, but I would have liked to get in another lap or two.  Had a ton of fun though, so the day wasn't a total loss. 

Here's me and $100 completing a lap.  She rode a 29er for the first time.


On Sunday I met up with Shad, Kircher, Rob, and Crystal to head up Barr Trail.  This run went much better than I was expecting.  We got up to the Bottomless Pitt sign, absolutely no snow.  Reports have things clear up to A-Frame.  Still a ton of snow above treeline, but it's melting quick.


Sore as hell after the weekend, so I'm taking today off.  Hoping for a good rest of the week though. 
Going to try to get a 20 miler up Barr Trail on Saturday, followed by the Garden Ten Miler on Sunday.

I also signed up for the Barr Trail Mountain Race.  Been a while since I've ran that, looking forward to returning.

Friday, June 05, 2015

lunch

They now make cheeseburger flavored chips.  We live in amazing times.


Friday

Went to a public meeting for the Springs bike master plan Wednesday night.  There are some decent ideas about how to make this town a more bike friendly place, we'll see if those ideas can be put into action.

One of the more exciting things I learned about was a possible 60 mile loop of gravel and concrete bike paths around the city.  A good chunk of this is already complete, there are just some connection issues to figure out before making this whole thing work.


Thurs AM - back to the track.  2 x 1 mile.  6:04, 5:56.  Yes, that's quite the improvement from the first mile to the next, but trust me it was due to me finally waking up, not any PEDs or TUEs.  (Disclaimer: I do sometimes take a one-a-day knock off gummy bear multivitamin at the request of my wife.  I'm supposed to take this daily, but I usually forget.  I think she's more worried about my diet which consists mainly of red meat and dairy with almost no fruits and veggies than she is about my running performances).

I loved Nick Symmonds' tweet: "All I take is a multivitamin and beer."  But he's a professional athlete, and those guys have no benefit of the doubt anymore.  He's probably taking whatever he can.

Thurs PM - Barr Trail.  Ran up to the point where the new(ish) top of the Incline trail hits Barr.  Solid workout.

Shad and Rob are in town this weekend and we'll be heading up America's mountain on Sunday if anyone wants to join us.  Thinking we'll start at 8AM with the Incline Club.  Word is you can get slightly higher than Barr Camp before snow becomes an issue.  Post run grub and brews at Manitou Brewing Company.

Speaking of MBC, we had a meeting of the minds there last night as Jeff, Carson, and I got together to drink beers and figure out how we're going to get Tom C through Hardrock.  I'll be pacing him from Ouray to Telluride, as that's probably the easiest section to get lost on, and it's the only section of the course that includes a full service tequila bar.  Tom hates tequila, as do I, but I told him I'd pull him from the race if he doesn't do a shot with me at Kroger's.

Wednesday, June 03, 2015

say it ain't so!

This is a really hard day for me.

hump day

Tuesday PM - Took off on the bike after work and it was a glorious day for Cheyenne Canon.  My strongest climb this year, which included adding on the extra mile up High Drive, returning via Cap't Jacks.  20 miles, 2.5 hours, convenient ending at Fossil Brewing for some Mammoth IPA.  FYI, Fossil is currently out of the Elevation Ale but are working on that.

Wednesday AM - Incline #12 with the dog.  Dog sure is loving the early morning hump day trips up and down the mountain.

I have mentioned (with disgust) Green Man tap room here before, and there will be no more of that now that they are closed.  The owner got evicted, then trashed the place as he was on his way out.  Classy.  He says he will be back with a new bar, hopefully it's somewhere far away from Colorado.  I've heard lots of rumors about how shady the owners are, so this situation isn't much of a surprise.  Sad that such a great idea could go to such shit though.  Fun fact: the owners were actually kicked off yelp for writing too many reviews about themselves under fake names.

Headed to the east side tonight, to Library 21C for a meeting about the bike master plan for the city.  While I'm over there I'll hit up Nano 108 to see what's on tap there and to make up some ground on Timko in our passport challenge.  Last one to fill up their passport buys the winner a passport next year.

Tuesday, June 02, 2015

Tuesday Track

Monday - was going to take a rest day as I'm still pretty banged up from the GJOR, but the weather was too nice.  Due to laziness and the shitty weather, I had only done ten Inclines on the year.  Monday was number eleven.

Tues AM - 4 x 800m on the track.  Been wanting to get to the track for a while, but again the recent rains had the cinder track all jacked up.  1.5 mile warm up, then 3:03, 3:01, 2:59, and 2:54 with a quarter mile in between each one.  1.5 mile cool down.  Six miles on the workout.  Love this time of year, as it was warm and sunny at 5:15AM when I started.

If you're in for the Leadville Marathon, get ready to run a different course.  No way they're getting up to Mosquito Pass anytime soon, there's still a ton of snow on the mountains surrounding Pb.  I have already informed Shad and JP that they're not "real" Leadmen if they don't get up to Mosquito Pass during the series.

Big month ahead for me.  Hoping to get 100+ miles on the bike this weekend at ERock Sunrise to Sunset.  Then the Bailey Hundo two weeks later.  And San Juan Solstice looming at the end of June.

Monday, June 01, 2015

Grand Junction Off Road

Incredible time out in Grand Junction over the weekend.  Didn't do so well in the ride - it was way too technical for my abilities - but I survived.  Really great trails out there.  We will definitely be returning to this event next year, and we're pretty much decided on heading back out to GJ over Thanksgiving.

On Friday I got to demo a super expensive fat bike.  I used it to roll out and meet $100 and Amanda as they were riding the 15 miler.



That evening we got to see Big Sam's Funky Nation.


A few years ago this band came through the Springs and I got to meet them.  They didn't remember me this time around.


On Saturday I started the race riding as hard as I could, but after an hour I knew I was in way over my head and if I continued to push that hard I'd end up in the hospital due to a crash.  So I decided to have my first beer of the day and wait for some friends who were taking things at a much more leisurely pace.


The day got much more enjoyable once I slowed down.  Though it certainly didn't get easy.  Super hard, technical course.  Took me almost eight hours to do the 40 miler.  For reference, I rode Leadville at a much easier effort and that hundred miler took me less than three more hours.



We got a wine glass for finishing.  Which we used to drink Fireball at Rockslide Brewing right after the ride.


My phone died early Saturday evening, so no pics of the Shakey Graves show, but it was awesome.  Pro tip: we bought a growler at Rockslde for $10 and drank that, much better than paying $5 per pint at the beer tent.

Sunday morning I went for a run along the Colorado river and watched the pro guys and gals take off.  Then we hit the Colorado National Monument and took the dog hiking in McInnis Canyon.



We were sad to leave, and it seemed to take forever to drive home, but we made time to drop by Leadville and see an old friend.  Dooper seems to be doing really great.