queensryche

Tues PM - Four mile run up and down Bear Creek Canyon/666 with the dogs.  Holly and I kept having to wait up for Meesha, she is used to running with Amanda and hence is totally unprepared for the distance and pace.

Wed AM - Good seven miler on the Garden roads. 

Will hit my monthly goals of 200 miles running and 400 miles biking, with the highlights being the Dirty Kanza and San Juan Solstice.  Now it's time to concentrate on Pikes.

Halfway through the year and I've biked to work 74 times so far.  740 miles that are not on the Jeep.  That is $400 saved, according to the current IRS mileage rate.  I should probably go out and buy a new $4000 bike so I can continue saving so much money.

Anyone remember how big Queensryche was back in the 90s?  I think they used to play stadiums.  It was just announced they will be playing a show at the Black Sheep in December.  I'm gonna go party like it's 1995!

Tuesday

We are watching our other dog while Marc and Amanda are biking all around Colorado for their wedding trip.  Went to their house to pick up Meesha, which meant drinking a few too many beers, then didn't sleep very much.  So I bailed on my morning run and went to the dog park instead.  The dogs were totally cool with the decision.

Our super awesome downtown bus terminal got some new bike art:

Finally got back to the rock gym over lunch.  It had been quite a while.  Nice to have my two longest events of the summer behind me so I can find more time to do other stuff.



Lake City

I was able to notch my 7th finish down at the San Juan Solstice on Saturday, coming in just under 14 hours.  A bit slow for me, but given my lack of long runs over the past year it was about what I expected.   Pretty happy that I was able to keep moving the entire day, with no big breaks for the first 40 miles (I took longer breaks at mile 40, 45, and 49.9 to drink beer).  Probably hurt just as much as Kanza, but I have a lot more experience dealing with long runs and overall this mostly felt like yet another good day in the mountains.

We hiked Handies on Sunday.  So much more pleasant without throwing the entire Hardrock course into the mix.  Looking across American Basin from the top, it seemed like a lifetime ago that I had the desire to do shit like that.

High Alpine Brewing

New(ish) brewery in Gunnison we tried on the way down to Lake City.  Good stuff, though if I could only hit one brewery on this drive it would still be Elevation Beer Company.

Toasted Wyatt as I had a Green Gate IPA.  Guess it didn't pay off as it sounds like he struggled in from Green Gate at States.  Wyatt, you can blame me for somehow finding a way to run slower than Fuller did out there!

Wednesday

Good run on Saturday.  Up Barr Trail to the Bottomless Pitt sign and back down, then up Red Mountain.  21 miles.  Saw all the superstars - Trimboli, Staponowich, Charlie Brown, and even the rare sighting of Tony K (yes, I screamed like a schoolgirl).  Got horribly sunburned, and it's still incredibly painful on Wednesday.  I'd like to say I learned my lesson and it's SPF 100 every single time I leave the house from now on.  But I've now been dealing with sunburn for 40 years and I'm going to continue to forget to use sunscreen and at some point I'm going to die either of skin cancer or something else.

Got out for two hours on Sunday.  We have been having a heatwave here in the Springs and Sunday in Red Rock Canyon was tough.

Haven't been able to sleep well due to the sunburn, so the running this week ain't much to talk about.  Should be better by Saturday though.

We hosted a kid who is biking across the country on Sunday night.  His blog about the day he arrived is here, and the day he left, including his breakfast at King's Chef, is here.

whiskey 23 & 24

Drank a lot of this local whiskey over the weekend.  If you live here in Colorado you should definitely give Axe and the Oak a try.

Kanza

Finally got an account of the DK200 up on Pikes Peak Sports.  Grab a beer and go check it out.

Incline #35

Good day on the hills.  AM run up Mount Muscoco, then a post-work slog up the Incline.  They have removed all the graffiti from the Incline.

whiskey 22

incline #34

Solid effort up the Incline yesterday.  Summer has definitely arrived, damn hot up there.  Pikes is melting fast and it won't be long before Barr is clear to the top.

home again

Back in the Springs after a debacle of a time trying to get home last night.  Thought we'd be home by 10PM, but it was well past 2AM by the time we crawled into bed.  Seems there was some bad weather in Denver that delayed just about every airplane ever built.  Still don't see why some locals prefer to fly out of Denver than COS, that drive home after the flight lands is rough.

Kanza was a much harder event than I prepared for, and it has taken me a bit to recover.  And then, just as I was able to start running, we headed to Wisconsin and I ate all the cheese and drank all the beer.  I actually did get some good running in - a hard four miler around Devils Lake, a speedy (for me) 15 miler on the 400 Trail, and an easy hour on the Madison bike path on Sunday - but otherwise it was a very unhealthy weekend.

Not at all ready for Lake City but I'll give it a go anyways.  Figure I'll be somewhere around 14 hours, much slower than the 12 hours I usually shoot for, but given what's been going on with my running lately I'll take it.

Wed

Very easy four mile run this morning on the Garden trails.  Recovering nicely, but not quite there yet.

I heard 150 riders dropped out within the first six miles of the race due to mechanical issues from the "lake" crossing we had to do.  I did see a lot of very expensive bikes on the side of the road during that early stretch.  Can't imagine what I would think, or how quickly my wife would quit talking to me, if I bought a $5K (or higher) bike that shit the bed less than 10K into a 200 mile race.

Kanza shot from when I still had a smile on my face.

Tuesday

Still recovering from the ride.  Hands and shoulders still ache, and the quads don't want to do much work right now.  Sat on my ass (which also still hurts) all day Sunday and Monday.  Easy 30 minute run this morning.  Did bike to work on Monday and Tuesday, so maybe my claims of never riding a bike again I made around 1AM on Sunday were a bit dramatic.

This pic, taken from Linda Guerrette Photography, sums up how mile 100 to 170 went for me.  Except I didn't have any water.

News is breaking today that the AF Academy has finally opened up the Santa Fe trail!

RIP Muhammad Ali.

DK200

Took just about everything I had but I finished the Dirty Kanza 200 miler.  18.5 hours.  I'll get a write up done later this week.

graduation

Was bummed that I had missed out on tickets for the AF graduation tomorrow, but a co-worker came through.  President Obama is speaking.  I always try to go see the president, whoever it is, speak.  I saw Bush II (who I greatly disliked, due to the fact his decisions wasted a year of my life, though I couldn't imagine saying some of the disrespectful words you see nowadays towards that position) and this will be my second time seeing Obama.  If I can get some face time with El Pres I'll lobby him to open up the Academy trails to the public.

Oh yeah, there will be some airplanes there as well.  The hat toss/flyover thing ain't easy to pull off.

May

192 miles running, 463 on the bike.  Pretty good month coming off the cankle injury.

Also have a new watch that tracks walking, got in 36 miles there.

Dirty Kanza is Saturday and I'm as ready as I can get.  Course looks to be in good shape, at least compared to last year.  No idea how this is going to shake out as it's by far the biggest ride I've ever done, but I feel confident that barring any major mechanical issues I have a pretty good shot to finish.

Been a wet year so far.  $100, the dog, and I did a quick loop in Red Rock Canyon yesterday, in the rain, and everything is so green.  And I heard Pikes got even more snow last night.  I saw Ron at Bristol on Saturday and we were joking about how he would have to shovel a path up to the top for his race this year.