Tuesday track/bike commute 22

8 x 400m.  200m RBI.  One of the only gripes I have about my watch, the Garmin vivoactive hr, is that I can't figure out a good way to time intervals.  In my mind I was crushing these in about 45 seconds each, but in reality they were almost twice that.

Then rode to work.  Bike commute 22.  Might be pedaling back home in the snow.

I've been squirreling some loot away for a more suitable road bike.  Yesterday Salsa dropped the price on the Colossal from 2G to $1300.  Almost pulled the trigger.

Even went to my local bike shop, The Hub, to see if they had any.  Of course they didn't, because in their very small store the fat bikes take up all the space.  So I had to decide if I wanted to drop a lot of money on a road bike I've never seen, let alone sat on, before.  And I decided against that.  Will hold out for a Vaya.  Which REI will be selling soon, so I'll be able to try one out before I buy.  I love REI, but I have mixed feelings about having to go there over the LBS for bike stuff.  But the Hub has kind of forced my hand.

Of course, that Colossal is one good looking bike...

incline 15

On Saturday $100, my sister, and I got on the bikes for a 20 mile pub crawl.  Storybook, Murphy's, Gold Camp, and Fossil.  Almost the whole loop on trails.  Good times!

Of course I wasn't at my physical best on Sunday.  But after a nice Garden hike with the dog I drug my ass up the Incline.

Pretty good week.  40 miles running, 88 miles on the bike, 19 miles of hiking.  Even got in an hour of yoga.

Not sure if I mentioned it on here, but I have informed my boss that next June (2018) I will be taking a sabbatical to hike the Colorado trail with my wife.  The dog is coming along, and she is super psyched.

incline 14

It had been a while since I climbed the steps.  Feb 17th was the last time, when I busted an ankle coming back down and ended up taking two weeks off to recover.  Almost let the weather keep me away, but I knew I needed to get back and I'm glad I went.

Finally getting some moisture here on the Front Range, maybe we'll get to go a few weeks without worrying about the place burning down.  On Thursday $100 and I took the dog over to the Garden just before the weather blew in.  We were in a red flag warning (very high fire danger) and a blizzard warning.  And when we got to the Garden we looked south and saw the smoke from a pretty big fire on Fort Carson.  Shortly after the hike it started snowing.

Ecology Park

On the way home from Salida we took some time to further explore the Royal Gorge region.  The dog was beat but still up for a short hike in Ecology Park.  This place doesn't look like much as you pull into the lot, but after a quarter mile or so things get pretty cool.  Hiked the dog down to Grape Creek and played around there for a bit.  Highly recommended.

Salida

Salida went about as I expected.  I had been slacking on the long runs, and I had been slacking on the hills, and as such I knew I was not going to do well there.  But after my last two marathons (DNF at Pikes and DNS at Pueblo) I was happy to get a finish.  5:20.  Something to build on, as I now have hope that a finish at San Juan and a decent Pikes weekend can be accomplished with some work.

Had the usual fantastic time in Salida, seeing everyone and visiting so many of my favorite pubs and hiking the dogs until near exhaustion.  Love that town, but holy shit have housing prices have gone insane.  Will be interesting to watch what happens over the next few years, with rent at four figures at the minimum and the highest paying job in town at ten bucks an hour.

Biked Cheyenne Canon yesterday on the way home, bike commute number 20 on the year.  Ran to work today for run commute 12.

Supposed to get some moisture Thursday night.  Fingers crossed for a snow day!

bike commute 19

Thurs - Early morning three mile hike in the Garden with $100 and the dog.  44F at 5AM and I was loving it!  6.5 mile ride to work, 7.5 miles home.

Fri - Easy four miler on the roads of Old Colorado City.

Guessing I will be somewhere in the five hour area at Salida this weekend.  Don't feel out of shape, but I sure haven't put in the long runs required for the race.  Will probably be very pleasant for the first three hours, then things will go south and I'll walk a lot.

bike commute 18

Back to the track this morning.  Nothing special, 4 x 400m, 4 x 200m, untimed.  Need to start getting back to the oval a bit more.

Then eight miles on the Mariachi before work.  Even snuck to CityRock (#21) over lunch.

Home via Cheyenne Canon, including Cap't Jacks.

Red Mountain/Run Commute 11

Monday after work (bike commute 17) I took the dog up Red Mountain.  3.5 miles.  Going to start hiking that every Monday at 6PM if anyone wants to join.  Hike, not run, as the dog likes hiking much better, and I like doing as little physical activity as possible on Monday.

Tuesday was run commute 11.  Six miles to work.  Four miles home.  Then I took advantage of the later sunset and warm temps to get ten miles of singletrack on the fat bike over in Red Rock Canyon.

night outside #2

Not a good run on Saturday due to a late Friday at Fossil.  Got in a two hour slog at Cheyenne Mountain State Park, so at least I was able to start earning my merit badges.

As soon as I got home I supported the local economy by throwing just over $800 to the Pikes Peak Marathon.  $100 is registered for the Triple Crown with the Ascent, and I'm down for the Triple Crown, the Double, and BTMR.

Then it was off to Canon City.  Arrived at Oil Well Flats, set up camp, and took the dog out for a hike.  Dinner was down at Florence Brewing for the annual FAR adventure guide release.  Then back to the fire pit for more brews.

Got in a good two hour ride at Oil Well Flats on Sunday morning, followed by another dog hike.  Weather was perfect.

Continuing to dig our exploration of Fremont County.  My buddy Lance wrote an article about some new trails down there, you can see that over here.

Did some more riding back in the Springs as $100 and I biked over to the Red Leg brewers' cup happy hour.  We are not on the team this year but we still plan on crashing anything that looks like fun.

run commute 10

Short but awesome trip down to Phoenix and I will get up a post about that soon.  Got to say that one of the highlights was going on a morning walk to get coffee at 7AM and only needing to wear a t-shirt.

Tues - the bathroom remodel is getting very old as what was supposed to take two or three weeks is now doubling that with work still to do.  So I couldn't bike to work as I had to get the dog over to Amanda's.  Hit CityRock though for trip number 20 on the year.

Wed - Hour walk with the dog in the Garden this morning, followed by a six mile run to work. 

February

Not a good month on the running and biking front.  Cold weather kept me off the bike for much of the month, and the minor ankle injury cost me a week of running.  115 miles running, 105 miles on the bike.  Meh.

However, I didn't use all that extra time sitting around watching TV (that doesn't happen until the NCAA tourney starts).  The dog loved my predicament as we had over 70 miles hiking on the short month.  Whenever I bust up an ankle, which seems to happen quite often nowadays, I can return to hiking much quicker than running.  So I hike, and the dog gets to come along, and she LOVES it.  In fact, she questions why I don't make hiking my full time gig, giving up running and biking and climbing and work to make more time to stroll about.

Also spent some time in the gym, whether Accolade or CityRock.  I'm definitely seeing big gains in the rock gym, which I'm pretty psyched about.  Starting to have real success on V3 problems, and I've even gotten a move or two or three on V4 stuff, something that seemed impossible just a few months ago.

The resolution numbers, through March 3rd:

Bike Commutes - 14 (trying for 50)
Run Commutes - 9 (trying for 50)
CityRock - 19 (currently $28.21 per visit to the gym, trying to get that below $10)
Accolade - 9 (trying for 34, which would make each visit less than $10)
Run Miles - 336 (trying for 2000)
Bike Miles - 307 (trying for 3000)
Hike Miles - 143 (trying for 500)

Beaver Creek

I've been getting in lots of quality time with my other dog Meesha lately.  Despite the bum ankle keeping me from running, hiking doesn't bother it nearly as much.  So I decided to take the dogs to explore a new (to me) area, Beaver Creek SWA down near Canon City.  We did a pretty awesome seven mile loop, which turned out to be a bit more after I got lost the last two or so miles.  Definitely worth the trip and yet another place we hope to explore more in the near future.

Pearl

Tim has a good write up of the Pearl saga in the latest CS Independent.  Check it out here.

Phish @ Colorado College

Been listening to this nugget lately.  Once every few decades something cool happens at CC.  I was a sophomore in high school and just starting to take running somewhat seriously back in '90.