tp

Like everyone else my schedule is a bit wacked for the moment, but it allowed me to get up to the track on Monday before work.  Another 7 x 200m, but this one went much better than the last one.  Actually felt my legs turning over today.  Maybe I'll start timing these workouts.

This virus debacle will pass, but long after that I will be referring to my usual loop of the Midland, Santa Fe, Sinton, and Front Range trails as my COVID loop.  All our parks have been swamped, which I can get around due to my early starts, but if I want a workout during normal hours I hit that loop.  It's wide enough to safely avoid other people.  So I've been on those paved and packed dirt trails a lot lately, including Monday afternoon and Tuesday's bike commute to work.

On Saturday the Pikes Peak Road Runners will be doing their monthly Nielsen Challenge two miler.  But it's virtual.  And it don't cost 'nuthin.  Just go run two miles and put your time down on a spread sheet.  I'll be running at Holmes Middle School.  If anyone wants to throw down feel free, info can be found here.

This thing must be starting to wind down, look what I found at Safeway after my Sunday Manitou run:

incline 16

The great leaders of Manitou decided to shut down the incline a bunch of days ago.  Fuck those clowns.  Just the latest in a long list of bullshit the elected officials there have done to make me not want to spend any money there.  Got there pretty early to begin my climb.

Nice sunrise from the summit.  Pro tip: the sun will do the same thing tomorrow.

Down Barr and then I decided to climb Red Mountain.  It had been a long time since I've been up there.

Week in review:

run - 33 miles
ride - 103 miles
hike - 22 miles

A bit of quality in there too, as well as some good garage workouts.  My best week in a while.

track

Wed - bike commute 20.  Eleven miles both ways.  Another good morning session in the garage gym.  Watched "Warrior" in the evening, super cool as it was shot in Pittsburgh and I recognized a bunch of places.

Thurs - 7 x 200m at Holmes.  I was trying to push these, but I just can't turn my legs over quick enough anymore.  Got back to the house at 6AM as the shelter-in-place order took effect.  Not really any change than what we've been doing the last week or so.  Good garage gym session after the run before biking straight to work, commute 21.

The dog seems to be recovering well.  Back up to half hour walks.  The leg is still a bit wonky but she is figuring things out. 

run commute 22

Sunday - 7.3 miles on the Garden trails, followed by a 25 mile ride out to FH Beerworks and back.  Grabbed a growler of Good Day IPA and a sixer of Paperwork Tropical Ale.  Later that day we had one of them social distance happy hour, where a bunch of us sat in the alley, comfortably separated, and drank some beers.  Then it was off to the couch to watch "Never Miss A Sunday Show," the new weekly Panic webcast.

Monday - bike commute 19.  6.4 miles to work, eleven miles home.  CityRock is closed so there is no more lunch climbing, so I've been going out for an hour walk instead.

Tues - run commute 22.  CityRock is closed so there is no more post-run/pre-work shower.  But I deal with few humans in person right now, and the few I see I have to stay six feet away from, so it's no big deal.  The gold folks at Mountain Tactical came out with a new COVID inspired limited equipment training plan, and I started that in the garage today.  Trying to fight back against the laziness and unhealthiness that has set in recently.  Tuesday was at least a tiny step in the right direction.  Didn't even drink that much during the Tues evening Phish webcast.

Platte River virtual half

My first ever virtual race.  My annual trip up to run the Platte River half marathon was replaced with a MAF run on my Midland/Santa Fe/Sinton trail loop.  13.1 miles in 1:56:49.  Was hoping to break 90 on race day, but we'll never know.  And I might not have very many realistic chances to break 90 anymore.

Also did a nice four mile hike over in the Garden, all of which I spent missing having my dog with me.  Dropped by Trails End and for the first time ever bought a beer to go in a mason jar.  $100 is excited to get a margarita to go tomorrow.

Both my weekly incline and track session resolutions died this week.  Pretty lame on my part and my only excuse is that it's been a weird week.  The incline is technically closed, but as usual there are ways around that and I'll jump back on that horse this week.  Not sure what will happen with the track goal as I'm not really training for anything now.

Seems like every event that gets postponed is rescheduled for October.  I will miss my first Salida marathon as it's the same weekend as Chicago, which we have already sunk a ton of money into.  I was signed up for the Royal Gorge 12 hour in May, but that was moved to the same day as the Lake City Alpine 50.  So I switched that rego to the Ruidoso 40 miler.  But that's the week after Chicago, so we'll see if I end up there.

Did get the garage gym set up today, hope to start hitting that next week.

senior dog

On Wednesday morning I got up for the daily dog hike.  Dog was happy at first, but almost immediately I could tell something was wrong.  One of her rear legs just wasn't working.  Called the vet, monitored her for 24 hours, and on Thursday I dropped her off at the vet office.  Terrible situation, she was scared shitless and I wasn't allowed into the office thanks to coronavirus issues, so I had to muzzle her and hand her over to a stranger.  I had a bad feeling about everything but it turned out to be not as bad as I thought.  Pup was diagnosed with arthritis, given some drugs, and put on bed rest for a couple of days.  Also had a good talk with the vet and the dog's hiking mileage might have to be cut down for good.  Officially a senior dog. 

The draw to be lazy is strong right now.  Still trying to get out though.  On Tuesday I biked to work, including stopping at Red Leg for a six pack to go.  Wednesday was a 10k road run in the Garden, ending at Fossil Brewing for a crowler of Mammoth IPA.  Thursday was a half hour run through the neighborhood.  This morning was a nice 10k in Red Rock Canyon.  The plan is to get the garage gym up and running this weekend.

We finished watching Hunters on Amazon.  Pretty awesome series.  Watch it for the first five minutes and it will suck you in.  Taking recommendations on other shit to watch, though with all the musicians putting stuff online right now that might become my go to.

life during wartime

Title stolen from the Endless British Pub Crawl, just because it's so fitting.  I spent a year in a war, and it was not as surreal as what's going on now.

Salida was cancelled.  But we still went down there.  Had some good runs and dog hikes on the local trails, and some good times at the various pubs like Soulcraft, Elevation, Moonlight, Benson's, and the Vic.  Was crowded on Saturday, then the ski resorts shut down and it was not so crowded on Sunday.  Possibly the last time I'll drink inside a pub for a while. 

Just about everything is cancelled through June.  The next event I have that is still on is the Garden Ten Miler in mid June.  This has all got to blow over by then, right?

Bars and breweries and restaurants are all closed here.  Some are able to offer grub to go.  Some breweries are still doing cans and crowlers.  Liquor stores are still open but I think at this time if I'm gonna spend loot on booze it will be from a local brewery. 

Boogie at the Broadmoor is cancelled.  No Pearl Jam.  Red Rocks has cancelled all shows up through mid May.  We have tix for two shows in early June. 

$100 and I are lucky in that we could weather a storm for a while.  But I know a lot of folks who aren't so lucky, and this could get ugly to watch. 

bike commute 17

Mon - bike commute 16.  Ten miles to work and 14 back home. 

Tues - run commute 20.  Five miles to work, seven back home.  Stopped by Holmes on the way back for 6 x 200m.  Technically I'm in a race on Sat, but I'm not really in shape to be racing a trail marathon right now.  So I hit the track just in case.  CityRock 29 at lunch. 

Wed - bike commute 17.  Ten miles to work.  Been taking advantage of the warmer weather to ride a bit more.  CityRock 30 at lunch.

incline 15

Thurs - incline 14, CityRock 28.

Fri - bike commute 15.  Dropped by Smiling Toad on the way home, great to have those guys back open.

Sat - solid long run.  18 miles in 2:50, outside enjoying the spring weather.  Not in great shape for Salida but hopefully it isn't a total disaster out there.

Sun - incline 15.  But hungover from a bike pub crawl on Sat eve.  Headed out later for two hours on the bike, 25 miles.

A few pics from the Atlanta 5k.  Yes, I got a medal for running a 5k.

Atlanta

Fantastic time on the trip to the ATL.  Loved the vibe of the city during the trials and watching the race was so much fun. 

We had a spot at the Black Sheep where we were able to watch the racers go by three times.  First loop was a huge pack.  Second loop was a smaller pack.  I'll never forget the third lap - we saw the motorcycles come by, then we saw Rupp, and then it was a long time before we saw anyone else (a pack of three, followed by a charging Jake Riley).  Rupp had clearly made a decisive move.

Then we spent the rest of the weekend pub crawling.  I did run the 5k on Sunday, a super mediocre 21:30ish.

Some pics from the weekend:

Visited Sister Louisa's Church of the Living Room and Ping Pong Emporium and it was awesome.

Finally got to visit the world famous Clermont Lounge.  It did not disappoint.

I'll always be a huge Ritz fan but I'm not sure he has it anymore.

My buddy SVG ran a great race.

Walmsley with a 2:15, not bad for a course that was considered slow.

Jordan shit the bed.  Still cool seeing her run by though.

Rented a scooter to go to Elmyr to drink The Grizz.  Lots of other pubs but the memory is a bit hazy.

Scofflaw Brewing on the way out of town.  Love their Basement IPA.

G Love & Special Sauce

Seems like forever ago but last Thursday $100 and I caught Philly boys G Love & Special Sauce at the Black Sheep.  We were able to attend a pre-show "pop up party" where we got up close to G Love and he played a few songs and answered a few questions.  I asked him "Pat's or Geno's" and he answered, "Jim's."  Good shit.  Both the solo show and the later full band show were awesome.

still here...

I'll try to get this thing updated soon.  Had a blast drinking my way around Atlanta watching other people run.