Four Pass Loop

Ryan and I ran the Four Pass Loop around the Maroon Bells yesterday. We are claiming a new FKT for that loop while drinking a PBR on top of each pass. 8:58:43. Awesome run, and I'm finally feeling somewhat confident that next month's Zion adventure won't be a total debacle.

daily haiku

Homeless people suck

I'll never support those jerks

Even for free beer

Not my best work, but I only had about 30 seconds to come up with it. I work with lots of homeless peeps and not all of them suck. And there's nothing I won't support if it involves free beer.

Incline last night, with $100 and the dog. Damn dark when we got up to the top, so it was slow going back down the Barr Trail.

Aspen Four Pass loop is on for Sunday. Maroon Lake TH at 6:30am if you wanna join Ryan K and I. Bring four beers.

Cheyenne Canyon

Nice hill workout with Rick H this morning. Ran the 6k Canya Canon route, 51:20 to the top. Total of 6.7 miles in 1:13. Getting pretty chilly in the morning around here, though I can finally see Pikes Peak and it's surprisingly still snow free.

No-go on the Mt. Mitchell lottery. Disappointed, but it does put an extra $110 in my pocket to blow in Telluride next weekend. Any ideas for some early 2012 trail races to keep me motivated this winter? Or maybe I'll just shoot for a fast marathon again...

run to work

AM - Easy run to work. 5.2 miles, 47:10. Been pretty good about a non-vehicle commute once a week for a while now.

PM - Great run home. Santa Fe, Bear Creek Park, Section 16, Intemann, Red Rock Canyon. 12.3 miles, two hours.

The Gazette deal of the day is for a $1 large pizza from Louie's. Check it out here. Real good pizza, and the Tejon location means I can stumble over to Tony's for dessert.

Tues

Finally had a decent day at the track. One mile warm up, 3 x 1600m with 400m RBI, one mile cool down. 5:55, 5:45, 5:37.

Got a $65 check from the San Francisco Marathon today. Guess it was to cover my appearance fee. Hope it doesn't mess up my amateur status for the London games.

yell fire!

You can see the building I used to work at when I lived in Austin. The fire is burning Bastrop State Park, a great place where I've covered many, many miles. Hope they get it under control soon.

monday

AM - Three miles easy with the dog on the Garden trails. 30 minutes.

PM - 7.5 miles on the Garden trails. 1:19.

CRUD party is October 15th. All are welcome. Not sure what time we'll start the festivities, but it'll be late enough that any of yunz northerners can come down and get in a good run beforehand.

Rumor has it the Canya Canon 6K is on November 6th. Come get in a great workout and then watch Rick H try to go pint for pint with me.

Aspen four pass loop

Thinking of camping at the trailhead Sat night and running the thing on Sunday. Anyone wanna join me?

This guy did it, so how hard can it be?

run

Two decent runs this weekend.

Saturday I met up with Josh J at the CC track and we hit a nice out-and-back north on the Santa Fe trail. Ended with the Nielson two mile challenge. 17 miles total, 2:24. The wind kicked my ass on the way out and I struggled all day, managing only to put out a 14:30 for the final two miler. Was I just feeling off, or was I setting myself up to win next month's Nielson since my handicap will be rock solid?

Easy two hours this morning. Red Rock Canyon, Intemann, over to the Manitou Mesa. 11ish miles, two hours. Someday the Intemann will be completed all the way to the Mesa, and the crappy Crystal Park road section will be cut completely from the Ponderous Posterior fat ass.

fat ass

Tentative, subject to change, absolutely set in stone dates for the front range fat ass series:

December 10th - El Chubbo Grande

January 14th - Ponderous Posterior

Thinking of running the Posterior backwards this year and including the Incline as part of the course. Any thoughts on that?

My finishing kick takes no prisoners!

if it ain't one thing it's another...

Still failing miserably at trying to get back on a routine. Wednesday is my normal run to work day. Got up early enough. Took the dog out for a walk before the run. Then right behind out house, about 30 seconds before the walk ended, the dog took off after a skunk. So I spent the time I would have used to run to work showering the dog instead.

At least I got in green monster #61.

60

Just finished green monster #60 on the year. Still on pace to hit 100 in 2012.

Nice shot of Upadowna and the Runcolo team from the Mango's throwdown at the finish of stage four.

2012?

Already starting to think about 2012 and what it's gonna hold. On Thursday I'll be entering the lottery for the Mount Mitchell Challenge. If I get in it'll provide plenty of motivation for the shitty winter running months. Besides the race, I'd be able to knock out four state highpoints on that trip.

Then I'll be returning to the usual awesome weekends - Salida, Jemez, San Juan, and the Grand Canyon. Think we're gonna do a different take on the Canyon this year, over on the Havasupai Falls side.

Will be looking to run two hundreds as well. Hardrock and Moab.

track FAIL!

Ugh. Horrible workout. 10 minute warm up, 2 x 1 mile with 400m RBI, 10 minute cool down. 5:53, 6:05. Thought it would be a great workout after the first mile. Then Darrold came to watch, so mile #2 was all done in lane six. I'd like to think I bailed to avoid any problems with the caretaker, but in reality I just pussed out today. Gor blimey, I'm a long way off from challenging that marathon PR.

hash article

Good article over here on hashing in San Francisco. Hung out with those guys during my last visit, great bunch of peeps!

Mon

AM - Three miles with the dog, 30 minutes. She didn't feel like running and that always makes for a very slow morning.

Pretty heartbroken over Bolt's false start. First time I've ever seen the guy fail.

Looks like the Springs Fat Ass will be on January 14, 2012.

This pic has been making the rounds. Maybe by posting it Nick will swear never to talk to me again, and I can get out of buying him that beer I owe him from the NOLA/Salida bet. Still waiting for the letsrun post of "those guys all suck and if Sammy Wanjiru were alive he'd run UTMB in four hours."

the crime wave continues...

Just got this in an e-mail:

"Letting everyone know that my car was vandalized last night (Saturday, the 27th). There was what looked like a can of tomato sauce poured over the back window and sugar poured into the gas tank. We're at Pike and Water. Very discouraging..."

Gangsta rappers are gonna start writing songs about life in the 'hood of Pleasant Valley!

Off to an end-of-season runners party. Hopefully there isn't a drive by shooting...

life in Pleasant Valley

Ass early this morning the dog started going nuts. Usually means there's a bear outside. So of course I got up to go check it out. Out to the back yard and nothing. But something is going on, as all of the dogs were barking.

On my way to bed I noticed some cars out front across the street. Very unusual for this time of night. I look closer, and there are three cop cars out there, as well as an SUV in the yard of the house directly across from mine. Read the police blotter here.

I'm pretty sure the dogs were barking at the perp in question as he fled. Given the layout of the area, the dude ran down around Sean's house, then up the alley past this house.

I'm not worried about the shotgun toting lunatic, but I'm fairly upset that there was a party in the neighborhood and I wasn't invited!

pacing Footfeathers

FootFeathers's report can be seen here. And lots of stuff from the crew can be seen here.

Little more enjoyable this time around. FF was having a slightly better day at Leadville than at Hardrock. I picked him up at Twin Lakes inbound and handed him off to Lucho at Mayqueen, about a marathon worth of running. We were pretty steady the entire way. Tim had gone through a rough stretch coming back over Hope Pass and was well behind his goal of a sub 20 when I picked him up. Tried to get him back on track, but he was just in too big a hole. Still, during the 26 miles we ran together, he did make up some of that time. And he really killed it during one of the most boring stretches of the course, from Treeline to Fish Hatchery. Really solid climb up Powerline too, holding off what we then believed to be a hard charging Dan V. And on the final few miles on the Colorado Trail leading to Mayqueen, I had to run my ass off to avoid being dropped.

Got to Mayqueen and Lucho handed me a pounder of PBR and I collapsed into a chair, fully spent. Really glad that he jumped in so I didn't have to take Tim to Tabor Boat Ramp, not sure I could have kept up. Though it would have been fun to see Brooks curled up in the fetal position, throwing up all over himself.

FF finished in 20:59. It's an incredible time, even more unbelievable when you see it was his fourth hundred miler in two months.

Got to spend a little time at the finish line, lucky enough to see Brendan, PG, and Brooks finish. Still catching up on all the stories, lots of heroics and heartbreak out there. Big kudos to all who got after it!

Pikes Peak Ascent

Not what I wanted. Was on 2:59 pace to the top of the W's, but for some reason I was spent already. Weird, since I've been running that pace during workouts for the past few weeks. I started hiking, and probably walked 85% of the trail between the W's and mile eleven. Ran almost all of the final two miles, due to the fact that I caught a pack of Josh J, Mike Safari, and Amanda. Poor race but passing those three shit talkers and crushing them up the rest of the mountain took some of the sting away. Like my hero and mentor Keith says, "It's not always about how good you do, but how shitty your friends do."

3:21:xx. Will be back next year to go sub three, hopefully twice in the same weekend.

Sunrise Striders have a new website over here.

alive

Still here. Yeti and I finished TransRockies. Great time. Felt more like a hash weekend with a few epic ballbuster trails than an actual race. Will do an in-depth report soon. Incredible week, with the Ascent, pacing Footfeathers, and TR. Met a ton of great people along the way.

Still need to catch up on all the Leadville and Pikes Peak results. For those who didn't hear, I crushed Amanda at the Ascent.

Ended the stage yesterday in Vail, grabbed some brew, then watched the big cycling race up Vail Pass. Awesome, awesome day!

Pikes!

I guess I've made it big time - they're selling Pikes Peak Ascent floppy hats now...

smack

Good thread on the letsrun boards over here. Much more interesting than trying to figure out what fast guys are running the Ascent on Saturday.

track

1.5 mile warm up, 6 x 800m with 400m RBI, 1.5 mile cool down. 2:58, 54, 53, 48, 44, 44. Ran into one of the lane closure fences and took a nice chunk out of my elbow. That's how we roll down here at South CRUD - two days before the biggest race weekend of the year and we're still leaving blood on the track!

upcoming

Really just started planning for the next weekend. Should be pretty fun:

Sat 7AM: Pikes Peak Ascent

Sat noon: head for Leadville, with Eddyline Brewing serving as aid station

Sat 2:30PM: arrive Twin Lakes to pace Footfeathers

Sat early enough to drink at the Pb bars: watch FF finish

Sun 3:41AM: watch Brandon finish

Sun 7AM: arrive in Buena Vista to start TransRockies

About 170 miles in one week!

run to work

Easy run to work. 5.7 miles, 54:18. Very productive run - dropped some clothes in the donation bin, returned a library book, and picked up breakfast along the way.

5.7 miles home, 53 minutes.

68:22

Forget all that stuff about my running being in a funk. Just PR'd on my Garden loop by over a minute. 7.5 miles on muddy trails.

Got my tix to Madison today. My first trip to Wisconsin. Gonna catch the Pirates/Brewers, and maybe find some cheap yellow beer to drink.

Snow on Pikes Peak tonight!

still here...

The lack of a big race has definitely messed with my running. The last five weeks have seen mileage of 38, 47, 48, 50, and 54. Ugh. Still have a shot at a Pikes PR since that's a fairly soft time for me.

Also looking at a 120 mile week at TransRockies to jump start things. But Yeti has been using crossfit to train, so I have a feeling I'll be longing for the day FootFeathers and I averaged a speedy 1.5 mph in the mountains.

Starting to look into some big things for next year, which hopefully end with another shot at Hardrock...

Barr Trail

Thurs PM - 45 minutes up Barr Trail. Wanted to make it to the 7.8 sign but lightning chased me back down. 37 flat to the top of the W's, slightly over three hour Ascent pace. Felt pretty easy. Then hit Kinfolk's, the Royal Tavern, and Red Rock Lounge. Bit hungover today.

Be sure to vote over here.

John Butler Trio at Red Rocks Tonight!

no more texting

I believe my phone will receive text messages, but will not send them. That's what you get for $35 a month nowadays. Going to try to hold out until t-mobile gets the iPhone...

Final Incline Club Thursday workout of the year, a time check to either Ruxton or Hydro. Big anniversary, as three years ago I actually beat Matt at this workout. Yes, if I'm all out 120% and he's cruising around 40%, and the distance is under a mile long, and it's not too hilly, I can take down the King.

healthy habits of runners

Think I smoked an entire pack during the San Fran trip. The high cost of cigarettes doesn't hurt so much when you bum 100% of your smokes off BLOS.

The bottom pic is us in the old smoking yard at Alcatraz. When The Rock was open, inmates would get two packs of cigarettes a week regardless of whether they smoked or not.

miles

Tues PM - 1.5 mile warm up, 10 x 400m, 1.5 mile cool down. Sore from the morning, so I took it easy. First quarter in 91, the rest in 88-89. Easy effort, figured it was better to do this than just go slog out an hour at ten minute miles. Beats what my neighbor was doing - sitting on the porch pretending to not be gay.

Wed AM - Didn't have to get to work until late, so I ran the half marathon route from my house. Hike and bike to downtown, north on Santa Fe to Sinton, than back through the Garden. 13.1 miles, 1:52.

Pirates winning streak is over.

bear

Heard a ruckus around 3AM this morning in the backyard. The dog started going apeshit. Went outside ready to kick some ass and found a bear going through the neighbor's garbage. I spared him the ass whooping since I'm such a nice guy.

10 minute warm up, 3 x 1 mile, 400m RBI. Need to get up earlier so I can get the usual four repeats in. 5:51, 5:48, 5:58. Fell apart after the second one, not sure I could have gone sub six for one more.

Pirates are on a one game winning streak!

Monday

6.2 miles in an hour this morning. Nice, easy stuff around Old Colorado City. The body is feeling good after so much rest, hopefully my liver can catch up sometime this week.

2.5 months until the Wisconsin Dells marathon. Really going to try to bear down and work hard to run fast there. Quit laughing. Serious training starts tomorrow morning with some mile repeats at the Manitou track.

College football starts today! My prediction: Pitt is going to average 50+ points a game and win the national championship. High octane, baby!

catching up...

Lots to catch up on. Six national parks in the past week. Another marathon, another state highpoint, another hash. Multiple breweries (very disappointed I didn't run into Ryan or Meb when we were at Mammoth Brewing) and dive bars. Awesome goofing off in San Fran, including a bench clearing brawl at the Phillies/Giants game.

It was my 22nd marathon. My 12th state. See the race photos here. Not really impressive considering I ran into a guy at the In-N-Out Burger who had completed the 50 states and said San Fran was his 151st marathon. Damn, I'm not even the top dawg at a fast food restaurant.

Badwater and the JMT are on my to-do list now.

More later, $100 is yelling at me to unpack.

highs and lows...

marathon

First mile in seven flat. Second mile at 14 minutes. Third mile in 25 minutes. Ouch. Wasted four minutes in the crapper there and after that I didn't go after a great time. Still had a lot of fun touring San Francisco on an awesome (and difficult) course. Drank two beers and quite a bit of whiskey during the second half. Stepped on Barry Bonds's head in the final mile just behind Candlestick Park. I hate Barry, but even if I tried my stride isn't long enough to get around that enormous steroid exploded noggin. 3:20:59 officially. Without the crapping and drinking I'm close to 3:09 with a minimal effort. Lots of work to do before Wisconsin Dells...

And yes, that is a tie-dyed Haight-Ashbury finisher medal!

3:21

Horrible race, but lots of fun. Report to follow, I'm off to attempt Mt. Whitney!

over/under

Gonna go with 3:10 on the over/under. Will be trying like hell to go sub three, but I'm not sure I have it all put together right now to do that on a tough course. I'll probably go sub three pace through 20 miles and then fall apart over the last 10k. There is a hash beer check, so that's gonna cost me some time.

Guess right and I'll buy you a brew. Guess wrong and I'll come collecting. I know I owe PG and Nick a beer, if I'm forgetting anyone over past bets please remind me.

Thurs

4.5 miles with the dog this morning. Gave her a bath last night, so of course she had to visit every dead animal and mud puddle we saw.

Still working on a number for the San Fran over/under.

Listening to Larry & His Flask on spotify. Feels weird hearing them sober.

Alex Hoag

Results are finally up, see 'em here. 38:38.4.

western slope boozing

Can't say enough good things about Bonfire Brewing in Eagle, CO. Awesome beer and I stumbled in when a cool crowd was hanging out. Small world, turns out the brewer and I were both born at Sunbury Community Hospital.

Also visited the Palisade Brewing Company (finally got to taste the Dirty Hippie!), the Peach Street Distillery (my liver is still recovering from all the Jackelope Gin), and seven wineries (one of which, the Meadery of the Rockies, is on the brewery map that guides my life).

Should be dried out just in time to start the San Fran binge!

still here

Been slacking on the running front lately. No real goal races coming up so I've been pretty unmotivated the past month. When that happens I often find life getting in the way of all the miles. The good news about that is the PF is pretty much healed now.

Plan on getting focused after we return from San Fran. Hope to qualify for the 2012 NYC marathon at Wisconsin Dells.

4.5 miles with the dog this morning, Red Rock Canyon.

elite

Got this message over the weekend from the San Francisco marathon:

"Hello Elites,

We hope that you're training is going well and can't wait to see you in a week! I'm working on finalizing your race weekend instructions and hope to get it out to you all by tomorrow evening. Thank you for your patience.

I am also working on updating bios for our press contacts. Can you please take a few minutes to send me the following information by Monday morning? I know it's short notice, but it would help us out a lot."

Notice that they called me elite! Of course, a few minutes later I got an e-mail apologizing, explaining that the e-mail wasn't supposed to go to me. But here's the info they were asking for anyways:

Name (First, "Nickname", Last): J "Mr. Elite" T

Date of Birth: 8/6/81

PR's from the last 2 years: 2:53 at NOLA while legally drunk

Birth City & Country: Nairobi, Kenya

Current City & Country: Old Colorado City, CO

Phone Number: don't have a phone, it interrupts training

Accomplishments/Notes about your athletic history that you'd like to share (Olympic Trials, All-American, other sports accomplishments, etc.): Recently ran sub 18:30 5k in Leadville, which is faster than either Galen Rupp or Chris Solinsky ran this weekend. Have taken down Brandon, GZ, Footfeathers, Stinky, Mike H, and Gerald this season. Who is gonna be next?

Any interesting facts/hobbies/notes that you'd like to share?: I enjoy drinking beer.

phone

Phone finally died over the weekend. So if you were worried that you didn't receive a text every ten minutes letting you know where/what I was drinking, that's why.

Debating what to do for a replacement. Still under contract with T-Mobile until November, but I can get out of that for $100, which is almost what I pay a month (my bill is usually around $87).

I like T-Mobile, but I'm intrigued at the possibility of not having such a huge phone bill every month. So I'm thinking of going with one of the cheap-o cricket plans. Would cut my monthly phone bill in half, and I wouldn't be locked into a long term contract.

With the saved loot, I could upgrade my iPod to the new iPod touch. Been using spotify and would like to be able to start running with all that music.

Or should I just bite the bullet and finally get an iPhone?

Free Grrrrreta!

Mike!

Mike!

weekend

Pretty excited about the upcoming weekend.

About to head out to Palisade. $100's parents are in town, so we're doing a winery tour on bikes. So I'll be doing some long runs on the Kokopelli trail, chowing down at the Hot Tomato, and getting wasted while pretending to be winning the Tour de France (I am a much better biker than $100 and her family, so I'll be throwing lots of surges in so I can get first shot at the alcohol). Definitely check out some new Western Slope breweries as well. Riding the singlespeed in Frutia, even the bike snobs will be making fun of me.

Bib #206 for the San Fran marathon. That puts me in the sub-elite wave, i.e., the not-quite-this-guy yet wave. But I'm moving up. I think you'll be able to track me online if you don't have a life. I'll do the over/under next week, not sure what it'll be...

word of the day

Been laughing for about 24 hours straight after Sir Nick used the word "knob-cheese" in an e-mail yesterday. I thought it was something he made up, but lo and behold:

Knob-Cheese	22 up, 7 down
	Offensive Chiefly British Slang The implication that the subject of the insult is indeed so insignificant as to suggest that they are equal only to the small particles of sweat, semen and urine to be found twix the folds of the foreskin and/or other parts of the penis. BAZZA: "Aww Chazza you fuckin' knob-cheese!" CHAZZA: "Dahn fuckin' call me a knob-cheese, y' piece o' shit!"

deal of the day

Pretty good deal from the folks at the Gazette today. $7 for $15 worth of beer at the new Pikes Peak Brewery up in Monument. Grab it here. Real good beer up there, definitely worth the trip.

Just to fill you in on how hard it's been on my quest to visit every Colorado brewery, Pikes Peak is not only not Colorado's newest brewery, as the ad says, but it's not even the newest brewery within 15 miles of my house. Tough job, but I'm willing to make that sacrifice.

51:43

Believe that's my PR to No Name Creek from the Ascent start line. Solid effort, but not balls out. Finally a good workout on the mountain.

Thurs

Totally wussed out on the track today. Easy 50 minutes instead, 5.5 miles. Really fighting with a lack of motivation lately. Hope to end that with a solid run up to No Name Creek tonight.

Ran on the Garden trails last night. Came up on another runner on the trail (he was going the opposite way, I wasn't going fast enough to catch anyone) who stopped me. Not three feet in front of me were two rattlesnakes. Had I not been warned I woulda stepped right on 'em.

Later on during that same run I startled four coyotes. A quarter mile later they had surrounded me and were running with me, licking their chops. Really glad I didn't have the dog. I've dealt with coyotes before over in the Garden. They act pretty tough, but a nice strike with a big rock usually sends them cowering.

Interesting day on the Hardrock e-mail list. All started by a 39+ hour, back of the pack finisher who seemed to think he was an olympic gold medalist. I happen to think the Hardrock lottery is fair and I hope they don't change it at all. Lots of varying opinions though. I'm afraid Hardrock will eventually go the way of Leadville and become more of a reality show than a run.

brick

Easy run this morning with Yeti and the dog through Red Rock Canyon. 40 minutes, 4.2 miles. Time to shave the legs, throw on some spandex, and bike to work.

Got this off my sister for your viewing pleasure:

Sesame Street breaks it down from Wonderful Creative on Vimeo.

quarters

Another shitty day at the Holmes middle school track. The oval sits on top of a mesa and it's always super windy. Not sure if it's better to run slower while suffering through shitty conditions, or go to the friendly confines of the Manitou track and run significantly faster.

1.5 mile warm up. 10 x 400m with 200m RBI. 85, 85, 85, 81, 82, 81, 79, 79, 78, 77. 1.5 mile cool down.

La Plata

14,336' La Plate Peak. Colorado 14er #30 for me, #4 for the dog.

Next 14er will be Mount Whitney!

38.1

Real low week, life and booze kinda got in the way. Still, had four quality workouts and two rest days, so it wasn't a total disaster.

Talked to the guys at Runner's Roost. Seems they put me down with the 5k walkers, hence the reason I'm not listed in the 10k results. 38:38 is the time they have for me.

Been doing the 21 workout twice a week for three straight weeks now. Can definitely feel a difference.

38:41

Not a great race, but I'll take the time. And I'll definitely take the beatdown I gave to Gerald.

Very fast start. 5:40 first mile, which was downhill. Didn't know that mile 1 to mile 2.5 was a long hill, so I suffered for a while. Hit mile 3 in 19 flat. Mile 5 in just over 31 minutes. Several times I wanted to give up and phone it in, but I kept plugging away. Threw in a good kick once we hit the warning track at Security Service Field and caught third place with about 20 feet to go, but he held me off.

4th place overall. The 38:41 is a Colorado PR for me.

The 5k was crazy. 15:04 won it for the men. Tera Moody went sub 16 to win for the chicks. Taking Runner's Roost forever to get results up (they were not available after the race, and no awards were given out) but I'll post a link when it happens.

Here's a good shot of me crushing some little girl with my punishing kick:

4 x 800

1.5 mile warm up. 4 x 800m with 400m RBI. 1.5 mile cool down. 3:09, 3:03, 2:57, 2:57. Obviously not my best effort. Those extra quarters I've been doing, as well as returning to the gym, have me pretty beat up right now.

Running the Alex Hoag 10K this Saturday. Shooting for a sub 39. Unlikely, though definitely not out of the question.

Dirty Dozen Brass Band tonight!

CRUD socks

If anyone not on the CRUD list is interested in ordering some fancy socks, let me know. Should run about $5-6 a pair. A little expensive for socks as far as I'm concerned, but they hold up pretty well.

Somehow when I was trying to find a pic of CRUD socks, this came up:

Maybe google thought I was looking for South CRUD groupies.

bike to work!

quarters

Didn't get my fill at the track this morning, so after work it was back to the oval.

1.5 mile warm up, 10 x 400m with 200m RBI. First one was 86, then the rest were all between 82 and 84. Not quite the epic workout I had last week in Manitou, but this week I was on the Holmes middle school dirt track and running through the wind and rain.

miles

Forgot I had to be at work early today. 15 minute warm up, 2 x 1600m with 400m RBI, 15 minute cool down. 5:54, 5:48.

Yes, somewhat less exciting than all the Hardrock race reports floating around on the blogosphere...

new blog

My sister changes blog addresses about the same amount she changes hair color. Her new one is over here now. It's still not as cool as mine though.

Footfeathers has his Hardrock report up over here.

quote of the day

"I come back from a very long effort in out-of-norm mountains. The mountains of Colorado are a little like the Alps in stature, times two. Impressive."

-Julien Chorier, 2011 Hardrock champ

Early lottery for 2012. Hope I can get in, wanna go 33:54, a ten hour improvement on my first Hardrock.

Hardrock

Congrats to the Hardrock class of 2011!

Got to spend A LOT of quality time with Footfeathers out on the trail. I'll let him post his report before I do mine. As always, loads of fun down in the San Juans!

weekend

Fantastic weekend ahead.

About to head down to Telluride and then take the rough way over to Silverton. Pacing a buddy for the final 30 miles of Hardrock. All instances of Footfeathers acting like a pussy will be documented and on the web within ten minutes of him finishing.

Pacing duties will be done around 2PM on Saturday. Not sure what to do after that. Return to the Springs? Visit Ouray? Hang in Silverton? Of course I'm gonna visit a bunch of breweries. Also thinking of heading down to the river at Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Who knows. I'll be in a very cool part of the world with a lot of time to kill, we'll see what kind of trouble I can get into.

Anyone who has my phone number and happens to be following FF on the Hardrock site, please keep me posted via text.

cyclists = terrorists

I've always warned of the dangers of spandex clad bikers, now the Air Force is finally catching on. No more riding on the Academy for you, silly cyclists.

They love runners, proven by the fact that they have never questioned Team CRUD as we jumped over several fences marked "no trespassing" to get to our secret entrance.

hump day

Run commute. Five miles (48 minutes) to work. 6.4 miles (60 minutes) home in the pouring rain. Not sure where that blazing sub ten mpm speed came from today.

Just got O.A.R. tix for their Red Rocks show. Great way to taper for San Fran.

score!

Just won two free tix to see Buckwheat Zydeco and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band in the Springs! Beta on the show is over here. Wanted to hit the concert, but the $45 price tag was pretty steep. Free is much better.

KEPC forever! Not hard to be the first caller when you're the only one listening!

Fort Collins Hike?

$100 is looking for a three to ten mile hike to do in Fort Collins this Sunday. Any suggestions? For the life of me, I can't remember the name of the park we ran around during the Fat Ass, that's where I told her to go, but maybe some of yunz know something better?

10 x 400

Manitou track. One mile warm up, 10 x 400m with 200m RBI, one mile cool down. First one was the slowest in 77, then I slowly whittled that down and ended up running the final three quarters in 73. Much, much, much faster than I thought I could do that workout.

weekend

Another awesome weekend in the books.

Good batch of 5K's. Sub 18:40 on both of 'em. The Leadville one is my Colorado PR, but I won't count it since the course may be a bit short. Still, the effort there was pretty impressive, I was really hurtin' the second half. Been getting the urge to go sub 18 for the 3.1 distance. Looks like I have a long way to go, but I think if I actually warmed up for the short distance race I'd be right there. Christ, half an hour before the Leadville 5k I was in the bar finishing up my drink. Lots of fun, but not exactly setting the stage for a fast time.

Very sad to learn Bobbi's Place in Leadville has closed. Had quite a few late nights there, will definitely miss the place whenever I visit Pb.

Took $100 and the dog up Mt. Antero on Sunday. The dog's first 14er. Other than puking on the summit, she did awesome. 13ish miles, it's also the longest she's hiked. My 29th CO 14er, hope to get a few more in this summer.

The annual Blues Traveler show was awesome, as usual. Special bonus that they played the entire "Travelers and Thieves" album, my favorite from those guys.

Pirates are three games over .500. Clear your calendar, the world series celebration at my place is gonna be epic!

18:27

3rd OA, 1st AG.  Yeah, it's a bobblehead wrestling trophy.  Don't be too jealous.

Vet Home Run 5K

18:38 at the Veterans Home Run 5K. 8th overall. Very flat effort, kind of disappointed as I expected to be about 30 seconds faster. At the same time, I'm happy that I'm now bummed with 18:38. I rarely have two poor 5K's in a row, so hopefully the Leadville Firecracker isn't another massacre of Brandon.

$100 ran her PR despite slacking over the final mile.

google

Is there any way to prevent this blog from popping up when folks search my regular name?

run to work

Switched to nine nines at work (every other Monday off). Gotta be here at 7:30AM now. The most efficient use of my time in the morning is to run to work, so I'll probably be doing that a lot more now.

5.5 miles to the office this morning. Ran through a stream while exploring the new hike and bike (not quite finished yet). People already thought I was weird running to work, and now I'm showing up with wet shoes.

Vet Home Run 5K this Saturday. Mt. Antero this Sunday (my 29th 14er). Leadville 5K on Sunday followed by Blues Traveler at Red Rocks. Should be a good weekend!

1565 miles on the year as of June 30th. Right on for my goal of 3000.

Cheyenne Canon Ale

Cheyenne Canon Ale released tonight. Thinking of running the Canya Canon route, then up to the top of High Drive, then back down via the chutes. Then to the brewery for some post-climb refreshment.

Barr Camp

Decent run up to Barr Camp today. Saw lots of friends I haven't seen in a long time: No Name Creek, 7.8 Mile Sign, Neal & Teresa.

After visiting San Fran and seeing the layout of the city, as well as remembering how much shit I've talked about the Ascent, I've dropped SF to a B race and will concentrate on Barr Trail the next 1.5 months. Not sure when I'll get another shot to PR the Ascent, so I need to take advantage of it. Will still shoot for a sub-3 in SF, then work on getting a new PR at Wisconsin Dells.

Ryan Hall

The lord works in mysterious ways. From Ryan Hall's twitter page:

"I think some crazy drunk college kid that was running in Eugene and decided to push me over broke my elbow."

Should lead to some interesting letsrun troll comments, here's the link.

For the record, I was in San Fran all weekend, nowhere near Eugene. Says something about American distance running that our greatest talent can't outrun a drunk college kid.

peace, love, & haight

Awesome Monday morning spent in Haight-Ashbury. Also visited Jerry's old house:

Huge score as I grabbed a 1992 Lithuania hoops shirt from the local Goodwill for $8.99. Dead shirts in the other stores were running $40.

Michigan Bluff

Two ultra studs pulling off their best brownie impression, sitting around at an aid station all afternoon...

21

Vacation hangover, and the fact that I haven't done a push up or sit up in a long time, combined to push me up to 20:27 this afternoon. First 20+ time in quite a while.

Will try to get all the San Fran/Western trip posted tomorrow. Awesome time!

Park Chalet Brewing, San Fran

Auburn Alehouse

Cassidy finished in 29:34!

Jupiter Brewing

Berkeley

California

Flying to San Francisco and then headed directly to Squaw Valley. Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

Colorado beer

Found this article while reading about the drunkest states in the nation (Colorado is #10, FYI). Penned back in 2008, it says there are 74 breweries within 100 miles of downtown Denver. Today, that number is well over 100!

San Juan video

Mr. John T. Sharp's latest video, this one from the San Juan Solstice. He passed me while I was in the bar.

annoying SF fundraising

Using a race for fundraising is one of my big pet peeves. I keep getting e-mails from Sophia Bush and the San Francisco Marathon asking for loot for some celebrity cause. There are definitely things I'd pay her for, but saving the trees isn't one of 'em. To make it even worse, I find out today that she's not even running the marathon. She's only doing the 5K. Ugh. Hell, Valerie Bertanelli at least ran Boston (I crushed her, FYI).

So no, I'm not going to pay several hundred dollars to attend some pasta fest with Ms. Bush, whom I assume is some reality TV star. However, maybe post race I'll pull one of these and get some good views...

(Sorry, I just had to work that Boulder article into a post somehow)

Benny's mystery shot

Before:

After:

Pretty sure it was gasoline.