beer #25

Dropped by Hops and Pie after our visit to Salvagetti.  Beer and pizza are two of my favorite things in the world, and I strongly suggest you check out that place if you're in the neighborhood.  So many beers to try, but I went with the Hop House from Brewery Ommegang from Cooperstown, NY.

Eight miles at the Winter Series yesterday.  I was hoping to break an hour, and I did (59:55), but I really tanked after four miles.  Which is better than two weeks ago when I tanked after 1.5 miles.  Slowly getting my ass back into shape, luckily I have until August to get there.  Some pics from the race, courtesy of Pikes Peak Sports:

:

no willpower whatsoever

beer #24

Incline #6 with the dog tonight.  Perfect weather for January.  Round trip took us 90 minutes.

Winter Series II tomorrow, then hoping to get up to Denver for some goofing off.  Carpenter Peak in Rox SP, Salvagetti Bikes, and a new brewery to cross off the list.  I'm in the market for a steel 29er hardtail.  I'm heavily leaning towards the Salsa El Mariachi but I'll listen up if anyone has other recommendations.  Probably continue to crush the Klein through the winter then pick up the new wheeles in the Spring.  The Klein has been an awesome bike since I bought her in 2005 but I'm not sure she could survive through the Pb100.  I bought that bike right when I got back from my tour in Iraq - when most of my Army buddies were buying Harley Davidsons.

Beer number 24 was the All American Red Ale from Centennial Beer Company.  Looks like it's an offshoot of Crazy Mountain Brewing?

beer #23

AM - Nada.  Had to be to work early, and the crappy weather forced me to take the bus, so there was no way I was getting up at 4AM to run in single digit temps and snow.

Lunch - Good hour over at the Y throwing around some weights.

PM - Amanda and I talked shit throughout the day.  She I knew there was no way I'd run in 9F weather.  I knew there was no way she'd run her dog off leash.  Eventually we threw down so much smack neither of us could back out.  Four miles with the dogs in Ute Valley Park.  Dogs had a hoot, I just tried to avoid frostbite.

Post run I stole one of Marc's beers, the Anvil ESB from AleSmith Brewing Company.  Good stuff.  Impressed me much more than the San Diego State hoops team did against Air Force the other week.

Speaking of San Diego...

beer #22

AM - Easy four miles with the dog on the roads around Pleasant Valley.

Lunch - Had to make a trip over to Manitou Brewing to pick up a shirt.  They hope to be open by Manitou Mardi Gras.  Friendly folks and the brewery is coming along nicely.

PM - Easy hour on the bike.  Garden roads and Manitou.  Finished the ride two hours ago and my fingers and toes are still painfully cold.  I won't run if it's below 20F, and from now on I won't bike if it's below 40F.  But with these 13 miles I moved into 46,657th place on the Strava Prove It January bike challenge!

Marc dropped off this beer from Squatters last night, the Hop Rising Double IPA.  $100 and I actually went to this brewery on our way home from The Bear a few years ago.  Utah has surprisingly good beers, though nowhere near the level Colorado has.

beer #21

AM - Rolled over in bed and checked the iPhone weather.  17 degrees, well below my private cutoff of 20F.  I went back to sleep for an extra hour.  It was marvelous!

PM - Good hour on the Garden roads.  7 miles.

I've been trying my best to avoid NFL football, but the Richard Sherman thing is everywhere.  Has anyone stated what's obviously wrong with the situation?  Dude is a really scary black man.  Nobody wants to see that.  Usually some reporter will jump on the race card in a situation like this, but I haven't seen it yet.  People are even ripping on Stanford for giving the guy a diploma.  If you can figure out how to graduate from Stanford without going to class, you definitely have my respect.  And not that I follow Stanford sports, but to me this whole Sherman event is a lot less weird than when Ryan Hall said he was going to use the bible to train for the marathon.

Speaking of sports, Clemson had something to prove, and an NCAA tourney resume to improve, against Pitt tonight.  Last I checked, Pitt was up by 432 points.

Thinking of riding the Falcon trail again this Sunday (depending on if/how much snow we get on Thursday) from Pikes Peak Brewing.  Probably just shy of 30ish miles.  Let me know if anyone is interested in joining me.

I picked up this bottle from Pikes Peak Brewing when I was up there yesterday.  I say it's wine, but they say it's beer, so I'll count it as #21 on the year.

beer #20

AM - Ten miles on the Garden roads followed by a two mile hike with the dog in Stratton Open Space.

PM - Falcon trail with Jeremy.  Awesome ride, I'll be hitting that loop in the future.

Leadville videos are coming out.  Or at least they're finally finding their way across my facebook feed.





And this one on Leadman.

After the ride Jeremy and I headed up to Pikes Peak Brewing.  They had a new (to me) Descent Pale Ale on tap.  Good stuff, as usual for that brewery.

beer #19

AM - Incline Club.  Signed in and went up the Incline for the fifth time this year.

PM - Tried to head out for a bike ride.  Things were going well but then I got a flat tire.  Of course I hadn't brought along anything to fix a flat.  1.5 mile hike home.  Going to re-tape my front rim tomorrow.  Salvaged the beautiful day by taking the dog out for a nice 2.5 mile hike in Bear Creek Park.

Beer for the day was the Legendary Red Ale from Golden City Brewing, one of my favorite breweries in Colorado.

beer #18

Got in almost four hours (ten miles) of goofing off at the Fat Ass yesterday.  Including Incline #4 and Red Mountain #3 on the year.  Great to so many folks out there enjoying the trails.

Caught Tony Furtado in Old Colorado City on Friday night.  Great show.

Beer #18 post Fat Ass.  Shipwrecked Double IPA from Mission Brewery in San Diego.  The beer is much better than their college hoops team.  Thanks to all who brought beer yesterday, looks like I won't have to touch my basement stash until February.

beer #17

Easy Friday night run on the Garden trails with the dog, marking the course for the Fat Ass.

Beer 17 was the Bridgeport IPA.

beer #16

Thursday AM - Red Rock Canyon with the dog.  4.9 miles in 54 minutes.

Thursday Lunch - Hard 30 minutes at CityRock.  I'm getting pretty close to finishing some V2 problems I've been working on.  Climbing shoe sponsorships should be rolling in any day now.

Thursday PM - Easy five miles on the Garden roads, 43 minutes.  A ten minute improvement from the five miles I ran in the morning, I must be getting into shape.

Kingpin Double Red Ale from Bridgeport.  Good stuff!

beer #15

Wed PM - Marc, the dog, and I hiked the Incline (#3 on the year for me) and did the Rocky Mountain section of the Fat Ass to make sure it was still marked.  It is, but folks will still get lost there.  If you get lost, you will hit A) the summit of Pikes (turn around and head back down Barr Trail); B) the railroad tracks of the Cog Railway (follow the tracks back down to the Cog station and pick up markings from there); or C) highway 24 (follow the road down to Manitou and pick up markings from there).  I threw some extra flagging up in this section, and we now have three colors out there: pink, green, and orange.

Awesome print for Hardrock this year:

This video almost makes me want to sign up for the Pittsburgh Marathon this year.  Pretty cool campaign those folks are doing to drum up interest in the race.

Beer number 15 was enjoyed post full moon Rocky Mountain hike.

beer #14

AM - 10K on the Garden roads, with a mediocre tempo effort during the middle 3.5 miles.

Lunch - Forgot a t-shirt so I thought the workout was off.  Luckily it was free t-shirt day at the YMCA!  40 minutes blasting the pecs in the gym.

PM - The dog and I marked some of the Fat Ass route up Red Mountain.  Second ascent of Red this year.

And a whopping eight miles on the bike to and from work.

Fat Ass course is looking good.  Will probably be a bit of ice, but not too bad for this time of year.  We had planned on using orange tape, and some of the course is already marked with that color, but ACE didn't have that color when I dropped by today.  So also be on the lookout for bright green tape.  Better yet, just make sure you know the course when you arrive on Saturday, it will be pretty minimally marked.

Pitt moved to 4-0 in the ACC after crushing Georgia Tech.  Finally ranked in the top 25.

Nutcracker Ale from Boulevard Brewing was on tap for today.

beer #13

Easy five miles this AM on the Garden roads, 50 minutes.  Windy as hell.

How do you know when you're dominating a rival?  When it's her birthday and she brings you gifts!

You can't see him, but Brandon is just out of this picture, shining my shoes.

12 Degree Brewing out of Louisville.  Amanda brought back a growler of the Hayride Saison.  Seems a lot like Trinity where they're more interested in describing their beers with awful poetic language than they are in making good beer.

beer #12

Incline #2 on the year this morning, continuing up to Rocky Mountain and following the Fat Ass course back to Barr Trail.  Barr was an icy mess at times.  Weather is looking good this week, including mid 50s on Saturday.

Air Force lost by seven to San Diego State.  The Falcons have come a long way since I saw them get demolished by Colorado a few weeks ago.  But they still don't have that killer instinct.  Even though the final score was close, I never felt AF was going to make any attempt to win the game.  I'm sorry if you're a SD State fan and believe your team is really #13 in the country.  They will be exposed come tourney time, they're not very good.

Stumpjumper IPA from Grand Lake Brewing on the far side of Rocky Mountain National Park.  Good stuff, I'm just hoping Specialized Bikes doesn't find this and sue me.

beer #11

Took advantage of the good weather today.  First up was the PPRR Winter Series 10K over at Cheyenne Mountain State Park.  Wanted to break an hour, ended up crossing the line in 61:10.  Damn beer stop!  But it was a decent effort considering the week I went through physically.  And I outkicked Brooks, so that's always awesome.  Brooks took this pic at the finish line:

After the race I headed south to ride around Lake Pueblo State Park.  Boom, state parks pass twice in a day!  66F at 2PM when I pulled into the parking lot.  Solid two hour ride on the singletrack there.  Of course then it was off to Bingo Burger.  Can't wait to get one of these in the Springs.  Might show up to Leadman weighing 250 pounds.

Off to catch some college hoops tomorrow, Air Force vs #13 San Diego State.  AF is pretty weak this year, but stranger things have happened at Clune.  And since we're talking college hoops, has everyone noticed that Pitt is undefeated in the ACC?

Beer of the day was the Irish Red Ale from Shamrock Brewing in Pueblo.  Dropped by for dessert after Bingo Burger.  Not bad beer for Pueblo.

beer #10

Some good beer drinking music for your listening pleasure.



Been feeling better and better but put the kebosh on working out just to make sure.  Things start back today at the Winter Series.

Headed down to Brewer's Republic on Friday evening for the Red Leg tap takeover.  Took advantage of the huge beer list to try something different.  End of the Beginning #1 from Paradox Beer Company just up the pass in Woodland Park.  I don't recommend this unless you like wine.

beer #9

$100 and I caught a pretty kick ass band last night, Good Gravy out of Fort Collins.  I'd recommend them to my Fort runner friends, but that would require them staying up past 10PM.

No good videos of the band, but they nailed a Talking Heads cover!



Was talking to a buddy about Bandera.  My first ultra.  Went back and read my race report.  I was such the rookie.  Even mentioned that Pikes was a big deal.  Back then I never imagined it would eventually be my front yard.

Beer number nine was the Do Little IPA from Red Leg.  This is the most serious Leadville training I've done so far this year.

beer #8

Post of the day from the letsrun message boards.  Discussing Ryan Hall's recent bombshell that he can only plank for two minutes.  Of course it quickly spun into a discussion on whether or not working your core actually helps running.  I just love the word "poon" but you don't hear it much anymore.  I'm going to bring it back!

"Those of us who have girlfriends and bang girls on a regular basis actually like to look good while in the nude.  But you skinny losers keep not doing sit ups.  More poon for me."

I subscribe to the popular letsrun school of training that the only thing that makes you a better runner is more running, so when one poster mentioned that cheetas don't plank and they're really fast, I chose to believe that.  No more core work for me!

Beer for today was the Slap Yer Mammy Double IPA from Trinity Brewing.  125 IBU's, bitches!  Auditioning for the part as the stunt double for my middle finger is Marc.  Trinity releases the best-ever-beer-named-after-my-favorite-Widespread-Panic-song beer this Friday!

beer #7

The plague has returned.  But it's switched from a killer sore throat to a horrible cough that only shows up around 9PM.  And I cough uncontrollably.  Monday night, $100 had been called into work so I was alone, and I thought I was going to pull a muscle or break a rib the coughing fit was so bad.  So I went to the bathroom and did a shot of what I thought was cough medicine:

Whooo, felt like I slugged down straight acid.  Hurt like hell.  And it didn't help my cough.  $100 later informed me that this stuff is actually not cough medicine, it's the stuff you put in a vaporizer.  She said I should read labels before drinking stuff, especially stuff says "for external use only."  I swear, being married is sometimes like having your mother around.

The beer I drank earlier in the evening tasted much better than Vapo Steam.  How's that for a unique beer review!

Kircher brewed this, and while I hate to compliment him, this wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  In fact, I thought it was better than some of the pumpkin beers put out by real Colorado breweries.  But before he gets too big of a head, it wasn't near my two favorite pumpkin beers - Emma's Coffin (Trinity) and Pumpkin Patch Ale (Eddyline).

beer #6

Obviously I did not run this morning.  It was painful enough just taking out the garbage.

But I did get out in the evening.  First Red Mountain run of the new year.  Joined by BLOS, Marc, and the dog.  It was at least 33 degrees warmer in the evening than it was in the morning.

Followed a bit of the Yiannis Kouros junk today (you can see the statement here).  I'm not going to say the guy ain't a tool, but I think it's funny that so many ultra folks are calling him out.  He used the same lame excuses we heard from anyone involved with Leadville this year, but of course in that case it wasn't the runners fault, it was all big, bad Lifetime Fitness.  Complaining about dust in Arizona is no worse than complaining about Hopeless running out of water when A) there is a lake next to Hopeless; B) the next three-ish miles after Hopeless follow a stream; and C) after the stream there is a river crossing deep enough to require a rope for assistance.  And Yiannis perceived slight towards the winner of the race is nothing compared to every runner who complained about "all those other runners getting in my way" during the Hope Pass out and back.

Found beer number six at Red Rock Liquor tonight.  Read about it over here.  Pretty sure they stole this silhouette on the logo from my performance over the final few miles of the Front Range Gravel Grinder a bunch of us did a few months ago.  Still thinking of heading up to Boulder on Saturday to catch some of the cross action.  Maybe I can find someone from the Springs to join me?  Anywho, pretty good brew, and I could see myself polishing off a few cans of this if it weren't a school night.

I even made a movie about tonight's beer.

beer #5

I actually got my ass down to the Incline club and was all ready to run.  But it was kinda cold so I ended up wussing out.

I did force myself over to the gym and had a decent workout there, followed by an hour of hot yoga.  So I'm hopefully on the way to kicking this cold.  We'll find out tomorrow.

Took this pic from my front yard today.  You can see a chunk of the fat ass.  I'm sure this will all melt by the 18th.

Beer for today was a Racer 5 IPA from Bear Republic Brewing in Healdsburg, California.  Yum.

beer #4

Not doing a damn thing today.  Hopefully I'm on the back end of this cold and a day of sloth will finally help me kick it.  Picked a great day for it, as it's below 20 degrees and windy and snowy outside.

Decided to bail on the San Juan Solstice and instead head up to Bighorn country to get wasted at the Crazy Woman Saloon help Shad get his ass through that race.  Will surely be missing the SJS, and that makes two annual trips to the San Juans we won't be taking this year, but I owe Shad big for all the times he got me through Hardrock.  $100 and I had a blast last time we went up to Bighorn, so it's not a total loss.  Looks like our only trip to SW Colorado this year will be for Telluride Blues & Brews.  I know, we lead such a deprived life.

Also told Liz I'd pace her up at Run Rabbit Run.  Hopefully she has better luck than the last guy I went up there to pace.

Speaking of pacing, I'm looking for pacers for the Leadville 10K.  I need six folks capable of keeping at least a 12 minute-per-mile pace, and I already have five year old AJ lined up for the last .2 miles.  This is on top of Brandon following me in his hummer with a camera crew and all their equipment for the documentary.  And GZ running beside me with a burro carrying a fully stocked aid station and an oversized Colorado state flag.

Beer for today was the Hop Happy IPA from the Milwaukee Brewing Company.  Good stuff.  $100 brought this back from a recent trip to Madison.  Milwaukee is a great city if you're in to beer drinking, FYI.

beer #3

This cold/flu/strep/aids/whatever is still killing me.  But I said to hell with it after work and took the dog up the Incline.  She was happy about it, even if I'm crushed now.  Also got eight miles on the bike to work and back.

There was an awesome article making it's way around the interwebs about the dozens of folks who died from marijuana overdose here in Colorado yesterday.  You knew it was fake, and you REALLY knew it was fake (but even more awesome) when they interviewed Jesse Pinkman.  But I guess enough anti-pot folks took it seriously enough that the good folks at Snopes had to take ten seconds out of their day to let the truth be known.

Tonight's brew is the Fuggles IPA from Shipyard Brewing.  Maine represent!

beer #2

This cold is still kicking my ass.  Slept in this morning.  Almost started feeling better during work, and I was starting to make plans to run with the dog when I got home.  Then on the bus ride back my throat started hurting like hell.  Not a good start to Leadman training.  But at least my paleo diet is going well.

Beer number two was an O'Fallon 5 Day IPA.  From O'Fallon Brewery in O'Fallon, Missouri.  If you lived in St. Louis in 2008 this was voted best beer by the Riverfront Times.  Pretty good stuff.  I drank this while fixing a flat on the Surly.  I seem to get a lot of flats on the front tire, could I be doing something wrong?

This pic reminded me of GZ.  He needs this on a shirt for when he yells at kids to get off his lawn.

Was looking through some old pics and saw this one.  Lots of good times at Kinfolks.  Never again, unfortunately.  I heard the Dulcimer shop is leaving as well, and that's been there for quite a few decades.  Hopefully some more t-shirt and knick-knack shops open up so city council can continue to receive parking revenue.  Word on the street is that most of the businesses on that side of Manitou Ave are having trouble.  Old Colorado City continues to replace Manitou as the cool place to be.  Buoyed by, of course, the new distance running mecca of Pleasant Valley.

beer #1

Around 10PM on December 31, $100, the dog, and I headed up the Incline to Rocky Mountain to watch the annual AdAmAn fireworks on Pikes Peak.  We had talked about doing this for years and finally pulled the trigger.  Rocky Mountain gives one of my favorite views of Pikes and seeing the fireworks from there was pretty awesome.  Unfortunately none of our pics turned out, so you'l have to make due with one I stole from a local news channel.

Incline #51 on the year since we were up before midnight.

As soon as the fireworks started I opened my first brew in the 365 beers challenge.  A Heady Topper from The Alchemist in Vermont.  Pretty good, though certainly not the best thing to come out of Vermont (Phish).  Again, no good pics but here's a stolen photo of the logo:

I must have caught some kind of nasty bug on the mountain last night, because I woke up feeling horrible.  Nothing new for me on January 1, but I hardly drank last night.  Could not bring myself to put forth any effort at the annual Rescue Run 10K, easily jogging to a 52 minute finish.  Didn't even go to King's Chef afterwards I felt so bad.  Once again, my pic was used to promote this event:

In other news, Kircher is claiming to have hiked a 19,872 foot peak down in Peru.  Photo looks pretty suspicious though, seems this is something Timko could have set up in his living room.

Final mileage for 2013:

Running - 2633 miles, 388,498 feet of climbing.  Average pace of 4.9 miles per hour.
Biking - 1000.5 miles (yes, I was aware of where I stood on my last bike ride home from work).  Average speed of 9.1 miles, which is well above the 8.3mph you have to average to finish the Leadville bike.
Hiking - 235 miles, with 43000 feet of climbing.  Most, if not all, of this was with the dog.

all signed up

$881.69 later and I'm all signed up for Leadman 2014.  No turning back now.

Woke up x-mas morning and this sign was on my front door:

Even better was what was written on the back, which I see every time I leave the house: