varsity club

Jameson. Yes, they have two bottles.

bike commute 10

Wed - ran from the house to Red Leg to pick up my jeep.  Five miles.  Hamstring is unhappy, but at least running now is not making it any worse.  CityRock 24 at lunch.  Two mile dog hike in the evening.

Thurs - cold again.  1.4 mile hike with the dog followed by bike commute ten.  Solid work at CityRock over lunch.  At 5PM the temp was somewhat warm, and I wanted to ride the long way home.  But this weather has been keeping the dog inside way too much, so I rode straight home and took her out for an hour.

Fri - run commute twelve.  4.5 miles in 40 minutes.  Hammy is getting better by the day.  To be safe I'll probably hold off on the Incline until Sunday.

nothing

It was 6F when I took the dog out for her daily walk.  She was not having it, and struggled and fought and we never left our property before I gave in.  Then I drove to work, since CityRock was closed for construction on Tuesday, leaving me without my needed post-commute shower.  So obviously no gym at lunch.  Then a 5PM meeting, followed by a trip to Red Leg.

I cannot remember the last time I actually did absolutely no physical activity during a 24 hour period.

I ended up being safe and leaving the jeep at Red Leg.  So I do have to run this morning to get the vehicle.  But this cold spell is getting ridiculous.

30 minutes

I had off Monday for Presidents Day.  We got some snow over the night, maybe 2.5 inches, and it was cold.  7F when I went out to shovel the walks.  Dog was not interested in a walk at all.  I managed to bundle up and run for half an hour, and the leg felt OK.  Not good, but not nearly as bad as Sat and Sun.  So it is improving quickly.

This week will be a down week as I have a bunch of other stuff going on.  Then it should be back to normal training.

hammy

Might have gone a bit too hard at the mile on Friday.  Having some issues with the left hamstring.  On Saturday and Sunday I attempted to run, got a few steps in, and it just wasn't cooperating.  Don't think it will be something that bothers me long term, just needs a few days rest.  Kind of sucks though, I was hoping to get some long runs in this weekend, as Salida is looming, and I've just been sitting around.  Sore enough that I couldn't even do some yoga.

I did get up to Earth Treks in Golden on Saturday for some climbing with $100 and Kircher.  Then a good happy hour at Vine Street, followed by a trip to Sancho's.  Good times.

5:32

Not quite what I was hoping for but a step forward for me in the mile.  This one hurt from the get-go as the pace was a lot faster from the start than my last mile at UCCS.  Gave it everything I had over the last two laps (six laps to the mile at the Air Force indoor track) seeing as a) Tom was right in front of me and b) my 5:29 goal was right there, but I was unable to accomplish either.  Lots of pain and suffering in that five and a half minute race.

I am exactly one minute off my PR that I set when I was a senior in high school.

run commute 10/bike commute 9

Tuesday - to the office via Sondermann Park.  Threw in 5 x 3 minutes on/2 minutes off, 5.5 miles in 48 minutes.  Good effort.  CityRock 20 at lunch, then an easy five miles back home.  Even did some yoga at the house after the run.

Wednesday - another early morning Red Rock Canyon ride with Lance.  70 minutes on the fat bike.  Then went home to feed the dog and switched to the Lorax to get to/from work. 

On Wed night $100 and I met some friends up north for a showing of Bikes of Wrath.  Solid movie. 

Thursday - awesome 60 minute early AM hike with the dog, we were both stoked to see 51F at 5AM.  I had planned to do some two mile repeats this morning on the run commute.  But at the movie last night, I got the super jumbo sized popcorn and coke.  And I was allowed to put all the butter I wanted on the popcorn.  Needless to say, my insides were in no mood for a hard workout today.  6.3 miles in 53 minutes.  Three of those miles were sub 7:15, though it was the downhill direction on Santa Fe. 

Should be a good time at the Air Force Open tomorrow.  The mile will feature a bunch of D-1 kids followed (not) closely by Tom, Jeff, and myself.  I will be shooting for a 5:29.

stout month happy hour

A few of us runner/biker types will be meeting up for our annual stout month happy hour this Saturday.  Vine Street Pub in Denver, 2PM.  Feel free to join us.

$100 and I are going to try to get up to the bubble early enough to check out Earth Treks for some indoor climbing.  But I also need to get a dog walk and long run in, so we'll see how those plans go.

bike commute 8

5k morning hike with the dog, then I jumped on the Lorax to get to work.  Straight there, straight home.

Not sure if I mentioned this, but if anyone is looking for a cheap entry into the vanlife world, hit me up.  We are going to be getting rid of Stella, our beloved 1990 astro.

incline 13

Solid weekend. 

Great show on Friday, love how Manitou has taken to having concerts at city hall.

Saturday and Sunday were trips up the Incline.  Also got out on the bike as the weather was a bit friendlier.  80 minutes at Red Rock Canyon on Saturday, then 27 miles on the Santa Fe trail on Sunday.

varsity club

Jameson.

varsity club

Crown Royal

music

Shaping up to be a great year for live music in my little world.

Feb 8 - Trout Steak Revival @ Manitou City Hall

Feb 23 - Okilly Dokilly @ the Black Sheep

March 22-24 - Boogie at the Broadmoor

Apr 19 - Adam & Ben of Yonder @ Bristol Brewing

June 16 - Jacob Jolliff Band @ Stargazers

June 23 - Umphreys @ Red Rocks

July 26-27 - Tedeschi Trucks @ Red Rocks

Aug 30 - Sept 1 - Phish @ Dicks

Also watching to see if Mule and/or Panic do some Colorado shows.

run commute 9

Thurs - almost nothing.  It's been comically cold here lately.  Decent session at CityRock over lunch but that was it.

Fri - It was 5F when I walked the dog at 5:30AM, then at 7AM when I ran to work it was 4F.  This is getting ridiculous.  Supposed to warm up this weekend though.  This pic below from the Super Half (taken by Peter M) is what I think about the current ice age.

Trout Steak Revival tonight in Manitou! 

bike commute 7

Mon - 2.5 miles with the dog followed by bike commute six.  Good CityRock session in the evening.

Tues - 2.5 mile dog hike and then run commute eight.  Was nice in the early morning and I ran in shorts, but during my run a weird frost moved in and the temp dropped significantly.  3.5 miles to work, four miles home.

Wed - Early morning Red Rock Canyon ride with Lance.  12.5 miles in two hours, which included a stop at Rudy's for breakfast tacos and a quick trip back home to grab work clothes and pet the dog.  I can definitely tell the sun is coming up earlier.

super half

Wasn't expecting much due to two consecutive late nights and I wasn't disappointed.  Ended up jogging along at just under eight minute miles. 1:42:24.

I signed $100 up for this a while ago, and she ended up heading to Orlando this weekend.  So I got a new wife for the race.

Don't hate on the bandits, we told Tim B, the race director, and he was cool with it.  Amber ended up running with Jesse J, the CO Trail record holder on the bike.  He beat my time by almost exactly one month.  He was running to get a qualifier for the Pikes Ascent.

January

Run - 115 miles
Bike - 82 miles
Hike - 72 miles
CityRock - 16 trips

Six run commutes, five bike commutes. 

I did the Incline ten times, and did ten yoga sessions.

Not a great month.  Already thinking that not signing up for any big events is just giving me an excuse to puss out on cold days, and I may have let the drinking go a bit overboard, causing the weekend workouts to be pretty much worthless.  I'm currently ten pounds heavier than I usually am during this time of year.  Hopefully I can get back on track in February and push the fitness forward a bit.

varsity club

Twelve

varsity club

Eleven.

bike commute 5/incline 10

As much as I've been whining about the weather making me lazy I did tie my PR for trips up the Incline in a calendar month.  Biked straight to/from work on Wed and then headed over to Manitou.  Things are slowly starting to warm up here and it was a great night to be on the mountain.

run commute 6

I feel like every front range runner/blogger who doesn't have easy access to a treadmill is struggling right now.  Weather-wise it's been a tough January, with lower than average temps and lots of snow and ice.

It was 9F when I took the dog out, then 10F at 7AM when I ran to work.  Went straight there, four miles, once again just worrying about not wiping out on the ice.  Same way home, though by then it had warmed up quite a bit (28F). 

Another good lunch workout at CityRock.  The gym is saving me, as it's the only thing I'm giving any kind of decent physical effort at.

incline 9

I made a January goal of ten trips up the Incline and it looks like I might make it after doing the thing on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 

Due to the crappy winter weather, I've been working real hard in the rock gym, and working real hard to avoid going outside.  Hopefully that starts to change soon.

run commute 5

Tuesday.  We got a nice snow/ice storm overnight.  And super cold temps.  Dog was having nothing to do with a walk.  Then work got cancelled.  I shoveled the sidewalks and went back to bed.  Would have been a complete waste on the workout front, but later in the day I took the bus downtown and hit up CityRock for a good climb.

Still cold on Wednesday, and the sidewalks and streets were a mess.  15F when the dog and I went out for an hour hike.  14F when I started my run to work.  Only objective on that run was to avoid frostbite and not break my neck.  3.5 miles in 35 minutes.  Good CityRock session at lunch.  Four miles back home followed by some yoga.

January is almost over.  At least in February I can start dreaming about warmer temps.

The Phish tickets change the summer schedule a bit, as I won't be able to do the Creede Mountain Run.  We were planning on a road trip in between Pikes and Creede.  We will still take a long road trip, but we are in new discussions as to where and when to go.

Phish

Just got the official e-mail, I will be attending three days of Phish at Dick's over Labor Day!

track

After a 5k hike with the dog on the Garden tails I headed up to the track.  6 x 400m, 4 x 200m.  Super windy, and the track, a mix of clay and gravel, was damp and slow.  The watch I use is an old Garmin Vivoactive HR, two generations old I believe.  I think there is probably someway to get my quarter mile splits, I just don't know how to do it.  Maybe someday I'll time my track workouts again.  But today's splits would not have been noteworthy.  The effort was there, but the conditions made for slower running than usual.

I signed up for the mile at the Air Force Open on Feb 15th.  I listed 5:29 as my predicted time.  They have taken my entry fee ($10) and haven't told me not to show up so this might go down.

incline 5 & 6

Good night on Friday.  Garcia and Kircher came down, and we hit up a few local dive bars.  Murhpy's, Robin Hood, and Navajo Hogan.  Varsity club shot number nine and ten, Jim Beam and Triple Sec.

After that crawl there isn't much to say about my fat ass run.  I did a seven miler over in Red Rock Canyon and was home in plenty of time to greet everyone else.  Great turnout.

Felt a bit better on Sunday morning so I did the incline twice.  Straight up, straight down, back up, and down Barr.  Eight miles in 3.5 hours.

For the week:

run - 20 miles, 6.5 hours
bike - 24 miles, 3:12 hours
hike - 16 miles, 6.5 hours

Two inclines and two trips to CityRock.

Bit of a down week, some of that due to taking off to Canon City on Thursday.

Canon City

Had a few days off work so the dog and I took the van down to Canon City for a quick overnight. 

Had big hiking plans but they were changed when we saw how much snow was still on the trials.  First stop was Oil Well Flats where we managed a 5k walk through mud and snow. 

Of course no trip to Fremont County is complete without a stop at Florence Brewing.

Then it was off to spend the night at the Royal Gorge.  Had a good night hike on some of the dirt roads there.  After a few beers it was off to bed early.

We came across this on our Fri morning hike up to the radio tower overlooking everything.  Somebody in Canon had a good time.

bike commute 4

Wednesday.   Another early morning session in Red Rock Canyon with Lance.  Though today was mostly pushing my bike through snow.  Close to a two hour ride with a stop at Rudy's for breakfast tacos.

CityRock 9 at lunch.  On Tuesday I did some leg blasters at the gym, the first time I've done those since before JFK.  My legs are still crushed as of Thursday morning.

Very unexpected blowout of UNLV by the fightin' Falcons on Wed night.

run commute 4

Mon - super hungover, but I did manage to pedal the klunker to work after an hour dog walk.  Bike commute three.  Felt much better in the evening after watching Pitt smack down #14 Florida State.

Tues - 2.5 mile dog hike followed by run commute four.  Four miles, with some two minute fartleks thrown in.  The winter (mostly the cold temps) has beat me down, the motivation to get out for a full hour before work just isn't there right now.  I'll ramp up my game once things warm up.  Also got to CityRock for a good lunch workout.

week in review

run - 22 miles.  Includes the one mile race, an incline, and a good fartlek workout.
bike - 16 miles, including the solid Red Rock Canyon pre-work ride.
hike - 14 miles, including a four mile snowshoe hike on Saturday.

Plus two sessions of yoga. and four sessions at CityRock.

Not much in the mileage realm.  But some good workouts.  And I also took the CMC showshoe class.  A night about backcountry travel, a night about showshoe specific stuff, and a Saturday AM trip up to Horsethief Falls, which had just gotten a ton of snow.  I am thinking of finally accepting the fact that global warming isn't going to end winters in Colorado anytime soon and perhaps maybe I should try to get outside more often between November and March.

Made it back just in time to head up to the Academy for the Army/Air Force hockey match.  The two teams played twice, one on Friday and one on Saturday, and both games ended up 2-2.

We (will probably turn into just "I") are going to the AF/UNLV hoops game on Wednesday.  Tipoff is 9PM.  Mountain West is terrible sometimes.

On Sunday I headed over to the Incline Club for incline number three on the year.  Despite the recent snow it was a great day to be out there.

varsity club

Ocho. Oof.

varsity club

Numbero seven.

5:37

Ran my first ever indoor mile up at UCCS this evening.  I listed 5:45 as my predicted time, but secretely I was hoping a fast field could possibly drag me to a 5:29.  They ended up having two heats, and my heat was much slower than I thought, especially the first few laps.  I went through lap one (200m) at 45, hit the quarter at 89, half at 2:55.  But I was up front, and I didn't want to take the lead.  After the half a few high school kids and I got after it.  I ended up finishing in second place after not being able to run down a kid and he finished about half a second in front of me.

Had a blast though.  They do these races once a month and I look forward to returning.

bike commute 2

Slowly trending back towards regular training after goofing off since JFK.  Ran to work twice this week, including some short fartleks (up to run commute three).  Seven trips to CityRock this year, hitting that 5.9 and starting to regularly boulder V3.  And another early morning super chilly ride in Red Rock Canyon with Lance (bike commute two).  And two yoga sessions.  Boom.

Of course, all that healthy stuff was countered by the four shots I did at Murphy's on Thursday night.

Can't remember if I mentioned it here but the Fat Ass is on January 19.

varsity club

Number seven. Emmets. Yum.

varsity club

Shot number six. Goldschlager.

varsity club

Shot number five.

varsity club

Number four. Barenjager.

5.9

Stayed up a little late on Monday night having a blast watching Alabama get crushed (Clemson had a harder time beating Pitt).  Then got up late for the Tuesday morning dog walk, putting me at CityRock behind schedule.  Wasn't expecting much, so I just tried a few laps on the 5.9 I've been working on.  It's the wall I need to be able to climb to get lead certified at the gym, and I have been struggling with the second to last move for quite some time.   But lo and behold I finally figured it out on Tuesday morning. 

For those who don't know anything about rock climbing grades, climbing 5.9 indoors is probably somewhere in the range of running one mile in eight minutes.  90% of the population could do it with less than two weeks of training.  It's not good by any means, but it's what I do.


But you know what I am good at?  Getting concert tix!  Super excited for both shows.

run commute 2

2.5 mile dog hike followed by five miles to work, 45 minutes.  Three miles of two minutes on, two minutes off just to change things up. 

Nice lunchtime CityRock bouldering session. 

Four slow miles back home, followed by some yoga at the house.

Looks like the local fat ass will be on January 21.  Details TBA.

incline 2

Bit hungover on Sunday as my Saturday ride included stops at Storybook, Murphy's, Goat Patch, Fossil, and Trails End.  But I got up for the Incline Club run and my trip up wasn't too bad.  Trail was in much better condition than Friday evening.

Weekly totals:

run - 24 miles, including two inclines
bike - 33 miles
hike - 17 miles
plus three trips to CityRock and two trips to CorePower

Pretty excited for this:

varsity club

Shot number three. Amaretto. Courtesy of Mr. Boston.

varsity club

Shot number two. Rumple Minze.

incline 1

Bolted over to the Incline after work on Friday.  Great night.  On the way up it was super dark, and you really feel out there.  Then I looked behind me and realized it was 6PM and I was a mile from an urban area with over half a million people in it.  Hit Manitou Brewing after the run.  I don't talk about them enough but they're definitely one of the better breweries in this area.  The High Ground IPA is one of my favorite Colorado beers.

Hit the Nielsen Challenge on Saturday morning.  12:28 for two miles.  Slower than I wanted, but I'll work on improving that.

bike commute 1

Awesome Friday morning ride in Red Rock Canyon with Lance.  Twelve miles in just over 90 minutes, most of it in the dark.  Loving these super early weekday rides, and I can't wait until the weather is a bit nicer.  Four miles back home after work.

Been to CityRock three times this year so far.

beer

Beers six through twelve.  Not sure what happened to number eight.  I probably left it at Marc & Amanda's in my drunken stupor.

Twelve was a disaster.  Some kind of blueberry beer.  Sometimes those bud light commercials where they make fun of the beer snobs really speak to me.

In general I got good beers this year, but nothing new that stood out as great to me.

varsity club

Shot number one. Jager.

run commute 1

It was 9F this morning and that felt balmy compared to the last few mornings.  30 minute dog walk followed by 3.5 miles to work, 33:30.

4.1 miles back home, 41:17.

Rescue Run

We were hit with some shitty weather the last few days and it was 6F at the start of the Rescue Run 10k.  That is so cold that the dog won't go outside.  I showed up, and that was all as I'm unwilling to give any kind of race effort in that weather.  Below 20F I feel like I'm just going to hurt myself, on top of a general hated of being cold.  Jogged the course in 47:36 and immediately retreated back indoors. 

Murphy's was closed today so my attempt at the varsity club will start later.

2019

Even though I'm going to drop what feels like several paychecks on Jan 1st to sign up for the Pikes double, I'm going to keep the race schedule super light this year.

One of my favorite outdoor writers, Greg Heil, often talks about adventure vs. fitness.  I thought about that a lot after our hike and before JFK.  I would have loved to have done more mountain treks, either hiking or biking, but instead I was doing a lot of running on the Santa Fe trail.  It was during those boring miles that I decided not to sign up for much in '19.  The plan is to use the time to make some progress on my 14er list, mountain bike more often, and continue learning to climb outside.

That does not mean I won't be racing.  Right now I am excited about the shorter stuff, and I can see myself jumping into a lot of our local races.  There will of course be my annual hungover 4:59 at Salida.  I can also envision finding another state for a marathon later in the year.  Or not.  But nothing is on the calendar other than Pikes and Creede.  And both of those are races I feel I can do without specific training.

We will also be taking a solid road trip during the week between Pikes and Creede.  Headed west.  A hike of Kings Peak, the highpoint of Utah, is on the docket.  Not sure what else we'll do.  Wyoming?  Idaho?  Arizona?  Who knows.  We have until late August to figure it out.

And on the drinking front, I'm going to take a year and gain access to the varsity club at Murphy's.  One shot of every bottle they sell.  Unfortunately it's looking more and more like Murphy's won't be there in a few years, so it's time to pull this off.