Monday, September 14, 2020

HAIL TO PITT!

 Pitt is in the top 25 this week!  Sure has been a while.

Oh, and this:


Sunday, September 13, 2020

long run

Thurs - bike commute 64.  Ten there, eleven back.  CityRock 52 at lunch.

Fri - easy bike commute 65, straight to work and back.  Lazy day but I got in 90 minutes of guitar practice after work before heading over to Fossil.

Sat - good trail long run through the Garden, over to Manitou, and back home via Intemann and Red Rock Canyon.  17 miles in 3.5 hours.  Met up with the hash afterwards and drank some Old English, which was a very poor decision.

Also watched Pitt destroy Austin Peay on Saturday.  And the Steelers play Monday night.  Woot!

For the week:

hike - 21 miles, eight hours

bike - 96 miles, nine hours

run - 46 miles, 8.5 hours

Wednesday, September 09, 2020

catching up

2020 keeps rolling right along...

Got incline 21 done last Friday.  Biked over, straight up, then down to the new bail trail which is on the north side of the incline, opposite of Barr Trail.  Good trail and a great way to sneak around the new reservation system.

On Saturday $100, hollydog, and I took the cadet up her first 14er, Mount Sherman.


Later that evening I tried my hand at some gourmet cooking.  Don't mean to brag but it was pretty delicious.


Good eleven mile run on Sunday then spent the remainder of the long weekend riding bikes and drinking beer.  Trips to Fossil, a ride up to Pikes Peak, some Red Leg thrown in for good measure.  Great weekend but I should probably dry out for a little bit.

On Monday we hit 93F and it was probably the worst smoke I've seen here (big forest fire up above Fort Collins).  Tuesday evening we got significant snow.  The early Wednesday morning dog hike:



Had Wednesday off so I got in a good ten miler through the Garden.  Nothing beats that place after a fresh snowfall.

Was hoping to get down to the Crestones for another 14er or two this weekend, but it doesn't look like the snow they got will be melting anytime soon.  I'll stick around here and get in a good long run instead.  Which I need, since I have Salida and Cheyenne Mountain coming up.  

Less than ten days until we leave on our big road trip to Area 51!


Tuesday, September 01, 2020

Alpine Loop

The Alpine Loop has been on my to-do list for over a decade now, and I finally knocked it off on Saturday.  50 miles, just over six hours, with some shitty (cold and rainy) weather for the first four-ish hours.  Great ride though and I highly recommend it.  I'll be back to hopefully enjoy better weather. 

Here is the link to the relive map of the ride.

Hung out in Lake City on Friday and Saturday, then headed over to Salida.  $100 actually rode more than I did this weekend, riding Monarch Crest on Sunday morning, then Cottonwood on Monday morning.  I got in lots of quality hiking with the dog.

Thursday, August 27, 2020

bike commute 61

I was a physical mess up through Wednesday.  Recovered enough to go crush myself on the Alpine Loop on Saturday.  Good times.

Mon - 5k  hike with the dog on the flattest route I could find.

Tues - bike commute 60.  Six miles to work, eleven back home.  Easy climb over lunch.

Wed - run commute 51.  Four miles there, 3.5 back.  Still sore as fuck.  CityRock 48 at lunch.

Thurs - bike commute 61.  Ten to work, eleven back.  CityRock 49 with $100 at lunch.  Finally starting to feel normal again.

Four day weekend, taking the van down to Lake City through Sunday morning, then Salida Sunday and Monday.  I'll finally get to ride the Alpine Loop, $100 will get in some fly fishing and a ride on the Monarch Crest.  The dog will do a lot of napping and hiking.

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

6:00:37

I mean, at least we got to run, right?

Not a bad day on the mountain.  Smoky and hot, but not as bad as it was on Saturday.  Weird at the start for sure, but fitting for 2020.  Disappointing at the finish, with no beer garden and no real chance to see a ton of friends.  But it is what it is, and the run itself was a lot of fun.

The splits:

No Name - 60:51

Barr Camp - 1:45:15

A Frame - 2:35:24

Summit - 3:51:51

Descent - 2:08:46

Little slower than I wanted to the top, just couldn't get much going from treeline to the top.  Can't complain too much as this was the fitness I had coming into the race.  As the legend-in-his-own-mind Keith G once said, "never let a poor performance stop you from talking shit to your friends," and luckily for me a ton of my friends also had mediocre days and I ended up beating a lot of them.  I stopped to chug a beer with less than a mile to go, without that I may have cracked six hours.  The beer was worth it though as I believe it was approximately 250F coming down Ruxton canyon.  My legs are still wrecked two days after the race, so I ran as hard as I could.

Hopefully next year the new Garden to Peak Challenge (Garden 10 miler, Barr Trail Mountain Race, and Pikes) goes off without a hitch, I'd like to concentrate on that, including the Pikes Double.

I'll try to keep the running fitness around as I have two long ones in October - the rescheduled Salida Marathon and the Cheyenne Mountain 50k.

Saturday, August 22, 2020

64


Picked up bib 64 this morning.  You can usually see Pikes from that view above.


Socially distanced shitters this year.

Friday, August 21, 2020

run commute 50

Thurs - bike commute 59.  Ten miles to work, eleven back home.  CityRock 46 at lunch.  Been getting on the wall a lot more (vs. bouldering) lately.

Fri - run commute 50.  Easy four miles to work.  Was almost mauled by a homeless guy's dog over near Benny's.  Yay.  

I have a downtown office and could not see Pikes today due to all the smoke.

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

track

Sun - nice ten miler in the heat of the afternoon, five miles up Barr and back down.  Caught the Joe Johnson show at Pioneer Park in the evening.

Mon - track.  6 x 400m, none of them anywhere near 12:35 5k pace.  Loving my shitty Holmes track even more after this:


Tues - easy day.  Dog hike and guitar practice in the morning, CityRock 45 at lunch, some trail work in Red Rock Canyon with Medicine Wheel after work.

Wed - run commute 49.  Easy 41 minute five miler to work.

I have not put in the work for Pikes on Sunday and I will suffer as a result.  I'll be shooting for a sub six, roughly 3:45 up and 2:15 back down.  Could probably still manage a 5:30 had I been a bit more focused on hills and longer distance, but it's too late to worry about that now.

Monday, August 17, 2020

Lindsey

Bagged 14er number 39 for me on Saturday,  Mt. Lindsey.  Hiked with my CityRock buddy Mike and a guy I hiked Sherman with a week earlier at the Pitt climb, Steve.  Awesome route with some solid rock scrambling towards the top.

Drove down Friday evening after work and slept in the van.  Stepped off at 5:15AM.  The hike ended up being 13.8 miles and took just over 7.5 hours.

Hoping to sneak in a weekend down to the Sangres in September for an attempt on number 40.



 

Friday, August 14, 2020

run commute 48

Thurs - nice 7.4 miles to work through Sondermann.  5.8 miles back home.  Pizza and Umphrey's that evening.

Fri - nice three mile family hike in Red Rock Canyon.  Took us significantly longer than 12:35.  

Off to the Sangres.  Tackling Lindsey on Saturday.

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

run commute 47

 Wed - run commute 47.  Good five miles there, four miles back.  Got to spend a chunk of my day crawling around a big homeless camp next to a landfill transfer station.  Fun.

From the Pitt Sherman hike.  At the bottom:


At the top:


Tuesday, August 11, 2020

track

Sun - easy evening five miler.  A hangover and Moose watching crushed me.  Did get through almost all of Dishwasher by Pete Jordan.  Awesome book.  My first ever job, at the age of 13, was a dishwasher.  Not surprisingly, that's when I started drinking.

Mon - track.  Windy up on the mesa.  2 x 1 mile, 600m RBI.  6:09, 6:01.  Hard effort, but not all out.  I recently entered the 45-49 age group, so these were more impressive today than had I ran them last Wednesday.  Also did 4 x 200m untimed.  Good evening bike ride in Red Rock Cayon and up High Drive.

Tues - bike commute 58.  Easy ten miles to work on the COVID loop.  CityRock 43 at lunch.  Really good session, think I'm close to making a breakthrough on the wall.  Good ride home, up Cheyenne Canon and High Drive for the first time in a while, then the Chutes, over to Fossil.  17 miles in two hours.

My cadet got me a killer gift for my b-day.  My first Space Force shirt.  I'm not a trekkie by any means, but I swear this was the same logo used in Star Trek.

Monday, August 10, 2020

Sherman

Bolted right after work Friday for the Mt. Sherman trailhead.  Quick stop at South Park Brewing for a beer and some eats, then found a pretty sweet place to park the van for the night.  Strummed the guitar for a bit before turning in early.

Met the Denver Pitt Club at the start of the hike.  We ended up getting 30 Pitt grads on top of the mountain that day.  I was one of the old farts there so I enjoyed telling stories of the good 'ol days of Zelda's (now a five guys burger place) and CJ Barney's (now a dunkin' donuts) and Peter's Pub (now closed, probably becoming a chain coffee shop).  Sherman is one of the easier 14ers, and with some great weather we made quick work of the hike.  My third summit of that mountain.



 

Apparently there are over 1000 Pitt grads in Colorado.  I know of three others in COS.  This was the first Pitt alumni event of any kind since the COVID started, which seems like 100 years ago but I count it from Salida marathon weekend in mid-March.  (Yes, the virus was here much earlier and in hindsight we should have all acted a lot earlier than we did, but mid-March was when most people realized shit was going to get shitty for a while).

Had to get back to the house after the hike as we were Moose-sitting and he is a lot for $100 to handle on her own.  Spent a lot of time this weekend at the dog park.


Friday, August 07, 2020

bike commute 57

 Lot going on this week so the workouts suffered.

Annual Jerry Garcia hash on Monday was a blast.  Had a buddy from El Paso up for that.  Made for a hungover and lazy Tuesday. 

Did get a run commute in on Wednesday.  Solid effort on the way to work.

Bike commute 57 on Thursday.  That evening we took the dogs (we're currently watching Moose) over to a local park for a socially distanced blues show.

Headed out to Mt. Sherman for the annual Pitt 14er hike after work.

Signed up for the Cheyenne Mountain 50k.  Should probably start putting in some work for that.

Monday, August 03, 2020

incline 20

Friday - bike commute 56, then I rode my bike over to the base of the incline for a quick up and down.  Then biked back to Fossil.

Sat - nice twelve miler through Red Rock Canyon and Section 16.  Hit the hash Saturday afternoon.

Decent week.

run - 43 miles, eight hours
ride - 69 miles, 6.5 hours
hike - 17 miles, 6.5 hours

Sun - a bunch of biking.  Did the COVID loop in the AM, then biked over to Red Leg that afternoon.  Joe Johnson show up in Pioneer Park Sunday evening.

Friday, July 31, 2020

new ride

Mon - it's been raining a ton here and the track was a hot mess, so I just did a nice loop on the Garden roads.  6.5 miles.

Tues - more rain.  14 miles to/from work on the bike. 

Wed - run commute 15.  Five miles in just under 40 minutes to work.  Easy four miles back home.  Guitar lesson in the evening, followed by my weekly trip to Benny's.  Benny's got a nasty letter from the health department and you can't sit at the bar anymore.

Thurs - bike commute 55.  Ten miles to work on the bike path.  13 back home on the world's greatest commute through Bear Creek and Red Rock Canyon.  On the new bike.

My brother recently got a new bike and was going to get rid of his old Kona Unit X.  So I had him send it to me.  Loving it so far.


Monday, July 27, 2020

Salida/BV/Leadville

Had you asked me I would have predicted a really good Classic 10k followed by a shitty Salida 5.5 miler.  Just guessing based off the work I've been doing lately.  And after choking at the Classic I just assumed I'd have two bad races.


But the thing in Salida went pretty alright!  Started off strong, climbed well, and held my own on the descent.  And I ended up outkicking this eleven year old girl at the finish.


I finished 27th overall in 41:05 for the 5.4ish mile course on the S mountain trails.  Really happy with the effort.  My last race in the 40-44 age group.

After my race I played some guitar in the van while the wife went for a run, then we headed north.  Dropped by Buena Vista to visit some old Austin friends - Paul and Meredith - before heading up to Leadville to see another old Austin friend - Mr. Sharp.  Need to note here that on Saturday for breakfast I had Moonlight Pizza, lunch was the Buena Viking, and dinner was High Mountain Pies.  Quite the day of food.  We also hit up Leadville's newest brewery, Two Mile Brewing.  The Camp Hale Pale wasn't half bad.

Rained damn near the entire weekend, so nights were spent just chilling inside the van.  Sharp and I did meet up to run the Leadville Mineral Belt loop, a 13.1 mile loop if you start from the start line of the Pb100.  Surprised they don't have a half marathon race there.

We ran into Bigfoot over near the Colorado Mountain College


It's been a while since I've been to Leadville so this might be old news, but there are two memorials to Super Dooper at City on a Hill coffee.



Took the long way back home, dropping by Outer Range and Broken Compass.

Friday, July 24, 2020

climb

Mon - track.  8 x 200m.  Very uninspiring.  Like my 10k, but at least today didn't have a ton of people getting to witness me shitting the bed.

Tues - bike commute 53.  Four miles to work as my AM guitar practice went long.  Four miles home as it looked like it was going to flood.  CityRock 37 at lunch.

Wed - run commute 44.  4.2 miles to work.  Short as once again my guitar practice was longer than planned.  Back home was an easy 5.5 miles through Sondermann.  Added a new buckle to the collection:


Thurs - nice ten mile run on the Garden roads, which has yet to be uploaded to Garmin due to their hack.  The wife and I then went over to Red Rock Canyon for our first climb in a long time.  The route we wanted to do was occupied, so we found a new-to-us route and made it happen.  A few sketchy moments while I was trying to set up the toprope but I'm still alive.

Monday, July 20, 2020

Classic 10k

Thurs - bike commute 52.  10.9 miles there, 14.6 back home.  CityRock 36 at lunch.

Fri - rest day.  Nice 5k Garden hike with the pup in the early AM.

Sat - CMC anchors class up at Cottonwood Canyon state park.  Learnin' shit.  Hit 105W Brewing on the way home.

For the week:

run -22 miles, 3.5 hours
ride - 56 miles, five hours
hike - 23 miles, nine hours

Sun - hey, I ran a race!  The Classic 10K.  It is usually a fast course and my original goal was sub 40.  They changed the course due to COVID, it was not a much slower out and back.  Changed my goal to 42 due to the harder course.  But it didn't matter, I still sucked.  45:31.  Went out a touch too fast and was just done by the turn around.  I was actually slower coming back, which was downhill.  The race was waves of five runners every 30 seconds.

After the race a bunch of friends and I rode up to Pikes Peak Brewing.  49 miles total, it finished up my virtual Colorado Trail bike ride.

Dinner on Sunday at Colorado Mountain Brewery with the cadet, her boyfriend, and her parents.


Big topic of discussion was the starting QB currently listed as "no longer a cadet in good standing."  Not sure what he did, but apparently there has been quite a bit of cheating as everything has switched to online classes.  No idea if that's what happened.  It would really suck to get booted from the Academy your senior year.  No college degree and you owe the gov't a cool quarter million.

Thursday, July 16, 2020

CityRock 35

Mon - early AM uninspiring 8 x 200m at the Holmes Middle School track.  Did a 13 mile ride later in the evening.

Tues - bike commute 51.  Eleven miles to work, 4.8 back.  We've been having some crazy but short storms here, and I tried to beat one home.  It didn't work.  After ten seconds I was soaked to the bone.  Good climb over lunch with my buddy Mike.

Wed - run commute 43.  5.1 miles in 39:19.  Good climb at lunch.  Easy run home, 2.5 miles to meet up with $100 at Smiling Toad.  We got beers to go from Front Range on the walk back home.

Monday, July 13, 2020

PowerStop/Chicago cancelled

Friday - a rare rest day.  Was hoping to bail from work early to meet $100 down on the CO trail.  I was unable to pull that off, so I just picked up Moose and we chilled at the house.

Sat - another zero.  Left at 5AM to drive to Eddysville.  Saw Connilee and Amanda finish up a solid chunk of the Colorado trail.  They should finish the thing next year.  Then $100 and I drove into Gunnison for lunch.  I highly recommend the PowerStop Gas Station in Gunny.  Great burgers.

We picked up a hitchhiker as we were leaving Gunnison.  Figured he was a hiker needing a lift back to the trail.  But it turns out he was a homeless kid out traveling and he was heading to Salida.  We parked at Soulcraft and pointed him towards Tenderfoot Hill.  $100 and I hit Soulcraft and Tres Litres and camped up near the Cottonwood TH. 

Sun - left Salida fairly early and I got in a good run on the Garden roads.  Nine miles.

Another week in the books.

run - 26.6 miles, four hours
ride - 86 miles, just over seven hours
hike - 23 miles, 8.5 hours

Should finish up the Tennessee run this week, as I type this I have less than ten miles to go.

I have two races coming up.  The Classic 10k on Sunday, and the National High School Trail Champs 5.5 miler on July 25.  I'm in the citizens race obviously.  But I'm not the oldest guy running!  My endurance is shit but I think I'm in decent shape for some of this shorter stuff.  That being said, Chicago just cancelled.  Instead, I'll spend that weekend in Salida buying Kieran some pizza.

Thursday, July 09, 2020

KOM fail/bike commute 50

Sunday - easy 7.4 mile run on the Garden roads followed by a nice 28 mile bike cruise around the local paved trails, ending at Fossil.  Pretty tore up from the long mountain days on Fri and Sat.

Mon - 5.4 mile Garden road run in the AM, 14.6 mile COVID loop bike ride in the PM.

Tues - bike commute 49.  10.7 miles to work, 11.2 miles home.  Good CityRock session over lunch.

Wed - run commute 42.  I have never had a strava KOM in my life, but there is a segment on my usual run to work, on the Midland trail from 25th (Smiling Toad Brewing) to 8th.  I decided to go for it.  I went as hard as I could.  Literally thought I might pass out while crossing 8th street.  And I fucking whiffed.


I'll keep trying but I'm not really sure how to get those seven seconds.  I ran as hard as I could.  It's only a 1.1 mile section and I was running 5:34/mi pace.  And I was lucky enough to have zero traffic at the street crossings.

When I use my strava douchebag filter I feel much better about myself.


I was a hot mess for a while at the office after the effort.  Did run home but it was super slow.

Thurs - $100 and the dog are down helping out some friends on the Colorado Trail, so this morning was an easy (I was still sore) 4.5 miles in the Garden, some guitar practice, and bike commute 50.  And another lunch hour at CityRock.

Sunday, July 05, 2020

San Luis/Challenger/Kit Carson

Finally got a few more 14ers done over the long weekend.  Solo trip, I left right after work on Thursday and made it down to Dome Lakes State Wildlife Area for the night.  Up early on Friday to finish the long drive and finally bag San Luis Peak.  14 miles in just under five hours with 3497 feet of climbing.



On my way out I decided on a whim to head up to Cochetopa Pass.  Had no idea of how the dirt road was, which is taking a chance with a low clearance vehicle.  But it was a great drive and a cool part of Colorado I'd never been to.  Saw more bikepackers than cars.  Also went over a milestone in the van.


Hit Three Barrel Brewing for beers and pizza.  Desert at Square Peg in Alamosa.  Then it was off to Crestone to rest up before a big day on Saturday.

Alpine start, up at 4AM and running by 4:30AM.  Knew this was going to be a long day and it didn't disappoint.  But I was able to bag the Challenger Point/Kit Carson double.  I'm now up to 38 Colorado 14ers.  And one California 14er if you're keeping score at home.

On the ridge leading to Challenger, Kit Carson behind that:




Taken from the Challenger summit, this is the route over to Kit Carson.  Can't find a pic that doesn't make this look sketchy, but it's actually not that bad.


That section after I completed it:


The summit of Kit Carson.  Hard to find a bad view when you're in the Sangre de Cristo range.


Didn't see this sign on the way out, maybe a good thing.


Willow Lake, five miles from the trailhead.  A lot of people do this as a two or three day hike, setting up camp at this lake.


Very long day, 16 miles and 9.5 hours. 6362 feet of climbing.  Made for a great weekend in the mountains for sure.  I skipped Salida on the drive back because it was so busy, but Florence Brewery made room for me to enjoy a few celebratory beers.

Awesome couple 'o days in the mountains, and I even made it home in time to watch some rock and roll livestreams.


The peaks capped off a solid week.

run - 37 miles, 15.5 hours
ride -  57 miles, 5.5 hours
hike - 18 miles, seven hours

Tennessee virtual run - 556.5 miles down, past the town of Chuckey.  87.7% finished.  78.5 miles to go.

CO Trail virtual ride - 371 miles down.  178 to go.  I have until the end of September to finish this so I'm not in a big rush.  Plus I got word that the Lake City Alpine 50 will be happening, so at some point I'll have to start riding more miles.

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

2020 is halfway over!

Halfway through 2020, here are the numbers:

run - 824 miles, 154.5 hours
ride - 1433 miles, 144 hours
hike - 653 miles, 244 hours

All of those put me a little ahead of the number goals I set at the beginning of the year.  Plus I've been fairly regular at the garage gym thing, hopefully making up for the lack of climbing.

I should be done with all my virtual stuff in July - Tennessee and the CO Trail.  I fully expect Chicago to cancel one of these days.

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Bob's

Ran up to the Bob's aid station on Saturday, my first solid hill run in quite some time.  My MAF pace is pretty weak on the climbs right now and I have some work to do before late August.  11.5 miles total.

Hit Fossil after the run for a parking lot party.  This was the first live music I've seen since mid-March.


Pretty good week.

run - 40 miles, 7:15
ride -  70 miles, 6:21
hike -  32 miles, 12 hours

My great virtual run across Tennessee is slowly winding up, I'm at 500.9 miles, in lovely Talbott, TN.  78.9% done.

A little over halfway on the Colorado Trail bike ride, 312 miles (out of 549).

Friday, June 26, 2020

CityRock 30!

Run commute 41.  Four miles there, 5.5 miles back home.  On the way home I got to watch a bobcat climb a six foot fence which was pretty cool.

But the big news was my first trip to CityRock to climb since March 10.  The gym is open, though pretty much empty besides me and a few bazillion bottles of hand sanitizer placed everywhere.  My climbing is super weak, as was expected, but it was nice to get back there.


Thursday, June 25, 2020

Knoxville

Mon - track.   8 x 200m, untimed.  Good effort.  Also got out for an hour ride later in the day.

Tues - bike commute 46.  Ten miles to work, eleven miles back home.  The wife and I also went to an hour session of yoga at CityRock.  We were the only two in the class.

Wed - run commute 40.  Good five mile effort to work, easy four miles back home.  Guitar lesson in the evening.  The F chord is ruining life right now.

Wednesday AM was also a motorless morning in the Garden.  $100 and I took the dog over for a nice, long road march.


I'm approaching Knoxville on my Tennessee run.  464.7 miles, 73.2% done.

Monday, June 22, 2020

incline 19

Had a great trip down to the San Juans last week.  We tried San Luis Peak but the wind was horrible once we got up to around 13000 feet, so we turned around.  I'll go back there for a solo attempt over July 4 weekend.  Rest of the weekend was spent in Chaffee County and we had a blast.  Hit up two new breweries over the trip - Irwin Brewing in Crested Butte and Tres Litros in Salida, both were good.

On Saturday a friend and I headed over to the Incline.  It's still closed, and there was a protest hike that morning.  We were a bit early for that, but on our way down we saw quite a few folks hiking.  The closure has nothing to do with public health and has become a pissing contest between Manitou and COS, so I'll start up weekly hikes up the thing again.

For the week ending June 20:

run - 30 miles, 5 hours 45 minutes
ride - 54 miles, seven hours
hike - 25 miles, 9.5 hours

For my Tennessee run I'm 431.6 miles in, 68% completed, just past Philadelphia, TN.  For the Breck Epic virtual CO trail ride I've gone 266 miles, almost halfway. 

Shit continues to slowly but surely open up here in Colorado.  I have reservations for yoga and climbing at CityRock this week.  The Pikes Marathon is a go.  The Classic 10k is taking registrations. 

My dog got me a pretty sweet fathers day present:


Friday, June 12, 2020

bike commute 44

Thurs - run commute 38.  5.25 to work, 5.71 back home.

Fri - bike commute 44.  Ten miles to work, six back home.

Taking the van down to the San Juans this weekend.  Been a while since I've been down there.  Buena Vista on Fri night, two day hike of San Luis Peak, some down time in Lake City, then 1.5 days to get back to Colorado Springs.

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

bike commute 43

Twenty miles total, on the bike, to and from work.

I am 341 miles through Tennessee.  Not competing with Dr. Slow Ride but if this was a real life race I could probably yell at him and he would hear me.  53.8% finished.

I also got suckered into doing a virtual Colorado Trail bike ride that started when the Breck Epic cancelled.  Doing even less inspiring there than Tennessee, as I sit at 159 miles (29% done).

We were originally planning on heading out to Fruita this weekend, but the dog pointed out that she does not enjoy temps in the mid 90s.  So we're gonna go hike San Luis Peak instead.  A 14 mile round trip at altitude is a bit much for a senior pup, so we're gonna overnight it.

Tuesday, June 09, 2020

run commute 37

Monday might have been a little rough on the hangover front but I did get the dog out twice for a combined five miles and did a 12 mile ride in Red Rock Canyon.

Tuesday was run commute 37.  Four miles there, four miles back.

I have doubled down on my lockdown musical education and am now learning to play two instruments.


Not sure if the ukulele is similar to playing a guitar, as I don't know how to play a guitar.  Yet.

Holly is now an internet superstar.


Monday, June 08, 2020

incline 18

On Saturday I headed over to the incline.  It's still closed, but that seems to be due more to a pissing match between COS and Manitou more than any pandemic precautions.  They put a high school kid who should be working her summer job at the local pool at the base of the incline at 6AM to try to turn away hikers.  I was at the bottom tie at 5:15AM as to not have to deal with some 15 year old kid.  Great hike up, then dropped down Barr and ran the new-ish Ute Pass Trail that also starts at the base of the incline.  As I ran by that kid was sitting on a bench staring at her phone.  Got in nine miles total.  Hit Benny's later in the day with an old hasher buddy, becoming quite the regular there now that they're back open.

Our Air Force cadet returned on Saturday.  She headed back to the hill Monday morning.  She has to quarantine for 14 days and then she will help run basic training for the next wave of cadets. 

Kircher picked me up early Sunday and we went up Pikes via the Crags route.  Hot damn was it windy.  But we made it and it was my first big day in the mountains in a long time.  14 miles, just over five hours.  The first 14er for Ollie the dog.  Took a nice digger shortly after starting down the hill, my left hand and right knee are banged up pretty bad.  Should heal quickly though.

Another lackluster week in the books.

run - 35 miles, 6.5 miles
ride - 62 miles, six hours
hike - 38 miles, 13 hours

CityRock is showing signs of opening.  They're doing some weird reservation system now, but at least it's a start.

Friday, June 05, 2020

Winchester, TN

Wed - run commute 35.  Good five miler to work.  Home was a bit different, as I got word that Benny's was going to re-open.  So the run home included a long stop at Benny's followed by another long stop at Smiling Toad.

Thurs - morning was a 6.7 mile run over in Red Rock Canyon.  Evening was 7.6 mile fatbike ride in RRC, stopping by Fossil for a few mugs of Mammoth IPA.

Fri - run commute 36.  Little hard getting out of bed this morning but still got the dog out for a good hike before jogging 3.4 miles to the office.

Looks like CityRock will be opening back up soon.  I've been using my lunch hour since the gym closed to hike, getting good mileage towards getting across Tennessee.  I'll need to up the running mileage once CityRock is open again.  Currently 285 miles into the state, near Winchester.  44.9% done!

Wednesday, June 03, 2020

Crestone

Quick trip over the weekend and on Saturday morning we headed down to Crestone.  Love that place.  Just an overnighter but got in some good hikes with the dog.  Hit the Salida triple crown of Soulcraft/Moonlight/Elevation and they are all open for business.  Tried 14er Wiener on the way back home and that place is delicious!


Holmes track on Monday morning for 6 x 400, all in the 89-91 range.

Tuesday was bike commute 42.  Ten miles to and from work on the fatbike.

I'm currently 260 miles through Tennessee.  41% of the way there, near Crowley Hollow.  Projected finish of July 18, but I hope that date moves up as my wonky knee is starting to return to normal.