bucket list

Got this idea of Evan. List of runs I need to do before I croak, in no particular order. Keep in mind that Hardrock, Leadville, and the San Juan Solstice would be had I not finished them already. Hope to knock two of these off the list shortly.

1. Nolans 14 - Not sure I could do this in the 60 hour time limit, but might take a week or so to do this some day.

2. Boston Marathon - the history of this race in incredible. April 2010!

3. Western States 100 - I'm intrigued over all the hype.

4. Grand Canyon R2R2R - 43 miles across the Grand Canyon and back. I hear great things about this run. Tentatively scheduled for April...

5. Comrades Marathon - another one for the running history buffs. This would be part of a dream vacation to run Comrades, hike Kilimanjaro, and run in the Rift Valley.

6. Mountain Masochist - just love the name, and I bet the t-shirt is super cool.

7. Colorado Trail - Denver to the Ska Brewery in Durango. I'll do this next time I get laid off or fired as it would take me over three weeks to finish.

it's back!

This year's Mile High Music Festival will be held July 18-19. Perfect way to recover from Hardrock!

Lineup isn't announced yet, but I have a huge boner over this rumor!

official sponsorship

King's Chef Diner has donated $100 and free bacon cheeseburgers to my Hardrock/Leadville adventure! Woohoo! That loot should cover the cost of all the Pabst I'll need!

Be sure to check out their new website!

RIP

Sad day in the newspaper world today as the Rocky Mountain News, which I thought was by far the better of the two newspapers from Denver, published it's last issue. I spent an hour driving around town to find a copy this morning, and the only one I could scrounge up was a damaged copy that was missing the front cover. Just one last great read...

The Wailers!

Woohoo! The Wailers announced for Copper Sunsation! And they're playing the off week of the Desert RATS festival! Hooray for back to back weekends in Leadville and Fruita!

HPb 93 - CRC happy hour and new schwag!

Easy run north past Goose Gossage from CRC.  Felt good.  But the big news was my attempt at getting John O a new TV by trying to buy out the store.  Got two new pairs of shoes, both of which I plan to attempt my Hardrock/Leadville double in.  First up:

The Sportiva Fireblade.  Same great shoe I wore last year, but a much less gay color.  For somereason these are my go-to shoes for Barr Trail.

Also picked up a pair of Sportiva Imogene.  The Imogene are my favorite all time pair of shoes, both because I have ran well and injury free in them, and because I paid $76 for my last pair and logged 736 miles on them before I turned them into my primary hashing shoes.

And on top of all that, I got a new hydration system, the Nathan Elite 2V.  I used to have a North Face belt which I absolutely LOVED, but one time after the Danielsesque marathon I left it on top of my jeep as I drove off.  I've been unable to find a decent replacement since, and this is my last shot.  I liked the last Nathan vest/bladder I had, but it always made me feel like I was wearing a bra and believe it or not I gave it to a chick in Austin once for certain services (worth every penny!).  Anywho, Nathan is a sponsor of Fast Eddy, and when I pass him at Hardrock this year I'm gonna ask him to autograph it for me!

Sorta gives me an idea - if any of my hot chick groupies want my 1000+ mile worn out Sportiva Imogene, make me an offer...

Finally...

...an update to my Pikes blog!  See it here or click the link on the side.

newsletter stuffing cancelled tonight

For all you lurkers who grill me on my blog at the monthly PPRR newsletter stuffing, it's been rescheduled for tomorrow - Thursday, February 26. So if you show up tonight be prepared to run and drink. And be sure to talk to John O about your favorite TV shows, since his TV was recently stolen!

post-marathon blues

Still felt broken down yesterday so I bailed on not only my normal Tuesday night run, but also my normal Wed morning run. Stupid road races. Nothing too horrible but I wanna make sure I'm 100% recovered before moving on to the mountain trails. Do an easy Goose Gossage from CRC tonight, the PPRR run tomorrow morning, Incline happy hour, and some easy trails on Friday morning. Gotta be better by Saturday though, as it's yet another road race - the dreaded Black Forest double (24 miles)!

HPb 92 - PPRR morning run

Joined the PPRR downtown crew for some speedwork on Tuesday morning. The planned workout was a 15 minute warm-up, then 2 x 12 minutes hard with 6 minutes rest in between. That was to be followed by 6 hill repeats up the hill near the Fine Arts Center. I ran pretty well on the 12 minute repeats (up and back on the Sante Fe trail) but I didn't want to push myself on the hill repeats as I'm finding out that I'm not fully recovered from Austin yet.

Start time - 6AM
Distance - 6.8 miles
Time - 55:00
Pace - 8:06 per mile
Weather - 50F
Weight - 172 lbs

HPb 91 - Incline

Hit the Incline on Monday night, probably a bit too early since my quads were giving me hell all the way up the hill. Took the Intemann trail over since the weather was so awesome. No snow at all on the Incline or Barr Trail, though it's still a bit slippery near the creek leading back to Ruxton. Didn't see another soul out there, felt like I had the whole mountain to myself.

Start time - 6PM
Distance - 7 miles
Time - 1:45:00
Pace - 15:00 per mile
Weather - 45F
Weight - 171 lbs

Jerry Garcia b-day DIM hash

It's on August 3rd this year! Prepare your tie-dye!

kill 'em all!

Wow, lots of good stuff in today's Gazette!

Turns out Greeley, which is a lot different than Manitou but obviously a lot like Colorado Springs, wants to criminalize being gay.

"I'm not saying this (homosexuality) is the only sin that's out there," said Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley. "We have murder. We have all sorts of sin. We have adultery. And we don't make laws making those legal, and we would never think to make murder legal."

I've never been to Greeley, but I always assumed that it was a college town (Univ. of North Colorado is up there). Guess I was mistaken. How the hell could Sen. Renfroe get elected in a state that isn't Alabama?

Loved this quote from the Gazette:

"He compared the nuclear family structure to the Holy Trinity and, quoting the book of Genesis, said women had been created to be "helpers" for men."

Organized religion, gotta love it! I'm gonna have $100 clean my house today and tell her it's 'cuz god demands she do it. I'll let everyone know how that goes over.

And there's that nuclear family thing again! I always giggle when I hear that term. I won't get into that here, but I'm having trouble thinking of anyone I know who actually belongs to one.

Anywho, see the article here.

legalize it!

Woohoo! California looking to legalize marijuana! Read about it here. Nice to see 'em taking a different approach and looking at all the tax revenue that could be raised. With the tough economic times, especially in California, and the new administration, who knows???

Still can't believe politicians won't return my letters concerning a tax on divorces. Slap a five grand tax on divorces in this country, and the recession ends tomorrow.

Carpenter in the NY Times

Good article in the NY Times on fellow Manitoid Matt Carpenter.  See it here.  I think my article in the Gazette was ten times better!

HPb 90 - Red Rock Canyon

Back to serious training after taking last week off. Nice early morning run through Red Rock Canyon. Felt pretty good.

Starting a new phase of my training today, gonna be doing a lot more on the trails and hills to start getting ready for Hardrock and Leadville. Thank gawd, I was really getting sick and tired of all that road running.

Start time - 5:30AM
Distance - 6.3 miles
Time - 1:10:48
Pace - 11:15 per mile
Weather - 35F
Weight - 172 lbs

back on top!

Kudos to the Pitt Panthers, who have climbed back to #1 in the college hoops world. See the poll here. The Big East has five of the top ten teams!

one more race?

Thinking of adding the Desert RATS trail festival to my schedule. 50 miler on Saturday and 10 miler on Sunday, all on what look like pretty cool trails out in Fruita. Gotta wait to see the final lineup for Sunsation before I commit, if the good folks out at Copper Mountain drop an awesome lineup on Saturday then I'll stay in Leadville that weekend, but if not it's off to the Western Slope Pueblo!

concert math

Just got two tix to see Joe Bonamassa at the Pikes Peak Center on March 12th. Somehow two $29 tickets ended up costing me 80 bones. Stupid fees. I'd feel better about it if they just charged 40 bucks per ticket, instead of jacking on all those extra fees.