27/350

27 miles, six hours this afternoon.  Garden/Rampart Range Road/Williams/Incline/Barr/Intemann/Red Rock Canyon.  Overall pace was skewed because I ran with Brooks for about 100 meters before I hit the Incline and he went off up to Barr Camp.  Really wilted under the heat while on the Intemann trail, with about seven miles to go.  Could have called $100 to come pick me up, but really, what kind of pussy would make such a call of shame?

Just over 350 miles for the month of March.  Think it's the second highest total ever for me.  Wasn't planning on such a high month, but the weather had me out a lot more than I was planning.  Five runs of 21+ miles on the month.  That's about four more non-race long runs than I've ever done in a Hardrock buildup.

Congrats to Pitt hoops, 2012 champions!

the latest crossfit t-shirt

Thurs

Way over on the mileage for the month, so I'm dropping the two-a-days until April.  Skipped this morning, but hit the Incline after work.  6.2 miles, 90 minutes.  Really starting to get after it on the Incline.

Speaking of the Incline, crash space available here in OCC for anyone doing the Inclinathon on April 7th.  I'll be starting significantly later than the new official start time of 3AM though.

bike

Came across a pretty awesome statistic today, pulled from this article.

One mile on a bike is a $.42 economic gain to society, one mile driving is a $.20 loss.

Could help explain why Fort Collins is so much cooler than Colorado Springs, even though our trails are better and our ultrarunners perform at a much higher level (or it could also be the fact that Colo State is infinitely cooler than UCCS or Colorado College).

Anywho, it inspired me to add a bike-to-work day starting next week.  Debating either Monday or Friday.  And only during the warm weather, as if there's one thing I hate more than biking it's biking in the cold.

Not that I'm a treehugger by any means.  Last night $100 and I revamped our plans to drive 1600+ miles roundtrip so we could see a waterfall.

commute #14

Easy six to work this morning, 57 minutes.  Post-work run will be two blocks over to the Knob Hill Lounge to get drunk enough to deal with cyclists, as I'll be checking out the local viewing of Bicycle Dreams tonight.

food

Think some of the CRUD guys might be whining to letsrun about binge eating.

Maybe our new slogan will be, "There is no such thing as over training, just under eating!"

Dog Jog

Still a bit sore from the weekend, so I bailed on the track and took the dog on a tour of Old Colorado City.  Better safe than sorry.  Four miles, 40 minutes.

No Name Creek

AM - Easy run up to No Name Creek with the dog.  Was planning on going all the way up to Barr Camp, but the legs were pretty shot today.  Bonus mileage on the Intemann Trail to get two hours in.  7.2 miles.

Saw Tommy M out there getting after it.  Dude seems to be in pretty good shape.

PM - Three miles very easy with the dog in Red Rock Canyon.  Had planned on going further but I'm still pretty sore from the weekend.

Dog did twelve miles with $100 yesterday, then ten today with some good climbing.  Working her into 14er shape...

91.5

Another solid week, capped off with back-to-back long trail runs in Pueblo (22.5) and Denver (30+).  I rarely do back-to-backs and never run over 30 miles in training, so this weekend is a huge confidence booster for me.

Very happy with the way March is shaping up.  Already at 290 miles.  Last year, while struggling with PF, I had 270 for the entire month.  In March of '09, when I ran my Hardrock PR (36:35), I had 305 miles.  In March '10, getting big miles in for the Rocky Mountain Slam, I hit 373.  In none of those previous months was I taking one rest day a week, and my long runs over the past 30 days have been much better.

Just need to keep this up for one more month, then let the 46 races I'm running in May/June do their thing, and I'll be ready to go come July!

Bingo Burger!

Refueling after 22.5 miles around Pueblo Res.

dog jog

Four miles very easy with the dog this morning, 40 minutes.  Think she was sore from two big workouts yesterday, AM Barr Trail and PM Incline.

First back-to-back long runs coming up this weekend.  Pueblo and the CO Trail.  We'll see how it goes.  Need to get my ass in gear one of these days, I have a 100K coming up in less than a month.

Watched the free Sender Films shorts on Outside last night.  Alex Honnold is my new hero.

Barr

Barr Trail tempo run.  Tied my PR by matching the wood fence above the Top of the W's in 30 minutes.  Top of the W's in 28:30.  Think a 2:59:59 pace is getting there around 25 minutes (starting from the Cog, where BTMR starts, maybe someone can correct this pace?).  Without the dog I think I could hit 25 right now, she gets real skittish when we see other runners/hikers and I have to slow down to keep her in sight.  New level of excuse making for me, blaming the dog.

Pitt is in the championship game!  Natalee, closet Pitt fan that she is, was at the game.  Always nice to win a game, especially this year, but DAMN I sure wish that Butler W could have came last year.  The Pirates are 7-10 in the Grapefruit league, and ahead of five other teams, so far.  So at least I have the possibility of a solid .400 season to celebrate after the CBI tourney is over.

commute #13

Commute #13.  Easy five to work, 45 minutes.

Any reason why my garmin now reads 5.0 miles for this, when it used to read 5.5 for the same course?

Geb is now running and racing for the same reason as the rest of us - to keep from getting fat.

Barr

Very easy run up Barr Trail tonight.  40 minutes up, 20 minutes down.

new sport to dominate!

quote of the day

"Running for 4-5 hours is for idiots."

-This guy, who tanked at Chuckanut with a 4:14.  Couldn't even hold on to beat Fast Eddy so we could claim South CRUD dominance.

track

CC track this morning with Andy.  Really jacked up my back over the weekend (and in good St. Pat's form I can't remember how I did it).  Nothing makes you feel like you're getting old like a lower back injury.  Anywho, took it easy just to make sure the back didn't get worse.  One mile warm up, 5 x 1000m with 400m RBI, one mile cool down.  4:10, 3:50, 3:47, 3:47, 3:43.

First day of spring, let's hope the temps keep rising!

Pitt is in the final four!

Can't imagine how much longer the Colorado Springs Gazette will be in business.  Their entire coverage of the Manning thing has been stealing articles from the Denver Post, and reporting comments from their facebook page as news.

Seems this Reebok ad is causing some controversy.  I remember this slogan on a t-shirt back when I ran high school track.  What I can't remember is the last time I saw anyone wearing Reebok.

drunks are nice people!

Very nice of this guy to return the bike.

Of course, the big news here on the front range.  Manning is so good he almost has as many super bowl rings as Big Ben!

73

Another solid week despite alcohol ruining all my weekend runs.  73 miles, including four straight days (Mon through Thurs) with a two hour run.  Today's run wasn't super long (15 miles, three hours) but it was the first time all year I've been able to run the entire Section 16 hill.

Thinking of doing an out and back on Section 1 of the Colorado Trail this Sunday.  Should be just under 34 miles.  Anyone interested in joining me?  I'll leave the Springs at 6AM and hope to step off around 7:15AM.

elite CRUD training