51

Lots to catch up on.

Returned from a big van trip down to Creede and Del Norte.  Ran well at the Creede 50, finishing the tough course in 13:59:01.  Tempest Adventures once again delivered a nice ass kicking, low key run.  Then the next day I got up and ran the San Juan Sports local race, a 5.8 miler on the Shallow Creek Trail.  Took the next day off but got right back at it with a summit of Phoenix Peak, a Colorado Centennial and the 73rd highest peak in the state.  Mookie loved it.

Lots of other great hikes/runs in Creede while we were there, including Inspiration Point and Up & Over.  Plus lots of visits to Sunnyside, Kip's, and the Tommyknocker.  And two showers in a bar!

After Creede we made our way over to Del Norte for Rhythms on the Rio.  Such a great event and it killed yet again this year!  Mornings were a big hike up Lookout Mountain and a dip in the Rio Grande with the pup, afternoons were spent at Three Barrel and hanging in the river, and fantastic music the rest of the day.  Even ran the Bee's Knees 5k, a local trail race benefiting the high school cross country team.

July was a big month for me.

run - 310 miles, 69 hours, 40000 feet of vert

hike - 180 miles, 78 hours, 28000 feet of climbing.

I turned 51 in early August on a late night SAR mission up at Rampart Range.  Hit the Sublime show later that day to celebrate.

more SAR

Little low on the running miles but such is life.  Still a good week as most of those hiking miles involved a pretty heavy pack.

Big SAR week with training and missions and hanging out at the Barr Trail Mountain Race.  

SAR Dog training on Saturday, some urban stuff up in Monument.  Just as we ended a mission kicked off.  Some kid had a really bad bike wreck near Barr Camp that required a helicopter evac.  In case the chopper couldn't make it I got to drive the ORV up Longs Ranch Road to Bob's Road.

Luckily it was a pretty uneventful day for BTMR, no serious runner issues.  I left the TH at 4AM to hike up to Barr Camp and hang out.

For the week:

run - 58 miles, ten hours, 3200 feet of climbing

hike - 40 miles, 17 hours, 6700 feet of climbing

keepin' on

Got some miles in over the past week despite SAR attempting to steal all my time.  Up to 72 run commutes, 22 inclines, 69 trips to Planet Fitness, and 30 Iron Mountain summits.

For the week ending July 12:

run - 72 miles, 17.5 hours, 9900 feet of climbing

hike - 50 miles, 20 hours, 5600 feet of climbing (see above comment about SAR)

Things caught up with me on Monday as I was fairly under the weather.  Keeping with the SAR theme I did respond to an Incline mission (patient ended up hiking down before SAR arrived) and recertified my BLS/CPR.

Had Hiccup duty the past few days.  The dogs are not enjoying this heat, but I do what I can to make them happy.

Palmer Lake Fun Run

Hope to up the mileage this month to prep for the San Juan Softie.  

Big run on Friday, heading up Barr Trail to Barr Camp to say hello to the new caretakers.  Came back down for an incline trip during the heat of the day.  Six hours and 6000 feet of climbing on the day.

On Saturday I headed up north to Palmer Lake for their annual four mile run.  Decent run for me, got off to a slow start due to so many people but steadily working up through the field.  Splits were 7:05: 6:47, 6:34, and 6:25 for the downhill course.  Solid effort.  Kind of a new tradition for me as I'm able to sneak this in before helping with SAR duties at the Monument parade.

SAR training on Sunday morning, then as I was headed over to the Incline the pager went off.  It was for a dehydrated/exhausted dog so of course I responded.  The dog ended up being fine, but the rescue took a chunk of my day and I ended up with zero miles.

For the week:

run - 74 miles, 17 hours, 12700 feet of vert

hike - 36 miles, 14 hours, 43200 feet of climbing

June

Pretty big month considering I basically missed a week due to eyeball surgery.  Nice to get in long runs at the Great Divide 100k and Rachel Carson.

run - 277 miles, 61.5 hours, 37811 feet of climbing

hike - 139 miles, 58 hours, 16660 feet of vert

Up to 67 run commutes, 29 trips to CityRock, and 67 visits to Planet Fitness, including one in Pittsburgh.

low numbers

Not a great week as I took most of it off due to eye surgery.  Kept busy with SAR though, we've been getting a lot of calls lately.

run - 15 miles, 2.5 hours, a whopping 858 feet of ascent

hike - 36 miles, 17 hours, 5k of climbing

Took Mook and Millie up to Monument to hike with my SAR dog friends Sora and Boomer.  Good times!

Rachel Carson

Been talking about this for years now, nice to finally get the thing done.  Crazy that the city of Pittsburgh has a 37 mile trail that's mostly singletrack that cruises the north side of town.  Ran well, loved every minute of the day.  Predicted nine hours, ended up running 8:52.

Rest of the trip was fantastic, as Pittsburgh always is.  Saw some old friends, visited some old bars, hung out at Pitt for a while.  Always miss that place.

For the week:

run - 82 miles, 18 hours, 12k of climbing

hike - 31 miles, 14 hours, 2125 feet of climbing

Back home on Monday, eye surgery on Tuesday.  Hopefully my farsightedness gets much better after this.  No strenuous activity for a week.

Hiccup

Mon - easy five miles in the AM, pretty sore from the Garden.  Incline 18 after work.

Tues - run commute 63.  Five there, 6.4 back.  CityRock for lunch.

Wed - run commute 64.  Five there, 4.2 back.  SAR training in the evening.

Thurs - early morning Iron Mountain with the dogs, then run commute 65.  7.5 there, five back.

We've been dogsitting our friend Hiccup for the past week while his owners are in Alaska.  Been a great time!

Off to Pittsburgh tomorrow.  Finally running the Rachel Carson Trail Challenge I've been talking about for years now.  Very excited, for the run and for all the Yuengling and Iron City I'm going to get to drink.

Springs Downhill Mile/Garden 10

Mon - incline 17.

Tues - run commute 61, five there and six back.

Wed - run commute 62, five there and six back.

Thurs - run commute 63.  Planned for a longer run home but I ran into Tremboli and Carson on the Santa Fe trail.  They were on their way to Goat Patch Brewing so I joined them.

Fri - nice 7.5 miler on the Garden trails in the AM.  Was planning on an evening incline but as I was leaving the house the SAR alarm went off and I headed up to Palmer Lake to help find a lost hiker.

Sat - Springs Downhill Mile.  Officially 5:46, my Garmin had my mile at 5:38 with a long course.  Solid effort, I was hurting really bad the last quarter mile.  Then off to hang with the SAR dogs.  After that I was on my way over to the incline when the damn SAR alarm went off again.  Did end up at the top of the Incline, but I got a ride up.  Ended up getting to drive our off road vehicle back down Longs Ranch Road which was fun.

Sun - Garden 10 miler.  1:13:31.  Love this race.  Ran smart and pushed hard.  Saw a buddy a ways up at the Balanced Rock turnaround and I spent the next 2.5 miles trying to catch him.  Was really in the hurt locker the final three miles of the race.  On the last steep hill he caught a peek of me sneaking up on him and he surged and got a little gap on me, and that was enough that I couldn't catch him over the final miles.  

Decent week.  Wanted a few more miles and a bit more vert, but SAR fucked things up on that front.

run - 61 miles, 12 hours, 6900 feet of climbing

hike - 31 miles, 14 hours, 4500 feet of climbing

Great Divide 100k

Not quite as quick as I wanted but I covered some distance up at Mueller State Park on Saturday.  The low key Great Divide 100k was four laps around the park.  A good early season sufferfest to get me ready for some upcoming objectives.  Moved steadily the entire day, just slowed down a bit the last lap.  Nice trails up there, I'd visit a lot more if Colorado state parks were dog friendly.

For the week:

run - 94 miles, 22.5 hours, 14440 feet of climbing

hike - 31 miles, 12.5 hours, 3500 feet of climbing

Ark Valley Humane Society 5k

Great weekend as after some SAR stuff on Saturday we headed down to Salida.  Ran the Ark Valley Humane Society 5k with Mookie, visited some breweries, and camped out up near Beasway.  Mookie says we need more van in our lives.

The 5k was fun.  Mook and I got to the turnaround in a group that was challenging for second place, but with the heat and his tongue hanging out I backed off the pace in the second half.  He had a good time, especially the pup cup at the finish, but prefers our early morning off leash hikes.

Decent week, decent month.  Hope to start stepping things up in June to get ready for the San Juan Softie.

For the week:

 run - 36 miles, 6.5 hours

 hike - 39 miles, 19.5 hours

For the month of May:

run - 194 miles, 35 hours

hike - 141 miles, 68 hours

Little Italy/Hero/Y

Spent the long Memorial Day weekend taking the Pikes Peak Alpine School mountaineering class.  I knew I'd learn a lot but didn't know I'd get to cross a few items off my bucket list.

Friday was spent out at Elevenmile Canyon learning how to trad climb.  I struggled here, as I do with all climbing above fifth class, but survived.  And learned a lot about anchors.

Saturday started with some snow review - anchors, self arrest, movement over snow/ice.  Then we went and climbed Little Italy, a couloir on Pikes near Glen Cove on the Pikes Peak Highway.  I had always wanted to climb this but never got around to it.  Straight up and straight back down, had a blast.

On Sunday we did a mixed rock and snow route on the ridge near Little Italy.  Included some easy technical climbing above 12k that crushed me, but I got it done.

Monday was the big final exam.  The Hero Traverse over to the Y Couloir.  Had always wanted to tackle this but didn't want to go it alone the first time, there are some severe consequences for mistakes.  Snow was in good condition the whole way and the climb was fantastic!  Really feel like I've upped my snow game after this weekend.

19:29!

Finally got to do a flat, fast 5k with lots of fast people to help me through, and it paid off!  19:29 at the Colfax 5k in Denver's City Park on Saturday.  Splits were 6:13, 6:08, and 6:14.  The last mile hurt real hard but I held on.  Had a feeling I'd break 20 but didn't think I'd go sub 19:30, so I was over the moon happy with this effort.

Might have had a few beers after that and probably stayed up a bit too late for the Keller Williams show, but such is life.

Marathon the next day was a solid long run.  First ten miles went real well, then I took a short detour to the Lakeview Lounge.  Then two beers during mile 14.  Another ten miles got me to Reverence Brewing, where I saw the four hour pace group pass by.  Didn't chase them, but as I looked at my watch towards the end I saw I could still do it if I unleashed my inner Usain Bolt over the last 200m.  Officially finished in 3:59:42.

Solid group from El Paso County SAR up for the race.

For the week:

run - 61 miles, ten hours, 3300 feet of climbing.

hike - 39 miles, 16 hours, 3300 feet of climbing.