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.

HPb week 12

Very easy week to recover from Austin. Great runs on Monday and Tuesday down in Austin, followed up with some easy runs up in Denver and rest days on Saturday and Sunday. Still not fully recovered, but it shouldn't take too much longer.

HPb 85 - 5.4 miles, 58:44. Greenbelt run out and back from Barton Springs. Very sore today, but I couldn't pass up the chance to get back on the GB.

HPb 86 - 5 miles, 53:13. Easy run around Town Lake in the rain.

HPb 87 - 2.6 miles, 23:44. CRC happy hour.

PPb 88 - 3 miles, 35:19. Wash Park in Denver with Social Retard. Post run burgers at the Cherry Cricket!

HPb 89 - 4 miles, 40 minutes. Out and back on Iliff from my hotel.

Weekly distance - 20.0
Weekly time - 3:30:00
Average pace - 10:32 per mile

2009 distance - 440.5 miles
2009 time - 75:09:42 (3 days, 3 hours)
2009 pace - 10:14 per mile
average 2009 run - 8.15 miles

7AM

It's 7AM on Mardi Gras Saturday.  

Are you drinking yet?

I am!

2 weeks!

Went for an early morning run today, my 14th consecutive day! One of the longest ever for me, though the streak ends tomorrow.

Finally losing the soreness from Austin. Should be able to start training hard again on Sunday, just in time for the Incline Club.

Denver

Off to Denver for the next few days on a work trip.  Blech.  Gives me a good chance to check out some new dive bars though...

HPb 84 - Austin marathon

You wouldn't know it by reviewing my training log and the zillions of nine and ten (and worse...) minute miles there, but I knew I was going to break 3:10 and qualify for Boston at the Austin marathon. So while it may have surprised a lot of people, it was just another day at the office for me.

Race started 15 minutes late, just one of MANY screw-ups by the folks in charge. But, no big deal, just tried real hard to survive the initial rush of 13,000+ runners and keep the 3:10 group within sight. Made it to mile one unscathed in 7:45. The 3:10 group was well ahead but it wasn't time to panic.

Continued running very easily. Slowly picked things up and caught the back of the 3:10 group around 2.5 miles. Feeling good, no sign of a lingering hangover at all. Ran south on Congress Ave for what felt like forever, but it was good to see my old town once again. We soon turned off Congress onto some back alley with a lot of dumpsters. I remember thinking, "I'd expect this on a hash, but it's not really what I think of when I run a big city marathon." I guess the entire group was thinking along the same lines, as someone yelled out, "If you're from out of town, welcome to Austin!"

Hit three miles in 21:30 and things felt too easy. I thought about throwing caution to the wind here and taking off, but I forced myself to remain near the pack. For the next few miles I would find myself getting ahead of the group, and would have to force myself to slow down. Saw an old trail running buddy, Jason, here. Nice to catch up with him. Also saw BLOS just ahead. He was running the half marathon, trying to keep BQ pace. I caught up to him several times and each time I'd yell at him to pick things up. He ended up PR'ing.

The next few miles were more of the same. I'd start to pull away from the 3:10 group, and I'd force myself to slow down and wait for them. I was running at least ten yards in front of them to avoid the huge mass of people there, but I always made sure they weren't too far behind.

Shortly after passing by the aid station at RunTex I saw a sign that made me laugh and would stay in my head for a good chunk of the race. It had the directions for running a marathon the right way:

1. Approach
2. Pass
3. Laugh
4. Repeat

Good stuff!

Continued down Cesar Chavez (I think it's a city ordinance that every race in the town must include that road), around SFA high school, and way out Lake Austin Blvd, a stretch that I always hate running. It was here that I could feel a change in the atmosphere around the 3:10 peeps. I didn't know it at the time, but I was about to start the "big" climb.

Looks like we went from about 450 feet above sea level at mile 7.5 all the way to 750 feet just after 18 miles. A whopping 350 foot climb in 10+ miles! If I get a shitty parking spot in Manitou I hafta climb more than that to get to my apartment. But hey, not everyone is lucky enough to live on a mountain.

So the fun began, though I missed out since it was pretty flat to me. Kept running well, feeling good. Hit ten miles in 1:11:27, decently ahead of my goal pace (1:12:31). So after ten miles I was looking at a 3:09 finish if I could keep up the pace. Boston or bust!

Shortly after 11 miles I heard, "why are you letting me pass you on a hill, brownie?" It was Wiley, who was busy running some weird varied pace workout that would take him painfully close to his all time PR. I originally let him go, but soon after he passed I decided not to keep running like a sissy. Slowly picked the pace up and soon caught Wiley. I was gonna talk some smack to him to get him to come along, but he was having vagina cramps. He looked pretty bad and I figured he'd run 3:45 or something lame but he must have rebounded pretty well, finishing in 3:10.

Kept picking up the pace and picking people off. Began to pass A LOT of folks at this point. Hit the halfway point in 1:33:33. This immediately made me think back to last year's Platte River half marathon. Despite staying up all night partying and feeling like shit the morning of the race, I ran 1:26. I'm in much better shape now than I was then, and I was feeling much better, so I had this brief moment where I really thought I could break three hours. And I went for it.

The next seven miles would be the best part of the race for me. I'd average 6:55 per mile through here. Was pushing about as hard as I could, thinking I had a chance to go sub three. Didn't care that my early surge could backfire and cause me to lose the BQ. I had a shot at glory, and I went after it.

But it's not a Disney movie, and after fighting to get down to a predicted 3:03 finish at about 20 miles, the wheels came off. I started to feeling twinges in my left hamstring and calf. Looked like the oxygen advantage I had received all day was finally giving way to the reality of training at ten minute pace. In 2005 when I ran Austin, I was on three hour pace through 20 miles when the same leg cramped up, forcing me to walk most of the final 10K and finish in 3:20. So when the leg issue looked like it may repeat itself, I backed off.

But backing off didn't mean giving up. I was still running hard. I was just paying for it a lot more now. Around mile 21 I caught Larry. Of course I made a snide comment about how he was falling back because his coach sucked ass.

Shortly after mile 21 the suffering increased greatly. My left leg kept getting worse and the pain started hammering the rest of my body. Luckily, I soon ran into the HCTR folks. I knew a group of trail runners would have salt out the wazoo, and Pete grabbed a few tablets and gave me a glass of beer to wash 'em down with. This solved the cramping issues for the next few miles, so in effect it may have saved my race.

I continued to run hard but it was tough to keep going. I ran right past one of my best friends, Twin Peaks (who was out cheering on the runners), and didn't even notice until I had passed her. I also suddenly became unable to do basic math, as I couldn't keep track of pace in my head and just knew the 3:10 group was right behind me, though in reality they were over five minutes back at this point. That was a blessing in disguise though, as it kept me running scared.

Ran down Duval, a stretch I've run countless times when I used to spend weekends in Austin. Ran past the Crown, luckily it wasn't open or I may have been tempted to drop out there. 24 miles, and even though I'm at 3:05 pace now I once again flub up the calculation and swear the 3:10 group is about to pass me. So I hammer up Dean Keaton and down Guadalupe, using the crowds on the UT campus to push me on. I'm now running about as hard as I can, leaving everything out there.

Coming down MLK we pass a church, and the pastor is outside holding a sign that says "The End Is Near" and it cracks me up. Religious people with a sense of humor! I can tell I'm not in Colorado Springs anymore!

I make the turn onto San Jacinto and hear the hashers cheering for me at the beer check. Nacheaux runs a can of PBR to me as I pass the 800 meters to go sign. I hit the hash beer check in just over three hours. I'm smoked, and after I climb the final hill I jog the last .1 mile down Congress Ave, finishing in 3:04:10. My third fastest time ever.

It was such a great feeling crossing that finish line, getting that BQ out of the way, and knowing that for the next two days I could drink myself into a stupor. Got my huge finisher's medal, got a bomber of Pabst, and then just hung out looking for old Austin friends of mine. Sure was glad I got to see a bunch of 'em.

Some thoughts:

-The altitude advantage was huge over the first 18 miles. Probably helped me run 30 seconds per mile faster than I could have had I been doing the Denver marathon instead. That advantage ended after the 18 mile mark though, and I had to push as hard as I've ever pushed in a race to keep from completely falling apart.

-At the 19 mile mark I passed, very quickly, two musclebound tri-dorks. As I went by the duo, I heard one of them say to the other, "you'll see a lot of carnage from here on in. People just don't know how to train. Look at this guy, he's fucking wearing trail shoes. What the hell is he doing out here?" What I was doing was embarassing the two, on their home course, right at the point that separates the men from the boys. Pussies.

-There was a lot of carnage though. Over the final 10K, which I was averaging a very hard fought 7:14 per mile, I passed a lot of people walking, one guy sitting on the curb crying, and at least two people who had stopped and were trying to massage out cramps. I often make fun of the marathon distance (oh, you ran a marathon? how cute!) but if you run it hard, as opposed to just run to finish, it's a fucking rough race.

-Not everyone is a hero on race day. As I was walking back to the hash beer check to root on some friends, I saw a runner who had collapsed onto the 26 mile marker. He was out cold, and the EMT's were about to put him on a stretcher, ending his race with less than a downhill quarter mile to go.

-It had the numbers, but Austin has a long way to go if it wants to be a big time marathon. A late start, retardedly deficient number of shitters at the starting line, running out of t-shirts, long and boring sections of the course with no crowd, and a bunch of other SNAFUs. Austin has the best running community of any place I've lived, but the marathon definitely didn't reflect that. Salida is run much better and I only pay $35 for that (and the shirts are much better).

-After this effort I don't think I'll need to change much in my training to PR In Boston.

-My quads are still hurting like hell today, three days after the marathon. Stupid road races. I'm a lot more sore now than after I finished Hardrock and Leadville. But I did get two hour long runs in on Mon and Tues, one at the Greenbelt and one on Town Lake. I've now run 11 straight days, 17 of the past 18 days, and 28 of the last 30 days.

HPb 83 - easy OCC

One last workout before Austin. Had planned to go five miles but it was cold and snowing and I was looking at a warm weather vacation so I bagged it. Out and back to Bancroft Park from Katie's.

Start time - 6AM
Distance - 2.3 miles
Time - 21:54
Pace - 9:32 per mile
Weather - 15F
Weight - 166 lbs

damn!

Just tried to go rego for Boston but they don't open the 2010 race 'till September.

pics

Can't figure out how to post 'em here, but you can see the official race pics of me by clicking here.

splits

Here's the official splits off the race website. They list the places too, though I'm not sure how accurate they are since I passed a lot more people than passed me over the final 10K. There were a lot of things screwed up with this race, I wouldn't be surprised if these times and places were off as well.

3 miles - 21:30 / 145th place
10 miles - 1:11:27 / 125th place
13.1 miles - 1:33:33 / 85th place
20 miles - 2:20:18 / 43rd place
26.2 miles - 3:04:10 / 52nd place

That same site lists me as 69th place overall but has my "marathon finishing rank" as #52? Maybe I crossed the line as #52 but 17 folks got ahead of me based on their chip time? Who knows. All I care about is that I got my BQ!

Still a decent negative split. 1:33:33 for the first half, 1:30:37 for the second half (despite two beer checks over the last 10K!).

stupid bird

Even after plugging in my 3:04 marathon, the Parrott predictor clocked in at 3:09:54 for me.

69!

I ended up finishing 69th overall at Austin!  Not too shabby since there were over 4000 finishers.

Ran the first half in 1:34:20.  Ran the second half in 1:30:10.

I am going to PR in Boston in 2010.

I'll get a race report out soon, as well as detailed stories about all the booze I downed.  Here's a shot of me carbo loading at the Mean Eyed Cat the night before the race:

3:04:10

Boston in oh-ten, baby!

on-out!

Off to Trinity and then Austin bound early Saturday! Not sure if you can track my marathon progress, but try going to the race website and if they have a link I'm number 2011. I'll update my blog, or possibly here, whenever I can but probably not very often since the Austin bars I love the most don't have internet access.

Lots of races going on this weekend. Good luck to everyone!

Katie, who obviously no longer works, made this on her laptop. All pics taken during Hardrock. Sheesh, you'd think she coulda found at least one picture of me actually running...

Sunsation

Just announced the first band for Copper Mountain Sunsation - Sound Tribe Sector 9! More bands to be announced shortly.

Hooray for the unofficial end of winter!!!!!

HPb 82 - easy Manitou

Overslept, and then had to shovel my sidewalks, so this was short and sweet. Went out and back along the Manitou hike and bike trail (which now goes all the way to I-24 behind the swimming pool, and they're still extending it) and then back into town with an extra loop around the Manitou hula hoop car for good luck. Very easy pace, felt good.

Start time - 6AM
Distance - 3.5 miles
Time - 30:54
Pace - 8:50 per mile
Weather - 14F
Weight - 166 lbs

HPb 81 - CRC to Goose

Easy run from the CRC to Goose Gossage Park and back along the Sante Fe trail. Wanted to go further but had to get to Arctic for Granny's happy hour. Picked up my race shirt from CRC, they look pretty sweet!

Start time - 6PM
Distance - 5.7 miles
Time - 52:37
Pace - 9:14 per mile
Weather - 30F
Weight - 168 lbs

more for gagger...

updated Austin schedule

Not too many changes other than seeing Bob Schneider at the Saxon on Monday night.

Sat 4PM - marathon expo
Sat 6PM - Lovejoy's!
Sat 7PM - Crown & Anchor (best bacon cheeseburgers in Texas!)

Sun 7AM - start marathon
Sun 10:09:59.99 - finish marathon
Sun noon - Colorado pic at the finish line
Sun 12:30 - Barton Springs
Sun 2PM - Austin hash! (celebrate 10 years of hashing - very fitting that the AH3 starts on Platte Road)
Sun 6:30PM - chickenshit bingo
Sun 9PM - Barfly!

Mon noon - Greenbelt run (slow, since Lulu is tagging along)
Mon 3PM - bars TBA
Mon 7:30PM - Bob Schneider @ Saxon Pub

HPb 80 - Intemann trail

Real easy run this morning, more to scout some parts of the Mardi Gras hash than a real run. Glad to take a short one though, since the "feels like" temp was -3F in Manitou. Don't worry Kimchi hashers, I ran some extra parts of the Intemann and the hash won't be nearly that long.

Start time - 6AM
Distance - 3.6 miles
Time - 33:19
Pace - 9:16 per mile
Weather - 8F
Weight - 169 lbs

HPb 79 - Garden/Keg

Nice run around the Garden ten mile course and ending at the Keg. Last decent run before Austin. Where the hell was the moon? Could barely see my hand in front of my face tonight.

Start time - 6PM
Distance - 10.2 miles
Time - 1:33:30
Pace - 9:10 per mile
Weather - 35F
Weight - 169 lbs

HPb 78 - Red Rock Canyon

Easy run through Red Rock Canyon. Contemplative trail, roundup trail, cut back across the quarry, and back along contemplative. Felt good. No more need for flashlights on 6AM runs!

Start time - 5.7AM
Distance - 7 miles
Time - 57:02
Pace - 10:01 per mile
Weather - 29F
Weight - 170 lbs

just for gagger...

The Keg

Gonna head home and do the Garden 10 miler and then head down to the Keg. There's a hash meeting concerning Manitou Mardi Gras tonight. Why are we having a meeting? Who the hell knows. I guess so everyone can feel more important about themselves. I'm sure something will be said about having everyone show up to the parade really drunk (I got yelled at for that last year, believe it or not). To which I'll reply, "I'm sorry, did you just say something? If so, you need to shut up and not talk to me 'cuz I'm busy drinking beer and watching Carolina/Duke."

But it'll be cool to drink at the Keg, which for some reason I don't do very often despite it being the second closest bar to my house (the Americal Legion is closest).

If anyone wants to join me, I'll be there around 7PM. Katie and Laura have been at the Loop drinking margaritas since 3PM, so if they haven't died of alcohol poisoning by then they said they'd be there too.

sixburgh!

full moon run

support local music!

KRCC just played the Jack Trades and Grant Sabin back to back! Wow, there just may be a decent local music scene in CSCO before too long...

Telluride Blues & Brews

Woohoo! Tickets for the 2009 Telluride Blues & Brews festival go on sale in early March! Be sure to get the camping pass too. Free pint of Icehouse to the first to name the above two guitar players...

HPb 77 - Bear Creek Tempo

Good run this morning with the PPRR downtown guys. Easy 1.6 mile warm-up over to Bear Creek Park, then a figure eight tempo run of 3.9 miles. Ran this real hard in 26:52, sounds slow but Bear Creek ain't exactly pancake flat. For the CRUD fans out there, I destroyed Muzzy and Sully (and don't believe his lame excuse about having to find his dog).

Just what the doctor ordered for a taper week - back to back tempo runs less than twelve hours apart! And just in case having a great run to start the day wasn't enough, when I went to the Y for my shower I found it was free t-shirt day! Woohoo!

Start time - 6AM
Distance - 7 miles
Time - 55:52
Pace - 7:59 per mile
Weather - 24F
Weight - 168 lbs

HPb 76 - full moon run

Good times at the one year anniversary of the Pikes Peak Road Runners full moon run.  Probably the biggest turnout yet.  Did a 1.6 mile warm up to the Manitou baseball fields and then ran the 5.5 mile hilly loop around the Garden in 39:01, which included stopping twice to let the pack catch up.  Fastest I've run in a long time.

Start time - 7PM

Distance - 7.1 miles

Time - 54:01

Pace - 7:37 per mile

Weather - 34F, clear skies, great view of the moon!

Weight - 171 lbs

HPb 75 - morning garden

Nice early morning easy run through the Garden and downtown Manitou.  Just something to get the horrible memory of yesterday's run out of my mind.

Start time - 5:30AM

Distance - 5.1 miles

Time - 45:16

Pace - 8:53 per mile

Weather - 35F, very windy

Weight - 172 lbs

the bet

Some of you old time Austin hashers will remember Spread 'Em, who now lives down in NOLA. She will be doing the Jacksonville (gay) marathon the same day I'm running Austin. She has put up a six pack of Abita Turbodog against a growler of Trinity over who will run faster.

She is aiming for a much faster time than me, though she tends to blow up in the short races a lot more than I do. Still, I may hafta head out with the 3:00 group instead of the 3:10 group to have a chance. No, I can't run three hours right now. But I can't run 3:10 either, so what's it matter?

Believe it or not, the shirts for the Jax marathon are pink.

HPb week ten

Not a bad week. Nearly matched my previous week despite taking a rest day. Actually been doing speedwork on Tues and Thurs mornings, that seems to be getting me into better shape. Gonna try to get 50 miles in before leaving for Austin...

Weekly distance - 73.0
Weekly time - 12:13:49
Average pace - 10:03 per mile

2009 distance - 337.8 miles
2009 time - 59:59:19
2009 pace - 10:39 per mile
average 2009 run - 8.7 miles

HPb 74 - the big suck

Yikes, not sure what the hell happened here. Felt decent at the start, but about half a mile into this run all my motivation left. At first I told myself I'd walk the hills. Then I told myself I'd walk the flats too. Ended up walking the final two miles back to my house. Last time I felt this indifferent about running was around 60 miles at Leadville, shortly before I dropped out. Luckily for me, I can chalk up walking to training for Hardrock!

Start time - 8AM
Distance - 8.5 miles
Time - 1:46:29
Pace - 12:32 per mile
Weather - 40F, cloudy, dreary
Weight - 170 lbs

HPb 73 - long run

Real good long run last Saturday. Did my usual 20 mile loop plus added some stuff. Once again I skipped the Sante Fe trail to stay on the road in preparation for Austin. I'll be glad once A-town is over so I can concentrate on the trails again! Stopped by the CRC 1st Saturday shindig, they had a great turnout! Should bought my ATM card as they had all their Nathan stuff at 25% off. Felt pretty good on this run, definitely my best long run of the season so far.

Start time - 7AM
Distance - 22 miles
Time - 3:20:16
Pace - 9:07 per mile
Weather - 50F, sunny
Weight - 171 lbs

new phone?

Thinking of upgrading my crappy phone. Want to go with one of the new, fancy internet capable phones, since I use my phone a lot more for texting than talking. Thinking of either an iPhone or one of the new G2 google phones. Any advice? Any other cool phones out there? I know that iPhone users act like they just saw Jessica Alba naked every time they talk about that thing, but I really, really don't like the keyboard.

P2H3 pics

Sure glad people are posting pics of the hash, 'cuz I don't remember a thing that happened on Saturday after my run!

Austin weather

Less than a week away now, and current race day forecast calls for a high of 70F! Predicted high for Manitou that day is 41F, with some snow. So looks like I picked a good time for a short vacation.

Think I'm gonna spend Monday night at the Saxon Pub watching Bob Schneider. Anyone wanna join me?

HA!

Kudos to Scott J for his second place finish at Rocky.  As he was leaving on his 4th lap, he said to Melissa that I would have still been out on my first lap!

Austin weather

Forecasts keep creeping up, and the new high for race day in Austin is 69F!  Kinda hot, hope they don't cancel the race.  High in Manitou for that day is 35F with some snow thrown in.  Looks like we picked a good weekend to get away.

drunkard

Don't remember much after my run yesterday.  Certainly can't remember walking home.  But I did wake up next to an empty G&T glass from the Royal as well as an empty 40oz bottle of Olde English!  Bet I had a good time!

Must have passed out pretty early though, since I feel fine now.  Off to the Incline Club.

Kudos to Nacheaux for finishing her first 50 miler!

HPb 72 - Incline happy hour

Once again, good times at the Incline happy hour.  Still sore as fuck from the Red Rock Canyon hill repeats, so it took me a while to get up the hill.  My drinking skills were in fine form, however, as I got pretty wasted back at Kinfolk's/Tavern/Townhouse.  

Start time - 6PM

Distance - 7 miles

Time - 1:40:00

Pace - 14:18 per mile

Weather - 45F

Weight - 171 lbs

HA!

Got this from cnnsi.com:

Also Thursday, Kellogg Company announced it would not renew Phelps’ advertising contract when it expires at the end of February. “Michael’s most recent behavior is not consistent with the image of Kellogg,” company spokeswoman Susanne Norwitz said.

Good gawd, I find this hilarious! The "image" of kellogg? Those guys basically market bowls of sugar to children, contributing heavily to the zillions of fat kids out there. I'm not a big cereal eater, but I'll never buy any more kellogg crap after this.

Hardrock lottery

Just got an e-mail on the Hardrock lottery stats. They give out tickets for the entry lottery. You get one ticket for qualifying, one ticket for each finish, and can get extra tickets for finishing in the top five and doing trail work. Winners are automatically accepted, as are people who have five or more Hardrock finishes (like Joe P!).

Basically, after all the automatic entries were plugged in, 316 HR hopefulls were vying for 110 slots.

Holders of 1 ticket had an 18.1% chance of getting in. I beat these odds last year!
Holders of 2 tickets had a 32.9% chance of getting in. I had two tickets for this lottery.
Holders of 3 tickets had a 45% chance of getting in.
Holders of 4 tickets had a 55% chance of getting in.
Holders of 5 tickets had a 63.1% chance of getting in.
Holders of 6 tickets had a 69.8% chance of getting in.
Holders of 7 tickets had a 75.2% chance of getting in.

Assuming I finish this year, my odds of returning start getting a lot better. Though I may still go down to the Handies Peak trail weekend and gather an extra ticket for next year's lottery. I think my new goal in life will be to break John DeWalt's record for oldest person to finish HR.

FYI, there have been 879 finishes at Hardrock. I have the 513th fastest time!

Hardrock snow

Been a while since I posted this, I'm sure my loyal readers have been on the edge of their seats. Seems like the winter ain't nowhere as bad this year as last year. Should have even less snow and deeper creek crossings on the course this year! In the e-mail I got about this the author said not to base your entire religious belief system on these numbers, so I'll pass that warning along.

The climate models continue to forecast warmer than average temperatures and average to dryer than average precipitation for the San Juan Mountains this spring. Woohoo!

tentative A-town schedule

I'm sure this will change, but here you go:

Sat 4PM - marathon expo
Sat 6PM - Lovejoy's!
Sat 7PM - Crown & Anchor (best bacon cheeseburgers in Texas!)

Sun 7AM - start marathon
Sun 10:09:59 - finish marathon
Sun noon - Colorado pic at the finish line
Sun 12:30 - Barton Springs
Sun 2PM - Austin hash! (celebrate 10 years of hashing)
Sun 6:30PM - chickenshit bingo
Sun 9PM - Barfly!

Mon noon - Greenbelt run (slow, since Lulu is tagging along)

Still scheming on what to do with the rest of Monday. Any ideas? And don't say anything about the saucer, some of us still keep it weird!

run hard!

Good luck to Nacheaux, who will be running her first 50 miler down on the sweet trails of Huntsville, TX, at the Rocky Raccoon Trail Run.

Fellow CRUD'er Scott will be down there too. Dude's been training hard lately, look for some good stuff from him.

Those same trails are where I ran my first 50 miler, at the Sunmart race a few years ago. Real cool part where you run on wooden planks just inches above an alligator infested swamp. Good times!

Austin weather watch!

Only ten days 'till Austin!

High: 66

Low: 42

Partly cloudy, 10% chance of rain

one more mile...

Been following some Alaskan trail runners' blogs during this rough front range winter (it's sunny and 65F right now), those cats sure have it pretty rough. But one of 'em, Evan, has been laid up lately after kicking ass at the HURT. So per his blog request, I will be taking the Intemann Trail to the Incline tonight, which adds about a mile to my usual jog down Manitou Avenue.

A mountain runner forced to do spin class to stay in shape? The guy musta done something REAL bad in a former life!

HPb 71 - Hill Repeats

Met early this morning for some hill repeats in Red Rock Canyon. I don't really think of RRC as being very hilly, but I may have to change my mind after today. Did a 15 minute warm-up and then ran 5 x 4 minute hill repeats on a nasty dirt road just east of the Quarry. There are a bunch of road runners who show up to these workouts who are much faster than me, but I pushed like hell and gave 'em a run for their money today. Pretty smoked after the workout, felt real good. Great weather, and as a bonus I was able to lift some weights afterwards before heading into work.

Start time - 6AM
Distance - 8.0 miles
Time - 1:10:00
Pace - 8:45 per mile
Weather - 45F
Weight - 172 lbs

HPb 70 - new shoes

I joked about not wanting to make anyone at the CRC work last night, but Beth did a good job - even though she wasn't working. Of course right before she had me sold on the $120 Saucony ProGrid Hurricane 10 John O came over and told me that even though they were technically a trail shoe, the significantly cheaper Saucony ProGrid Guide TR would suit me for what I do. So I went with them.

More in the mood for beer drinking than running, so I did a quick 4.5 miler in the new shoes. I'm used to running in La Sportiva trail shoes, and the Saucony felt like running on pillows compared to those minimal teners. Do think they'll make a good road shoe though.

Start time - 6PM
Distance - 4.5 miles
Time - 38:15
Pace - 8:30 per mile
Weather - 35F
Weight - 172 lbs

new shoes

As much as I hate making the good people at the CRC actually do any work, I will be trying on and buying new road shoes tonight. Musta been damn near two years ago that I bought my last road shoes, the Nike Pegasus. They barely have 600 miles on 'em (not counting hashing) so they're still good, but they give me blisters once I go more than ten miles. Not good if you're running a marathon.

Buying road shoes for my first ten years of running was super easy. Would just go into a store and get size 10.5 Saucony Jazz. Didn't even hafta try 'em on. But then they stopped making the Jazz and I haven't found a road shoe I've really liked since.

Probably going to go with either Saucony or New Balance. I have several embarassing pics of John O which may or may not end up on the web tomorrow, depending on what kind of deal he gives me...

HPb 69 - Red Rock Canyon

Nice sunrise run through Red Rock Canyon this morning. Contemplative, round-up, quarry, all the good parts! Can't believe it's early February and there's no snow back there, woohoo! Also the first 6AM start of the year on this course that didn't require a flashlight, double woohoo!

Start time - 6AM
Distance - 5.5 miles
Time - 60:55
Pace - 11:05 per mile
Weather - 35F
Weight - 171 lbs

21

I really, really hate it when I pull up to the rock gym and the school bus is there. Means there'll be no climbing today, since some idiot finds it amusing to turn my gym into their day care center. But I didn't feel like going back to the office so soon, so I banged out my 21 workout. Finished in 19:06, which I think is my second fastest time. Was on PR pace but the last three rounds of sit-ups were rough.

Since I did a crossfit workout I feel like I should now talk about how I'm on top of life and how I'm a winner and blah, blah, blah.... But instead, I'll just say I'm glad I ran this morning and I'm glad I get to run again tonight, so at least I get two workouts in today.

happy 30th!

MeatGazer is officially old today!

Boston legend

This happened some time ago (2001), just got 'em in an e-mail. At least the chick had the cojones to go all out, unlike some people. Katie sure seems to be a popular name for slow, retarded people. But hey, I can't really knock the gal, her pace of 9 hours and 40 minutes per mile was faster than some of my sections at Hardrock...

See the story here.
See the result here.

HPb 68 - fartleks

Nice run with the Tues/Thurs PPRR guys. Good way to sweat out the hangover. 20 minute warm up, 3 x 8 minute repeats, 4 minute rest in between. Ran pretty hard, was well below BQ pace. Out and back along the Sante Fe trail starting at the CC track.

Start time - 6AM
Distance - 7.5 miles
Time - 60:00
Pace - 8:00 per mile
Weather - 40F, sunny
Weight - 171 lbs

HPb 67 - Garden

Easy run through the Garden. Not sure why, but this course always brings out the S-L-O-W in me. Though I did catch BLOS at the 3.5 mile mark, which pissed him off enough to drop me up the big hill.

Start time - 6:30PM
Distance - 10 miles
Time - 1:37:54
Pace - 9:48 per mile
Weather - 40F
Weight - 171 lbs

Creating a Newsense

Like there isn't enough to do already in Manitou for Mardi Gras, now Venue 515 is throwing a bash that includes the Genuwines, the Haunted Windchimes, the Jack Trades, and Creating a Newsense.  And it's only $5 to get in!  Woohoo Manitou!

parrott predictor

Another sub four week from the bird, hitting 3:54:09.

assholes

The few, the proud, the hashers who were able to complete the entire asshole trail. This was taken on top of Mount Cristo Rey.

oil creek 100

Been looking for a good excuse to get back to Pittsburgh recently, and then I found out about this. Giving it some serious thought. It seems like a pretty fast course (compared to Hardrock and Leadville) so maybe I can make a good run at a PR there.

Very generous cutoffs if anyone is looking to do their first 50 miler...

happy groundhog day!

Only six more weeks of winter!

FUCKINGAHELLYEAH!!!!!!!!!!

I'm in at Hardrock!  Silverton or bust!

fucking hippies!

Remember, marijuana makes you lazy and all potheads are just fat couch potatoes.  Free pint of Icehouse to the first person to identify the stoner in this pic.

HPb week nine

Real good week, highest mileage since mid-August.  The upcoming week should be a challenge to match it, I think I have stuff going on every night.  But I'll somewhow find a way, need another good week heading into Austin.

Weekly distance - 74.5

Weekly time - 11:03:25

Average pace - 8:54 per mile

2009 distance - 264.8 miles

2009 time - 47:45:30

2009 pace - 10:49 per mile 

average 2009 run - 8.3 miles

HPb 66 - Incline Club

Despite having a few too many beers last night, I still drug my lazy ass out of bed for the Incline Club run.  Yesterday's pavement pounder and the hangover combined to make me want to take it easy today.  Did a nice run on the trails of the Garden.  But the time it was over I felt much better.  Time to start getting ready for the Super Bowl...

Start time - 8AM

Distance - 10.6 miles

Time - 1:40:14

Pace - 9:28 per mile

Weather - 40F, sunny

Weight - 172 lbs

2012

I'll be sporting race number 2012 for the Austin Marathon.  Think you'll be able to track me along the way, I'll post a link closer to race day.  

Joe Bonamassa

Woohoo!  Blues guitarist extraordinaire Joe Bonamassa is coming to the Pikes Peak Center on March 12th!

Another killer show some of yunz might wanna check out is when the Will Bernard Band plays up at the Oriental Theater in Denver.  The band features John Medeski on keyboards and Stanton Moore on drums, so it should be awesome.