good luck BB'ers!

Good luck to everyone running Bolder Boulder. Sure wish I could be up there. I'll be the only one at the office tomorrow, so I'll probably spend most of my day tracking the race.

Be sure to look for the hash beer check at the 9K mark. Will anyone attempt to break my record of two full bottles of Boone's Farm during the race?

update...

Good string of days. 2.5 hours on Thursday, then a three hour run on Friday and Saturday with some quality climbs. No issues with the leg. Really wanted to run today but held off and rested. Should hit 300 miles this month, so at least I've stopped the bleeding from the horrible April I had. Also hit yoga session #40 of 2010 today.

Awesome weekend coming up. Some great shows at Red Rocks (Medeski Martin & Wood/John Butler Trio on Friday, Big Head Todd & The Monsters on Saturday). The Golden Gate Dirty Thirty 50K on Saturday morning. Mt. Evans on Sunday for some altitude training. And I'm sure $100 and I will still find time to try out a new brewery or two.

decent run home...

Nice shot of me approaching the summit of Caballo Mountain, the first major climb of Jemez. I'm already done, less than ten miles into the race.

15+ miles home from work this evening. Just over three hours. Lots of climbing. Got severely dehydrated. Just a bad overall day. Lots of problems, none of them with my leg.

Took my first ever ice bath. Lasted 13 minutes. Maybe someday I'll be able to find my weiner again.

Say it ain't so, Chris McDougall!!!

You can actually get hurt running barefoot. Who woulda thunk it?

commute #12

Easy run to work this morning. 5.2 miles, 46 minutes. Old Colorado City is setting up for Territorial Days, kinda glad I'll be outta town.

Rocky Mountain

First trip of the year up Rocky Mountain last night, via the Incline. Great little hike that offers one of my favorite views of Pikes Peak. With the longer days I might hafta start hitting the Rocky/Mt. Manitou/Red Mountain run on Thursdays. 10 miles, 1 PBR on the summit, 2:17. Went over 1500 miles on the year.

Very sad night at the Royal Tavern as it was Claire's last Thursday in Colorado. A great chapter in Incline Happy Hour history comes to an end. Her last drink to me was a full pint of gin with a lemon in it. Now we gotta get to work on training the new girl.

Weighed in at 161 pounds this morning, my lowest since my freshman year at Pitt (1994).

Return of the Douche Rocket!

Tony gets his own thread over on letsrun. Some of the best comments so far:

He's a hermit who sells shoes.

If you run 5 hours a day aren't you prone to being a loner? I mean who the hell is going to join you?

"I will beat Anton anytime he's ready to run Badwater. Anton, you can get a hold of me. Let me know when you are racing it." -Dean Karnazes

It strikes me that these ultra marathoners are the running porn stars of our day. They do the same things as us...just a whole lot more of it...in that relentless ennui way that only porn films can achieve…to the point of making it…interesting?

free beer!

Just realized I don't have a picture of the Austin skyline on my fridge yet. This must be corrected. So the first person to mail me a post card from A-town will get a free beer - either a pint of Laughing Lab at the Bristol Brewery next time you're in Colorado, or the pint of your choice (if it's on a Tuesday, your choice will be a can of Pearl, since they're only $1 on that day) from Lovejoy's next time I'm in TX.

I'm also trying to hunt down the book about Town Lake I got as I was leaving Austin for the last time. I think this thief may have it?

still gettin' at it...

Rough workout this morning. 10 x 400m at Rockledge Ranch. Can tell I haven't done any shorter speedwork lately, I was SUFFERING on this one. Averaged 1:28 on the uphill quarters and 1:21 on the downhill ones.

Rest day on Wednesday, did the Incline on Tuesday, and Monday was an easy 1:20 run around Red Rock Canyon.

Another rest day on Friday, then doing the Garden/Rampart Road/Williams Canyon before a hard time trial over the Garden 10 mile course with the PPRR guys.

Three weeks 'till Bighorn...

straight outta Pleasant Valley!

Armed robbery on the trails in my backyard. Read about it here. Who woulda thunk it? I bet it was Mike Safari, trying to get money for some PED's so he can finally beat me at a Garden workout.

21

Forgot my climbing shoes today, so decided to hit the gym anyways for the old 21 workout. 20 push ups 1 sit up, 19 push ups 2 sit ups, and so on, until you do 1 push up and 20 sit ups. Could tell I hadn't done this work out in a while, but I still hit 18:45.

Massage after work, then hitting the Incline. Probably start doing the Incline a lot more, it doesn't hurt the leg and should allow me to keep my fitness while I'm not running as many miles.

They've been playing the new Panic album on the jam station all morning. Sounds pretty good! Bummer I'm gonna miss those guys at Red Rocks (they're playing the same days as the Taos Solar Music Festival), but hopefully they come back to the mountains in the fall.

Jemez DNF

Huge disappointment at Jemez over the weekend. That whole leg/hip/glute thing that destroyed my Boston PR dreams was acting up again. Can't figure out what the hell is going on with that. Some days I don't notice it. And other days it keeps me from running. I'm going to take one more stab at a long run at Dirty Thirty, but if that doesn't go well I'm bailing on Bighorn, I'm not gonna drive all the way up there to embarrass myself like I did in Los Alamos.

Still had a fun weekend though. Started with some Purple Castle, hung out in a beautiful part of New Mexico all weekend, checked out Taos on the way back. Good times!

purple castle!

good week...

Very solid week of training so far. 8.3 miles to Siamese Twins and back from Trinity on Monday. 12 miles of fartleks with the Sunrise Striders on Tuesday. 17.6 miles to and from work on Wednesday. Thursday morning it was a 60 minute run in the Garden, with a 25 minute tempo thrown in. Hip/glute is about 80% and getting better. Rest day on Friday, and then a little jaunt through the Jemez mountains on Saturday...

Nice article on my favorite cyclist of all time over here.

More on the vibram/moben wearing dude over here. I bet that thread is gonna go on for some time.

congrats to the CRC!

The Colorado Running Company turns ten years old soon! Somehow they've survived despite having people like Jillian and John work there, on top of the lousy business decisions such as giving Brooks and I free gear with the CRC logo on it.

Probably be having a post-Garden 10 miler BBQ at the house, so anyone coming in that weekend can hit the CRC, run a great ten miler, and drink some beers afterwards...

commute #11

Nice, easy run to work today, 5 miles, 41:20. Been having a solid week, with a good effort on a 12 mile fartlek in the Garden yesterday morning and an easy 8.3 miles on the trails on Monday with the Soul Runners. Hip/glute still moaning, but at least I'm getting some training done.

Here's the hot chick from the marathon, courtesy of the doc. Take that, Daily Breeze!

letsrun.com

Some good* banter against a dude who won a marathon in vibrams over here. The minimalist movement now requires spending over $100 on barefoot shoes and using $40 "arm panty" moben sleeves.

The stupid daily breeze won't let me steal their pics, but the chick who finished third is pretty hot!

*not nearly as good as the guy who called Tony a douche rocket!

art critic...

Brooks drops a 2:55!

Big kudos to Brooks for running 2:55 at the Colfax Marathon this morning! 3rd place overall! He's now about 40 seconds below my PR, guess I'm gonna have to go after that mark either later this year at Denver or Vegas, or early next year at Eugene.

Just talked to B on the phone, he's in good spirits now but he's gonna be hurtin' tomorrow! Could make things interesting for our heavyweight match-up at Jemez this weekend...

FYI, Team Shart may have picked up a new member, but I'll let Brooks post that embarrassing information.

week in review

Mon - 10 miles on the trails at Mesa Verde National Park.

Tues - 40 minutes, 4.1 miles, at Red Rock Canyon.

Wed - 60 minutes, 7.2 miles, on the hike and bike in Aurora. Fresh snow.

Thurs AM - 42 minutes, 5 miles, in Aurora.

Thurs PM - 1:54:33, Incline happy hour.

Fri - 1:27, 6 miles, on some sweet new trails in Boulder. Definitely need to get up there for some long runs soon.

Sat - 2 hours, 11.5 miles, to the top of the W's and back home.

51.8 miles total. Only one hour of yoga this week, and only one two-a-day since work and the return from the Grand Canyon had me busy. Forcing myself to take one day off a week, so I didn't do anything today.

GC

This is me at one of the many warning signs at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Please, no jokes of whether or not my 3:49 actually counted as "running" the Boston Marathon...

I've been down!

no excuses!

quote of the day

"Almost every long distance runner turns into a vegan while they're racing, anyway - you can't digest fat or protein very well."
-Scott Jurek

incline happy hour

Dry Dock

more GC

Took this pic off Wiley's blog, though it doesn't even begin to tell the story of how awesome the run is.

The splits I remember:

Phantom Ranch outbound - 1:30
North Rim - 4:51
Phantom Ranch (inbound, before drinking beer) - 7:52
Bright Angel Lounge - 11:51

That Phantom Ranch inbound time is over three hours faster than I did it the year before.

I claim this run the FKT for 3:49 marathoners!

Already thinking of my return trip next year. Anyone know any other cool routes through the park?

mile 20 @ Boston

damn you Kara!

Looks like my girl has been out foolin' around behind my back. It hurts, but I'll survive. You can have that beotch, Adam, but if I ever see you in the Red Rock Lounge I'm gonna kick your ass.

The search to pick a new runner babe is on...

finish

The crew who ran the whole R2R2R. From L to R - Ken, Carrie, John P, Usain Bolt, and Wiley. Mailman John was still out there when we took this pic, he would finish in the dark without a flashlight.

Wiley took some great pics, they're over here. His video footage can be seen here.

FYI, Tecate is up to $4.50 a can at Phantom Ranch. Sounds expensive, but after seven miles down South Kaibab, then a 28 mile North Rim out and back, it tasted pretty damn good.

GC

Awesome run, report to follow soon. Finished in 11:51, 48-ish miles, and that includes an hour at Phantom Ranch drinking beer. One of the better runs I've ever had. Thanks to Wiley for this pic.

Moonlight!

$1.44

Despite my recent limited mileage I'm catching up on the magical one dollar mark. 1309.6 miles run as of this morning, $1883 spent so far. If I weren't counting Boston race rego and airfare (which was paid last year) and NOLA rego (which is paid but the race ain't 'till next year) I'd be under the dollar mark.

Not sure what to count for the Grand Canyon. The $75 to renew my parks pass (which I would do even if I didn't run)? The cost of gas (for a trip I'd be taking even if I didn't run)?

In the end, it shouldn't matter, since I can't forsee me spending too terribly much more on the sport, but I see a lot of miles in my future...

stuff

Easy 7.5 on the trails around the Garden yesterday. This morning was the Garden training run "midterm," which included two lung busting efforts up Ridge Road. Glute is still annoying but getting better everyday.

Good article on barefoot running over here. I love Hall's quote, "“I am all for simplicity and getting back to functioning how us humans were intended to be, but it gets dicey when you isolate one aspect of your running and not the entire lifestyle… If you are going to run barefoot because you say it is how we were intended to run, then I would say that is fine as long as you are going to go back to prehistoric nutrition, recovery (sleeping, resting, etc), and living (running on dirt roads instead of asphalt). I don’t think there were many prehistoric humans running around with beer guts.”

Not to knock barefoot running, since it has led to some of the best comments on the letsrun message boards. Including one about Haile Gebrselassie, who may have had a good race or two over the past few decades, but "wasted his running career by running in shoes." Good stuff!

And Kara, if you're reading this, while I'm sure the shoes are helping, I bet the rest of those clothes you wear are slowing you down...

And speaking of hot babe runners, did anyone know Tera Moody lives down here now? Along with Jenny Barringer. So keep talkin' your smack Brandon, it keeps you from noticing we're stealing all your women runners!

can't wait!

brownie is back!

They say every cloud has a silver lining, and every disaster in New Orleans will get some good press time for this guy. Be sure to read the last sentence...

Incline happy hour

From last Thursday. Good times! Thanks to Randi for the pic.

finally back?

Best post-Boston workout this morning. 8 x 2:30 hard up Rampart Range. Ended up getting in 10.1 miles, 1:33, all on the Garden trails and Rampart Range. My hip/glute doesn't hurt so much when my lungs are burning and I'm concentrating on not throwing up.

56.4

Not a great week, though I'm happy with the 25 on Saturday. Still having some pains in the ass but it's at least bearable now.

Leaving Thursday for the Grand Canyon. The trip got even better as Katie and I decided to leave Thursday after work to camp at the UFO watchtower down near Alamosa. The truth is out there...

Clean Plate Club!

26:59.6

Slightly more impressive than my Collegiate Peaks 25 miler yesterday, and at least on par with this guy crushing Miwok, was Chris Solinksy's awesome 10K last night. 26:59, a new American record! Other than a few track workouts I've done, Solinsky is the first white guy to break the 27 minute barrier. All I read about all week was Rupp and Salazar whining about where to run to break the record, crying about the weather and pollen counts and the price of tampons and whatever else. Kudos to this guy for throwing the hammer down!

CP

3:51:xx. Had I been thinking about it I would have gone and beat my Boston time. Ran steady, though I really jaked it on the downhills. Felt good, and if I had to I think I could have turned around and done it again. Most importantly, I felt somewhat injury free and drank a crap ton of beer afterwards.