18

Ended the month with 18 Green Monsters. Probably more vegetables than I ate all of 2010.

Was about to sign up for the Super Bowl 5K on Sunday before I remembered I have to work. Feel like I could pop a really strong 5K right now, definitely below A-wave standards. Hopefully that's a good feeling to have leading into NOLA.

Kara seems to be working herself back into shape.

Nice article on an ultra inspired brew over here. Includes a nice summary of why I'm not interested in brewing: "This was not worth the effort. Like I said there are plenty of great beers at your local liquor store."

Weather Channel is predicting -2F with 20mph winds for my run tomorrow morning. I could wait until it warms up to run, but the high is only gonna climb to -1F.

52.5

Week one of the taper. Nice 52.5 miles on the week, with a good mile workout on Tuesday and a return to the Incline on Thursday.

293.1 on the month, really tempted to head out tonight to get to 300. But it's early in the year, I'll hold off. Besides, if I ran today and rested on Tuesday, I'd catch hell from the Sunrise Striders for missing what will probably be the most miserable run of the year. The high for tomorrow in the Springs is -1F, who knows what it'll be at 6AM!

Whitney

Headed out to Cali for a hike up Mt. Whitney this summer. Gonna send the permit out after next week's Hardrock lottery, let me know if you wanna tag along. Looking like we'll do the hike on August 2nd, out and back via the standard Whitney Trail.

Garden trails

Easy 7.5 on the Garden trails with Yeti and the dog. Taper is feeling great so far.

Transrockies

Looks like I'm in for the Transrockies Run! Somehow Yeti managed to score a free entry at the latest outdoor retailer show in Salt Lake City, saving the steep $2900 entry fee. You can check out this year's course over here.

It will be my first stage run ever, though looking at some of my aid station splits from Hardrock over the years makes it seem like I've done a few before. Think it will be a great experience and hopefully pave the way for me to sign up for this next year.

the Strip is now anti-cheese!

1058

My bib number for NOLA is 1058. Predicted finish time, entered one year ago, is 2:57...

So, taking a page from PG, we'll use 2:57 at the over/under for the beer bet. Comment on this post if you want in on the bet. Guess right, and I'll gladly buy you a brew. Guess wrong, and I come collect some suds.

FYI, my last road marathon was 3:49 at Boston, not even enough to qualify me for the A wave at the Pikes Peak Ascent. Luckily, the suicide attempt brought on by losing to both Wiley and Brandon in the same race was just as unsuccessful as the marathon itself...

no-go on Dispatch

Damn! I was on the computer at noon but the Dispatch show at Red Rocks sold out in a few seconds.

Oh well. Now I'll have to focus solely on kicking everyone's ass at the Golden Gate Dirty Thirty!

Found out the annual Big Head Todd show up there will be on June 11th. Probably won't sell out as quickly...

Dallas Cryboys

Good article from the NY Times on one thing Steelers and Packers fans all agreee on: the Cowboys suck ass!

Includes this great quote from Chuck Noll, "Jack Lambert is a defender of what is right."

Thursday

AM - Easy 9.3 miles in the Garden, 1:22.

Pitt football announced their non-con schedule. 2011 is gonna be a huge season for us!

Sept 3 - Buffalo
Sept 10 - Maine
Sept 17 - at Iowa
Sept 24 - Notre Lame
Oct 15 - Utah

hashing in RW

Just dug up this article on hashing from runner's world. Seems like it's been ten years since I've hashed...

Wed

AM - few laps around the local park with the dog, 2.5 miles, 24 minutes. Heel was screaming at me again. One of the reasons I'm taking a longer than usual taper for NOLA is to finally put this nagging heel/plantar thing behind me for good. Wore my sanuks to work yesterday and that seemed to put me back a few steps. Who woulda thunk it, but going barefoot may not be the best thing in the world if your feet are hurting...

PM - Four miles, 30:00

quote of the day

"Packer fans have a cholesterol level approximately 10 times higher than their IQ."

I changed that up a bit from this article on why the Terrible Towel is much cooler than a cheesehead.

miles

Mon - Rest day, zero miles, though I did hit the gym for an hour in the evening.

Tues AM - 1.6 mile warm up, 4 x 1600m with 400m RBI, 1.6 mile cool down. 5:55, 5:53, 5:47, 5:46. Awesome workout considering it was so cold my face was hurting during the warm up. Would like to say that the shorter recovery period was due to me wanting to get into better shape, but in reality I just didn't want to be outside any more than I had to.

Might hit the Manitou track for some Yasso's this Sunday if anyone wants to join me.

Tues PM - couldn't get to the gym so I knocked out an hour of P90X - shoulders, back, and tri.

Jurek at Mardi Gras

Another CO guy is headed to Mardi Gras. Go here and vote for Jurek to pace the 3:00 group if you have a facebook account. I'm also going to start a write in campaign to Pearl Izumi to get Nick to pace the four hour group...

it's a 'burgh thing

Good time to be a Pittsburgh fan. On top of a trip to the Super Bowl, Pitt hoops comes in this week at #2. Hell, things keep going this good and maybe we can see the Pirates lose less than 100 games this season!

Yeti Chase 10K

Ended up just under 43 minutes. Was sore from the Saturday long run and feeling a bit under the weather, so I went into the race wanting to run a sub 50. Started out at what I thought was an eight minute mile, so I was surprised when I hit the first mile in 6:50. Very minimal effort, especially up the hill at 3.5 miles. I was worried that I might have to sprint to beat a chick I was running with at mile six, but she ended up taking a nasty fall on the concrete so I could slack off the final quarter mile.

Do not think I will have a problem keeping this pace for a marathon.

Bigger news is that I added two more growlers to the collection - one from Strange Brewing in Denver, courtesy of a fellow fat asser, and another from the Golden City Brewery.

a house divided...

I mentioned PBR at the Golden City Brewery, and the bartender gave me this to read...

let the taper begin

24+ miles with Brooks and BLOS this morning. 16 miles on the Sinton and Santa Fe trail, then the PPRR Winter Series race II. 3:16:10, little faster than I usually go on my solo long runs. Final long run until NOLA, and it was a good one.

Received notice that I'll be receiving a whopping $3 refund from imathlete folks due to their SNAFU from rego last week. Would like to see them donate every runner's three bucks to the Lake City EMTs, but instead I'll use it to buy two big mugs of PBR at the Muff. Actually, I'd like to see them not fuck up rego anymore, but my second vote would be for them do donate a good chunk 'o cash to that fine volunteer organization.

Friday

PM - easy 6.4 in the Garden in the brand new Kinvara. 58 minutes.

Might have a free entry into the Transrockies Run. I know I said that last year, hopefully it goes through this time. Could make for a good week - PRing the Ascent, pacing at Leadville, and then running from Buena Vista to Beaver Creek...

22 days 'till NOLA.

safe!

Always had faith in our brewer/gov!  No layoff for me!

Have an interview for a gig on the AF Academy this Thursday, however.  Will probably still check it out and see what they have to offer...

smart dog

Thurs

AM - Easy nine through the Garden, 1:25:52. 14F this morning, but not much wind so it wasn't too horrible. Jacked up some muscle in my back while sleeping on Tuesday night, which leaves me unable to look to my left as well as making it difficult to breathe. The looking left thing can be overcome, but the difficulty in breathing kind of sucks for a runner.

PM - Hard 45 minutes at the gym, working on shoulders and arms, followed by 2.6 miles on the treadmill while watching the Wisconsin hoops game. Have to work on pretending to like some Wisconsin teams, trying to minimize the time I'm gonna spend in the doghouse after Pittsburgh whoops the Packers in the super bowl.

Wed

Wed AM - easy warm up over to Westmore Park with the dog, then I let her run amok while I ran a bunch of short sprints. 4 miles total, 40 minutes.

PM - Four miles easy at the full moon run. 39 minutes. Have a long way to go in terms of training the dog to run with me. Only seven people braved the cold weather, probably an all time low for this monthly club run.

the axeman cometh?

Looks like we're facing layoffs next week. I've survived before, but I'm not sure how many more lives I have left here...

in case you're counting...

...that's two top five teams that Pitt has dismantled at the Pete this season!

post fat ass gin-off

fat ass results

50K:

1. Fast Eddy 5:19

2. Justin Ricks 5:19

3. Tony Krupicka 5:24

4. Scott Jurek 5:24

5. Jacob Rydman 5:24

6. Joe Grant 5:24

7. Drew Warnke 5:28

8. Scott Schrader 5:42

9. Matt Pehowda 5:42

10. Doug Johnson 5:43

11. Ryan Kircher 6:06

12. Jeremiah Grief 6:06

13. Paul DeWitt 6:19:37.2

14. Brian Fisher 6:20

15. Todd Ganglehoff 6:20

16. Jesse Grizzle 6:30
17. Clark Sundhall 6:32

18. Steve Bremner 6:34

19. Patrick Garcia 6:35

20. Brooks Williams 6:35
21. Paul Doyle 6:45
22. Rick Hessek 6:48

23. Ryan Morgan 7:05

24. Marny Scalard 7:08

25. Rob Erskine 7:20
26. John Courtney 7:33

27. jt 7:42

28. Christoph Zurcher 8:07

29. Jeff Owsley 8:12

Marathon:

1. Tim Long 4:52

2. George Zack 4:52

3. Sean O'Day 4:52

4. Brandon Stapanowich 4:43

5. Luke Crespie 4:43

6. Matt Laubhan 5:10

7. Dave Philipps 5:20

8. Rebekka Hannula 5:33

9. Chris Grove 5:41

10. Marley Shipps 5:41

11. John Cassidy 6:15

12. Barry Odrich 7:30

Other:

Mike Safari 4:00 (21.3 miles)
Richard Bennett 3:45 (21.3 miles)
John Gardner 2:40 (13.5 miles)

That's about all I can make from the chicken scratch results sheet. Had about 90 runners heading out for various distances. If you want your time posted, leave a comment here or e-mail me and I'll fix it.

Thanks to Mountain Man Steve and Rick for helping to mark the course, Katie for letting us trash the house, Nacheaux for running the beer check, Harsha for the Crystal Park aid station, Wes for signing me up for the San Juan Solstice, Pearl Izumi for all the schwag, the Steelers for crushing the hopes and dreams of Baltimore, and Holly for only biting one person. And thanks to all the runners who brought beer, I should be set for the next week with all the leftovers!

Fat Ass

Great time at the fat ass yesterday, thanks to everyone who came out. About 90 showed up. I'll get the results posted today. Tim has a good write up about the day over at PikesPeakSports.us.

I finished the 50K in 7:42. Then drank a lot of beer.

Fat Ass trophies

that's odd...

This came in the mail today.  Can't figure out who sent it.  Seriously, Vanderbilt???

Intemann

The dog and I just got back from marking the final third of the Fat Ass. 10.8 miles to the house once you hit the Intemann Trail. Lots of snow, but it is very runnable and should be even moreso tomorrow. I ran in old, beat up road shoes and didn't slip one time.

Bingo!

4 x 1 mile

The CC track was still covered by snow, so the Harsh and I knocked out 4 x 1 mile on the Santa Fe trail, 3 minutes RBI. 6:58 (I started at the wrong place here, the distance was significantly over a mile), 5:47, 6:07, and 5:45. One of the directions on the Santa Fe trail is uphill. Saw some SF guys doing PT on the last one, psyched me up enough for a huge negative split. Totaled 8 miles in just over an hour.

Rick and I will be marking the fat ass course tomorrow. Luckily for us, Mountain Man Steve has tackled the hardest part already, Longs Ranch/Barr Trail. That section should be all within Pike National Forest, but I'm sure Steve somehow found somewhere to trespass. I'll post a report on the trail conditions tomorrow, but expect lots of mud! The run is an official Incline Club run, possibly the first Saturday run, other than the Ascent, of all time?

new diet

Quote of the day, from the letsrun.com message boards:

"REAL RUNNERS DON'T DIET! They eat a shit load of whatever they want and then hit the crete until they are skinny little bastards."

big time!

Run the fat ass, get your star for the Incline Club. We're even on the webpage! I'll go ahead and bill this as the first time Tony and Matt have ever gone head to head, though I'm not sure either will show up...

lazy

Rest day today. Doing the Incline on Friday and knew the track was not runnable today, so I slept in. I ran yesterday, when it was even colder, so lay off. Plus, I'm seeing the Hood to Coast movie tonight, so that should count for something, right?

varsity loop

Kinda weak over the second half, but feel free to do an out and back up Red Mountain if you want more climbing.

Bandera

Really missed being out on the Bandera trails over the weekend. May have to make a return trip next year. 100K on Saturday, then return to Austin on Sunday in time for chicken shit bingo.

JV route - 26 miles

quote of the day

"I've got three kids who attend the University of Tulsa. I've pretty-much bought in and sold out. You know, my wife informed me that if I go anywhere I'll be going by myself. So, that's a little hard for me right now being 46. I don't really want to do that."

-Tulsa football coach Todd Graham, speaking after last month's Hawaii Bowl

Graham is expected to be announced as the new Pitt head coach today or tomorrow. Luckily, lying is quickly forgotten in the college football world, as long as the guy wins.

Rumor has it Graham has already started growing his moustache...

Did a google image search for Coach Graham and these two nuggets were on page one. I'm sure this is a sign of great things to come for the Pitt football team.

Mon

AM - Cool and crispy 8F this morning. Warmed up by shoveling the sidewalks and then ran a nice, easy 7 miler, 1:14. Thought I was gonna lose some body parts it was so cold in the Garden.

week in review

68.6 miles total. Pretty solid week, including two good track workouts and a nice long run. Also had three trips to Accolade and another three to the rock gym. Pretty good on the diet front as well, though the weekend could have been a little better.

quote of the day

From the CRUD e-mail list concerning the Fat Ass:

"6600 ft yesterday + Longs Ranch will make it in the neighborhood of 8000ft+ of climbing"

HAIL TO PITT!

Showing my Panther pride out at CM State park over the weekend. Pitt went on to crush Kentucky in the big bowl game. Looks like the current front runner for the head coaching position is Tulsa's Todd Graham. Kinda scared since I don't know much about the guy. But then again, I thought I'd have a crappy time the last time I went to Tulsa, and it turned out to be quite the trip to remember!

Fat Ass pics

'Couple guys from CRUD ran the short course yesterday, and Harsha took a few pics. See 'em here. Looks like the long course will be closer to 35 miles, and the Ute Trail "shortcut" will put you around 24 miles.

Me? BLOS and I did a nice 3:45 long run in Cheyenne Mountain State Park. Then another 12.5 miles this morning. BLOS seems to be in pretty decent shape, depending on how much he drinks the night before NOLA, I wouldn't be surprised to see him nab a PR there...

Golden Gate

Just signed up for the Golden Gate Dirty Thirty 50K. Part of a seven week stretch that will have me running Collegiate Peaks, the Colfax Marathon, Jemez Mountain, the Arkansas River Bluegrass Marathon, Bolder Boulder, Golden Gate, the Garden 10 miler, and Lake City. Good times!

The 50K is on GZ's calendar, but we'll see if he has the cojones to sign up. Looks like Footfeathers won't be coming back for a rematch either, but I can't talk too much smack there since he beat me by about 12 hours last year.

My prediction for today's game:

Pitt - 70

Kentucky - 12

Speaking of state parks, time to go hit Cheyenne Mountain State Park for a long run...

Hood to Coast

Gonna go check this flick out on Tuesday. It's a 6PM show, so I hope to be at the Colorado Mountain Brewery around 5PM for a few pints before checking out the movie. Gives me a good excuse to bail on my Tuesday night run since it's gonna be ass cold for a few days next week.

Speaking of no running, today is my first rest day of the year. Keeping with my resolution of taking at least one rest day per week.

Salida marathons

Rego for the Run Through Time is now up and running over here. Only 40 bones if you sign up before mid February! This little race has been growing every year, lots of the top dogs are starting to show up. Need to find out about the new course, hopefully there's still the out-and-back to Turret so I can keep tabs on Nick.

Info on the Arkansas River Bluegrass Marathon is up as well. Looking forward to that one.

Thurs

AM - I know I had been at the track less than 12 hours before, but I wanted to take advantage of the relatively warm weather before the next cold front moves in. 2 mile warm up, 3 x 2000m, 800m RBI. 7:53, 7:47, 7:43. Not fantastic since my legs were still sore from the mile repeats last night, but NOLA is right around the corner so any work down below 6:15 per mile is OK with me.

Waiting impatiently to find out who the next Pitt football coach will be. Think it's gonna be Tom Bradley, the current defensive coordinator for Penn State. Hopefully he can bring some recruits with him, just to piss off PSUcks. Supposidly UConn wants Bradley too, but choosing between Pitt and UConn isn't much of a choice, is it?

And quit making fun of me for saying "yunz." Turns out I'm bilingual n'aht. Haven't used it in a while, but I'm going to bring "nebby" back into my vocab.

Wed

AM - 3.7 miles with the dog. Almost got hit by a delivery van with the driver not paying attention. I got his attention by hitting the driver side window with the bag of dog shit I had. He started fumbling around with the door like he was going to get out, but decided against it when I politely said I'd wait for his exit. I like to think it's due to my recent return to the weight room that he thought better of it, but it was more likely due to the fact that I had two sweatshirts on under my coat and looked more like a linebacker than a runner. That, and lots of people mistake my dog for a pit bull instead of a weim/lab mix.

PM - One mile warm up, 4 x 1600m with 800m RBI, one mile cool down. Forgot my watch but given the effort I'm pretty sure these were all below six minutes. Somebody actually shoveled lane one of the track, big thanks to whoever did that.

Started and finished at the CRC, decided to go with these puppies at NOLA. Haven't worn Saucony since high school, looking forward to trying them out again.

5 days, 5 green monsters in '11...

Tues

AM - Was hoping to hit the track for my usual 4 x 1600m. I knew the CC track was a mess, and with the Sunrise Striders going there today it would have been crowded, so I decided to hit the local middle school cinder track instead. Big mistake, the entire track was under snow. So instead I did an easy hour, 5.7 miles, and will head to the track tomorrow.

PM - Easy 4.3 miles with the dog, 49 minutes.

Signed up for the 10K at the Yeti Chase. Hope to go sub 40 there.

Monday PM

Easy 6.4 on the Garden roads, 1 hour.

Been hitting the gym quite a bit lately, something that was lacking last year due to every spare second being taken up by running. Get lots of weird looks from the muscleheads since I'm starting to go around January 1st. Hopefully I can have a conversation like Evan had the other day:

I was told by an overweight guy at the gym today that I would be a much better runner if I would ditch my Lunar Racers and start wearing Vibrams. He explained that his friend had turned him onto a new revolutionary barefoot running book that has totally changed his running. I told him people have been running in flats for decades and this whole minimalist trend it nothing new. He did not know what flats were but reiterated to me that I would be much faster and less prone to injury if I would buy some Vibrams. I asked him how many miles he ran a week and was told around 15 to 25. He also added that he was now training for his first half marathon (he said this with an air of authority about him like I should be completely impressed with his awesomeness). As I headed for the showers I could not help but laugh. It reminds me of the cyclists that spend thousands of dollars for a super light bike but are carrying an extra 15 pounds of lard on their own personal frame.

Loved this video of Josphat Menjo blasting a 26:56 10K (slightly faster than my Rescue Run over the weekend) while at what looks to be, judging by the number of folks in the stands, an American high school track meet. Thought he might make some more noise, but Geb kicked his ass on NYE. Amazingly, third place in that race was a 15 year old who ran 28:37!

summer concerts...

First Red Rocks show announced, can summer be far behind!!! June 4th, gonna be a great day with the Golden Gate 50K followed by Dispatch!

20

Solid 20 miler this morning, 3:08:54. Lots of snow and ice on the hike and bike trails or that time would have been better. Even got to see this for some inspiration. Matt C is now even cooler in my book since he made fun of jack quinn's running club!

Rescue Run

Decent day out at the Rescue Run. Had to be there by 8AM to work the rego table, not a whole lotta fun when you're nursing an Icehouse hangover. The course was a mess with all the ice, which really ruined what was a good race for me. Ran the first mile in 7:50, then ran very well until mile 5. I basically had to walk the half mile or so down the big hill, as I was getting zero traction in my inov-8s. I had moved into 11th place at the top of the hill and had a lot in the tank, but two guys blew by me on the downhill and I couldn't catch them again. It didn't help that I stopped to chug a beer that Net (who ran the 5K) gave to me. 14th overall, 43:06. Think I'm in shape to go sub 40 on this course if the roads were clear.

the Great Green Monster-off begins...

3654.6

Ended 2010 with 3654.6 miles. 10.01 miles per day.