cross-country!

I'll be headed back to the Twin Peaks Rotary XC Challenge again this year. Had a blast there last time. Cheap ($18), lots of fun, and a great workout. Hopefully some of my rivals man up and toe the line this year...

Only 109 entrants on the Hardrock list so far. Everybody gets in!!!

Big East Showdown

Be sure to watch ESPN tonight to check out the heavyweight Big East match, Pitt vs South Florida.

My prediction:

Pitt - 67

USF - 3

High octane football, damnit!

run to work

Starting the detox from all the beer and cheese.

AM - Easy 6.6 to the office, 56:36.

PM - Back home the long way, 12.2 miles, 2:01.

Thinking of running Pikes on Saturday if anyone wants to join me. Will be slow.

Pirates win!

just another Sunday night in Madison...

CPT Frederick Pabst

public transportation

Paradise Lounge

Old Fashioned

quote of the day

From the wall at Ale Asylum:

"Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer"

Ale Asylum

Thurs

Easy PM run on the Garden roads. 4.1 miles, 36 minutes. Not sure where that blazing speed came from, I was running at my usual 10 mpm effort.

Time to pack for Wisconsin. My next PBR (not counting the few I drink tonight) will be chugged in the badger state...

Zion

Starting to get excited about the Zion run. Haven't done much in a long time, save for the 4 pass/4 beers FKT run (can't believe Tony didn't mention that in his post), so it could be interesting.

Wiley did a nice piece on the run over here.

mmmm...donuts...

Looks like this year's CRUD eating contest will be the Krispy Kreme Challenge. 2 mile run, one dozen donuts, 2 mile run. Details TBA shortly...

Garden/track

AM - Back at it. Garden roads. 8.5 miles, 1:18.

PM - Holmes middle school track. 1.5 mile warm up, 8 x 400m with 200m RBI. 1.5 mile cool down. Short break halfway to chat with Andy. First lap in 84, then hit the next six in 79/80, then busted out a 77 on the bell lap. Body probably took that week off as a taper, and this will be the final decent athletic performance for the year.

Telluride weekend

Another T-Ride weekend in the books. Incredible time. Even with the shitty weather.

No running, or even anything resembling healthy behavior, since Wednesday morning. Still going to head out to Wisconsin Dells, but any thoughts of a PR or even a sub three are gone. Maybe I can get there before Vegas. But it's starting to look like I won't get any motivation back until the Hardrock lottery.

Lots of blogs to catch up on. Looks like I missed quite the weekend on the ultrarunning blogosphere. But I am beating GZ in AJW's poll. I'm also beating AJW, Karl Meltzer, Fast Eddy, and Geoff Roes. Gotta love the interweb.

Other sports news I missed this weekend: Pitt is headed to the ACC. I'm more of a college hoops fan than a football guy, so the thought of playing Duke and Carolina every year kicks ass!

No rest for the weary. Friday I'm off to Madison, Wisconsin. Gonna try to get some good running in out there, as they do have a pretty sweet running community. But I'm guessing that my first trip to Wisconsin will be spent drinking a crapton of cheap, yellow beer. Monday we're going to Milwaukee to tour the Pabst facilities and catch the Brewers/Pirates game!

Flaming Lips

Fitz!

why I need to get in better shape...

Quote from an article in the latest Outside magazine:

"On dry land, it moves inland at a speed of 11 miles an hour. To outpace the tsunami, you'd have to run at least a 5:30 mile."

My current Colorado PR? 5:31.

Not that I'm worried about a tsunami hitting the Pikes Peak region. And not that I don't think I could rise to the occassion in that circumstance. But I'd rather not chance it.

Tuesday

Still sore from Aspen, so I skipped the track for an easy 45 minutes with the dog. 4.7 miles.

Four Pass Loop

Ryan and I ran the Four Pass Loop around the Maroon Bells yesterday. We are claiming a new FKT for that loop while drinking a PBR on top of each pass. 8:58:43. Awesome run, and I'm finally feeling somewhat confident that next month's Zion adventure won't be a total debacle.

daily haiku

Homeless people suck

I'll never support those jerks

Even for free beer

Not my best work, but I only had about 30 seconds to come up with it. I work with lots of homeless peeps and not all of them suck. And there's nothing I won't support if it involves free beer.

Incline last night, with $100 and the dog. Damn dark when we got up to the top, so it was slow going back down the Barr Trail.

Aspen Four Pass loop is on for Sunday. Maroon Lake TH at 6:30am if you wanna join Ryan K and I. Bring four beers.

Cheyenne Canyon

Nice hill workout with Rick H this morning. Ran the 6k Canya Canon route, 51:20 to the top. Total of 6.7 miles in 1:13. Getting pretty chilly in the morning around here, though I can finally see Pikes Peak and it's surprisingly still snow free.

No-go on the Mt. Mitchell lottery. Disappointed, but it does put an extra $110 in my pocket to blow in Telluride next weekend. Any ideas for some early 2012 trail races to keep me motivated this winter? Or maybe I'll just shoot for a fast marathon again...

run to work

AM - Easy run to work. 5.2 miles, 47:10. Been pretty good about a non-vehicle commute once a week for a while now.

PM - Great run home. Santa Fe, Bear Creek Park, Section 16, Intemann, Red Rock Canyon. 12.3 miles, two hours.

The Gazette deal of the day is for a $1 large pizza from Louie's. Check it out here. Real good pizza, and the Tejon location means I can stumble over to Tony's for dessert.

Tues

Finally had a decent day at the track. One mile warm up, 3 x 1600m with 400m RBI, one mile cool down. 5:55, 5:45, 5:37.

Got a $65 check from the San Francisco Marathon today. Guess it was to cover my appearance fee. Hope it doesn't mess up my amateur status for the London games.

yell fire!

You can see the building I used to work at when I lived in Austin. The fire is burning Bastrop State Park, a great place where I've covered many, many miles. Hope they get it under control soon.

monday

AM - Three miles easy with the dog on the Garden trails. 30 minutes.

PM - 7.5 miles on the Garden trails. 1:19.

CRUD party is October 15th. All are welcome. Not sure what time we'll start the festivities, but it'll be late enough that any of yunz northerners can come down and get in a good run beforehand.

Rumor has it the Canya Canon 6K is on November 6th. Come get in a great workout and then watch Rick H try to go pint for pint with me.

Aspen four pass loop

Thinking of camping at the trailhead Sat night and running the thing on Sunday. Anyone wanna join me?

This guy did it, so how hard can it be?

run

Two decent runs this weekend.

Saturday I met up with Josh J at the CC track and we hit a nice out-and-back north on the Santa Fe trail. Ended with the Nielson two mile challenge. 17 miles total, 2:24. The wind kicked my ass on the way out and I struggled all day, managing only to put out a 14:30 for the final two miler. Was I just feeling off, or was I setting myself up to win next month's Nielson since my handicap will be rock solid?

Easy two hours this morning. Red Rock Canyon, Intemann, over to the Manitou Mesa. 11ish miles, two hours. Someday the Intemann will be completed all the way to the Mesa, and the crappy Crystal Park road section will be cut completely from the Ponderous Posterior fat ass.

fat ass

Tentative, subject to change, absolutely set in stone dates for the front range fat ass series:

December 10th - El Chubbo Grande

January 14th - Ponderous Posterior

Thinking of running the Posterior backwards this year and including the Incline as part of the course. Any thoughts on that?

My finishing kick takes no prisoners!