April

Easy ten miles on the Garden roads to close out the month.

313 miles on the month.  Was hoping for a bit higher total, but a lot of stuff kept me off the roads and trails this month.  Still, real happy with the 100K, as well as the suffering at two shorter races.

Entering a fantastic time of year where I pretty much have a race every weekend.  Jersey, Quad Rock, Jemez, Arkansas Bluegrass, Golden Gate, Garden of the Gods, San Juan Solstice.  If I can finish all those, I'll be sitting pretty come mid-July.

track

Just found out the Springs will be having an all-comers track meet.  Don't think I've raced on the track since high school.  More info over here.  I'll be jumping in the 5000 meter run for some good Hardrock training.  If I can get there early enough maybe I'll see what damage I can do in the 100m.

Boulder Distance Classic

Not nearly the epic run just about everyone else had this weekend, but I had fun up at the Boulder Res.  15K, 62:47.  Very windy.  Pleased with the solid effort, ran hard and steady but didn't kill myself.  Was in the beer garden, courtesy of Avery Brewing, by 9:40AM.  Results over here.  Even the minor league races in Boulder get tons of fast folks out.

Shooting for 3:29:59 this weekend in Jersey.  Will probably goof off behind the 3:35 pace group for 20 miles or so and then blast the final 10K.

Really pisses me off when races advertise live race tracking and then fuck it up.  Eugene and Big Sur, fail.  Were you unaware you might have a little more traffic than usual on race day?

typical Boulder 10am

bike to work

5.5 miles this morning, 50 minutes.  Then jumped on the bike and rode to work.  In the triathlon world this is known as a brick.  Not sure my 45 minute transition time is any good, though.

Good luck to everyone running this weekend.  Collegiate Peaks.  Cheyenne Mountain.  Leona Divide.  Big Sur.  Grand Canyon.  Get after it!

In Denver tonight for the Todd Snider show.  Probably trolling Colfax for a while before the show.



If I can finish in time, I'll be hitting up this free show in Denver the day after Nick's race.  Also trolling Colfax for a while pre-Salmon.

yet another run to work day

No time lately, so doing the best I can and running to work yet again this week.  7.2 miles this morning (bonus loop around Prospect Lake), 70 minutes.

Daniel Tosh was fantastic last night.  Hardest I've ever laughed at a comedy show.  I'll include this quote from the show for all the Indy fans out there: "The Colts are the only team who would trade a QB who looks like he has Down Syndrome for a QB that definitely has it."  Tosh really ripped to some the issues facing our village, and it was just as funny to see some of the folks in the crowd squirm.

Mark your calendars.  Think I'm going to do a b-day run weekend on August 4-5.  A 25 mile traverse across RMNP, followed by an assault on the Aspen 4 Pass/4 Beer loop.  Could be a good last long weekend for you Pikes/Leadville peeps.

commute #18

Easy six to work, one hour.

NYC marathon lottery is today.  We have quite a few of the local bunch signed up.  $100, Ryan K, Amy P, BLOS, Solarweasel.  Hope we get some more peeps into the race.

Saw a gear presentation by Andy Skurka last night at the new local GoLite store.  I don't really get a huge boner over gear like a lot of other runners, but it's something I'll have to get into sooner or later as I have some fastpacking plans on the horizon.  Will look to do the Kokopelli trail next year, with bigger trips on the JMT and Colorado trail a few years down the line...

Phish!

Got tix, and a camping pass, for all three nights in Denver!  No more feeling sorry for myself for never having seen one of my favorite bands!

back at it...

Mon - Section 16 with the dog.  Untimed, 5.5 miles.  Still pretty sore.

Tues AM - Easy 4.5 miles in Red Rock Canyon with the dog, 45 minutes.  Starting to feel a lot better.

Was hoping for another 350 miles on the month, but it looks like life will get in the way.  Skurka tonight, Daniel Tosh tomorrow, $100's parents arrive on Thursday, and Todd Snider on Friday in Denver.

Hope to get up to Boulder for a few miles before the Distance Classic on Saturday.  My first trip back to Boulder Res since GZ rocked his hundred.

CRUD shirts

Rick H is putting together the annual CRUD shirt order.  You need to get him a blank t-shirt and $3 by May 7th.  If you're from out of town and still want a shirt to impress the ladies, get in touch with me and we can work something out.  That last option will involve a beer tax though.

100K

Very happy with the run.  Got exactly what I wanted - a nice, hard long run without killing myself.  Laps were 3:24, 3:47, 4:34.  About 15 minutes of that last lap was me goofing off at the final two aid stations, including drinking a PBR at the final aid station.  The rest of the slowness was just me being lazy and enjoying the day.  11:45:06, a 45 minute PR.

Awesome event, the race was about 98% technical singletrack.  Not what I was expecting from Kansas (my  15th state marathon, FYI).  Have always heard good things about the Trail Nerds, and they put on a fantastic event.  Outstanding course marking and the volunteers were tons of fun.

Panorama Point

My 12th state highpoint.

Free State

Prairie Dog Town

Place is abandoned, but I bet it was awesome back in the day. Near Oakley, KS.

highest point in Kansas

dog jog

AM - Easy dog jog through OCC.  3.9 miles, 40 minutes.  Dog was being a pain in the ass this morning.

commute #17

AM - Easy 5.1 miles to work, 47 minutes.

PM - Easy 10K home from work, 60 minutes.  Wanted to go longer but had to pack for the upcoming roadtrip.

log

Bit of catching up:

Monday - hungover, so no AM run.  7.5 miles on the Garden trails after work, untimed.

Tues AM - easy dog jog.  Six miles in Red Rock Canyon, 60 minutes.
Tues PM - went over to the Manitou track for some speed, but there was a meet going on.  Easy 10.5 on the Garden roads, 89 minutes.

Been planning the route for the roadtrip this weekend.  Should be pretty epic.  While mapping the route I could only think of this song:

Platte River

Not my finest race.  Hit the halfway point in 43:15 and I was already cooked.  Really, really struggled to hold anything together over the second half.  I fought hard, trying to rally every time someone passed me (which was a lot - results have me 62nd overall but I'm sure at least 500 runners passed me after mile seven) but I just couldn't get anything going.  Barely went sub 90 (chip time was 1:29:55).

But I'm glad I got out there and suffered.  I don't do enough efforts like that, and while it was a shitty race it was a great tempo run.  I'll have to do A LOT more of this kind of work if I want any chance to PR at NYC.

$100 grabbed a PR, finishing in 2:03:32.  Trying to get her to sign up for the Jersey half marathon while we're there to finally get that sub two, but the price is a bit too high this late in the game.  I would give up one of my arms for a PR, especially one as symmetric as going sub two hours, but she doesn't care quite as much as I do about the whole running thing.

Visited Kircher country post-race, checking out some dives up in Evergreen.  Good times!

Double Side Down!

ugh

Friday

This blog is currently awesome now that you're required to listen to Phish when you come here.  I'm in the ticket lottery for the labor day weekend show, wish me luck.

Tortoise & Hare 5K on Saturday.  Shooting for an easy 18:59, but it's difficult to pace yourself in that format.  I'll be weighing in the runners, so if you see me with a black eye it's because I made some snarky comment about a chick's weight.

Platte River on Sunday.  Originally hoping for a PR there, then all the snow melted a month early and instead of running low six minute miles on the roads I've been up in the mountains banging out 20 minute miles.  Still think I'll go sub 90.  Anything can happen here, though.  A few years ago, I PR'd on this course while drunk.

Recently finished this book.  Suelo seems like an interesting guy, but the book was a little too heavy on religion/philosophy crap to really hold my interest.

Currently reading Meb's book, "Run To Overcome," which I got for free due to the Amazon Prime.  As a wise man once said, "Reading is pretty all-right."

Rest day today.  Hit the gym before work.  I'll visit the rock gym over lunch and again after work.  An hour of hot yoga after that.  GZ's recent posts are making me think about my schedule and wondering if there's a better way...

Thursday

Easy dog jog this morning, three miles, thirty minutes.

First big thunderstorm of the year last night, lots of rain.

Dungeons & Dragons for ultrarunner nerds.

.

commute #16

AM - Seven miles to work, 66 minutes.  Was going to run a hard mile on the CC track along the way, but the track is currently closed.  Really closed, not like when it's closed and Andy and I run there anyways.  Lots of heavy equipment and fences on the top turn.  I imagine the damage will be significant from all the construction, so maybe they'll get a new track?

PM - 12.5 miles home, two hours.  Last two miles were with the dog.

Thanks to mailman John for this baseball nugget.  Love the comments!  GO PIRATES!  The Buccos are still playing .500 ball, so it's already been a good year.

denied!

Phish

   

Been wanting to see these guys for a long time.  Chances came and went and I never pulled the trigger.  Time to change that.  I'm in the ticket lottery for all three days in Denver.  Wish me luck...

Dirty Side Down

Just read about a joint in Evergreen that serves Widespread Panic themed burgers.  Check out the Dirty Side Down, a bacon cheeseburger that uses grilled cheese sandwiches as a bun!  It's pretty hard to come up with anything more awesome than that.

Needless to say, the only thing in life I care about anymore is getting up to Evergreen to taste the goodness.  Hopefully this Sunday...

dog jog

$100 has decided that she wants to do the PPRR Garden runs on Tuesday and Thursday, so I'm now in charge of the dog on those mornings.  Dog hates the track so we went to Red Rock Canyon instead.  40 minutes easy, four miles.

Barr Camp/Incline

AM - Took the dog up to Barr Camp this morning.  Her first trip up there.  And, at 12.5 miles, her longest run ever.  Took us just over three hours for the round trip (not counting the 20 minutes spent BSing with Neal), with lots of goofing off on the way down.

PM - Incline loop.  Untimed, so I'll give me a 19 flat on the up and another 25 minutes to come down.  5.2 miles.

Manitou traffic jam

22+ miles on the Intemann trail.

Happy Easter!

quote of the day

From the letsrun message boards, ripping on Alan Webb for a recent 3:54 1500m.

"I can run 3:54 barefoot uphill on sand while masturbating and playing the trumpet."

OCC FTW!

Purple Castle!

1002.1

Easy five miles on the Garden roads this morning.  Took me over the 1000 mile mark on the year.  Today is the 97th day of 2012, and I'm pretty sure I'll maintain the 10+ mile per day average through NYC in November.  Really enjoying this down week, think I needed it.

Between NYC and the start of the next Incline Club season, my goal will be to put on one pound per day.

www.tourdegrub.com

Just to remind everyone that I don't really hate bikers, we're currently putting up two guys riding from South Carolina to San Fran...

One of the first things they said to me was, "For a guy who hates bikes, you sure have a lot of bikes."

bikers are idiots!

This video is making it's way around the interweb.  Exhibit A on why I hate bikers.

Not to glorify hit-and-run, but why was the cyclist ignoring those two pedestrian lanes?  And why was he riding on the far left side of the vehicle lane?  Cyclists use the saying "share the road" all the time, but they're not really interested in sharing.

In other news, there will be a party at my house on Friday, August 24th, for Stage Five of the Pro Cycling Challenge.  The party will actually start on Thursday at Incline Happy Hour, then continue on a pub crawl down to Benny's to watch the race.

Thurs

Life (i.e,. laziness) is seeing to it that I take a down week.  Forgot to bring a flashlight to Barr Trail this morning, so the run was a wash.  40 minutes, 2.5 miles.  Ugh.  I'm more pissed about wasting an on-time arrival at the Cog than I am about the shitty run.

Inclinathon has been moved to April 14th.

Commute #15

Easy 5.2 miles to work, 46 minutes.

Incline probably got another 2-3 inches last night.  It will all be gone by this evening as temps are expected to be in the mid-60s over the next few days.

Holy shit, baseball starts tomorrow (I know there was that series played overseas)!  GO PIRATES!

Incline

Short Incline loop with the dog.  About an inch of snow up top, should be long gone by Saturday.

Tuesday

Overslept, so bailed on the track for a quick hour on the Garden roads.  Some kind of rain/snow/sleet/hail/grapple mix was falling.  Not going to end the upcoming summer fire dangers, but anything is better than nothing.  The foothills look a bit white, but that should be gone by the weekend.  Haven't been able to see the Peak since Sunday evening, so I'm not sure what's going on up high.

Neal was telling me some horror stories about the year they shut down Pike National Forest due to the Hayman fire.  The bulk of my summer running is done there, not sure what I'd do if they closed that.  So now I'm actually rooting for some wet weather.

Our village has a new logo:

Reminds me of a minor league baseball team.  Which is very fitting for a minor league town.  Just don't confuse it with this logo:

The "Live It Up!" tag line, which seemed to piss off everyone with a blog and/or facebook page last time, remains.

bike to work

Out a bit late last night due to the Larry & His Flask show, so I took a rest day to sleep in.  Rode the bike to work.  Need to get her in for a tune up, no brakes and the think kept shifting every time I'd hit a bump.

May jump into the market for a more commuter friendly bike.  Bought a rack for the Klein but it won't fit.  Any suggestions would be appreciated, but it will probably come down to whatever I can dig up on craigslist.

Speaking of biking, these guys will be crashing at my place for a few days this week.  Chris is a friend of my sister, who I met back during my San Fran trip.  He hiked Whitney with the crew.

Knob Hill

Barr Camp

First trip of the year up to Barr Camp.  Ran the whole way, save for a long break near No Name to catch up with Dan V. Catch up as in, I haven't seen him in awhile so we stopped on the trail to chat.  Not like I was running at a faster pace than him and caught him.  No watch, but I think I broke two hours to Barr Camp from Memorial Park.

74 miles on the week.