Yellfire!

Posted a few of my thoughts on the fire over here.  Been a rough week, glad it's over.

I've had this song stuck in my head since Monday.  Feel free to play the Franti drinking game while watching the video.

commute #27

Kept the weekly streak going, barely.  5.2 miles to work, 45 minutes.  Looks like I'll be running in Pueblo on Saturday if anyone wants to join me.

Thinking of hiking DeCaLiBro on Monday, are there any closures in that area due to fire?

Nice article on Pre over here on cnnsi.com.

Rupp style running

Easy 30 minutes. First run since Monday.

still here

Looks like our neighborhood will be spared, as the fire seems to have moved north.  Pretty stressful on Tuesday and Wednesday though, which I used as an excuse to drink a ton of booze.

Purple Castle!

fire makes me all hot and bothered!

Army!

yellfire!

no more IC runs

Incline club runs are cancelled until further notice.  Hardrock poor performance excuse #1.

Really nowhere to run in this town right now.  Anyone up for a trip to Pueblo Res this Sunday?

 jt

arson?

Rumors are flying that the Waldo fire (and several other fires in the area) is an arson case.  The posse is loading up.

Ted is the lead singer of Shakedown Street and one of Manitou's finest drunkards.  From his FB page:

"Hi.  My name is Ted Galloway, 8th generation Coloradoan, and i'm getting likkered up and gunning for the prick that is going around lighting my beautiful state on fire.  I'm a good shot too."

letter to the editor

The Gazette printed this letter to the editor.  Sounds like something I'd write on this blog to get a laugh or two at the expense of my spandex clad friends.  Keith is obviously a douchebag for hoping somebody gets hurt, though I have to agree with his point of view about the cyclists who ride on 30th street, as he is correct about the bike path there.  Congrats to Keith on his flawless driving record, but I'm sure he has multiple meth related convictions just like everyone else in Florissant.

"It is only June, and I have already come close to "running over" three bicyclists.  It's not because I am a bad or distracted driver, in fact, I have a flawless driving record.  No, the fault lies with the spandex-clad wannabe Lance Armstrongs who think that the term "Share the Road" means that bicyclists have absolute right of way over any other vehicle.  I hate to say it but, I hope that one of you gets hit and hurt.....badly.  Why would I wish such a horrible thing on anyone?  Because maybe then you'll learn to loosen the straps on your little helmets (or wear looser fitting shorts) so the blood can get to your brains and you will finally realize that riding your bike in the middle of the road is not the same as sharing the road.  Thirtieth Street by Garden of the Gods is a good place for one of these accidents to happen.  If I am not mistaken, there is a trail that runs the entire length of that stretch of road, yet people insist on riding their bicycles in the road!  If and when one of you "peddle-philes" gets run over this summer, remember to share the blame like you share the road.
Keith Houghtling
Florissant

Lake City finish

still here...

Lots to catch up on.  Congrats to all those folks who kicked ass over at Western!  And there were quite a few impressive performances at San Juan as well, though not from me.

Heard about the Waldo fire after the race, but then we started drinking and then disappeared off the grid for a bit.  Didn't realize the seriousness of it until we were driving through Canon City, 50 miles from our house, and we saw smoke.  The fire is awful close, but I don't see us having to evacuate.  If anything, they will end up closing off 31st street to traffic since it's being used by emergency vehicles.  The incident command center is up the hill at Coronado High School, across the street from the track I use.

Not to be outdone by our FoCo friends, a huge chunk of the Ponderous Posterior Fat Ass will be charred this January.  Red Rock Canyon and the Garden are closed, so I guess I'll start my Hardrock taper a week early.  Just nowhere left to run.

The San Juans are dangerously dry.  I did not get my feet wet at all during Lake City.  Kind of scary.

Moonlight!

San Juan pre race

Thurs/Fri

Thurs - Rocky Mountain summit via the Incline.  Eight miles, two hours.

Fri - Easy 3.2 miles with the dog.

Off to Lake City!  Good luck to everyone running this weekend!

music

New post on the other blog over here.  Just letting everyone know they look like a complete tool when they complain about headphones.

Speaking of music, about pissed my pants when I saw this:

Six CDs of Phish, I could have got from Telluride to Ouray during Hardrock in that time!  Alas, it's not out until the end of July (yes, it did take FF until the end of July to get from Telluride to Silverton last year...).  It would make a great b-day present for someone born in early August however.

Cannibal! The Musical

Just a quick reminder for everyone running San Juan this weekend to brush up on Cannibal The Musical.  Best movie ever made, and it's a great way to brush up on your Lake City history.  It's available on netflix, and runs $2.99 on the much less cool amazon prime (which I have).

Oh yeah, nice to see Pedobear show up to the Sandusky trial.  He might have to make a visit to Sean's house if the continuous stream of high school boys continues in and out of his house.

commute #26

Easy 5.5 miles to work, 54:30.  Held up downtown by the rodeo breakfast thing.  Was hoping to see the parade of cows/bulls/steers/whatever but it would have made me late for work.

They're building a huge skateboard ramp cross the street from my office.  I believe the correct skater punk lingo would be a half-pipe.  It's massive, and I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before some kid mangles himself on it.  Nice to see stuff like this happening in this day and age of instant lawsuits.

Tuesday

Easy four miles with $100 and the dog in Red Rock Canyon, 40 minutes.  Hitting Cheyenne Canon and Bristol Brewery after work.

Letsrun quote of the day:

"I don't jog, I run."
 -Pres Obama

He was already a favorite of mine from when he picked Pitt for the final four and later did his whole beer summit thing, but this cements his awesomeness in my book.  Because, in my book, the three things you must do to be awesome are:

1.  Root for Pitt.
2.  Drink beer.
3.  Run.

racing the end

I have no urge to ever visit LA.  Or do a bike race.  But I heard about a pseudo-underground bike thing today, then watched this movie, and I was almost tempted...

Grab a brew first, it's ten minutes long.

Wonder if anyone has ever done the ride and then done the marathon?

Barr Camp

Easy slog up to Barr Camp this morning, three hours.  Friggin' hot.  These past two days have been a lesson in running dehydrated.

new FKT!

New FKT from my house to the summit of Pikes is 4:56:13.  Brooks was pretty far ahead of me, but he didn't wear a watch, or eat a donut, so he has no official time.  Solid run up, that time includes at least half an hour stopping to talk with everyone on the mountain.  Good run down for a nice 31 miler.

105 miles on the week.

Shot of me and Justin hanging out post-Dirty Thirty.  Dude is getting slow, only beat me by 100 minutes or so.

see, I'm not the only one who makes fun of penn state...

NYC

Booked the flight and hotel tonight.  We're staying here.  That's where the survivors of the Titanic stayed immediately after the sinking, so you know it's classy.

commute #25

AM - Quick six to work, one hour.  Stop lights were out at the intersection of Tejon and Colorado, I'm sure there's been an accident by now.

PM - Easy two hours home on the trails, 11 miles.

From the Dirty Thirty:

Great article over here on the Pirates.  Loved the first few sentences:

I have this crazy idea, an idea as crazy as believing in Charlie Brown, a balanced budget, the Cleveland Browns and pro soccer in America. I am starting to believe the Pittsburgh Pirates are an honest to goodness contender.

That's right: the Pirates. The team that hasn't had a winning season in Bryce Harper's lifetime, or since Bush the elder was president, Nolan Ryan was pitching and Barry Bonds was skinny.

Happy Dock Ellis Day!

I hope everyone went to work unprepared today!

quarters

1.5 mile warm up, 8 x 400m with 200m RBI, 1.5 mile cool down.  Lets were still sore from the weekend, but it felt good to get them spinning.  Averaged 89 seconds on the quarters.

Monday

AM - easy three miles around Old Colorado City with the dog, 30 minutes.

PM - easy slog up to No Name Creek and back from Memorial Park, two hours and 8.9 miles.

54

Down week with only 54 miles.  But real solid efforts on the track and at the Garden.  Hoping to crush it over the next three weeks, and then begin the Hardrock taper.

Pikes Peak Sports blog

Another post on the Pikes Peak Sports blog over here.  Possibly the best title in blog history, but the rest of the post goes downhill pretty quickly.

Still planning on the Summit Donut 50K this Saturday if anyone wants to join me.  We have a few CRUD guys showing up.  5:30AM from my house.

 A few pics from the Garden and post-race party.  Thanks to Tim and Amy P for the pics.

Garden

Ran my balls off today.  1:07:55.  I am going to stop mentioning any windy conditions, since it's been that way on every run for the last several months.  I can whine about, or I can deal with it.  Very happy with the race on a difficult course.  35:06 at five miles, 32:41 for the second half.

Gerald

His shirt says All Time Best!

Benny's!

track

Made my way up to Lewis-Palmer HS in Monument last night for the all-comers track meet.  First time I've raced on the track since my freshman year at Pitt.  GZ does a good recap of what it's like to run a 1500 over here, and I faced a lot of the same pre-race jitters.  Didn't have a time goal for the metric mile, I definitely knew GZ had thrown down a 4:55 the other day but I didn't think I could match that.  I was hoping I'd have enough speed to sneak in under 5, but wasn't sure that was even in the cards.

Big field, probably 15 or so.  Two guys were head and shoulders above everyone else, and they took off.  I settled into the back of the next pack, with some high school kid and the most electrifying runner on the planet.  First lap in 74, then 2:32 for the half.  Faster than I've run in a LONG time.

I was in the hole pretty deep, but with 600m to go I made a strong move on the other two.  The pain and suffering at 1200m was ridiculous.  I tried to hold off the other guys, but they passed me with about 10 meters to go and I had nothing left.  The three of us all ran 4:48, but I ended up in 5th.  Think that converts to a 5:08 or so mile, but had I needed to cover another 100 meters I probably couldn't have broke 5:30.  Running the mile sucks.

Came back for a double in the 3000m.  Was hoping to get another crack at Romero, but he scratched.  Ended up jaking the race to save myself for the Garden, running 10:59 off a 5:48 first mile.

Lots of suffering, but a real fun night at the track.  Two trials qualifiers in the 200m showed up, and that was awesome to watch.  They threw down low 21s for the half lap, pretty awesome in the windy conditions.  Rumor has it there will be three more of these meets during the summer, and I'll try to be at every one.

I would have taken him down if not for those fancy shoes!

In the 3K, I paced off this chick for the first mile, then crushed her over the next two laps.  Unfortunately, there was another lap to go after all that.

Less than three miles total, and my race report is longer than the last four ultras I've run combined.

dog's first race

Thurs

Easy dog jog in Red Rock Canyon this morning, 3.1 miles in 31 minutes.  Life is forcing me to slow things down, probably end up with 50 miles this week.  Then another three weeks of gettin' at it, then it's taper time!

shoes

Thanks to Wiley for the heads up.

that other blog

New post on the Pikes Peak Sports blog, see it here.

quote of the day

"My drink is vodka.  Straight, because I've always said that ice is for injuries."
  -Charlie Sheen

commute #24

Easy run to work this morning, 5 miles, 47 minutes.

In case you haven't noticed, my Pirates are surging.  8-2 in their last ten games.  Not one, but TWO games over .500 and only two games out of first place in the NL Central.  This is our year, baby!  Definitely the high point of the last two decades of Bucco baseball.

Wild Asses

Visited Cripple Creek over the weekend.  We had heard they have roaming donkeys, so on Sunday morning we set out to find them.  Didn't take long, they were chillin' in some guy's yard.  We get deer in our yard, and even had a bear once, but never burros.

Harvard

The dog and I bagged Mt. Harvard yesterday.  My 31st Colorado 14er.  Still struggling up high, something I've never had to deal with before.

Tons of downed trees on the trail made for a long day.  5.5 hours, plus 30 minutes smoking and drinking on the peak.

volunteer of the year!

Forgot to mention this in my super detailed Dirty Thirty race report.  NMP, even though he is afraid of the interweb, was working the HAM radio like a champ all day at the finish line!

weekend

Not sure why the Dirty Thirty doesn't get more cred among local runners, those are some gnarly trails out there.  Wanted to run an easy 5:59, went a bit too easy on the technical downhills and crossed in 6:07.  A 12 minute PR on that course.  Real happy on the day, lots of fun on some great trails.

Kind of nice to have the next few weekends where I'm not facing some retardedly long run.  Although, it looks like I'm racing three times this week - a track 5K on Friday, the two mile Ruff Life dog jog world championship throwdown on Saturday, and of course the Garden on Sunday.

big money!

340

5.5 miles on the Incline last night to get over 340 miles on the month.  Two 50 milers, two marathons, and a summit of Pikes.  Solid month, though I've been running on tired legs since the 100K in April.

Compares very well with May of 2009 (the year of my Hardrock PR, 36:37, which is faster than Footfeathers has ever run there).  Had 313 miles that month, including Collegiate Peaks and Jemez.  In June of 2009 I ran 300 miles, with one long run of 30 miles and nothing else over 15 miles. 

So, in theory, with the Dirty Thirty and San Juan this month, as well as a few 14ers thrown in for good measure, I should arrive in Silverton in better shape than I was back then.