Monday

3.3 miles in 45 minutes with the dog in Red Rock Canyon this morning.  She was not very impressed with my win, as she shit twice despite knowing damn well I was only carrying one poop bag.

Going to shoot for 100 Incline ascents in '13.  Doing the Incline twice burns off one bacon cheeseburger, right?

Not sure what I'm going to do when I get home tonight.  One minute I'm motivated to do the Incline twice, the next minute I'm wondering which bar I should start drinking at the moment I leave the office...

Just Call Me Champ!

Boom!

2013 Challenge: Burgers!

Looks like the challenge for 2013 will be burgers!  Eat a burger in 50 different locations.  Go here if you want in on the action.

Does this make me an elite ultra runner?

racing

Logo on the shirt for the annual Rescue Run 10K on January 1st in Palmer Park.  Just one of three races I'll be doing over an eight day span to end/start the year.  Also hitting up the Raptor Resolution Run 5 miler and the Jackson Day 9K in NOLA.  Anyone know the FKT for that amazing triple?

commute #52

That wraps up the commuting challenge of 2012.  Ran to work at least once a week over the past year.  5.5 easy miles in just under an hour.

Tuesday

Rick H and I ran the first few miles and the last few miles of the new fat ass course this morning.  See the beta here.  Basically we head out through the east side of Red Rock Canyon, run all over the Cheyenne Canon/Section 16 area, and come back through the west side of Red Rock Canyon.  Should be pretty fun.  8.2 miles on the day in just under two hours.  Saw two sets of mountain lion tracks on Intemann!

Rick told me about this shirt while we were BSing on the run:

But when I googled it, this much better image popped up.  Merry Christmas.

Monday

Nice 14.5 miler through the Garden and Manitou this morning to get a jump on the iRunFar Strava Challenge.  I was in 7th place overall when I posted those miles this morning!  I've since fallen way down now that all the late sleepers have gone for their run.

After the run I jumped on the bike for the four miles over to Trinity.  It's their annual "kill the keg" christmas eve shindig.  Always liked this, but at eight bucks a pint I think I'll have to start my own tradition over at the Lounge.

Wisconsin girls sure are expensive!

This is what $600 an hour gets you:

A whole hour, I wonder if she'll run my next 3K steeplechase with me for $400.  The story is already old news, but it has given birth to the greatest thread EVER on letsrun.com.  CRUD was trying to get her for the pre-fat ass expo, but at that price I doubt she's interested in a bunch of dudes who live in their trucks.

Gotta admit, this is a pretty awesome commercial:

canon FAIL

Was real hard to get out of bed this morning at 4:30.  Then I seemed to struggle getting into the required six layers of clothes.  Then I couldn't find my keys.  Then, two minutes into the run up Cheyenne Canon, my face was in horrible pain due to the cold temps (4F in downtown Springs, much lower over in the Canon).  So I finally gave up.  I did eat a bag of doritos for breakfast though, so I still get to keep my coolness points.

Incline tonight, should be a lot warmer.

The Horsetooth Half Marathon up in the Fort now has a full marathon division.

Hadn't had a trip to the big ditch planned for this year, but after seeing this I might go back...

Grand Canyon : Blink of Time from GOTM Films on Vimeo.

commute #51/Keystone question

Quick run to work, five miles in 48 minutes.  Not nearly as cold as it was supposed to be.

Only one more week and the big 2012 commuter goal will be in the books.  Lopped over 20% of my driving miles off.  Looking to double that number in '13.

In Keystone this weekend.  For a concert, not skiing.  Any good bars there?  Any good runnable-in-December trails there?

Red Mountain/4:20 Incline

Mon PM - Red Mountain with toe dog, $100, Marc (who did the Incline first), Amanda (who ran the seven miles from her house to the start), Vega, and BLOS.  Up in 25 flat, first time I've run the whole thing in a while.  3.5 miles, 50 minutes.

Tues AM - And I mean AM.  Stepped off with O'Day and the dog at 4:20.  Marc had started about ten minutes earlier, and Roger was on his way up before that.  Two miles, 1:14.

Act now, all 2012 NYC Marathon finisher schwag is 50% off!

Stumbled upon another drug related cycling post on letsrun.com.  This chick below (and yes, it really is a chick) was busted by the anti-doping peeps while shaving her beard.  See the original thread here.

Barr Camp

Dog was a pain in the ass this morning.  Three miles up and down Barr Trail, 50 minutes.

Tomorrow O'Day and I start our new tradition - Tuesday 4:20 Incline.  Stepping off at the lovely hour of 4:20AM if anyone wants to join us.

I believe I have the best luck of anyone in the history of the Hardrock lottery.  Not sure when the lottery started (guys like Blake and Mr. 16-time-finisher-but-still-on-the-waitlist Kirk, got their start way back before Born To Run when there was no lottery).  I bet I even have a better winning percentage than Steve or Deb or Ted.  So I can tell you, there is no sort of lottery conspiracy going on.  I don't have any dirt on Dale, and I'm not rich enough to bribe the entire board of directors.  Whine away because you didn't get in, but there's no need to rip on other runners who happen to get lucky and it's certainly uncalled for to call into question the ethics of those in charge of putting on the race.

Fat Ass Course Pics

Harsha took a ton of pics while previewing the Fat Ass course on Saturday, you can see them here.

woohooo!

Time to go get all that five time finisher schwag!

Fat Ass

CRUD ran a chunk of the upcoming Fat Ass course yesterday.  My garmin data is here.  Strava stuff is over here.  Beautiful course.  Think it will end up being somewhere in the 28-29 mile range.  We will have an aid station just before the halfway point, at a parking lot where High Drive and Gold Camp Road intersect at the top of Cheyenne Canon.

The Dive

bike to work

$100 gave me the green light to drop some serious coin on a new bike if I can ride once a week to work in 2013.  Right now I'd go with a Surly, either the Long Haul Trucker or the Ogre.  But that will probably change as I put more thought into it.  And $1200 isn't really considered serious coin in the bike world, I'd still be treated as a welfare recipient among the cyclists on the Front Range.  Which is reason #2 that bike riding will never be as cool as running (reason #1 is the whole spandex thing).

There's a weird clicking noise I get when I pedal.  It comes and goes.  When it comes, I just stop peddling for half a second, and when I start again it has gone away.  No idea what this is.  It seems to be coming from the crank area.  Any thoughts as to what it might be?

My professional triathlete neighbor took a look at my mountain bike and told me the rear derailler is broke.  This throws a wrench into my plans for a possible attempt at the Steamboat Stinger double.

Anywho, I did bike to work today.  Even at a somewhat warm 30F, I thought my toes were going to freeze.

commute #50

Easy five to work this morning.  About to run home and then head to the annual Colorado Running Company holiday party.

Good stuff (as usual) from Sharpie's FB page:

El top de los W's

Easy run to the top of the W's after work tonight from the Cog station.  33 minutes up, 27 down, 3.9 miles.  Friggin' cold, though at 22F it was almost twice as hot as it was this morning.

Here's the CRUD e-mail for Sat's long run if anyone wants to join us.  Checking out a good chunk of the upcoming Fat Ass.  Will be hitting The Dive for post-run grub.

Meet at the Section 16 parking area on Lower Gold Camp Road at 7:00 a.m. See below for directions to trailhead.

Colorado Springs will be hosting the 3^rd and final run of the Front Range Fat Ass Series on January 19, the Ponderous Posterior. With the Waldo Canyon fire this summer we are unable to run the route we have ran the last 2 years. This Saturday will be running the middle portion of the Ponderous Posterior.

From Section 16 parking lot up High Drive, take a left and head down Capn’t Jacks to Lower Gold Camp Road. Just before the tunnel on the left take the Spring Creek Trail down to Columbine. Up Columbine to North Cheyenne Canon Road which is the paved road. Up North Cheyenne Canon Road for about ½ mile. Head left at the dirt parking lot to Gold Camp Road which is closed to traffic. Where the road turns sharp to the left head to your right and hit the Buck Horn Trail. Up Buck Horn to Capt Jacks (Trail 667). Left on Capt Jacks(Trail 667) to Bear Creek Trail(Trail 666), down Bear Creek Trail to High Drive for ¼ mile then up Palmer Red Rocks Loop/Section 16 and back to cars. Estimated mileage 18 miles. Can cut it shorter by heading back to car when coming down High Drive instead of doing the Palmer Red Rocks Loop/Section 16.

Direction to Start:

To get to the Section 16 Trailhead , turn south on 26th Street from US Highway 24 near Old Colorado City in Colorado Springs. Continue on 26th to the 5-way intersection with Gold Camp Road, Wheeler, and Bear Creek Road. Take Upper Gold Camp Road (right turn) and follow it to the parking lot with the big sign for Section 16

Damn bike thieves!

The Dive

Brand new diner just opened down the street from me at 31st and Pikes Peak.  Tried it this morning and the breakfast sandwich was really good.  Looking forward to trying the burgers!  Open 6AM to 11PM and hoping to go to 24 hours soon, this place could save me from a lot of future Red Rock Lounge hangovers.

AM Incline

Stepped off on the Incline at 4:50AM this morning, at a balmy 13F.  With O'Day and Rakita.  And by "with," I mean I picked them up and we were technically tied at the bottom.  But I'll take the bronze medal for any Incline done by 6AM.  Straight up and straight down, first time I've come down the Incline in years.  Up in roughly 40 minutes, 2 miles in 1:15.

Monday

AM - Took the dog over to Red Rock Canyon.  Had I hit the jackpot at powerball last week, I probably wouldn't have been half as excited as our dog gets when there's fresh snow on the trails.  6.8 miles, 80 minutes.

PM - Weekly Red Mountain throwdown.  Ran there from the house via the Garden trails.  Small turnout due to the weather, only $100, Dan V, and Brandon S showed up.  9.5 miles, two hours.

Fort Collins

As expected, a great time up in the Fort at the Chubby Cheeks Fat Ass on Saturday.  I ran the marathon course in just over six hours.  Easy effort and nice to be on my feet for that long.  Awesome to see so many like-minded folks up there.  Strava tells me that I'm now the KOM of the Horsetooth Falls Trail Climb, nice to show up and take that away from the locals.  But I'm sure that now Nick or Mike H will jump on Strava just to take that trophy from me.

Stayed up north on Saturday night and visited two more breweries - Pitchers and Equinox.  Good stuff!  Equinox had a pretty solid band playing, and everyone got bonus points when the band threw down a cover of First Tube.



Of course it wasn't all about snooty breweries.  We also visited Tony's for some jager, the Drunken Monkey for some gin, and the Town Pump, where $100 put 14 vodka soaked cherries into her mouth at once.  Probably some other pubs in there as well.  That's on top of all the brews downed after the Fat Ass.  I took a life insurance physical this morning, and I wonder if the UA I provided will still have alcohol in it.

50 miles on the week, with good runs at Incline Happy Hour and the Fat Ass.  Training has really been hit or miss since the no-go at NYC.  Been nice to sort of take a break, but it's about time to get in gear or else Mt. Mitchell is going to hand me my ass.

Hoping to get up to Todd G's Hardrock lottery party on Sunday.  But that's the day after the infamous Verly Hudson Pub Crawl in Manitou, so we'll see if I can get my ass out of bed in time.

2013 Race Schedule

Been sitting on this for a while, figured I'd throw it out there now.  Of course a lot of it depends on the Hardrock lottery next weekend.

Feb 23 - Mt. Mitchell Challenge
Mar 9 - Salida Marathon
May 11 - Quad Rock
May 19 - Colfax Marathon
June 1 - Dirty Thirty 50K
June 15 - Mt. Evans Ascent
June 22 - Lake City (if Hardrock) or Rachel Carson Challenge (if no Hardrock)
June 29 - North Fork 50K
July 12 - Hardrock
Aug 18 - Pikes Peak Double
Sept 7 - Imogene/Chicago Basin/Telluride Blues & Brews
Nov 3 - NYC Marathon

And godfuckingdamnit I am going to finally hike Longs Peak sometime in '13!

commute #49

Damn, almost crossed this new years resolution off the list.  Five miles to my new finish line, Quixote's (the breakfast burritos are killer, and a steal at $1.66).

Working on some 2013 resolutions.  Have two different race schedules scratched down, which one gets the green light depends on the upcoming Hardrock lottery and whether or not the NYRR can get their head out of their ass and figure out what's going on.

Not sure I ever mentioned my Breaking Bad fix here.  Almost done with season four, which is a problem since that's all that Netflix has so far.

machete robber update

The latest on the machete robber, who is now suspected of murder, can be seen here.  This is the dude who walked into the Red Rock Lounge with his machete, saw there were too many people there, and went next door to rob the Papa Murphy's.  The trailer park where he lived is at the t-intersection of Pikes Peak Ave and El Paso Blvd, about a mile down the road towards Manitou from my house. The new hike & bike trail runs along this trailer park.

The real question here is how could a woman possibly turn down a westsider who drinks his booze straight from the bottle, 'cuz those types of guys are classy!

Garden/Red Mountain

Very easy day.

AM - Easy dog jog on the Garden trails.  2.4 miles.  Bears were out so it took forever to get her through leash country to the actual trails.

PM - Red Mountain.  Easy run with $100 and the pooch up the usual Monday mountain.  Incredible weather for this time of year.  Post run brews at the Keg.  We are not a cursed group, as somebody finally had a good race (Brad at NF50).  Andy and I had not been representing very well since we started running this.

Incline Club

Decent run this morning with some good climbing.  Intemann, Section 16, a bit of High Drive, and back through Red Rock Canyon.  18 miles in 3:40.  Good long run for me, takes away some of the shame and failure I was feeling from yesterday.  More importantly, I was able to get my new badge from strava.  I know you're jealous.

Rock Canyon Half

Not sure what happened here.  1:41 and change.  Pretty much gave up and jogged it in after three miles, just wasn't into racing today.  Started walking through aid stations and everything.  Blech.  At least I got to chow down at Bingo Burger after the run.

Really good indicator of where I'm at mentally with running right now.  Might be time to step it up a bit.

Thanks to Pikes Peak Sports for the pic!