beer #58

AM - Easy ride to work.  No ride home because my truck was still at the office from the night before.  Who the hell thought it was a good idea to slam a few Moscow Mules on a Wednesday night?

PM - Me & the dog went up the Incline for the 12th time this year.

beer #57

One of my favorites!

beer #56

19F this morning, so no run.  Went back to bed for an hour and then threw on some sweatshirts and two puffy coats and walked the dog around the block instead.

Lunch - Half hour at the Y.  Decent weight workout.

PM - Incline #11 on the year.  With the dog.  I'm ready for warmer weather.

I'll be heading downtown to see this flick on Wednesday evening.  Here's the info for you locals.

Trailer: A Winter of Cyclists from ChainRing Films on Vimeo.

Turns out they have six months, from October 1 to March 31, to ride 52 times to/from work.  For as much as I cry about cold weather, I'm pretty sure I'm well above that pace.  I'd ride everyday but I just can't find gloves that work for me.  I currently use a pair of thick fleece gloves that I squeeze inside of PI lobster gloves.  And my hands still get super cold.  I'm convinced that I've had frostbite on my thumb before, as that gets painful very quickly into any ride under 40F.  I only have to be outside for 20 minutes when I take the quick way to work, but even for that short of time I don't own any gloves that can do the job when it's below 30F.

Keeping it classy tonight.  Imported from Sri Lanka.

beer #55

Nice ride on Monday after work.  25 miles on the Santa Fe trail up to Woodman, and back down to the house through the Garden.  Just under two hours.

Other than that, just doing whatever I can to get through the final stages of winter.  Had a decent run at the final Winter Series up in Black Forest on Saturday, running 1:39 (wanted sub-1:40), and then backed that up on Sunday with 15 miles on the Intemann Trail and Red Rock Canyon.  Also got a two hour ride in on Sunday.

Of course, I'm still drinking beer everyday!

beer #54

Saint Arnold Winter Stout.  Been to the Saint Arnold brewery many times when I lived down in Texas.  Houston's oldest microbrewery.

beer #53

beer #52

Colin Quinn

beer #51

AM - Slept in.  Snow and cold temps.  Winter has defeated me and I'm just biding my time until we start seeing temps in the 60s  or higher every day.  Did take the dog out for a walk and biked to work though.

Lunch - Half hour at the gym.  Saw Vega at the 7-11 on the way back to the office.  He tried to steal my wallet.

PM - Half an hour ride home, followed by a five mile run on the Garden roads.

Short article on my friend Katie who designed the Smokebrush label.

Looks like the Green Man Taproom will be opening soon.  Still can't figure out how they're not getting sued, but the place is super close to my office and downtown CS needs more cool places, so I hope the joint rocks.

Back to Stout month.  One of the classics.

beer #50

Late Wednesday night at the Triple Nickle so no workout on Thursday morning.  And it was the annual Smokebrush Porter release at Bristol, so no workout Thursday afternoon either.

My friend Katie painted the bottle design.

I even scored an autographed bottle.

The Smokebrush supports the Uncle Wilber fountain that sits downtown in Acacia Park.  My second favorite community ale behind the Cheyenne Canon Nut Brown Ale they release later in the year.

beer #49

Big Bear Black Stout from Bear Republic Brewing in Healdsburg, CA.

beer #48

AM - Ten miles in Red Rock Canyon with the dog.  Only the second time since we've had her that she's covered that distance.

PM - Easy hour on the Salsa over in Red Rock Canyon.  Was hoping to get in a longer ride but this was all I could squeeze in.

We watched Pug over the weekend so Marc and Amanda could head to Moab.  I don't work for free, and I demanded payment in beer.

beer #47

Decent ride today despite the horrible wind.  Trails were still muddy so I took the Surly out and did a big 40 mile loop.  Cheyenne Canon crushed me more than usual.  Just under four hours.

I always tell people I'm from Pittsburgh because that's where my heart is and then I don't have to try to explain where in PA I'm from, but I was actually born in a small central Pennsylvania town called Sunbury.  Sunbury made the front page of cnn tonight due to this story.

Sticking with Left Hand tonight.

beer #46

Saturday was my first run over the half marathon distance since August.  Really sweet that as I completely fell apart over the last four miles I also had to deal with a crippling headwind.  Three hours on the day despite 15 minute miles those last few miles.  Much faster than the 20 miler that Peter, Brandon, and Jeff ran that day (they made it up and down Pikes in six hours).

Beer for the day was the Left Hand Milk Stout.  Met a bunch of local runners down at Brewer's Republic to celebrate Tom C's birthday.

Then we went to Tony's and drank some quality Wisconsin beer.

And then we went to Supernova and this was the last thing I remember:

Good times!

beer #45

Household 6 Thin Mint Stout from Red Leg.

beer #44

AM - Easy hour on the Garden roads, 6.5 miles.

PM - Nice ride through the Garden and Manitou.  75 minutes, 14 miles.

Good luck to everyone racing Moab this weekend.  Be sure to tell Justin his race sucked.  If you can add in that the timing system sucked as well you get double bonus points.  And everyone drink a Johnny's IPA for me.

Broke out one of the Front Range heavy hitters today, loves me some Great Divide.

beer #43

AM - easy ride to work.  On the bike path just past 21st street, I heard someone call my name.  It was a homeless guy I know from work, and had slept in his car the previous night.  He said to me, "Cool bike.  Nice to see you're going green."

PM - Wooten and I got in a ride up Cheyenne Canon.  I'm adopting his rule about not biking unless it's in the mid-40s.  It might take a few days to get feeling back in my hands.

Foreign stout tonight as this stuff is brewed in Seoul, South Korea.

beer #42

This video shows the proper respect with which you should show a road biker.

Work has been rough lately, so I opted to sleep in instead of grab an early morning run.  Got out in the evening for a solid 8.6 miles on the Garden roads, 1:15.  Looks like the weather starts warming up, hopefully I can get the bike out this weekend.  Might head down to Pueblo Res on Sunday or Monday.

Real good stout tonight, picked this one up back when I was in Austin.  Buried Hatchet Stout from Southern Star Brewing Company.

beer #41

AM - Another hour of indoor cycling.  Better than not riding at all, I suppose.  Plus a half hour working on the guns in the gym.

Lunch - half hour at CityRock.

PM - Red Mountain with Marc, Todd, Vega, and two dogs.  Misha and my dog are finally starting to get along.

Beer number 41 was the Mexican Chocolate Stout that Marc picked up from Denver Beer Company.  This year long challenge is definitely getting me to try some new stuff.  That's all I'll say about this beer.

beer #40

Decent long run this morning with the Incline Club.  Went up to No Name Creek and back down, then hit the Incline for trip number ten on the year.  Seems that inversion thing was covering the entire front range.  It was pretty shitty in town, but after climbing 850 or so feet it was sunny and beautiful.  Here's a shot from high up the Incline that I stole from facebook:

One of my favorite Colorado breweries, Red Leg, was recently spotlighted by some folks hoping to sell a beer related series to a major network.  Here's the sneak peak:

Featured on the Next Brewed - Red Leg Brewing Company from Idea Spring Editing on Vimeo.

Speaking of Red Leg, my beer for today was their Devil Dog Stout.

beer #39

Ten miles at the Winter Series.  Just under 90 minutes, not too bad for me given the easy effort and crappy trail conditions.  Don't think the winner even broke 70.

Nice to see the Air Force Marathon Team (a bunch of non-track/xc academy cadets) all over the race field, even better to see them form a small scream tunnel at the finish line.  You can see it here (they were pretty loud until I yelled "GO ARMY!"):

After the race a bunch of us headed over to local favorite Pikes Peak Brewing.  Had me the Summit House Stout.

Was hoping to ride today but the roads and trails were just too messed up.  Took the dog for an hour hike instead.

Got tickets to the Saturday show for Fast Eddy's upcoming romantic comedy.  Anyone going to that showing?  Picked the second day just so I could tell him how everyone I talked to said the movie sucked.  The flick will definitely be a letdown after his last movie.



A buddy posted this to my Facebook page.  It is a wild fantasy of mine that this happens to every runner who claims to enjoy running in freezing cold and icy/snowy conditions.  Can't believe someone finally caught it on video!

beer #38

Finally got the bike out again for the commute to work.  Side roads are still a mess but it was nice not to have to worry about frostbite.  Half an hour to work, then an hour after work up to Red Leg.

Red Leg is putting on a few extra beers in honor of Stout month, and I had their Irish Brigade Stout.  Good stuff.

I also got a new picture of an IPA.

Rooting big for Air Force to take down SDSU this weekend (though that won't happen).  And I do like Arizona Wildcat hoops, mostly because their coach is awesome.  Anyone wanna guess where he went to school?

beer #37

hey, no morning run today either!

beer #36

AM - got up early and drank a ton of coffee.  No way I was going outside.

Had planned to spend the day inside goofing off with the dog.  Office was closed as we follow D-11 here in the Springs (who have already called a two hour delay for Thursday!).  But something came up and I ended up having to get to the office around 3PM.  Made the most of the trip by hitting up the Y for 40 minutes on the bike and 30 minutes in the weight room.  So not a total zero day.

One of these days weeks months I'll start doing the CRUD Cheyenne Canon hill climb on Thursday mornings.  Definitely not tomorrow though.

Stout month continues with this leftover from last year.  Loves me the Ska Brewery peeps, but this ain't the best brew to ever come out of Durango.

no run this morning...

beer #35

Managed to get out for an hour on Tuesday morning, up to Carson Pass in Red Rock Canyon and back.  Outdoor activity over the next week or so is going to be pretty scarce.

My facebook movie is all beer drinking and/or Hardrock.

Watched the Leadville MTB movie while drinking a local brew, the Snowblind Imperial Stout from Phantom Canyon.  Counts as research.  Thanks to Marc for the pic.

beer #34

AM - Something a bit different today.  With the weather looking super crappy for the foreseeable future, I knew I needed to somehow get some time on the bike.  So I tried out the indoor cycling class at the Y.  Somehow drug my ass out of bed in time to make it to the 5:15AM class and rode pretty hard for an hour and fifteen minutes.  Nice to work up a sweat instead of freeze my fingers off.  Done at 6:30AM, I even had time to throw some weights around before heading across the street to work.

PM - Probably the last decent weather day for the Incline until next week, so the dog and I headed over for my ninth trip of the year.  The Incline and Barr were in real good condition, though I suspect that will be different by tomorrow morning.

Found a homebrew in the dark corner of my beer fridge.  Charbuck's Black Coffee & Cream Stout.  Thought it was a GZ concoction, but he denies involvement.  My next guess is Steve Pero.  Whoever made it, it's damn good and much better than the $6 pint of Young's I had yesterday.

beer #33

Due to a late Saturday night, I didn't have a very productive day at the Super Half.  Snuck in right at 1:59.  But I got in two runs of two hours despite the really crappy weather, so that's good.  Biggest mileage weekend for me since August.

Hit Barr Trail at 4PM to see Phil off on his annual anti-superbowl run up to Barr Camp.  Dog and I hiked up 1.5 miles and turned around.  Awesome day.  And it looks like I didn't miss much by being outside while the Super Bowl was on.

Grabbed this one at the post-race party.  Young's Double Chocolate Stout.  Going to try to do a stout every day in February, but a recent trip to the liquor store says that might be tough.

Few other pics from Sunday:

beer #32

Two hours (12 miles) this morning.  Garden roads were a mess, but it was a fun run.  Wanted to get a second workout in but the weather was such a mess.  Plus, a bunch of people came over to drink a few beers, which didn't help things.

The bighorn sheep were out playing in the Garden.

I'm not a road biker.  But if I wanted to be one, there's a pretty solid set of instructions:



Stout month is here!  A Winter Warlock Oatmeal Stout from Bristol was in order.

If I were doing this challenge Shad style, here's a list of some of the beers I had last night.  Completed the Bristol sweep as I had everything they served last night.  The Super Half is probably not going to be pretty.

A few more from the night: