21

Solid 21 mile run on Sunday in 3:13.  Fell apart over the final miles but at least I got the distance in.  If I can get this course down near 2:55 before NYC I'll feel pretty good about a sub three there.  The run capped off a 60+ mile week.

Easy 10K this morning, still pretty sore.  End August with 202 miles of running, and 380 miles on the bike.  Good stuff.  August 31st was my 94th bike commute on the year.

The Script is back, baby!!!!!  A sleeping giant is awakening.  Jump on the bandwagon now, folks!

$100 and I caught the Dave Matthews Band on Friday.  First show at Fiddler's Green for me.  Can't say I'm overly impressed with the place.  We did hit a new brewery before the show:

And they sold cans of Moscow Mule at the show:

My live music life is starting to become active again, finally.  Upcoming shows include Los Lonely Boys, Mac Sabbath, and Moon Taxi.  Plus we caught Blue Frog last night at Front Range.

Salsa demo day

$100 and I went up to Buffalo Creek on Saturday for a Salsa bike demo the company was having.  I rode $11,000 worth of bikes.  I'm a big Salsa fan so I knew I was going to be impressed no matter what, but it was pretty sweet to ride some of the higher end bikes they have.

First up was one I'm actually thinking of buying.  The Mukluk.  Sort of the Nike Waffle Racer of the fatbike world.  Got to take one out for an hour.  And since the Muk was in play to add to my quiver, I had to stop for a beer along the ride.

After that ride, I just borrowed as many expensive bikes as they'd let me.  Got to roll around on the Bucksaw, a dual suspension fattie.  Awesome, but just way too much bike for me and my bank account.

Then I took out one last dream ride.  If I won the lottery the Cutthroat would probably be the first bike I bought.  I just don't do enough road riding to justify it though.

As an added bonus, the Salsa rep had a cooler full of Grain Belt.

The whole purpose of the trip for me was to ride a Mukluk, and make a decision between the Muk and the Beargrease as my next bike.  After a good time on the Muk, I think I'm going to go with the Beargrease.  A much more fitting bike for what I do, and the price point will be much better for my marriage.  So yeah, hopefully within the next month I'll have this puppy in my garage:

Of course, all decisions on bikes are subject to change several times a minute until I actually pay for the thing.

My all time favorite bike remains the Mariachi, and it was pretty awesome to talk to the rep about his ride of choice:

$100 doesn't brag every single time she goes outside like I do, and has been riding the same crappy entry level trek for over half a decade now.  But I saw her face on a certain bike, and I wouldn't be surprised if she had one of these before too long:

recycle

A scene from the Pikes Peak Sports shindig on Wednesday.  Somebody has a Georgia Tech rock on their porch that is about to come up missing.

Tuesday Track

Was up a bit later than usual last night drinking beers, and this workout almost didn't happen.  But there are only two months of training until New York, and I need to spend some time on the track, so somehow I drug myself out of bed.  5 x 800m, with 400m RBI.  3:06, 3:11, 3:00, 2:56, 2:54.  Not my best work ever, but better than staying in bed.

And I ran through the finish every damn time.

Incredible shit out at Leadville.  Is there anyone who didn't kill it out there?  Still, nobody on the planet came up as big as Bolt over the weekend. 

more Pikes thoughts

- This is the biggest weekend for the local running crew.  So great to see so many friends out on the Mountain.  The running scene here now gets real quiet until mid-November.

- I had been critical of some of the Triple Crown races recently, but I must say the race management really killed it for both of the showcase races.  Probably the smoothest the weekend has gone of any of the times I've run it.  And I loved the schwag, something I'll actually wear rather than donate it to goodwill within a week.  Kudos to Ron and crew for nailing it!

- On paper, I was on pace for a sub three Ascent on Saturday until the Bottomless Pitt sign.  But I was getting no power from the legs, I knew all day I wasn't going to run 2:59, and I really started to believe that a sub three was a goal I'd never obtain.  I told myself that in future years maybe a 3:30 would be the goal, making for a much less stressful summer and race weekend.  But over quite a few beers at Fossil on Saturday night, Amanda started talking some shit and a bet was made.  So it looks like I'll be getting after it once again in 2016.

- Pretty happy with my descent on Sunday.  I was very lackadaisical all the way down to treeline, which cost me a sub two.  But I slowly picked up the pace, and with about five miles to go I realized I still had a shot at sub 5:30.  Ran those last five miles way out of my comfort zone, taking a lot of risks on the technical trail.  Finished in 5:26, descending in 2:01.

- There was some super fast Kenyan (think he was a 2:12 marathoner) who was supposed to come and crush Matt's record.  And I saw him take off at the start and didn't think much else about it.  Then I caught him at No Name.  And he wasn't looking good at all, stumbling around like he had finished a bottle of whiskey.  I went by him, finished the race, and walked back down to the hasher beer check.  A few hours later, the dude comes walking by, still stumbling around, but on his way to finish the race.  He stopped for a beer, then went on.  Awesome of him to finish what he started.

- Ten years ago, at the 50th anniversary of this race, I was living in Austin and had taken vacation to try my luck at the Ascent.  I thought the area was awesome and wondered what it would take to live here.  Funny how life works out sometimes.

- At my finish of the Ascent, I heard them announce that it was my 10th finish of the Ascent/Marathon.  The only years I haven't done it since I moved here were when I was doing Leadville.

Some pics from the weekend:

cholesterol

Last week I went to have a medical checkup now that I'm an old fart.  I was mostly interested in my cholesterol, which I had never had checked before.

Total cholesterol - 217
Triglycerides - 62
HDL - 112
VLDL - 12
LDL - 93

I don't know what any of that means, but the doctor was super happy with those numbers.  He said that even though the total was over 200, the HDL level made it all good.  He knew about my lousy diet, and he said I could keep doing whatever it was that I was doing.

The appointment reminded me of the level of activity that I get, and that the folks I tend to associate with get.  I've been on here moaning about how disappointing my double was, about how I didn't do enough work, about how "out of shape" I am.  The doctor asked if I ran Pikes, and then asked how I did.  I replied, "well, not quite as fast as I wanted on either day, but it could have been worse."  His jaw about hit the ground and he had trouble believing that me, or anyone, would or could run up Pikes both days.

You hang around guys like Simon, or Gerald, or GZ, or JV, or Matt C, or Wyatt, or Wes, or Don Solberg, or any number of folks I refer to as old farts and you start to feel out of shape.  But every now and then you're reminded that the huge majority of guys who are over 40 have trouble getting from the couch to the fridge and back.

So yeah, I'm fairly healthy.  The doc gave me some inhalers and a big tube of testosterone creme and sent me on my way.

track

Trying to make a habit of heading to the track every Tuesday morning.  And I was there this morning.  But it sure wasn't pretty, as my quads are still pretty beat up from the weekend.  Workout was 6 x 400m with 200m RBI, but I didn't time it.  My guess is the quarters were all around two minutes.

Dude from Fort Collins didn't make it at the latest Pb100 mountain bike.  Heart attack at age 55.  Going for his 19th buckle there.  Bummer.

Pikes

Pretty happy with how the weekend turned out.  Didn't come close to some aggressive time goals I originally started with, but I wasn't disappointed as I knew I hadn't come close to doing the required work.  Still managed to go 3:17 on Saturday and 5:26 on Sunday.  So great to see everyone out there getting after it all weekend!

Suffered a lot, but I may have had a bit of fun along the way.  Thanks to Jeff and Christian for the pics.

1000 feet for breakfast

Wed AM - Took the day off from running, and the plan was to bike up Rampart Range Road until I had climbed 1000 feet.  This workout took almost exactly an hour, so I may keep it up once or twice a week until it gets too cold in the mornings.

Wed PM - Cheyenne Canon.  Solid effort.  Second fastest time on Cap't Jacks.  Counting the commute, 35 miles on the bike for Wednesday.

Thurs AM - Seven miles on the Garden roads.  Threw in some three minute spurts for good measure.  A morning runner can definitely notice that the sun ain't rising as early anymore.

Today was commute #90 on the year.

Meesha, my other dog that lives with Marc & Amanda, is trying to get into the Mile High Weim Rescue annual calendar.  If you feel like throwing a buck or two towards the greatest dog rescue on the planet, go here and vote for her.

Some shots from the commute home on the flood day.  Had some stream crossings to deal with.  So much more fun than driving and dealing with traffic!

Tuesday

We spent the weekend in Salida, including a great ride on the Monarch Crest.  I'll get pics up shortly.

Monday morning was an easy 10K on the Garden roads.  A trip to the gym and a 60 minute tour of our swollen streams by bike on the way home as well.  This video was making it's rounds on the interwebs yesterday, and it was taken almost directly in front of my house.  I get lots of calls whenever there is flooding on the west side.  We are actually not in a flood zone (the houses across the street from us are) and I don't worry about flood damage, as there's a pretty low chance of that ever happening to us.

Tuesday morning was 6 x 400m on the local track.  Started with a 92, then worked my way down to 81.

a pirates fan looks at 40

Early morning Incline with the dog.  Very slow.  The dog was skittish, so I had to corral her.  And, as a bad sign that summer is slowly on it's way out, it was pretty dark the whole way up the tracks.  And I may have been up a bit late drinking beer, enough that Marc was reported to the Pleasant Valley e-mail list as a threat with his erratic drunken bike riding late last night.  So yeah, it took a while.

Nothing to note here except that this is my all time best effort at anything as a master.

Thanks to all those who reached out today.

Stop Sign Hill

Seven miles on the Garden roads this AM.  Stop Sign Hill is a tiny bump around 9.6 miles into the Garden ten miler.  It always crushes me.  Here's the view from the top this morning.

Mac Sabbath is coming to the Black Sheep!  On a Friday night too! Also on the bill are tribute bands to Pantera and the Beastie Boys!



I mentioned Mac Sabbath to a co-worker, and he told me to look into a band called Steel Panther.  Brandon would be into these guys.  They must be somewhat well known as that is Sarah Silverman at the end of the video.

the rest of the weekend...

$100 and I (and the dog) all had Monday off, so after the race breakfast on Sunday morning (Nick's wife did much more work over the weekend than he did, FYI)  we hung around the area.  First we went out and hiked Lake Agnes, which was part of the Never Summer race course.  Then we took a drive and set up camp near Monarch Lake.  Awesome four mile hike around that.  The next morning we drove Trail Ridge Road and then headed home, as I had to prepare for haring the Jerry Garcia hash.  Once again, a terrific Colorado weekend.

Tuesday

 Easy 10K on the Garden roads on Monday morning.  After work I biked 20 miles from the office to Red Leg for Fixie Dave's birthday happy hour.  Then another five miles home through a big storm.  Good times!

Tuesday was 4 x 800m on the track.  Took me a while to wake up.  3:14, 3:04, 2:56, 2:54.   I've decided to start training for NYC and let Pikes just happen.  Also rode 20 miles on the way home from work, then ran 4.7 miles up to Carson Pass and back.

July

Run - 210 miles, 45.5 hours
Bike - 284 miles, 32 hours

Meh.  Good numbers, padded by the 100K.  But I don't feel I've mentally returned from the several week break I took due to the bike wreck.  No idea how Pikes is going to go.

On Saturday I helped out with an aid station at the Pikes Peak Ultra.  Originally this was supposed to be a water only aid station, but we decided to go a bit above and beyond.  Not pictured is the nine pounds of bacon we had with us.

Never Summer 100K

Fantastic trip up to the far side of Rocky Mountain National Park last weekend.  Never been to that area before, and hot damn have I been missing out.

If you're looking for an extremely hard race, put this one on your schedule.  I'm not going to say it's as hard as a hundred miler, but the best way I've heard it described is, "it's like running the last 65 miles of a hundred miler."  The course is a great mix of dirt roads, singletrack, and cross country, with some great views of mountain lakes and some insanely steep climbs thrown in for good measure.  Your feet are very wet and sloppy almost the entire time.  I'm slowly fading from the ultra scene but the allure of a San Juan/Never Summer double is definitely in the back of my mind for next year.

Nick and the Fort crew did an excellent job, as usual.  I hear there were some grumblings about course marking, but I didn't find that to be an issue.  You definitely had to pay attention at times, but I never got lost.  My only complaints were beer related - no beer at the aid stations and some kind of chocolate stout at the finish line, not really the tastiest beer after running for 17.5 hours.  No need to worry, I had my own stash.