back at it

I weighed in on the wrong side of 179 pounds on Sunday, after spending four full weeks watching TV and eating chips and drinking heavily.  The wife said if I got any more fat I would have to start sleeping on the couch.


Luckily, the Incline Club started on Sunday and that provided me some motivation to get out the door for a workout that didn't involve walking slowly with my dog.  I chose the Incline, which took me 40:02 from bottom to top.  Not great, but with the snow and lack of fitness it was faster than I thought I'd go.


I'll continue to run every other day for the rest of the year, with some biking and trips to the gym thrown in for good measure.  A sub three Ascent and the Double will be the goals this year once again.  Plus the Dirty Kanza, which will require some serious time on the saddle.


Here's what my front yard currently looks like:

Little London

Jeff M has been doing a podcast on KCMJ dealing with all kinds of local issues.  You can check out the Little London show here.  Of course it didn't take long until a drinking game materialized.  Some of us got together on Tuesday to play and some alcohol was consumed.  I didn't get much done at work on Wednesday...

Dunes

Headed down to the Sand Dunes over the weekend for some cold weather camping.  The low temps at the park office were 3F on Friday night and 0F on Saturday night.  We stayed at the Zapata Falls campground about 1000 feet above that office, so who knows how cold it got up there.  Miserable, but one of those times we'll eventually look back on and think it was fun.

Love the Dunes, I need to get down there when it's warmer and do some exploring.  Not sure why this place isn't ever mentioned in typical Colorado adventure talk.  Besides the actual dunes, you have the Sangres right there with their endless mountains and trails.  Not to mention the UFO's.  And you even get to drop by Salida on the way home for some Moonlight Pizza and Elevation Brewing.

World Trade Center

On our last day in NYC $100 and I took the elevator to the World Trade Center Observatory.  Loved it, and obviously the views were fantastic.

Muscoco

The dog and I got out and about on Saturday, heading over to Cheyenne Canon to check out the new-ish trail up to Mt. Muscoco.  Four miles round trip, probably a good 10K for the dog.  Beautiful November day to spend outside.

Brewer's Cup

Vanessa had the brilliant idea for a brewery/running mash up and it looks like it's going to happen in 2016.  Should be a ton of fun with lots of shit talking and beer drinking.  And some running.  So far we have Red Leg, Fossil, Gold Camp, Pikes Peak, Manitou, and Phantom Canyon sporting teams.  Of course Red Leg will dominate, but it should be a solid contest for the number two spot.

stuff the ballot box!

Some great voting news from our village made it's way to me while we were in NYC.  The Springs actually said yes to a sales tax increase and our roads might actually start getting fixed.  And local gov gets to keep some extra tax revenue to improve some hike & bike trails, including a bunch I take to get to/from work.  Good stuff!

But lets talk important stuff.  Focus On The Beer is letting folks vote in their "best of" awards.  So if anyone out there has some extra time, please go here and vote for the following:

best brewery - Red Leg
most anticipated brewery - Cerberus
best beer bar - Front Range BBQ
best dive bar - Murphy's
best beer selection - Front Range BBQ
best non-Colorado Springs brewery - Yuengling
best brewery staff - Red Leg
best IPA- Fossil Mammoth IPA
best beer with non-beer ingredients - Fossil Oreo Strata
best edumacational beer event - Fossil Talk Nerdy To Me
best beer festival - Manitou Heritage Festival
best philanthropic beer event - Bristol Cheyenne Canon Ale
best athletic beer event - Incline Beer Mile

You can vote once a day, but even if the four readers of this blog vote just once it may move the needle.  The westside has the best of everything in this town, we just don't have the numbers to win these contests.  Don't want to see applebee's win best beer bar.

If you are from out of the COS area and vote these choices, let me know and I will buy you a beer.  I am definitely not above paying to rig an election.

fat

On Monday morning I stepped on the scale and registered in at 177 lbs.  About ten pounds heavier than usual.  Had been spot on with the typical jt diet (down as much junk food and alcohol as possible and as little healthy shit as possible) since the Wisconsin trip.  And when I'm mired in my usual daily workout routine during the work week - two seperate 60 minute runs, another hour of bike commuting, another hour of walking the dog - I can get away with that.  But I hadn't been doing that for a good three weeks, and boy did the weight come quickly.

But I got back at it this week.  Taking a full six weeks off of running, but I've been doing longer hikes with the dog, biking to work again (today was #123 on the year, and three for November), and hitting the gym, either over lunch or in the evening at CityRock.  172.8 lbs this morning.

Dog and I did half the Incline this morning.  Lots of bullshit issues over parking on Ruxton lately, but when we pulled into the upper lot at 4:45AM there was only one other vehicle there.  Very peaceful on the Incline with the first snowfall of the year going on.

zoo

Trying to take advantage of the good weather while it lasts, we spent a few hours at one of our favorite places in town, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, on Sunday.  Believe it's the highest zoo in the world.

The Pitt Panther exhibit:

Even got to see a kangaroo boxing match:

High Line Trail

Believe it or not, there's an awesome trail that cuts right through Manhattan, conveniently running from our hotel to packet pickup for the marathon.  The High Line is an old elevated railroad bed that was converted to a walking path.  $100 and I got up early most days and took a nice stroll along the thing, which early in the morning is somewhat empty (by NYC standards).  Here are some pics I took while walking the thing: