Friday, April 29, 2016

Cup 'O Dirt #1

Finally, my first 100K ride on the year.  I thought I'd be halfway through the Cup 'O Dirt Challenge by now, but Mother Nature has had other plans.

Easy route, from the house over to the Santa Fe trail via the Sinton Trail.  From there I went north and did a loop around Palmer Lake.

The Air Force isn't winning me over anymore.  The Santa Fe trail will now be closed until the end of summer.  A few of us commoners have been complaining about this for a while, but in the Gazette today Susan Davies, who has a much bigger audience than I do, had this paragraph in an article:

"Perhaps it's time to seriously consider a new route that would remove the region's major spine trail (also part of Front Range Trail) from academy property. Since public dollars paid for that stretch of trail, and now it is essentially a private trail at the academy, perhaps AFA would help finance an alternative trail that commuters and recreation users can rely on."

Air Force football opens on September 3 with Abilene Christian (no, that is not a high school) and I hope ten people show up.

Of course, being prior Army, I don't really take anything the Air Force says very seriously.  




Anywho, on the way back I dropped by Pikes Peak Brewing for some Elephant Rock IPA.


To stay on as much dirt as possible, I rode the final miles through Ute Valley Park.  Love those trails and I need to get there more often.

Who needs Moab?


Made a quick stop to see my other dog.


Ended up with 62.7 miles.  Strava data is over here.  Out there for almost eight hours, though that included three pretty long stops for beer (also hit Red Leg Brewing before the final push home through the Garden of the Gods).  It dawned on me as I got home that I hadn't eaten anything all day.  Did this ride on a liter of water and five beers. 

Thursday, April 28, 2016

whiskey #12

Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel.  An elegant, complex whiskey.  The flavors are nice and tight.  I copied that review from the webpage, but it was another good drink.  Enjoyed with a cuban cigar.  Both the whiskey and the cigar were courtesy of friends, so I must  be doing something right.


brownie is back, baby (part 2)!

More comebacks than Alan Webb, baby!

30 minute road run this morning, covering 5K.  Very stiff, but no pain.  Will slowly work back into it, and am still hoping to run the Collegiate Peaks 25 miler next Saturday.

Last day of the climbing league last night.  Didn't push the ankle too far but it held up.  Flashed another V3.



Tuesday, April 26, 2016

false start

Tried to run this morning but after 30 seconds I knew things still weren't ready to go.  Dog was happy since that led to a full hour of hiking over in the Garden.  I'll try again Thursday, and if that fails I'll just wait until May.  I did run on Friday, but I had quite a few beers before starting and I guess that masked the pain a bit. 

Did an hour of hot yoga last night, pushed the ankle pretty hard and it held up well.  And I've been doing lots of hiking and biking on it.  It's still swollen, but it's only running that gives it any trouble.

Monday, April 25, 2016

activity

Ankle is still a bit swollen, but the pain has gone away, so I'm slowly starting to get back at things. 


My gawddamn ant stick is acting up once again, but I have been doing some good hiking with the dog and I did run on Friday - 4.5 miles at the PPRR Full Moon Run.  On Saturday I stood around most of the day at the Cheyenne Mountain 50K, volunteering at an aid station.  Did manage a 100K bike ride on Sunday, and I'll post more about that soon as it was my first ride of the Cup 'O Dirt Challenge.


Going to attempt to run on Tuesday morning and then keep an every-other-day schedule until I'm fully healed.


Took this while walking back from the aid station.  Think it's target #1 if we ever have a nuclear war.  But hey, show the terrorists you're not afraid and sign up for The Cheyenne Mountain Run, which was a blast last year.







Friday, April 22, 2016

brownie is back, baby!

Lots of activity on the gimpy ankle yesterday.  After taking the dog to the vet (rattlesnake shots), we hit up the dog park for half an hour.  Then $100 and I went for a nice ride over in Red Rock Canyon.  Then I stood on the ankle for a while as we downed a bunch of beers at Fossil.


Hour hike with the dog this morning in the Garden.  I'll be testing the ankle out tonight at the Full Moon Run.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

RIP

We lost a great one today.

Chyna, thanks so much for showing up at my wedding and kicking the crap out of Spider Man.



A coworker gave her a fitting tribute.  He confided to me, "She didn't die today, they just found her body today.  She probably died a day or two ago."

Oh yeah, one of the Phish songwriters also bit the dust today (speed ahead to 3:30 if you don't have the patience to appreciate true musical genius).

Thursday

Finally, one full week into this ordeal, some big movement on the cankle front.  Tremendous improvement after a good night of sleep.  Longest morning walk with the dog in the last week.  If it improves this much by tomorrow morning, I will consider it more of a nuisance than anything painful.  Still looking at a few more rest days unfortunately.

Went down to Colorado College to see Jon Krakauer last night.  While we were in line, he walked by us, drinking a bottle of Compass IPA from Bristol.  So I like him even more now.  Very interesting to hear him talk about some of the thoughts that went into his books.  He mentioned that every single sentence in every book of his has been rewritten at least 100 times.  I thought about how rarely I spend more than five minutes on a single post here.  I guess that's the difference between having a blog only your mom reads to being a famous, bestselling author.


Pre-talk burritos and brews at La'Au's Tacos.


Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Wednesday

Not much new on the cankle front.  It actually hurts today worse than it has since Friday morning, but the swelling continues to go down.  Another AM half hour walk with the dog, bailed on riding to work due to the pain.  Starting to get antsy with all this inactivity.  And my life balance is getting out of whack, there's nothing to counter all the junk food and beer I'm consuming.  Blech.

Pikes got a ton of snow with the recent storm.


There is a bicycle themed hotel going in just down the street from us.  Maybe this will be the bar that replaces the void caused when the Red Rock Lounge closed down.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

cankle update

The cankle is slowly but surely returning to normal.  Still a lot of pain, but at least it somewhat looks like an ankle now.  Lots of black and blue around the ankle and even the toes.  I went to the dog park yesterday evening and limped a good 3/4 of a mile with $100 and the dog (the dog went significantly farther), and I got up this morning to limp around for a half hour with the dog.  So at least I'm moving again.

This was as good a week as any to have this happen.  A long stretch of shitty weather (it snowed again last night) and a Wednesday trip to see Krakauer (so I would have missed climbing anyways).  Aiming for a short run on Friday evening at the PPRR Full Moon Run, a rest day Saturday as I work an aid station all day at the CM 50K, and then a big ride on Sunday.  Hopefully the schedule is back to normal by next Tuesday.

Yes, sometimes us superstar athletes have to deal with ankle injuries.


Monday, April 18, 2016

whiskey #10 & #11

Needed to get out of the house on Sunday, so $100 drove my gimpy ass down to Manitou Brewing Company.  Besides having great beer, MBC also has a decent collection of locally made whiskey.  Had me a Colorado Whiskey from Distillery 291, located a few miles from the house at the old Bristol Brewing location.


After that it was back home to enjoy another in the Jeremy series, Lost Spirits Leviathan III from Lost Spirits Distillery.  Delicious.  As a bonus, one of my 14 million TV channels was playing Tedeschi-Trucks from the Southern Ground Music & Food festival.


The doctor laughed when I refused a prescription for pain meds and said I'd drink whiskey instead.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

whiskey #9

Another treat from Jeremy in his "whiskey gifted in containers that look sketchy" series.

Buffalo Single Trace Oak 109.  Again, a super fancy whiskey that comes in significantly on the wrong side of triple digits per bottle, meaning I'll probably never try this again.  But it certainly was enjoyable, something I haven't said much about the super expensive whiskeys.

Buffalo Trace has a 5K on the distillery grounds if you find yourself in Frankfort, Kentucky on July 4.


Saturday, April 16, 2016

V3

I had been doing good things before my cankle injury.  Track on Tuesday morning, then a solid trip up Carpenter Peak with Kircher Tuesday afternoon (followed by Living The Dream brewing with he and JP).  And on Wednesday evening I even got my second ever V3 problem.


I am still terrible at slacklining.  I can't even sit on the thing when it's on the ground.  Here's a shot of Team 2 before we all hit the bar.


Someday I will get to the 5Point Film Festival in Carbondale.  Almost got there this year, but could't quite make it work (yes, I say this every year).


2016 5Point Adventure Film Festival Trailer from 5Point Film Festival on Vimeo.

Twisting the knife is that this year will include a live Dirtbag Diaries with Semi-Rad talking about his latest book.  I just finished his book, and it is fantastic.


One book I got from the library and wasn't able to finish was the follow up to Born To Run, Natural Born Heroes.  I felt like McDougall just wanted to grab some cash from the waning popularity of his first book and the crossfit folks.  Terrible read that I returned to the library after getting halfway thorough.

they are not going to put me down yet...


Good to go on the ankle.  Just one helluva sprain.  One week off running, then I can slowly work back into that.  Looking at biking to work on Tuesday.  Still hurts like a bitch, and I'll be on my ass all weekend, but at least I won't be missing too much running or biking.

Looking out my window this morning, I'm glad I had a good excuse to bail on the Rattler 50K.   Even running on one leg, I was going to crush Wyatt and Kircher at the Rattler 50K this morning, but it was cancelled.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

cankle

Did quite a number on my left ankle this morning coming down Cheyenne Canon.  Was able to get two miles back down to my car and I thought all would be alright, but it continues to swell and is starting to get pretty painful.  I'll rest it for 24 hours before making a decision about the Rattler, but it's not looking good.

When my alarm went off at 4:30AM I gave serious thought about going back to sleep.  Should have taken my advice!



Monday, April 11, 2016

rest day

Been fighting a cold over the past few days, so I took the day completely off from running and biking.  Hiked the dog for an hour this morning on the Garden trails, and hit up hot yoga for an hour after work.  Hopefully after a good night of sleep I'll be good to go tomorrow.

Looks like rain this weekend for the Rattler 50K and a planned long ride on Sunday.  Yuk.  But I looked into Buff Creek and they might get up to eight inches of snow, so I shouldn't be too upset.

whiskey #8

Paid a visit to Breckenridge Distillery on Saturday.  Damn fine whiskey.  Enjoyed it so much we brought home a bottle.



Took a drive up to Breck for a free Michael Franti & Spearhead show.  What he played was good, but I thought it was a short set.  For a band with so much energy, you would think there would be a second set, or at least an encore.  Guess we got what we paid for.  At least we got to visit the distillery and Broken Compass Brewing while we were up there.

Sunday, April 10, 2016

19:47

Tortoise and Hare 5K on Saturday, part of the brewers' cup.  Knew this wouldn't be anything special, I'm battling a cold and also volunteered before the race so I had no warm up.  Kept a very easy pace, chatted with some folks during the race, and walked an extra .03 after the finish line to still comfortably break 20 minutes.  6:21, 6:30, 6:08.  Pretty happy with how easy it all felt.

This is a fun race that takes into account your sex, age, height, and weight and gives you a handicap.  The race was won overall by a 52 year old female who ran the course in 23:31.  The first dude to cross the line was in 5th place, a 60 year old who ran 21:43.  The guy who ran the fastest time of the day, 15:58, finished in 10th place.

Simon got to start 20 seconds ahead of me due to his old fart status.  He waited for me to catch up, talked some shit, then buried me in the second mile, probably running at least a minute faster.  Simon ended up 26th overall in 19:27, and I ended up way back in 30th.  At least I sprinted ahead right when Tim took this picture:


Saturday, April 09, 2016

incline #29

$100 and the dog and I got out for a leisurely stroll, if there is such a thing, up the Incline on Friday evening.  Nowhere near the effort from Thursday, 58:48.

Quite a few beers at Fossil afterwards.  Loves me some Mammoth IPA.

Friday, April 08, 2016

whiskey #7

My buddy Jeremy hooked me up with some top shelf whiskey a few weeks ago.  It was all super shady, as he gave me these bottles in a middle school parking lot before a race.  Nothing sketchy looking about that.


I deflected any PED accusations by taking damn near last place in the race, including walking the last two miles. 

Anywho, the first bottle was Yellow Spot Irish Whiskey.  Enjoyed it, but when I googled the price I knew there was no way I'd pay that much when I could just buy a comparatively super cheap bottle of Stranahan's.  Still, the purpose of this challenge, besides allowing me to drink a lot more whiskey, is to try new things. 



Incline #28

First Thursday Incline Club run of the year.  One minute on, one minute off, ten rounds up Barr Trail.  We just stood still for the minute off.  After coming back down I went over and hit the incline pretty hard.  Two hours for the 8.6 mile run.  I would need some lawyers and law enforcement officials to confirm, but I don't believe I broke any rules with my ascent of the incline yesterday evening.

32:40 for the Incline.  By far my fastest time this year, and I'm going to set that at my personal 40+ record so I can chase it.  Would like to get down below half an hour, which shouldn't be too hard as I'm not running a single step for all these times.  There are some parts at the very bottom and very top I can run if I really want, as GZ would say, to make the teeth sweat.

Thursday, April 07, 2016

fake rocks

Zero day for running on Wednesday, ten miles on the round trip to/from work on the bike.  Nice hour hike in the Garden with the dog before work.

A few weeks ago I started a Wednesday night bouldering league at CityRock.  Definitely nice to finally push my boundaries in that sport once again.  I'm back to climbing V2 regularly and making good progress on a lot of V3 problems.  Plus, the session always ends at the Ute & Yeti for super cheap Colorado brews (I had a can of Upslope IPA and a can of Dale's Pale Ale and my tab was $7).  Here is the all mighty and powerful Team 2:


And a V3 that I was unsuccessful at.  Stupid tiny holds:


Cheyenne Canon this morning.  Made it up in just under 48 minutes.  Nice improvement from last time, but way back then (two weeks ago) there was a lot of snow at the top.

Wednesday, April 06, 2016

quarters

Tuesday track!  Despite a rest day yesterday, I was still feeling sore from the weekend.  So I went for an easier workout.  6 x 400m, 4 x 200m.  94, 92, 92, 92, 89, 89.  Then 41, 41, 40, 39.

There's a group of Incline Club folks who will start Tuesday afternoon track sessions next week, and I will be joining them.  I look to see my track times fall as I get onto a better track (Manitou High) and have other folks to chase.  Will probably continue to do some short sprint track work on Tuesday AM.

PM - Section 16 with $100 and the dog, 5.8 miles.

Been listening to a lot of Tedeschi-Trucks lately.  Can't wait to see them in August!

Tuesday, April 05, 2016

Shelf Road

On Saturday afternoon I headed down to Canon City to explore Shelf Road a bit.  Shelf is world famous for rock climbing and is part of the Gold Belt scenic byway, and it seemed like a cool gravel road to ride a bike on.  Soon I want to head down to Canon and ride Shelf up to Victor, grab pizza and brews at the Headframe, then return to Canon via Phantom Canyon.  Should be a solid and scenic metric century.  But I was time limited on Saturday, so I just managed an out and back 45 miler on Shelf.



Canon has a bad rep due to all the prisons, but the trails there are top notch.  We've had fun exploring Temple Canyon and Oil Well Flats, and there are plenty of more places I plan to check out.  Not quite Salida, but it's also a 45 minute drive as compared to 2+ hours.  After my ride on Sat I dropped by to see the FAR guys, who have done incredible work over the past few years, and picked up a copy of the new Royal Gorge adventure guide.  Lots of riding and running and hiking and rafting to be done down in Fremont County.

Good ride on Sunday as well, 20 miles from the house to Fossil Brewing via Red Rock Canyon, the Chutes, Cheyenne Canon, Buckhorn, and Cap't Jacks.

Monday, April 04, 2016

18:48

Much better than expected day at Tonia's 5K.  Ran 6:15, 5:56, and 6:01.  Definitely entered a pain zone I haven't visited in a while, and there was a very short but very steep hill at the two mile mark that almost made this a 24 minute race.  Took everything I had to hold things together over the final half mile or so.

My last remaining ties to glory were trampled at the race:


Shot of the lead pack about a quarter mile into the race.  You can see me right at the back.  You can also see some hill in the upper right corner.  I went as hard as I could from the start.


Motivated by the talk of Shad and GZ doing all the work to get faster, I might have to sit down and see what I can do about getting back down below 18 for this distance again.

Friday, April 01, 2016

incline #26 & #27


There were rumblings of a new police state beginning today (Friday), with tickets for dogs and curfews and lashings for not giving a tithing to the incline friends.  I even checked with Rob about counting the Incline if I ran up Barr Trail to the halfway point and started my climb from there (he called me names and questioned my manhood but ultimately said that was acceptable) but at 5AM this morning the parking lot at the Cog railway took my $7 and the Incline was deserted.  Here's some info on the stuff going on at the Incline.  Manitou city hall and the residents of Ruxton Ave can kiss my ass and I wish the incline friends would take a break from telling everyone how great they are and fight the demands of these clowns.


Folks like me who do the Incline super early aren't the target of this persecution.  The issue is the Army guys from Fort Carson, who often show up in large numbers (platoon and company size) for early morning PT.  How quickly Manitou forgets that these same Army kids were filling sandbags and helping out with flood relief not too long ago.  I'm sure the Ruxton folks will fill that void next time a natural disaster strikes, being the stand up residents they are.

26 and 27 on Thursday evening and Friday morning.  This is the view the douchebags are trying to rob us of with their unacceptable curfew:


And this is a shot from Thursday of the beast that causes the incline friends, Ruxton residents, and countless folk who refer to themselves as hardcore outdoorsey to lose their minds and shit their pants: