September

Worst month, mileage wise, in forever.  I was probably in high school last time I logged  only 79 miles in a month.  Over half the month was spent injured and not running at all, then some travel came up to throw a wrench into any comeback.  It's now the offseason here, and the goal is to run 30 mile weeks from here until the new year.

187 miles on the bike.  Also pretty low for me since I took up biking a few years ago.  Most of those were to/from work, though I did get into Cheyenne Canon a few times.  And there was that ride on 401 and the tour of Pittsburgh $100 and I did.

The dog pointed out that all this free time has led to a huge increase in hiking, usually with said dog, so she has been super happy about that.  75 miles on that front.  Our pace tends to be slow, I'm often stopping so she can sniff stuff or having to clean up her poop, so I've started carrying a pretty heavy pack when we hike.  Never know when that surprise opportunity to hike the AT will come up, but I'll be ready.

Updated my brewery list, Cerberus was my 131st Colorado brewery.  Shad has been inching closer and closer to that number and I might have to make some trips up to the bubble to pad my stats.  Did drink a helluva lot of good beer this month, what with all the beer Bob left here, the trip back to PA, the opening of Cerberus, and the Manitou beer festival.

commute 100

Bike commute number 100 for 2016 on Thursday.  That's about 1000 miles for me.  Roughly $540 according to the IRS.

Been hitting the gym quite a bit, and lifting weights has finally paid off.  I was at my lunch gym and I started talking to someone about the old Bristol Brewing shirt I was wearing.  As he was leaving later on, he introduced himself as a microbiologist for Bristol, and gave me cards for two free pints at the brewery!

I've also started going back to the rock gym again, mostly due to the Wednesday night adult bouldering league.  Flashed all the V2 problems through the first two weeks, a surprise for me.  Think I might dedicate some time to CityRock these next few months to see if I can make the jump from V2 climber to V3 guy.  FYI, the bouldering league considers V3 and below to be the beginner level.

new goal for MDI

I'm not expecting much when I run the Mt. Desert Island marathon in mid October.  I had to take three weeks completely off after Pikes, and I've been very slow to get back at it.  The plan was to finish feeling fresh enough to do some serious hiking and biking in Acadia Nat'l Park after the race.

But Strava has thrown this out there.  Ballsy move by New Balance since two of the biggest marathons - Chicago and New York - fall within the time limit.  But they do have the stats to show that most people fail to negative split.  But anyhow, I think I'm now going to hang for the first half of the race with the four hour pace group, then drop a blazing 1:59 second half so I can get a free pair of NB Fresh Foam 1080 (the most expensive running shoe on their site at 150 bones).

guests

We got to host two bike tourers last night as they took the very long way from Wisconsin to Arizona.  Megan and Hector dropped by on their trip down the Front Range and we fed them lots of red meat and Colorado IPAs.  Always a great night chatting with folks who are doing such things.  Maybe someday $100 and I will pull the trigger on such an adventure.

Of course we treated them to breakfast at the Purple Castle before they departed for Canon City.

And yet another clean plate club sticker gets to go for a ride.

weekend

Good day on Saturday over at the Bobcat 25K.  Cankle is still very weak and running the technical trails of Palmer Park probably wasn't the best idea, but it held up well.  The run actually went a lot better than I thought it would, and it gives me some hope that I won't have to walk the entire Mt. Desert Island marathon in a few weeks.

On Saturday afternoon $100 and I hit up the Manitou Heritage Festival.  28 breweries, and we hit all of them except for the cidery place.  After that we did a short pub crawl in Manitou, visiting the Legion, the Keg, and the Royal Tavern.  Good times!  Focus On The Beer has more pics of the event.

Was fairly sore and hungover on Sunday so I knocked out an easy four miler in the Garden and took the dog for a good hike.

It seems like my ankle injury kicked off a wave of bad luck for a lot of runners in my circle here on the Front Range.  Walsh and Shad shit the bed at the Rabbit (though my neighbor, Alex, won Pikes and the Rabbit, so it's not all bad).  Tom and Jeff tanked the Bear.  Even Carson couldn't complete his recent hike up Mt. Whitney.  Might have to sacrifice a cat to get rid of this curse.

whiskey #35

Nacheaux brought me some of this back from her recent trip to Wyoming.  Pretty good stuff.

$100, the dog, and I got out last evening for a run/hike up Red Mountain.  Been a while since I've been on that route.  Someone has been fixing up the trail, so thanks to whoever did that.

Easy five miles this AM, down to Cerberus Brewing and back.

running again

Two good runs this weekend, different directions of my 10K Garden road loop.  About an hour each.

No running on Monday, but I did bike home via Cheyenne Canon.  Going to ride there as much as possible while the weather remains decent.

Easy five miler in the Garden this morning.

Cankle still isn't 100%, but I need to start running again so I don't get too much fatter than usual.

Followed the Appalachian Trail FKT debacle today.  I want to believe.  It's just really, really, really hard to.  Will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Meltzer told Outside Magazine that his first beer after finishing his hike was a Yuengling!

summit sunrise

Had the in-laws visiting from Orlando and we took them up the Pikes Peak Highway on Sunday.  The highway usually opens at 7AM, but this was one of two days of the year they open early so you can drive up and catch the sunrise.  So at 5:15AM we headed up and braved some pretty heavy winds to catch a glimpse of morning.

The dog got to tag along, but she was no fan of that wind.

pics 'burgh

Clearing the phone of the recent trip to the 'burgh and Titusville.  I'll always love western PA and I can't wait to go back.

Holly

My brother sent me this pic the other day.  One is his dog, the other is my mom's pup.  Both are named Holly.

Every dog my parents have owned, since I can start remembering shit around five years old, has been named Holly.  I think this is the sixth one.  My dog and my brother's dog would make eight Hollies that have been in the Teisher family over the last few decades.  The first few were mutts taken from the local pound, but after I left the house my dad found some Amish dude with a chocolate lab puppy and since then the current Holly has been some kind of lab.  Including mine, who thinks she is a weimariner but does have some lab in her.

Here is $100 walking the Hollies during our recent trip to Titusville:

Oh yeah, we got our Holly this sweat new collar on our trip.  Her new nickname is The Terrible Dog.

back at it

I will post a longer review of my Pittsburgh trip when I get some time.  I had a fantastic time.  And of course Pitt beat Penn State.

Last Friday I went for a run.  Wanted to hit Schenley Park while I was home.  Six miles there, another 5K on Saturday morning in Titusville.  On Monday and Tuesday I ran back here in Colorado.  The cankle is not healed yet, but I think I'm not making things any worse by running on it.

Cerberus Brewing has opened it's doors.  Went there last night.  Only 2.5 miles from the house.  While I was riding my bike there last night I passed by the set of a netflix movie starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. 

In other local news, Chris Carmichael was bit by dogs yesterday while biking in Cheyenne Canon.

Whiskey #34

whiskey #33

crusty butt

Great time out in Crested Butte over the weekend.  Rained a bit, so we didn't get as much riding in as we'd have liked, but we finally got to ride the 401 trail which was every bit as awesome as advertised.  CB seems like a super dog and van friendly town, and we will definitely be back.

Off to Pittsburgh tomorrow to visit some family, drink some Iron City, and watch Pitt kick the crap out of Ped State.  Cankle is still jacked up but I am hoping to run some miles in Schenley Park while I'm back.

A few pics from the past weekend: