Barr Trail

Zero physical activity on Friday and Saturday due to the long nights of drinking that have been going on.

On Sunday I went over to Manitou to run with the Incline Club.  I went up Barr Trail for five miles and came back down.  Went better than expected, and I was able to run most of it.

Did an hour of hot yoga on Sunday night.  As I was there, the dog got into some food not meant for her, and she has been puking all over the place since.  Yuk.  That made for a shitty night of sleep, but I still got out for an easy five miler on Monday morning.  And then another hour in Red Rock Canyon after work. 

21F on Tuesday morning for the bike to work.  Joy.  We did set a new record today however, this is the longest the Springs has gone without measurable snow.

whiskey #44

Our pooch let us know we were running low on dog food, so $100 and I had to head to Costco on Sunday.  Which was an absolute terrible experience.  We needed a drink after that trip, so we headed over to the relatively new Cockpit Craft Distillery.  I had the P-51 Whiskey and it was delicious.  I will definitely be back.

20:01

Terrible all around.  It's a slow course, it was cold, very windy, I'm out of shape, and I was hungover.  But I still hoped to at least go sub 20.  Not to be.

Ran 6:31, 6:32, 6:10 (first two miles are uphill, last mile is downhill).

Meh.

whiskey #43

Going to try to make a dent in the whiskey goal over the turkey weekend.  Started last night with Bulleit.  Dropped by the Muff after a few pints at Fossil Brewing.

I always enjoy drinking Shiner as it reminds me of the good years I spent in Texas, but man is the new (to me, at least) Shiner IPA is pretty awful, though at $2 a can it's drinkable.

weekend update

Another solid weekend in the books.

Saturday was (finally) the end of the brewers' cup with the Turkey Trot Predict.  I predicted 19:59 and was probably close to that pace.  But with half a mile to go the newly crowned champions, Red Leg Brewing, all waited for each other to finish together.  These pics were either stolen from Tim B or Katie Schwing.

After the 5K, we loaded up the van and headed up to Buff Creek.  Left early enough to try the new brewery in Bailey, Mad Jack's.  It was alright.  Definitely drop by if you happen to be in Bailey, definitely don't drive to Bailey just to go here.

After a few beers we found a spot to park the van for the night.  Buff Creek is still in great shape and there is hardly any snow there.  We took the dog on a night hike, enjoyed a few more beers, and then racked out.  Sunday morning we got up early for a two hour hike on the Colorado Trail.

On the way back we made sure to stop by the Donut Mill up in Woody Park.

Decent week for the offseason.  34 miles running, 88 miles on the bike, including finishing off the Cup 'o Dirt challenge.  The Incline club starts on Sunday, so maybe it's time to start thinking about trying to get back into some kind of running shape again.

Thursday

Monday- Easy five miler in the AM.  After work I shot over to Whistle Pig for the PPRR full moon run.  The beer at Whistle Pig is absolutely terrible and I'm not sure how those guys stay in business.  After one pint there it was back across town to Shae's for the final DIM hash of the year.  Easy trail as we went from Shae's to Alchemy to my garage.

Tuesday - Pretty hungover all day and all I was able to get done on the workout front was a three mile hike with the dog.  I thought of it as a lost day, she thought it was the best thing to ever happen in the history of the world.

Good ride yesterday up to Greenland, and that caps off my finish in the Cup 'O Dirt Challenge.  Glad to have that out of the way as at some point it is supposed to start getting cold and snowy here in Colorado.  But Wednesday it was 70F.

Wednesday evening I went over to Manitou Brewing for their run club.  Four mile run through the Garden, followed by cheap wings and their delicious High Ground IPA.  Also had the Trinity Chilly Water there, it's a yearly release and once again they nailed it.

Not a big Carmello fan, mostly due to his ties to the evil empire of Syracuse, but I loved this commercial:

weekend update

Another weekend, another van trip.  Left Friday after work for our current favorite place, Canon City.  Short drive, ample camping always available, the dog loves it, and it has quick access to a great 100K loop, which I rode on Saturday to get my 11th Cup 'o Dirt in.

On Sunday morning we left early to make it to the final race in the Fall Series.  I ran good for almost three miles.  Unfortunately it was a six mile race.  I'm in better shape than usual for mid-November, but the steep, technical hills of Ute Valley just tore me up.  First pic from crossfit superstar Peter Maximeow, second pic from Pikes Peak Sports.

HAIL TO PITT!

Anyone catch any college football this weekend?

who won?

Catching up before we head down to Canon City to get away from everything for a few days. 

Getting somewhat antsy to start ramping up the training again.  Not for anything specific, but without any purpose I'm much more likely to slack off, as I've been doing for a while now, averaging about 25 miles running per week.

Mon - Five miles in the Garden before work, then a night trip to CityRock, including an hour of their yoga/pilates/core class.

Tues - Morning climb at CityRock, bike commute #115.

Wed - Up very late on Tuesday drinking away the election shitshow.  Woke up late, but I knew my boss would be late as well, so the dog and I went hiking in the Garden for an hour.  Bike commute #116.  And even though I was hungover, I managed a decent 10K run on the Garden roads after work.

Thursday - Morning climb at CityRock.  Nothing after work as $100 and I went to see Dave Ramsey speak.

Friday - 10K road run. 

One of my favorite van dwellers, Alex Honnald, upgraded his van.

Ladies and gentlemen, the next President of the United States:

Panic!

Rumors abound that this is the final big tour for Widespread Panic, so this might have been my last time seeing them.  If so, I sure picked a good one!  The boys rocked it from an opening Coconut (the first song the band ever played) to an encore of LA Woman and Ironman.  With a ton of Panic classics in between.  Bummed to miss the Manitou coffin races, but really glad I pulled the trigger on this show.

weekend update

Another spring-like weekend in November. 

Ran the Nielsen Challenge, the final challenge in the Brewers' Cup.  Wanted to push the pace to see where the fitness is.  Hit the first mile in 5:55 and was happy with that, but things fell apart quickly.  Came back in 6:25.  Ugh.  But it's a start.

On Sunday we went over to the Canya Canon 6K.  Love that course, and I ran hard.  Reminded me of a high school cross country type effort.  There is a long straight away at mile two, and I could just catch a glimpse of PG, and I was happy with that.  But once again, I was not great over the second half and faded slightly, though I ran about as hard as I could.  Just over half an hour for the hilly 3.6 mile course.

Photos stolen from Pikes Peak Sports:

More importantly, my wife and my dog crushed it.

Got in 100 miles on the bike on the strength of another 100K ride.  Low weekly running mileage, 25, as I ended up bailing on a Friday evening run to sit at Fossil and get drunk, which also put the kebash on a planned ten miler Saturday before the Nielsen.  Such is life during the off season.  I have been hitting the rock gym quite a bit lately, so at least there's that.

Portland

The final Maine post.  We ended up staying in Bar Harbor an extra day so we could do some more exploring of Acadia.  But our flight was out of Portland, so we went down there a day early to check out the place.  Seems like a super cool city.  We checked into the hotel and went walking.  Didn't take long to find our first brewery, and that turned into a day long pub crawl.

After all that we got to catch Doyle Bramhall at a local venue.  Super awesome guitar player and we were lucky to see him on a random Tuesday night.

whiskey #42

Nothing like a good pour from a large plastic bottle after a long day at the office.