bike commute 27

Finally rode the bike to work again.  It had been a while.  My watch often reads 6.66 miles when I take the Midland Trail/Santa Fe route, wonder if that's a sign?  9.5 miles after work from the office to Fossil Brewing.

Not the most famous baby giraffe recently but our local zoo had it's 199th giraffe born there this week.

Seems like ESPN just fired everyone.  Including Pitt guy Mark May.  Saw this pic and was reminded of my Pitt days.  I was at this game.  I drank a lot during the Pitt football seasons all four years I was there.

incline 20

When I left to drive to Manitou it was a mix of rain and sleet.  By the time I got to Hydro Street to meet the Incline Club it was sunny and I was taking off layers.  Workout was one minute on, one minute off (really off - just stop running and stand there) up Barr Trail.  Always thought this was a lame workout and I never followed the structure in years past.  But I thought to myself, "you know, a guy named Matt Carpenter used to do this workout, and he had a pretty OK history on the mountain" so I did it.  Good run, 30 minutes up the hill, then back down to the Incline.

Shad turned me on to the Peak Bagger plan from the Mountain Tactical guys and I'm going to start it on Sunday.  To get ready I've started doing a few (very few, five at the most) unweighted squats and lunges over my lunch.  As a guy who has finished some difficult races in the past you wouldn't think this would be a problem, but holy shit my legs are jacked up right now.  To make things worse, I came down the Incline last night.  Not used to that.  Friday will definitely be a rest day.

run commute 16

Nice early morning hike with the dog in the Garden, 2.4 miles in just under an hour.  Fresh snow on everything above 8K or so.  Supposed to get even more on Friday evening.

Then the six mile run to work.  50 minutes.  Legs were a bit sore from the quarters.  And four miles back home.  Legs were sore, stomach was a mess from a late lunch.  Blech.

Ran into the Wayfarer Vans guy at the grocery store.  Cool dude, he was stocking up before heading out to the Fruita Fat Tire Festival.  Gave me a tour of his van and an update on some of the future projects his company will be taking on, mostly getting a set up for a larger van.  Nothing in the #vanlife world is cheap, but relatively speaking the wayfarer idea costs less than a lot of other options.

track

I did dig out the old timex for the track today, but the thing was dead.  Shows you how long it's been since I cared to time my intervals.  They are cheap enough, and I'm interested enough, that I'll pick up another one before next Tuesday.

Shitty weather in Manitou.  Heavy rain and wind, and it was snowing not much higher up.  But it was a much better track than I'm used to, and there were other people there, and it wasn't 5AM.  Twelve quarters, one minute rest.  I was able to eyeball two of them and they were in the low 80s.  I assume the others were low to mid 80s as well.  Overall a good workout, and I think I'll go much faster once the weather improves.

My buddy Nick, also a Pitt Panther, took these pics before the workout started.

Barr Trail

Mon PM - 45 minutes up Barr.  Made it to the "2 Mile" wood post a bit above the top of the W's.

Got through Mule's set from Wanee.  Incredible.  And they played some new stuff which was killer.

No parking at Memorial for a bit.  Think the parking lot near the bus stop is still open though.

Tues AM - 5K hike with the dog in the Garden, followed by a trip to Accolade.

losing my bikepacking virginity...

Shitty weather on Friday made us select a less ambitious route, but Kircher and I still got our bikes out for a big ride over the weekend.

Most of the pics I took have been put up on instagram, so I won't repeat them here.

We didn't leave until Saturday morning, and it was raining/snowing/sleeting pretty good as we headed south on hwy 115.  Wet and miserable, but we made decent time down to Coyote's Coffee Den in Penrose.  We would have just pushed through to Florence Brewing, but it wasn't open yet.

Got to Florence Brewing right at noon when they opened.  44 miles.  A few IPAs later, we were pedaling again.

Leg two went up to Guffey.  115 to hwy 50 in Canon City, over towards the Royal Gorge, then north on hwy 9.  Beautiful scenery, but 40 miles of climbing really put a hurt on me.  We stopped at the Fishwater Saloon for some burgers and beers.  And they had a band there.

We were originally planning on leaving Guffey and heading to Hartsel, though over beers we decided to attempt a shortcut which looked much more fun and may or may not have been paved (Kircher was on a skinny tired road bike).  County road 102, which magically turned into county road 112 at some point, then a left on county road 11, to county road 1, which would get us to the Florissant Fossil Beds.  From there it's a quick spin to the town of Florissant and hwy 24.

We only made it six miles outside of Guffey before the sun went down and it was time to stealth camp.  We found a small field behind the empty Guffey Fire Company, threw down our sleeping bags, and went to sleep.  Over 90 miles on the day with lots of climbing.  I slept well, despite being woke up multiple times by howling coyotes.

We were off at 7:30AM on Sunday.  Nice downhill to start the day, but it was cold, so we hid the bikes and took a short hike to check out Paradise Cove.

22 miles from the Guffey fire station to Florissant.  Grabbed grub and caffeine there and started the final trek home.  Luckily the shortcut also got us around Wilkerson Pass as we were both pretty beat.  The climb up to Divide was no joke, another 1000 feet in eight miles, but luckily Paradox Beer Company was open by the time we got there.  Paradox was the high point of day two, and it was all downhill from there, including a stop at Bierwerks and the end of the trip at Fossil Brewing.

But wait, what is a bike trip without something going wrong?  Everything damn near went perfect, until, with less than three miles to go, Kircher got a flat.

Very tired, but I had a blast the entire trip.  145 miles over two days, with night outside number three on the year.  Learned a lot and I'll definitely be doing some more of this kind of stuff.

incline 19

Solid rain the whole time, with snow up top.  Soaking everything, in a good way.  Still a few peeps heading up and down the Incline as the temps were decent.

Kircher and I are having lunch tomorrow at Moonlight Pizza.  And we're biking there, leaving from my house around 5PM.  The route is 115 to 50, to 24.  Canon City, Salida, Buena Vista, Woodland Park, Colo Springs.  215 miles or so.  Neither of us has put in much time in the saddle so far this year, so hopefully it doesn't become one big shitshow.

Rattler

Good long run on Saturday over in Palmer Park for the Rattler 50K.  The goal was 5:59:59 and I was just looking to spend a few hours preparing for San Juan in June.  Actually had some energy the second lap and ran a bit faster than expected, 5:37:44.

Here's a shot of me at the finish line:

Thanks to Peter for the pics.

Really happy with the run.  But those are some tough trails in Palmer Park, and I'm still tore up two days after the run.  Will take a break this week and spend some time on the bike, then ramp things back up on the running front.

incline 18

Headed over to meet up with the Incline Club for their Thursday workout.  20 minute tempo up Barr.  Went about as well as can be expected, though I have some work to do before August.  I think it was my first time running up Barr since the Pikes Marathon.  Knocked out the IC workout and since I was in the neighborhood I hit the Incline.  Nine miles on the evening.

On my way down Barr I saw my first bear of the season.  Just how I like to see them - from a distance.  I was on Barr, Yogi was down near the cog railway tracks.

Traveler!

The (hopefully) final stage of the bathroom remodel has started, so once again I'm forced to drive to work due to dog transport duties.  Definitely a first world problem but I'm not a fan of how much this has messed up my routine.

Monday - early morning dog hike with Holly and Meesha.  Ute Valley Park.  Also hit Accolade.

Tues AM - Track.  6 x 400m.  All I had time for.  My trend of not timing the intervals will come to an end, as next Tuesday I will start working out at the Manitou track with some folks from the Incline Club.

Tues PM - Blues Traveler!  Many, many moons ago this was my favorite band, but it had been a while since I had seen them.  Wasn't sure what kind of show they would put on for a small crowd in Pueblo, but thankfully they brought it and the concert was awesome.  $100 and I were in the second row.

The band posted the following pic to their instagram page, and if you look closely you can see me flashing the peace sign:

Wed - Overslept as we got home from Pueblo pretty late. but I still got in eight miles to and from work for run commute 15.  When I got home, the weather was so awesome that $100 and I jumped on the bikes for an hour in Red Rock Canyon, followed by some brews at Fossil.

Thurs AM - another hour exploring Ute Valley with the dogs.

weekend update

I spent Saturday helping out with the PPRR Tortoise & Hare 5K.  Wasn't expecting much as I couldn't warm up due to my volunteer gig, so I was happy to go sub 20, finishing in 19:33.  The pace varied greatly - at times I was running ten minute miles so I could chat with friends, and at one point I was running 16:30 5K pace, as I jumped ahead of Neil just so Tim Bergsten could get a pic of me beating him.

After the race I hopped on the bike and rode up to Pikes Peak Brewing.  50 mile round trip that ended at Fossil.

Pretty hungover on Sunday AM, so after an hour Garden hike with the dog the wife and I headed over to Kansas (Powers Blvd) to pick up our new tent at Sierra Trading Post.  We went with the Marmot Force three person.  Thing only weighs four pounds.  Hope to try it out very soon.

Just in case I didn't drink enough on Saturday, $100 and I went on a Sunday afternoon bike pub crawl.  20 miles around town, hitting Red Leg, Urban Steam, Bristol, and the new Buffalo Lodge Bike Resort.  Good times!

The bathroom remodel entered the final phase today, so I had to take the dog over to Marc & Amanda's.  Used that as an excuse to take Holly and Meesha over to Ute Valley for an hour.

run commute 14/bike commute 26

Another good work week in the books.  Three bike commutes, one run commute.  One snow day where I did a nice fat bike brewery crawl instead of hanging out with homeless peeps all day.  A few early morning Garden hikes with the dog.  Some gym time, some fake bouldering time.  Keeping busy.

Used my REI discount to pick up the pack that I hope will last me to Durango in July of 2018.  Hoping to keep my load at 30 pounds, $100's around 20.  Freeloading dog gets a pass as she'll be ten years old.  I'm sure the dog will also take up four spots in our three person tent.

quarterly progress

Apparently Monday was the quarter of the year mark.  Here's where I stand on my 2017 goals.

Run - 542 of 2000 miles.  Finally back ahead after falling way behind when I jacked my cankle.  13 out of 50 run commutes.

Bike - 590 out of 3000 miles.  Behind, but let the weather warm up a bit and I'll get to work on this one.  24 out of 50 bike commutes.

Hike - 207 out of 600 miles.  Lowballed this goal, as it was made before $100 and I decided to go for the CO trail next year.

Incline - After a hot start to the year things have quieted down significantly.  16 trips.  Good number, though I need to get back after it as they are going to close it after the Pikes Marathon again this year.

CityRock - 26 trips so far.  Need to get to 54 to bring the cost below $10 per visit.  Definitely paying off as I'm becoming a much better climber.

Accolade - Nine times out of the needed 34.  The gym suffers the most when I have other stuff to do.

Phish - Have listened to every new show posted to the live Phish ap, including a Mike Gordon concert and a couple of solo Trey shows.  Plus a few shows from the archives.

Gov't Mule - Every show this year, some multiple times, once in person, plus a ton of past shows.

Nights outside - Only two nights spent outside, but I have some big plans and don't see any problem getting to 15.

On another note, fire danger is low today:

15

Was hoping to get 20 in, but that goal was set before the return of winter weather.  Started in the rain, with the goal of just getting something in, and that rain soon turned to snow.  But before I knew it, I had over ten miles in and was feeling good.  Still cut the run off after 15 miles, 3.5 hours, as I was soaked and the temp was starting to drop, but I got in a nice tour of Red Rock Canyon, Section 16, and the Garden.

Phish released a new (old) six CD box set from some of their old St. Louis shows.  I listened to the Aug 16, 1993 show, the entire thing, on this run.  I had graduated high school two months before the show.

incline 16

Friday evening climb up the steps.  Mix of rain/snow, depending on how high I was.  Everything is soaked right now from a few days of wet weather.  Was a ton of fun on the Incline though, and I only saw one other person.

Listened to the new (old) Widespread Panic release, April 27, 1999 at the Moran theater in Jacksonville.  Solid show.