Matisyahu

Sunday - Pretty hungover from a late trip to Fossil but I still got in a nice four mile hike with the dog over at White Acres and my eighth trip up the Incline this year.  If that wasn't enough, the wife goaded me into a trip to Accolade (16).

Sunday evening was the Matisyahu show at the Black Sheep.  Pretty good time despite it being on a school night.

Monday - Not much, pretty tired from the show.  3.7 mile bike to work, 11 miles home.  Bike commute nine.

Tuesday - Three mile hike with the dog, then run commute 11.  4.2 miles to work, 4.4 miles back home.  CityRock 31 at lunch.

Wednesday - 2.8 mile hike with the dog, then bike Commute ten.  Four miles to CityRock in the AM.

incline 7

Broke my streak of laziness on Friday evening with a trip up the Incline.  Despite the recent snow and chilly weather the Incline was in pretty decent shape.  Sure got a bit chilly coming down Barr Trail though.

Saturday - 20 mile run on the Midland, Santa Fe, Sinton, and Garden.  Windy AF.

accolade 15

This arctic weather has crushed my motivation to do anything but sit on the couch.  Did get to Accolade for some weights on Thursday morning.  Got on the treadmill for a planned 30 minutes, but it was one of those days where the 'mill just mentally crushed me and I only ended up doing 20 minutes.

Things sort of warmed up on Thursday afternoon, so I got the dog out for an hour hike in the Garden.

After that it was off to Bristol Brewing to see the Lil Smokies.  Great show.  We also hit up Trails End before the gig to try the Upslope Experimental IPA.  Delicious and I can't wait until cans hit the liquor stores in early March.

run commute 10/CityRock 30

Monday - had off work for President's Day.  Hungover, but I managed to get the dog out for two hours in Stratton Open Space.  Recovered later in the day for a good hour at CityRock and an hour of hot yoga.  Glad I got the dog some exercise, since a blast of arctic air blew in Monday evening.

Tuesday - I got up to take the dog out and it was 6F.  Oof.  She hates those low temps as much as I do.  I shoveled the walks, and ran to work, run commute ten.  Took me 40 minutes to get to the office and I was worried about frostbite on my fingers and toes.  Hit CityRock at lunch, took the bus home after work.

Wednesday - woke up to this:

No thanks.  I went back to bed.  Threw some weights around in the home gym before driving to work.  Did have a good CityRock session (30) at lunch, and it warmed up enough to get the dog out for a 40 minute walk when I got home.

cup 'o dirt #1

Took advantage of the warm weather to sneak in a February cup 'o dirt ride.  Hit my go-to gravel ride, north on the Santa Fe trail.  The wind beat me ragged on the way up, but after the halfway point at Pikes Peak Brewing things got a bit better.  6.5 hours in the saddle.

I'm writing a haiku for all my submissions to the cup 'o dirt page.

North was all windy
Thank god for Pikes Peak Brewing
Damn was this a slog

run commute 9/CityRock 25

4.5 mile run to work.  Threw in some 3 minutes on/2 minutes off.  The hard parts were interrupted by a charging dog and a long red light.  Then a terrible four mile run home that I walked a good chunk of.

Week has been all messed up with $100 out of town.  So now everyday it's at least two hours with the dog.  Which is awesome, but it brings down the time available for running and biking.

I've been spending a lot of time at this wall at CityRock the last few weeks.  There is a tan V2 problem at the right that I struggled with at first, but I eventually got it down where I could do laps.  Which would crush me, but it definitely brought a lot of improvement.  I had been working on the green V3 on the right damn near every day, and I feel I was about to get it.  But then I came into the gym Thursday morning and they had completely stripped the wall.  New problems going up.  Such is life when you're a gym climber.

bike commute 7

Friday was winter bike to work day.  Nice enough for shorts.  Got in a four mile Garden run with $100 and the dog, then rode 6.7 miles to work.  Free coffee and donuts at the popcycle bridge!  Here's a shot of my arrival from Fixie Dave:

Not much physical activity over the weekend due to Manitou Mardi Gras and a trip to Denver on Sunday.  I ended up hitting five breweries on Sunday: Grandma's, Chain Reaction, Black Project, Livin' The Dream, and Pikes Peak.

run commute 7/accolade 13

Wednesday - 3.5 mile Garden hike with the dog, followed by a 4.2 mile run to work.  CityRock (21) at lunch.  4.4 mile run home.

Thursday - Almost slept in instead of dragging my ass over to Cheyenne Canon.  But I won't be doing much on the exercise front this weekend due to Manitou Mardi Gras, so I figured I better not slack off today.  6.3 mile run up the Canon followed by a good weight room session.

Accolade 12

Monday - pretty wrecked from the half.  Easy 5k morning hike with the dog, followed by the four mile bike to work.  Good CityRock lunch workout.  4.5 miles back home on the fat bike.  Then an hour of hot yoga with $100.

Tues - sub 20F when I got up so I went to Accolade.  Half hour of throwing around weights and half an hour on the stationary bike.

Signed up for another round of Adult Bouldering League at CityRock.  Starts March 1st.  It will be close, but this might be the first time I'm not the worst climber of the bunch.  I have also committed to heading outside, hope to be hitting Shelf Road the first weekend in May.

Super Half

Was really wanting to go sub 90 at the race.  Somewhat behaved myself on Saturday to avoid a hangover, and was feeling good at the start line as it was sunny and over 40F.  And then things went to shit very quickly.  Not with me, but with the weather.  Got super cold.  After the race when I got back to the car, it was 19F.  I'm way too weak and old to push in those conditions. 

Good first half - I was right on 90 minute pace for 5.5ish miles.  But the dropping temps had my legs feeling tight and my motivation disappeared very quickly.  Wasn't a total disaster, I would stay around 7:15 pace from 5.5 through nine miles, then I went 7:39, 7:21, 7:45 (which included stopping for a beer), and 7:36.  Lots of folks went by me in those miles.  The bitter cold caused me to slow down, and for a lot of others it caused them to speed up as they wanted to be done.  I didn't crush the last mile, but with Amanda somewhere behind me I went 7:09 to get the cheap win.  Official finish time was 1:34:41.

So a good tempo for 5.5 miles, a much slower tempo for the rest of the day.  Wish this race was on Saturday, when I rode around bike trails and side streets for 40 miles in shorts.

One last shot to go sub 90 at Platte River.  After that I'll need to start being happy with sub 95.

January

Pretty good month of doing shit.  And by doing shit, I mean getting out there and doing a little bit of everything.

Running - 150 miles, 30 hours
Biking - 123 miles, 16 hours
Hiking - 85 miles, 33 hours
Accolade - nine trips
CityRock - 17 trips

I am a huge fan of the Dirtbag Diaries, and their latest annual year of big ideas really resonated with me.  Fitz talked about finding joy in being mediocre, and it hit home for me since that's where I've been for a while.  I really love getting after it everyday, but as far as big events go, I don't get excited to hurt anymore.  So I've unofficially adopted what Fitz called "joyous mediocrity" as my new slogan.

That being said, here are the goals for the rest of the year.

Running - JFK 50 miler
Biking - Cup 'o Dirt Challenge
Hiking - CO Trail
Climbing - climb outside once

None of those will require a whole lot of training for me, especially since I have no time goals.  Which is awesome, because it opens up more time to explore the area by van.

And I'm thankful I have the opportunity to do the shit I do.  Not everyone is so lucky.  I spent the last week counting the homeless population down here.  Here's a shot of me utilizing my mad slackline skills to keep my feet dry.