incline 26 & 27

Friday night incline.  Very slow.

Back again on Saturday morning.  Also very slow.  On my 27th climb of the year I got passed by the dude on his way up for number 1720 on the year.  New record.

Golden

Found myself in Golden on Wednesday, so I took some time to visit the American Mountaineering Museum.  Cool place.  Kircher was not featured in the frostbite exhibit but he's young and he'll get there one day.

After the museum it was still fairly early and none of the local breweries were open, so I made the quick drive over to Sancho's.

At some point I'll have to start getting back into shape.  Everyone has seen the "unproductive" status on garmin watches, but I had no idea one could sink to even lower levels. 

I ended up breaking the PikeRide streak on Wednesday, but I got back on the horse Thursday and Friday.

run commute 79

Ton of snow on Sunday night/Monday morning.  Quick run to the office, 3.5 miles on empty roads.

On Sunday afternoon I took the bus down to Cerberus, the farthest west you can take a PikeRide bike.  It was cold and snowy, so after a few solid IPAs I rode across the street to Benny's.

Kept the ride streak alive on Monday, grabbing a random bike downtown and heading to Oskar Blues.  These bikes suck ass on ice and snow but I survived.  PikeRide picks one rider a day for a prize, and I gotta have a great chance as I can't imagine a lot of folks rode today.  But I thought that on Sunday as well.

Day three of the 12 beers of x-mas:

incline 25

Ran the Jingle Bell 5k down in Fountain on Saturday.  I have been very unhealthy since my marathon a month ago so I wasn't expecting much, but somehow I popped off a 19:24.  I'll take it.

We stopped by the new south location of Kings Chef.  They have a liquor license and make a solid bloody mary.

After that I had to drop by the post office and used that opportunity to get in my daily PikeRide.

Guess I won't be eating at Rasta Pasta anytime soon:

Weird first for me after the bar as I went and bought a bed for the very first time in my life.  We got one of them super fancy and expensive purple mattresses.  The dog doesn't know it's coming but I'm sure she will love it.

Then Red Leg for the Army/Navy game.  The bad guys won. 

Then a pub crawl in Manitou.

Somehow I still got up for the Incline Club, but my hungover slog up the incline was nothing spectacular.

The annual 12 beers of x-mas has started.  My first two brews:

incline 24

Very slow but fun incline after work on Friday. 

But not before day two of my PikeRide goal.

run commute 78

$100 survived the lottery and will be running Chicago next October.  I'm much more excited about that than she is.  Although last night, instead of walking over to Fossil with me, she went for a run in Red Rock Canyon before meeting me there.

Mon - bike commute 74.  13 miles on the day.  Sore.

Tues - run commute 77.  7.5 miles total.  CityRock 129.

Wed - bike commute 75.  16 miles total.  If I die before the end of the year it's going to be because I got hit by a car during the stretch of 30th street where the bike path is currently closed.  Somebody sue everybody on my behalf, and if that doesn't work go pull some monkey wrench shit on those construction companies.

Thurs - run commute 78.  Seven miles total.  CityRock 130, which was surprisingly a good session.

We got our first Red Rocks tix!  Don't tell $100 but I will also be at the JRAD show the night before.  This weekend and Mule will probably be our only Red Rocks shows this year.

Action shot from Pueblo.  Always nice to have proof of me crushing an Air Force dude.

Our local Pike Ride is having a contest that I'm participating in.  So every day for the next few days I will try to grab a bike and leave it in front of a pub.  Day one was the super classy Triple Nickel.  The Nick is a Steelers bar in case I haven't mentioned that before.

Rock Canyon Half

On Friday after work I hit up the hash x-mas party, then headed west to see Creating A Newsense.  Those guys haven't played in a long time, but you wouldn't have known it from the show.  Hopefully they start jamming a bit more often.

Saturday was a good shitshow.  $100 was in Madison visiting family, the cadet needed peace and quiet to cram for finals, and I had three dogs to watch.  Still got out for a good bike ride before heading over to the annual Twelve Beers of X-mas shindig.  Somehow I was responsible enough to make it home in time to feed all the dogs.

Got up early Sunday, super hungover, walked each dog individually, and still somehow got down to Pueblo in time for the annual Rock Canyon Half.  Was not expecting anything from this race, but lo and behold somehow I felt somewhat decent.  The goal was 1:45, but I felt good enough to run an easy 1:38.  Even went over to Lake Pueblo afterwards for a 90 minute ride.  Completely unexpected to have a decent day since it seems that so far all I've been doing in December is drinking and eating and signing up for races.

update

Currently stuck in my usual holiday rut which involves eating and drinking too much and too little exercise.

Did make it up to the Air Force/Wyoming game on Saturday to watch AF notch their 10th win of the season.  Been a great year for them and they are currently in the top 25.  Unfortunately things are not going that well for my beloved Pitt Panthers.

On Sunday I had to run the cadet back up to the Hill so I ran the Academy roads.  It's been windy AF here lately.  Easy six miles.

Currently on run commute 75 and bike commute 73.  Everything is just to and from work the quick way now.

Couch toured the Phish show from Pitt last night.

incline 23

Streaking.  Pretty hungover but still got out. 

incline 22

Was signed up for the local Turkey Trot 5k but the recent snow/ice storm still has our roads quite a mess.  Saw a bunch of pics of the 5k course and decided to bail.  If I'm going to futz around on ice and snow I'll do it on the Incline.  It had been a while since I made that climb.  August 9th, to be correct.  Very casual pace but it was a good time out there.

run commute 73

We got a ton of snow here in Pleasant Valley, quite possibly the most since I've lived here.  The Air Force Academy announced on Monday afternoon that they would be closed on Tuesday, so our cadet was excited to chill at our house an extra day before her flight home for turkey break.  But I informed her that this was an Army house, and we do PT at 5AM regardless of the weather.  I think she thought I was joking, but her and the dog and I did a 45 minute slog through a good eight inches of snow in the Garden before the sun came up.

Wednesday - some drunko might have left the jeep at Red Leg last night, so I had to run to work despite it being 3F when I left.  All the roads in COS are a hot mess, or icy mess, right now.

A few extra pics from the Soldier Marathon:

Georgia (and a tiny bit of Alabama)

The Georgia recap before I forget everything.  Atlanta is a great trip to make from COS as it's one of our few direct flights.  Hopped off the plane and started heading down to Fort Benning, but $100 found a brewery along the way.  Beacon Brewing in La Grange, GA.  Good brews.

Beacon also does a collaboration with the Clermont Lounge in Atlanta.

After that stop it was off to the Infantry Museum to pick up our race packets. 

Driving down Victory Drive to Fort Benning definitely brought back some memories.  I was an infantryman during my Army days, and went to basic training and airborne school at Benning. 

We walked through the museum and it turns out the vehicle they have on display for the Iraq section was the actual vehicle I spent a lot of time on during my deployment.  I was one of the grunts who would walk alongside this vehicle, which I was fine with as it made me a much smaller target.  But at the end of the day it was always nice to get a ride back.

The bar at the museum had an 11B themed IPA.

Already covered my mediocre race so I won't rehash that.  I should point out that $100 PR'd in the half marathon, running 2:04.

After the race we walked over to the Chattahoochee Brewing Company in Phenix City, Alabama.  In this part of the world the Chattahoochee River not only serves as the border between Georgia and Alabama, but it's also the boundary between time zones.  It's also very deep in SEC country, which is absolutely ridiculous if you've never experienced it.  Auburn is only 40 miles away, but the Tua injury was definitely the talk of the weekend.

Columbus, GA, as seen from Alabama:

We then humped back across the river and hit a bunch of bars in Columbus.  Tried a lot of new beers but still made room for an old favorite:

We left early Sunday for the long drive to Atlanta.  Lots of extra miles to hit two more state high points. 

Sweetwater had been on our list for a long time, and $100 and I finally got to visit the brewery.  Back when $100 and I started dating we "discovered" Sweetwater at  Telluride Blues & Brews and they've been a favorite of ours ever since.  We usually only find it in airports, so it was nice to enjoy some pints that didn't cost $12.

We stayed at the Clermont Hotel which is literally on top of the Clermont Lounge.  But it was Sunday, and the Lounge was closed.  Super bummed about that but I'm headed back to the ATL to watch the Olympic trials so I'll visit then.  The hotel had a rooftop bar and lots of bars in the area, and we visited quite a few of those.

On Monday we went down to olympic centennial park and then ended up taking the tour of CNN.

Be advised: damn near everything in Atlanta is closed on Monday.  Luckily, the one brewery that was open was one we wanted to visit, Scofflaw Brewing.  Great beers but they can't handle my game!

And after Scofflaw it was back to the airport.  Awesome trip and I can't wait to go back!

run commute 72

Easy half hour to work this morning.  Haven't done much since the marathon.  Well, not much healthy anyways.  Lot of drinking, lot of laziness, lot of junk food.  Which is typically the case for me during the holidays.  Starting to put together the schedule for '20 though, and at some point I'll have to start doing work again.

Last night I finished all the booze at Murphy's and only have some repeat bottles remaining.

Also I want to mention that on my Tuesday morning dog hike I found $11!  Second highest amount I've ever found at once.

varsity club

37. Kahlua

varsity club

36. Goldschlager

varsity club

35. Tuaca