update

Mon - nice two hour/22 mile gravel ride in the AM.  After work I headed over to Manitou and ran up the Incline to the summit of Rocky Mountain, then down to Intemann and headed up Red Mountain.  8.9 miles, 2.5 hours, 3500 feet of climbing.  Earned my beers from Manitou Brewing for sure.  They have a new hazy on tap that's delicious.

Tues - bike commute 38.  Eleven there on the COVID loop.  13.3 back on the world's greatest commute through Bear Creek and Red Rock Canyon, ending at Fossil.  I am not in mountain bike shape for sure.

Wed - run commute 34.  Five miles there in 42 minutes.  6.3 miles back through Sondermann in an hour.  Good climb at lunch.

Thurs - bike commute 39.  Seven miles there, four miles home.  Busy morning as we packed the van up for the long weekend trip.

Leaving Thursday after work and headed west.  Fruita is the plan, but we could change that at any moment.  All we know is that we don't have to work until Tuesday morning.  

Citadel

Bolted after work on Friday to the Herman Gulch trailhead, not too far north of the Eisenhower tunnel.  In bed early as it was a definite alpine start on Saturday.  Did make a quick pit stop at Broken Compass on the way there though.

The objective was Snoopy's Backside couloir to get to the top of The Citadel.  There were some minor avalanche concerns, and some possible shitty weather moving in, but we ended up having a good day in the mountains.

Fairly straightforward three-ish mile hike to get to the couloir.  Here's a good shot, stolen from summitpost.org, that shows the climb.

The day ended up being eight miles and eight hours.  Lots of post holing on the way back.  Definitely a beginner climb and I had a blast.  There are quite a few climbs of this type on Pikes and I'll definitely be looking into those next year.

A few other pics from the day:

Couldn't stick around after the climb, I drove straight back to the Springs, grabbed the dog, and headed down to Canon City.  $100 and two of her friends had left Fossil Brewing on Friday night, slept on Gold Camp Road, then got up on Sat and rode up to Victor before dropping down Phantom Canyon and over to Red Canyon Park in Canon.  I met them with pizza and beer for night two.  The next day they got up and rode up Shelf Road and back to Fossil.  150 miles total on the weekend for them.

home

Sun - was up at 3AM (1AM Colorado time) to start the return journey from Florida, so not much working out.  Did get the dog out for a walk before heading over to Smiling Toad and then to Front Range for some live music.  Masks are basically not a thing here in the Springs anymore.

Mon - 15 mile ride in the AM on the COVID loop.  Incline right after work before heading over to Fossil for Alex's b-day throwdown.  Raining all day.

Tues - still tired from the travel, plus a hangover.  And it was pouring rain.  I drove to work since I had to pick $100 up from the airport.  Did get in a decent garage workout in the evening to keep the day from being a total zero.

Wed - solid run to work, 6.5 miles in 55 minutes.  CityRock 53 at lunch.  

Thurs - bike to work.  Ten there, eleven back.  CityRock 54 at lunch.  Guitar and Benny's after work.

Fri - run commute 33.  4.2 miles in 37 minutes.  Good bouldering session at lunch.

Doing my first couloir climb this weekend.  Was supposed to be the Dragon's Tail in Rocky Mountain National Park, but due to weather and conditions the climb was changed to Snoopy's Backside up near Loveland Pass.  $100 is doing a big bikepacking trip this weekend, so I'll hopefully be completing the climb quickly and safely before grabbing the dog and heading down to Canon City to meet up with her.  

Speaking of the dog, apparently yesterday was national rescue dog day.  Here's the last pic of my pup that was on my phone:

Florida

Boarded a plane for the first time since the Atlanta marathon trials back in early March of ‘20.  Off to visit the in-laws down in The Villages.

The Villages are not my cup of tea, but $100’s parents sure do love it down there.  We visited a watering hole called The Cove and then took a swamp tour on an air boat.  Good stuff.  The next day we went back to Silver Springs State Park for some kayaking.  No manatee this trip but we still had a blast.

Did get two easy five mile runs in.  Felt like I was swimming in the heat and humidity.  

Took a planned down week since I knew travel would mess things up.

run - 22 miles/4.5 hours

ride - 8.6 miles/one hour

hike - 12.3 miles/five hours

Winter Park

Had the day off on Friday, and I got in a good two hour run in Red Rock Canyon before leaving for Winter Park.  Solo trip for me as $100 got stuck with some work crap.

Good day up in WP.  The last training class for the alpine climbing school.  Some more self arrest practice and lots of snow anchor building.  Good stuff.  Two more trips for ACS.  A couloir climb set for May 22, and then a lesser known route up Longs Peak in June.  The two day trek will include snow, ice, and rock climbing.  

After the field day I headed over to Lyons to meet up with the annual brewery bike trip.  Long drive back home on Sunday afternoon as I visited Rocky Mountain National Park and quite a few breweries.  

Mon - more winter weather.  Which meant no incline reservation needed as the parks department wouldn't be leaving their fancy office.  So I got in all 2700+ steps straight up and straight down.

Tues - an inch of snow in the front yard this morning.  Bike commute 36 on the fatty.

trouser snake

 Forgot to post this guy, whom I saw on my long run on Sunday.  Snake season is here again.  Yay.

Mon - it rained pretty much 24 hours straight, very rare for us here in CO.  First time I bailed on an early morning dog hike for weather in a long time.  Got the pooch out later, and in the evening I ran an easy ten miler on the Garden roads.  Little bit of snow up high.

Tues - bike commute 34.  Eleven miles to work, four back home.  Had the last of the video lectures for my alpine climbing school.  This weekend I'll be in Winter Park practicing some snow movement.  We have two trips left with the class: a couloir climb, and the high peak grad climb.  The grad climb looks like it will be a two day difficult route up Longs.

Wed - run commute 30.  6.5 miles there in an hour.  6.3 miles back home through Sondermann, including 12 hill repeats.

clear creek canyon

                     

Early drive on Saturday to join my CMC ACS peeps for a crag day at the East Colfax area of Clear Creek Canyon, about 15 miles west of Golden.  Great place and loved climbing all day.  I'm getting much more comfortable on the rock, learning to trust the equipment and not freaking out about heights quite so much.  Not getting ahead of myself in thinking I'm an outdoor badass though, there were guys highlining the canyon while we were climbing.  Might have been 700+ feet above us.

Some other pics from the day:

Cannonball Creek Brewing for the apres.  Also hit Mountain Toad Brewing before heading back to the Springs.

                            

Good three hour long run on Sunday.  Red Rock Canyon, Section 16, Stephanie's, and back through RRC.  Just over 15 miles.  $100, James, Melissa, and I went back to RRC at noon to try to get some more climbing in, but it started pouring before we could get going.  So we bailed to Fossil instead.

For the week:

run - 47 miles/9 hours

ride - 78 miles/7.5 hours

hike - 18.5 miles/8 hours