bad back

Monday was a good day.  Dog hike with the pack and track in the AM.  Good garage gym session over lunch.  Incline in the evening.  Only one beer at Manitou Brewing and early to bed.  Rainier training off to a good start.

Then on Tuesday morning, as I was about to jump on my bike to head to work, I sneezed.  And my lower back exploded.

So I'm dealing with that right now.  Not too painful, but super stiff.  No running, including bailing on the Creepy Crawl 5k this morning.  Hopefully by Monday I'll be back to normal.

track

Nice week of not doing much, topped off by the brewery marathon on Saturday which turned into quite a shitshow.  In case that wasn't a reason to drink enough beer, Pitt crushed Clemson on Saturday as well.

Went up to the track today.  4 x 800m, 4 x 200m.  3:16, 3:10, 3:09, 3:06.  Untimed on the 200s but I guess they were in the 43 second range.  Have a few 5k's and the Rock Canyon half before the year ends, so I'll be halfway training for those.

recovery/happy 13th!

Easy week as I was pretty beat up from all the slow marathoning.  Will start getting back into a routine on Monday.

I was able to get up to watch my cadet nail her first jump on Wednesday.

Big game for Pitt on Saturday.  Not often that we have a legit chance to beat Clemson.

Holly is 13 years young today.  Eleven of those with us.  Her friends are all dropping by to say happy birthday.

Colfax

Apparently I am unable to run a halfway decent road marathon anymore.

Started off at eight minute mile pace, and then it was the same story as Chicago.  Made it to just past halfway before the legs just gave out.  I guess I'm old enough now that I can either do well running up a hill, or do well running on a flat road, but not both.

4:13:58 officially.  Was at mile 25ish when I passed by new (to me) Reverence Brewing.  Big sign out front said they were open early for the marathon.  So I went in.  And they were playing Widespread Panic, so I ended up having two pints there.  So I probably would have broke four without that, but there's really no difference between 3:59 and 4:13 for me.

Bunch of quality bars after the race.  Back to Reverence, the Satellite Lounge, Nob Hill, 1UP, Sancho's, and Kinga's.  Physically, the race wrecked my back and hamstrings, but at least the booze took away the pain.

Did the 5k on Sunday in City Park with Kircher's dog.  

Big two months of racing for me and I'm glad it's over.  Have our local 5k race series coming up, but that's nothing I'll be taking seriously.  For the near future it will be all about training to get my ass up Rainier.

Chicago

Good trip if you don't count the second half of the marathon!

Went out at a good pace, 1:38 at the half, and just couldn't hold it.  Struggled and slowed significantly after mile 14.  Stopped twice for beer and even had some ten minute miles in there.  Crossed the line in 3:39.  Oof.  Hot and humid, everyone outside of Galen Rupp seemed to run slower than planned.  Still a piss poor race for me though.

$100 actually ran pretty well, staying on sub five hour pace for 22+ miles before imploding.  Still crushed her goal of sub 5:30 though.

The rest of the trip was a blast.  Explored Chicago, hiked a bunch of miles on the lakefront and 606 trails, drank a ton of Malort, saw Wrigley Field.  Good times.

I used to work in Chicago...

We leave ass early on Saturday for the windy city and return Tuesday late afternoon.  The 'thon is Sunday morning and then it's just Old Style, hot dogs, and pizza for the rest of the weekend.

I haven't done any road marathon training, though the endurance is there and sea level should be a huge boost for me.  Gonna head out with the 3:20 group and see what happens.

the scooters are here!

I'm a big fan of any transportation that doesn't involve a car, so I was petty excited when the dog and I turned a corner on our morning walk and saw a bunch of scooters ready to go. 

Still ran to work, but took a scooter home.  Topped out at just over 14mph, and had to work real hard up some of the hills, but it was fun.  19 minutes and a cost of $8.41, left the scooter on the curb in front of my house.  

Not cost effective to do trips this long, PikeRide will fill that void, but I'm looking forward to some downtown pub crawling with one of these.

19:19

Still plodding along.

On Saturday I ran over to do the two mile Nielsen challenge.  Ran 13:13, and with the to and from I ended up getting in twelve miles.  Later that day $100 and I went to our first Switchbacks game.  The plan was not to drink much as I had planned to hit a 14er on Sunday.  But we took PikeRide downtown, ended up stopping at Mash Mechanix and Pikes Peak Brewing.  Then on the way home it turned into quite a shitshow with visits to Benny's, Front Range, and Nova West.  Nova West may have included some Mad Dog.

Probably my last Switchbacks game.  Tix were $27 each and that big Coors I'm drinking was $15.  Significantly more expensive than Air Force football and I just don't care about soccer that much.

I did end up summiting Mount Sherman on Sunday, extending the calendar streak to five months.  Sherman is considered an easier 14er, but I wanted to get more comfortable with the route as this will likely be one I attempt in the winter.  Worked in some Chicago training on the summit:

Had some beers with Alex at Fossil on Sunday evening.  Next month will mark five years of monthly Pikes summits for him.

Track 5k on Monday morning.  19:19, including a 6:05 middle mile.  My two mile split was 50 seconds faster than my Nielsen time.

Chicago this weekend, Colfax the following weekend.  Then I'm up to date with races, no more COVID holdouts.  I am signed up for a few local runs - the Pikes Peak YMCA 5k series, Rock Canyon half, and I'll probably run the Super Half.  But with HAMS starting later this month, I'll be putting racing on the back burner for a while.

2023 will mark ten years at my job, and I've recently told my boss I plan to take some time off.