Quandary

Got in my 17th consecutive calendar month with a 14er on Friday with PT and Mookie.  Already quite a bit of snow up high.

Mook and I drove out Thursday evening for some quality van time.  We were greeted by a bunch of weird signs, which weren't there when I last hiked Q in February.

 Solid hike, though a bit slow due to all the snow.  Mook loved it.

On Saturday I headed up to Palmer Lake for the annual Creepy Crawl 5k.  This can be a fast course if the weather cooperates.  It wasn't terrible, but after a downhill first mile with a tailwind, which I hit in six flat, turning around to run uphill into the wind kind of broke my spirit.  Finished the race in 19:32, but my garmin had it at a bit less than 5k, so I walked the extra distance and still snuck in under 20, though just barely in 19:58.

Saturday afternoon was the annual brewery marathon which turned into the usual shitshow.  I showed up to run the Fall Series on Sunday, but needless to say I'm not a threat to win my age group anymore.

the week that wasn't

A shift in work location, a weeknight show up in Denver, then caught some kind of flu like crud, then had to unexpectedly watch some dogs over the weekend.  Not a whole lot of miles.  The near-puke effort on Saturday hopefully saved some of my fitness.

run - 13 miles, 2.5 hours

ride - 38.5 miles, four hours

hike - 29 miles, 13 hours

XC

Good times up in Boulder for the masters 5k cross country race.  I had not run an XC race since high school and I forgot how much suffering was involved.  Less than a mile into the race you hit the big climb, a short but steep stretch you run twice, and I was completely gassed.  From there it was all about hanging on and not imploding too much.  6:26, 6:55, and 7:07 for the mile splits, finishing in 21:15.  Not a great race for me, but not a disaster.  My earlier statement of a possible sub 19 was not a realistic goal for this course.  Results aren't posted yet and I'm interested in seeing how I did versus all these old people.

So much fun and I'm looking forward to more of this kind of stuff in the near future.

Thanks to Shad and Amy for the pics.

Marcus King

Got up to the Mission Ballroom to catch the Marcus King Band on Tuesday.  I've seen a lot of good guitar players over the years but this kid is right up there.  Such a good live show!

catching up

Good times down in Trinidad.  I had a solid ride, covering the 100 mile course in just under eight hours.  I handicapped myself real good - I had a very heavy bike and I refused to utilize pace lines.  But I got the job done in time to enjoy some of the finer joints of T-dad.  Grandma's, Sexy Pizza, Moose's, and the Dad Lounge among them.

Not much during the week but I did have a solid fall series race on Sunday.  I'm in a battle for an age group award, and the other guy and I ran together for the first two miles.  I put in a good surge and got away from him, hitting 5k in 19:34, but I barely hung on.  Good tune up for the masters cross country race this Saturday, thinking I might go sub 19 there.

For the week:

run - 31 miles, 5.5 hours

ride - 26 miles, 2.5  hours

hike - 24 miles, 9.5 hours

sink navy!

Good week of recovery after Pikes, then it was back to the grind.

Solid week except for maybe Saturday which included a 10AM kickoff for AF/Navy and Andy's birthday party at Fossil afterwards.  The Falcons did squeak by Navy which is always fantastic.

Pitt shit the bed on Saturday evening and we won't mention that anymore.  And the Steelers aren't doing well but it looks like the Kenny Pickett era has begun!

I'm running the PPRR Fall Series this year and race number one was on Sunday at Bear Creek Park.  I ran well despite trying to drink all the beer on Saturday.  3.3 miles with some steep hills in 22:15, fared pretty well against the usual suspects who show up to these things.

For the week:

run - 44 miles, 8.5 hours

ride - 50 miles, five hours

hike - 27 miles, eleven hours

The last of our "COVID tickets," that is tickets we bought way back in 2020 before the 'VID cancelled everything will be used Wednesday evening to see Kenny Wayne Shepherd.  

I have decided to ride the 100 miler this weekend in Trinidad, dropping down from the planned 160.  I believe I could have grunted out the full distance, but the post race party would have ended and all the pubs would have been closed by the time I finished.  

Wednesday was my 100th trip to CityRock this year.