Tuesday, January 31, 2023

the week

Not a bad week with the travel and Wisco recovery and shitty weather.

run - 31 miles, six hours

ride - 72 miles, 7.5 hours

hike - 27 miles, ten hours

About over this recent cold snap.  A bunch of days with snow and temps below 0F.  Monday evening it was 5F after work when I headed out for five miles in the Garden.  This has been a much colder winter than usual for us here in the Springs.

Friday, January 27, 2023

Mad City

Incredible time out in Madison.  Fried cheese, Paradise Lounge, the Rigby, the Old Fashioned, dive bars, tons of new breweries.  The beer and cheese fest was fantastic.  So was the Nirvana cover band.






Went on a decent hike along the lake each frigid morning, but that was it for any activity.  

For the week:

run - 26 miles, five hours

ride - 89 miles, 8.5 hours

hike - 28 miles, 10.5 hours

Having a decent week so far.

Mon - 6.2 mile hike around the Univ of Wisco campus

Tues - run commute four.  Four miles there and back.

Wed - bike commute eight, nine there and eleven back.  Four mile run with Mook over in the Garden in the evening.

Thurs - bike commute nine.  Six there and 13 back.  Four more Mook miles in the evening.

Fri - bike commute ten and CityRock ten.

No signs of warming weather, but I've started to notice on my super early dog hikes that at the end the sun is starting to try to make an appearance.  Been about two months since I saw the sun on a dog walk.

These came today.  Really looking forward to the show but hopefully it's the last time I have to deal with airports for a while.


Friday, January 20, 2023

300

Mon - off of work so I got in a good four hour ride, covering 44 miles on the mostly clear Santa Fe and Cottonwood bike paths.  Easy five mile run over on the Garden trails with Mookie in the evening.  Saw some kids practicing baseball, can warmer weather be far behind?

Tues - bike commute six.  Ten there, eleven back.  Despite the crappy weather and conditions, I'm at least getting my ass on the bike saddle as I went over 300 miles on the year today.  Another five miler with Mookie over in the Garden as the snow started to fall.  He's turning into a good running partner.

Wed - run commute three.  More snow and cold weather.  Yay.  Four there and four back.  Guitar in the evening, worked on the opening riff of Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi.  

Thurs - bike commute seven.  Balls-out cold again this morning.  

Getting on a plane early Friday morning.  My dreams may not be big or complicated, but at least I will accomplish one of them this weekend - the Isthmus Beer & Cheese festival.  This whole long weekend will be nothing but cheese curds and Wisconsin beer.


Monday, January 16, 2023

Lettuce/19:39

Fun weekend up in the Fort.

Lettuce was incredible, as usual.  Got right up front for the show.


Visited a ton of breweries and, of course, the Town Pump.  

At some point I got talked into signing up for a local Tortoise and Hare 5k.  Glad I did as I ended up running fairly well.  Ran 6:24, 6:15, and 6:10.  Officially finished in 19:19 but my watch had 3.08 miles, so I walked for another .02 miles to get the full sub 20 5k experience.

For the week:

run - 30 miles, six hours

ride - 112 miles, 11.5 hours

hike -  20 miles, 8.5 hours

Friday, January 13, 2023

miles

Update: 5:32.77 was my official 1500m time.  Converts to a 5:58 mile.  But the way I was suffering at the end, the 104 or whatever extra meters might have taken me a full minute.

Mon - easy 7.5 mile run in the morning, 25 mile ride in the evening.

Tues - bike commute four.  Ten there and 20 back.

Wed - bike commute five.  Crazy windy today.  Ten there and seven back.  Quick four mile run before my guitar lesson.  These four milers are what I call "Toby runs" just to get a minimal amount of mileage in.  At least they are outside and not on a treadmill.

Thurs - dogsitting, so all morning was spent at the dog park.  Nice 20 mile ride in the evening.  After that $100 and I took the dogs for a hike up Iron Mountain.

Fri - more dog park and then run commute two.  Four miles.

I made it through twelve days of a dry January attempt, knowing all along I'd fail due to a Lettuce show tonight in Fort Collins and a beer festival in Wisconsin next week.  The breaks are probably good for me but I never feel that much better than when I'm keeping the binge drinking to a minimum.

Sunday, January 08, 2023

1500m

Solid weekend.

On Saturday I got in a good ten miler on the Garden roads, then jumped on the bike for 25 miles.  

Sunday took me up to the Academy to run the 1500m in an open meet.  Not the smoothest run meet, including the bell lap being rung one lap too early.  I was quite a ways behind the lead, but when I heard the bell I figured I had less than 1.5 laps to go, and I went.  I actually had closer to 2.5 laps to go.  Oof.  Finished in roughly 5:33, which might come down once official results are posted as I didn't glance at the clock until a few steps after the finish.  Ran as hard as I could, I'm just so far removed from this kind of racing this is about the best I can hope for.

For the week:

run - 34 miles, seven hours

ride - 109 miles, 12.5 hours

hike - 26 miles, eleven hours

Friday, January 06, 2023

ice

Forgot to mention the commute numbers for 2022:

run commutes - 71

bike commutes - 88

And 120 sessions over at CityRock.

Mon - crappy conditions but still got in a bit of everything on the day off.  3.7 mile hike with Mookie, 5 mile run on the Garden trails, an hour of yoga, and a 14.8 mile ride on the COVID loop, almost crashing several times despite being sober.  Unfortunately spent the end of the day hoping for the best for Pitt guy Damar Hamlin.

Tues - still shitty outside with ice and snow.  Run commute one.  CityRock one, me and approximately 40,000 folks who I've never seen before kicking off the new year.

Wed - bike commute one.  Lots of slow miles on the fat bike so far this year, as the side roads and bike trails have been in fairly rough shape.  Good guitar session in the PM.

Thurs - this shit is never gonna melt.  Bike commute two.  Easy four mile run in the evening.

Fri - bike commute three.  Nice full moon run with $100 and Mookie up Iron Mountain after work.

Was going to run the Nielsen Challenge on Saturday, but found out it's a brewer's cup event and over 300 are registered.  I'll stick to a Garden run and long ride instead.  Track meet at USAFA on Sunday, that's going to be a disaster.

Sunday, January 01, 2023

2023

Another year, another list of shit I hope to get done.

The attention for me will be on the bike tour.  Goal is to get from Mexico to Canada and I'll try to follow the Tour Divide route as best I can.  I'll only get one shot at this, so I need to make it count.  Definite concentration on biking the first seven months of the year.

Then in mid July I'll switch gears and start getting ready for Pikes.  No big goals there, just want to finish the Double.

The hoped for numbers in the year:

ride - 5000 miles

run - 1000 miles

hike - 1000 miles

Good first day as I got in a 3.8 mile hike, 5.9 mile run, and 22 mile ride in despite crappy trail conditions.  Knee is nowhere close to 100% but I'm not doing any damage, so I'm gonna trudge through it.

Two trips coming up - the Isthmus Beer & Cheese festival in Madison in a few weeks, then the Innings Festival in Phoenix in late February.  Then a van trip home from Banff.  After that I won't have any vacation for a while.