April 3 - Ninja Porter

AM/PM - Commute #22.  Straight to work, and straight home.  10 miles total.

PM - Incline #21.  Got home and was ready to veg but the dog wanted to go play.  Easy effort up the Incline.

Post run Ninja Porter from the Asheville Brewing Company, one of many awesome beers I tried on my recent trip to North Carolina.  Really hoping my travels take me back to that fantastic beer drinking city someday.

April 2 - Fat Tire

AM - 60 minutes at Accolade.  Here's a shot of me impressing the ladies at the gym:

Lunch - 2.2 mile hike around Prospect Lake.  Friggin' cold outside today.

PM - Very easy 60 minutes on the Garden roads, 6.2 miles.  First time I've run in the rain in quite some time.

Saw this list today so I've been craving a Fat Tire.  One of three brews we always have in the beer fridge.  I've had seven of the 22 beers on the list, maybe I'll look to try some of the others.  Could never figure out why bikes are so popular in the brewing world, much more than any other sport.  Not sure there has ever been a running themed beer not made in some dude's basement.

31 Beers of April

I was on some weird monthly fitness challenge e-mail list where folks would spend all their free time either doing weird exercises or looking up weird exercises on the iterweb.  Fine for the winter months, but when I suggested that this month’s activity be something a bit more social I was rudely outed from the group.  Maybe I shouldn’t have started off that e-mail with “you fucking losers need to get a life.”

Screw those guys, I’m going to go ahead with my wonderful idea anyways.  One different beer for each day of April.  Not a new beer, which I might be able to pull off if it weren’t for the meddling wife watching the bank account, but a different beer.  No repeating.

The April 1^st beer is the Racer 5 IPA from Bear Republic Brewing in Healdsburg, CA (yes, I looked the location up on google).  Probably something left over from the Fat Ass as I can’t remember buying this brew.  Not long ago I wasn’t a fan of IPA’s but I guess hanging around the ultrarunner crowd has rubbed off on me.  Pretty good beer, I’m sure I’ll drink this again since there are a few more in my fridge.  Thanks to whomever left a few bottles.

Monday

AM - Easy hour through the Garden and the 'hood, 6.7 miles.

Lunch - 2.1 miles around Prospect Lake, 30 minutes.

PM - Red Mountain with James, BLOS, Vega, and the dog.  The dog was an ass and at one point I thought I actually lost her.  That would have been tough to explain to $100.  3.5 miles.

Denver peeps, why you gotta mess with the big blue bear?  One of my favorite non-Colfax things about downtown Mile High.  If you feel the need to jack with an animal sculpture, go take on that satanic horse out at DIA.

weekend

Decent weekend on the running front.  20 miles on Saturday through Red Rock Canyon, Intemann, Section 16, and High Drive.  Sunday it was up to Denver for a few miles on the Mt. Falcon trails with Liz and then FF's hill running clinic.  Good stuff.

This Saturday marks the start of eleven consecutive weeks of racing for me.  Everything from the highly prestigious and elite Nielsen Challenge and the Tortoise & Hare 5K predict, to lesser known and lowly attended, horribly managed races such as Quad Rock and Jemez.  That's right folks, I'm the Mike Wardian of slow people!

300 miles of running in 54 hours for March, pretty solid month despite getting one weekend snowed out.

Great beer weekend!

Rainier!

They were out of Olympia.

Boom!

Incline #20/Commute #21

Thurs PM - Incline plus 20 minutes up Barr from Memorial Park.  End of an era as it was Diane's last day bartending at Kinfolk's.  Not sure if Incline Happy Hour will survive as her replacement isn't a real big fan of people or fun.

Fri - Rode the mountain bike to work.  Gears are awesome!

Went ahead and signed up for my first bike race.  Elephant Rock.  Doing the 27 mile fat tire ride.  It's not really a race, you can start anywhere between 8AM and 9:30AM as long as you finish by 5PM, but I guess in the cycling world you still have to dope for shit like that.  I love making fun of cyclists and doping, but is there anyone who doesn't this same stuff is going on in running?  Or any sport, for that matter?  Hell, the article mentions drug testing in ballroom dancing.

Got tix to see Primus.  They're playing City Auditorium in the Springs!  Suck it, Denver/Boulder!

Post #5000

AM - 60 minutes at Accolade.  I might have to visit the local vet soon since my pythons are getting SICK!

Last time I picked up my bike from a bike shop, CS West Bikes, I was able to ride almost a quarter mile before parts started falling off.  Hopefully I have better luck this time.  I got some new parts that should help the chain move around those cog things that end up propelling the bike forward.  Yeah, I know a lot about bikes.

Of course, it's probably more due to not using gatorade's three part hydration system for my bike commute that makes me such a shitty biker.

Commute #21

AM - Easy 5.2 miles to work.

Lunch - Three mile hike around Prospect Lake.

PM - 11 miles home.  Two mile warm up, 60 minute hard tempo run, 1.5 mile cool down.  Tempo was through Bear Creek Park and Section 16, good stuff.

Got to try some Surly beer the other day.  Good stuff!  Think you can only get it in Minnesota though.

Just found this on FB.  From the PPRR winter series awards.  Good times!

Garden Roads

AM - hour at the gym working on the guns.

PM - easy 8.6 on the Garden roads after work.  Just past the two mile mark, near the main parking lot, I was forced to take a break by a huge group of bighorn sheep.  Damn sheep ruined my Strava KOM attempt!  There were a dozen of the sheep in the road and a lot more off in the field.

Courtesy of letsrun.  I hope and pray that someday one of my friends has a finishers pic like this:

Incline #19/Red Mountain

From the house, up the Incline, back down, then over to Red Mountain.  Then I ran out of gas so I mooched a ride home.

Took my mountain bike into the shop yesterday.  Hope to have her up and running by Friday's commute.  Even thinking of growing a fake moustache and riding this.

Speaking of moustaches, I saw this bumper sticker in the parking lot of The Arc yesterday.  The Arc also had Dean Karnazes's book and "Born To Run" on sale.  Gots to be the best ultra book section of any thrift store ever.

weekend

Had big plans for a high mileage weekend but this damn Colorado weather put the kebash on that.  Did get out for two hours on Saturday through Red Rock Canyon/Intemann/Sec 16.  On Sunday morning it was 7 friggin' degrees in Memorial Park for the Incline Club run.  Just about signed in and went back to bed but since I burned the gas to get to Manitou I figured I'd do something.  Incline #18 but I gots to say I did not enjoy it at all.

Hopefully this is winter's last stand.

Thinking of throwing this race onto the schedule to knock out Nebraska on the 50 state list.  Plus I could use it as an excuse to finally visit Carhenge.  And since I'm visiting Austin this summer and flying into San Antonio, I could pull off the double and visit the toilet seat museum.  I know you're jealous.

Incline #17/Commute #20

Me and the dog last night on the Incline.  Good times.

Rode the bike to work this morning.

Got tix to both nights of DMB and Snoop!  Boom!  Going to get a room on Colfax and spend the entire weekend either at Sancho's or the show.

commute #19

6.7 miles in 58 minutes to work today.

Lots of local violence over the past 24 hours.  I work with the DOC, so this came as pretty shocking news today.  And then there's this, which happened about halfway between Brooks' house and my place.  I gots to admit it was much cooler having a machete robber running around the neighborhood last year than having a shooter.

In lighter news, I'm hoping to help with the aid station at the upcoming Greenland 50k.  Definitely taking some notes from this:

Incline #16

Tues PM - On the way over to Barr Trail I remembered it had been a while since I did the Incline.  So I bailed on the plan to run up to No Name and got to stepping instead.  Me and the dog, and tons of other traffic now that daylight lasts longer and the temps are going up.

Hopefully the new Bristol Brewery will be open soon.  This joint is only about a 5K from the house.

cougar awareness/shocker preparation

Feel like I'm 13 years old again.

Beware the cougars!

No, not that kind.  I mean the kind that will eat your weiner dog right off the leash!  There are some places around here I won't take the dog this time of year, namely the very south end of Red Rock Canyon, Intemann, and Sec 16.

And I've been hearing a lot about shockers lately.  Can't wait for Pitt to crush Wichita State on Thursday.  Once again I've picked Pitt to win the whole damn thing, this is our year!  Not sure if Jenna Bush disagrees with me, or if it just takes too much brain power to do the hook 'em horns thing.

letsrun

Some good ultra chatter over on the letsrun message boards.

"Ultrarunners are in the same category as cross-fitters and tough mudders.  Complete hasks who can't handle real running events.  Track, XC, and road racing are the only races that matter."

And since letsrun has us all in a cynical mood, here's a good article from Outside Magazine about drugs in mountaineering.

Found out Snoop Dogg (Snoop Lion?) is opening for Dave Matthews in Commerce City.  Tix on sale this Friday!  Notice how Snoop rocks the Pens jersey in the video.  Dude is a big Steeler fan as well.

Barr Trail

Mon AM - Slept in.

Mon PM - After sleeping in and grabbing the goose egg on Monday
morning, I had to work late. Was able to take the dog up to the top
of the W's though. Easy half hour up, 25 minutes down, four miles
overall.

Ever get one of those Nielsen Ratings envelopes? I usually throw the
shit out, being that we don't have cable. But for some weird reason I
opened the big envelope yesterday. And five bucks was inside. So I
wrote in Breaking Bad into every category and funded my Quijote's
breakfast burrito binge for the next two days.

Tues AM - 60 minutes at the gym. Ever since my snow shoveling
incident I've been pretty regular about my twice per week goal at the
gym. The guy who works the early shift had Whitesnake turned up way
too loud for 6AM.

19:21

19:21 at the St. Pat's 5K.  About where I thought I'd be.  Slow as hell, but I just haven't been putting in any kind of speed work in months.

Photo stolen from Pikes Peak Sports.

bikers are retarded

Had to run (drive) home over lunch and there was a cyclist taking up an entire lane on Colorado Ave.  Of course he didn't care that he was causing traffic issues.  Whether or not it's legal, it once again raises my hatred of cyclists since, like I have said many times before, why the hell are you riding on busy Colorado Ave when there is a bike lane one block to the south and an empty Pikes Peak Ave one block to the north!  Grrrrr!  Which is why I'm not going to shed a tear when you get your bike stolen while out celebrating your KOM.  For the record, when I ride to work I use a combination of Pikes Peak and Bijou (bike lane), then ride home via the hike-and-bike path that is always empty.

Saw Ryan Hall dropped out of Boston.  Been a while since the guy has had anything go well for him.

Commute #18/Double

4.8 miles to work this morning, 43 minutes.  Also got in a nice 2.5 mile hike around Prospect Lake over lunch in 30 minutes.  Beautiful day out there.

Signed up for the Pikes Double.  The only goal remains a sub three up.  Was still planning on pacing Fuller that weekend, but is that guy even alive?

Monday triple

Monday AM - Easy 7.4 miles on the Garden trails, 72 minutes.  Still hungover from Salida.

Monday lunch - 60 minute hard hike with the dog in Red Rock Canyon, 4.17 miles.

Monday PM - Red Mountain with BLOS, Vega, and James.  Even had a Peter sighting up top.  Sub 24 going up, pretty good for me.

Some good friends from Austin are visiting all week, so we'll see how much I get done.  Hoping for a decent weekend though - two hours plus the St. Pat's 5K on Saturday followed by Barr Camp on Sunday.

Salida

Another Salida Marathon in the books, my eighth finish at that race.  4:16:59.  Little slower than I was hoping for, but still a pretty solid training run.  Forgot the watch at home and I'm pretty sure I started way too slow to have any chance to run around four hours.  I guess running with Slow Aaron for the first few miles should have been a hint.

Good second half of the race, didn't get my ass handed to me on the downhills like I usually do.  Stopped twice for beer, and even in this area I wasn't my usual self - at the mile 20 aid station, they told me I was only the third guy to crack a brew there.

Nick ran as fast as he ever has on the new course and out leaned me at the tape by a scant 1:09:01.  He now owes me beer!  And I paid my rego for Quad Rock, so don't be trying to count the finish line Pateros Creek brew as settlement of the bet!

Salida Pub Crawl

1:15

All the meetings with lawyers and bookies are finally over, Sir Nick is giving me an hour and a quarter in our annual battle in Salida.  On the line is one boot of beer from Moonlight Pizza.  I've been on the losing end of this bet for a while now, I feel confident in saying this is the year the streak ends!

fire

Good article on Pikes Peak Sports about the burn areas and if/when they'll open back up.  Maybe in June we can get a group run for a lap or two around Rampart Res and then a tour of the Woodland Park breweries...

Not looking good for Waldo opening anytime soon, including next January for the Fat Ass.

Four easy miles this morning with the dog.

Commute #17

Pulled off a double brick today.  3.5 mile dog jog followed by a bike ride to work this morning.  Then I rode home and ran the 7.5 mile trail loop in the Garden.  Does this make me the current Ironman favorite?

dog jog

40 minutes with a difficult dog this morning.  3.5 miles.  Also got a 30 minute hike in around Prospect Lake over lunch, 2.2 miles.

Tickets for three days of Widespread Panic go on sale Saturday during the Salida marathon.  Last time Panic played three days at Red Rocks, they sold out in seven minutes.  So I guess I won't be able to see them this year.  I told $100 that I wanted to see one of my big three (Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Panic) this year, and I'm definitely hoping to get DMB tix for both nights in Commerce City.  Hopefully by the time the boss forgets how much the Dave show costs, Phish will announce some Colorado dates.

Commute #16

Easy 10K to work this morning, 51 minutes.

By the way, I was around 73 minutes for the Pueblo 10 miler on Saturday.  Not too shabby for being sore from a road 20 the day before as well as nursing a hangover.

20

Solid 20 miler today in 2:43:46, including 12:59 at the Nielsen Challenge.  Most of this was on pavement, probably going to be a bit sore for the Pueblo ten miler tomorrow.

Good luck to everyone running Little Rock tomorrow!  Brad P and Justin R will be down there.

February

231 miles on 29 runs.  44:04:49.  34,091 feet.

23.7 miles on 9 hikes.  7:26:31.  3,886 feet.

And of course, 31.6 miles on the bike on 6 rides.  3:21:51.

Not quite what I wanted on the month, but the back thing had me pretty scared and I stayed off my feet for as much as I could after that.

Looking to pick things up in March.

Umphrey's @ Red Rocks!

Just got my first tix of the season for Red Rocks!

Mitchell report

Write up of the recent Carolina trip is over on Pikes Peak Sports.

Brick

Easy 6.3 miles on the Garden roads this morning, 53:08.  Included there is a 6:44 mile so I wouldn't look like a choad posting a ten minute mile to the March Mile Madness FB page.

Then I hopped on the bike and threw down a 23 flat to work (commute #18), a PR by almost seven minutes.  The huge improvement is due to rampant PED use and not stopping for bagels along the way.

books

Since my days of winning awards for running are long gone, I turned my attention to another pursuit:
reading. Last night I picked up a sweet coffee mug for completing the Pikes Peak Library District Winter
Reading Challenge. That’s right, illiterate bitches, I’ve already plowed through EIGHT books in 2013!

Those books were all OK. I just don’t get the boner for reading that others do. I’d much rather drink a
beer, or run on a trail, or not be one of those losers who reads all the time, than read a book.

Here’s the goods. I’m going to mail this (she only gets the mug, I'm keeping the fries) to a friend of mine who is the Head Librarian (I love saying that!) at a library in Pittsburgh. As I was picking up my mug last night, I actually told that to the librarian in Old Colorado City, adding “Did you know they had libraries in Pittsburgh too?” He gave me quite the odd look and I’m pretty sure I ended up as the FB status on the library page.

big money run

Tues AM - took the dog out for an easy four miles in the Garden, and then ran over to the garage to pick up the subaru.  $650 due to some douche smashing the window and scraping the paint.  Most expensive run I've ever had.  Somewhere, Mary Whittenberg is super jealous.

Mitchell

Garmin stuff over here.  Had to play it conservative due to some back issues I've been having.  Great race, and a great trip overall.  Hopefully I'll get a write up posted tomorrow.

Barr Camp

Nice run from the house up to Barr Camp and back today.  21 mile round trip, just under 2.5 hours up, 4:15 total time.  Looks like Neil and Teresa are preparing to give up their job as caretakers over the next year or so.

Barr Trail was a mess.  Lots of ice from the TH up to No Name Creek.  Lots of snow from No Name to Barr Camp (though the higher part of the trail was much easier to run on).  The messy conditions on the lower part of the trail made for slow going coming back down, as each of the millions of Incliners had to inch their way down to keep from falling.

As much as I hate to give credit to Mike H, I believe he is right.  We all know Coors uses Wilson Peak on the logo, but I think Telluride Brewing does as well.  I owe Mike a Coors Light next time I see him for proving me wrong.

And we'll keep rolling with the "beer makes you smarter" theme.  Did you know the largest salamander in North America is the Hellbender?  Gotta admit, seeing one of these on a run would freak me out a bit.

How do I know this?  Because during my intensive research for the upcoming Mt. Mitchell Challenge (looking for local bars/breweries to visit) I came across an invite for the Hellbender Release Party from Pisgah Brewing in Black Mountain, NC.  You know you've made it in the salamander world when you get your own beer named after you.

Garden Tempo/Commute #15

The rare Saturday at the office.  Blech.

One mile warm up, four miles hard, 1.2 miles cool down.  OK on the tempo portion, but my mind wandered at times so it wasn't my best workout ever.  My final mile was sub eight and included jumping into the bushes to take a crap, I think that's a PR for me.

Right after the run I hopped on the bike to work.  I could use some work on my transition: I changed clothes, fed the dogs, checked facebook, sent a few e-mails, and drank two cups of coffee in between the run and the bike.

New brewery coming to Woodland Park.  Ute Pass Brewing.  Will make WP a town of 7500 with three breweries.  And Pikes Peak is now featured on the logos of two breweries.  I believe no other mountain in the world has this distinction*!

*I did absolutely no research whatsoever to verify that claim.

still here

Have an extra dog and a car theft to deal with this week (car was broken into, not stolen).  Blech.  Running has unfortunately taken a backseat.  I understand that crime happens, but the thing that pisses me off the most is that after breaking the back window and grabbing whatever crap he could, he then scratched the car in some random places, just to be a dick.  I say "he," but the car was parked next to Beth O'B's house, and I think that makes her the prime suspect.

Sure is helping the commute challenge having just one vehicle though, today was commute #14 of the year.  I've also inched up to Incline #15.  Well on pace to hit 100 times for each of those categories.

Brandon S did a blog post about a marathon on the elliptical machine.  Sounds, uh, like a really great way to spend a Friday night.  But the treadmill video at the end rocks.  First time in history somebody actually had fun on the 'mill.  I'm putting together a team to head to the local gym to replicate this.

OK Go - Here It Goes Again from OK Go on Vimeo.

Incline #13/Commute #12

Keeping it all close as I also had burger #12 at The Keg last night.  Timko looked burnt out on the red meat diet on Saturday, I'll catch him soon.

Thurs PM - Very easy Incline from the house.  When I got to Kinfolk's they were having a birthday party for a three year old and I didn't want any of that, so I hit the Keg.  Kinfolk's will reedeem itself by having Grant Sabin play this Saturday.



Fri AM - quick run to work.  4.8 miles, 42 minutes.

I am soooooooooo looking forward to drinking a shitton of beer this weekend!  Feels like I haven't had a drink in forever.  Even though it's only been about 14 hours.

Was thinking of the everlasting one-hit-wonders again and the iPhone randomly brought this one up:

Thurs

Wed PM - easy Incline (#12) with $100 and the dog.

Thurs AM - 2.4 miles with the dog.  She started freaking out over in Red Rock Canyon and I finally gave up.  As we were leaving the park I heard a bunch of coyotes hooting and howling.

My backyard made iRunFar today.  Other than mentioning the mate factor (which is run by a super weird, child abusing religious cult) and not mentioning Manitou Mardi Gras it's a pretty good write up.  My dog gives it two paws down though and immediately switched the website to letsrun.com.  They also mentioned the spring water, but forgot the only decent use of the stuff:

The guy just won't go away.  Lance is tearing it up on Strava.  I hope every workout he posts gets flagged.

Incline Happy Hour tonight.  Technically the first legal one ever.  Though it happens after dusk, which is illegal.

Garden/Commute #12

Tues PM - easy loop on the Garden roads.  8.6 miles, 77 minutes.

Wed AM - 15 minute warm up, 60 minutes tempo, 15 minute cool down.  The Garden is a rough place for a tempo run, there's a hill in every mile that messes up with your pace.  I race the Garden ten miler pretty hard, so the fact that I'm getting about 40 seconds away from race pace is good enough for me.

After the tempo run I hopped on the bike and pedaled to work.

Been listening to a lot of Cracker lately.  Hoping they play the Front Range soon.  They have a lot of stuff as good or better than this song, but has there ever been a "one hit wonder" to stand the test of time like this one?

January

Fairly decent month.  251.23 miles running on 40 runs (49:42:54), with 42341 feet of climbing.  30.5 miles hiking on 13 hikes (10:02:15), 7638 feet of vert.

I’ve never tracked climbing before, but my watch does it automatically.  Combined running/hiking gave me 49979 feet.  Guess I should have walked up and down the front steps a few times to get to fifty thou.

Separating the running and hiking, hoping this helps me concentrate on improving the hiking part of my Hardrock attempt.  Back in my Infantry days the standard was a 12 mile hike with a 50 pound pack in three hours.  Hard to keep that pace nowadays even without the weight as the terrain I hike on is quite different than the paved roads back in Texas we would march on.  Really have no method of separating a run from a hike – some Incline days have me logging the workout as a hike (usually when I come straight back down the Incline) and other days have me putting it in as a run (when I run down Barr Trail).  And some running days are more hiking than running.  The dog is a big winner for the logged hikes, as she loves the slower pace.  Gets to chase more squirrels and sniff more stuff.

Eleven non-truck commutes to work (Ryan is at ZERO!) and eleven trips up the Incline.  Well on the way to 100 in both those categories.

Haven’t done the long runs to prepare me for Mt. Mitchell, but that won’t stop me.  Actually felt quite good for my two six hour efforts, at the FoCo and PP fat asses.  Judging from the conditions of the course, it’s not going to be much of a run anyways.

Super Sunday

First up was the second annual Super Half.  Tim has done a real good job making this into a fun way to kick off Super Sunday.  My goal was to keep every mile just under seven minutes.  And I did, save for mile 11 where I stopped to drink a beer.  1:30:23, nothing blazing but I was happy to run that with minimal effort.  Had I been paying attention I could have easily snuck in under 90.  Here's the post run group shot:

Big scandal was whether or not I beat a 13 year old girl.  Do you go by who crosses the line first, or by chip timing?  Normally I'm an old school guy and you go by whoever finishes first.  But for yesterday, I'm all about technology.  See the pic here.

I didn't watch one second of the big game, or any of the commercials.  But I did meet up with the annual anti-super bowl runners.  I've done three of the four of these, missing the year the Steelers were playing, and I've kept up my streak of DNF's.  As usual, I only made it to No Name Creek.  But I'm in all the pictures and FB posts, so luckily most people think I made it.

Saturday

Solid long-ish run yesterday, 17 miles in 2:15.  Included a stop at the two mile Nielsen Challenge where I ran 12:41.

After that, $100 and I headed north to meet Ryan K and hit up the American Mountaineering Museum in Golden.  Pretty cool place, definitely worth checking out if you're in the area.  If I lived closer I'd join the American Alpine Club just to use the library there.

While in Golden we also hit a new burger joint, Bob's Atomic Burgers (I'll be back!), revisited one of my favorite breweries, Golden City, and hit up the newest brewery in town - Cannonball Creek.  Golden is slated to open four new breweries in 2013!  Cannonball Creek sits near the 7-11 that everyone stops at on their way to Golden Gate Canyon, so I'll definitely be stopping there on my way home from the Dirty Thirty this year.

Then it was off to Denver to celebrate stout month at another new brewery for me - the Vine Street Pub.  Timko had been facebook stalking me all day and finally caught up here.

Of course, no trip to Denver is complete without dropping by the best bar in the world, Sancho's Broken Arrow.  Cheap booze and the most fantastic jukebox of all time.

All this, and it was 60F.  In February.  Great way to blow a Saturday here on the front range.

Commute #11

Nice morning for a bike ride.  Even warmer for the ride home.  Bike commuters are the happiest.  But I had my happy moment somewhat ruined by noticing those Portland peeps didn't include run commuters in their study.

Incline #'s 10 & 11

Thurs PM - One last time up the Incline while it's still technically illegal.  Good turnout, here's the group pic back at Kinfolk's courtesy of Amy P:

Back at it this morning at 4:30.  Technically it was still illegal since it was before dawn and I took the dog, but whatever.  I ain't gonna let the man hold me down!  When I got back to the bottom Mountain Man Steve was setting up for the grand opening at 7AM and there were news crews there.

Commute #10

Easy 10K to work, 54 minutes.

The Incline will be officially legal at midnight on February 1st (I'm sure you've received an e-mail asking for money already; the Incline Friends are about to replace Quinn's as the most annoying pseudo-running club out there).  We'll be having one last illegal Incline Happy Hour on Thursday, then O'Day and I will have the 4:20 club head out early Friday morning.  Hixon and my dog might be the first illegal dogs to bag the Incline.

Incline #9

Beautiful morning on the Incline.  About two inches of fresh snow over there, less than what I shoveled off the sidewalk at the house.  Incline up, Barr Trail down, four miles.

Monday

AM - Easy seven miles to Manitou and back, 60 minutes.

PM - Red Mountain with BLOS, Vega, and the dog.  Four miles, 50 minutes.

the week that was

Pretty decent week.  58 miles running and another 13 hiking.

Eight times up the Incline so far this year, including four times this week.  Might be the most I've ever done that hill in a single week.

Looks like a fun week coming up.  Thursday is the last illegal Incline Happy Hour, as the Incline becomes legal on Feb 1st.  $100 and I are going to take a trip to the American Mountaineering Museum in Golden on Saturday.  Sunday morning is the Super Half Marathon and the anti-Super Bowl run up to Barr Camp in the afternoon.

Winter Series II

Decent first half, hit the four mile mark in about 27 minutes.  Then I had to go significantly off course to find a nice, private place to drop a deuce.  Big shoutout to the homeless guy who left behind a new roll of TP.  Garmin shows that I ran a mile and took a dump in 8:54 which isn't too shabby.  8.3 miles, 59 minutes.

Happy Anniversary!

25 years ago today was one of the greatest moments in all of sports!



Really wish Pitt would go back to those old script uniforms.

Commute #9

Changed a flat tire and road a bike to work today.  Boom.  Plus, I took some EPO and got an extra pint of blood squished into my veins.

Incline #7

From the office over to the Incline and back down to Kinfolk's.  Three hours, 13.1 miles.  Ran out of gas about a quarter ways up the big hill.  Was rewarded for the effort with a free PBR at Kinfolk's.

another book

Been on the library wait list since this book came out, got it right before Lance's big date with Oprah.  If I cared about bike racing I'd be a lot more disgusted.  Hopefully this kind of BS never happens in the distance running world.

I'm not a big fan of cheaters, but something in me finds it awesome that Jan Ullrich has made a living off doping:

This post will probably come back to haunt me once Tony and Peter have their beards busted for doping...

Commute #8

AM - Easy run to work.  40 minutes, 4.8 miles.  Flat tire on the bike, so we'll see if I can somehow get that changed by tomorrow morning to keep my dreams of a new bike alive...

Wed

AM - Nice hike with $100 and the dog up the steep part of Section 16.  33 minutes to the top.  3.2 miles round trip.

PM - Easy run to the Top of the W's with the dog.  34 minutes up, 60 minutes round trip.

Incline #6/Garden Tempo

AM - 4:20 Incline with O'Day, Pev, and the dog.  Saw Roger Austin, who did the Incline 371 times in 2012, headed up for his 33rd trip of 2013.  He's going for 500 this year.

PM - Nice tempo run in the Garden.  One mile warm up, four miles hard, 1.4 miles cool down.  Hit the four tempo miles in 7:43, 7:19, 6:17, and 6:21.  All equal efforts due to the terrain of the Garden.

Inspired by GZ's recent track meet at Detroit International, I am going to buy a beer for the person who posts the fastest airport mile to Strava this calendar year.  Must be indoors.  Winner will also get a private performance from Manitou's newest boy band:

Ultra Performance of 2013

The race for that award is over.  Nothing will top this.

Incline #5/Red Mountain

AM - The dog and I cleaned up the Fat Ass flags from Red Rock Canyon and the Intemann Trail.  6.7 miles in 97 minutes.

PM - 10.8 miles, three hours, including my fifth trip of the year up the Incline and Red Mountain.

Fat Ass

Posted the Fat Ass results over on Pikes Peak Sports.  Good times yesterday!  Thanks to everyone who came out to enjoy some great weather on our great trails.

Commute #7

Bike to work Friday.

Then got a nice hike around Prospect Lake over lunch.  Didn't even get stabbed.

O'Day and I went out to mark the final four or so miles of the Fat Ass last night.  Saturday is going to be a great day to run!

Incline #4

Nice run from the house up the Incline and back down to Kinfolk's.  Will be a cold day in hell before I ever skip the Incline to watch Oprah.  Great turnout down in Manitou at the bar.

Fat Ass course gets marked today.  Sunny with a high of 56F forecasted for the Springs on Saturday!

Commute #6

AM - Quick 4.7 miles to work, 38 minutes.  Weather is a bit better today.

PM - 5.8 miles home along the Midland Trail.  Some dude was found dead near the place where this trail passes under I-25 on Sat night.  And that's not even the sketchy part of the trail.

Dude who left his dog up on Mt. Bierstadt has been sentenced.  Read about it here.  My dog says the guy got off way too easy.  She's not the only dog pissed off at the owner.

weekend miles

Saturday - Got the unlucky volunteer assignment of standing around outside.  After two hours I could barely move, so the Winter Series race didn't go very well.  6.9 miles, just under an hour.  Couldn't feel my feet until mile four.  Nice trails out at Cheyenne Mountain State Park, I'd go there more often if I didn't have to drive so far and pay $7.

Sunday - Fuck it was cold.  Low turnout at the Incline Club.  I managed to get in two hours before surrendering.  Intemann, Section 16, Red Rock Canyon.  10 miles.

Temps will be warming up though, including sunny and 50s for the Fat Ass on Saturday.  You definitely won't need any special traction to get to the 12ish mile aid station.  Might still be some ice after that on the Buckhorn/666 loop, but not much.

Hooked On Foniks Wurked For Me

I read a book!

Picked this up based just off what I heard the book was about - some dude goes on a cross country road trip to visit the places where a bunch of rock and roll folks died.  Sounded awesome.

And those parts were.  Unfortunately, the same dude can't seem to get over any chick who ever put her hand down his pants.  And he writes about them.  A lot.

The music parts were really good.  The girl parts kind of made the book drag on.  Nothing about this book changed my mind about reading being a waste of time.

Commute #5

Thought the roads were going to be a lot worse than they were, so early in the week I decided to run to work Friday.  Was actually quite nice out, though still a bit cold.  9.5 miles on the day to and from the office.

CRUD dreamin'

Man, I had the strangest dream last night.

Location: Colorado Springs.  But CS had a huge Mississippi-like river flowing through it.  And CS also had it's own NBA team.  Because me, Rick H, and Brandon S were down at the river catching frogs, which is just what folks here happened to do before NBA games.  And it was new year's eve.

Suddenly, a Navy gunship pulls up and opens fire.  We see the people they're shooting at, and it's Keith G, Mountain Man Steve, and John O from the Colorado Running Company.  Somehow we realize that those three are terrorists plotting to blow up the NBA stadium during the game that night.

The dream then cuts to Paul D's kitchen, which I've never been in.  I'm telling Paul about the plan of the three terrorists, and suddenly Steve is behind me.  A huge fight ensues.  Steve has magical ninja powers for this dream, and he's just whooping ass despite being heavily outnumbered.  I'm unable to join that fight as Cereta (Keith's wife in real life as well as this dream) is trying to take my iPad from me, because somehow the iPad holds proof of the bomb plot.  She's not involved in the plot but doesn't want her husband to go to jail.

I finally get control of the iPad just as Steve produces a gun.  But the gun seems to zap his ninja powers, as I somehow end up locking the gun and Steve's hand into one of the drawers on Paul's kitchen counter.  We then proceed to beat his ass.

I must have been moving around on the bed during all this, because as we were kicking Steve's teeth in the dog got annoyed and woke me up.

Weird.

I did see Steve at his house as I was finishing the Incline last night, so maybe that somehow factored into all this.  He gave no indication he was planning a terrorist plot, however.

Jackson Day 9K

It wasn't all drinking down in NOLA.  We visited the zoo and ran the Jackson Day 9K.  The rest of the trip was all drinking though.

The Jackson Day run is the seventh oldest race in the USA.  This was the 106th race.  By chance, I've run two older races - the Boston Marathon and the Run For The Diamonds 9 miler in Berwick, PA.

Despite being half drunk at the start, I ran pretty well.  Which should be expected at a race below sea level.  Rainy and cold, I started off at what I believed was a ten minute mile to warm up.  Hit the mile in 7:13.  I kept the same easy effort, taking in the sights (including pelicans flying overhead) and not caring at all about the race going on around me.  But I continued to pass a ton of people.  6:36, 6:25, 6:25, and 6:16 were the final miles, finishing the last .6 mile at a six flat pace.  That kind of run would crush me back in Colorado, in NOLA it just served to wake me up before we started bar crawling again.

Fun race, but it seems the weather cut the field in half.  And I did fail in my only goal - to find a bar on the course.  Every one I passed was closed.  One of the cooler things about the race for me was the fact that at the mile markers they didn't have a clock.  They had a volunteer with a stopwatch yelling out times.  Reminded me of my old cross-country days.

My garmin data for the race is here.  It's considered one of the hillier races in NOLA, twice going from one foot above sea level all the way up to four feet, and then raising all the way to eight feet above sea level at the finish.

Incline #3

From the house to the Incline and down Barr to the Cog.  7.3 miles, two hours.  Was really suffering on the Incline despite a snails pace.  Only three more illegal Incline Happy Hours left.  Next week we will be streaming the Lance interview at Kinfolk's.  You'll drink every time he mentions cancer.

Commute #4

Took advantage of the fairly decent weather to bike to work.  Still about froze my toes off, even with two pairs of socks.

Was supposed to be locked into a battle with Ryan K over who would commute to work the most this year, but it looks like the route is on.  Like all the other North CRUD sissies, it seems he can't handle a little bad weather.

Commute #3

AM - Easy 5.6 to work, 47 minutes.

PM - 7.9 miles home, 72 minutes.  Added the climb up Ridge Road.  It's sketch city running on the Midland Trail behind the Red Rock Lounge at night.

Barr Trail

Easy Tues night jog up and down Barr.  40 minutes up, then crushed it back down in 37.  5.4 miles.  Trail is pretty snow/ice free, though we're supposed to get a storm this weekend.

Incline #2

Weekly 4:20 edition of the Incline with the dog, O'Day, and the other dog (Hixon).  25F this morning, felt like a heat wave compared to what we've been dealing with lately.

Fat Ass

A bit short this year, clocking in at 25 miles.  See the beta over here.

Pikes!

crappy shoes/HR/Salida Marathon

Hard to tell from that pic, but I blew out a new-ish pair of Montrail.  Probably had 250 miles on 'em, half of which were easy dog walks or office miles at work.  Blech.

Posted a Hardrock blurb over at PikesPeakSports.us.

Info on the 2013 Salida Marathon is over here.

Commute #2

Easy 3.2 miles with the dog, then jumped on the bike and rode to work.  I don't own the right clothes to be biking in this weather, so I just rode as hard as I could and luckily made it before frostbite set in.  Felt like someone was hitting my fingers and toes with a hammer when I jumped into a hot shower.  About half an hour after I got out of the shower I checked the temp, and it was 7F.

Signed up for the Horsetooth Marathon (yes, they have a full marathon now) yesterday.  Bunch of miles in Mr. Clark's backyard trail system, then a finish line at New Belgium Brewing.  Hell yeah!

commute #1

Shooting for 100 in '13, both running and biking.  Got off on the right foot with a run to work.  5.7 miles there (52 minutes), 4.7 miles back (42 minutes).  If it ever gets above 20F again here in the Springs, I'll up that mileage on the run commute.

Rescue Run Pic

Nice shot of me around the five mile mark of the Rescue Run.  Thanks to PikesPeakSports.us for the pic.

I'll be blogging for those guys through Hardrock this year.  Probably not as much since I won't have the same high end contract as I had for the Triple Crown.  For the record, I believe I'm the highest paid 3:30 Ascent guy ever.

Incline #1

Shooting for 100 ascents of the Incline in '13.  Started the year off right by taking the dog up.  29F at the start, 19F when we finished.  Global warming my ass!

Rescue Run - The Winning Streak Is Over!

44:59 at the Rescue Run 10K this morning.  Really good for me considering the hangover and 19F temps at the start.  Steady effort, more of an easy tempo run than a race, but just the thing I was looking for to kick off the new year.