catching up

Had some friends in from Austin last weekend and had a blast catching up with them.  Showed them some of our mountain bike trails, some of our old breweries, and some of our new breweries.

Spent a lot of time hiking the dog.  I track my time/distance when I do this, but I bet she does at least twice as much when she's off leash.  Love tiring her out on the weekends.

On Sunday a buddy called me and asked if I wanted to tag along on a bike pub crawl.  Great time as we started at the Triple Nickel, pedaled over to Shuga's, dropped by Benny's, stopped at Front Range, and ended at Alchemy.  Stopped drinking around 8PM on Sunday and I was still hungover on Tuesday.

Good week on the workout front.  Some good rides, an Incline, a trip up Iron Mountain.  The cankle is not 100% but I'm not really worrying about it anymore.  Pretty much done with riding until Kanza, then I have a whole two weeks to whip myself into shape for San Juan.

$100 and I are off to Vegas tomorrow.  Going to do some running in Red Rock Canyon and Valley of Fire, and then visit some old haunts like the Double Down and Dino's.  We tried to get tix to see Brittney, but it seems she's on vacation.  We looked into seeing Jennifer Lopez instead, but we didn't have the desire to pay the asking price for tix.  Sorry, JLo, but if it's a rough weekend and you need someplace to stay, I'll be at the Golden Nugget.

So we got tix to see Absinthe instead.  No idea what it's about, but the wife is excited. 

incline #32

Really fallen off my Incline pace since the ankle incident.  Time to stop that.

Easy day, 37:31.

The graffitti that spawned a thousand negative facebook comments.  See the story here.  Some tool bag thought it would be cool to paint up the place.  Dude's name has been published and it won't be long before some testosterone filled crossfit dude kicks his ass.  I'm slightly more offended at this as when the Proxies of Ruxton Canyon  Incline Friends stole the "No Trespassing" sign and then charged $5 to get your picture taken with it.

whiskey #16

Leftover bottle from the old Two Guns Distillery in Leadville.  Terrible.  They charged $8 a drink at their Leadville bar.  Not surprisingly, they lasted less than a year before closing.

Tuesday

Great weekend with some visitors from Austin and some mountain biking and a lot of beers.  I'll get a post up about all that when time permits.

Commute 60 yesterday.  Might hit 500 biking miles on the month for May, probably my most ever.

Nice hour run on the Garden roads this morning.  Hoping to hit the Incline after work.

Some pics of the dog crushing it on our Sunday hike up Mt. Cutler:

Thursday

Had the day off work on Thursday and had big hopes for a 40ish mile ride.  The dog had other plans, as she guilted me into taking her over to Stratton Open Space for some hiking.  Four miles for me, at least six for the dog.

Did get a shorter ride in, as I showed some friends visiting from Austin Red Rock Canyon.  This Hop Ivy from Ska is friggin' delicious.

Wednesday

Nice seven miler through the Garden this morning.  Looks like the snow came all the way down to 9000 feet or so.  Gazette reports that the summit of Pikes got another foot.

These guys came down to the five mile mark to cheer me on.

Tuesday

Been raining here in the Springs the past few days.  Snowing higher up.  Only saw Pikes once since Sunday morning and she had quite a bit of new snow on her.

Rest day Monday.  Body needed it.  Good hike with the dog in the Garden in the AM.  PM, got outside for the hash, was nice to get back there as I rarely show up anymore.  More beers drank than miles ran, always a good sign at the hash.

Two runs on Tuesday.  Morning run on the Benny's Loop (down Pikes Peak Ave and back on the Midland trail) as I couldn't hit the track due to the weather.  Evening hour run on the Garden roads.

Florence Brewing

After finishing my ride I packed up and headed to the newest local brewery, Florence Brewing.  Frankly, I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised.  I always went to Royal Gorge Brewing when I was in Canon City, just because it was the only brewery in town, but Florence will be my go-to from now on as their beer is much better.  Note: unlike Royal Gorge, these guys don't have food.

Had the Citizen IPA, the Alpine Loop, and the Arkansas Amarillo Amber and then brought all those beers home with me.

Think this was my 129th Colorado brewery.

Gold Belt

Snuck away this past weekend for one last long ride before Kanza.  Bolted Friday after work for Oil Well Flats down in Canon City.  Not very crowded and I slept in the Jeep for my third night out of 2016.

Phone cameras never do the sunset any justice, but it was a beautiful night.

The plan was to get up early and get on the bike, but it was friggin' cold at 6AM.  So I sat around a while, drinking coffee and waiting for things to warm up a bit.  Around 9AM I began the Gold Belt loop, which travels dirt roads from Canon up to Cripple Creek, through Victor, then back down to Canon via Phantom Canyon. 

Most of the hard work is in the first 20 miles, which climbs 4000 feet up Shelf Road to Cripple Creek.

Of course after all that work I felt I deserved a reward.  Ralf's was open so I dropped by there for a PBR.  Only $2!

From Cripple Creek it's another decent climb to get to Victor.

It's only 7 miles from Ralf's, so I didn't really deserve another reward, but I had one anyways.  Victor is pretty much abandoned, but the bar was fancy, especially since the name of the bar is the Blue Collar Speakeasy.  And they had a $10 minimum on plastic, so I had to add another brew and some cheese sticks to get to the magic number.

The work is pretty much over at this point.  The downhill bomb through Phantom Canyon is a blast, but you do need to pay attention as the road is pretty bumpy in places and it could be easy to lose control of the bike at the speeds you're going.

After completing the loop (it was about 68 miles) I got some bonus training on the technical portions of Oil Well Flats.  Fun fun.

Ended up with 72 miles in 7:40.  Strava data is over here.

And after all that work, I ended up right back where I started.

Fourmile

Right after work last Friday we bolted for Fourmile Recreation Area down in Chaffee County.  Found a place to set up camp near Browns Canyon National Monument and set about doing every stereotypical Colorado outdoorsey activity you can imagine.  Definitely plan on exploring Fourmile a bit more in the near future, especially since I can get to Trout Creek Pass in a little over an hour.

Hiking in the national monument was awesome as well.  There is a trail called River Bench that ends with a great view of the Arkansas river, and I plan to return here soon with a sixer of First Cast IPA from nearby Elevation Beer Company.  Just a spot that inspires you to drink good, local brews.

Incline #31

Overslept, so couldn't get over to Cheyenne Canon on Thursday AM, just went an easy five on the Garden roads instead.  Headed over to the Incline after work for trip #31.  38:50, felt a lot slower.  Ankle still gives me fits going downhill, now four weeks after I injured it.

Semi-Rad seems to be getting more and more into the short film business.  Which is awesome.  Warning: you will want to go adopt a dog after watching this.



We had a showing last night and the film was well received by this audience.

Leadville

After finishing Collegiate Peaks we headed up to pay a visit to Leadville.

One of the dog's favorite places in the world is the frisbee golf/fitness course behind Colorado Mountain College.  She goes apeshit up there, especially if there's snow.  Even after hiking for four plus hours with $100 while I was running, she got to this area and wouldn't stop.

I've kind of gotten over the whole Leadville thing.  Used to love going there, but the locals just treat anyone who wasn't born and raised there like shit.  I get it that the ultra distance crowd, both bikers and runners, have basically become the same kind of people as the triathlete crowd and thus highly unlikable.  But I'm a guy who has spent considerable time in places such as the Manhattan and the Scarlet.  I can have a conversation that doesn't include topics such as heart rate or gu or MAF or drop bags or Born To Run (note: I do still have the capacity to do this, as Shad and I have been talking GPS watches and wrist based HR monitoring all morning via e-mail).  I don't expect to be treated like royalty, but don't go out of your way to be an asshole to me.  We used to go up to Leadville several times during the summer to eat/drink/sleep/play, but nowadays we just drive half an hour less to Salida or Buena Vista since they treat us tourists so much better there.

Anywho, there is a new brewery in town.  Periodic Brewing.  It's in the old Rosie's building.  I always got the idea that Rosie's existed just to say they had the highest brewery in the country and making good beer was a very distant second to that idea.  Not the case with this new place.  I had three beers (the Matchless IPA, the Powerline Black IPA, and the Beetlekill Brown) and they were all tasty.  Pints were reasonably priced, think they were $5 which is standard for Colorado.  And the bartenders were friendly with the customers.  Good beer, nice people, fair price, maybe this place will make it.

They told me there is a new brewery slated to open this summer down near the Silver Dollar.

quarters

8 x 400m, 200m RBI.  Much better this week.  93 for the first one, then the rest were all sub 90.  Including 85, 84, and 82 to close.  Those are three of the fastest quarters I've run in a long time.  My track speed is rounding into form just in time for the olympic trials!

Awesome two hour ride coming home from work yesterday.  Cheyenne Canon, Upper Columbine, Spring Creek, Gold Camp, Red Rock Canyon.

whiskey #14 & #15

After finishing Collegiate Peaks I took proper recovery actions by immediately heading to Deerhammer Distilling Company only a quarter mile from the finish line.  Sampled both of their whiskies (also tried the gin as well) and it was all delicious.  The Down Time is up there in Stranahan territory.

Collegiate Peaks

Gimped my way through the 25 miler at Collegiate Peaks on Saturday.  A combination of a weak ankle and general lack of fitness for the longer distances put me about half an hour behind where I was hoping to finish, crossing the line in 4:55.  Very up and down race,  had some good moments and some bad moments.  Boyak ran steady as always, and I kept bouncing ahead and behind of him all day.  Got to catch up with quite a few folks I hadn't seen in a while, and that was great.

Despite the slow time and the suffering I endured the last ten miles of the race, I did feel I could have turned around and done the course again.  So the San Juan Solstice is a go.

quarterly update

Already a quarter of the way through the year.

Running - 680 miles

Biking - 1300 miles

Hiking - 100 miles (basically, anything that allows me to get the dog off leash)

Incline - 30

Whiskey - 13

Little bit behind on the running goals, little bit ahead on the biking goals.  Such is life when you're old like me and get injured all the time.

Should get my Incline goal fairly easily, especially now that the weather is improving.

And the whisky number should start climbing as I start traveling more.

incline #30

Thurs AM - Three weeks to the day, I returned to the scene of the accident.  Cheyenne Canon.  Ran jogged it fine up to the High Drive cutoff.  Wasn't pretty coming back down, but I made it.  Think next Thursday I will start up the Mt. Muscoco climbs. 

Thurs PM - Got to 29 inclines real fast, then it took a while to get to 30.  45:24, not too horrible considering I took it pretty easy as to not jack up the cankle anymore.  Hurt a lot more coming down Barr than it did climbing up.  Might be the last afternoon incline with the dog as the warm weather is bringing out the crowds.

Not going to lie, even though I publicly went with a goal of 50 inclines, I was shooting for 100.  Then I found out the Incline would be closed for a few months.  Then I missed three weeks due to injury.  So yeah, like I said, 50 for the year seems about right.

Fri AM - 1000 feet for breakfast up Rampart Range Road.  Beautiful morning.  My camera sucks in the dawn light but it's fantastic to see the sunrise over the Garden.

whiskey #13

Henry McKenna Single Barrel Bourbon.  This is the last in the "Jeremy" series, so the quality, or at least the price, of the whiskey will probably take a nose dive.

update

Starting to add some activity back to the schedule.  The ankle isn't 100%, but at least now I would label it as "discomfort" as opposed to "pain."  Still planning on running the Collegiate Peaks 25 miler this Saturday.  Should be interesting as the last time I ran more than ten miles was back at Salida in March.  But I'm in the JV race, so even if I have to hike the last 20 miles at least I won't have to feel guilty about making the volunteers waste the day, as I should still beat some of the 50 milers.  I'll make a decision on San Juan Solstice based off how the ankle holds up during CP.

I've also realized that Dirty Kanza is coming up really, really fast.  I should probably get on the bike between now and then.

Saturday - Was going to jump into a 5K but during my morning hike with the dog the ankle just wasn't feeling right.  So I took the fat bike out in the shitty weather for three hours on the Cheyenne Canon trails instead.

Sunday - 10K run, longest I've gone since busting the ankle.  Then I got on the bike for an easy two hours of local hike and bike trails.  $100 and I went to hot yoga that evening and I was able to push the ankle a bit during the balancing routines.

Monday - Now that Spring is here I have changed my usual 20F temperature to 30F, meaning I don't work out if the temp is below that.  Got up early to ride on Monday, but it was friggin' 26F, so I went to the gym instead.  Warmed up, and I was able to ride home via Cheyenne Canon for another two hour ride.  Monday was bike commute #50 on the year.

Tuesday - Track!  6 x 400m.  Very slow, the ankle wasn't the happiest it's been but I wanted to test things out.  Later, another two hour ride on the way home from work.