Run Commute 13

Sunday AM - four mile Garden hike with the dog, followed by eleven miles on the trails of the Garden and Red Rock Canyon.

Sunday PM - quick trip to Accolade before CorePower.

Monday - run commute 12.  4.2 miles to work, 4.4 miles home.  35th trip of the year to CityRock.

Tuesday - bike commute 11, CityRock 36.  Went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival in the evening and it was awesome.

Wednesday - three mile hike with the dog followed by run commute 13.  Good climbing session at lunch.

Salida is coming up on Saturday and as usual I'm super excited for a great weekend.  Looking at five hours to finish the marathon given my current state of fitness.  Will likely run well for 18 miles or so, then slog it out to the finish.

Pic of the dog in White Acres today.  She is super excited for Salida as well.

week in review

All around good week.  The numbers never pop out when you're trying to fit five activities in every week, but I feel the fitness is coming around.  Definitely feel much better physically than if I was just banging out 70 mile running weeks.

Run - 22 miles
Bike - 34 miles
Hike - 20 miles
CityRock - four trips
Accolade - twice

Started up Adult Bouldering League again.  Thursday nights.  My third time doing this, and this is the first time I'm not the worst climber in the class, so I have that going for me.

Finally got the van out in '18, heading down to Oil Well Flats after work on Friday.  Five hour hike on Saturday AM, followed by 70 minutes on the fat bike.  Had to head back to the Springs on Saturday, but that meant we could meet up with a bunch of folks at Trails End in the evening.  Such a great day!

February

Good month.  Lots of hours doing stuff, ticking off the days before we head off on the Colorado Trail.  We are already worried about the lurking fire danger this summer.

Biking - 176 miles, 18 hours
Running - 146 miles, 28.5 hours
Hiking - 60 miles, 21.5 hours
CityRock - 14 trips
Accolade - 6 trips

Signed up for the JFK 50.  Other than Pikes, I hope it's the last big race I sign up for.  Besides some smaller local races, here's the rest of the year:

March 4 - Pueblo Ten Miler
March 10 - Salida Marathon
May 20 - Colfax Marathon
June 2/3 - Elephant Rock
Aug 18/19 - Pikes
Sep 22 - Royal 50
Nov 17 - JFK 50

Another trip is shaping up for March as we will be bringing back the Tour de Left Hand.  Leaving from Red Leg Brewing on Friday, March 23, we will ride up to Golden, crash for the night, then finish the trek to Left Hand's Hops & Handrails early on Saturday.  Of course there will be lots of breweries along the way.

Matisyahu

Sunday - Pretty hungover from a late trip to Fossil but I still got in a nice four mile hike with the dog over at White Acres and my eighth trip up the Incline this year.  If that wasn't enough, the wife goaded me into a trip to Accolade (16).

Sunday evening was the Matisyahu show at the Black Sheep.  Pretty good time despite it being on a school night.

Monday - Not much, pretty tired from the show.  3.7 mile bike to work, 11 miles home.  Bike commute nine.

Tuesday - Three mile hike with the dog, then run commute 11.  4.2 miles to work, 4.4 miles back home.  CityRock 31 at lunch.

Wednesday - 2.8 mile hike with the dog, then bike Commute ten.  Four miles to CityRock in the AM.

incline 7

Broke my streak of laziness on Friday evening with a trip up the Incline.  Despite the recent snow and chilly weather the Incline was in pretty decent shape.  Sure got a bit chilly coming down Barr Trail though.

Saturday - 20 mile run on the Midland, Santa Fe, Sinton, and Garden.  Windy AF.

accolade 15

This arctic weather has crushed my motivation to do anything but sit on the couch.  Did get to Accolade for some weights on Thursday morning.  Got on the treadmill for a planned 30 minutes, but it was one of those days where the 'mill just mentally crushed me and I only ended up doing 20 minutes.

Things sort of warmed up on Thursday afternoon, so I got the dog out for an hour hike in the Garden.

After that it was off to Bristol Brewing to see the Lil Smokies.  Great show.  We also hit up Trails End before the gig to try the Upslope Experimental IPA.  Delicious and I can't wait until cans hit the liquor stores in early March.

run commute 10/CityRock 30

Monday - had off work for President's Day.  Hungover, but I managed to get the dog out for two hours in Stratton Open Space.  Recovered later in the day for a good hour at CityRock and an hour of hot yoga.  Glad I got the dog some exercise, since a blast of arctic air blew in Monday evening.

Tuesday - I got up to take the dog out and it was 6F.  Oof.  She hates those low temps as much as I do.  I shoveled the walks, and ran to work, run commute ten.  Took me 40 minutes to get to the office and I was worried about frostbite on my fingers and toes.  Hit CityRock at lunch, took the bus home after work.

Wednesday - woke up to this:

No thanks.  I went back to bed.  Threw some weights around in the home gym before driving to work.  Did have a good CityRock session (30) at lunch, and it warmed up enough to get the dog out for a 40 minute walk when I got home.

cup 'o dirt #1

Took advantage of the warm weather to sneak in a February cup 'o dirt ride.  Hit my go-to gravel ride, north on the Santa Fe trail.  The wind beat me ragged on the way up, but after the halfway point at Pikes Peak Brewing things got a bit better.  6.5 hours in the saddle.

I'm writing a haiku for all my submissions to the cup 'o dirt page.

North was all windy
Thank god for Pikes Peak Brewing
Damn was this a slog

run commute 9/CityRock 25

4.5 mile run to work.  Threw in some 3 minutes on/2 minutes off.  The hard parts were interrupted by a charging dog and a long red light.  Then a terrible four mile run home that I walked a good chunk of.

Week has been all messed up with $100 out of town.  So now everyday it's at least two hours with the dog.  Which is awesome, but it brings down the time available for running and biking.

I've been spending a lot of time at this wall at CityRock the last few weeks.  There is a tan V2 problem at the right that I struggled with at first, but I eventually got it down where I could do laps.  Which would crush me, but it definitely brought a lot of improvement.  I had been working on the green V3 on the right damn near every day, and I feel I was about to get it.  But then I came into the gym Thursday morning and they had completely stripped the wall.  New problems going up.  Such is life when you're a gym climber.

bike commute 7

Friday was winter bike to work day.  Nice enough for shorts.  Got in a four mile Garden run with $100 and the dog, then rode 6.7 miles to work.  Free coffee and donuts at the popcycle bridge!  Here's a shot of my arrival from Fixie Dave:

Not much physical activity over the weekend due to Manitou Mardi Gras and a trip to Denver on Sunday.  I ended up hitting five breweries on Sunday: Grandma's, Chain Reaction, Black Project, Livin' The Dream, and Pikes Peak.

run commute 7/accolade 13

Wednesday - 3.5 mile Garden hike with the dog, followed by a 4.2 mile run to work.  CityRock (21) at lunch.  4.4 mile run home.

Thursday - Almost slept in instead of dragging my ass over to Cheyenne Canon.  But I won't be doing much on the exercise front this weekend due to Manitou Mardi Gras, so I figured I better not slack off today.  6.3 mile run up the Canon followed by a good weight room session.

Accolade 12

Monday - pretty wrecked from the half.  Easy 5k morning hike with the dog, followed by the four mile bike to work.  Good CityRock lunch workout.  4.5 miles back home on the fat bike.  Then an hour of hot yoga with $100.

Tues - sub 20F when I got up so I went to Accolade.  Half hour of throwing around weights and half an hour on the stationary bike.

Signed up for another round of Adult Bouldering League at CityRock.  Starts March 1st.  It will be close, but this might be the first time I'm not the worst climber of the bunch.  I have also committed to heading outside, hope to be hitting Shelf Road the first weekend in May.

Super Half

Was really wanting to go sub 90 at the race.  Somewhat behaved myself on Saturday to avoid a hangover, and was feeling good at the start line as it was sunny and over 40F.  And then things went to shit very quickly.  Not with me, but with the weather.  Got super cold.  After the race when I got back to the car, it was 19F.  I'm way too weak and old to push in those conditions. 

Good first half - I was right on 90 minute pace for 5.5ish miles.  But the dropping temps had my legs feeling tight and my motivation disappeared very quickly.  Wasn't a total disaster, I would stay around 7:15 pace from 5.5 through nine miles, then I went 7:39, 7:21, 7:45 (which included stopping for a beer), and 7:36.  Lots of folks went by me in those miles.  The bitter cold caused me to slow down, and for a lot of others it caused them to speed up as they wanted to be done.  I didn't crush the last mile, but with Amanda somewhere behind me I went 7:09 to get the cheap win.  Official finish time was 1:34:41.

So a good tempo for 5.5 miles, a much slower tempo for the rest of the day.  Wish this race was on Saturday, when I rode around bike trails and side streets for 40 miles in shorts.

One last shot to go sub 90 at Platte River.  After that I'll need to start being happy with sub 95.

January

Pretty good month of doing shit.  And by doing shit, I mean getting out there and doing a little bit of everything.

Running - 150 miles, 30 hours
Biking - 123 miles, 16 hours
Hiking - 85 miles, 33 hours
Accolade - nine trips
CityRock - 17 trips

I am a huge fan of the Dirtbag Diaries, and their latest annual year of big ideas really resonated with me.  Fitz talked about finding joy in being mediocre, and it hit home for me since that's where I've been for a while.  I really love getting after it everyday, but as far as big events go, I don't get excited to hurt anymore.  So I've unofficially adopted what Fitz called "joyous mediocrity" as my new slogan.

That being said, here are the goals for the rest of the year.

Running - JFK 50 miler
Biking - Cup 'o Dirt Challenge
Hiking - CO Trail
Climbing - climb outside once

None of those will require a whole lot of training for me, especially since I have no time goals.  Which is awesome, because it opens up more time to explore the area by van.

And I'm thankful I have the opportunity to do the shit I do.  Not everyone is so lucky.  I spent the last week counting the homeless population down here.  Here's a shot of me utilizing my mad slackline skills to keep my feet dry.

track/bike commute 5/V3

Mon AM - 23F this morning, almost went to Accolade instead of the track, but I drug myself up the hill for 8 x 200m.  Untimed, but there was a bit of pain for such a short distance.

Then a quick four mile ride to work.

Hit CityRock over lunch and did one of the new V3 problems.  My first V3 in a long time and I think only my third ever.

Ten mile ride home.

Had to make an airport run, so $100 and I stopped by the new Dueces Wild Brewing.  Pretty good IPA.

week in review

Running - low week with only 23 miles.

Hiking - 13 miles, all either OCC or the Garden with the dog.

Biking - 50 miles.  Including an awesome ride on Saturday from Smiling Toad to Fossil via Bear Creek Park and Red Rock Canyon.

Three trips to Accolade, three trips to CityRock.

Pretty easy week, low mileage due to dogsitting and needing to tend to those guys instead of racking up junk miles.

Good day on Sunday (I start my weeks on Sunday).  7.5 mile run in the Garden in the morning, then we took the pups up to the Lovell Gulch loop in Woodland Park.  Also hit Accolade and CorePower in the PM.

Send it in Jerome!

AM - Cheyenne Canon run, 6.4 miles, followed by Accolade.

Awesome lunch workout at CityRock.

Hasn't been much to cheer about this season for Pitt hoops, but at least we'll always have one of the single greatest sports moments ever (which celebrates it's 30th anniversary today):



Bro-in-law was up in Denver, so $100 and I met him at Declaration Brewing.  Good place.  And right now six packs are buy one get one half off.

bike commute 3

Hour hike with the dog in the Garden before a quick 3.6 mile ride to CityRock.  14 mile ride back home.

Caught this article on the local news today about a guy biting a dog.  A police dog.  The last paragraph was a classic:

"He bit the dog, the dog bit him, he ended up getting Tasered," Lt. Jason Killary of the Boscawen Police Department told Reuters. "If you get into a biting competition with a police dog, you're not going to win. They're pretty good at that."

run commute 12/Phish @ Dick's

Chilly this morning, but I ran anyways.  4.3 miles to work along the Midland Trail, with some 90 on 90 off repeats.

CityRock at lunch.

Easy 4.4 miles home, 41 minutes.

I told $100 that maybe we would need some time away after our thru-hike, which gave her a good excuse to allow me a solo trip to the Phish three day run at Dick's this Labor Day.  Every year since 2012 I have said I was going to go back, and I always pussed out, but not this year!  I am in the ticket lottery not only for a three day pass and camping, but an RV pass as well!

Every now and then someone shares this to my FB page.  And then they become my ex-friend because I don't need people like that in my life.

sun/mon

Sunday - bit hungover from post Fat Ass beers, a trip to Red Leg, and a late night at Murphy's.  Got the dog out for a four mile hike through the snow in the Garden.  And later in the day I took the fat bike out in Red Rock Canyon for two hours before an hour of hot yoga.

Monday - 15F when I got up.  Took the dog around the block and headed to Accolade.  30 minutes of weights, 30 minutes on the treadmill.  As much as I hate running on the treadmill I have to admit I always get a good workout on the thing.  Wanted to do something after work but I got super lazy and watched college hoops instead.

week in review

Good week with a little bit of everything.  Highlighted by the fat ass, which for me was 14 miles with quite a bit of climbing. 

Run - 37.5
Ride - 10 miles
Hike - 23.4
One trip to Accolade, one trip to CorePower, three trips to CityRock.

run commute 4

Odd commute on Thursday.  Had to drop $100 off at the airport later in the day, so I ran to CityRock.  Then she picked me up at the office and I dropped her off, so no run home.  Did get the dog out for a jog/hike in Red Rock Canyon in the evening.

run commute 3

Early morning three mile hike with the dog followed by 5.5 miles to work through Sondermann Park, including a few two on, two off.  Easy four mile run home.

Lunch trip to CityRock.  Besides climbing, I'm doing the chassis integrity stuff from Mountain Tactical, making sure the core will be ready for the CO Trail this summer.

CityRock 9

7F when I woke up on Tuesday.  Not too psyched to work out when even the dog doesn't want to go outside.  So I just drove to the climbing gym for a longer than normal session.  Definitely seeing some improvement in the climbing, as I'm having a much easier time with the V2's.

Nothing after work.  Though it was productive as I picked out my 2018 caveman mug at Fossil.

long weekend

Saturday - early morning track session.  4 x 400m (averaging 93), 2 x 800m (averaging 3:10).  Nothing great, but at least I got there.  After that it was off to the PPRR Winter Series to use the fatbike to haul water to the aid station.  Six miles of goofing off on the bike.

Sunday - big hike with the dog and my 50 pound pack.  Wanted to summit Mt. Rosa, which I thought was a ten mile hike.  But when we got five miles out, I could see the summit was at least another 1.5 miles away.  I was pretty crushed from the weight and climbing so we turned around.  Still got in 10.5 miles, 5.5 hours.

Monday - a little bit of everything.  Started by taking a lighter pack out with the dog to Stratton Open Space.  6.5 miles, just over two hours.  Chilly outside, so I then hit Accolade (five).  30 minutes of weights, 30 minutes on the treadmill, 30 minutes on the stationary bike.  Later that evening $100 drug me to hot yoga.

incline 4

Wednesday - 3.2 mile AM hike with the dog, followed by a trip to CityRock.  Our washer shit the bed so I needed to drive today in case the repair dude could come by.  Thankful for the easy day as once again the Tuesday mountain tactical workout crushed my legs.

Thursday - 6.4 miles up and down Cheyenne Canon.  Very slow as there was lots of ice.  Trip to Accolade for some lifting right after.  CityRock (8) at lunch.

Friday - Early morning 2.8 mile hike with the dog followed by a good workout at Accolade (4).  After work it was a solo trip up the incline while working my way through that last killer Mule show.

2017/2018

Ended up meeting most of my 2017 numbers goals, barely.

Went over 2000 miles on my last run, and over 3000 miles on my last ride.

Slightly below my Accolade goal, but way above on the CityRock goal.

Just missed beating the 2016 Incline count.  41 in '16, 39 in '17.

I did smash the '16 number of nights outside (15), sleeping either in a tent or the van 27 times.  Still short of the magical month though.

I have one last Mule show to listen to, and the band made it count as their new years eve show is four hours long.  My Phish subscription ran out in mid-December, and they haven't been touring much so I didn't renew.  Somehow I'll find a way to listen to their Garden run soon.

Top two adventures of the year for me were the bikepacking trip with Kircher and the Rito Alto four pass loop.  Tied for next would have been any of the van trips with $100 and the dog.

-----

Really looking forward to 2018.  No numbers.  No big running or biking goals.  It's all about the Colorado Trail.  And fitness isn't the issue there - the big thing was growing the balls to tell my boss that I was going to take two months off, and that's already done.  I'm signed up for two races - Salida and Colfax.  Will probably continue to jump into some of the shorter local stuff.  Going to double at Pikes again, which will happen right after we finish our hike.  Signing up for the JFK 50 miler later in the year (just to finish an ultra and jump start my 50 states quest).  But for the most part it's going to be heading outside for very slow miles with the wife and the dog.

run commute 2

5K early morning hike in the Garden with the dog.  40F at 5AM, summer can't be far away (we would end up matching the recorded high of 68F later on Tueaday)!  Then 4.2 miles, with a bit of two on, two off, to the office.

Good CityRock session at lunch.

Easy 4.2 miles back home.  Was so warm out I took the dog out for another Garden 5K hike.

Colorado Trail

$100 and I have at least started chatting about a timetable for the Colorado Trail.  Extremely tentative, and guaranteed to change, dates are June 23 to July 31.

39 days total, with 32 of those hiking.  Zero days in Bailey, Breck, Leadville, Salida (two days), Creede or Lake City, Silverton, and then ending with some days in Durango and Pagosa Springs.

I am tracking this on a google calendar.  If you'd like to be added, just let me know.  We are planning on doing this alone, but we definitely welcome any company or assistance (pizza and beer) on the trail.

bike commute 2

Early morning hour hike with the dog, 2.8 miles.  Then a quick four mile ride to CityRock for some morning bouldering.  14 mile ride home via Santa Fe, Sinton, and the Garden.

I forgot to mention that during yoga on Sunday there was an elderly, probably 60+, lady who was rocking a "Straight Outta Compton" t-shirt.

Incline 1, 2, & 3

Saturday - Met up with Team CRUD in Manitou and did two trips up the Incline.

Sunday - Mike H was in town, so we did an early Incline.

Good week for me.  34 miles running, 22 hiking, and eight on the bike.

Busy weekend with the Mike H visit and a sleepover with Moose (Marc & Amanda's dog).  Caught Mike at Goat Patch Brewing before heading to the Josh Blue show on Saturday.  On Sunday it was the early Incline and then a trip up to Woodland Park with the dogs to hike the Lovell Gulch trail.

Hung out with $100 the rest of Sunday, as we hit Accolade and CorePower.  To cancel out all this healthy activity we hit Red Leg and Trinity on the way home.

CityRock 4

Had planned to hit Accolade this morning, and even after a later than expected trip to Manitou Brewing I got up at the usual time, walked the dog for an hour, and headed out to the gym.  But then the damn garage door stuck halfway down.  $100 and I wrestled with the thing for a while, and finally got it to close, but it took so long I had blown my gym window.

Did get to CityRock over lunch.  I'm once again starting to see gains on the climbing wall.  Having a much easier time on the V2 stuff.  And I've even given a few 5.9's a try.  I'd like to get to the point where I can challenge V3's regularly and at least make decent attempts at 5.10's.  That might not sound like much if you don't know anything about climbing, but it's probably a good, consistent year of solid trips to the climbing gym for me.

$100, the dog, and I always try to get out Friday after work.  It's usually the Incline.  I'm thankful to Shad for turning me on to the Mountain Tactical stuff, but I owe him a kick in the balls for some of the pain it has caused me.  I did some mini leg blasters on Tuesday, and my legs are still trashed.  So I talked the crew out of the Incline and we got in a run/hike over in Red Rock Canyon.  4.3 miles.

Dunes

We decided to end/begin the year with a van trip down to Sand Dunes.  Left early-ish on Friday morning, giving us some time to drop by Salida for a dog hike and visits to some of our favorite places.

Then it was up and over Poncha Pass to check out Crestone Brewing.  Crestone seems like a pretty cool town and we hope to get back to explore the place a bit more.

After Crestone it was another hour drive to get to the Zapata Falls campground.  Cold weather was in the forecast so the place wasn't busy.  Night outside number 25.

On Saturday we planned on hiking the Dunes, but due to the low snow level in the Sangres $100 suggested we try to get up to Zapata Lake.  Ten mile hike up to almost 12,000 feet and back.  Over six hours of off leash time for the dog.

After a successful hike we rewarded ourselves with a trip to Alamosa.  Checked out a new brewery, Square Peg Brewerks before grabbing a late lunch at San Luis Valley Brewing.

Back to Zapata Falls for night outside number 26.

On Sunday we decided to head into the national park and check out Mosca Pass.  The dog was happy to sleep in and might have stayed in bed all day until she heard us getting ready to hike.

Had some time after Mosca so we tooled around on the Dunes for a bit.  Sand Dunes is one of the few dog friendly national parks and the dog is very thankful for that as she had the time of her life.

We decided to head back towards home to make the Monday drive a bit easier.  PT Wood's has a great new drink called "Hockey Night In Canada" and I highly recommend it.

 Grabbed a pie to go from Moonlight and had half of it gone by the time we got to Soulcraft.

Then we headed to our usual spot near the sprawling Salida suburb of Howard.  Last night outside, number 27, of 2017.  Short of my goal of 30 once again.  Might have been the coldest night we've spent in the van.

Cheyenne Canon/Accolade 1

Good, but cold, run up Cheyenne Canon today.  Only went to the green gate, not High Drive, but still got in 6.4 miles.  Just under 35 minutes to the gate.

Dropped by Accolade on the way to work.  Being January 4 the place was packed.

bike commute 1/CityRock 2

Not quite what the east coast is experiencing, but it has been cold here.  After the normal hour with the dog I jumped on the Mariachi and rode straight to CityRock.  This winter I'm going to dedicate more time to working out indoors.  4.4 mile ride straight back home.

run commute 1/CityRock 1

I hope this was the first thing everyone read in the interwebs to kick off the new year.

Monday PM - 5.3 miles in Ute Valley Park with Amanda.  She was one of the first people I met when I moved to COS and our bitter rivalry has been well documented here.  But I think last night was the first time I ever ran with her.  I only did this because she said she would bring her dogs.

Tues AM - 2.6 mile easy hike with the dog in OCC, followed by 5.3 miles to work through Sondermann Park.

Tues Lunch - good workout in the gym at CityRock. 

Tues PM - 4.3 easy miles home from work.