missing link

Rode the Missing Link loop on July 4th.  Two miles into the ride my rear tire on the Mariachi weirded out.

So I went back and switched to the fat bike.  I was a bit hungover from a Fossil/Trails End double the night before, and hauling the fattie up Barr Trail through all the Incline folks was quite the death march. 

But holy cow it was worth it.  The missing link, which is officially known as the Lake Moraine trail, is a fantastic ride.  You turn off Barr Trail just before Barr Camp and the trail takes you over to Jones Park.  We catch 667 which takes us to Captain Jacks and then it's just a long downhill to Fossil.  Such a great loop.  There's also the option of shuttling up to Elk Park and dropping down to Barr Camp, thus avoiding the traffic on Barr Trail.  Will definitely do this ride again soon.

Relive 'Missing Link'

       

Hartman Rocks

We headed out in the van Friday after work for Gunnison.  Rolled into town around 9PM and ended up pulling off our first stealth in-town night.  Parked on a side street next to the Gunnison River Fly Shop, conveniently located down the street from High Alpine Brewing.

$100 started off her fly fishing career with a guided trip up near Crested Butte.   Seems the trip was a success.

I was left to hang with the dog while she fished.  We hiked the in-town Van Tuyl loop before heading out to Hartman Rocks.  Stopping by the river along the way, of course.

Had a blast out at Hartman Rocks, a place well known but we haven't spent much time there.  We will definitely be back.

Good drive back on Sunday as we hit Elevation, Soulcraft, and Florence breweries, then ended the weekend over at Fossil.

Waldo

Tues - run commute 39.  Five miles to work, 5.5 back home.

Wed - bike to work day here in Colorado.  I ate breakfast three times.  On the way home I got BOGO beers at Brass Brewing and Cerberus, then dropped by Trails End.

Wednesday was also our annual Waldo Fire reunion.  Been six years since that fire.  They are finally starting to talk about opening the canyon back up, but it's still going to be a while.  All pics by Peter M.

weekend

Fri/Sat - I took a gym to crag class at CityRock.  On Friday after work we met at the gym to go over some basic climbing stuff, such as how not to fall and kill yourself.  On Saturday we went out with a guide to Cheyenne Canon.  Great day climbing and we bailed just before a huge rain storm blew in.  Wanted to get in a run after climbing but instead I went to Fossil and Trails End. 

Sun - nice run up and down Barr Trail for a ten miler.  Would have liked to have gone further but I was time crunched as I had to get up to Red Rocks for the Umphrey's show.  UM brought the heat!  Such a great show, including a set full of Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonham sitting in on drums.

Pretty hungover on Monday but I got out for my favorite 7.5 mile loop in the Garden before grabbing a burger downtown for burger week.  Later in the evening $100 and I and our friend Amber went over to Red Rock Canyon for some climbing.  I lead up, set up a toprope anchor, made sure $100 and Amber didn't fall to their deaths, then climbed back up, cleaned the anchor, and rappelled back down.  Good times.

bike commute 39

Wed - ten miles to work on the bike via the Garden, Sinton, and Santa Fe trails.  Took my favorite route home via Bear Creek Park and Red Rock Canyon to Trails End.

Thurs - took the dog over to Red Rock Canyon to run our 3.5 mile White Acres loop.  After work, I hiked 1.5 miles over to Kindergarten Rock for the weekly CMC climb.  Had a great time, and made it up (barely) the first pitch of New Era.  Got my ass kicked on a few other climbs but it was a fun way to spend a Thursday evening.

Fri - bike commute 39, straight to work via the Midland trail.  Some bouldering at CityRock at lunch.

I have settled into a weekly routine that seems to be working for me.  20 miles of dog hikes, 50 miles of riding, and 30 miles of running.  Last week was 20 miles with the dog, 43 miles on the bike, and 36 miles of running.  This week will end up with roughly those numbers.  It's a good balance that I think lets me keep or improve fitness while giving me time to climb and pursue some other stuff - live music, van life, yoga, beer, making sure $100 doesn't leave.  I'll start climbing more on the runs to get ready for Pikes, and in July I'll do the Elk Park/summit run to get ready for the marathon distance.

Lettuce

Fri - we were watching Moose over the weekend, so Friday morning I took him and Hollydog over to the Bear Creek Dog Park for 75 minutes.  After work I took Mr. Moose out for a 10K run in the Garden.

Sat - Hour dog hike in Red Rock Canyon followed by incline number 18.  Then it was up to catch Lettuce at Red Rocks.  Fantastic show!

Sun - Hungover all day.  90 minute hike with the dogs in Old Colorado City, then my Garden trail loop, 7.4 miles in 80 minutes.  Later on Tom and I went for a quick ride in Red Rock Canyon before the shitty weather blew in.  I think half the folks who were at Fossil after our ride were at the show on Sat night.  Also caught the Jacob Jolliff Band at Stargazers.

Mon - bike commute 37.  Ten miles to work, four miles back home.  Shitty CityRock session at lunch.

Tues - run commute 38.  Five miles to work in 38 minutes coming right after a 75 minute dog hike and a good session of leg blasters. 

varsity club

27

varsity club

26

climb

Finally got back outside on some rock yesterday.  Met the CMC group over at Red Rock Canyon and we headed to the Whale.  I finished six climbs on three different routes and had a blast.  I think two of the routes were Whale Rider (5.7) and Tempest Toast (5.7), but it's hard to tell looking at pictures on the interweb.  Can't figure out the name of the third route.  I took a fall, and caught a fall while on belay.  Had a blast and can't wait to get outside again.

run commute 37

Monday - pretty sore from the Garden but I did have a good dog hike (3.2 miles) followed by bike commute 35.  Took the long way home and got in a 14 mile ride.  Went to CityRock at lunch but was fairly unmotivated to do much.

Tuesday - another hour with the dog, some leg blasters, then a 4.2 mile run to work in 34:37.  Really good climb over lunch with my buddy Mike.  My goal for the gym climbs is to get to 5.9 and V4, and some days I feel like I'm getting there.  Today was one of those days.

Shot of me at the Garden, suffering up the last climb.  Such a crazy race, my pace varied constantly between 5:40 and almost ten minutes per mile, which is the pace I'm running here:

This is year three of the new course.  The first year I ran 1:08:47.  In 2018 I ran 1:13:36.  And 1:09:48 this year.

Garden

Bittersweet day at the Garden ten miler.  I ran as hard as I could and did pretty well for about 6.5 miles.  From mile 6.5 to nine I really struggled.  The seven to nine splits for me were 7:36, 7:12, and 7:36.  These are the hilliest and hardest miles of the race but in years past I could find another gear to do this section quite a bit faster.  As an example of my fade over the second half at the five mile mark I was about five seconds behind my buddy Tom, but at the finish he was 37 seconds ahead of me. 

That being said, every year the goal is to break 70 minutes.  That gets a bit harder each year as I grow old as fuck, not to mention the new course which I think is slower than the old one.  I was able to rally somewhat over the final mile, running sub six (the final mile is a screaming downhill) to finish in 1:09:48.  And since they take out the top 500 masters runners, I scored a nice drinking vessel for first place in the 40 to 44 age group (I was sixth master and they pull the top five masters from the age group awards).  So while Tom may have won the battle, he got a shitty TV dinner tray that says 4th place on it while I got a mason jar that says first place on it.  So there's that.

Someday I will no longer be able to break 70 on this course.  But not this year.  (Probably next year unfortunately...).

Relive 'Garden'

       

bike

Found these on the interwebs today, proof that I did actually do a bike race recently.  And I signed up for another ride this morning, the South Boundary Big Ride.  Psyched for our trip to Taos in August, partly for the ride but mostly for the fact that we will get to park our van across the street from Taos Mesa Brewing.

Barr Camp

Good run up to Barr Camp today.  1:51 to Barr Camp, total time for the 15 mile round trip was just under three hours.

Relive 'Barr Camp'

       

run commute 36

Spent the weekend out at Buff Creek ingesting only aid station food and beer.  Good times.  Noticed a lot of us outdoor Colorado folks are starting to think about some kind of plan B since it's gonna be a while until the mountains melt out.  Luckily we did not pick this year to hike the Colorado Trail.  However, it looks like I did pick a shitty year to try to finish off the 14ers.

On Sunday after eating a bunch of donuts from the Donut Mill I did get out for 7.5 miles of Garden trails.  Then Bob showed up, and we hit up Red Leg, Fossil, and Front Range.

Mon - early Red Rock Canyon hike with Bob and the dog.  Run commute 35, straight to/from work.  CityRock 66 at lunch.  Bob and I then hopped on bikes and rode over for beers at Marc/Amanda's weekly garage run.

Tues - another Bob/dog hike but in the Garden.  Then some King's Chef before Bob left for Taos.  For lunch I hit up Food Truck Tuesday and had a french fry/cheese curd combo.  My diet has been on point lately.  I did bike to work today, so it's all good I guess.

Wed - run commute 36.  Via Sondermann.  Went by Holmes middle school, which is also where I do my track workouts.  But apparently I should be hanging in the parking lot as that's where the action is.

There is a band called Too Many Zooz coming to the Black Sheep in October and I am psyched for the show.

May

The numbers for May:

Run - 136 miles
Bike - 361 miles
Hike - 87 miles
Twelve trips to CityRock.  And four Thursdays that I was supposed to climb outside that got cancelled due to weather.

Been a good few months of easy flat running, and now I'll start to run uphill a bit more to get ready for Pikes.

Can't remember if I mentioned it but I am signed up for a road marathon.  The Soldier Marathon down in Fort Benning, GA, where I went to basic training and later airborne school.  The original goal was to run 3:15 to get my BQ, which I feel I could do fairly easily.  Then I noticed my age group BQ is 3:10, which I feel would take quite a bit of work for me.  So we'll see how things shake out there.  I do not want to run Boston again, but that BQ is a standard I haven't met in a long time.

bike commute 33

Mon - finally starting to get better.  Ran five miles over to Red Leg in 39 minutes, had a beer, then ran their memorial 5k (3.5 miles in 24 minutes), then had a bunch more beers.  Also got in a four mile Garden hike with the pup.

Tues - 80 minute dog hike followed by bike commute 32.  6.5 miles to work via Sondermann, 11.3 miles in 1:36 home through Bear Creek Park and Red Rock Canyon.  CityRock 62 at lunch, including some leg blasters.

Wed - run commute 34.  Five miles in 40 minutes to work, 5.5 miles in 52 minutes home.  Good climb at lunch, I am making some progress on a few V4's at the gym.

Thurs - had to drive so I hit CityRock for an early climb.  Was hoping to catch the Thunderbird show but traffic was a hot mess due to POTUS being in the area.  You could not go anywhere near I-25 for quite a while.  Not sure how anyone in DC deals with this kind of stuff on a much more frequent basis.  Also, if you ever happen to be president and come to visit, take a damn helicopter.

Fri - easy 4.8 miles to Carson Pass and back, 42 minutes.  Then bike commute 33 to work, eleven miles on Garden/Sinton/Santa Fe.  CityRock 65 at lunch.

Taking the van up to Buff Creek this weekend, helping Kircher run an aid station for the North Fork 50 but also hoping to get a good two hour run in.  Then Bob is here Sunday/Monday and we will try to visit all the breweries in Colorado.

7.8 sign

I have finally beaten that cold but it completely wrecked my body.  I'm actually physically sore from all the coughing and shivering.

I did get out to Barr Trail on Sunday.  I've been doing mostly MAF stuff since I got my new fancy watch back in early March.  I try to keep my heart rate at 140, and given the physical state I was in that meant this "run" was mostly a hike.  But it was nice to get outside and join the approximately 1.4 billion people enjoying the mountain on the holiday weekend.  Ended up covering 11.4 miles in 2:49.

I cut the run half a mile short so I could grab some custard and chat with a local legend.  Matt said that over the past 6.5 years he hasn't run less than an hour a day.  Every day, no rest days.  Of course I asked him about a return to the race and he said "never say never, but probably not."  Dude seems really happy just going out and running.  I see him running from time to time, and he is still fast as fuck on the trails.  And the chocolate avalanche with cookie dough he made me was fantastic.

On another note, my diet since Thursday has consisted only of ice cream and sunkist soda.  I should probably start eating some food at some point.

My wife had no sympathy for me and my lameness this weekend and she went out and crushed it:

High Drive Four Miler

I think that run in the rain on Monday evening gave me a death cold, which really wrecked me on Friday and Saturday.  I had to go finish the High Drive four miler to make sure I finish the Grand Prix, but it was a terrible race.  Jogged it in in 35:31 (I had the course at 3.7 miles).  Bummer, because it was a course that would have been fun to actually race and I think I could have done well there.  

Was hoping for a bigger week, but that cold set me sideways.  Slight setback for my Pikes work but there is time to rebound.

Run - 30 miles

Bike - 35 miles

Hike - 15 miles

4th annual hobo brewery bike tour

Once again a few of us decided to ride north to a beer festival.

We all met at Red Leg Brewing on Friday morning, had a few beers, and rode up to O'Malley's.  Somehow we talked the owner of 300 Days of Shine into letting us in for drinks on that leg.  Then it was the trek on CO 105 to Bud's at Sedalia.  Then the only highway section, riding a few miles on HWY 85 to Living The Dream.  Then the long bike path along 470 to Green Mountain Beer Company.

Wadsworth somehow always seems to play a role in the weekend, and as I was crossing that road I felt a stinging pain in my back.  I might have been a little drunk at this point, which helped deal with things, but I couldn't figure out what was going on.  Then I looked to my left and saw some little shit high school dropout kid laughing at me, holding a pellet gun.  Fucker had shot me.  I flipped him off and said some nice things about his mother.

We drank as much as we could at Green Mountain before leaving that establishment for the grass field next to the brewery.  Second year in a row we slept at this place.

Sat morning we got a late start and made it to Coors around 9:30AM.  We were first in line for the short tour.  The tour is now $5 for Colorado residents and $10 for out of staters, but they let veterans in for free.  Woot!

After Coors we hit up Cannonball Creek, then Holidaily, then the trek up to Southern Sun.  Then off to the Upslope Get Down festival.

Lots and lot of beers, lots and lots of fun.  On Sunday we woke up and headed back to Golden, dropping by Golden City, Mountain Toad, and New Terrain.  $100 picked us up in Golden and we were able to talk her into one more stop, hitting Living The Dream one last time for the weekend.

run commute 32

Fri - nice 7.5 mile run on the Garden roads in 67 minutes.  Afterwards we packed up the van and headed down to the Royal Gorge in Canon City.  Good afternoon hike with the dog exploring that area.

Sat - rode the JV event of the Royal Gorge Six & Twelve.  Ended up getting a 50k in before pulling the plug.  Doesn't sound like much, but I was pretty beat up mentally and physically.  Had I gone all balls out I probably could have squeezed in four laps, but after stopping at the beer tent after each lap there just wasn't enough time left for me to squeeze in another lap.  Really enjoyed the vibe of this race and there's a good chance I'll head down to Taos for their South Boundary BigRide in August.

Sun - pretty beat up but I still got a good run up to No Name Creek on Barr Trail.  8.7 miles in 1:43, hitting No Name in 65 minutes.

Mon - run commute 32.  Five miles to work in 43 minutes.  Then some shitty weather blew in.  I wasn't ready for it on the way home and I endured a very shitty 30 minute run home in freezing temps and a snow/slush mix in shorts and a short sleeved t-shirt topped by an old cotton Pb100 sweatshirt.

Tues - not looking good today.  Only took the dog out for 30 minutes due to weather.  Then I had to shovel the walks.  WTF???  Bike commute 31 was quite the pain in the ass.

Super heavy, wet snow.  Lots of downed trees.  The view from my office when I arrived:

bike commute 30

I'll try to get a post up about our annual hobo bike tour.  Had a great time riding up to Boulder for the Upslope Get Down.

Mon - hungover as hell but I still got the dog out for 70 minutes in the AM and ran up Red Mountain, four miles in 53 minutes, after work.  In between was bike commute 29, straight to/from the office.

Tues - feeling a little better for run commute 31.  Solid morning run, five miles in just under 40 minutes.  CityRock for lunch.  The run home was terrible for whatever reason, 5.7 miles in 63 minutes.

Wed - 5k AM dog hike.  Had to drive today as I was on cadet duty to get her ass to the airport just after lunch.  She informed me she passed all her classes and plans on returning for her sophomore year.  USAFA doesn't have classes during the summer but they do all kinds of military training.  After work I hit up the weekly Trails End Trialblazers shindig, covering eight miles at a good clip over in Red Rock Canyon.  Followed by pizza and beer.

Thurs - seven mile ride over in Red Rock Canyon, then back to the house after I got a flat.  Switched bikes and rode to the office.  Really good CityRock session (59) at lunch.  Quite a few V4's I have a decent shot at right now.

red rock canyon

Was in Denver all day for boring work meetings.  Had to leave at 6:15am, so I just slept in and didn't bother with a run or ride.  Even had $100 take care of the dog.  All day meetings usually mean lots of junk food and coffee, translating to a shitty evening workout.  But for whatever reason, as soon as I got home I took off for red rock canyon and had a great run.  9.3 miles in 1:27, ending at Trails End for some pizza and brews.

bike commute 27

Monday - Woke up a bit early and instead of going back to sleep I took the dog out for a bit longer, 3.4 miles in 80 minutes.  Then run commute 30.  Five miles to work in 41 flat along the Midland trail, 5.4 miles back home through Sondermann Park in 47 minutes.  CityRock 54 at lunch.

Tuesday - Easy hour hike with the dog, then jumped on the bike through the rain to work.  Decided to take the route that passes our local homeless shelter and it paid off - I found $6 in the middle of the road.  Second highest dollar amount I've found in almost 30 years of running/biking.  Those bums need to be more careful with their money!  After work, my buddy Mike and I were supposed to hit Red Rock Canyon for some climbing, but due to shitty weather (which is becoming a theme on this blog) we had to take things indoors.  Great workout on the plastic though.  I ended up blowing my six dollar windfall at the Ute & Yeti after the climb.

New Mexico

After the race we jumped in the van and headed south.  Just across the state line there is a New Mexico state park called Sugarite Canyon.  I found it on the intergoogles, and we decided to go check it out.

But not without stopping by some breweries first.   Crafty Canary in Walsenburg, Dodgeton Creek in Trinidad, and the Colfax Ale Cellar in Raton.  None of them were worth writing home about.

Then it was off to the park.  We got our spot and took the dog for a nice hike.  Then drank some beers by the fire.  Then drank some beers in the van.

We got up on Sunday and took the dog for another hike.  Should have taken more pics as the loop around Lake Maloya was super cool.  Close enough to Colorado that we went across the state line and back.

take 5

Ran the JV race (5k) at the Mad Moose Take 5 In The Garden on Saturday morning.  Really hard effort and I'm pleased with the race, despite the slow official time of 19:30 with splits of 7:00, 5:47, and 6:18.  Uneven miles but such is running in the Garden with all the uphill and downhill.  Another cheap win, with second place overall a female and fourth place overall was a ten year old.  In my defense, the chick in second place usually beats me.

run commute 29/April

Sat - saw a cover band called Steely Dead at the Sheep on Friday night, needless to say I was a bit hungover on Saturday but after a 5k hike with the dog I got in a good two hours (14.6 miles) on my Midland/Santa Fe/Sinton/Garden loop.  After that I hopped on a bus to downtown, where I hopped on another bus to get to downtown Denver.  $100 was working up there, so we met up for some Sancho's time and then caught the Bluegrass Generals at Cervante's.  Such a great show!  After the show I still had enough left in the tank to close down Sancho's.

Sunday Funday - we spent the night in Denver and got breakfast at Tom's.  Then I dd'd a brewery tour as we hit Burly, Pikes Peak, Red Leg, and Fossil.  Good times.

Mon - recovery.  Bike commute 25. 

Tues - still a bit off from the weekend.  Did manage a good lunch session at CityRock and a 5.5 mile garden run after work.

Wed - run commute 29.  Found $1 on the run to work, so there's that.  CityRock 53 at lunch.

Decent month for April.  Highlighted by the sub 90 at Platte River, two decent Barr Trail runs, and quite a few good mountain bike rides.

Run - 164 miles, 28 hours
Bike - 200 miles, 24.5 hours
Hike - 70 miles, 28 hours
Climb - eleven sessions at CityRock