Citadel

Bolted after work on Friday to the Herman Gulch trailhead, not too far north of the Eisenhower tunnel.  In bed early as it was a definite alpine start on Saturday.  Did make a quick pit stop at Broken Compass on the way there though.

The objective was Snoopy's Backside couloir to get to the top of The Citadel.  There were some minor avalanche concerns, and some possible shitty weather moving in, but we ended up having a good day in the mountains.

Fairly straightforward three-ish mile hike to get to the couloir.  Here's a good shot, stolen from summitpost.org, that shows the climb.

The day ended up being eight miles and eight hours.  Lots of post holing on the way back.  Definitely a beginner climb and I had a blast.  There are quite a few climbs of this type on Pikes and I'll definitely be looking into those next year.

A few other pics from the day:

Couldn't stick around after the climb, I drove straight back to the Springs, grabbed the dog, and headed down to Canon City.  $100 and two of her friends had left Fossil Brewing on Friday night, slept on Gold Camp Road, then got up on Sat and rode up to Victor before dropping down Phantom Canyon and over to Red Canyon Park in Canon.  I met them with pizza and beer for night two.  The next day they got up and rode up Shelf Road and back to Fossil.  150 miles total on the weekend for them.

home

Sun - was up at 3AM (1AM Colorado time) to start the return journey from Florida, so not much working out.  Did get the dog out for a walk before heading over to Smiling Toad and then to Front Range for some live music.  Masks are basically not a thing here in the Springs anymore.

Mon - 15 mile ride in the AM on the COVID loop.  Incline right after work before heading over to Fossil for Alex's b-day throwdown.  Raining all day.

Tues - still tired from the travel, plus a hangover.  And it was pouring rain.  I drove to work since I had to pick $100 up from the airport.  Did get in a decent garage workout in the evening to keep the day from being a total zero.

Wed - solid run to work, 6.5 miles in 55 minutes.  CityRock 53 at lunch.  

Thurs - bike to work.  Ten there, eleven back.  CityRock 54 at lunch.  Guitar and Benny's after work.

Fri - run commute 33.  4.2 miles in 37 minutes.  Good bouldering session at lunch.

Doing my first couloir climb this weekend.  Was supposed to be the Dragon's Tail in Rocky Mountain National Park, but due to weather and conditions the climb was changed to Snoopy's Backside up near Loveland Pass.  $100 is doing a big bikepacking trip this weekend, so I'll hopefully be completing the climb quickly and safely before grabbing the dog and heading down to Canon City to meet up with her.  

Speaking of the dog, apparently yesterday was national rescue dog day.  Here's the last pic of my pup that was on my phone:

Florida

Boarded a plane for the first time since the Atlanta marathon trials back in early March of ‘20.  Off to visit the in-laws down in The Villages.

The Villages are not my cup of tea, but $100’s parents sure do love it down there.  We visited a watering hole called The Cove and then took a swamp tour on an air boat.  Good stuff.  The next day we went back to Silver Springs State Park for some kayaking.  No manatee this trip but we still had a blast.

Did get two easy five mile runs in.  Felt like I was swimming in the heat and humidity.  

Took a planned down week since I knew travel would mess things up.

run - 22 miles/4.5 hours

ride - 8.6 miles/one hour

hike - 12.3 miles/five hours

Winter Park

Had the day off on Friday, and I got in a good two hour run in Red Rock Canyon before leaving for Winter Park.  Solo trip for me as $100 got stuck with some work crap.

Good day up in WP.  The last training class for the alpine climbing school.  Some more self arrest practice and lots of snow anchor building.  Good stuff.  Two more trips for ACS.  A couloir climb set for May 22, and then a lesser known route up Longs Peak in June.  The two day trek will include snow, ice, and rock climbing.  

After the field day I headed over to Lyons to meet up with the annual brewery bike trip.  Long drive back home on Sunday afternoon as I visited Rocky Mountain National Park and quite a few breweries.  

Mon - more winter weather.  Which meant no incline reservation needed as the parks department wouldn't be leaving their fancy office.  So I got in all 2700+ steps straight up and straight down.

Tues - an inch of snow in the front yard this morning.  Bike commute 36 on the fatty.

trouser snake

 Forgot to post this guy, whom I saw on my long run on Sunday.  Snake season is here again.  Yay.

Mon - it rained pretty much 24 hours straight, very rare for us here in CO.  First time I bailed on an early morning dog hike for weather in a long time.  Got the pooch out later, and in the evening I ran an easy ten miler on the Garden roads.  Little bit of snow up high.

Tues - bike commute 34.  Eleven miles to work, four back home.  Had the last of the video lectures for my alpine climbing school.  This weekend I'll be in Winter Park practicing some snow movement.  We have two trips left with the class: a couloir climb, and the high peak grad climb.  The grad climb looks like it will be a two day difficult route up Longs.

Wed - run commute 30.  6.5 miles there in an hour.  6.3 miles back home through Sondermann, including 12 hill repeats.

clear creek canyon

                     

Early drive on Saturday to join my CMC ACS peeps for a crag day at the East Colfax area of Clear Creek Canyon, about 15 miles west of Golden.  Great place and loved climbing all day.  I'm getting much more comfortable on the rock, learning to trust the equipment and not freaking out about heights quite so much.  Not getting ahead of myself in thinking I'm an outdoor badass though, there were guys highlining the canyon while we were climbing.  Might have been 700+ feet above us.

Some other pics from the day:

Cannonball Creek Brewing for the apres.  Also hit Mountain Toad Brewing before heading back to the Springs.

                            

Good three hour long run on Sunday.  Red Rock Canyon, Section 16, Stephanie's, and back through RRC.  Just over 15 miles.  $100, James, Melissa, and I went back to RRC at noon to try to get some more climbing in, but it started pouring before we could get going.  So we bailed to Fossil instead.

For the week:

run - 47 miles/9 hours

ride - 78 miles/7.5 hours

hike - 18.5 miles/8 hours

castlewood

Sat/Sun - Castlewood Canyon State Park for the rock climbing portion of alpine climbing school.  More rapelling than climbing with lots of anchor building thrown in.  Great weekend, learned a ton.  

Mon - two hour ride in the AM.  Then in the evening I headed up the Incline to Rocky Mountain, my first summit of that hill in a while.  Back down Barr Trail.  8.3 miles in 2:17.  High Ground IPA at Manitou Brewing afterwards.

Tues - bike commute 32.  10.8 miles there.  Did the longer loop home, and got chased by a thunderstorm.  I took shelter at Marc and Amanda's (more importantly, Moose and Millie's) and after two minutes the sun was out.  18.4 miles in 100 minutes.  CityRock 48 at lunch.

Wed - run commute 28.  6.5 miles in an hour there, six flat in 67 minutes home, including eight hill repeats in Sondermann.

Thurs - run commute 29.  6.6 miles in an hour there.  Four miles easy back home.  Good gym climb at lunch.

bike commute 31

Wed - run commute 26.  5.2 there in 49:33.  Had to do some 15 second hill repeats on the way home, and there is a perfect hill for it in Sondermann.  Eight of them.  Can't remember the last time I did hill repeats.  6.2 miles in 68 minutes.  CityRock at lunch, I think I've now done enough of them to say I'm a legit 5.9 indoor climber.  Which would make me a legit 5.5 climber outdoors.

Thurs - Bit longer to work.  Eight miles in 75 minutes.  CityRock 46 at lunch.  Easy four miles back home so I could have some time to play guitar before my weekly lesson.

Fri - bike commute 31.  10.7 miles to work on the COVID loop.  Finally some decent weather.  Saw a pack of coyotes over at the new retention pond at the Garden.  Good bouldering session at lunch.

Spending the weekend at Castlewood Canyon, a state park located between COS and Denver.  Doing some climbing and working on anchors with the CMC.  More good weather on the way, I'm pretty psyched to get on some outdoor rock again.

canon/incline

Sunday - I had not run over in Cheyenne Canon in a long time.  I needed to find a hill that would take me 45 minutes to climb, and even with the recent snow I figured the Canon road climb to the top of High Drive would do the trick.  One mile warm up, then ran as hard as I could up the hill.  Struggled and suffered, but got to the top in 43:14.  4.2 miles and just over 1500 feet of elevation gain.  I used to break 40 for this run, but I also used to be a lot younger.  This was a heart rate test, and I averaged 158 beats per minute.  

Mon - an early work day messed up my schedule, but I got in bike commute 30.  3.7 miles there, eleven back home.  Manitou in the evening and I was planning on running up Barr to the top of the W's.  But when I got to the base of the Incline it was raining pretty good, and I knew the parks department employee wouldn't dare come out of his office in such weather.  So I did the Incline instead.  35 minutes up.  Straight up and straight down, followed by some High Ground IPA at Manitou Brewing.  I might start doing this on Monday evenings as there is a bail trail near the base that can get you around needing a stupid reservation.

Tues - I knew when I went to bed on Monday that I might need a rest day as it had been a while since my last incline.  Which made bailing when the temp was 18F on Tuesday very easy.  Short hike with the dog and then I jumped on the bus.  Did get in a good session at CityRock for lunch.

the week that was...

Still got out there even though the reappearance of winter sapped some motivation.  Good two hour/13.7 mile run on my COVID loop on Saturday to end the week.  

20 weeks until The Rut, going to start looking to get in shape for that.  I actually bought a plan from the guys at Uphill Athlete last year and never used it after the race was cancelled, but I’ll look to put some of those workouts into my week. 

Chilled around the house this weekend.  I think it’s the last weekend until June that I’ll be here.  Between the CMC class and a trip to The Villages to see the in-laws, lots of travel on the docket.  We are debating between Taos and Fruita for Memorial Day weekend.

For the week:

run - 37 miles/6.5 hours

ride - 55 miles/5.5 hours

hike - 22.7 miles/8.5 hours

ice ice baby

Mon - bike commute 28.  3.7 miles to work (had to work early), then twelve miles back home.  4.2 mile run on the Garden roads in the afternoon before heading to Fossil for the new year of mug club.

Tues - day off from work, got in a 17 mile ride.

Wed - run commute 24.  5.2 there in 49 minutes, shitty run home through Sondermann.  CityRock 42 at lunch.

Thurs - run commute 25.  5.4 miles there, 3.5 miles back.  My climbing partner Amber did the R2R2R over the weekend, so instead of CityRock we hit up the Skirted Heifer for burgers so I could hear about her run.  My weekly guitar lesson was moved to Thursday, luckily the bartender at Benny's works Wed and Thurs.  Currently working on Hide Your Love Away by the Beatles.  Lots of C and F chords.  Struggling, but I never thought I'd even try a song with those chords, so progress is being made.

Fri - bike commute 29.  The bike trails I take were a shitshow after our latest snowstorm.  Got about three inches in my yard, with zero on the streets/sidewalks, so I assumed the bike path would be fine.  I was wrong and I had to walk my bike about three of the ten miles this morning.

Not much going on this weekend.  I haven't spent a weekend at home in a while, and I won't again for a while, so I'll just be chilling around the house.  Probably have to do a long run on the COVID loop as the trails will be messy.  More snow scheduled for Monday.  Yay.

North Star

Fantastic time over the weekend with the CMC alpine climbing school folks.

A few beers at Fossil on Friday, dog park and a run up to No Name Creek early Saturday, then I made a solo trip in the van up to Hoosier Pass.  

Set off to hike North Star Mountain at 6AM on Sunday.  Awesome hike.  Not something I'd normally do this time of year, as there was still a lot of snow, but the day went well.  Straight there on the way out, then on the way back we took a detour to do some legit (for me) snow climbing.  We weren't roped up and there were a few points where a fall would have been fatal, but the snow was solid and I didn't find myself fighting off panic like I often do while rock climbing.  Great mountain views and travel all day long.  Eight miles on the day.  I'll definitely return here in the summer to run/scramble this route.

South Park Saloon for the apres.  Love that place.

Some random pics of the day, mostly stolen from some classmates:

bike commute 27

Mon - early morning run through Red Rock Canyon, ride on the COVID loop at lunch, Red and Iron Mountains in the PM.  Going to start adding Iron to the run on Monday evenings now that spring is kinda somewhat here.

Tues - bike commute 26.  Ten there, eleven back.  CityRock at lunch.  

Wed - the rare zero day.  No pack to hike the dog, no running or riding or climbing.  Could tell my body was trying to fight off some minor non-COVID crud thing, so I rested as much as possible.

Thurs - run commute 23.  5.2 there in 47 minutes, 5.5 back through Sondermann in 55 flat.  

Fri - bike commute 27.  Miserable ten miles to work.  Looked nice outside, and I dressed for that, but it was cold and windy.  Ugh.  Decent CityRock session at lunch.

Heading back out in the van this weekend, up to Hoosier Pass.  Doing my CMC snow ridge climb on Sunday.  North Star Mountain.  At 13,614 feet above sea level she is the 187th tallest peak in the state.  Still significant snow up high, though it is melting quickly and this is a peak that minimizes the kind of dangers you can deal with on winter climbs.  Pretty excited for this.

St Mary's

Fantastic weekend up north.

We left Friday afternoon for St. Mary's Glacier.  We checked out Guanella Pass Brewing first, then headed up to the parking lot for the glacier.  Great spot to park the van overnight.  

Also hit Cabin Creek Brewing up.  No shit, this chick tried to sit next to me with that garbage hat on.  I made her move.

Up early on Saturday to meet the CMC peeps.  Had a big training day - snow travel, self arrest, snow climbing.  All new stuff to me and I had a lot of fun.  

We do our first trip this weekend and I'm looking forward to it.  North Star Peak, a low 13er near Hoosier Pass still covered in snow.

After the training we headed to Idaho Springs for beers and burgers at Westbound & Down.  Solid IPA.  Then we headed up the Mt. Evans road, spending the night at a lot across the street from the Echo Lake Lodge.  Two nights in a row sleeping above 10k feet.  

On Sunday we headed back to Idaho Springs, allowing $100 a few hours to fish Clear Creek while the dog and I explored town.  Then we decided to drive back the long way, heading over to Broken Compass Brewing in Breck.

Red Canyon Park

On Saturday I got in a good 17 miler, just over 2.5 hours, before we decided to head down to Canon City for the night.  Tried out Red Canyon Park, which we hadn't been in a while, and we had a great, lazy evening.

For the week:

run - 46.7 miles/8 hours

ride - 17 miles/2 hours

hike - 22.7 miles/9 hours

I think (hope) we're in the final stages of cold winter weather, so I'll start picking up the bike miles soon.

Made a quick run up to Rails End Brewing on Sunday afternoon to hang out with some old folks.  Shad, Donnie, and GZ.  Always a good time seeing those guys and it needs to happen more often.

Not much going on this week.  Had some bitterly cold mornings.  On Tuesday I swore I was going to lose some fingers and toes on the ride to the office.  It's been freezing in the morning, but super warm in the afternoon.  

We are leaving Friday for St. Mary's Glacier.  My snow travel class is Saturday, the rest of the time we'll just be hanging out.  $100 is going to do some fishing, the dog is going to do some hiking and napping.  Weather is looking fantastic and I'm psyched to get out there.

Marc's annual drunken hobo bike pub crawl is a go for April 16-18.  Colorado Springs to Lyons.  Up to Living The Dream, over to Golden, up to Boulder, then out to Lyons.  Hopefully some of you northern peeps will come out and say hello.

new guitar day!

In another week I will have officially been playing guitar for one year.

I have always been a huge fan of the instrument, chasing the sound at live shows ever since high school.  I always thought it would be cool to play.  But that was always followed by "I wish I had started playing in high school."  Or college.  Or when I moved to Austin, the live music capital of the world.  Always sometime long ago.

As COVID hit and I slowly realized things were going to change for a bit, I thought it might be a good time to pick up a new habit rather than just increase my booze intake.  

The goal had always been to play a Fender Strat.  I had a crappy $30 Suzuki left over from who knows where in the basement, and I made a deal with $100 - if I could play 30 minutes a day, five days a week, for a year, I'd get the green light to buy a cheap-ish electric guitar setup.  

I kept that schedule, playing for half an hour in the morning after the dog walk.  Super basic stuff from the Fender Play app.  Struggling with cord changes.  Kinda sorta playing Louie Louie and Bad Moon Rising.  Quite often I'd get in another practice session at night before bed.  After a month of this I walked in to Moondog Music, located in the same building as Benny's, and signed up for weekly lessons.

Through some creative loopholes, the wife allowed me to upgrade the acoustic guitar long before the year mark.  I was the proud owner of a beautiful Seagull Entourage.  A fantastic guitar that I have loved playing these past few months, though at $550 it's way more expensive than I deserve at this point.

About a month ago it became clear that, for better or for worse, this wasn't a habit that was going to go away anytime soon.  So I started talking to a few guitar playing friends and searching around the interwebs.  I wanted to keep the total price for guitar and amp below $1500, which is a bit much for a rookie in his mid-40s but is still fairly affordable once you go down the guitar prices rabbit hole.

And boom, there she was.  Exactly what I wanted, but used.  Same with the amp.  A Fender Player Stratocaster and a Fender Champion 50XL amp.  $806 after taxes and shipping to the local guitar center.

So I'm pretty excited to tear into this thing.  I can even kinda/sorta play a Hendrix tune - Hey Joe, though my solo would be a bit less than Jimi would offer up.

snow

Completed the CMC land nav course on Saturday.  I used to be good at using a map and compass, I helped guide General Washington across the Delaware River back in my Army days, but I hadn't really done any of that stuff since then.  It's just too easy to pull out your phone nowadays.  But it was good to get out there for a little refresher.  Buff Creek had a ton of snow, and I assume they got a ton more since I was there.  Up next in the CMC alpine climbing school is snow travel, including a trip to St. Mary's Glacier in a few weeks.

We had planned on staying the night up there, but the place was just a mess of snow and mud, and with freezing temps on the way we were afraid we'd get the van stuck.  So we bolted back home and hit Fossil Brewing.

Decent run on Sunday around my COVID loop.  13.7 miles in 2:09, coming right after a 90 minute loaded dog hike.  Warm and sunny for the run but you could see the weather moving in.

Monday morning was devoted to snow removal.  Probably had seven to eight inches in the yard.  Did get up Red Mountain in the evening, followed by Manitou Brewing.

Tues - bike commute 22.  My biking is pretty much dead right now due to the sloppy conditions on the trails.  But hopefully soon I'll be taking Cheyenne Canon or Red Rock Canyon on the return home commute.

Haven't posted a pic of my dog in a while, so here you go:

lazy

I did get in a good run on Saturday in lieu of the Salida marathon, but since then I haven't done much.  Ice and snow, shitty weather, some stuff for the CMC alpine climbing class I'm taking, and, of course, just being fairly lazy has made this a pretty low mileage week.

Good dog hike on Monday in Salida, and another good walk in Florence on the way home.

Tues - bike commute 19.  Through Sondermann there, straight back home.  CityRock 31 at lunch.  Renewed my annual pass at the climbing gym today.  I was still feeling a slight hangover when I went to bed.

Wed - run commute 19.  Not too bad there, as I hit miles two, three, and four in 7:11, 7:02, and 7:55, despite having a fairly heavy pack on.  Five miles there, 5.6 back through Sondermann.

Thurs - another quick bike commute and CityRock day.

Fri - bike commute 21 and a decent climb at lunch.

We are headed up to the Buffalo Creek area this weekend.  I'll finish up the land nav portion of my current CMC class while $100 and the dog hang out.  We'll have to get back early on Sunday as we are expecting another significant snowfall.

Salida weekend

Bummed to miss the race but we still had a great weekend down in Salida.  I got a good 90 minute run in on Saturday morning, and lots of good dog hikes in, but the bulk of the weekend was spent either at Tres Litros or Benson's, with a little Moonlight and Wood's thrown in for good measure.  It's going to take my liver a few days to dry out.  The hazy IPA at 3L is dangerously good.

The weather in Salida was fine until Saturday evening, though lots of other parts of Colorado were getting some major snow.  More snow coming this evening, and possibly some heavier stuff early next week.  I'm ready for Spring.

my first Salida DNS!

On Tuesday afternoon I finally felt some aftershocks from shot #2.  Just some lethargy.  Being hungover all the time trained me well, but by the end of work I could only manage to bike the quick way back home, watch a movie, and head to bed for a good nine hours of sleep (I usually get seven).  Woke up feeling fine today (Wednesday) though.

Wed - run commute 17.  Five miles to work in 43 minutes.  They are making big progress on the new bridge to the olympic museum, I should be taking that route soon.

Another thing they are making progress on - the new Weldwerks tap house that will be opening by my house.  Perhaps by the end of summer???

The Salida marathon was postponed today, to next week.  I am out of town, so this will be the first year I miss the race.  Hopefully none of the whiney front range trail runners get their decked out Pathfinders dirty on the drive down.  It was too late in the game to cancel the VRBO so we are gonna head down this weekend anyways.  

Nielsen

Thurs - run commute 16.  5.4 there in 51 flat, 5.6 home through Sondermann in 69 minutes.  Good climb at lunch.

Fri - bike commute 17.  10.7 miles there.  After work I met $100 at the new Red Swing Brewery in the old Fieldhouse Brewing building.  Later that evening I had the first zoom call of the Colorado Mountain Club Alpine Climbing School.  Looking forward towards getting that rolling.

Sat - Nielsen Challenge slog.  I can tell it had been A LONG time since I tried to race.  The goal was not aggressive, wanting to go sub 13, but I couldn't even get that.  13:05 officially.  Ugh.  Later that day $100 and I did a fantastic bike pub crawl.  Red Leg, Goat Patch, the new Mash Mechanix, the Triple Nickel, and Smiling Toad.  Good times.

The numbers for the week:

run - 34 miles/six hours

ride - 53 miles/5:15

hike - 21 miles/8.5 hours

Sun - bit hungover, but did get out for a nice 27 mile bike ride, heading south on the Santa Fe trail.  4.8 mile run on the Red Rock Canyon trails, ending at Fossil Brewing for my sixth brewery of the weekend.

Mon - easy ride on the COVID loop, 14 miles in 80 minutes.  

Tues - bike commute 18.  10.75 miles to work.  Great day.  And the weather has been fantastic.  Hard to believe we have major snow coming along this weekend.

I received my second COVID vaccine shot on early Monday morning.

birds

Bailed after work on Friday for Oil Well Flats.  Nice 4.5 mile family run on those trails on Saturday morning.  Didn't think twice about hitting The Owl for breakfast.  Yes, I ordered three double cheeseburgers at 9AM, van life is the best.

Then it was off to Monte Vista.  I had always heard about the sandhill crane migration and that gave us a good excuse to spend a weekend in the Valley.  It was pretty impressive, there were probably at least 10,000 birds just hanging out there.  

Spent Saturday night at the town park in Del Norte.  They are nice enough to allow one night of vehicle camping in their park right by the river.  Luckily it's also a two minute walk to Three Barrel Brewing.

Back home on Sunday, dropping by Moonlight and Tres Litros.  Can't wait to spend a long weekend there for the marathon.  Florence Brewing ended a great weekend trip.

Monday - track.  I've probably been doing only MAF paced stuff for the last 15 months, thought it was maybe time to up the effort a bit.  Alas, the track was still covered in ice and snow.  Still ground out 6 x 400m with 200m RBI.  Untimed, but slow, luckily I can blame that on the conditions.  Red Mountain in the evening, hitting up Manitou Brewing for their seventh anniversary after that run.

Tues - bike commute 16.  Ten there, eleven back.  Spring weather FTW.  Good climb at lunch, once again tackling some 5.9s.  

Wed - run commute 15.  Five there, four back.  Mediocre bouldering session at lunch.  Guitar practice in the evening, working on Neil Young's Harvest Moon.

bike commute 15

Mon - 5.4 miles on the Garden roads in the AM.  Red Mountain in the PM.

Tues - bike commute 14.  Eleven there, eleven back.  CityRock 23 at lunch.  Another 5.9.  Starting to get that grade fairly consistently.

Wed - run commute 13.  Five there, four back.  Some bouldering at lunch.  While at my guitar lesson it started to snow.

Thurs - run commute 14.  This came after taking all morning to dig out of a pretty big snowstorm for us.  We had eight inches at my house.  Thursday nights are now big at our house as we get pizza from Roman Villa, watch the Tedeschi Trucks show, and Andy Frasco is back with his shitshow.

Fri - bike commute 15.  Eleven to work.  Bike path was still a bit sketchy but not too bad.  Everything should melt out this weekend.

Headed down to Canon City in the van tonight.  Tomorrow it's off to the San Luis Valley for the rest of the weekend.

The week that was...

We seem to have survived the arctic blast.  Much warmer over the weekend.  Mileage was down due to the low temps but it was a good run week.

Run - 44 miles/7.5 hours

Ride - 8.4 miles/one hour

Hike - 17.2 miles/seven hours

And another good week at CityRock.

Easy six miler on Sunday AM on the Garden roads, then $100 and I jumped on the bike and rode over to Metric Brewing.  15 miles total.

20

It kind of warmed up on Saturday and I took advantage of it with a good long run.  20 miles on the Midland, Santa Fe, and Sinton trails.  3:09:26.  Still some ice out there on the trails but otherwise it was a good day to be outside.  My first twenty miler in a long time.  Maybe I'll beat the cutoff at Salida.

-16

I think we have made it through the cold.

Early Monday morning we got down to -16F, breaking a record that had been around since 1895.  Had a few days in a row where we didn't even reach 0F.  And then we got significant snow on Wednesday.  But hey, we had power, so things could've been worse!

Mon - 6.7 miles in the Garden, wearing all the clothes I own.

Tues - bike commute 13.  Straight there and straight home on the fat bike.  CityRock 19 at lunch, for the first time ever I climbed 5.9 on the first attempt.

Wed - run commute eleven.  Five there and four back.  The snow started around 2PM so the run home was nice.  CityRock 20 at lunch.  Solid hour of guitar lesson followed by Benny's, followed by some late night sidewalk shoveling.

Thurs - early morning sidewalk shoveling followed by run commute 12.  Four there and four back.  Lots of ice and snow, making these combined walk/jog suffles.  CityRock 21 at lunch.  Hit up Fossil in the evening for Shelby's last shift, good times there.

Fri - today was the light at the end of the tunnel, the beginning of the thaw out.  But when I got up to walk the dog it was 5F.  I made some coffee, took the dog out just long enough for her to shit, then played guitar until it was time to catch the bus.

40s for the weekend, which is going to feel downright tropical.  Hoping to get in a good long run on Saturday and a good long ride on Sunday.

Seems like the COVID bullshit is finally, maybe starting to take a turn for the better???  I'm optimistic enough that I bought tix today to see Tedeschi Trucks at Red Rocks for their two night run in late July...

still cold

Not much going on over the weekend.  I went to CityRock on Friday.  The temps have remained significantly below zero so I just hunkered down indoors.  Got some shit done around the house, did some reading, but nothing active.  Yeah I could have bundled up in five layers and went out and crushed some ten minute miles but I just didn't have the motivation.  I'm pretty sure this is the coldest stretch in COS since I've lived here.

For the week:

run - 28 miles/5.5 hours

ride - 62 miles/6.5 hours

hike - 16 miles/6.5 hours

I did have a good week at the climbing gym, so at least there's that.

colder

Thurs - run commute ten.  Was thinking about getting after some faster stuff, but it was 11F when I left the house.  Wasn't much warmer on the way home.  Ugh.  CityRock at lunch.

Fri - I purposely slept in, until 4:45AM, hoping it would magically be warmer out.  Nope.  5F while I was out shoveling the walks.  Dog wasn't having anything to do with going outside.  3F when I left the house at 7:30AM to catch the bus.  Gonna be a rough weekend as things won't start warming up until Tuesday.  The current predicted high for Sunday is 5F.  Yay.  We sure have had a lot of days under 20F this year.

So mostly indoors this weekend.  Highlight will be watching the Pearl Jam show that starts streaming tonight.  Lots of guitar practice as well.

$100 has had both her vaccine shots.  I've had one and will get my second one in early March.

cold

Sunday - good ride up to Pikes Peak Brewing and back, just over 40 miles as I ended up at Trinity Brewing.  Longest ride of the year so far.

Mon - pretty sore from the weekend, but still wanting to start hitting the track again, I headed up for 5 x 200m super slow.  Seven mile ride at lunch on a new trail in Red Rock Canyon, then Red Mountain in the evening.

Tues - bike commute 12.  6.9 miles through Sondermann there, 4.9 miles back home.  Really good climb at lunch.

Wed - run commute nine.  Five miles there in 45 minutes, 5.7 super slow miles back home via Sondermann.  CityRock 16 at lunch.  

It has been trending colder each day for a while.  Culminates on Sunday where the current predicted high temp is 8F.  Yay.  Glad I got in some miles this past weekend, 'cuz ain't much happening this weekend.

18

Good day on Saturday.  Nice 2.5 mile hike with the dog over in Williams Canyon to start the day.  Always forget how awesome that place is.  Followed that with a solid 18 mile run on the Santa Fe trail, all at MAF pace.  Headwind most of the way, but the run felt great.  2:47:23.  After that I was lucky enough to get in a second dog hike, hanging out with my boy Moose and Amanda’s new dog Milli Vanilli.  

Manitou Mardi Gras is cancelled this year, but we celebrated on Saturday.  Trails End, then the bus to Manitou for the Royal and Manitou Brewing, then back to Fossil.  Good times.

It was like a dog park at Fossil.

run commute eight

Wed - run commute seven.  Five miles to work along the Midland and Santa Fe trails.  Pushed fairly hard the middle three miles, hit them in 7:07, 7:06, and 8:03 (some of that was at a red light), which is as fast as I've run in a long time.  CityRock 13 at lunch, and a very easy four miles back home.  Guitar practice in the evening, where we worked on Tom Petty's Wildflowers.

Thurs - bike commute eleven.  Ten there, eleven back.  CityRock 14 at lunch.  Started up the garage gym sessions this week, lots of sandbag get ups and leg blasters.  Good stuff.  

Fri - run commute eight.  Legs were toast from all the leg blasters.  Five miles to work in 48 minutes.  Not on social media anymore, including Strava, so I am now able to run different routes to work instead of defending my stupid local legend status on the Midland Trail.  Today I took a different route that runs on a long overpass over highway 25.  Pretty cool section that isn't well known. 

Recent piece on the Roman Villa, where we have eaten once a week since this COVID thing started.  I climb once a week with one of the owners, and they throw in two meatballs each week for our dog.   

Not much on deck for the weekend.  Long run on Saturday.  Ride on Sunday.  We'll see whatever else comes up.  

A lot (three, plus a Colorado resident who was killed in an avalanche in Alaska) of avalanche deaths in Colorado over the past few days, including the owner of Bonfire Brewing.

airplane

Pretty lazy this weekend, which I justified by saying I was trying to get ahead of this hip discomfort.  

Finished the land nav course on Saturday, kind of a refresher from my Army days.  Got to play around North Table Mountain in Golden so that was cool.

On Sunday we all headed down to Canon City so $100 could fish the Arkansas.  Hiked the dog for an hour before heading over to Brothers.  Then hit Florence Brewing on the way back.  Good, lazy day.

On the way there, we came upon some weird traffic.

This plane had to make an emergency landing.  On the highway.  Then get towed to the local airport, very slowly.  

For the week.  Low numbers due to the shitty temps and nagging injury:

run - 19 miles, four hours

ride - 58 miles, 5:44

hike - 19 miles, eight hours

For the month:

run - 25 runs, 141 miles, 26:15

ride - 25 rides, 236 miles, 23:11

hike - 41 hikes, 109 miles, 42:45

Right on the money as far as the yearly distance goals go.

Mon - just gonna try to manage this hip thing.  It's not bad, and I'm hopeful it goes back to 100% from it's current 85% soon.  Still got out for a good 14 mile gravel ride in the afternoon, then hit Red Mountain after work.  Got two summits of Red as I ran into Marc on the way down the first climb.

Tues - bike commute 10, CityRock 12.  Trying to get in the bike miles before the shitty weather rolls in later this week.

hip to be square

Currently dealing with a weird douche grade hip/hip flexor/quad injury type thing.  Nothing serious, just a pain in the ass.  No idea what caused it, or when it will go away.  Getting old sucks.

Wed - nothing.  It was 4F at 5AM, and at 6:30AM it had dropped another degree.  Took the dog out just long enough for her to shit and played guitar all morning.  Then took the bus to work.  Did get to CityRock for lunch, so it wasn't a completely lazy day, but it was close.

Thurs - the hip thing only really hurts when I've been sitting down and then get up.  For some reason I thought I'd rest it by biking to work instead of running.  About halfway through my ten mile ride to work I realized that the biggest sitting related activity I do is biking (I have a stand up desk at work).  Still got in twenty miles on the day though.

Fri - normally a bike day, but decided to run, which feels fine.  Quick 3.6 miler each way.  Run commute six.

Off to Golden early Saturday to complete the CMC land nav class.  Meeting Shad at Over Yonder at 2PM if anyone is thirsty.

RIP to former Temple hoops coach John Chaney, one of the legends of the sport.

bike commute 8

Sat - quick 5.8 miler over in Red Rock Canyon followed by a 25 mile ride up to the Air Force Academy.  Then it was a ton of beers and the hash to close out Saturday.

For the week ending January 23rd:

run - 30 miles/5.5 hours

ride - 48 miles/five hours

hike - 27 miles/10.5 hours

Three trips to CityRock.  Need to get back to the garage gym.  And the yoga streak ended this week, but I'm still doing more yoga than ever for me.

Sun - ran up to the Top of the W's, 6.5 miles, then biked the COVID loop, 14.5 miles.

Mon - got some early morning snow.  After shoveling the walks I headed over to the Garden since they plow there early.  5.5 miles.  It warmed up later on and I was able to get 13.7 miles on the bike.  Online avalanche awareness shindig in the evening.

Tues - more snow and cold as balls, but I took the fat bike to work.  Four there and four back.  Bike commute 8.  18F on the way there, 16F back.  No thanks.

bike commute seven

Can't put my finger on why but it's been a very meh week.  Every commute was basically straight there and back, every climbing session was mediocre to poor.  Had started ramping up the effort this month and I guess it finally caught up to me.  Hopefully after a few lower mileage days I'm back to normal next week.

Tues - run commute four.  4.3 there, 5.6 home.  CityRock seven at lunch.

Wed - bike commute six, CityRock eight.

Thurs - run commute five, CityRock nine.

Fri - bike commute seven.  

Pitt hoops took down Duke this week, so it wasn't all bad.

So Many Roads

Jan 16 - behaved myself on Friday night, staying in to complete an online land nav course offered by the CMC.  That allowed me to get up early on Saturday for a dog hike followed by a 15.8 mile loop on the COVID route, 2:23, all at MAF pace.  Best run in a while.

For the week:

run - 42 miles/seven hours

ride - 60 miles/six hours

hike - 25 miles/just under ten hours

Saturday afternoon I headed up north to check out So Many Roads brewing, which caught my attention as they bill themselves as a Grateful Dead museum.  It's owned by the same guys who own Sancho's, and it didn't disappoint, though I want to return if this COVID bullshit ever subsides.  Saw Shad and Kircher up there, first time seeing those guys in a long time.  Quick trip to Sancho's as well.

Didn't drink much as I was driving, but that ended once I got home and hit Fossil.  Few too many, which ended up wrecking my Sunday motivation for riding or running.  No worries, as me and the dog loaded up the van ($100 was out of town) and headed down to Fremont County.  Spent some time at Florence River Park, hit up Florence Brewing, then headed out to Oil Well Flats for the night.  A little reading, some guitar, and an early-ish turn in to bed.

Woke up on Monday and headed out for what I thought would be a four mile hike.  Quickly turned into a 6.5 miler, the dog's longest in a while but she loved it.  She's been sleeping hard since that hike ended though.

Less than a day and a half until this guy hits the road.

Into The Wild

Jan 13 - bike commute four.  Ten miles there, 4.2 back.  Busy Wednesday night as I had guitar practice, a return trip to Benny's (now open again after reduced COVID restrictions), and Amanda's 40th b-day party.

Jan 14 - run commute three.  4.2 there and 4.2 back.  Not very fast (see: last night).  CityRock at lunch but not much to write about there.

Jan 15 - bike commute five.  Straight to/from work.  $100 is out of town this weekend so I have extra dog duty the next few days.

Wanna feel old?  This book came out 25 years ago.

bike commute 3

The weekend was kind of a bust on the physical activity front as I spent most of the time supporting local breweries.  Visited Fossil, Red Leg, Lost Friend, and Metric.  Evan paid a visit to the Skybox Lounge.

Jan 11 - Monday is now a work from home day for me, and will remain so for a while.  Want to get back to the track, but due to recent snow Holmes is a mess.  7.5 miler on the Garden roads.  15 mile gravel ride at lunch.  3.6 miles up and down Red Mountain after work.  

Jan 12 - $100 got a new sauna for xmas.  So I found myself doing some yoga in the early AM, and the temp in there hit 130F.  Then I jumped on the bike to head to work and it was 18F.  Ouch.  Ten miles there, eleven back.  Still a bit icy on the Santa Fe/Sinton bike paths.

the week that was...

Fairly decent first full week of ‘21.  Increased the intensity a bit and I definitely felt it, especially the garage gym stuff.

Run - 38 miles/7.5 hours

Ride - 54 miles/just under five hours

Hike - 24 miles/9.5 hours

And four good CityRock sessions.

yoga

Jan 5 - bike commute one.  Ten there, eleven back.  CityRock one at lunch.  The gyms here are also open at a greater capacity so that makes things a bit easier schedule-wise.

Jan 6 - run commute one.  Five there, 3.5 back, the time in between spent with my jaw dropped watching the crazy shit go down over in DC. 

Jan 7 - run commute two.  4.8 there in 42:20.   4.2 back in 42:34.  Good bouldering session at lunch.  Actually made a few moves on a V4.

I am currently on a yoga streak.  I stumbled across Yoga15 and signed up for their 28 day challenge.  The 15 minute sessions, which cut out all the spiritual and mindfulness stuff I don't care about, are perfect for me.  I'm able to squish the session in between my morning dog hike and guitar practice.  So we'll see where this goes.

bike commute 1

Might have let myself relax a bit too much over x-mas as my weight increased quite a bit.  Back at it with the new year though.

Jan 1 - 10k over in Red Rock Canyon.  Might have been horribly hungover.  But still had to knock out the annual Rescue Run miles.

Jan 2 - 5.5 mile Garden run followed by a 15 mile ride on the 'ol COVID loop.

Jan 3 - Incline Club.  Ran up the new incline bail trail, connected to the steps around 1/3 of the way up, and climbed.  Back down and up Red Mountain.  Ten miles total, just over 3k of vert.  21 miles on the bike in the evening.

Jan 4 - nice seven miler on the Garden roads in the AM, 3.6 miles up and down Red Mountain in the evening.  We are back to level orange so the post run beer at Manitou Brewing was my first drink inside a brewery since before Thanksgiving.