2k

This cold spell is getting a little bit ridiculous.

4.5 miles to CityRock, then a good workout at the rock while I was regaining feeling in my fingers and toes.  Four miles back home, and with a mile to go the yearly odometer wound past 2000 miles.  Good timing, as it was my last run of the year.

We will be heading down to Canon City on Thursday after work, then off to the Sand Dunes to bring in the new year.  Got some long hikes on the docket, and we're hoping to hit two new breweries along the way - Crestone Brewing and Square Peg Brewerks.

My last post of 2017, hope everyone has a safe and fun end of the year!

Accolade 26

8F when I got up to walk the dog this morning.  Not even the dog wants to be outside in those kinds of temps.  She went out, did her business, then drug me back to the house, where she immediately jumped back into bed.  Smart animal.

I had planned to run to work but decided to head indoors instead.  Probably the last time this year I'll get to the gym.  I was hoping for 34 trips to Accolade this year, and I'll fall a bit short.  $335 per year for the membership, which came out to $12.88 per visit.  Probably not worth keeping, but I won't cancel due to the hassle and the fact that I have some different things planned for '18 that gym training will be good for.

Far exceeded my goals for CityRock.  Needed 54 trips to get to less than $10 per visit, and I'm currently at 83.  A bargain at $6.46 per visit.  I've already re-upped my membership for next year.  Alex Honnold better watch his back.

incline 39

Met some friends over in Manitou for a christmas trip up the Incline.  Good times.

3k

Motivation was lacking due to the low temps today.  But I was only 14.8 miles away from hitting my 2017 goal of 3000 miles on the bike.  And my Red Leg loop is 15 miles.  And Red Leg put their Guidon IPA on tap yesterday.  So I got out there and got it done. 

Interesting year on the bike.  I rode 100 miles at Bikes & Brews in Canon City.  Kircher and I did a weekend of 150ish miles.  I rode to Pikes Peak Brewing (50 miles) twice.  Other than that, most of those miles were either to work or to the pub.  So just by replacing your car with a bike for trips under five miles, you can get some pretty significant miles.

incline 38

5F when I arrived to meet the Incline Club in Manitou.  Did the Incline with the fire road extension, seven miles.  When I got back to the jeep two hours later it was still 5F.

bike commute 85

Sunday - hungover, but I tried to get outside as much as I could.  3.7 mile hike with the dog in the Garden, 5.5 mile run at White Acres, and 14 miles on the bike along the Legacy Loop.  Every inch was at an extremely slow pace.

Monday - bike commute 84.  22 miles on the day which included a trip to Red Leg.  Then I hit Fossil when I got home.  Oreo Stout release, but it was way too sweet for me so I stuck with the Mammoth IPA.

Tuesday - hungover (a common theme during the holidays), but I had a sick day to use.  Four mile run in Red Rock Canyon with the dog, then a trip up to Lakewood to see Dooper.  He looked like shit but was in good spirits.  Got home in time to do my 14 mile Legacy Loop ride.

Wednesday - run commute 62.  Eleven miles on the day.  Also a really good session at CityRock (82).

Thursday - 3.7 mile run in the Garden with the dog followed by a ten mile ride to work.  Holy balls was it cold on the bike this morning.

Have 29 miles running and 45 miles biking left to finish my 2017 resolutions.  Hope to finish them both over the upcoming four day weekend.

Have I mentioned how I hate this city being associated with the Olympics?  Maybe the USOC should relocate to State College where they have a much more favorable opinion of child molesters.  I don't know everything about this case, but it seems Maroney told them she would keep quite for a million bucks.  Then when she got her money she told everyone.  Awesome!  I hope she, and anyone else involved, sue the bejesus out of those in charge.

that was quick...

I will now have to find a new place to leave bags of dogshit as the blue frame was taken down this morning.  Photo stolen from Christian Murdock and I will buy him a beer next time I see him as repayment.

So glad the powers that be are always trying to attach our village to the Olympics. 

incline 35, 36, & 37

I got up to run on Friday morning but it was 18F so I went to the gym instead.  25th trip to Accolade this year.

Did hit the Incline on Friday after work with $100 and the dog.  Much better weather in the evening than the morning.

On Saturday there was a combined CRUD/Sunrise Striders double Incline run and I got my ass out of bed for it.  Doozy of a workout.  Ten miles in just under 3.5 hours.

Also slogged out an 18 miler on the bike.  Chasing that 3000 mile goal.

Kept busy all day Saturday.  After the ride we took the dog to Old Colorado City.  She is taking another class through All Breed Rescue & Training.  It's their outdoor adventure series of classes, and in this one we just go to busy places and work on having the dog behave.  The dog is crushing the classes so far.

Saturday night was the annual Verly Hudson Manitou pub crawl, BLOS and I have been doing this for almost a decade now.  Started at the Royal Tavern, then hit the Townhouse, Stagecoach, the Keg, and Kinfolk's.  Needless to say I'm a bit foggy this morning.

Major first world problems here in the Springs as a stupid blue picture frame was installed in the Garden of the Gods.  Been a lot of pissed off folks about it, and I hope it is taken down soon.  I also wish the powers that be would stop sucking off the USOC.  I love watching the Olympics but if you're paying any level of attention at all you have to associate anything Olympic related to scandal and corruption.

The dog says the Garden is just fine as it is without catering to the mayor's wife and her tone deaf pet projects.

Carpenter Peak

It's become a habit now that whenever I need to go to our Denver office for work, I hit Roxborough State Park for a run up Carpenter Peak before heading back home.  A little bit out of the way, but Living The Dream Brewing is close by so it makes for a great afternoon.

Met up with JP at the trailhead.  Just under 40 minutes to the top.  JP hasn't been running much so I was able to keep up.  Then back down and over to LTD for a few brews while we talked about how all of our friends who used to run don't run anymore.  Good times!

Totally unrelated, here's a pic of me finishing the Chasing Santa 5k on Sat:

run commute 61

5.5 miles to work, 4.3 miles back home.

$100 and I also went to Accolade after work.  Lifted some weights and rode ten miles on the bike.

Super cold Tuesday morning.  Walked the dog and then biked down to CityRock to climb a few laps before work.

Someone has challenged Killian's recent Everest stuff.  I do find it odd that as an ultra runner he would never think of going six minutes without posting a picture of mountains on social media, but somehow he can't put out a summit pic of Everest?  Guys have been taking Everest summit pics for over 40 years now, this shouldn't be a difficult thing to do anymore.

20:07

I knew this wasn't going to be pleasant but I had pre-registered for the Jingle Bell 5k so I figured I'd at least show up.  I went hard for a mile, 6:10, but I just had nothing in the tank after dealing with the sickness most of last week.  Mentally and physically I just gave up and jogged it in.  Wasn't paying attention at all or I'd have at least gone sub 20.

Probably my last race of the year.  Had fun getting after it during all these 5k's though, and it's something I'll try to do more of in 2018.

bike commute 81

Been a rough week as I've battled this sickness.  Only got in two runs - both very easy walk/jogs with $100 and the dog over in Red Rock Canyon.  And two rides - one of which was indoors at Accolade.  On Friday I was able to bike to work, and this is the first week all year I've used the jeep more than once to get to work.  Still not 100%, but I'm getting there.

Some Rock Canyon pics:

Rock Canyon Half

I figured I was in 1:40 shape, and that's when I told $100 to expect me, but I was definitely down in Pueblo to take a crack at 1:30.  I did well for the first seven miles.  And after that, I didn't do so well.  Not a complete epic failure as I've been known to post on occasion, but I was clearly running faster than I was in shape for.  Ended up crossing the line in 1:31:09.  And that effort crushed me, I was sore all the next day and now I've come down with some shitty flu like thing and I haven't done anything since Sunday.

I had a bet with Jeff and I felt like that 91 would be solid.  He was running CIM and the bet was my Rock Canyon vs his second half.  He finally proved he had a sack and not only won that bet, but went sub three for the first time.  Must be something about that course - his 2:59:22 was only good for 400 millionth 585th place.

I am signed up for two more halves - the Super Half here in the Springs and Platte River - and I'll take one last shot at a sub 90 before retiring from a sub 90 guy to the friendlier sub 100 club.

We did get to take the van out over the weekend.  Lake Pueblo State Park (great place to camp, though steep at $18 per night) on Friday night, and then Music Pass on Saturday night.

incline 34

Brother-in-law was in town on Thursday so $100, the dog, and I took him up the Incline.  Pitch dark at 6PM these days and as far as I could tell we were the only ones up there.  Dog's first incline in a really long time and she crushed it.

Already into December.  November was a decent month - 150 miles running and 295 on the bike.  Keeps me on pace to hit my 2017 goals of 2k running and 3k on the bike.

We are headed out of town on Friday for Lake Pueblo.  Rock Canyon Half on Saturday morning, then some more exploring of the Westcliffe area.  Could be our last van trip until our new years trip to Sand Dunes.

Rego for the Salida Marathon is open.  I'll be run/hiking the full and $100 will be running the half.  I will also be eating a lot of pizza and drinking a lot of alcohol that weekend.

In case anyone thought I was joking about crushing an eleven year old girl at the Turkey Trot, this was taken somewhere between mile 3.0 and 3.1, where I was teaching her some difficult life lessons about failure.  I really wanted to mow that old dude in front of me down as well but he was having none of it.

incline 33

It's back!

Was planning to do my usual turkey evening incline hike whether or not it was legal, but word broke on Wednesday that the steps would be officially open for business.  The top third is much easier now but overall it's still a great workout.  Had some friends from Austin in for the holiday weekend and $100 and I drug one of them up.

The rest of the weekend was mostly spent on the mountain bike.  And at bars.  Or at the house drinking.  Bit too much booze but at least I got some solid riding in, including the Buckhorn loop, and a ride through Red Rocks/Intemann over to Manitou Brewing to see JP and Vanessa.

I watched the last few minutes of the big Pitt upset from the top of Buckhorn.  We celebrated with some PA beers.

The Incline Club started up the new season and I was able to drag myself out of bed for that.  Did the incline and went up a bit higher to Rocky Mountain.  8.5 miles total.

18:43

Rough race but the goal was to break 19 and I got that done.  Our local turkey trot is a tough course if you're trying to run fast.  Out and back, the first half is all uphill so nailing a specific pace is rough.  I was in the hurt locker at the halfway point but I managed to hold things together to the finish.  Splits were 6:21, 6:14, 5:45.  Gerald wasn't too far ahead at the turn around but he crushed me on the downhill.  Luckily I had something left in the tank over the last .1 miles as I had to unleash a kick just to beat an eleven year old female.

Bike Commute 77

Monday - Run commute 59.  6.7 miles to work via Sonderman Park, 5.1 miles home along the Midland Trail.  CityRock 75 at lunch.

Tuesday - AM track.  4 x 400, 2 x 800.  Love this workout in the offseason, as it's hard and works on some speed, but it's not the kind of soul crushing workout that scares me.  After that I walked the dog, then rode ten miles to work.  CityRock 76 at lunch.  Had to drop by Colorado Running Company to pick up turkey trot bibs after work, got in 18 miles on the bike.

update

Had a blast last weekend seeing shows on back to back nights, a rare feet for an old fart like me. 

On Friday we went to the Black Sheep for the Perpetual Groove show.  Loved it, even though they didn't play my favorite Three Weeks.

On Saturday we headed over to Manitou to catch the Trout Steak Revival show at city hall.  Not exactly Red Rocks, but it was pretty cool and I hope they start bringing more bands there.

A few days later, on Friday, I biked home in short sleeves and headed up to Lone Tree where it was snowing.  Nat Geo talk about the Grand Canyon with Pete McBride and Kevin Fedarko. 

I had been itching to get back to the GC since I saw Fedarko speak a month or so ago, and the wheeles are really turning now.   $100 and I might go do this hike sometime around easter.

In other important news, there's a new, really good pizza joint by my house.

Still getting the dog out, usually twice a day.  This shot is from Red Rock Canyon.  As the crow flies it's probably less than a mile from my house.

track

Monday - run commute 57.  Eleven miles total to/from work.

Tuesday - had to drive to work today, so I got up early for a track workout.  4 x 400m, 2 x 800m.  I usually do this while running to work as 4 x 90 seconds, 2 x 3 minutes.  But it hurts a lot more on the track.  93, 88, 87, 87, 3:06, 3:03.  Also got in some climbing over lunch.

first to worst

Ran the Celebrate Our Vets 5k on Saturday.  19:09, with mile splits of 6:16, 6:02, and 6:10.  But you don't have to be good when you choose races like I do, and I actually ended up winning this thing.  By a lot.  Basically the field was me and a bunch of blind people (And Brandon Staponowhich, who I crushed).

The American Distance Project, which now apparently serves to place Kenyan born folks into the Army, was out there doing speedwork.  They were probably running close to two minutes per mile faster than I was going, but I'm sure I impressed them with my win.

After celebrating my victory at the brand spankin' new Trails End Taproom, I went over to Cheyenne Mountain High School for the open two mile race.  I need to kick O'Day in the balls because he told me there would be some slow people there.  But only one slow person showed up - me.  Bunch of young college dudes in short shorts and sponsored runner singlets, and me out in lane eight rocking NBA style shorts and a Grateful Dead cotton t-shirt.  I ran my first lap in 82 and I was very, very much in last place already.  Only two guys in the ten person field didn't lap me, and those two were pretty close.  Finished in 11:49 after running a solo lap of shame the final quarter mile, about a minute behind the next guy.

I've been running a long time, but I've never finished first and last in the same day.