bad back

Monday was a good day.  Dog hike with the pack and track in the AM.  Good garage gym session over lunch.  Incline in the evening.  Only one beer at Manitou Brewing and early to bed.  Rainier training off to a good start.

Then on Tuesday morning, as I was about to jump on my bike to head to work, I sneezed.  And my lower back exploded.

So I'm dealing with that right now.  Not too painful, but super stiff.  No running, including bailing on the Creepy Crawl 5k this morning.  Hopefully by Monday I'll be back to normal.

track

Nice week of not doing much, topped off by the brewery marathon on Saturday which turned into quite a shitshow.  In case that wasn't a reason to drink enough beer, Pitt crushed Clemson on Saturday as well.

Went up to the track today.  4 x 800m, 4 x 200m.  3:16, 3:10, 3:09, 3:06.  Untimed on the 200s but I guess they were in the 43 second range.  Have a few 5k's and the Rock Canyon half before the year ends, so I'll be halfway training for those.

recovery/happy 13th!

Easy week as I was pretty beat up from all the slow marathoning.  Will start getting back into a routine on Monday.

I was able to get up to watch my cadet nail her first jump on Wednesday.

Big game for Pitt on Saturday.  Not often that we have a legit chance to beat Clemson.

Holly is 13 years young today.  Eleven of those with us.  Her friends are all dropping by to say happy birthday.

Colfax

Apparently I am unable to run a halfway decent road marathon anymore.

Started off at eight minute mile pace, and then it was the same story as Chicago.  Made it to just past halfway before the legs just gave out.  I guess I'm old enough now that I can either do well running up a hill, or do well running on a flat road, but not both.

4:13:58 officially.  Was at mile 25ish when I passed by new (to me) Reverence Brewing.  Big sign out front said they were open early for the marathon.  So I went in.  And they were playing Widespread Panic, so I ended up having two pints there.  So I probably would have broke four without that, but there's really no difference between 3:59 and 4:13 for me.

Bunch of quality bars after the race.  Back to Reverence, the Satellite Lounge, Nob Hill, 1UP, Sancho's, and Kinga's.  Physically, the race wrecked my back and hamstrings, but at least the booze took away the pain.

Did the 5k on Sunday in City Park with Kircher's dog.  

Big two months of racing for me and I'm glad it's over.  Have our local 5k race series coming up, but that's nothing I'll be taking seriously.  For the near future it will be all about training to get my ass up Rainier.

Chicago

Good trip if you don't count the second half of the marathon!

Went out at a good pace, 1:38 at the half, and just couldn't hold it.  Struggled and slowed significantly after mile 14.  Stopped twice for beer and even had some ten minute miles in there.  Crossed the line in 3:39.  Oof.  Hot and humid, everyone outside of Galen Rupp seemed to run slower than planned.  Still a piss poor race for me though.

$100 actually ran pretty well, staying on sub five hour pace for 22+ miles before imploding.  Still crushed her goal of sub 5:30 though.

The rest of the trip was a blast.  Explored Chicago, hiked a bunch of miles on the lakefront and 606 trails, drank a ton of Malort, saw Wrigley Field.  Good times.

I used to work in Chicago...

We leave ass early on Saturday for the windy city and return Tuesday late afternoon.  The 'thon is Sunday morning and then it's just Old Style, hot dogs, and pizza for the rest of the weekend.

I haven't done any road marathon training, though the endurance is there and sea level should be a huge boost for me.  Gonna head out with the 3:20 group and see what happens.

the scooters are here!

I'm a big fan of any transportation that doesn't involve a car, so I was petty excited when the dog and I turned a corner on our morning walk and saw a bunch of scooters ready to go. 

Still ran to work, but took a scooter home.  Topped out at just over 14mph, and had to work real hard up some of the hills, but it was fun.  19 minutes and a cost of $8.41, left the scooter on the curb in front of my house.  

Not cost effective to do trips this long, PikeRide will fill that void, but I'm looking forward to some downtown pub crawling with one of these.

19:19

Still plodding along.

On Saturday I ran over to do the two mile Nielsen challenge.  Ran 13:13, and with the to and from I ended up getting in twelve miles.  Later that day $100 and I went to our first Switchbacks game.  The plan was not to drink much as I had planned to hit a 14er on Sunday.  But we took PikeRide downtown, ended up stopping at Mash Mechanix and Pikes Peak Brewing.  Then on the way home it turned into quite a shitshow with visits to Benny's, Front Range, and Nova West.  Nova West may have included some Mad Dog.

Probably my last Switchbacks game.  Tix were $27 each and that big Coors I'm drinking was $15.  Significantly more expensive than Air Force football and I just don't care about soccer that much.

I did end up summiting Mount Sherman on Sunday, extending the calendar streak to five months.  Sherman is considered an easier 14er, but I wanted to get more comfortable with the route as this will likely be one I attempt in the winter.  Worked in some Chicago training on the summit:

Had some beers with Alex at Fossil on Sunday evening.  Next month will mark five years of monthly Pikes summits for him.

Track 5k on Monday morning.  19:19, including a 6:05 middle mile.  My two mile split was 50 seconds faster than my Nielsen time.

Chicago this weekend, Colfax the following weekend.  Then I'm up to date with races, no more COVID holdouts.  I am signed up for a few local runs - the Pikes Peak YMCA 5k series, Rock Canyon half, and I'll probably run the Super Half.  But with HAMS starting later this month, I'll be putting racing on the back burner for a while.

2023 will mark ten years at my job, and I've recently told my boss I plan to take some time off.

update

Finally getting back into the swing of things after a month of travel.

My beloved iPhone 7 shit the bed at Telluride, so I lost a lot of pics from the road trip and the festival.

Blues and brews was fantastic as usual.  If you've never listened to Larkin Poe, do yourself a favor and check them out.

Got up Pikes this weekend to keep the 14er streak alive.  Tried to do it from Devil's Playground onSaturday with Millie as we were dogsitting.  But she struggled with the scrambling near the summit so we had to turn around.  I went back out on Sunday and did the route from the Crags parking lot.

The theme on Pikes this weekend was washed up has beens.  Besides me, I also ran into Nick Clark and BStap on the hill.  Hadn't seen either of those two in a long time but I can confirm they are alive and well.

Hit the track this morning for a 5k solo time trial.  19:19, splitting 6:15, 6:08, and 6:09.  That last mile hurt a bit.

road trip

Another excellent van trip in the books.

Rut weekend, all three races, went really well and I got my 23rd state marathon under my belt.  All are really difficult races.  The 50k took me a few seconds under nine hours to finish.

After that it was lots of hiking and breweries.  Not a whole lot of looking at mountains thanks to all the smoke.  So yeah I went to the Grand Tetons and Wind River range and couldn't even see 'em.

I'll try to get pics and a better report of the race up.  Right now I'm preparing for a long weekend down at Telluride Blues and Brews.  Liver is going to need some rehab after September.

Old Faithful

Montana

The van is packed and we're off to Montana.  Don't even have the full route picked out yet, but we'll figure something out.  I might get a few pics up here but for the most part this blog will go dark for a few weeks.

new ride

First, as always, my other ride is your mom!

I had been lusting over one of these bikes for years from following various bikepacking blogs and websites.  But the somewhat affordable ones had been sold out forever.  But while on our way to the Flyathlon, I got an e-mail, conveniently right before we hit Soulcraft Brewing, that the bikes were back in stock.  Ordered an x-ray IPA and then ordered a new bike.

Two weeks later this arrived:

And I immediately tried to cut my thumb off while getting the bike out of the box.  So for ten days I had an incredible new bike, but I had to ride her one handed.

But now I've been able to get her outside.  Loving the ride so far. 

I have some big plans for this bike.  First solid ride was from our hotel in Dillon, CO, up and over Hoosier Pass to the South Park Saloon.  The bike is heavy and I'm not going to win any races on her, but I'm not concerned about time with this one.

Gov't Mule/Trombone Shorty

Can't go on vacation without mentioning how awesome it was seeing Gov't Mule and Trombone Shorty at the Dillon Amphitheater.  Both bands were outstanding and I really liked the venue.

recovery

Pikes left me a bit more beat up than normal.  Had trouble walking until Tuesday, and was still a bit sore on Thursday.  So it was a lot of riding this week and not a lot of running.

Saw Chris Duarte last night at Stargazers.  Tonight and Saturday it's the Trombone Shorty/Gov't Mule show at the Dillon Amphitheater, my first show there.  Might visit a brewery or two as well.

Wanna feel old?  Pearl Jam's Ten was released 30 years ago today.

double

3:32:11 for the Ascent on Saturday.

5:49:32 for the round trip on Sunday, with a 3:38:34 up.

About what I expected.  Pushed hard, happy with the effort, would have liked a sub 3:30 on either day but it just wasn't to be.  With a bit better weather on Saturday it might have happened, but we'll never know.

I think of myself as a climber, but on Sunday I had the 150th best ascent, and I ran pretty hard.  My downhill, which I purposely didn't go all out, was the 57th fastest (2:10:58).  

Got a rare win over Gerald.  He was a good sport about it.

Really great seeing so many awesome people out there.  Let's do it again next year!

shorter days

One of the downsides to walking the dog so early every day is that we can see the days are already getting significantly shorter.

Still struggling with the hand, but the stitches come out this Friday.  It's healed up, but I have to wrap it which takes any use of the left hand away.  Just a pain in the ass.

Bob was in town on Sunday and we did a nice tour of some local breweries.  Red Leg, Goat Patch, Mash Mechanix, Smiling Toad, and Fossil.  Good times.

Did get in a decent incline on Monday.  Bike commute 62 on Tuesday.  Riding is awful as I basically have to ride one handed.  Run commute 46 on Wednesday.

Not expecting much at Pikes this weekend.  No worries about finishing, just not sure how fast it will be.  A great day for me would be 3:30, but I could see me going up in at least 3:45.  Probably at least 2:15 down on Sunday.  Just haven't put in any work towards running fast there.  Just a good long run for the Rut which is only two weeks away.

I have nothing to base this off of but I'm starting to wonder if Chicago will happen this year...

Aloha Mr. Hand!

I probably shouldn't be allowed to handle sharp objects anymore as I damn near cut off a thumb on Tuesday.  Twelve stitches later it finally stopped bleeding.  Gonna mess up my climbing for the next ten days, and it's quite a pain in the ass to ride a bike right now.

Needle

Success!

Took the van down Friday evening to the lower lot of the South Colony Lakes trail.  Got to watch a pretty impressive storm roll by.

The climb went well.  A long slog, 20 miles on the day, with some pretty technical sections.  Climbed some class 4/5 stuff in the Sportiva Wildcats and didn't get spooked.  All in all a really good day.  I will return to climb Broken Hand Peak someday.  Still lots of smoke here in Colorado.

Dropped by Florence Brewing on the way home in time to watch the GOAT Kipchoge dominate the marathon.

I have made a goal of climbing a 14er every month.  Most of those will be Pikes, but the option is there to nab others.  Hoping for 18 months, which would get me some winter experience and get me a calendar year streak.  I'm currently at three months.  June (Longs), July (Humboldt), and August with the Needle.  Current plan is to do Sneffels in September on our way to Telluride Blues and Brews.

Needle attempt

Tedeschi Trucks was fantastic.  Even with the crazy rain/hail on Friday that caused a long delay.  The steps inside Red Rocks were waterfalls.  But the band came back out and played until 11:30PM.  

Getting back into the routine.  Good incline on Monday.  I'm currently at run commute 45 and bike commute 60.  Raising the effort a bit at CityRock as well.

Heading down to Westcliffe tomorrow to stage for an early Saturday morning attempt of Crestone Needle.  Might try to hit local peak Mt. Rosa on Sunday, which apparently I haven't done since 2007.