Stryper

Bit to catch up on.

On Tuesday I went eastward to the Black Sheep to catch Stryper, an 80s Christian hair metal band that for some reason I listened to a lot of when I was in high school.  Solid show.

Saturday found me once again helping out with the local SAR dogs.  Love all these pups.

This was up at Black Forest Section 16.  Some good views of our mountain from that area.

Got in a good ride on Sunday, up Rampart Range Road to Mt. Herman Road and back home via the Santa Fe trail.  66 miles.  Lots of climbing.

For the week:

run - three miles.  Hardly anything, and even the one run I did was a disaster as the Mook and I got stuck in a hail storm.

ride - 153 miles, 16 hours

hike - 38 miles, 15 hours.  Saturday's dog training included a lot of hiking.

On Monday I hit up Red Leg for the annual Angels of America's Fallen 10k.  Started off a bit slow and that cost me a place or two in the end, but pretty happy with the effort, especially over the second half.  45:29.  Allowed me to start my holiday beer drinking before 9AM.

Colfax

Another year, another Colfax marathon in the books.  

Went up Saturday for packet pick up, then hit a few breweries before watching the Nuggets.

Race day went well.  Snuck in at 4:52:48, which sounds terrible but includes two beers at the Lakeview Lounge at mile ten, a beer at Reverence Brewing at mile 24, and another brew at a house party around mile 25.  Strava had my moving time at 4:04:59.  Not awful for someone who has been running 20 mile weeks and biking a ton. 

For the week:

run - 37 miles, seven hours

ride - 115 miles, 10.5 hours

hike - 25 miles, 9.5 hours

mug

Mon - 15 mile ride in the AM, incline in the PM.

Tues - three hours on the bike, 31 miles.

Wed - bike commute 52.  Ten there, eleven back.  3.5 mile dog jog in the evening.  50th visit to CityRock over lunch.

Thurs - bike commute 53.  Ten there, six back.  New mug night at Fossil.  Starting to think the Nugs might win the title this year.

Fri - might have had one too many beers last night, not much accomplished today other than a good hike with Mook.

Sat - 30 mile ride before heading up north.

We've been having crazy rain around here.  The COS average rainfall for May is one inch, but we've had over four inches the last week.  Beats worrying about fires though.

Off to Denver for my annual Colfax marathon slog.  Gonna be rough this year but I'll get 'er done.

dogs

Mon - four mile run, 24 mile ride.

Tues - bike commute 49, ten there, eleven back.

Wed - early morning four miler with the Mook, then bike commute 50.  Guitar in the evening.

Thurs - it rained today.  Over two inches.  Run commute 14 since it was raining too hard to ride.

Fri - bike commute 51.  Ten there, seven back.  Went to night number one of The Motet at Lulu's.  

Sat - went out and helped the local SAR guys train the search dogs.  I wondered out into the woods about 3/4 mile, then sat around and let the dogs come find me.  Good times!

Four mile run before heading out for night two of The Motet.

Not much on Sunday as I was fairly hungover and wanted to watch the Sixers/Celtics.

For the week:

run - 25 miles, 4.5 hours

ride - 73 miles, seven hours

hike - 25 miles, nine hours

tricks

Mook's full name is now Mookie Blaylock, CGC, TDN.  Two more classes (which sounds easy but will be a ton of work) and he'll be a registered therapy dog.

Take 5

Solid week, lots of riding and the Take 5 in the Garden "double take," which was a nine mile race that covered both the trail loop and the road loop.  Then it was a good ride up Cheyenne Canon.  Hard effort that left me pretty sore on Sunday.  Rode up to Pikes Peak Brewing on Sunday, suffering in a head wind the entire way up.  Good times.

run - 30 miles, six hours

ride - 169 miles, 17 hours

hike - 25 miles, 9.5 hours

miles

Tweaked my lower back once again, which led to some lower than wanted numbers, but I did manage not to do any considerable, long term damage.  The hangover from the Tres Litros three year anniversary with DeadPhish Orchestra didn't help either.

Last week of April:

run - 26 miles, five hours

ride - 117 miles, 11.5 hours

hike -  23 miles, 8.5 hours

Included in those hiking miles was the monthly motorless morning in the Garden.  Mook says they should do this every day.

For the month:

run - 110 miles, 21.5 hours

ride - 640 miles, 62 hours

hike - 103 miles, 40 hours

It's gotta be my biggest bike month ever.  

Divide is six weeks away.  Finally got myself one of these:

Spiral Drive

Had a big ride planned for Salida over the weekend, but then it got cold and snowed.  So I just toured the local watering holes instead.  Did have a good run up and down S Mountain on Sunday at the Spiral Drive four miler, coming in just under 30.  And I beat Toby.

For the week:

run - 23 miles, five hours

ride - 89 miles, 8.5 hours

hike - 24 miles, nine hours

recovery

Mon - I was a physical wreck from Horsetooth.  Suffered a catastrophic failure of my rear tire on my easy ride, something I couldn't fix.  The tire was almost bald, but I was hoping to get another month out of it before having to replace it.  Got in 23 miles on the ride.

Tues - still feeling the race but did get a five mile easy run in.

Wed - easy four mile run with Mook before bike commute 39.  Ten there, 18 back.  Went over 1500 miles on the bike for the year.

Thurs - four miles of #mookmiles in the Garden, followed by bike commute 40.  Finally recovered from Horsetooth, I really did a number on my quads there.

Fri - easy four miles with the pup, then bike commute 41.  Headed down to Salida after work, running the Sprial Drive four miler on Sunday and getting in some kind of ride on Saturday.  Was planning on a big ride, but the weather is looking a bit iffy up high so we'll see what happens.

Horsetooth

Ran about as well as I could have hoped at the Horsetooth Half up in Fort Collins.  My days of sub 90 for this distance are long gone, 100 minutes now the new standard.  Went out with the 1:40 pace group for the first nine miles, then slowly plowed ahead to finish in 1:38:40.  Raced about as hard as I could and the last four or five miles were pretty rough, but I held on.  I'm typing this on Monday night and my legs are trashed.

Another solid week in the books.

run - 32 miles, 5.5 hours

ride - 148 miles, 14 hours

hike - 25 miles, six hours

Took Mookie over to the dog park today, which apparently had a visit from the tennis ball fairy.  Mook was in dog heaven.

coyotes

Mon - five mile run on the Garden trails in the AM, 30 mile ride in the PM.

Tues - bike commute 35.  Ten there, 13 back.  Four mile run in the evening.

Wed - starting to warm up here, and I decided that if I want to keep running Mookie it will have to be in the morning instead of after work.  So we headed over to Red Rock Canyon super early for a five miler.  Then bike commute 36.  Ten there and 19 back, including a break for guitar practice.

Thurs - morning five miler over in the Garden.  Saw some coyotes, they've been sparce on the westside for a few years but I've seen a bunch of 'em this year so far.  Bike commute 37, nine there and seven back.  Another good training session for Mookie in the evening.

Fri - bike commute 38.  Ten there, eleven back.  We got some much needed rain today.  Already had a local fire that worried me, though it was put out quickly.

Off to Fort Collins this weekend for the Horsetooth Half Marathon.  I have not been running much lately, and with the expected beer drinking on Saturday night I see a 1:44:59 finish in my future.

music

Solid week despite a three concert weekend.  Starting to get more miles on the rides home from work thanks to the improving weather.  50+ mile ride on Saturday.  

run - 23 miles, five hours

ride - 200 miles, 19 hours

hike - 24 miles, ten hours

Caught Hot Buttered Rum on Friday at Lulu's.  Love those guys.

Then we saw Third Eye Blind (yes, they played Semi-Charmed Life) on Saturday and Toto (yes, they played Africa) on Sunday.  Cut me some slack, this is Colorado Springs and it's not like I have a huge choice in live music.  But holy shit does my liver need some rest after the weekend.

Fremont County

Update: my Pirates have cooled off a bit but are still playing .500 ball and are not in last place in the NL Central.

Good weekend down in Canon City with the wife and the dog and some friends.  Lots of hiking and running and biking.  So glad the weather is finally warming up.  Got in some good rides.  On Saturday I did a tough 60+ miler exploring some of the gravel roads of Fremont County, then followed it up Sunday with a slog up Skyline Drive before heading over to Florence Brewing.

Solid numbers for the week.

run - 27 miles, five hours

ride - 132 miles, 13.5 hours

hike - 25 miles, 9.5 hours

Already got in a good 33 mile ride on Monday evening before some colder weather rolls in.  There were snow flurries during the early morning dog hike in Red Rock Canyon today.

Let's Go Bucs!

Typing this on Friday afternoon and I'd like to point out that the Pirates are currently on pace to win 162 games this year.

Mon - 6 x 400m in the morning, 14 mile ride in the evening.

Tues - zip, had to go to Denver for work.  But I did get to check out the Campus Lounge for the first time.  Quality joint.  Celebrated Millie's fourth birthday with four miles in Red Rock Canyon before hitting Fossil.

Wed - run commute 13.  Five there, 3.5 back.  Then biked over to guitar practice.

Thurs - 4.4 mile AM run, then bike commute 30.  Mookie is doing well with his tricks class.

Fri - bike commute 31.  Went over 1000 bike miles on the year on this ride.

Off to Canon City for the weekend.  Hope to get some good rides in, hopefully this wind dies down a bit.

The numbers for March:

run - 26 runs, 138 miles, 26 hours

ride - 31 rides, 293 miles, 29.5 hours

hike - 40 hikes, 115 miles, 44.5 hours

WFR

Passed my wilderness first responder course.  Loved it.  Evacuating a human from the wilderness is hard work.  Here's a shot of me helping to carry out a skinny guy.  Barely carried him half a mile and I was pretty worked.  

Pretty low numbers for the week as the class once again dominated my life.

run - 28 miles, five hours

ride - 57 miles, 5.5 hours

hike - 29 miles, 11.5 hours

Back into the normal schedule this week.  Weather seems to be warming up.  Van trip to Canon this weekend, looking at making April a big bike month to start to prep for the Divide.

woofer

The wilderness first responder course I've been taking has been great but I'll be glad when it's done.  30 hours of online stuff, eight hour days of classroom stuff Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and another Fri/Sat/Sun coming up.  Oof.  Plus my boy Mookie has started another class, it's time for him to learn some dog tricks.  

For the week:

run - 24 miles, 4.5 hours

ride - 40 miles, four hours

hike - 16 miles, six hours

Given the heavy snowpack along the route, and the fact that DeadPhish Orchestra is playing near my house on June 9, I'm thinking of pushing my start date for the Divide bike ride back a week.

Salida

Wasn't expecting to run well in Salida but that's exactly what happened.  Kept things very easy up until the mile 14 aid station.  It was snowing almost the entire time, but with warm temps it was a lot of fun.  I had a beer at the aid station and that PBR fired me up and I had a terrific second half.

Also had a brew at the mile 21 aid station.  Shad was too busy running hard to stop for a drink and he ended up missing a turn on the course.  I think there's a lesson to be learned here.  Ran really hard that second half all the way to the finish, and I'm paying for it now as my legs are toast.  Had a blast the remaining time in Salida, visiting all the usual hangouts and trying to drink all the beer in Chaffee County.

For the week:

run - 50 miles, 9.5 hours

ride - 90 miles, ten hours

hike - 30 miles, 11.5 hours

I'm taking a wilderness first responder class and my next two weekends will be spent doing that, so the rest of March will be a wash mileage wise.  In April biking will take priority as I start to prepare for the Divide.  Running is more or less done for me until August.

free solo

Solid week.  Including a local show by the Lil' Smokies and a trip up to Leadville for skijorning.

For the week:

run - 21 miles, 4.5 hours

ride - 105 miles, ten hours

hike - 25 miles, 9.5 hours

I made the fuck up of all fuck ups on Tuesday at CityRock.  Warming up, I picked an easy route, climbed to the top, and started to down climb.  About halfway back down I noticed I had failed to clip in to the auto belay.  Luckily I was able to get down OK.  I think the wall I climbed was 43 feet high.  Gym staff was not very happy with me.

February

Decent month considering some really cold and crappy weather, some track meets, some dog sitting, and the trip to Arizona. 

For the month:

run - 29 runs, 125 miles, 25 hours

ride - 23 rides, 286 miles, 27.5 hours

hike - 36 hikes, 88 miles, 34.5 hours

Was worried about the upcoming Salida marathon, which as usual I'm unprepared for.  I thought the cutoff was six hours, and if the course was a mess I could challenge that with my current ability to do a long run.  But I double checked and the cutoff is 7.5 hours!  Much greater chance of me beating that cutoff.  Hope to finish in 5.5 hours but I could definitely see me closer to six if I have a bad day.

innings

Incredible time out in Tempe for the Innings Festival.  We might be back, as it's super easy to get to from our house and a near guaranteed warm weekend in late February.  Highlights were the Offspring, Weezer, the Black Crowes, Umphrey's, and of course Eddie Vedder. 

For the week:

run - 28 miles, five hours

ride - 48 miles, 4.5 hours

hike - 25 miles, nine hours