Extreme lunch..

I seem to recognize your face haunting, familiar, yet I can't seem to place it. ~ Pearl Jam

I intended to write about this last night but got distracted making fun of Spartacus with Rage. Man, that is one funny movie. For whatever reason we have seen a couple of Tony Curtis movies recently (Some Like It Hot also). Not sure why he made the Netflix list of late but amusing nonetheless. From the really stilted dialogue, to the way the ruling class was portrayed, to the acting style of some of the actors who were clearly cast simply based on their looks (seemed some were chanelling John Wayne) - just a very unintentionally amusing film. We commented on how blatant the gay themes are in the film and how, at the time, these were considered very subtle (see or read Cellulide Closet for more on this) but were reminded about how this just wasn't on the general public's radar back when Sparticus was released. (And continues to fly under the radar for people of that generation.) Reminds me of a story my buddy told me about his dad...

They were driving along the 1 north of Santa Monica and got in the vicinity of Will Rogers State Beach when his dad commented how cool it was to see "all the fit guys walking around with their dads." "Those guys are gay, Dad," commented my friend. "No way," replied my friend's dad. Really amusing. In any event. The movie is pretty funny when looked at through 21st century eyes.

See, I got distracted again! Anyway...

I rode the dirt bike over to Idaho Springs to meet Cort for lunch yesterday and decided to ride dirt back home. There is a road that goes up through Apex and then drops over the western side to Tolland from where I can jam back to Rollinsville and home pretty easily. It has been awile since I have done this route but it is a fairly major road so I didn't anticipate any problems. Well, that is what I get for anticipating. When I got close to the top, the road was gated with signs warning about trespassing. Apparelty this goes through private land and they have blocked access in the last year or so. Bummer. Well, I didn't really want to just turn around and found another trail that I assumed would by pass the private land (it is all public up at the top). Wrong assumption.

So I ended up on a smaller trail... I think it was 413, can't remember and so I took it. As it wound its way around the contour of the mountainside, it became snow covered in North-facing spots but I trudged on. Soon, I started seeing landmarks that were somewhat familiar so I kept on following the trail until I was in an area that became more and more familiar. One of the benefits to living in an area for 15 years and exploring the territory extensively. The trail eventually dumped out onto Moon Gulch road and I quickly made my way home. A fun adventure at least but definitely a bit more than I had initially planned.

And our site launched yesterday. Check out the new Relish Studio site and tell everyone you know who you think might need design and development services.

Ok, back to work. I think today is the last day for early voting in Colorado so get out there and get 'er done.

~stubert.

Numero Uno...

Day one at the Basin with Pete.

I hunger. ~ Sinistar

Day one on the slopes with good company... Pete and I jammed up to the Basin for some first-chair turns and well, it is early season but it was SO good to get back on the sticks. Mine are in desperate need of a tune as the conditions were firm and thin but that beats the conditions in a cube somewhere.

My index toe on my left foot has been giving me fits since the marathon and it didn't really disappoint today. It felt better as the day progressed and we only skied for about an hour and a half as there was work to be done but it was an hour and a half well-spent.

On a completely different note, the election is a mere 6 days away and I am nervous, excited, hopeful, gassy, thrilled, twitchy, scared, happy and gassy. As you can tell, my emotions on this one are running the gamut. It has been a really, really long time since I have been honestly inspired by a candidate but Barack Obama has crossed that threshold for me. The right-wing has tried to make "hope" and "liberal" naughty words but you know what... it is time to take those back. I have voted and am queuing up to help in other ways over the course of the next 6 days to get this man elected and get down-ticket, progressive candidates elected, and turn a page in the history of this country. Even if I am simply delivering coffee to those standing in line on election day, I will be there and will be a part of history. What are you doing?

~stubert.

Barack, Pete and Stu...

Pete and I met in Denver for the Obama rally and got a great shot of the three of us....

(Click photo for larger version.)

Well... and about 100,000 of our closest friends.

~stubert.

Obama rally...

Lots of peeps out for Barack.

Another week...

Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright

This one restful.

So I was in recovery mode this week so I don't have much to crow about aside from dumping residual soreness from the marathon very quickly. I was a bit sore on Monday and Tuesday, then fine. Really fine. Pretty encouraging, actually.

Here's the week in review:

• Sunday (10/19): Denver Marathon, 26.2 miles, 3:41:31. You already read all about this one.
• Wednesday (10/22): Treadmill recovery then swim, 5 miles, 00:46 (20-minute swim). Just kept the heartrate down and relax. The first mile or so felt like I needed my joints oiled then I loosened up and felt fine. Just did a relaxed swim afterwards.
• Saturday (10/25): Treadmill then indoor track then lift then swim, 5 miles (2 and 3) with strides, 00:40ish. The treadmill was killing me. For whatever reason the HVAC was off so my heartrate was through the roof at an easy 9-minute pace. So I went upstairs to the track and had a hard time running mellow so I just kinda cruised and ended up laying down several 7-ish minute miles. Yikes. I felt great and started working on some new form technique so we'll see how that evolves. Then I lifted and hit the pool for about 15 minutes.

Total mileage for the week: 36 miles
Total time for the week: 4:57 (excluding swimming and whatnot)

Really, I feel pretty solid now. Very nice. Bob called today to see if I wanted to join him in something stupid tomorrow but fortunately we have plans else I might have been tempted. The last time I went out with Bobby T, I ended up with heat exhaustion. Not holding that against him, I'm just saying is all.

So tomorrow I am supposed to do 7 miles and we are going to go to Denver to join in an Obama rally. Very excited for that. Then I'm continuing to ramp back up for a few weeks before I start my taper for Las Vegas.

A-Basin opened up last week so I am guessing the pull of the slopes will start to infringe upon my running. Such is life in the mountains.

~stubert.

Recovering quickly...

All work and no play make Homer something something. ~ Homer Simpson

Aside from spending the last two days chained to my desk, I am recovering fairly well. Not too sore, feeling rested. Good times.

I may get up and go up for some early morning slopeside office action tomorrow. Haven't quite decided. I also need to look at the program to see what is in store training-wise for the coming weeks and figure out how to work in some volunteering. I also signed up for a meditation class on the 2nd. They took my money but I am not sure whether or not I got in. We'll see. That is going to be a long day as Rach and I volunteer at the shelter that morning.

All in all a hectic couple of weeks leading up to the election then hopefully things will settle down a little. Or not. You know how it goes around here.

If you haven't voted, get your butt in gear.

~stubert.

Hug a tree...

So apparently the Bush administration is trying to do an end-around on our forests in the waning days of their influence in order to open up our roadless wilderness to mining and drilling. Fellow Coloradoans, I IMPLORE you to go make your voices heard to stop this mad land grab by submitting your statement before October 24th.

Environment Colorado

Our forests thank you.

~stubert.

The polls are open...

I swear it's Springfield's only choice... throw up your hands and raise your voice! ~ Lyle Lanley

Colorado polls opened today and Rach and I hightailed it to our local votin' spot to cast our (super long) ballots. There were about a 342 Judges that needed to be selected along with 481 ballot initiatives. Whew. I think I went through 4 pens just coloring in all those damned boxes.

So now it is time for you, faithful reader, to do your part. Go vote, help get your neighbors and friends out to vote and let's get Obama a new house.

~stubert.

Marathons really hurt...

Denver Marathon course map.

But Grandpa, what about my asthma? ~ Spaulding Smails


First of all, marathons on pavement are just brutal (as far as I know) and the Denver Marathon was no exception. Now that I have that off my chest, here is a full on race report for all you race report lovin' fools out there.

I am a little too wrecked to provide a Citizen Kane-style non-linear story line right now so we'll just do this the old fashioned way. Work for you guys?

Get up, stand up...

The alarm clock is a wonderful creature. Even though mine has been replaced by my iPhone (another wonderful creature), I have to give some shouts to the little fella that helps a brotha get up at 4:00 in the a.m. So up, eat, drink and out the door to downtown Denver.

I parked at GroundFloor Media Global Headquarters to save the hassle of trying to find parking closer to the event. Changed into my garb (no dolphin shorts, thank you very much) and then walked the three blocks over to the 16th Street Mall to catch the early morning shuttle up to the Capit0l area. Did you know that the johns at the Bus Station don't have doors? True story. So now you know that. Which is nice.

So the official marathon information claimed that shuttles would be running as early as 5:00 but apparently, they were sadly mistaken. So I got an unscheduled warm up by walking the length of the Mall. Not a big deal, probably a mile and a half or two miles.

Got to the event with plenty of time to spare. Watered the bushes in front of the Capitol building (just call me Groundskeeper Stu) then went to get into position with the rest of the wacky people. The corral was completely full by the time I got there but fortunately, the event is chip timed so you officially start when you cross the start/finish, vs. when the gun goes off. Sweet!

And away we go...
The plan for the day was to take it fairly easy for the first 6 miles or so. Since I got stuck way back behind my target time (and my target time for the first 6 miles), I picked up the pace a little bit until I was slightly in front of the Clif Bar 4:00 pace crew and settled into a comfortable pace. The early going was a bit hectic with everyone all piled together (relay people, half marathoners and those doing the full) and we ran past Lodo's landmarks (The Convention Center, The Can 1 and 2, back over by the Capitol) then headed out to City Park. Things got a little tight on the first part of that loop but quickly spread back out again as we made our way to Cheesman Park (about 9.5 miles in).

By this time, my eyeballs were floating and the first batch of Porta Potties had a line a mile long (no racers, I may add) so I kept going and decided that I would have to find a tree and hopefully not frighten any children. Just as we were leaving the park, 5 vacant johns appeared miraculously and lucky me, I only needed one of them!

Shortly thereafter, we said goodbye to the half marathon crew and I set out to start really pushing it in the attempt to run negative splits.
The Second Half...

So into the second half I ran, trying to keep a steady sub-8 pace. Mission accomplished for the most part. I really wanted to have a good segment between miles 17 and 22 and focused on my form during this chunk of miles. Unfortunately, the hammering I was taking running on pavement started to catch up with me after mile 20 and my times really started to suffer. The last 4-5 miles were excruciating with my feet really taking a beating along with my shoulders. I also started to experience some exercise induced asthma, something with which I have not had problems for many years. Weird. So the last several miles were fairly miserable and I lost a lot of positions in the last 20-30 minutes of the race. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. I was just happy to get it done.

Post event...

Wow, hammered crap does not do justice to how I felt immediately post race. I stopped after crossing the finish line to get my chip removed, grab some water and apples then started getting tunnel vision to the point where I had to lie down on the Capitol lawn for a bit. I then made my way very slowly back down the Mall (finally catching a shuttle) and back to my car where I changed and headed home.

My left shoulder was hurting so much I could barely lift my arm, my feet were really quite sore and my legs were tight and sore. Probably pretty standard for pounding pavement for 26 miles. Oh and there is a bobcat in our yard just kicking it on a rock. But I digress. My blistered heels didn't give me any troubles, which was nice and I never really pushed my heartrate to their upper limits. My abdomen hurt a little (and quite a bit afterward) but not so much during the event that I felt like it was hindering my performance. My troubles seemed to be abuse-based which is something I may be able to work on by focusing a lot more on running pavement. I'll get some advice and see. All in all, a great event and a really fun day.



Official results:
Chip time: 3:41:31 (2:30 faster than my goal)
Overall place: 348 out of 1719
Place in class: 37 out of 188
Overall pace: 8:27
Negative splits? Negatory.
Motionbased data

Caleb finished in 3:22:36 for 145th place and 30th in his class. Way to go Caleb!

Ok. Back to feet up, brain off.

~stubert.

Denver marathon mini report...

Finished somewhere around 3:43. Faded HARD at the end. Full report to
come.

~stubert.

~:~:~:~:~:~
via mobile

Tomorrow's the first of two. Weekly wrap-up...

Let's get it on. ~ Marvin Gaye

Well, tomorrow's the big day. Or at least the first of two scheduled big days. Though I am very excited and psyched to see what I can do, I am treating tomorrow's event as a training race/test drive of sorts. After talking with Caleb today, I plan to take things really easy for the first 6 miles or so, then pick things up and see how it goes.

Here's the weekly summary for October 12-18:

• Sunday (10/12): Treadmill and swim, 11 miles, 1:32 (if memory serves). I let the day get away from me and the weather was shitty so I just hit the treadmill to run a portion of the scheduled 15 (12 at pace). Actually, I felt pretty great. So that was nice. Swam for about 1/2 hour afterwards.
• Monday (10/13): Lift and row, 1 hour. Hit the gym for a bit. I was going to swim too but the pool was full of racer kids and I didn't feel like schooling them (read: getting my ass handed to me by an 8 year old). Also went to another doc who said my abdominal problems were muscular vs. organ-based. So two weeks blown on anti-biotics. Good for me.
  
• Tuesday (10/14): Recovery run in Boulder, 5 miles, 00:42. Had to squeeze in a run between appointments so just hit the Boulder Creek Trail then did some 400 repeats on the High School track. Did 3 repeats which felt pretty awful, really but I am not a fast man. Otherwise, felt okay. Stomach bugging me a bit but my second appointment was with Mark at In Motion Rehab who diagnosed my problem located in my psoas muscles. So he crammed his fingers through my stomach and, after several minutes of excruciating pain, told me that things would be better soon. Ya know, he was right.
• Wednesday (10/15): Test-drive, 7 miles, 00:56. Had to be in Denver for meetings so I jammed down to City Park to do my pre-race test run on the race course. Felt a little crappy for the first couple of miles then got into a groove and logged several sub 8s in a row. Overall, feeling pretty solid, which is a good way to feel.
• Friday (10/17): Recovery trail run, 5-miles with strides, 00:47. Just hit the trails around the house. Didn't feel great but was still working out some of the kinks from some fast running this week so with some stretching and the post-run ice-bath, think I'll be in good shape come Sunday.
• Saturday: Was supposed to do a 4-miler today but had to jam down to Denver to pick up my race pack and ended up with blisters on both heels. Ha. How much does that rule? I rode the motorbike down and honestly am not sure what happened that resulted in blisters. I have had these motorbike boots for at least 3 years and have never had problems in the past. So Rach picked up some blister stuff and we'll give it the old college try tomorrow. This will be great practice for Leadville.

Total mileage for the week: 28 miles
Total time for the week: 5:15 ish

So I have been eating carbs like there is no tomorrow and resting, watching movies, etc. Have to be in Denver by 6:15 tomorrow so I'll be getting up very early to whack down some breakfast and get my run on. Though the event is chipped, there apparently is not any real-time tracking but I'll let you know how it goes ASAP.

~stubert.

T-Minus 4 days...

Tick, tick, tick. ~ Mark McKinney

The Denver Marathon is this Sunday (October 19) and I am finalizing my preparations. Today I did a "Practice Run" as Advanced Marathoning calls it... 7 miles with 5 at pace on part of the course (City Park). Well, in typical Stu fashion I did the 5 at my Las Vegas pace (actually faster). I guess I am getting pretty fired up. I didn't feel great for the first 2-3 miles but then really established a rhythm and laid down several 7:30s in a row. Again, not blazing by any stretch of the imagination but pretty good for a Stu.

So three days of "training" to go then we see what I am made of in a practice-run capacity. I am targeting 3:45 or so and would be really happy with a 3:40-3:50 finish. We'll see how things go.

Tonight is the last Presidential debate and I encourage everyone to watch. Early voting starts Monday for Coloradoans so go do that too.

More to come...

~stubert.

Good times at the mall...

That kid is on the escalator again! ~ Brodie

Rach needed some new glasses in the worst way (they were scratched by a bunny, then finally just snapped in two) so we headed down to Flatiron Mall yesterday to get her set up. It is good to know that neither of us has matured past the age of about 14. The Dick's Sporting Goods signage made for several hours of hilarity.

We saw several hideous babies, and the world's biggest stroller as well as the dude from the cell phone kiosk unabashedly hitting on the Falafel girl. Ah young love... in the food court.

Pottery Barn Kids had a selection of $80 Halloween costumes - a far cry from the plastic smock with the Incredible Hulk's face plastered on the chest of my youth. Seriously, did we really need a Pottery Barn just for kids? But I digress...

In any event, given that we were at the friggin' mall, we had a pretty good time and managed to get out of the glasses shop without succumbing to the recommended frames pushed by the glasses shop fraus. Seriously, the checkerboard temples just weren't going to fly and I forbade even looking in the case that contained the Sarah Palin frames. Anything in there was tainted by her very mention.

We got out alive and relatively unscathed. And without purchasing any Mammoth Crocs or "Fuggs" as Rach dubbed them and I managed to not throw up when passing the candle store. That place tosses a serious reek.

~stubert.

First flakes...

A watched pot never boils. ~ Some doofus who apparently never watched water boil

Turn your back for a few minutes and POW -- the snow starts to fly. After several near misses, it is finally coming down at the Casa. I'm sure it will be gone by Monday but the fact that it is there now is enough to make me even more excited about ski season.

~stubert.

Weak-ly summary...

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. ~ Muhammad Ali

This wasn't much of a training week but sometimes rest does a body good. (Please don't sue me, National Dairy Council). I am still having my abdomen issues but the tendonitis seems to have healed, so I guess I am back to where I was two weeks ago. And that will have to be okay.

October 5-11, 2008

• Monday (10/6): Gym - lift and swim, 1:30. Since the doc said I wasn't supposed to run for a few days, I hit the gym to lift some weights and swim (albeit briefly). I am not much of a swimmer and though I went through a bit of a lifting phase a few years back, am really just working on high reps at this point. No need to bulk back up to super-sized Stu.
• Wednesday (10/8): Gym - lift and row, 1:15. Went to the gym intending to run on the treadmill but I forgot my shoes and Crocks are not only fugly but are not particularly awesome when it comes to running. So I lifted for a bit then used the rowing machine. Then I went home. I think the going home part was the most fun.
• Thursday (10/9): Treadmill and swim, 5 miles/20 lengths, 1:15. Lost track of time due to work stuff (again) and had to jam down to the community center to run on the treadmill for a bit. Just mixed up the speed and decided 5 miles would suffice for the day as I just wasn't feeling the love on the hamster wheel today. I did manage to keep a 9:00 pace, so that wasn't too bad. How the crap did Dean Karnazes run on this stupid thing for 48 hours? He logged 211.7 miles. And that is just silly.
  After my run, I swam for a bit. Actually getting better and did something like 20 lengths in about 20 minutes. I told you I was slow.
• Saturday (10/11): Peak-to-Peak popsicle, 7 miles, 00:57. Supposedly a recovery run but since I couldn't really figure out from what I was supposedly recovering (too many to choose from), I just kinda went with what felt right. Did about 6, 100-meter strides and felt okay for the most part. I was not really able to keep my heartrate down so just focused on having fun. My calves were fine, my abdomen hurt a bit but overall it was a good run in the very cool, misty October weather. Had to break out the gloves even.

Total mileage for the week: 12 miles
Total time for the week: 5 hours

The Denver Marathon is next Sunday so I have a week to go. Right now I am planning to just generally stick to my schedule the first half of the week then take it easy leading into the race. This is just a training race for me (shooting for 3:45-3:52) but my main goal is to run negative splits or to at least get a better feel for pacing and holding back the first half of the race. I have a tendency to go out a little hard and definitely can get swept up in the emotion of the event so I will really be practicing keeping my cool in hope that I learn something to apply to Vegas.

It is looking like it actually might snow for reals this time (currently 32 degrees, light drizzle and super foggy at my house). I'll keep you posted.

~stubert.

Nader just called...

Both parties have gone crazy. Vote for Nader. ~ Ralph Nader Robocall

I do like his position on linking himself to "crazy". At least he's honest. And honesty is always the best policy... unless you are caught drinking from the milk carton. Then I say - deny, deny, deny.

~stubert.

[PS]: If any of you faithful readers actually DO vote for Nader. I'll personally come over and give you such a beating...

Bring it...

Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow. ~ Sammy Chan and Jule Styne

Current temp: 25.7 degrees
Visibility: 100 meters and falling

This could be the day snow finally falls at the Casa.

~stubert.

[Edit] I spoke too soon. Typical Colorado style, it is now bluebird out. Less than an hour later. Gotta love it.

Cool as a...

Mmmmmmmmmm. Sacrilicious. ~ Homer Simpson

Rach makes the best food in the world. Tonight, she built an entire meal around a cucumber. And it was muy yummy!

I am so glad she puts up with all my bs.

~stubert.

Stupid filters. Doing their job...

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. ~ Albert Einstein

So you may recall my detailing some motorcycle woes awhile back. At that point, I attributed the stalling problems to heat. Well, yesterday I was heading down to Boulder for an Adventure Film get together and it happened again. And let me tell you... it wasn't heat related since the weather was quite cool.

So I abandoned my efforts to get to Boulder and ran by my local cycle shop/mechanic (Earl at Earl's Motor Sports) to see if he had any thoughts. Not really, so I scheduled to bring the bike in to him today and limped the beast home.

I tried one last, hail Mary and called Jesse at Kientech Engineering who is an expert on all things Suzuki DR related. Voicemail. Damn. Nearly 2 hours later (8:45 our time), he calls me back and recommends that I try popping the secondary fuel filter out since it usually doesn't do much as the first filter gets the majority of the gook out. All I can say is that these guys are super nice and I couldn't believe he called me back that late at night. Just awesome service.

So I ordered a couple of parts to make the call worth his while then decided I couldn't wait to check and headed out to the garage to inspect the pre-carb filter. When I popped that sucker out, I found it to be completely gunked up. Full of sediment and other gross, black stuff. WOW! So instead of taking Jesse's advice completely and tossing the little guy, I cleaned it out and crammed it back in place. I figure if it is that full of goop, it is probably serving a purpose at this point, ya know? I will put that on my list of regular maintenance/things to check.

So I am guessing this is going to help my bike out A LOT! Gotta love simple fixes and people willing to take the time to call you back.

~stubert.

Weekly summary (early this week)...

Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something. ~ Westley/Dread Pirate Roberts

It's that time again... time for your favorite feature: The Weekly Summary! I wish worked. Maybe in HTML 5.0.

Anway, this week was interesting, to say the least. Here are the details:

September 28-October 4, 2008

• Sunday (9/28): Misery run in GGCSP, 15 miles, 2:55. Well, I felt great for about 8 but then everything fell apart and the last 7 miles were an exercise in tedium. I have been having a few pain issues and they definitely kicked into high gear during the course of the run. Not cool.
• Monday (9/29): Went to the doctor to see about the pain stuff and got on some meds to try to get it all resolved.
• Tuesday (9/30): Recovery run on the Peak2Peak, 7 miles, 00:59. Tried to keep the heartrate down and do some strides but it is tough running hills at any reasonable pace with a low heartrate. Generally felt good though.
• Wednesday (10/1): Fast run on South Beaver, 7.5 miles, 1:02. Felt really great on this run and logged my best time on this route. Even while stopping to pet some dogs who were wandering around down by the creek. Pretty much hammered down and then pushed it all the way back up to beat my previous best by at least 6 minutes. Started having some weird pain in my right calf on the way down that wouldn't stretch out.
• Thursday (10/2): Weights at the gym. Went to the local Community Center to lift and maybe swim for a bit. The pool was closed due to lightning but I did a couple circuits in the weight room and then rowed for a little while.
  
• Friday (10/3): LT run in Boulder, 11 miles, 1:30. Good road run with 6 miles of very fast pace. Did 3 miles warm up, 6 miles at 1/3 marathon pace, then 2 miles warm down. Felt great except for now both calves were hurting. Not cool. Pretty much seized up with about 2 miles to go. When I got home, I checked out side effects to the meds I am taking and one is tendonitis (with the potential for tendon rupture). Seriously not good. So Rach helped massage which made things a bit better. Definitely getting in touch with the doc to get on something different that doesn't have such wacked side effects.
• Saturday (10/4): Off or the gym. Taking today off to consult with the doc and maybe lift weights.

Total mileage for the week: 40.5 miles
Total time for the week: 6:25

Aside from the debacle on Sunday and the pain problems, I felt great. Able to spin faster speeds than ever. Need to just get some of these other issues resolved.

~stubert.

The long-awaited weekly summary...

Better late than never. ~ Anon

Ok... Work has been so nuts I just haven't had time to think much less write up my summary of last week's fun and/or games. So, without further ado... *drumroll* LAST WEEK's SUMMARY!!!

September 21-27, 2008

• Sunday (9/21): The Dreaded Hills of Ned Circuit, 13.5 miles, 2:10. Well, it was a good idea in theory and I actually didn't feel too badly until I got lost in the maze of roads above Hurricane Hill. Then it just got ugly. This was not exactly what I had hoped to experience but I have found that even a bad day out and about can be productive.
• Tuesday (9/23): Boulder Creek LT Extravaganza, 10 miles, 1:21. What a difference a couple of days makes. Really a great LT run. Did a 3 mile warm up then put the hammer down for 5 (the first two of which were uphill) then coasted for another 2. Felt great all around and was able to really motor for the full 5 miles. Good stuff.
• Wednesday (9/24): Reservoir Recovery Run with Rete (er... Pete. Got into it there a bit.), 5.25 miles, 00:52. Hit the res loop with Pete which is always a good time. We just took it really easy and enjoyed the scenery and company. At least I enjoyed the company... I can't speak for Pete.
• Saturday (9/27): Hammer Run in the 'Sack, 11.5 miles, 1:37. I was over in Gunnison to visit my pops and help him around the house so we played some golf on Friday (amazing how well one can score when one's dad gives them Mulligans every fourth shot), went to Donita's, then I went for a good run on Saturday morning. Stuck to my usual Cirque de Gunny loop for the most part with the obligatory Signal Peak climb then really put it in high gear on the way back to Dad's. Felt pretty solid, actually. That's what I'm talkin' about.

Total mileage for the week: ~40 miles
Total time for the week: 6 hours

So the week started out pretty poorly (two days hard in a row) then ended up quite well. Gotta love that. I think I was off a bit for mileage for the week but generally feel okay about where I am right now. The Denver Marathon is in three weeks or so and I feel like I can do 4 hours or less there and then keep focused until Vegas. Well... ski season starts up here soon so maybe I won't be so focused but I will be out there!