Run all night? Sign me up...

Ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long ~ Ministry

Run, work, hammer, repeat. Sounds pretty sweet, actually. I have been getting out regularly and feeling okay albeit a little out of shape. That is to be expected, however, given my standards are all messed up. Running marathons last fall made me feel that anything over an 8-minute pace is slow. And running ultras has made me feel that anything under, oh... 13 miles is short. So yeah, I'm all screwed up. But you knew that already.

I have also been building a shed at our house and have actually somewhat enjoyed the process thus far. I also have learned that I should not quit my day job. I have the floor all framed up and covered and it is actually mostly straight so... go figure. I am considering it a success thus far and plan to raise the walls next week. I'll keep you posted.

Today's run featured some trails, hills and a lot of sunshine plus 10 minutes of tempo work during which I went out way too fast and blew up a little towards the end. I believe that after I banish doubt, I will start working on accepting being humbled. And that is okay.

I also joined up with a team doing the Wild West Relay this weekend (well, Friday and Saturday). It is a 200-mile relay run starting in Fort Collins, jamming up through Wyoming and back down to Steamboat. All in about 24-30 hours. My shifts come around 3:00 on Friday then around 3:00 Saturday morning and again around noon. This will be my first foray into the team event action. Should be fun (or at least interesting). I plan on putting my well-crafted ability to sleep anywhere to the test and will apologize in advance for any grumpiness I may exude while being rousted for my shifts. Photos of me with Cheetos on my face to come...

Aaaaand Rach has been working her ass off at the shelter and taking care of Georgia, who is a special needs bunny. Georgia is doing really well under Rach's care and just loves giving kisses and eating piles of greens. Good stuff.

~stubert.

Whirlwind...

Honk if I start to doze off. ~ Rach

Well I clearly haven't been keeping up with things around here and am determined to not let things get that out of hand again. Here is a rundown of activities and whatnot over the past couple of weeks:

• Running: I haven't been getting out nearly as often as I would like but when I HAVE gotten out, it has been quite good. Since I signed up to do the Las Vegas Marathon in December, I have started trying to focus more on faster pacing. So far I have come to realize that a) running fast is tough and b) I am not very fast. I did a 7-mile run last week in the woods that went really well. I think I kept about a 10-minute pace without killing myself. On Tuesday I ran a 13-miler in Gunnison in about 1:50 or so. I even spun 4 laps on the track to see how fast I can run a mile (not very). Interesting that my "fastest" mile pace is about 7 minutes but I can hook up multiple 7:45s. Gonna have to work on that. Overall, I feel good about where I am right now as I have a long time before the marathon. I'll probably screw everything up by tossing in a 50-miler sometime in the next couple of months but that is pretty typical of me.
• Gunnison: I spent the last few days over in Gunny visiting with family and friends. We held my mom's memorial service on Wednesday so there were a ton of people in town. It was great to get to see everyone but I am a bit exhausted from the festivities. Rach showed how awesome she is by coming over for the service and then entertaining our niece, Kailey for the evening (as well as everyone else). She is taking a well-deserved nap right now.
• Golf: I continue to stink it up on the course. I did okay on the front 9 (playing with my dad, brother and uncle, John) but fell apart on the back 9. I am guessing finishing a half-marathon less than an hour before tee time didn't help me any but really, I probably would have been just as bad regardless.
• Bears: Saw a bear up at my aunt and uncle's (Betty and Dale) place in Spring Creek. Always neat seeing the big critters.
• Loss: One of our most beloved bunnies died Monday morning. Poor Sean. He was a great fella and a good friend. I will miss him a ton.
  

So that's the Cliff's Notes version. I'll be better about updates in the future.

~stubert.

Earn 'em and burn 'em...

The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure. ~ Sven Goran Eriksson

Well, the past two days I have had the distinct pleasure of skiing Crested Butte. I grew up skiing the Butte and man... it is skiing off the hook right now. CB has been absolutely HAMMERED this year with snow. The whole mountain was open before Christmas this year courtesy of several multi-foot storms and it has just kept on dumping. Not sure what they are claiming their base is right now but it is as filled in as I have seen it in a very long time. Great stuff.

Yesterday, I hiked the peak and stood atop CB's unique visage. Unfortunately, I left my camera at home but it was fairly cloudy so the shots wouldn't have been too great anyway. It was a sweet view, still... looking down on the town of Crested Butte from 12000+ feet. The skiing from the summit is pretty uninspired but getting to the top was really cool.

Some sick skier. View the full album.

The Alpine Extremes are going on this week at CB so I skied down to the bottom of Headwall to check them out for a bit then headed out to spin laps on the North Face. Everything was skiing really well and I hit Third Bowl, Spellbound, Phoenix and many laps in the Glades. I wasn't skiing super well but had a blast.

Today, I headed back up to the Butte and headed immediately out to Teocalli Bowl for some fresh tracks. They called in an inch overnight but at the top it was closer to five. I was the first person all the way out Teo and was able to drop a couple of fairly large rock bands into fresh snow. On the way up, I had a bit of an epiphany and put it to practice to strong results. I realized that standing atop something one is considering dropping and looking for long periods of time isn't really worth it. Either you are going to drop the thing or not, so stop gawking and get on with it. Seemed to work for me today as I found numerous fun rocks to huck myself off. I stuck every landing today too which is like a quintuple bonus.

I spun down to watch the comps again today which was being run on the Third Bowl/Spellbound cliffs. Competitors were allowed to use the entire span of the two bowls and these guys were getting into the serious bidness. I watched for a bit in the morning and then went out to grab some freshies in Phoenix Steps and whatever run is to the skier's right of Phoenix Bowl. Anyway, it was awesome. I think that today may have been the best I have ever skied. So that is a plus.

Not the slopeside office.

I just skied a bunch - pretty much the whole mountain then went back to the comps for a bit. Then I did an hour of power and called it a day. I am tempted to go back tomorrow but think I may hit Monarch on my way home instead. We'll see. I still have three days on my pass so will probably just save those for mid-March and come back with Pete and Luke.

Yoda. Being squashed by Rockshot.

On a significantly less excellent note - our bunny, Yoda, died on Wednesday night. He was an awesome little bowling ball of a bunny who got along with everyone. He was very hard of hearing and sight so that made him a little twitchy when he could smell food. He would just lunge randomly in the direction he perceived the victuals to be! Really cute. He was quite old and had out-lived several buddies (Lea. He was always happy to take on a new friend and most recently had buddied-up with Skipper. Skips isn't taking the loss very well (bunnies get very attached to one another) so we are going to try to find him a new friend ASAP. Also, Rach tripped and broke her toe while on the phone with me earlier today. Total bummer. Stupid pinky toes.

Do stuff.

~stubert.

Laggin'...

So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it. ~ Willy Wonka

Yesterday: Ski - A Basin, 2 hours (day 2)
Today: Hike
Tomorrow: ???

So I guess I just haven't been in the blogging mood of late. Lots to talk about, not a lot of time or energy available to put it out there. My apologies.

In the past few weeks I have been staying busy working (which is good). We settled down a bit from September and have launched several sites including Weekends and Lion Equity. Good stuff. Still cranking with Quintess as well. This month has flown by.

I was all set to tell you about my first day on the slopes but then we had some bad news. Our beloved bunny, Rockshot, passed away. He was a very special little guy and will be greatly missed. Here is his story...

Rockshot (expertly demonstrating "top-bunny" posture in the above photo) came to us through the shelter where he was delivered with his partner, Houdini, in a terrible state. They had been rescued from some horrible conditions and were both malnourished and filthy but happy to be in a loving home. After some initial tests, it was determined that Rockshot had some serious health problems that would probably take him from us in just a few short months. Apparently he didn't get the memo and was quickly racing around the house being a goofy, splendid bunny. Both Rocker and Houdini (actually discovered to be Mrs. Houdini) put on weight and quickly became part of the crew. Rockshot was with us for over a year and was awesome to the very end. He will be sorely missed.

On a lighter note, I have gotten up to the slopes twice now. The first day was cold and snowy. The second, um... not. Yesterday, it was 55 degrees at the base and the Basin was in full springtime mode. T-shirts and bikinis were in full effect (I opted for my hoodie, which was a bit of a mistake). Not a cloud to be seen. Normally, that would be a good thing but damn... we need some cold weather and snow.

Lots more to tell you but I'll have to catch up later.

~stubert.

Back on my own two feets...

Time is an abstract concept created by carbon-based life forms to monitor their ongoing decay. ~ Thunderclese

Hmmm.... I seem to have misplaced a day there.

Rach and I spent Sunday morning volunteering at the Colorado House Rabbit Society cleaning bunny cages. For those unfamiliar with the wonderful world of bunnies, this is an organization that connects long-eared critters with new owners. Hilarity usually ensues.

The Broomfiled chapter is currently home to approximately 150 little guys and girls looking for good homes. Rach spends quite a lot of her time working with COHRS: Linking up prospective families with critters, caring for and feeding the little munchkins, cleaning cages, coordinating volunteers and educating the public about how to care for their critters. The little guys seem to appreciate it.

Post bunny-excitement, the rest of the day was spent procrastinating my ride which was then cut short by a standard afternoon thunderstorm. I should know better than to wait so long to get out on the bike but somehow the day slipped away. Luke and Nichole then hosted a kickass bar-b-que which featured great company and a mean game of horseshoes. Luke still throws like a girl in case you were wondering.

Monday, I took the day off as I had meetings galore scheduled and today I am just about to head out for a lunchtime run. Bob and I are planning a Cirque de Bear Mountain run with Luke tomorrow post-work and I am hoping to hook up with the Boulder Trail Runners on Thursday for a night run. I have been really itching to get back out there and feel like this is the week to do it. The ankle is feeling better (so far), I haven't really been running for a couple of weeks now and Leadville is looming.

See you out there.

~stubert

Edit: Just got back from a short run and man, my heartrate was up there. Not sure what was going on but even on the downhills I was clocking about 170bpm. Yikes. Plus it is friggin hot outside. How can 80 degrees feel so boiling?

Edit2: So I just found out that my cousin, Tyler, is doing a 2500 mile bike tour this summer. He and a couple of buddies are starting in Montana and riding to the Mexico border on trails along the continental divide. Read all about it.