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See Stu run…

I did it like this. I did it like that. ~ Beastie Boys

Yesterday: Drive, Work, Repeat
Today: Run – Zoo Loop, 1 hour 45 minutes
Tomorrow: Drive, Golf

So three weeks out and I couldn’t take it anymore. Had to go for a serious run to test the machine. It is still weary but doing pretty well.

I drove up to the Park and ran down Raccoon Trail then up to Elk. Really a gorgeous day: Sunny, a little wind, cool. Great weather for a run. Once I got up to Elk, I headed down valley through the conifers up top and then gradually turning into stands of aspen and open meadows. The last time I was up here, the wildflowers were going nuts. Today saw hints of autumn creeping into the flora. One thing I have really enjoyed over the course of the past year is being able to visit the same territory during the various seasons. Really neat to be able to run through fall colors, winter snow, spring green, summer flowers and eventual baked terrain and back again to fall.

Once I reached the valley floor and passed the old homestead, I stopped to stretch and take a few shots. I then headed over the ridge to Mule Deer Trail where I began to climb up the back side of the ridge separating Gap Road and Golden Gate Canyon. I was able to run most of this and only walked the steepest sections. I was really feeling okay. Not super, a bit tired, but decent. I focused on my form and on keeping steady upward progress. Not too shabby for the first run post-race.

I quickly made it to the top of the ridge where I stretched again, removed some boulders from my shoe and ran on through the aspens up to the second homestead on this loop. There used to be a lot of bootlegging in this area during Prohibition and several sites still exist where enterprising outlaws made hooch for delivery to Golden, Denver and the mining towns of Central City and Blackhawk. On Coyote Trail, there is even an old car that was left to rust from that era. Pretty cool.

After about an hour, things started to hurt a little bit but I carried on, ignoring the aches and pains that still remind me of the Leadville effort. Nothing serious, just some creaky joints and still-tender toes. My right knee gave me a little grief as I made my way along Mule Deer back toward Gap Road but I was able to push more than in a long time on the downhills which was fun. Now that the race is over, I need to focus my attention on getting into skiing shape and there is nothing better than downhill trail running to get the spring back in your legs.

Running along the last mile, I came across a large group of schoolkids being chaperoned by several adults. I am guessing they were all in kindergarten or first grade but I am a lousy judge of ages so who knows. There were about a zillion of them and they were everywhere. It was horrible. Actually, it was pretty cute. Several were carrying packs in which it appeared they themselves could have fit and several were talking non-stop in an effort to show how much they knew about the area. Basically, they kept saying the same thing over and over, torturing their poor guide.

I finished up fairly strong and overall felt like I wasn’t damaging myself further by getting out there. Hoping to do something with Luke later this weekend.

Tomorrow, I am heading to Gunnison to visit the parental units. It has been quite awhile since I have made it over that way and it will be good to see them. Hoping to get in a round of golf with my pops and help out around the house with winterizing stuff and whatnot.

Ok, back to work. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

~stubert.

Crash, boom, bam…

More often than not, circumstances do not permit the full use of your lane from yellow line to white line and back again. ~ Nick Ienatsch (from The Pace)

Yesterday: Hike – Raccoon Trail, 1 hour
Today: Hike – Coyote Trail, 1.5 hours
Tomorrow: Swim – Gilpin County Rec Center, 30 minutes

So this morning’s meeting was postponed until tomorrow and I took a different route in to another client meeting in Denver. As I cruised down Golden Gate Canyon, I was joined by another rider on a Ducati. Shortly thereafter, a third rider joined the group on a big Yamaha sport bike as we got jammed up in traffic a bit. Once the road opened up, we were able to pass the slower moving cars and Senor Yamaha took the lead. I followed him for a bit but wasn’t too thrilled with his pace and apparent experience. As I rounded a tight, left-hand corner, I saw him up ahead, leaning against the concrete guardrail – his bike in the dirt up against the barrier, wheels still spinning. Yup. He ran out of road.

I pulled over to the shoulder along with the Ducati rider and we walked back to the Yamaha guy who had now removed his helmet and turned off his bike. He was pretty shaken up but didn’t appear to have suffered more than a little road rash. He was VERY smart to have been wearing a helmet, however as his sunglasses were crushed and his helmet badly scraped up from the impact. We picked up his bike, inspected the damage (broken plastic and mirror, dented tank, scratches everywhere) and the Ducati guy offered to follow him down to the mouth of the canyon to be sure that it was still ridable. I needed to get down to a meeting so I headed out.

Boys and girls, not only should you be safe out there but be sure to wear protective gear. I ride in a helmet ALWAYS as well as my Aerostich super suit and big-ass boots. Yes, it is hot. Sometimes uncomfortably so. But it is a helluva lot more comfortable than skin grafts.

Keep the rubber side down.

~stubert.

Vrooooom…


Corporations don’t deserve free speech, people deserve free speech. ~ Ron English

Yesterday: Bunny Cages – COHRS, 3 hours
Today: Hike – Raccoon Trail, 1 hour
Tomorrow: Swim/Hike – Gilpin County Community Center/Coyote Trail, ~2 hours

So today was spent getting a little work done, tinkering on the dirt bike and dodging rainstorms. I got up at a relatively decent hour and put in some time organizing items for the coming three months’ worth of work (that needs to be completed in the next 24 days). Then I took my chainsaw in to the shop as I need to drop some trees. We have a pending shitstorm of beetle problems headed our way and I am going to thin out a bunch of our trees in an effort to minimize the overall impact on our property. We’ll see how that works. I did speak at length with a forest service guy today who steered me in the right direction. Now the fun part begins.

After dropping off the chainsaw, I messed around on the dirtbike for a bit to see if I could get it running. No dice. So I ran it back over to the shop to let the pros take a stab at it. I am sure it is something dumb but is also has a leaky fork seal with which I simply don’t want to deal. I am debating whether or not to sell it and maybe even all my other bikes to get a single ride that will cover my bases adequately. We’ll see about that. I am kindof jonezing for a snowmobile for this winter but frankly all of this goes a bit against my nature. I tend to prefer non-motorized means of travel. Hmmmm.

On the way home from the shop, I stopped to pick up two motorcyclists who were hitching a ride. They had started the day near Blackhawk and ended up near Rollinsville. Since their bikes were not street legal, they didn’t want to risk getting stopped on their way back and didn’t know how to get there on trails. We tossed their bikes on the trailer and I drove them back to their truck. They were amazed how far away they had managed to get. The system of trails and mining roads is pretty expansive in Gilpin County and it is actually fairly easy to find yourself a great distance from your point of origin without realizing it. I have been lost on these trails many times. Fortunately, most dump back out to the Peak-to-Peak eventually so you can usually find your way home (even if you have to go a helluva long way to get there).

So with two of my maintenance-impaired items in the shop, I think that should cover the major repairs for awhile. I did do some more research on garages and now just need to either pull the trigger or keep looking for property to purchase. We really like where we live, our chief complaint being that we don’t have as much southern exposure as we would like, that we would like a little extra room and a larger garage in which we can keep our cars out of the elements. We’ll see which way that goes.

Rach made me super yummy vegan pizza for dinner. She is the best cook. I wolfed it down and then we went on a nice little hike in Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Now it is time for a little more work and then off to bed.

Movies:
Last night, we watched two films: POPaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English and Unknown.

POPaganda was actually not the greatest film ever but Ron English is an amazing artist so it was pretty cool to see his work and to be able to watch him work. If you haven’t seen any of his stuff, you should definitely check it out. He is primarily a New York artist who specialized originally in doing “takeover” billboard art. He would find billboards and paste his art (often times satirical advertising) up over the regular advertising. He then moved to more traditional forms of art and is really an incredibly talented fine artist who does most of his work in oils on canvas. Even if you don’t watch this film, check out his work here.

Unknown was pretty much crap. Don’t bother with this one.

Ok kiddies, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

~stubert.

Ouch…

I don’t believe in Harry Potter (or arnica or gmail). ~ Pete (paraphrased, last name withheld to protect the non-believers)

Yesterday: Run ~ neighborhood trails, 1 hour
Today: Bunny cages
Tomorrow: Ride

Hmmm. Well that wasn’t the most painful run I have ever done but it definitely wasn’t the least either. I thought it might be interesting to see how well I could deal with a run. From the beginning, I felt pretty rusty and had some pain in my left knee after running only about 1/4 mile. That subsided after a bit but I never really felt great. Downhills were just jarring. Getting back into a flow was really not an option somehow. What did I expect only two weeks out?

I think I need to just stay at it. Slowly work back into the longer runs. My foot is still a pain and standing on it for 3 hours today didn’t really help matters but it will heal. I am just a little beaten still. I have been thinking a lot about what would help the most if I decide to run Leadville again. One item on the list is to get faster and smoother. I think that if I were able to minimize the time and the punishment, things would go better for me overall. I need to improve my gait for sure.

Maybe some mid-distance events are in my future (marathon-50 miles). I may seek out a few of those to use as training events in the coming months. I am really excited for ski season, however so staying in shape (and healthy) for that is priority #1 right now.

Friday night, the Crüe met up for dinner at a local Boulder restaurant, Ras Kassas. This place rules. I had a great time with everyone and was psyched that everyone could make it. Ras Kassas features amazing Ethiopian cuisine and a fun atmosphere. If you have never eaten there (or another Ethiopian restaurant), I highly recommend it. Good times were had by all.

I haven’t been watching many movies of late as I have been reading the Harry Potter series of books. I finished the final installment last night and I must say that they are quite engaging. Again, highly recommended. As Rach says, “They aren’t Proust,” but they are good entertainment. I am still not so sure about the movies (though I have only seen the first). I’ll keep you posted on those as I attempt to sit through them as well.

Ok. I have to get some work done. Have a great long weekend.

~stubert.

Stu = Gigantic Wuss…

How would you like that? Burnt to a crisp or bloody as hell? ~ Buddy Holly

Yesterday: Hike – GGCSP, ~1 hour
Today: Swim – GCRC, 30 minutes
Tomorrow: Ride – Neighborhood, 1 hour

I just received the best email ever. Just after the race, I sent an email to Anton Krupicka, two-time Leadville winner, to congratulate him on his win and ask him if he had any tips regarding how to better protect one’s feet while running ultradistance events. Here is his reply:

Hi Stu,
Thanks for your note regarding Leadville. On the whole, it ended up being a pretty decent day for me. Regarding foot issues while running…I’m probably not really the guy to talk to about that! I never wear socks because i don’t like the extra weight (they absorb a lot of sweat and stream water) and i like feeling closer to the trail, but this doesn’t mean that i don’t have some skin issues. in a race, i just make sure to wear a pair of shoes that i now haven’t rubbed me the wrong way in training, but this means i often get little hotspots and sometimes draw a fair amount of blood in training. for me, it’s not really an issue on the really long runs because once the blister starts bleeding a little it seems to get lubed up and doesn’t bother as much. the next day can be pretty rough, though. i know that sounds pretty rough, but it’s really not that bad.
good luck, and i hope you garner a finish in the future!
tony

So there you go. I didn’t manage to come close to putting my feet through that kind of torture. Man, that was great. You HAVE to love that.

Here’s to hamburger feet.

~stubert.