Author: admin

Course ride…

Funny thing about weekends when you’re un self employed… they don’t mean quite so much – except you get to hang out with your workin’ friends. ~ Primus

Yesterday: Ride – Fish Hatchery to Twin Lakes and back, ~ 4.5 hours
Today: Hike – GGCSP, ~ 1 hour
Tomorrow: Hike – GGCSP, ~ 1 hour

I need to get my Zen on.

Things have been pretty stressful of late and I need to get control of everything. I am super busy with work and that, coupled with this leg injury, has detracted from my ability to train as effectively as I had planned for these past couple of weeks. I did manage to get back up on the course yesterday for a long ride that took a bit longer than I anticipated.

I started out at the Fish Hatchery around 12:30 and felt solid heading out the main road toward Halfmoon. I had a healthy tail/cross wind that pushed me along at a nice clip. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the temperatures were in the low-to-mid 80s, I believe. This portion of the course is probably the least interesting – several miles of relatively flat paved or improved dirt roads. Pretty boring, actually. There are some nice views of the nearby mountain ranges that I plan to use to distract me from the less-than-exciting running conditions of this section during the race.

As one gets closer to Halfmoon, the road begins to climb and features a long-ish false flat up to the checkpoint. About a mile later, we will turn onto the Colorado Trail which is pitched steeply for about the first mile then settles into some very tasty, smooth singletrack running through green aspen groves. This is definitely the prettiest part of the course I have seen thus far (and the nicest portion of the course per racer accounts). This singletrack rolls along for a few miles then reaches a trailhead. This is where I proceeded to get off-course yesterday. The trail crosses a large bridge then dumps onto a jeep road for about 200 meters where it reaches an intersection. Here, I banged a left, following the main road down and should have gone right briefly to follow the partially obscured singletrack to the south. My mistake dropped me several miles east of Twin Lakes where I followed the main highway back into town. This is why I am visiting the course regularly – to work out these kinks prior to race day.

Twin Lakes was bustling. Tourists were everywhere, checking out the history of the area and generally being tourists. I stopped briefly at the Windspirit Lodge to confirm my reservation for the race weekend (confirmed) and then headed back out on the course (for real this time) for my return to the Fish Hatchery. Thus far, I felt strong and fresh and didn’t have much concern about being able to get back smoothly. I was a bit slower to Twin Lakes than I hoped but chalked this up to poor route finding and getting off course.

On the climb (push) out of Twin Lakes, I whacked down and sandwich and started to hear a hiss coming from my rear tire. Yup, apparently I pinched a tube on the descent and I quickly found myself on the side of the trail changing the flat. Not the fastest exchange I have ever accomplished either. Once that was repaired I was off again, pushing a lot more than I liked. For whatever reason, I was really uncomfortable riding marginally steep sections that I should have been able to ride and found myself walking much of the course at this point. Not sure why I was unable to ride but I just tried to keep moving upward along the trail. Soon I was back to the spot where I had missed my connection on the way out and back on familiar terrain. I began feeling a bit better and moved at a steady pace back to the top of the steep, technical section and jammed back down to Halfmoon and along the dirt road in a big gear – even passing a couple of cars along the way. The pavement section was a bit less forgiving as I contended with a stiff headwind back to the Fish Hatchery in about 4 and a half hours. Given the extra miles, route finding problems, stops in Twin Lakes and to fix the flat, not really such a bad effort in the long-run. I am guessing I did about 42 miles or so total.

Heading back home, I thought I would have smooth sailing as the traffic was light all the way past the Loveland Pass exit on the East side of Eisenhower. Then, the dreaded I-70 parking lot set in with a vengeance. For whatever reason, I was unable to hook up the frontage road and kept missing key exits. I think it took me 3 hours or so to get home. Ugh. I have said it before (and unfortunately will probably say it again) but I would not be sad to never have to drive I-70 on a weekend again.

Once I got home, Rach and I hung out for a bit and I got up early this morning to get some work done. This is going to be a crazy week and I need to get a jump on it. So… here I am updating my blog. Yeah. Gotta get to work.

See you out there.

~stubert.

More: My parents made the trip over this weekend as well and I got to play golf with my dad on Saturday at Fossil Trace. I like this course, actually. It is pretty sweet for a municipal course. I think I shot about 170. I still rule. Definitely no threat to anyone out there who is a golfer.

A quick one…

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

Yesterday: Nothing (ugh)
Today: Short Ride – Around the neighborhood/Flume, 1 hour
Tomorrow: Ride

So I have not seemed to have any time lately. Feeling a bit stressed about that but what are you going to do? I have had a bunch of meetings this week which have cut into production time and have had to drop down into the valley almost every day thus far. Have I mentioned that I don’t miss my commute?

Today I got up relatively early to do a quick ride before this morning’s meeting in Broomfield. Fairly uneventful ride, really. I felt strong. The leg hurt a little. It is still gorgeous up here. Etc.

I need to work out the remainder of my training and am trying to get a better feel for pacing as well. I ran my first draft by some friends with Leadville experience and they both thought I was being a little aggressive on the return. I was trying to be conservative on the way out but was probably pushing it a little bit on the way home. I have made adjustments so that my out/back splits are about 44/56. We’ll continue to tinker with this a bit and see if I can make them work.

We are having our first crew meeting tonight as well. I am letting Luke, Nichole and Megan run these so that I can focus on the run. It will be fun to get everyone together for a quick run-down of the event.

Alright… back to work.

~stubert.

Back on the bike…

Pain and suffering are often the catalysts for life’s most profound lessons. – Dean Karnazes

Yesterday: Night Run – Mesa Trail, 1 hour
Today: Ride – Neighborhood trails, 1 hour
Tomorrow: Ride – Leadville course (maybe), 3 hours

I guess I am going to get back on the bike for a bit to let my shin heal. I ran last night with Pete and it really gave me some troubles. Hurt from the very beginning and afterwards it was really painful. So I’ll be giving it some rest to see if I can get it back in shape.

Yesterday I worked in the morning on a project for Quintess. Luke is in Mt. Hood skiing so I am covering for him for the next few days. I then jammed down to Boulder to run a few quick errands and see Shirley for a massage and some ultrasound on my leg.

I then went over to Pete’s to hang out and wait for the sun to go down. Jess and Brad were going to join us but weren’t feeling up to it so just Pete and I set out at sunset to run a small portion of the Mesa Trail.

It was warm last night – calm and clear. Good running weather. Running at night is a different experience than daytime jaunts and I am growing quite fond of it. We didn’t see any other people during our hour out on the trail and it was a peaceful run through the Boulder Foothills. I am planning to do one of these a week until the race so jump on the train if you feel like getting out during cooler temperatures to experience running in a whole new way.

Pete mentioned that upon moving to Boulder, he was out late one night and encountered two night runners. At the time, he thought these people were quintessential Boulder weirdos. Running at night? Jackasses. Welcome to the fold, Pete.

Today I have a bunch of work to do and a couple of conference calls. I may try to scoot out for a ride in the early afternoon but that may need to wait until this evening. I am considering jamming up to Leadville tomorrow to ride the course from Fish Hatchery to Twin Lakes and back but work may get in the way of that little adventure and it may need to wait until the weekend.

And on a final note, check out Kiva.org. This is a cool site that let’s individuals participate in microloan programs around the world. Pretty cool to be able to make a difference in people’s lives from afar.

See you out there.

~stubert.

Laying low…

It isn’t a mountain bike ride until somebody bleeds gets hit on the head by a falling lodgepole pine. ~ Ancient Mountain Biking Proverb

Yesterday: Nada
Today: Ride – West Mag trails, 3 hours
Tomorrow: Ride – Casa del Critters, 2 hours

Yesterday, I jammed into Boulder early to zap my leg with some ultrasound. Good times. Hopefully this, plus rest, massage and more ultrasound will get things working properly again. Still having some isses today for sure. I am glad I decided that trying to do Hope was a bad idea.

So, to keep myself off the gimpy shin, I met Brad and Jess in Nederland for some mountain biking. We headed up the trails off of West Mag and ended up monkeying around looking for a stretch of singletrack I stumbled across on Wednesday. Then Brad got bonked in the head by a pine tree that apparently had a deathwish for the Bradster. I had passed by the offending flora only to hear Jess ask if Brad was okay. Apparently, Brad gave the tree some grief about its rainbow suspenders back in gradeschool and well… made the list. Other than a headache, sore neck and now being an inch shorter, we think Brad is going to be okay.

Tomorrow, I plan to stay off the leg again and ride around the neighborhood for a couple of hours. I have a ton of work to do as well so will just stay in the area to get everything done.

Movie time: Last night we watched 11:14. Not a bad movie but not great either. One of those multiple story-line movies where several seemingly unrelated incidents come together at a point in time. Frankly, Kieslowski did it much better but this isn’t horrible.

See you out there.

~stubert.

Long and strong…

Nothing good ever happens after midnight. ~ John D. Roach
(Particularly if you are breaking more than one law at a time.) ~ Rachel Bellamy

Yesterday: Nada
Today: Run – King’s Lake to High Lonesome to Diamond Lake to home, 8 hours
Tomorrow: Nada

Today’s adventure was awesome. Luke picked me up at 6:30 and we headed to Hessee to start our big run. The weather was pretty much perfect and, with the wildflowers in full effect, we were treated to a wonderful run up King’s Lake trail to High Lonesome and back around to Diamond Lake trail.

We started off slowly and maintained a steady pace most of the day. The moon was setting over Rollins Pass as we headed up from the valley floor. Everything was lush and green and we ascended up above treeline (topping out at 12,200 feet). The views from the summit were amazing. We were able to look down on Winter Park/Mary Jane ski areas from our vantage point atop the ridge and there is a remarkable amount of beetle kill on the back range. This seems to be slowly creeping over the divide too which is not good news. I think the best we can hope for is an extreme winter to help cull the beetle numbers as the last few winters have been relatively mild temperature-wise.

We headed north along the ridge line to Diamond Lake trail and dropped down into this great little basin. There are a bunch of fun-looking ski lines up here but, as Luke pointed out, getting to them with all your gear would be a bit of a slog. We continued down the trail, making it back to the truck in about 4 and a half hours. Luke had to jam back to Boulder so I refueled and started my trek back home from Eldora.

Running back down the main road toward Ned I felt great. I was taking it easy, run/walk cycles along the pavement back to the Shelf Road. From here, I took a cut off that deposited me at the far west end of Magnolia and then the fun began.

I jammed up some singletrack and quickly linked into the Habitrail – a fun singletrack mountain bike trail. This trail got its name because it loops around the forest like those cages one can but for their hamster. I took a peek at the map and noticed they have it listed as the Hobbit trail which is just lame but pretty funny. Gotta love it when the forest service is out of the loop.

I intended to follow my old standard back to Rollinsville but then got a wild hair and decided to hook up with 105 which should have dumped me at the top of a gnarly descent to Rollins Pass. Unfortunately, I got a little lost and ended up on some new singletrack that didn’t go where I expected and probably burned about an hour dinking around trying to get back to familiar territory. I finally made it back to my standard route and made it to the Rollinsville store prior to running out of water (barely). I refilled and headed back up the Peak to Peak highway. A storm seemed to be moving in behind me and I made it my goal to reach home in less than 8 hours or at least before getting hammered by the rain. I was able to run when the road wasn’t too steep and made it home in front of the storm but 5 minutes shy of my 8-hour goal. Pretty awesome.

I was able to run, eat and drink the whole run today, which was very good news. I did have some issues with my left shin in the final hour or so which I will need to address but overall, this was a great run. I am feeling more and more prepared every week.

View full album here.

Movie time: Yesterday, Rage and I went to see the new Pixar joint, Ratatouille. I believe this is the best to date and given that it is from Pixar, says a lot. Just a fun movie. Amazing CGI. Go see it on the big screen immediately. Rage has indicated that she has a nice, crisp $5 bill for anyone who can go the whole movie without wanting to tweak the nose of the main character.
(Offer not valid in Wisconsin, Tennessee or Washington D.C.. Offer only good for first person who successfully completes the challenge and reports findings via a certified letter of non-tweakage and passes a lie-detector test (test must be paid for by contestant).)

We also watched Neil Young: Heart of Gold which was a cool concert film. Rage and I got to see Mr. Young play at Fiddler’s green several years ago and this concert film is considered by many to be a great example of how to shoot and edit this type of movie. I can’t say that I necessarily disagree. Good flick.

Tomorrow I plan to do a whole lot of nuthin’ and may hit that up again on Friday. Planning to do Hope Pass Saturday if my leg feels better. I am icing it now so hopefully I’ll recover quickly.

See you out there.

~stubert.