Productive Friday…

I’m reinforcing the header! ~ Buster Bluth

Yesterday: Nuttin’
Today: Ride – Casa del Critters, 1:45
Tomorrow: Longish hike/ski/run?

Just a quick one to try to get me in the habit…

Today I took the day off from work and freelanced and organized my home office a bit. Still not complete but getting there. I have a bunch of projects on which I am working with more on the horizon. I will definitely need to get myself in the groove, so to speak, in order to not get too bogged down with working all the time. I managed to squeeze out for a fun little ride in the local neighborhood and hooked up a trail I have been trying to link for a couple of years. Good times.

I actually am riding pretty well right now and managed to get almost all the way across a really technical spot I have been trying to nail for quite some time. That felt pretty good. I had one unplanned dismount (I didn’t hit the ground) that bent my derailleur hanger a little bit and somehow jacked up my front shifter as well. Weird. I guess that is what I get for riding the geared rig.

I signed up to work with Habitat for Humanity on the 2oth to help build a house on West Kentucky Avenue in Denver. I helped out this fall with a project in the same area and it was a lot of fun. It felt good to be able to lend a hand to a project of that type and to volunteer some time to help out others. With my work schedule becoming less structured, I am hoping to be able to do more volunteering on a regular basis.

Tomorrow I plan to get out and about for some sort of adventure. I may just end up doing a really long run but am not quite sure of the plan. If you have any thoughts, feel free to let me know.

Don’t you go changin’.

~stubert

The wind, it blows…

Bear Peak (in winter)


And this time, no tears.
~ Tobias Fünke

New format for you format luvvers:

Yesterday: Run – Cirque de Bear Peak, ~15 miles, 3 hours 15 minutes
Today: Ride – Casa del Critters (maybe), ~1 hour
Tomorrow: Run – Golden Gate Canyon State Park, 2 hours

Yesterday’s run went fairly well. The wind in the foothills was nothing short of incredible. Gusts up to 90 mph and not a warm breeze to say the least. Luke, Bob and I headed out of Eldorado Springs about 6:00 and ran through the park for awhile to Eldorado Springs Trail (or something like that). Then up we went to a beautiful rolling trail that overlooked the canyon. This dropped down to Walker Ranch where we proceeded to take an unmapped road, bushwhack back to the planned road and drop down into Bear Canyon on the front side of the Flatirons.

I felt okay for the most part though Luke was really pushing the pace. We were chasing the sunlight a bit so it was good that he kept us moving at a steady clip though my heartrate was not where I wanted it to be. I think the combo of taking a couple of weeks off and allergy season have my system a little taxed. I seemed to feel better the longer we ran with the exception of very tight hamstrings and calves – probably holdovers from my hard effort on Tuesday.

We jammed down Bear and I managed to keep up with Luke pretty well which, if you haven’t guessed already, is a tough chore. He just flies downhill and try as I might, I still haven’t been able to keep up the whole way down Bear ever. I turned my ankle pretty well at one point but it seems to be okay, just a little sore today. My tendonitis issue seems to be behind me as I had no problems and no residual effects this morning. That is great news.

We ran South along Mesa Trail in the fading light, wary of bears and big kitties but saw none. The last mile and a half or so was on a severely overgrown trail that would have been tough to run in daylight, much less in the conditions we were experiencing post sundown. We made it back to the Eldorado Springs Pool at about 9:15. We dropped Bob back at his house and Luke and Nichole treated me to a hot shower, warm tea and yummy PB & strawberries on Bible bread. Good stuff.

The trees in Boulder took the brunt of this wind storm with several large branches and trees toppled in the road as I drove home. The weather this year has been nutty. We typically experience high winds on occasion but nothing like what we have experienced over the course of the last 6 months. Not sure what is going on but I worry about the effect of these climate changes on the flora and fauna. It is one thing to have marked change occur over the course of one’s lifetime but for these changes to be coming so quickly it a bit unnerving.

And I leave you with a poem written by Marge Piercy sent to me by Pete:

What can they do
to you? Whatever they want.
They can set you up, they can
bust you, they can break
your fingers, they can
burn your brain with electricity,
blur you with drugs till you
can t walk, can’t remember, they can
take your child, wall up
your lover. They can do anything
you can’t blame them
from doing. How can you stop
them? Alone, you can fight,
you can refuse, you can
take what revenge you can
but they roll over you.

But two people fighting
back to back can cut through
a mob, a snake-dancing file
can break a cordon, an army
can meet an army.

Two people can keep each other
sane, can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.
Three people are a delegation,
a committee, a wedge. With four
you can play bridge and start
an organization. With six
you can rent a whole house,
eat pie for dinner with no
seconds, and hold a fundraising party.
A dozen make a demonstration.
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;
ten thousand, power and your own paper;
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.

It goes on one at a time,
it starts when you care
to act, it starts when you do
it again after they said no,
it starts when you say We
and know who you mean, and each
day you mean one more.

See you out there.

~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.

The Big Five-Oh…


Is that your blood? ~ Richard Chesler

Day 50 – pretty good for a working stiff, huh?

Today started early. Very early. The alarm rousted me at 4:15 and Luke and I were on the bikes by 5:45 for a fast and furious ascent of Pawnee Ridge. Luke had to be back in Boulder by 9:30 so we jammed up the Mitchell Lake trailhead and were at the top of the couloir in less than two hours.

The conditions were a little punchy on the trail up – several hip-deep postholes were masterfully created and decorated by Luke’s bloody knees – but the tough going on the way up was rewarded with amazing snow for the ski down. Really fun Spring conditions. Check out the shots.

Tomorrow Rage and I head to the Colorado House Rabbit Society to clean bunny cages. Right now, our bunnies are tearing ass around our living room and totally trenching our living room. We should shave some bitchin’ fire or racing stripes or something into their fur. I’ll see if I can talk Rage into that. Photo documentation will occur, I assure you.

See you out there.

~stubert

Edit: I have very little tolerance for bad film at this point. My schedule is way too tight to spend 2+ hours watching a crummy excuse for a movie. I got through roughly 20 minutes of Blood Diamond before deeming it too poorly written to warrant my attention. Perhaps I missed out on really solid 2nd and 3rd acts but I’ll never know. Good luck with that one.

Living with nature…

Life is rated R. ~ Seth Rogen

In a Fresh Air interview yesterday, Seth Rogen made the point that if one were to follow you home, you would probably do something that would warrant an R rating within about 15 minutes. I would have to say that he is correct. Fortunately, most of us wouldn’t do anything PG-13-ey because there is usually blood and guts involved there. (Don’t get me started.) Thus far, I have made a concerted effort to keep this blog G-rated and I expect to continue that trend. Just in case you were wondering, however, my life definitely receives an R rating across the board.

But I digress…

Yesterday, Luke and I did a quick post-work spin around the North Boulder area. I was riding my squishy bike but tried to keep with the spirit of Luke on his S.A.S.S. by staying in one gear. Singlespeeds were not meant to weigh 35 pounds or whatever my bike weighs at this point. This I can say without hesitation. We rode around for about an hour and I felt pretty [expletive deleted]-y for the first few miles then settled into things and actually felt okay. I did realize that I am really jonesing to run, which is a really good thing. I am going to try to force myself to take it easy for a few more days but want to work another long run into my schedule soon. Maybe next weekend.

I need to start training at night as well to get used to running in the dark. This becomes a bit of a logistical issue when one considers my proximity to large kittens and lack of running partners up by my house. Wildlife tends to leave groups of people alone but flying solo presents a pretty good target for a hungry kitty. Which reminds me of a story…

Back in the day, I went to school in Colorado Springs. People in the area started complaining to the local authorities that their poodles were being grubbed by lions in the area and wanted something done about it. Though I feel sorry for Fifi and for the cats that had to work through all that poofy fur, our encroachment into wildlands presents this type of situation. It is one of the things one has to deal with when one lives in the woods. You just can’t leave mountain lion food lying around and expect it to be there in the morning. That goes for bears too, by the way. If you live in bear country, don’t leave your trashcans outside overnight. I can not stress this enough.

Today, I am going to try to stay off the ankle yet again and go for a ride near my casa after work. I hope to hook up a couple of trails near my house that I found a couple of summers ago. I had hoped to do this on my last longer run but the snow that began to fall during my outing covered any trail evidence. I’ll let you know how it goes. Tomorrow, I hope to get back up to altitude for some turns. There is still plenty of that action to be had.

See you out there.

~stubert

Edit: Incidentally, I woke up with [expletive deleted] Sade’s [expletive deleted] Smooth Operator coursing through my brain. The only ways I know to get rid of monstrous songs of this nature are to either a) give them away or b) blow your brains out. I am going with option a, today so enjoy!