Category: movies

Exhausted…

Ben in the backcountry above Brainard. Badass.

And I’m spent. ~ Austin Powers

Post L.A. things didn’t really improve for me fitness-wise. I did those two 9-mile runs and felt pretty crappy then followed up a week later with a fun (but somewhat frustrating) run on the 3rd. Bob and I started from his place in Boulder, ran up Flagstaff and back down to Boulder Canyon (down the back side of Flag). I really enjoy this run most of the time. The section from the top of Flag down to the canyon is frequently filled with interesting fauna and this time was no exception. Bob and I saw 9 turkey (turkeys?) in a group on the side of the trail. We stopped to watch them for a bit and then continued down the hill. We did spot what appeared to be big kitty tracks and then were pleased to be able to confirm that yes, bears do in fact shit in the woods.

While heading back down Boulder Canyon, I started to fade a bit and really started to suffer going back up and over the shoulder of Flagstaff. Just feeling really weak, somewhat nauseated, etc. We made it back to Bob’s in under 3 hours (~14 miles) and I started feeling worse and worse. Just pretty much limped home (drive) and called it a day.

On the following Monday, Ben and I went out to ski Mt. Toll. More of the same, really. It was quite warm but I was really, really slow. I didn’t even make it up to the top. By the time we actually were skiing, I felt like hammered crap and was again nauseated and just spent. Oh well. It was a gorgeous day, in any event, so that was nice. Ben and I were a bit late and the snow had turned to mush by the time we were skiing but it was a lot of fun. Feeling like ass aside.

So post that adventure, I made the decision to take a couple of weeks completely off. I will allow myself to hike a little, maybe play some golf. That’s it. One week down now and another to go (at least). I think I am just mega fatigued from this Spring’s events. Whatchagonnnado?

New ride.

In other news, I bought a new motorcycle. So far, I really like it a lot. It is a DR650 and is geared for dual-sport riding. I am going to set it up for dirt adventures and have found thus far for the bike to be quiet, smooth and light. Certainly compared to the Beemer I sold in April.

I also have watched a few good flicks of late. Iron Man was quite good as was American Gangster. We watched Long Way Round again which is really entertaining. I recommend all three. Go see Iron Man in the theater. It has incredible special effects and Robert Downey Jr. is great (as usual).

Other than that, just laying low, getting some work done, and resting. Good times.

~stubert.

Training day(s)…

I’m hungry and tired and my clothes are smelly. ~ Homer Simpson

So where were we? Oh yeah…. this week.

This was a hectic week. Lots of work stuff, meetings, and yes, skiing. I also went to see Shirley and she either: 1) Took it easy on me for whatever reason, 2) I am much tougher than I look, 3) I wasn’t in quite as bad of shape as I thought, 4) Some totally whacked combination of the above. I am going to go with #4 just because it allows me to hedge my bets. And you know how much I love hedges.

Monday was spent in meetings in the glorious metropolis of Denver. Glad I don’t have to drive down there every day. In fact, I am pretty friggin’ glad I don’t have to drive anywhere every day. The one thing I miss least about having a “real” job is the commute. But you probably could have guessed that.

Tuesday was more of the same with more commuting to meetings. Not good times but necessary. I then went to get tenderized by Shirley (see above) and then headed home for who knows what. I have learned my lesson (the hard way) about trying to go for a run.ride/whatever after being Shirley-ized so just took it easy post massage.

Wednesday I was a bit off, way off, actually. From the start this was just a wacky day as my brain just couldn’t keep up with anything that was going on. I was late to meet Luke at Eldora because I somehow managed to lose my keys in-between my house and my car. Then he left his boot liners at home so that was a bust anyway. (I found my keys in my boot, incidentally. No clue how they got there.)

Then we met with Ben and Dan, the lung brothers, for a Brainard ski. It was windy as hell and in addition to my brain taking a vacation, I was having some physical issues as well. I injured my shoulder lifting several years ago and it still creates problems for me on occasion. Wednesday, apparently, was one such occasion so my right knee (tweaked in January) decided to join in the fun and/or games. It really wasn’t too terrible but I decided not to push it and headed back to the car before getting in any real skiing. We skinned up past Lake Mitchell then skied down some heinous wind-slab monstrosity (and I say “monstrosity” given the pitch was maybe a regular blue and all of 3 normal turns). It was actually a lot of fun to be out. The wind was howling but that made crossing the frozen lakes a blast. No pun intended. Luke, Ben and Dan skied the Flemish Giant in Rabbit Cages while I used the gale-force winds to my advantage on the skate back to the car.

Thursday I was off as well. and don’t even remember what I did so it must have been a laugh-riot. Pretty sure I just worked.

Friday, Rach had to get up super early to go to the House Rabbit Society because 9News was coming in at 6:00 or some gawd-awful time to do a special on why getting a rabbit for Easter on a whim is a bad idea. Apparently the spot was supposed to air on the morning show but was preempted by the shocking news of snow in the mountains. (SHOCKING!!!) Have I mentioned recently how much I can’t stand the MSM? So I’ll let you know when it actually shows up on their site.

I headed up to the Basin to get in some Enduro training. The pass was closed so I had to go around the long way but it was worth it. They called in 6 inches but it was more like 10 and I started spinning laps an hour later than I had planned. Man, that was some good snow.

I rolled two laps on the Enduro course (down Standard) then headed to the car to swap skis. I have been trying to ski on my Hippy Stinx more lately to get used to them but Friday was definitely a day to bring out the big guns so the Hell Bents got the nod. Now we’re talkin’. Good times were had by all.

I basically just rolled laps for most of the day, averaging just about 5 per hour not really trying that hard. I was just enjoying the pow and trying to find challenging lines to ski. I dropped into Dud’s (there is a scary mandatory air into that line) and found a bunch more rocks to drop. Even fell off this hairy line in West Turbo Luke showed me a couple of weeks ago. Kinda funny, actually. I got on the thing and as I scootched down to get to my launch pad, all the snow just fell off the rocks. I started to rotate forward and then just said, “The hell with it, now or never,” and went for it. Sprawled for the most part but it was funny.

After lap 15 or 16 I started to get a little tired so I just switched to alpine turns for the most part and really started to pick up the pace. After about 20 laps I ran into Pinsey who is the Basin master when it comes to mountain knowledge and had him show me a few lines with which I was a little less familiar. We spun about 8 more laps, hit the Christmas Trees last run down Pali and then went over to Exo for one last cruiser. 10-4:15, about 28 laps. Not too shabby, really. The Enduro is going to be really tough but I am fairly confident 50 laps is doable and 60 may be within our reach. I need to spin a full day up there really charging to be sure but Friday’s effort made me slightly less terrified.

Today I am a little sore from yesterday’s push and am planning to just take it easy. It is gorgeous up here, however, so I may go for a run this afternoon. We’ll see. Maybe just a hike.

Seems like I have been flailing on the movie reporting of late. I can say that The Wire is vastly overrated. Do not bother with it. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was okay. They had to cut so much out from the book that it fell a bit flat but at least the acting is getting marginally better. Extras is amusing. Frank Zappa: Baby Snakes is interesting but pretty weird and Easy Rider actually still holds up pretty well for being as old as I am. The Passion of Joan of Arc is pretty amazing given that it was filmed in the 20s and Zodiac was slow but well-acted.

That’s all for now, faithful readers. I’ll have more for you soon.

Enjoy.

~stubert.

Off the couch…

March 1. 60+ degrees. Stu out getting dumb.

Holy smokes, you need booze! ~ Dr. Nick Riviera

I think I overdid it a wee bit yesterday.

I decided at some point that I wanted to go for a run. Other than that, my options were fairly wide open seeing how it was about 60 degrees up here. Well, not so wide open but at least not excruciatingly cold or anything. Plan A (ride the motorcycle to Boulder, run Mesa) didn’t go so well as my battery was dead so I opted for Plan B: Run a half marathon, at altitude, probably in snow off the couch. Note to self: have someone else make up the plans from now on.

I actually felt pretty great to start. Took it fairly easy (though my heart thought otherwise) at a leisurely 12 minute pace. I ran pretty much everything on the way up to Panorama Point via Gap Road (and a sojurn through Meadow Lake) and was just cruising. Once I made it up to the Racoon Trail cutoff, it was decision time and being a dork, I chose to do the loop.

After post-holling for a bit the trail finally packed up and was runnable down to the low-point. Actually a lot of fun just humming along downhill through the snowy woods. Once I reached the bottom, the fun began and I had to alternate run/walk cycles due to the steepness of the trail and the sloppy conditions. No biggie, I’ve been there before. I quickly made it up to the top then began the slippery, mushy descent back to the cutoff.

Once I made it back to Gap, I decided I only had to log a few more miles to get the half marathon. This is where I started to question my judgement as I had to walk on several occasions because stuff was starting to hurt. I made it back to my road feeling okay but then realized I needed to tack on another mile and a half or so to get the full distance. My options were: 1) head uphill now and get a nice downhill finish or 2) run downhill past my house and then back up for the bonus miles. I opted for number 1 and suffered up the hill. Not my best performance and really horrible on the scale of what constitutes a good 1/2 marathon time but whatchagonna do?

Today, I was pretty sore despite having stretched a bunch last night. We cleaned bunny cages at the COHRS and then I headed home. Turns out the high today was about 30 up here and we got about a foot of snow. I considered going to the Rock for a few turns but decided that I had work to accomplish and that my legs needed some rest. Tomorrow, though…

Here are a couple of shots from last week’s adventure. Hope to get out more and not ski like a total Fred.

Luke ripping it up. | Me trying to make it look mean. Shots courtesy of Jonny Copp.

That’s about it for now. I did see Persipolis last week, which was good. And watched Big Fish yesterday while stretching. I also checked out Into Great Silence and Frank Zappa: Baby Snakes. Extras is also quite amusing if you haven’t checked it out. Quite the mish-mash if I do say so myself.

Take your vitamin I.

~stubert.

Day 38…

I’m trying to work on my karma. Do you know what karma means? It means that she owes me one. ~ Richard Swersey

Quick and dirty. Today, I slept in. I think there may be a carbon monoxide leak in my house as I just couldn’t get my sorry ass out of bed. I finally managed to attain a vertical position and then did some work around the house and headed out to the Rock late.

I got to Eldora in time to spin a few non-stop laps on Salto before Ski Patrol shut it down. I missed the gate going up by mere seconds. Oh well. The snow was good and I was skiing fairly well so I certainly am not going to go around complaining. Tomorrow, I am hoping to actually get moving a lot earlier and head up to the Basin. Missing that place a lot right now. I may head to the Butte on Wednesday. Will have to play that one by ear.

So Rach and I finally got out to see There Will Be Blood yesterday. Great movie. Definitely a bit of a toss-up for me between that and No Country for Old Men but I think I will have to give my nod to Country. Just a different style of movie. More subtle. You should see both if you haven’t already.

We also watched It Happened One Night which holds up surprisingly well given that it was made in ’34 or something. It is definitely not modern but I usually find movies of that era particularly annoying and actually quite enjoyed it. We also watched Me and You and Everyone We Know which was good but a little disturbing. Really a lonely film.

That’s all I have for today, boys and girls. More to come.

Shake your booty. ~stubert.

Bunnies and break-thrus…

Gentlemen… welcome to the Rock. ~ John Mason

Today was our regular day to clean cages at the Colorado House Rabbit Society. Aside from being half asleep, everything went splendidly and we were able to get things done without delays or distractions. Aside from the little monsters, that is. But they are always distracting a person. With their cuteness and their fuzziness. All contrived, mind you.

Post adore-a-fest, I got some things done around the house then headed up to Eldora for some late-afternoon turnage. It was snowing when I pulled into the lot and I quickly made my way back to Corona, braving the man-made “snow” the snowmaking crew has been blowing for the past 6 weeks. Seriously, someone smoked breakfast because most transition runs on that mountain are like yellow skating rinks right now. Really bad snowmaking.

Fortunately, once the good stuff opens up, I stay primarily on the steep stuff, onto which no man-made has fallen. Or splashed, as the case may be. I spun a few laps on Salto, getting progressively better, until my final run I felt like the old me. Apparently, I forgot how to drive my uphill hand and once I got that back under control, started making fairly worthy turns. I am still no Luke but getting there. Now that I know what was going on, I think I will be able to get things moving in the right direction again.

Other than that, we have been watching LOST: Season 3 which is at least as annoying as season 2. It is a bit of a train wreck but mindless entertainment when that is required. I also watched 300 which is definitely not gay at all – for a gladiator movie – which makes it still pretty gay. The effects were pretty special, however; and I did like the way they treated the whole film in sepiatone. And the Queen had great boobs. There. I made it at least 20% less gay.

Ok. Have fun. Take chances.

~stubert.

(Sorry for the lack of photos… I keep leaving my camera in the car.)