Category: ski

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.

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.

Look at me, I’m Peter Pantsless! ~ Homer Simpson

Let’s see… where to start? I suppose I’ll lead off with Sunday’s run — the infamous Double Mesa. ‘

Bob decided it was time to get out there and grind out a half marathon on some of Boulder’s finest terrain. The Mesa Trail (for those unfamiliar with the more popular area runs) rolls along the foot of the Flatirons and spans about 7 miles from central Boulder to Eldorado Springs (almost). This is a great run and often times one can take on a large chunk of the course without seeing any other runners or hikers. The middle section is particularly devoid of the crowds that can plague other Boulder-area trails. Good stuff.

Bob put together a great group of guys for this outing and a total of six of us headed out from the Ranger Station at shortly after 10 in the morning. The group was fairly well balanced with everyone from seasoned marathon runners to “longest evers”. We maintained a solid pace throughout and it was good to be back on Mesa. Still one of my favorites. This was my longest run since the event and we finished in about 2:40. Not blazing, by any stretch of the imagination, but not too shabby (actually on par with the last time I ran the Double Mesa). (Check out the full album.)

I was pretty sore the following day. Given my activity levels of late (or lack thereof), I wasn’t surprised but recovered quickly. All in all, this was a good run for me and it reminded me why I do this stuff. I need to set aside time to get out in the wilderness more often. Put that on my list.

So I took it easy the next couple of days. Back to the grind. Today I waffled about whether or not to go up to A-Basin for some more early season turns and finally decided to give it a shot about 9:00. I needed to get to the bank anyway and this was a good excuse to get out. We got about 3 inches of snow last night which also helped to motivate me for the drive. I was hoping to drag Luke or Pete into the fray but neither was able to make it up so I headed out solo.

Everything was splendid until about 5 miles from Eisenhower Tunnel when traffic came to a standstill. Unfortunately there is a dead zone right there so I was unable to get a signal to check to see what the hell was going on up the road. After about 30 minutes of sitting at a virtual standstill punctuated with periodic 1-2 mile and hour surges up the hill, I got a signal and discovered that the tunnel was closed due to wrecks on the West side. Super. I stuck with things until the next exit then bailed back to Golden, a quick jaunt to the bank and grocery store then back home. Took the skis for a drive. Always a joy. Oh well…. Can’t win every day.

Oh yeah. I also lost a toenail. Two more are looking suspicious. My feet are still just hammered from Leadville.

Movie time:
We have been spending a lot of time with Robot Chicken of late. Great show if you have never seen it. Seth Green cracks me up. Essentially, this is stop-action animation with action figures and dolls and whatnot. Very funny.

We also watched Spiderman 3 and Harsh Times. Neither is worth the effort, really. S3 had some great special effects but for some reason Sam Raimi decided it would be a good idea to show the softer side of Spidey in the third installment. Um… no one wants to watch a super-hero bawl all the time. Trust me. Plus, it just wasn’t that great. There was this space goo that was never really explained and just seemed like an afterthought. “Well, we have to get Spiderman to get infected by this gunk to show his alter-ego. Ah hell, I’m lazy, let’s just send it in on a meteor and call it good.” In any event, I wasn’t particularly impressed.

Harsh Times was a Christian Bale/Freddy Rodriguez vehicle that just didn’t draw me in at all. Both characters were just not sympathetic. Being what I like to call a “Steve” (Straight To Video), I am not sure what I expected. Don’t rush out to put this one on you list.

Okay… that’s all I have for now.

~stubert.