The darkness…

Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light. ~ Albus Dumbledore

Yesterday: Night run – West Mag, 1.25 hours
Today: Hike – Neighborhood, 30 minutes
Tomorrow: Singlespeed ride – 1 hour

Feeling fit and coming down to the final days of preparation for the big event. Last night’s run was a blast. Bob and Brad were kind enough to come up the hill to join me for the nighttime woods adventure. We didn’t die once.

We started on the far west end of Magnolia and basically ran the Habitrail backwards. There were a few people out violating the fire ban but what else is new? Once, during a particularly evil drought, a friend and I were riding in the west Mag area only to come across some dumbass with TWO fires burning in the middle of the day. Sometimes I am surprised we have lasted this long. In any event, just because you are “camping” does not mean you must burn every item made of wood within a stone’s throw of your tent. But I digress…

I am now just getting final preparations set. I think I have everything I need aside from food and whatnot. Just need to organize, pack it up in a nice way so that Megan and Nichole won’t hate me and jam up the hill to the event. It sounds like most of the Crüe is going to head to Leadville next Friday so we should be able to take the afternoon to get everything together. Good stuff.

~stubert.

Blogger doesn’t like the iPhone…

Would you like to touch my monkey? ~ Dieter

Yesterday: Singlespeed ride – Casa del Critters, 1.5 hours
Today: Night run – West Mag trails, 1.5 hours
Tomorrow: Ride – Ned trails, 1.5 hours

So the iPhone and Blogger don’t play well. Interesting. I am guessing a fix for this has to be in the works but for now, no mobile blogging from my phone. Which is actually probably a blessing.

So 10 days out (or so) and I am feeling great. Getting a little antsy to start but really just feeling excited. I go to sleep most nights visualizing the course (rarely make it past Fish Hatchery before I drift off and have to start over). The Crüe is all jazzed. We are full steam ahead.

Last night I went for a glorious post-rain singlespeed ride. Just dinked around the forest and explored some trails in the area on which I had not ridden for quite some time. I didn’t feel as well as the previous day’s adventure but I had just whacked down another amazing meal and was a bit stuffed. I really am enjoying the one-speeder… looking forward to exploring some more this fall post-race.

Tonight (in about a half an hour), I am meeting Bob and Brad for a night run in Ned. I am really itching to run at this point which I can’t imagine being a bad thing. Better to go into a hundred-miler excited to run than sick of it. At least that is the theory on which I am working.

We got the new Simpsons DVD set today and are rocking that as we speak. Season 10 was the last for which we actually had tapes so we’ll be entering new territory once season 11 comes out. Good stuff.

Movie review: At some point I saw the trailer for Alpha Dog and I guess it looked not bad enough to warrant a peek. Though it wasn’t awful, it definitely wasn’t great. It was watchable for the most part but I wouldn’t recommend rushing out to rent it or anything. So there you have a mediocre review to match.

Gotta get my stuff together.

See you out there.

~stubert.

Twofer…

Oh, why does everything I whip leave me? ~ Homer Simpson

Friday: Night Run – Neighborhood, 30 minutes
Yesterday: Singlespeed Ride – Casa del Critters, 1 hour 30 mintues
Today: Ride – Ned area?, 2 hours
Tomorrow: Off

Ladies and gentlemen… we have broken the 2-week barrier. Despite my recent setbacks, I am feeling strong. Tested the shin on Friday night and it felt great (though, a 30-minute run is really not a hardcore test). I’ll take anything I can get at this point.

I am feeling strong. Tonight’s singlespeed ride was a blast and I hammered up hills that previously I had to push. I went to the chiropractor on Friday and he gave me the thumbs up to start testing out the leg so away I go.

It is pouring down rain here right now (Saturday night post… delayed push due to internet outage) and in two weeks I’ll be approaching Half Moon, roughly 70 miles into the race. Hoping the weather is different then but I plan to move forward whatever gets thrown at me. That is how this past year has been. Roll with the punches and come back swingin’.

I’ll be staying fairly active over the next couple of weeks but with shorter durations and levels of intensity. I had planned to do one more super-long effort but this week was a bitch work-wise. Brad, my first pacer, would like to go up and do Hope Pass so I may go do that one day this week but that would be the toughest effort I would toss in the mix for the remainder of the time until the race. Have to consult my experts on that one.

Movies: We went to see The Simpsons on Friday and it was a lot of fun. Very funny. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was the best movie I have seen but it was certainly a great adaptation from the TV show and it kept things fresh after 20-years of laughs. The team that puts that show together is incredibly talented and I was happy to hear earlier this year that they are planning to bring back Futurama. Great news.

I also watched Lucky Number Slevin. This film started out a bit slowly but then actually became fairly interesting. I had pretty low expectations and, though no masterpiece, was entertained. It had a bit of a Boondock Saints kind of vibe – some decent writing and an ok idea but just not quite as polished as it might have been. Probably worth the watch though.

Ok. My shoes are getting soaked so I guess I’ll be back on the singlespeed tomorrow. Give a shout if you want to join in the fun and/or games.

~stubert.

And I described him, with adjectives…

What’s the story with that dog? ~ Lily Braden

Yesterday: Nuttin’
Today: Hike – neighborhood, ~ 1hour
Tomorrow: Ride – somewhere fun, 2 hours?

So last night, when I should have been out training or something, I was standing in our kitchen and Rage was sitting on the couch, in front of our living room window, minding her own business. As I looked past her, out past our deck to our lawn, I saw the biggest, funniest-looking dog I had ever seen stick his head out past the edge of our house. “Damn,” I thought, “that is one, funny looking dog.” (See, I TOLD you that’s what I thought.) Then, as my mind finally registered that this was no ordinary dog, I said, “Hey Rach, there’s a bear behind you.” And there was. Good times.

I was unable to get any great shots of Skippy, but the rest of the album can be seen here. He wasn’t bothering anybody and didn’t even hop on the deck and demolish our bird bear feeders. So that was nice.

Other that that, I am just taking it easy, trying to figure out how to taper, and attempting to manage my stress. And actually doing a decent job of each. I was in meetings all day yesterday at GroundFloor Media and had another client meeting in Boulder this morning. Then I got my hairs cut so I am no longer a shaggy dude. Soon I will be again I can assure you. Seems that it is always growing back at an unmanageable rate.

So just a little over 2 weeks to go until the big day. I published my Crüe guide (work in progress) and got the final couple of orders of stuff I’ll use during the race from Patagonia and Zombie Runner. Now I just need to organize, get my final grocery shop on and I’ll be set. I am feeling pretty fit and am actually really excited to run. I think all this time off will benefit me in the long run. Sure, I could have gotten some more training in and it would have been nice to actually run each section of the course, but I am really itching to run now, and that can’t be a bad way to head into this event. I think not being sick of running is probably a great place to be when you are toeing the line at the start of a hundred miler.

So tick, tick, tick. It’s getting close.

Calm blue ocean.

~stubert.

My bike shoes smell like cat pee…


Yesterday: Ride – Ned trails, 3.5 hours
Today: Singlespeed Ride – Caribou, 2.75 hours
Tomorrow: Chiropractor, rest

Normally, I wouldn’t go around sniffing shoes, mine or anyone elses, but last year Dylan took a whiz in my bike shoes and well… it lingers. Whatchgonnado?

This weekend, I logged some hours on the mountain bikes to give the shin a rest. Seems to have worked nicely. No problems either day which, as you can imagine, makes me pretty happy. The riding went pretty well too. I got soaked on Saturday but it was warm and there wasn’t any lightning so I stayed out. Hit up some old trails in the Ned/Eldora area and then explored some new ones on the way home. My bike was destroyed afterwards from all the mud but it cleaned up nicely.

Today, Luke and I headed up to Eldora to suffer up the Caribou Flats climb on the singlespeeds. I wouldn’t really recommend this one unless you have the right gears. Both Luke and I are rocking pretty tall ratios so we ended up pushing a fair amount. Full-rigid is a little rough as well but sometimes you have to keep it really, really real. Old school. After a couple of missteps, we managed to find a kickass section of singletrack I had not ridden for many years and let me tell you, it was well worth it. Great ride. Here’s the full album.

Tomorrow I plan to do a whole lot of nuthin’. I have an appointment with Dr. Dave but will be taking the rest of the day off. I’m into my taper at this point and rest is going to be my primary focus over the next few weeks. I’ll roll out for a few runs here and there to test the leg, will do a few medium rides and take it easy until the race. I need to finalize my race plan for Megan, Nichole and Luke to review and get everything in order prior to the event. That is on this week’s agenda for sure.

Keep the peace.

~stubert.