Mon 28 June: 00:29, 2.81 miles, Casa Trails barefoot
Tues 29 June: 00:59, 5.74 miles, Thorne Lake surges
Wed 30 June: 2:24, 8.48 miles, South Arapaho Peak
Thurs 1 July: 2:08, 9.5 miles, Arapaho Glacier Trail
Sat 3 July: 2:56, 17.95 miles, Cirque de Ned
Sun 4 July: 4.25, 22.64 miles, GGCSP Mega Zoo loop
Total: 13:33, 67.48 miles, 6495' vert

Seems like I get progressively tardier on these updates. Staying busy for sure.

This was a bit of an "off" week but I still managed over 65 miles and lots of good training. Summited South Arapaho on Wednesday in record time. Beat my previous record to the summit by 35 minutes – for the round trip. So a pretty decent effort. Headed back up there Thursday night with Bob and Brad for a good hike/run. We got stormed off at about 12,000 feet and pretty soaked in the dark on the way down but it was so worth the trip and great to spend some time with those guys.

Saturday, I ventured out on a great loop from my house to Nederland. Typically, this ends up being about 24 miles and 4 hours or so, so I asked Rach to pick me up in Rollinsville at about the 3-hour mark. Rolled in there a little early, feeling strong.

Sunday was spent retracing a route I first did in '08 with pretty poor results. This time, I added a couple of miles and decreased my time by about 30 minutes and felt solid throughout.

Definitely feeling the strain of all the training I have been doing these past 6 months. Rach reminded me the other night that I should enjoy the journey as well as the destination, and she is absolutely right. I'm looking forward to Camp 1: Hello Mudda in Leadville this weekend. Scheduled to run the first 23 miles of the course on Saturday, do a Colorado Trail out/back then double crossing of Hope on Sunday, then head home and do a night run on Monday. May spin Betasso laps for that. Spaces are still available and company would be most welcomed if anyone would like to join in the fun and/or games.

~stubert.

Hope springs eternal.

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time. ~ Leo Tolstoy

Mon June 7: 00:30 2.87 miles, Casa Trails barefoot
Tues June 8: 1:00, 5.96 miles, Casa Trails
Wed June 9: 2:40, 14.95 miles, Big Zoo loop GGCSP
Thurs June 10: 3:00, 11.47 miles, Hope Pass hike/run
Sat June 12: 1:30, 8.51 miles, Casa Trails
Sun June 13: 7:03, 35.60 miles, Pbville Course
Total: 15:43, 79.36 miles, 13,770 vertical

I have been terrible about updating this past week due to... well... running a lot and work. Seems that is what it comes down to at this point. With just over 2 months to go until show time, I am getting pretty focused and made it up to Pbville twice this past week for training runs.

The week started a little slowly as I recovered from the heat debacle but then I fell into full swing by mid-week. After a couple of nice trail runs on Tuesday and Wednesday, I hit the road Thursday to go to Gunnison and since Leadville is right on the way, stopped to take a gander at the north side of Hope Pass.

The river is raging right now so I headed upstream to cross via the Willis Gulch bridge. Turns out that was badly damaged by high waters so plan B was put into effect. I headed farther upstream to Pete's Campground (if memory serves) and the camp host alerted me to that bridge being closed due to the rushing water. Plan C. I happened to see another small (yet substantial) bridge between Willis Gulch Trailhead and Pete's and that became my entry to the Hope Pass trail.

I ran about 1.5 miles east until the junction of the Hope Pass trail then decided to get in a little more warm-up by heading down to the race-course crossing to check things out. Yeah, that water was flowing and I would not have wanted to cross it in those conditions. I spun around and headed up Hope for the first time since '07. The trail was in really good shape and I made quick work of the lower, steeper sections and made it to Hopeless in under an hour. Since I was so far up, I decided to just go ahead and see how far up I could go before turned around by either snow or time. I did have to cross several very punchy snowfields but made it to within about 50 feet of vert from the summit before being turned by one last snowfield that just didn't seem worth the effort. Ran back down and finished fairly strongly in 3 hours.

Sunday, I headed back up to Leadville to log some time on the section between the start and the base of Powerline. It rained and snowed the night before so conditions were a bit soggy. I thoroughly lucked out with the weather, however and only got rained/snowed on briefly while running around Turquoise Lake. The Colorado Trail section was super sloppy with a couple inches of fresh, wet snow but Sugarloaf itself was in pretty good shape. A few inches of snow up high and lots of water running throughout but overall it was great to get up there. I summited then dropped down to the pavement on the south side then spun around and headed back up the steep side. This was the first time I had climbed back up Sugarloaf and I have to commend those who can run this thing. It's a bitch.

I felt a little tired heading back up and was reduced to a diminishing run/walk cycle for the remainder of the run. Not super confidence-inspiring but whatchagonnado? Ended up cutting off the Colorado Trail and Turquoise Lake sections on the way back to try to speed my return to Leadville. I had planned to head back up the Boulevard but given my tight timeline, I decided to stay on the tarmac in order to improve my chances of hitching a ride if I was unable to make it all the way back to my car in the prescribed 7-hour time limit. After run/walk cycles up the hill, I reached the cut off and started walking/hitching. Was picked up fairly quickly by a nice guy from Jamestown who dropped me off at my car after about a 1.5 mile ride.

Overall, I am feeling fairly well. I need to get better control of my starting pace and my focus. The word for the week is "patience" and I am going to work on putting it into play on each and every run from this point forward.

~stubert.

Yesterday: Hike - Raccoon Trail, 1 hour
Today: Work
Tomorrow: Hike

Still swamped with work. What else is new? At least Rach is making me get out of the house for hikes. Gotta love that.

I also took some time yesterday to continue chopping down trees. I am almost done with this project and man, lumberjacking is hard work. Glad I don't have to do that every day. I probably have another 5-7 large trees to drop and a bunch more smaller ones. Slowly but surely getting it done.

We were hoping to do a Fall Colors run this weekend up on the Leadville course but time simply didn't permit. I am guessing next weekend will be the last chance to get peak colors so we'll try to make it happen then. I have 4 projects due by the 1st though so I am not sure I'll be able to get away.

Gotta jam back to work.

~stubert.

Yesterday: Bunny Cages - COHRS, 3 hours
Today: Hike - Raccoon Trail, 1 hour
Tomorrow: Swim/Hike - Gilpin County Community Center/Coyote Trail, ~2 hours

So today was spent getting a little work done, tinkering on the dirt bike and dodging rainstorms. I got up at a relatively decent hour and put in some time organizing items for the coming three months' worth of work (that needs to be completed in the next 24 days). Then I took my chainsaw in to the shop as I need to drop some trees. We have a pending shitstorm of beetle problems headed our way and I am going to thin out a bunch of our trees in an effort to minimize the overall impact on our property. We'll see how that works. I did speak at length with a forest service guy today who steered me in the right direction. Now the fun part begins.

After dropping off the chainsaw, I messed around on the dirtbike for a bit to see if I could get it running. No dice. So I ran it back over to the shop to let the pros take a stab at it. I am sure it is something dumb but is also has a leaky fork seal with which I simply don't want to deal. I am debating whether or not to sell it and maybe even all my other bikes to get a single ride that will cover my bases adequately. We'll see about that. I am kindof jonezing for a snowmobile for this winter but frankly all of this goes a bit against my nature. I tend to prefer non-motorized means of travel. Hmmmm.

On the way home from the shop, I stopped to pick up two motorcyclists who were hitching a ride. They had started the day near Blackhawk and ended up near Rollinsville. Since their bikes were not street legal, they didn't want to risk getting stopped on their way back and didn't know how to get there on trails. We tossed their bikes on the trailer and I drove them back to their truck. They were amazed how far away they had managed to get. The system of trails and mining roads is pretty expansive in Gilpin County and it is actually fairly easy to find yourself a great distance from your point of origin without realizing it. I have been lost on these trails many times. Fortunately, most dump back out to the Peak-to-Peak eventually so you can usually find your way home (even if you have to go a helluva long way to get there).

So with two of my maintenance-impaired items in the shop, I think that should cover the major repairs for awhile. I did do some more research on garages and now just need to either pull the trigger or keep looking for property to purchase. We really like where we live, our chief complaint being that we don't have as much southern exposure as we would like, that we would like a little extra room and a larger garage in which we can keep our cars out of the elements. We'll see which way that goes.

Rach made me super yummy vegan pizza for dinner. She is the best cook. I wolfed it down and then we went on a nice little hike in Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Now it is time for a little more work and then off to bed.

Movies:
Last night, we watched two films: POPaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English and Unknown.

POPaganda was actually not the greatest film ever but Ron English is an amazing artist so it was pretty cool to see his work and to be able to watch him work. If you haven't seen any of his stuff, you should definitely check it out. He is primarily a New York artist who specialized originally in doing "takeover" billboard art. He would find billboards and paste his art (often times satirical advertising) up over the regular advertising. He then moved to more traditional forms of art and is really an incredibly talented fine artist who does most of his work in oils on canvas. Even if you don't watch this film, check out his work here.

Unknown was pretty much crap. Don't bother with this one.

Ok kiddies, don't do anything I wouldn't do.

~stubert.

Yesterday: Swim - GCRC, 30 minutes
Today: Hike - Raccoon Trail, ~1 hour
Tomorrow: Swim - GCRC

I worked my ass off today then treated myself with a fun hike with Rach. My foot is still a bit jacked but not so much that a mellow hike didn't do me some good. It is awesome up here this time of year. Cool temps, afternoon thunderstorms. Good stuff. The mushrooms were out in full effect and the leaves have not yet begun to turn but are showing signs of the upcoming season. Winter is just around the corner.

Yesterday, I went to Shirley for a massage and then to Dr. Dave for a much needed adjustment. I was all jacked up. It is amazing to me what he can do. Shirley too. I left both appointments feeling like a new man. My legs were a bit sore and Shirley found a neat spot on my back that just killed. My lower back was all out of whack making my legs pretty much worthless. Dr. Dave fixed me right up, however. Rocketh on.

Other than that, not much is going on. Still just taking it easy, jonezing for a run, and working like crazy. I trotted a bit on the hike tonight and felt fine but know that I need to give it more time before I really go out and hammer anything. I want to get at least one more good Indian Peaks run in before the snow sets in. I should be able to get in a couple before mid October. I'd like to do Pawnee/Buchanan for sure.

Anyone know a good architect? I am thinking of razing our garage and building a new one but need to talk with someone who specialized in this stuff to see if this is a jackassed idea or not. I really like where we live but wish that we had a larger garage to keep all our crap out of the elements. The weather up here just beats the hell out of cars and whatnot. But I digress...

Movie stuff:
Last night, I watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I really despised this movie when I first saw it but have been reading the books and thought it might be amusing to re-watch it. Ya know, it is still a pretty godawful movie. It was certainly more entertaining having read the books but I am of the opinion that movies should stand on their own merit. This one, really doesn't. And most of the acting is atrocious. And some of the effects are really special, while others are just not. Oh well. I'll keep watching the series now though, if just for laughs. Sometimes bad is good.

l8s

~stubert.

Yesterday: Hike - Casa del Critters, 30 minutes
Today: Run - GGCSP, 1 hour
Tomorrow: Ride - Ned area, 1.5 hours

Busy with work stuff but staying rested. This is a good thing. With a little over a week to go before the big event, I am feeling great. Just trying to rest up as much as possible, get organized, make some last minute preparations and whatnot. Dan sent me some great documents to look at to help get everyone stoked. I am getting more and more excited every day. Probably should try to tone that down a notch.

Last night I just went for a short hike behind our house. As I headed up the hill, I saw our neighbors, Joe and Steph and their twin critters walking up ahead so I caught up and hiked with them for a bit. Their boys are about 1 and a half and are just adorable. Little blonde monkeys.

I am still on the same basic plan: Eat well, get lots of sleep, keep things moving but not in a way that creates any stress or fatigue, and wait. Lots of wait. Just over a week now. Getting very close.

~stubert.

Yesterday: Night Run - The Beav, 1 hour
Today: Hike, Coyote Trail, 1.5 hours
Tomorrow: Ride, Casa del Critters, 1.5 hours

Man, talk about busy. I have been swamped this week with more to come. Better too busy than not.

Last night I did a solo run down my street. I didn't feel so hot but it was nice to get out for a bit... even in the dark. I definitely need to do this a bit more to get used to keeping a steady pace. I felt great on the way down but once I turned around, felt worse and worse. They say there is no such thing as a bad run and this, I have come to believe is true. You learn something every time out.

Today, Rach and I went for a hike in Golden Gate Canyon State Park. It was a beautiful night to be out: birds singing, cool temperatures. We hiked up to the old homestead and then back the same way. This is definitely a favorite trail... not great for running but an awesome hike.

Tomorrow, I have work stuff to do in the morning and then plan to go for a ride. Saturday, however is another story as I plan to either run High Lonesome or head to Leadville and run the route over Sugarloaf. Any takers?

Movie moment: Last night, we watched Hoot. Not so good. Carl Hiaasen is one of my favorites and the book was fun in a kid's book kind of way but the movie left much to be desired. I'd skip it.

~stubert

Edit: Ooh! I totally forgot to mention this. Rach and I had to head to Boulder on Wednesday to pick up her car and we saw three moose cavorting in a pond near our house. I had heard that moose had been spotted in the area but had not seen any to date. There were a bunch of people pulled over to watch the trio swim and splash in the small pond just off the Peak to Peak (Kelly Dahl, I believe). Rach loves to watch animals drink and was treated to some serious guzzling action as the moose dunked their heads completely under water to drink. Pretty cool!