Sunday, July 22, 2012

Xavier's 5 goal special

This one is more for my parents, but you may enjoy the hilarity of 4 year old soccer.  The 5th goal was his best goal, though it comes towards the end of the clip.











And, to prove he's a child of mine, here are two of his fouls the second of which earned him a quick talk with the coaches.  To show he was on the same page, he petulantly backheeled the ball away from the other kid before running back to his side.  Maybe he's ready for the big time afterall...





I'm definitely going to be a loud parent.  At least I'm not the crazy angry one.

Green - Buchanon/Pawnee Pass Loop

Saturday night I headed up for a night run on Green in Boulder before continuing to the Indian Peaks Wilderness.  It was a bit of a challenge getting a parking spot as it seems there was a concert of sorts.  Definitely not feeling peppy, I opted for Gregory/Ranger on the way up and stupidly chose to hop down Greenman/Saddle/Amph which was a bit tricky in the dark.

Sunday morning I got the alarm bells ringing at 3:45 and I struggled to get up out of the Subaru to hit the trail by 4.  Couldn't have been a rougher start to the morning.  I was really tired, my stomach was upset, and it was pitch black out.  I also didn't bank on the technical looseness of the trail skirting Mt. Autobon.  I tripped and stumbled enough to effectively maim my stride into a crawl and it wasn't until the sun came up and I was approaching Buchanan Pass that I had any kind of lift.  I had all of my pre-run beta courtesy of Woody, and like others have mentioned, I saw more tents than people until mile 21.  With the week prior being the 4 pass loop, I had a similar course to go by.  I'd put the 4 pass loop higher on scenery (Fravert basin and Snowmass lake are unsurpassed) and climbing (8500 to 6500), but the edge to the actual trail to BPP.  BPP is far more rugged than 4 pass, and its Cascade Creek Trail is hands down my favorite trail.  I need to go back and run it in the heat of the day so I can jump into the pools and stand under waterfalls.  I should mention that I was woefully under-prepared for the climb up Pawnee Pass, perhaps not really looking into the data for the climb.  I thought it'd be 5 miles, but in reality it's closer to 7.5.  As a result, my slacking off took a toll on my arrival back at the car.  This is a must do for any CO trail runner.  Fairly easy to follow (stay on Cascade Creek Trail!).

Photo: Woody Anderson

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Monday, July 16, 2012

4 Pass Loop

The best pictures are on Woody's blog.  Pictures don't do it justice, however, you've got to see it for yourself.  The only bummer was that it is quite obvious my lack of training over the last month or so.  Time to  ratchet things up a bit.  We did take our time, and did the loop in 7 hrs.  We (Jaime, Kieran, Scott, & Woody) met up with Carbondalians Jeremy, Ashley, Gina, and Casey.  Good times for all.
Snowmass Lake - Photo: Woody

Friday, July 13, 2012

Comments

I begrudgingly added the word verification to my comments because I was getting hundreds of "free Viagra" backlinks being posted to old blog posts.  My apologies, I hate doing them, but I hate the emails more.  At least blogger wiped them out for me.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Independence Day Trail 10K

Didn't happen.  Jaime and I drove up early to get ready for the event, and when we got to the rego table we were told it was closed and you had to be pre-registered to run.  I guess next time I'll lie about where I live so I can register though the website...  So, Jamie and I took off and pre-ran the course (with some slight deviations), and had a great time.  Weather was nice and cool, a good change of pace from recent days.  Makes me want to live in Summit county more and more.  We saw a few other folks out on the course that weren't able to register, and then saw Helen Cospolich at the aid station.  Jaime and I finished up and headed to the finish to watch the leaders come in.  Unfortunately, I think I could have placed fairly well, but oh well.

At the finish area was Neal Gorman who I had met while training on Hope Pass last year.  Neal was there watching his wife (7 months pregnant and still kicking ass) run the race.  So, we chatted a bit on Western and Steamboat.  I couldn't think of all the names running it, so I went back to look at the list and while the list isn't staggeringly long, it is staggeringly stacked.  I'm only wondering how many more will show up with the purse now at $40K. Even without it, the list is big: Roes, Schlarb, Mackey, Parr, Meltzer, Wolfe, Downie, Callahan, Bowman, etc...  Those and others along with the women who are likely to beat me.  I expect to see some fast times (I presume the course to be in the same time range as Wasatch if a bit faster without experience on either, solid climbing and altitude to shake things up) with 10 G's on the line for the winner.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Los Gundersons

My best friend Gunner got married this weekend in Wisconsin, and boy did we celebrate.  I did some running, quarters from bar to bar.  The 15 hour marathon road trip back was rough, but we made the most of it.  Incredible weekend with friends and new family.






Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Let the games begin...

The only problem with surrounding your kid with collegiate soccer players is that they learn to play aggressive and dirty from a young age...