Salida

Two real things about Salida. First, the weather, scene, and camaraderie were top notch. Second, I ran a crappy race. That's pretty much all you need to know about it! With the first real warm weekend on the books for spring, it seemed that everyone and their mother came out to Salida for the marathon.

I brought the whole gang and we plopped down at the Thomas House. While pricey, it was close to the start/finish, and gave us plenty of room to spread out. We grabbed a quick dinner at Fritz, caught up with Nick and his fam before catching some sleep.

As for the race, well it just was not a good one for me. Probably a combination of things, but I definitely hit the mark with my slow start to the year as last year I felt I tried to race too hard for too long. So, under trained and perhaps a bit unprepared, I found myself working too hard for what was really a pedestrian pace. See below...



Once we hit the dirt road and the second aid station, I essentially knew my day was over, and did my best to just grind it out. I'm not in shape to run climbs hard right now, and I was dropped repeatedly by my encouraging friends :) When I hit the turn around, the leaders were long gone, not having seen any of them on the way out.

The middle part of this course is truly spectacular, heading back at the divide with massive views and some rolling jeep track. While a bit muddy and snowy, there was no ice or other crap to deal with so it wasn't really bad. I had a nice little stretch here on the downhills catching a few runners and finally meeting up with Todd. We ran a few miles together commenting on how Leila was murdering the entire women's field (along with most of the men). At the penultimate aid station Todd gapped me when I stopped for water and then just buried me on the final climb. In no man's land with nobody in sight I cruised around some delicious single track and plopped my way down into Salida in 3:52 (Results).

We hung around the finish for a short time, but some fussy children made a long morning for Rachel so we decided to grab some quick grub at Moonlight Pizza before heading home. Never fear though, I managed to stick around to watch JT finish and lose his bet. Leaving Salida was tough though, as returning to the city always leaves me a bit deflated. I think it's time to start enjoying the fresh air of the deeper mountains even if it means crusty post-holing and some ice capades...

So, lots of work to be done. The next 11 weeks are critical for me, and I hope to make a decent run of it out in Fruita and then at Greenland before heading up to Bighorn.

Blogging?

Do I blog? Apparently not much lately. Been super busy with school/work/life/running and haven't had much time. Salida is 2 weeks away, and I'm both worried and not worried. I know I'm not in any kind of form right now, but I'm not grossly out of shape either, so it can't be that bad. Been mixing in some hill work and just starting to feel comfortable grinding out some longer climbs. I've been focusing a bit more on quality than quantity for a number of reasons, but once I finish this course I'll have more time to devote to running and it'll come at a good time to build for Fruita. In any case, we're booked for a stay at the Thomas House in Salida, and plan for some pizza and beer post race. Really looking forward to seeing everyone and spending a day running on trails.

Frosty's

That sucked. But good times were had by all. Wanker beat me by a full minute in the 5 mile, but I crushed him by 6 minutes in the 10 miler. That should put an end to who's a better beer runner.


Between race PBR...

2012 Non Running Challenges

Now you can follow along my non running challenges on the blog as well. On the right you'll see the 2012 book challenge, which sort of came about as a new year's resolution. Also, a bit further down, you can see each of my 100 beers from the 2012 100 beers in 100 places challenge.

As of right now I'm on pace for a solid 100 beers (2 per week), and I'm way ahead on the book goal. Kids books really shouldn't count, but I don't care.

Also, been thinking about getting Xavier some rock shoes in March when REI dividends come out. I'll need an activity to help develop some more upper body strength and Xavier loves to climb so bouldering will be a cheap and fun way to get him out in the hills and then perhaps if he gets it in his blood next winter we can climb indoors a bit at Thrillseekers.

CSFA50K

Good times down at JT's place for the Fat Ass. Unofficially 5:54 (6:04 + 2 beers @ -5 minutes per beer). Only about 2 hours faster than JT which gives me a good cushion for this weekend. Looking forward to bringing my sons to a questionable post race beer environment. The FA was a great way to take it easy and cruise around some trails that I have this thing called dirt (weird concept I know, I was confused too).

More Good Parenting

2011 Recap

Ahh, the time of year that beckons reflection. Hot coffee, good beer, and slow runs abound. My family had our first Christmas with 4.



Sometimes folks look back at a year and say, "I could have done better here, here, and here." I know I'm guilty of it. Not this year though, I essentially did everything I wanted to and had a lot of fun in the process. I'll shoot to fulfill the same process this year with similar goals.



I'm embracing the snow for all it's worth, trying to be smarter about my training and scheduling of races. My main goal races are widely spaced, and I'm gonna train specifically for each. Bighorn is gonna be tough, really tough. Compared to Leadville, the race is a MAN sized 100. An area of mountainous terrain on the cusp of the Wyoming/Montana border, this isn't flashy. You'd more likely see Jesus' second coming than a Prius in Dayton, WY. I'll likely be going most of the night solo, no crew or pacer until mile 80. I'm rather excited about this actually, self sufficiency in a 100 is a tough thing to get right.



I've recently given some thought to racing the Devil Mountain 50 in October for the incredible run of Silverton > Steamboat > Pagosa all in a row. I think that would be a bit better than running Deadman Peaks both financially and logistically with what I've got planned for the run up to Hellgate.



In any case, let us look back on the year that was 2011. Some highlights:

Fourth of July Weekend:


My family was in California and I was able to sneak in a LOAD of training in a short amount of time. Two of the greatest people in the world agreed (each in their own way :)) to let me drag them along on a "fun" training weekend which included record setting vertical on all three fronts. Nevertheless we did manage that incredible fun that i'd promised. The fact that we literally almost drove my car off the mountain and died is an afterthought in that weekend which speaks to how great it really was.

Bighorn weekend:
Wyoming. Mountains. Family. First win. Enough said.


How quickly life goes from this:


To this:



Xavier's first day of Preschool:


So, hopefully, there'll be more runs like these to share our "year in review":