Winter cannot hold us back!

Well it wasn't warm, or sunny, but on one of the last days of February we decided to clamber onto our two wheelers and head out for a nice long ride. We climbed south from home, around Horsetooth Reservoir to the little town of Masonville, up to Stove Prairie, over the top and down Rist Canyon, and ended it with a climb over Bingham Hill. It was a great ride, we pushed hard, froze our fingers and toes off, hit some sketchy snow patches on our decent, and even saw an attempted murder by some methed out hill billy who tried to run us off the road twice. That was really the most exciting part of the day for me, getting into a fight with some crack addict who stopped twice to try and get out of his car for some fist on face action with the 3 of us... By the way, if you see an old blue Rodeo or Passport with Colorado Plates 857-VXJ up in Rist beware of what him and his dreddy girlfriend might do... Well I hope you all had a great weekend too!

Big Mountain, Glaicer, and Crazy Dogs

What a weekend! I left sunny Colorado and made my way up to wintry Whitefish, Montana for a long weekend of skiing and adventure. I have been to Whitefish a few times, but never in the winter, and it was amazing. The X-country skiing is unreal and the down hill skiing at the local hill, Big Mountain, was even better!! What a great little town, you can walk everywhere, people are really nice, the lifts are less then 10 minutes away, and there is zero traffic.


So here are some pictures from the weekend, enjoy!








I even sneaked in a run while I was up there!!!





Had no lines and fresh powder at Big Mountain, it's one of my favorite hills after just one day of skiing. The terrain, crowds, snow, everything was amazing there! And I hitched a ride to the hill and back with nice locals, what a place!!

Still warm!

Not much to report today, just pictures!

First Ride!

What a weekend!! I had a 4 day weekend and the weather couldn't have been better to take advantage of the time off. Since Thursday I have swam 2 miles, ran over 22, hammered a few laps of stairs and even got in a quick 15 mile ride on my new Surly!! What a great few days!! Most importantly though I got out on my new bike. For those of you that have been following this blog for a while, you know I did a life changing bike trip with Molly from Seattle to San Diego a few years ago and had a blue Surly touring bike that trucked the 1800 mile trip without a single problem or issue. I loved that bike! But it had 26 inch wheels, which although great for touring, were pretty sluggish around town as a makeshift road bike. So I stripped her down, kept all the parts I wanted and sold the bike to a young guy from Boulder that was planning on doing the same trip down the west coast with his girlfriend this summer.


I decided I wanted to build the same Surly bike, a Long Haul Trucker, but go up a frame size to a 56 which would allow me to run 700c wheels, which are slightly bigger and roll a bit faster. I wanted a bike that was still a stout touring bike, but when here in Fort Collins would double as a decent road bike too. So I built it up from scratch, hand picking every part. It was a blast, and I now have a semi-custom bike that can tour and race around. It's the exact way I want it, down to every single part. Well I just finished it last week and then it snowed... But with weather here in the 60's and sunny for the past few days, all the snow is gone and I got the chance to take it for a spin.


It is still a heavy bike by roadie standards, but I am not a roadie so screw em! I do have it loaded with my fenders, strong 29er wheels, front and rear steel racks, my two stem system, a heavy brooks saddle, and big platform pedals. But it's a bike, and the idea is to ride it not carry it. If I was worried about a few extra pounds I would just skip breakfast, or take 2 less beers with me. Anyway, other then the high pressure 23c tires that are on the bike now, it's all set up for touring and I can escape any weekend I want with camping gear in tow, with a simple swap for bigger 38c tires that I have laying around.


The 700c wheels really make a huge difference, and the bike seems fast and efficient. I didn't want to ride too hard or too long because I am still a little sore from yesterdays long run, but I knew getting out would help stretch my legs a bit. So I took off and headed out and around Horsetooth Reservoir. It was just a simple 15 mile ride, but its super hilly. The bike handled like a dream, it was fast, smooth, and gave the roadies I passed something to think about since I was in baggy shorts, running shoes, and my red fleece was flapping like a cape around my neck. I even got up to 53 MPH, which was rad! All in all, I am super excited (see how I didn't say stoked... I hate that word) with the bike and ideas are churning of where I can pedal to in the coming months!!


Well I hope you all had a great weekend and if you were here in CO, hopefully you took advantage of the sunshine! I do feel a little remorse that I didn't go skiing, but I am going on a little ski trip next weekend, so not that much remorse.

Wind, wind, and more wind!

Not much to say, tired.... It was so windy, I'll write up more later, but for now, I just want to eat something.

Stairs and a run.....

The sun came back out and temps were in the 50's today here in Colorado, so we figured it was time to hit the pavement. Josh is one week out from his first ultra and excited about heading to Moab to run around the desert. We took off for campus today to run stairs, which we normally drive too, but being in the running mood we figured we'd run it. We polished off 3 laps in Moby which is a feat in itself, and a 6.5 mile run to top it off! What a day, cannot wait for tomorrow, supposed to be in the 60's!!! Have a great weekend everyone, get out there!!

Solid Sunday Push

I'll keep this short today, but Jude, Paul and I went out for a 20 minute run yesterday to burn off the beer from Saturday night and it turned into an 8 and a half mile trail run... I was back in the 5 fingers, hoping to run a few short quick miles on pavement in them and ended up pushing through the longest run yet in them. I felt great throughout the run, even on downhills on the trails, but wow today my feet hurt a bit. I am wearing sandals in the house because walking around barefoot is painful... Anyway, it was a great run, we all felt fast, but I know I need to take it easy in the vibrams, those long ones are rough. I think I just need more time in them at smaller distances. Well, have a great Monday!

Trail running in Feb!!

Got in a good run today, thought about doing a longer one, but instead went up into the hills and climbed through the woods!!! There was a trace a snow on the ground up in Horsetooth Mountain park but it wasn't much, and the run was great! Sorry we forgot cameras today, but it was Josh and I, and our two dogs!! We had a great time running the trails we normally rip on bikes, and it was nice to get a different perspective up there.

Anyway, that's really it, the body feels great, I am still taking time off from the vibrams, but I think this weekend I will go back to them. The reason being, after a hard month of pushing the new shoes and my body to adjust, I was starting to see some pain in my feet. So I am just taking it slow with them, I think the 7.5 mile trail run the other day in them was a bit of a stretch this early on. But I am excited to get them back on my feet and out the door!! So for those of you reading this that are trying the 5 fingers, I know they feel great off the bat and you think you can push it hard, be careful, my feet took about a month of abuse before they barked back. I am not giving up on them, I just went a little too hard a little early I think. I still have high hopes for them and still plan on running the Colorado Marathon in them. Anyway, have a great weekend!!!


This obviously is not from today, since I didn't have my camera, but we enjoyed the same view!!!