Fruita Mountain Bike Camp

The next weekend after returning from the Boston Marathon I had mountain bike camp out in Fruita with the S:6 MTB team that I am on this year.  I know weird that I am on a team and not even racing my bike this year.  I was planning on bike racing a lot until I started getting into Hurt, Boston, and Miwok and did not make it into the Leadville 100 bike, I really want to do Leadville again and get the big buckle, someday.  Oh well it will come around this fall when Cyclocross season starts back up.

Great time with great people.  Spent 3 days and 2 nights in Fruita, even got to use the new setup in the back of the truck to sleep and it worked out well.  We road on Friday and Saturday for a total of around 60 miles then did a sweet 12 mile trail run on Sunday before driving home.  Awesome time!  I have never spent anytime in Fruita, always just drove right through on my way to Moab.  I will be stopping here in the future now and again.  Much recommended.

Boston Marathon

Another April means another Boston marathon.  Going to keep going to this race as long as I keep qualifying and Shawn will have me.  Love going out there and visiting with Shawn who was my college roommate at Colorado State and his family.  It was great to spend Easter weekend with them.  Thanks for having me guys!

Went into this year knowing that there was no way I was getting close to the 2:44 that I ran in 2016 but thought I could at least break 3 hours.  Well that was not the case, at mile 22ish I totally blew apart and walk/jogged it in to a 3:10 finish.  Guess I spent to much time skiing and biking this spring and not enough time doing quality runs.  Now I know you can't do it all.  Just another notch in the Year of Mediocrity, that is what I am calling 2017.  A year of doing a lot of things just OK and not really focusing on anything.  I am good with it because I still qualified for next year so I will be back.

Truck Bed Build Out

Since getting my Tacoma and getting the shell put onto the truck I have been wanting to build out the back so that I can easily increase storage and also sleep back there.  I used to put the back seat down in my 4Runner and sleep in the back when at trailheads in the mountains and wanted to setup the back of the truck so that I have the same options but with more storage. 

With the help of good old Clyde we built a great setup for the back of the Taco.  If I ever lose my house I can be like Kendrick and sleep in the back of this bad boy if I have to.  Love it.  Total cost was about $120 with the sleeping foam and about 6 hours of design and building.  Well worth it.

Thanks for the help Clyde!

Grand Traverse Ski

All last fall I was thinking about doing the Grand Traverse Ski race even though I have not skied in 20 plus years but never could find a partner to do it with, yes they require you to have a partner for this race.  Everyone I knew that was into backcountry skiing either already had a partner or did not want to drop the cash, could not blame them.  About 5 weeks before the race Rebecca called me and asked me if I would do it with her since she lost her partner, game on.  The very next day I went out and spent a crap ton of cash on the setup and was on the hill skiing for the first time in 20 plus years that weekend.  I put in a lot of time in those 5 weeks trying to get to a point to where I could at least finish this race.  Needless to say my running suffered which you will see in my post for Boston later.

The Grand Traverse is a 40 mile backcountry ski race from Crested Butte to Aspen over the mountains and I was hooked!  We had a blast even though I think it turned into a sufferfest for both of us. 

Special thanks to Debra who supported us and basically made it much easier by driving my truck the 4 hours from Crested Butte to Aspen for me.  Below is a photo blog of the race.  Good times were had by all!  I see more ski mountaineering races in my future.

Arizona with a side of Moab- Feb

Fell almost 6 months behind on the blog so there will be a lot of posts going up over the next few weeks.  Mostly they will be just photo dumps with a short write up just so that I have something to document the busy year I have been having.

Back in Feb a large group of us headed down to Arizona to race, along the way Clyde, Andy and I did a short stop of Moab.  There is no driving through Moab without a stop or two.  Anyways it was a hell of a weekend.  Not only did I get sick as a dog before the race (ran the half marathon), I almost came out of it with the win.  Maybe next time.