Denver ride

I've mapped out my ride to Denver from pueblo. I'm pretty excited about it. Well I didn't really map it out myself but from here to springs I figured out how to get there. Overall it's about 130 miles. The person who mapped springs to Denver led me right to the area where my friends live, Glendale. So sweet that part is done. The route through springs seems to follow a bike path anyone have any experience with this route? Here's two links one is from Pueblo to springs and the other is from springs to Denver:

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/co/pueblo/893684358885

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/co/colorado-springs/233239599797

And vice versa on the way home a couple days later i'm thinking.

On the way I've got a charge spoon saddle and some randonneur tires 700c x 32 tires on the way, some of the way up there is dirt. Once I get the tires I'll take another ride up to springs to test out that part of the route. I'm pretty stoked about it. My planning date is August 15th I'll be back from California by then and it'll be a weekend so should be relatively quiet. Also that's a twenty mile weekend run on my training, my thoughts are that 130 mile ride all day should equal about that same as running : ).

Also I've signed up for the 24 The Hard Way. 12 hour race. Also pretty pumped up for that. 12 hours of pure love. My goal is 50 miles. Here's my logic:

6 mph=10 minute miles
6x12= 72
Not that i'm going to go all out but i can run comfortably for a couple hours at that. Even further into the logic.
4 mph= 15 minute miles
4x12=48

So at a slight truffle I should make 50. How i'll feel after is beyond me. It'd be nice to get a 100k but that's pretty far out there since the longest i'll run is a marathon. I think I may just keep running after the boulder marathon to make it a 30mile run. Which is something else i've got to keep telling myself "I will be using this marathon as a training run. I must not go faster than 8 minute miles." Which is pretty hard because i'm pretty competative but marathon races i'm pretty casual, I just want to finish. I think it'll go well.

Another thing on my mind: Does 130 miles classify as a bike ultra? 100 is a century. But 130 just seems blah. Inbetween double centurys are long, but they have a name, not ultra in the name of that. Hmmm..

24 The Hard Way

Well I think i've made up my mind, Instead of doing the Denver marathon I'm thinking about taking part in "24 the Hard way" It basically is a 1 mile loop and you run it for either 6 hours, 12 hours, or 24 hours.

First I was thinking yeah I could do the 6 hour run and definately get the ultra marathon title, easily getting like a 50k under my belt. I then thought about the word easily, screw that I know I can't do the 24 hour right now at the moment so why not bump it up to the 12 hour? I can get a 50 miler under my belt.

Worst thing about me is i'm impulsive. Once I think about it, it's always in my head. For the next couple weeks i'll think about it. It's only in Oklahoma city, OK. So about a 9 hour drive. That's not too bad for an ultra. What I need to do it just register, then I have to do it. The Boulder Marathon is still on though. That'll be a good training run for me. God now I have to train harder, yea baby. It's on a saturday too. sweet that'll give me a day to recover before going back to school.

Shoes, shoes I cant find them

Sadly I just can't seem to find my vibram five finger shoes. I've tore most of this house apart looking for them. Went for my mid week long run ran a few miles around in the neighbor hood. Decided that I'd run over to my uncle's house whom has a treadmill and ran three miles barefoot on the treadmill. Felt pretty good. Think I got a blister though.

I'll keep looking for my shoes though, they've got to be around here somewhere.

I've come across Deanna Adam's blog:

http://ultrarunbikevegan.blogspot.com/

Wow. I've really enjoyed looking through it. She just finished doing the Great Divide tour. Wow again. I've seen this race (not really a race but can't think of another way to put it, maybe adventure?) somewhere before and thought that would be a fun thing to do. Possibly in outside magazine last year or something. She's the same age as me. Twenty. I can't imagine doing something like that now. All on my mind is school, sadly. Man I need to get my prioritys in line. Sometimes I think college can wait, as she puts it college will always be there. Well said.

Which reminds me, I ordered a charge spoon seat a couple weeks ago. The site says they are out of stock but should get restocked in mid july. Which is nowish! So anyday now it'll get shipped out and I'll be ready for a long ride without my ass getting beat up.

Marathon training is going well. I think i'm just about halfway. It's definetely easier than last year. I know I can run the distances this time. I'm pretty sure that I can beat my previous time on the last marathon. Geez all these races what's a poor college kid to do? I'm having trouble making money trying to enter these races! Wish I could somehow get a way to get in for free. If only there is a way, if anyone knows a way let me know : ) I'd be happy with a answer for that.

My last race was the liberty point 5k my goodness that was an awesome race. Let me start by saying it was only 5 bucks. I've never had a race at that cost. No shirt but i'm good with that. I'd be good with all races costing 5 bucks and not getting shirts. Not that I don't like shirts, but I don't think most of them are good looking sadly.

The race itself was nice. I brought my sister and brother along to run it as well. Lined up and it's off. I like to start in the back because then i have to keep slow to pass people, which helps me from starting off too fast. After I past mile marker 1 and 7 minutes I was off. Didn't check my watch again. Just pumped up the music and took off. Finishing in 19:42 a new PR! And under 20 minutes wow! I was pretty pumped.

Now... To find those shoes..

Races

I've been meaning to do this for awhile but have been lazy. It's basically a resume of the races I've run.

In order from oldest to newest

2007:

John Neumann Panther Run-5k

22:01-5th overall

Bolder Boulder-10k

1:01:56

2008:

Pcc/Csup 75th anniversary run-7.5k

34:19-15th overall

Hot to Trot-5k

21:03-13th overall

Denver Marathon-42.1k

3:40:30-335th overall

Rock Canyon Half Marathon-21k

1:39:44-85th overall

2009:

Valentine's twosome (Brandee and I)-5k

30:14-14th overall

Liberty Point-5k

19:42-4th overall

That's it! Upcoming races for me are:

September 20th, Boulder marathon.

Bouldermarathon.com

Hoping for under 3:30 maybe even boston qualifying time

October 18th, Denver marathon.

Denvermarathon.com

Just hoping to get a decent time.

All this for training for maybe a 50 miler in the spring, Still looking for one in colorado. If anyone has any ideas feel free to let me know.