Pikes training is a blast.  Seriously, it's so much more complex and intricate than your standard 16-week canned marathon plan.  There are so many things one can do to prepare, and so many ways to leave oneself wondering if enough has been done!  It doesn't matter if you're an elite, grizzled middle-of-the-pack vet, or newbie just hoping to hit the cutoffs...there's always something more to be…

Although I know there's value in it, there is a part of me that feels kind of silly writing a race report for the Summer Roundup.  Why?  I purposely treated it like any other day - I didn't go to bed early the night before, did no special hydration, didn't dwell on my splits or feel the need to memorize the course in the preceding week.  I didn't taper for it, didn't wear racing flats, didn't do the standard pre-race warmup routine.  I just showed up, ran, and had a great time with my Purple…

This past week, some of my best college buddies came out to visit.  I had scared up a vision for us to casually hike the Elk Range's Four Pass loop, knowing that in a normal year we may have to deal with a little bit of snow near the passes.  Our plan called for some fairly low-key hiking - we had budgeted three days to complete the loop.  Once we got into Aspen, we learned one of the passes…