Man down

Larry got rocked on Friday morning. We were chatting as usual and all of a sudden this rock appears out of nowhere in the middle of the trail and his foot catches it as he's stepping forward so he ends up stepping forward with his foot rolled inward. Lar was a trooper though and we jogged lightly all the way down, but his ankle is pretty beast now. Ouch!! Take care of it Lar! Check out his blog for more details (and pics): http://funrunlar.blogspot.com

Restaurant review: Empire Asian Buffet

If you're REAL hungry for some Chinese food, this is THE place to go. Empire Asian Buffet located on North Academy has got this chinese buffet thing down! I took Brady here for his "bachelor party" (he's getting married in a couple weeks and Annie doesn't like Chinese food) and good times were had by all. So anyway, this place has a huge variety to choose from...stuff that I've never seen at any other buffet before...and it's good too. The traditional stuff is tasty - fried rice, lo mein, crab legs - and the other stuff is fun to experiment with. In the end, my favorite was the roast pork. Oh yeah, and they do an awesome job with the requisite soft serve ice cream for dessert. Mongolian bbq is also included with the buffet, but I've never gone for it in the two times that I've been. Probably the only bad thing about this place is that there is TOO much to choose from! Price is very reasonable too. $10.99 for the buffet. Check it out!

Move over Kelly...

Even though I've been informed that Kelly is recently single again, there's a new girl in town. Appropriately, she's Winter Olympics related...Tanith Belbin. What? You don't know who she is? You mean you don't watch ice dancing?? Well, neither do I...usually. (I do have to say that of all of the figure skating disciplines, ice dancing is least painful for me to watch because I think there's always stuff happening.) But not only is Tanith WAY good looking (she was 3rd in ESPN's hottest female athlete voting, behind Amanda Beard and Jennifer Barretta) and totally smiley...she's actually good too! Def no Anna Kournikova. Her and her partner, Ben Agosto, just won silver in Torino - the first ice dancing medal for the USA in 30 years. Just more reason to make 2010.

Restaurant review: Manitou Pancake & Steak House

Well after today's incline grand finale, we were geared up for a big breakfast reward at the Manitou Pancake & Steak House down Colorado Ave between Manitou and csprings. Unfortunately, I never kicked my feeling of wanting to puke after the last incline climb, so I definitely didn't have my appetite with me. I settled for an Egg & Bacon sandwich and a side of ham, which was still hard for me a stomach. But it was good!! And everyone was satisfied with their meals. Larry ordered almost everything off the menu and he seemed real pleased.

Our waitress lady was real warm and friendly and informed us that there's a great breakfast buffet on Sat and Sun. In general, the place seemed like a real genuine local fave. Deb, Charlene, and Lar said that the place is always packed and smells great when they bike by in the mornings. Their hours are 6a-2p.

President's Day / Incline weekend

I'm way sore and tired. I blogged the beginning of the madness earlier, but capped off the weekend with 3 more inclines (1 Sunday, 2 today) to bring the 4 day total to 6. I definitely nearly puked at the end of the last one, but I did it!! And today's were my fastest of the 6 (34:40 and 34:26)...the other 4 were about a 38 min average. Big props to Larry and Charlene for doing all 6, and Brian and Deb for doing 3 of them. I definitely appreciated the company and know that if I ever want to do something crazy like that, I can count on the team for buddies. 4 years ago, I kicked off my drive to be a speed skater by buying skates and equipment without ever stepping on the ice. Now this. Gotta keep going!!

Go USA!!

Twofer

Double incline this morning. Totally intense. The second one was actually a lot better for me...the first was just a warm-up. I'm definitely pretty beat now, but it was a great start to the day. My treads snapped on the way down the second time though...they're super helpful though so I'm going to have to get another pair from good old REI that will be able to handle the downhill running the way I do.

Charlene at the end of the second incline up

Charlene and Larry on the way down the second time. So beautiful on the way down.

Awesome trail running.

Stuff of legend.

Heading into the President's Day weekend, the training's been brought to a whole new level. That level is somewhere between ridiculous and stupid. Larry, Charlene, Deb, Copper, and I did the incline this morning before work...and, uh, it was snowing and 12 degrees outside (-6 with the windchill or something crazy like that). You know you're hardcore when you're in a town of hardcore endurance athletes and you're the only people doing the incline. As crazy as it was and as hard as it was to see with the snow freezing on your eyelashes, it felt really cool after it was all over. And this morning was just the start...hopefully it'll get crazier as the weekend progresses.

Me and Larry at the top. We're only smiling because our mouths were frozen in that position.

Deb and Charlene. I left my red jacket at home.

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This is scary. My hair looks like a koosh ball (remember those?) Not to mention it's white. And I have whiskers. Kids, remember to wear a hat when it's cold and snowy outside.

New Music: Micah P. Hinson

Has anybody ever heard of this guy?? There was an interview with James Blunt in the last Rolling Stone (Kanye West cover) and he mentioned Micah P. Hinson's "Don't You Forget" as a song that he's been listening to on his iPod recently. So since I'm always on the eye out for cool new music, and James Blunt is cool, I thought I'd give it a whirl and downloaded the song on iTunes. I think it's great and I ordered the CD off of Amazon (since it was out of stock on his label's site) just based on the one song. He looks like a dork, but he's got a cool chill alternative sound. And apparently he's going to be opening for David Gray soon.

Check out his MySpace to listen to some songs: http://www.myspace.com/micahphinson
Band's website: http://www.micahphinson.com

The Incline!!

I got the fever. (I'm talkin about Olympic fever for all you cave dwellers.) And I can't think of a better way to take advantage of my energy than a couple incline runs (not literally) this weekend.

Now for all you non-cspring'ers and people that have never visited me, the incline is a BEAST hike. It's probably one of the most unique hikes you'll ever encounter. Located in neighboring Manitou Springs just 15 min away from my house, the incline is a local fave...the remnants of the old railway that went up the first 3 miles of Barr Trail that eventually goes all the way to the top of Pikes Peak. It's only 1 mile from bottom to top...but it looks like it goes pretty much straight up. When you look at it, you just think "A train actually went up this thing??" or "What crazy people would even think to build a train going up this??" It's an incredible workout climbing those 3,000-some railroad ties (I tried counting once and I think that's what it was), and even after doing it countless times, it's still rewarding getting to the top. Two pieces of advice for inexperienced hikers: 1. Pace yourself and 2. There's no such thing as too slow at the bottom. There's no other hike like it.

I plan on using the incline as a staple in my training to get back into rockin shape. My lifetime best up is 31:30. So far this year, I've been 49 (two weeks ago), 38 (last week), 37:30 (yesterday), and 36:20 (today). hopefully I can keep bringing that down and then do it crouched down lower and lower.

It's a long way up there!!

Looking up from about 2/3 of the way up. That's actually not the top either. There's a false summit (as if this hike weren't cruel enough).

Vancouver, here we come.

This is so happening. Today I decided to revive my short track career (that was never really alive to begin with). I'm short, Asian, have big legs, quickness, and can get down real low...it can't be a more perfect fit. Seriously though, I never really felt like I gave it an honest effort last time trying to figure out how to transition to Colorado, then trying to figure out how to balance my job, and then just getting out of shape every summer with all my traveling. But it's now or never and I'm going to do it the only way I do things - with everything I can. Just watch the short track racing over the next week or so...it's a totally badass sport and I love it. And then there's Pete, who's going to make 2010 in the least badass sport, curling, but still. Tomorrow morning incline. let's do it!

Can you tell we're amateurs?? I mean, just check out my bike helmet! And look at this guy's curling uniform!

Kelly Clarkson is so my girl.

I've known it all along, but the Grammy's tonight totally confirmed it. What superstar does an interview that's going to be aired on the Grammy's and isn't ridiculously done up looking all hot and stuff?? Kelly Clarkson, that's who. Because she's as real and genuine as it gets! How can you not enjoy that?? And yes, I admit that I totally dig her tunes too. (Pete, btw, really likes Miss Independent, whereas I'm a much bigger fan of the more recent album.) Go ahead make your smart ass comments now. All I know is that my boy Mike and I are going to be fighting this one out.

The Road to Vancouver 2010 pt. I

4 years ago, Pete and I decided that we were going to the Winter Olympics together. Me in short track speedskating, he in curling. After 1 competition where I destroyed some 12 year olds and did a back somersault in a relay (that's not supposed to happen), my short track plans have kinda died recently because this little thing called a job has gotten in the way. Pete dream, however, is alive and kicking. After moving here, he's taken the csprings curling circuit by storm and is well on track to be the unanimous rookie of the year selection. I took witness to this budding phenom tonight and thought I'd give the rest of the world a sneak preview of what's to come in 2010. Check it out.

Pete's having some problems seeing his target

Check out that concentration!!

And the smooth release. (On a later attempt, he totally wiped out. It was great.) Oh, and that guy in the background is actually a modern day viking. No joke.

The ice is very dirty.

Yeti sports / Super Mario Bros

Try this game. My high score is: 9.265
http://www.donpixel.com/play/es/060201201034/

And for all you old school Mario Bros fans:
http://redruth.greenbean.org/~ben/4CR/smb_super_synth.swf

Int'l Snow Sculpture Championships

Brooke and I went to Breck earlier this week and we got in some boarding action and saw some absolutely unreal ice sculptures. The boarding was pretty rough. It was ridiculously windy and bitter cold at times. Brooke tried to break a fall with her face and got her first ever nosebleed! Congratulations Brooke, I'm glad I could be there for that one. It wasn't a totally gushing nosebleed...just a lil one, but still.

No pics of the nosebleed, but here's one of Brooke (who normally boards with just a head band and sunglasses) trying to cover herself from the winds.
Over the weekend, Breck hosted the International Snow Sculpture Championships so the sculptures were still up when we were in town. Now you're probably thinking "wtf, how cool can that be?" Well let me tell you...it was pretty freaking incredible. Teams from all around the world carved out huge blocks of hard snow into these amazing sculptures. Unfortunately, I didn't have any real good pics that did these things justice in terms of how big they were.

This one was my fave and it was also this year's winner. A dog looking into a mirror. (The "reflection" was another carved out dog.)
Here's me checking to see if anyone's home...