Turkey Toe Weekend

I haven't had much time to take mini vacations this summer, so the opportunity to go to Westcliffe the week before my race (and during taper) was perfect. We had a couple cool days in Boulder last week and I was expecting Turkey Toe to be cold (it's at 8,000 ft) but we had a clear warm weekend:



On Saturday, Jeremy and I rode from Mackenzie Junction (below) to Bishop's castle:



That road happened to be part of the Bike with Pike Century ride. Initially, we were worried about riding on the same road as an organized ride, but apparently when you have an organized ride through the Wet Mountains, you still have fewer riders than any given road on any given weekday in Boulder. But because of the ride, we got some road signs and support vehicles looking after us, which was nice since cyclists are more rare down south:



The ride to Bishop's castle was surprisingly difficult. The road starts up a 4 mile hill, then there are 2 more 2 mile climbs and then you turn around and do it again. So we were climbing for 10-25 minutes and had a 3-5 minute break on the descents. I'm really hoping the Wisconsin hills are shorter than that, I only averaged 13 mph for the whole ride.

And the end of the ride - crazy Bishop's Castle (hand made by Jim Castle over the last 40 years or so - this website gives the warning, "Bishop's Castle may look like Hogwarts, but Jim Bishop is no cuddly Dumbledore. He's a tough-talking man with strong, extreme beliefs, and sometimes he expresses them bluntly and loudly. If you or your children want to avoid potentially offensive rants (involving politics and race), you may want to steer clear."):



I had a 20 minute run after our ride and when I trotted past the century ride's aid station in my bike kit, I got some funny looks.

I took Sunday off, while Jeremy, Sarah and Devon had adventures climbing Horn Peak. I did that hike about 11 years ago and it's pretty challenging. I was happy to loaf around the ranch.

Sunday night we had a big fire. Everyone had turns with the cattails soaked in diesel (this picture does make it look more dramatic than it really was):



And then we lit firecrackers (the firecrackers were way more cool than the picture makes them look):



On Monday I had a short run which Sarah joined me on. I don't know if it was the altitude or the screaming winds, but it was not an easy 40 minutes.

We came home Monday night to the Four Mile Canyon fire raging in the mountains above Boulder:



And here's a time lapse video from the top of Flagstaff last night:



The fire is about 7 miles from our house and we are not in any danger, but thousands of Boulderites have been evacuated. The air quality is really bad, so I will have to do my hour bike ride inside today.

Weekly Totals:

Swim: 9400 yards
Bike: 75.3 miles
Run: 17.1 miles

Total: 11:30