Spring in Colorado

Last weekend (1 week ago):

This past weekend:

This is why you don't see many photos of Cody lately.

He bumbles right up to me, gets too close to the camera and even if I do manage a shot, he does something awkward like close his eyes.

He's doing o.k. these days, kinda wobbly in his rear legs, falls over sometimes, does a lot of that old dog pacing, wanders into corners and stays there for a bit, typical old dog stuff but he has his moments of perkiness, chasing me around the yard as long as I don't go too fast.  Somehow he can run and do big 4 legged jumps when dinner is getting dished out.  Funny how that works.  Going to be 15 in July.

Had a nice long 3 1/4 hour bike ride on the plains on Saturday and got a nice shot of the twin peaks, Longs and Meeker.

Then went on a 4 1/4 hour hike up at Hall Ranch on Sunday and got more shots of the twin peaks from a different vantage.

And a more panoramic view.

Classic Hall Ranch shot.

Both days were perfect, sunny, blue skies, low 60's with a nice breeze.  Quite the contrast to the snowstorm and 12 degrees of last weekend.

The coffee shop we normally go to in Lyons was shut for Easter which was surprising because Easter's not really that big of a deal in the Boulder area and most places were open.  But we easily found another place that was open that seemed appropos.

The coffee was better and the people working there didn't have the same snooty attitude as the other place so I think we've found a new place for pre-ride/hike fueling up.  And I guess Lyons is the sort of place where you can leave a several thousand dollar titanium Litespeed road bike unlocked on the main street. 

Beautiful day again today and supposed to rain/snow tomorrow.  April always keeps us on our toes.

Eight weeks until my first race in June up in Lory provided they don't cancel it due to the fire.  So far it sounds like it's a go but 10 bridges were destroyed and will have to be re-built.  I thought about offering my structural engineering skills to help design the bridges but then I realized that they probably still have the plans from the original bridges.  I was looking at a map of the burn area and it looks like almost if not all of the entire bike course is burned.  Hard to say if the run course was torched but I suspect it was.  Miraculously though the transition area is not burned.  The fire came right up to the boundaries of it and let it be.  I think the finish area is o.k. as well.  Will probably be a very depressing race but you never know, maybe the grasses will start to grow back in May.  The park almost certainly needed a fire going through it, just not such a big and extensive one.

Anyway, this month's training will include the start of hill training for both bike and run.  I'm going to sign up for one more month of boot camp classes then in May I'll start going maybe only once or twice a week.  I hate to stop though, I feel so much better and stronger doing weights and plyometrics a few times a week but I suppose I can do them on my own.  I'm going to see how I manage during April as I increase my biking and running. 

No agility trials until the end of the month but my training partner is up for training again so Strummy gets to play tomorrow.  I've been going to the practice field on my own to work on dogwalks and such but it's fun to have someone to train with.

Bring on the spring.