Week in Review (July 22 - July 28)

Tuesday (10,788 steps) - Peloton and walked Olive before going to work. Gym at lunch with a shorter StairMaster session and the same full body strength video I did last week, only I did 15 pound weights this time. 

Oof. Met Ben at 4 Noses since he had dropped off Camille for some work - which unfortunately they didn't finish so we have to leave her there overnight. Stopped at Costco on the way home for a small amount of groceries and a pizza for dinner. Bosch.

Wednesday (16,768 steps) - Olive walk before getting to work. Went for my run at lunch. Wasn't the best and wasn't the worst, but I was sure sweaty when I was done. 

Ariel and I took Olive for a walk when we got done with dinner. More Bosch. 

Thursday (11,495 steps) - Peloton and Olive walk before working from home. 

Ariel and I went to Dutch and then I tackled finalizing my drop bags, which took most of the afternoon. After work we went over to David's Bridal to try on dresses for Lisa's wedding, without success. Met Ben at Torchy's for dinner. 

Bosch. 

Friday (10,487 steps) - Skipped the weekly walk in favor of getting more sleep - only I slept horribly. Took Olive for a bit longer walk before taking her to work with me.

Uneventful day at work trying to get on top of everything before being out for a week.

Maybe we went to 4 Noses? Short walk around the block with Olive. Bosch.

Saturday (16,283 steps) - Didn't sleep great, again. Last minute packing and I went out early for my short 20 minute run while Ben went to pick us up coffee.

Ben headed to the airport to pick up Jillian while I showered and then took Olive for a walk. Finished up some last minute packing before starting the drive up to Summit County. Hard to remember after this long, but I think we went directly to Outer Range for a beer and some food. I had the Ahi Tuna bowl, which as usual, was delicious. 

Took Olive for a walk around Lee's neighborhood and we all just hung out on the deck before deciding to head to bed.

Sunday (13,675 steps) - Didn't sleep as well as I would have hoped, yet AGAIN. Ugh. Ran some errands, including a stop to REI and the grocery store, before we eventually headed up to Copper to check in and drop off my drop bags. Pre-race pictures.

Went to Outer Range for a beer before taking Olive to Rainbow Lake for a walk/hike.

Unfortunately didn't get any pictures or a video, but Olive actually went "swimming" for the first time! I took off my crocs and went in the water with her and held onto her harness so she could see what doggie paddles was all about. Decided pizza would be good for dinner, so we ordered from Scraggy's down the street from Lee's. All had dinner together before Ben, Olive and I headed to the hotel up the street for the night. Unfortunately everything was kind of a disaster. Got into bed just a bit later than planned and then proceeded to toss and TURN ALL FREAKING NIGHT.

Monday (118,543 steps) - The whole purpose of getting the hotel was so I could have a huge bed and crank up the AC, but I slept AWFUL and woke up for good around 1:30 in the morning. Great. I just love starting out a race on zero sleep. Updating with... Summit 200 recap to follow.

Stats:

• 198,039 steps
• 60.95 miles run
• 14.58 miles walked
• 40 minutes of cardio
• 30 minutes of strength

Week in Review (July 15 - July 21)

Tuesday (14,839 steps) - Peloton ride and walk Olive before going to work in the office. Went to the gym at lunch and did the StairMaster and a total body strength class. It's been quite a while since I did one of those and this was a good one that I will do again. Costco for groceries and to pick up a pizza for dinner. 

Took Olive for a walk after it cooled down a bit. Bosch? 

Wednesday (18,268 steps) - Walked Olive before going to work. I was supposed to have a run with rolling hills, but I wasn't sure when I was going to be able to fit it in, so I just did my normal downtown loop. 

Family dinner at home and just didn't ever feel motivated to take Olive for a walk after work and then it started to downpour. Bosch?

Thursday (12,774 steps) - Work from home. I had a very quick and easy run - thankfully. Even though it was a much cooler day it was very humid after the rain. Went to Dutch with Ariel and then we took her car to get emissions done. Walked Olive and had lunch. Torchy's for dinner, another Olive walk and more Bosch.

Friday (14,225  steps) - Wash Park and Stella's with the gang. Took Olive to work. 

I thought this was cute that someone turned the meter cover into a cat

We met up with Ben at 4 Noses before going home for dinner. Bosch.

Saturday (16,885 steps) - Originally I had thought that we might go to Mt. Flora, but then on the drive (which had a LOT of traffic) I suggested Jones Pass instead. Benefit of course being frequent water access and tree cover! Olive had a blast, of course, and it was a beautiful day for temperature and wildflowers.

I suggested that we drive into Evergreen to eat at Lariat Lodge. I knew I had been there in the past with Lisa and that they have ample patio seating for dogs. Food was good, beer selection was meh.

Ben helped me to do some prep for my drop bags. It was just too hot in the house, so we ended up going to 4 Noses for a bit just to be in some air conditioning. Heated up a frozen pizza and watched more Bosch.

Sunday (12,746 steps) - Ben's mom had sent Goosie some new outfits, so I changed her into her western one - so cute!

All the animals were wilting from the heat while we decided what we were going to do for our fitness activity. 

We went to Dutch for coffee and then I took Olive for a walk before we headed to Green Mountain. I had 1,000' of vert on schedule, which meant we only had to do 1.5 repeats. Only.

We thankfully had some cloud cover, so it wasn't as awful as it could have been. Stopped at Sierra on the way home looking for socks. Sadly they didn't have any Smartwool, which is what I was looking for. More drop bag prep, I think I have everything just about finalized! Bosch marathon and Ben ordered in Panda for dinner.

Monday (12,384 steps) - Work form home. Threw in some laundry and went for my "easy" 45 minute run early before it got too hot. Ariel came over and we did our Monday ritual of getting Dutch and picking up breakfast tacos from Torchy's. Took Olive for a walk and then jumped on a Zoom call with Ana to help her out with her Garmin watch and how to import courses, etc. After work I had hoped to do some driving, but didn't get any offers. Met Ben at Parry's for a beer and dinner.

More Bosch!

Stats:

• 102,121 steps
• 17.83 miles run
• 14.01 miles walked
• 30 minutes of cardio
• 20 minutes of strength

Leadville Silver Rush 15 Miler (Race Recap)

Leadville, CO

Saturday, July 12

Half Marathon #200

Weather - Sunny and warm

Arrived at the race start around 8:15, which was later than I had planned. I had to use the bathroom on the way to pick up my bib. Saw Jandy and Josephine on the way back to the car to get my pack. I had developed a blister on my left heel from a pair of my Freebirds, so I had Ben put some tape on. By the time I got everything ready I had enough time to use the bathroom one more time and then found the girls for our start.

Me, Josephine, Jandy

So while I've run the Leadville marathon and heavy half, I have never run anything in Leadville that starts at the ski hill. I'm glad Ben got a picture of our start - I'm in this mess somewhere. I have no idea what my pace was going up the hill because I don't think the timing mat was working - but I'm just happy I wasn't last.

Thankfully once we got to the top of the hill the course leveled out. I took a short walk break because my heart rate was already through the roof. We were on a dirt road that was relatively wide, so we didn't get too bottlenecked here. I was surprised at the number of people that had poles out - especially in this area. This course has about half the gain (maybe even a third) of the heavy half and doesn't go up nearly as high. Anyway, the course went down a bit before we were briefly on a paved section before the climbing started. I caught up to Jandy and Josephine on the first hill and we leapfrogged a bit on the flatter section until we got about 2.5 miles out and I didn't see them again. We had some double track that was gradually uphill.

Thankfully after this section we went into a more tree-lined section for a few miles. I knew I would appreciate the shade on the way back. We took a hard right and the grade of the climbs went up. I could see a group of people in front of me that I hoped to catch up to. Apparently my guess of just the one aid station at the turn around was reality! Came to a clearing and there was a nice view (and some port-o-potties), but we had to go up another few tenths to the very small aid station.

There were only two tents - one for medical and one for food/liquids. I pulled out my cup and took a little coke, although it wasn't very cold so I didn't even finish it. We had to do a weird loop to head back down and I think I passed probably 15 people here that were just sort of hanging out at the aid station. I knew it was "almost" all downhill and I wanted to be done! I saw Josephine and Jandy and they only seemed to be about a half mile behind me. I did a decent amount of running until the turn off (I think it was more downhill feeling). 

Once I got to the more tree-lined areas I was definitely walking more and just hoping to pass a few people here and there. I was tired and definitely feeling hot. I knew that the course made a detour at the end of the course but wasn't sure what the distance would be and a I had an "A" goal of finishing in about 3.5 hours.

I got to the paved area and knew that on the way out it had been a mile. Imagine my dismay when we got close enough to see the finish line only to take a hard right and go up some single track. A couple that I was near told me it was over a mile from here. UGH. And most of it was uphill, which I thought I was done with.

We finally crested the top of the ski hill that we had run up, but we didn't just run down it again, no, we had to go around to a different hill. In that time I got passed by the first 50 mile runner (they did start a few hours before us at least) and then I bombed the downhill.

I was as few minutes over my goal, but considering the course was nearly 16 miles, I wasn't mad about it. It was a fun surprise to have Ana at the finish line in addition to Ben!!

Time - 3:38:40

Garmin Time - 3:38:41

Garmin Distance - 15.81 miles

Elevation Gain - 1,919'

Overall Place - 98/155

Gender Place - 53/93

Mile 1 - 12:57

Mile 2 - 14:24

Mile 3 - 12:03

Mile 4 - 15:11

Mile 5 - 15:00

Mile 6 - 13:57

Mile 7 - 16:13

Mile 8 - 15:34

Mile 9 - 12:19

Mile 10 - 12:04

Mile 11 - 13:35

Mile 12 - 11:51

Mile 13 - 14:24

Mile 14 - 13:28

Mile 15 - 14:14

Mile 15.81 - 11:27

Thoughts:

• I think I actually like this course better than the Heavy Half - mainly because there are parts of it that are actually shaded!
• Kinda sucky to only have one aid station for a half marathon, but since I was using this as a training run for a 200 it was fine as I have to go a  long way between aid for those.
• Nice shirt and nice medal.
• Finish line is nice with runner food and beer and vendor tents. Not a lot for spectators, however.
• Would I run again? Maybe? It was actually REALLY affordable - only $78 after fees.

Week in Review (July 8 - July 14)

Tuesday (12,783 steps) - Peloton ride and walked Olive before going to work in the office. Gym at lunch - StairMaster and weights. 

After work I took Olive for another walk. Did we finish Squid Games? Unknown.

Wednesday (22,490 steps) - With the forecast being triple digits, I had to get up and do my run before work, which I *hate* doing. I had 4 miles at half marathon goal pace with a warmup and cool down. I set a range I wanted to hit and did pretty well. I took a couple walk breaks, but in general I was pleased with how this went. 

Took Olive to work and headed in to work. Headed home to meet up with Ben & Ariel for our movie night at the Alamo! Ariel got us all tickets for the new Jurassic Park. It was a great way to spent the evening since it was SO HOT. The movie was ok, predictable. Had a burger for dinner. We all took Olive for a short walk when we got home.

Thursday (15,181 steps) - Work from home. Late morning I met up with Larry and Terri in Boulder for a hike/run. Thankfully we had some cloud cover and a little bit of rain.

We headed into Louisville to Lulu's for a snack and a Texas Slush.

Home to finish work. Torchy's for dinner. Criminal Minds season finale.

Friday (12,544 steps) - Wash Park and Stella's with the gang.

Boring work day for all of us.

We met Ben at 4 Noses for happy hour - sticking to just one beer! Got Panda for dinner, which was delicious and fun.

Maybe this was the night we watched "Heads of State" - which we liked.

Saturday (37,538 steps) - Up early to walk Olive and drive up to Leadville for Silver Rush 15 miler.

Fun surprise to have Ana come to the finish line! Her and her husband came to Colorado a few weeks early for Summit 200. We sat around and chatted for a bit until they had to head out for their own adventures. Waited for Josephine and Jandy to finish and picked up some gear from the rabbit tent before heading out. Of course we made a stop at Outer Range. 

We were both hungry so we also got food. Picked up Olive on the way to the 4 Noses mug club party. They had lots of food for us, but we weren't hungry. Started a new series - Ballard.

Sunday (10,455 steps) - Didn't have a run planned, thankfully. In trying to think of something for us to do with Olive that involved her being able to get her feet wet, we went to Golden. It was chaos walking around by the river. Olive did get her paws wet, but she is still fearful of deeper water. I should teach her how to swim this summer.

Stopped at Golden City Brewing, but Olive didn't like the pebbles in the patio area.

Parry's on the way home for a snack. We were all SO HOT and spent the rest of the day inside watching Ballard episodes. 

Monday (16,831 steps) - Woke up very tired and forced myself out the door for my easy run before it got too hot and miserable. Spoiler, was still hot and miserable. Ariel showed up and we got coffee and picked up a breakfast taco. I took Olive for a walk, seemingly beating a storm I didn't even know was coming.

Then, since it was national mac & cheese day, we picked up food from Noodles. After getting off work I did a delivery and then met Ben at Costco to pick up groceries. Pizza for dinner and Ballard.

Stats:

• 127,822 steps
• 30.08 miles run
• 14.96 miles walked
• 30 minutes of cardio
• 22 minutes of strength