Week in Review (January 19 - January 25)

Tuesday (15,686 steps) - Work from home. With the bathroom now completely gutted, the guys were ready to start work. (Bets on how long it will be before we can use this space?)

Took Pika for a walk, then did my workout of 25 minutes with strides. It's been so long since I did this I have no recollection of how this was, but I think it was ok. Ben and I went to the tile store (again) and picked out our tile for the walls... will be exciting when all this stuff is finally done.

Wednesday (20,103 steps) - Work from home. Took Pika for a walk at lunch. After work headed up to Boulder to meet Tyler and Kristin for a loop in Boulder. It was a really pretty evening!

Ben and A got a TON of work done while I was gone, and the basement finally seems like it will be a functional gym (pics later).

Thursday (10,397 steps) - Work in the office in the morning. Thankfully, Joyce had warned me that she had been in over the weekend cleaning out her office. Oy, it was a lot of stuff to walk into.

Got home with enough time to walk Pika at lunch. Now that things are out of the mud room, Ariel and I had the chance to get the area cleaned up and FINALLY organized. I am loving finally having some functional space! Not to mention, having a partial room dedicated to running gear is SO AWESOME.

Rowed a bit after I got off work.

Friday (12,636 steps) - Work from home. Did my first On Demand Les Mills BodyPump class in the morning. Here's' where I told Ben "you were right, I was wrong." I thought it would be fine doing the video from my phone. No. He is right, we need a TV for this stuff. Took Pika for a walk at lunch.

This is a woman lying in the road doing stretches. Ok.

Then I did my 30 minute run with strides, which was AWFUL. I really can't do a BodyPump class and then run. Not fun.

Saturday (26,802 steps) - Up early for a run at South Table! We had 15-20 people show up again, which was nice. I had no idea where we were going for the most part, and most folks kinda did their own thing. There are a ton of trails up on the hill, so it was fun running into people on their various routes. I mostly ran with Jandy, Zach, Jen and a gal that I can't remember her name, but she is really nice, haha.

There was only one mildly icy section, so that was nice. I wish that I was in better shape right now so I could actually run some of these trails better. Ugh. After we were done, we went to Einstein's to get some quick food before heading to New Terrain to get a beer to celebrate Jeramiah's birthday.

Once I got home I actually sat in my compression legs (it's been a LONG time), and Ariel and I vegged in front of the TV.

Sunday (23,283 steps) - Even though I wasn't really looking forward to it, Ben and I were up relatively early to meet Lisa and Tyler at North Table for a big loop. I had worn too many layers and got warm before we were even a mile in, so I had to bungee my jacket to my pack. Like usual, I was really struggling on the climbs, but at least was able to take it easy on the descents. Actually stuck with Ben for a bit, so that's always good for the ego.

We had a few beers at the brewery before heading out. Ben and I were STARVING, so we headed to Torchy's to pick up lunch. And I may have gotten a Bloody Mary while we were waiting...

By the time we were done with lunch, I was exhausted. Ben and I ended up taking a nap for a few hours, and I therefore have no recollection of the rest of the day.

Monday (10,094 steps) - Work from home. Ben finally finished installing the new TV for the gym, so I did a few videos in the morning, BodyPump and a BodyFlow class, which was supposed to be a bunch of stretches, but I found it really hard to follow.

Took Pika for a walk at lunch.

Rowed for a bit after I got off work. Made dinner, and then spent a few hours hanging up medals - it's always a time consuming process. Thankfully, when we took the medals done before moving we kept them in order and took pictures of them so it actually went faster than it has in the past.

Stats:

• 119,001 steps
• 29.1 miles run
• 26 minutes row
• 77 minutes strength training

Week in Review (January 12 - January 18)

Tuesday (10,676 steps) - Work in the office in the morning. Lucy's check engine light has been coming on once in a while over the last month. We initially got the light to go off by adding coolant, but the light came back on and she is idling rough, so I had an appointment at the dealership. I got a loaner from them so I could head back to work while she was getting looked at. The newer Minis are fancy!

When they finally contacted me to authorize work, I found out that Lucy is no longer under warranty (about 5,000 miles over, and time-wise two weeks expired!) so I did not authorize the work, planning on having a closer, local shop do the work. I had a 25 minute run on schedule, so I took a late lunch and got that done with Pika. Somehow, we managed to run into A's track practice, so it was definitely more of a tempo run than an easy one!

Picked A up from practice and headed down to the dealership to pick up my car. They had magically "fixed" her under a parts warranty and it cost me nothing. I'll set some money aside in case the problem comes back. As an aside, I do have a maintenance warranty that is good for another few years, it's just the manufacturer warranty that's expired. Sigh.

Wednesday (12,942 steps) - Work from home. Quick row in the morning, and a walk with Pika at lunch. We saw the bald eagle again!!

It was SUPER windy again, so Tyler and I decided to postpone our trail run one day. I still had a 30 minute run on schedule, so I headed out right after work to get that done. After having a couple of pretty decent runs in a row, this one was NOT great and I had to take a few walk breaks in the first mile.

Thankfully, my calves loosened up and the back half of my run wasn't AS bad. Plus, it was pretty outside. Also, it wasn't nearly as windy as it had seemed earlier, so that was a bonus as well. 

After dinner I did a quick upper body video and band routine. LONG DAY.

Thursday (18,076 steps) - Work from home. 

Super short row in the morning. I was tired and not feeling it, so I cut it short. Went for a walk at lunch with Ben and Pika. After work, headed up to Boulder to run with Pika and Tyler. It was icier than last week, and Tyler took a nasty fall. I had remembered to bring batteries for my headlamp, since I knew they were getting ready to die. Unfortunately, my headlamp takes three batteries and I brought two, so it didn't help. My headlamp was super dim and kept flashing. Ugh. All in all, an "ok" run, but I need to remember to bring my spikes and keep extra batteries in my pack.

When I got home I did pilates/abs video. I really shouldn't have taken so much time off from the gym. Everything is so hard!

Friday (10,417 steps) - Work from home. Off day from running (woo hoo!) so I just took Pika for a walk at lunch. 

I did an abs and upper body video that was ok, and I may do it again. I planned on a row in the evening, but barely got into it before the doorbell rang and A insisted I needed to deal with it, so I gave up on finishing my activity. Oh well. 

In other news, our basement flooring is almost done (pictures to come soon). We also finally installed the kitty door so the cats can get to the litter box (but Pika can't). At first they weren't sure about it, but c'mon, it's so cute!!

Saturday (36,228 steps) - Up "earlyish" to head to Golden to meet Kristin, Joe, Jeramiah, Tyler and Maureen for a run! We had been planning a route all week and settled on Chimney Gulch to Beaver Brook, about 12 miles. Although I had planned to bring my spikes, I forgot them (again!) so that was not fun as there were some incredibly icy sections. I slipped a lot and fell a half dozen times. I spent most of this activity in the back and was really struggling (I don't know if this was worse than usual or not). Hopefully my dietary changes will help in this regard, along with more consistency.

Maureen got this picture of me. This section was a skating rink.

View from the top of Chimney Gulch at Windy Saddle

Maureen and Kristin are both in a plank challenge, and I joined in!

Everyone is happy, but we have barely done 3 miles, haha

At some point, Maureen got behind us and she called me, unsure if she was still on course. (Turns out, she was, but she was uncomfortable with all the ice and terrain, so it was probably better that she turned around a tad early). We turned around at about a 10K, but then of course we still had to go back to the car... the way back should be easier since it was mostly downhill, but the ice made things slow, plus we were tired!

OK, I guess this was still uphill

I sent Ben a text when we got back to Windy Saddle to have him meet us at Mountain Toad for a beer. Tyler and I decided to just walk there since it was only a few minutes away. I hadn't been there in a while - the beer was pretty good! I also grabbed some food from the food truck because I was STARVING.

In our seemingly never-ending house drama, we had to go to Home Depot to get new trim for the basement. I was not looking forward to making dinner, so I walked to Pho a few doors down and ordered takeout while Ben was loading up the truck.

Sunday (10,916 steps) - Ben had to work, and I didn't have any big plans for the day, so I tried to sleep in. I didn't really accomplish that, but I did stay in bed a while. Ariel and I got coffee, haircuts, Panda Express for lunch, and went on another REALLY WINDY walk. This time of year sucks, because if it is "warm" it is windy.

I made spicy sausage and roasted a BILLION vegetables. I love this dinner though. Once everything is chopped it's actually pretty easy to make. While dinner was getting ready I did a lower body video that I thought would be easy, and wasn't.

Monday (16,411 steps) - I had the day off, but managed to stupidly schedule a doctor's appointment for 7:15, so I was up early. Our contractor was supposed to show up 7:30 to start work on the bathroom, but it was closer to 9 before he got there. Immediately, we were informed that Ben hadn't done enough demo, so he didn't stick around. Ugh. Ben headed to physical therapy and I went for a run. I had 40 minutes on schedule. Once again, it was supposed to be an easy run, and it once again felt "easy." I didn't walk at all, and pace was very similar to the week before. Also took Pika for a walk. I did an upper body video that I really liked and will definitely do again. None of us felt like cooking, so we picked up Qdoba.

Stats:

• 115,666 steps
• 25.2 miles run
• 23 minutes rowing
• 87 minutes strength training

Week in Review (January 5 - January 11)

Tuesday (10,573 steps) - Work from home and a "heavy" 5K with Pika at lunch. It's been a while since this run, but I assume it was fine.

Wednesday (20,374 steps) - Work in the office in the morning, home in time to take Pika for a walk.

Got in a row session late afternoon, then went for a run in Boulder with Pika, Tyler, Mike and Kristin.

Trails were actually not in bad shape, there were only a few small patches of ice.

Thursday (10,906 steps) - Work from home. Got in a row and a longer walk with Pika.

Friday (10,398 steps) - Work from home. Walk with Pika at lunch and a short afternoon row.

Saturday (14,022 steps) - Cooler morning. Went for what was supposed to be 25 minutes (easyish) with Ariel and Pika. It was NOT easy-ish. Since Ben was working we picked up Tokyo Joe's for lunch, took Pika for a walk, and sat on our amazing mammoth couch.

I actually decided to NOT post the pictures I post to Facebook earlier in the day. Mainly because I know I have some blog lurkers that don't need to see certain things. Basically, I've put on a bit more weight than I'd like - let's blame "happy weight" from being with Ben for the last few years. I've been slowly building the motivation to cut back on beer and get back on a path of eating better and doing activity other than running. I was really overjoyed that my step and barbell/weights finally showed up. I can't wait to get started using these when the basement is finished.

Sunday (24,077 steps) - Thankfully the roads weren't awful from our snow the night before. Out the door early to meet Jeramiah and Tyler for a (new to me) trail in Boulder. Because of COVID, the trail heads are free right now! We didn't really expect to be breaking trail, but we were... the lower part of the trail was a bit more rocky than I'd like, but by the time we were coming down, it was quite enjoyable. I had worried that I was going to be cold on this run, but since there was no wind it was actually nice!

After lunch Ben and I went to get the flooring for the basement, as well as the tile that we need to fix up the bathroom. We found some stuff we like - and since we had to rip up half the bathroom anyway, we are going to the extreme, and making the rest of the bathroom custom. We are having a custom walk-in shower built, and found some cool river rock for the basin and accents.

Tile for the floor (this is three separate tiles pictures)

Long day and none of us felt like cooking, so we picked up Qdoba for dinner.

Monday (16,456 steps) - Work from home. 

So back in December, I had made a goal to at least get dressed every day. I didn't succeed, because working from home, it's so much easier to just roll out of bed and get on the computer. I'm not ashamed (really). Day 1 of attempting to (mostly) follow a coaching plan! On the schedule was a 40 minute run, and I took it easy, it actually FELT kind of easy, and I didn't walk once! That is SO rare. Also took Pika for a walk afterwards and we saw a bald eagle! We see them every once in a while flying around, but perched in a tree is rare.

Stats:

• 106,806 steps
• 20 miles run
• 68 minutes rowing