Because Being Ordinary Is Boring: Colorado Trail

Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Week in Review (December 23 - December 29)

Tuesday (13,778 steps) - Peloton ride and Olive walk before work. Went to the gym at lunch and did some strength training and incline on the treadmill.

Another Olive walk and time in the sauna.

I think Batman is screaming "MOM, WHY ARE YOU IN A BOX?!"

Wednesday (21,049 steps) - Christmas Eve! Unfortunately, my office was open. Ben actually had the day off so he went and picked up Dutch Bros for me. Took Olive for a walk and then I took her to work with me.

Happy Olive running around the office

It was a relatively busy morning for me but definitely slowed down as the day dragged on. Took Olive for a walk during lunch.

After work I dropped Olive off at home, changed clothes and headed to the lake for my workout, only to find out that the parking lot was closed?! I guess because it's a holiday? I had to park down the street and run over, but that worked out ok for my warmup. I had done these repeats before, but this was 10 reps of 2 minutes instead of 7.

A tank top. In December. On Christmas Eve.

Difficult!!! Ariel unfortunately had to work, boo. Some sauna time and Black Rabbit (?)

Thursday (10,943 steps) - Christmas! Ben made a big "mountain breakfast" that we enjoyed while opening presents.

Big gifts were a new Purple pillow (for me), Apple Watch (for A), random fun tools (for Ben), and sauna accessories (for me/everyone).

The cats also got new collars. Robin simply doesn't know how to be photogenic

I did a Peloton ride, then Ariel went on a short walk with me and Olive so she could start figuring out her new watch. Took Olive for a longer walk to the lake since the weather was so nice.

We got the finishing touches done on the basement/gym, which was fun and has made the space SO much more inviting.

Not really "important" to the basement layout, but these are all my awards/trinkets

Did some strength and more sauna time.

Ben made Christmas dinner even though A had to work. Ham, sweet potatoes, stuffing and rolls.

We wanted to watch Elf, but it is not on any of our zillion streaming services, so we settled for watching the Broncos game. At some point I took Olive for another short walk to get my steps in.

Friday (12,822 steps) - Slept in. Ben got us Dutch Bros before A had to go to work, yet again. Ben and I took Olive to the dog park.

Rails End on the way home. Sauna and another Olive walk.

Testing out Olive's new glow-in-the-dark LED collar

More Black Rabbit?

Saturday (46,176 steps) - Had a very long run on schedule. There was an unofficial run with Runners Edge at Waterton, so I decided I would go, even though I knew I would end up running alone. Ben went with me because my brakes are STILL squeaking.

Ben asked what color my leggings were. I said "Terra Cotta"

After I started, he dropped me off and then went to Schomp so they could work on my car. Again. For the third time in 5 weeks. The run itself, other than the few times I had to stop and use the bathroom, was pretty good! It was chilly, but I had layered well.

Originally, I had thought I would run to Lenny's Rest and come back.

I decided that wouldn't be enough distance, so I went about a half mile past to get in more vert, then came back the other way, for a loop at the top.

These are not "December" trails

I haven't done that many times and thought I was lost. I also had no phone service or maps downloaded on Gaia... Thankfully my memory was correct and I was NOT lost.

The run down wasn't terrible and I saw quite a few sheep.

Ben met me with about a half mile to go. My car was STILL not done, but we headed to the dealership anyway to get a status. Once we realized it was still going to be a while, we went to Torchy's down the street to get lunch. Thankfully, my car was ready not too long after we finished eating and we were able to get home before dark. What a long day. Took Olive for a walk, then used the sauna. Black Rabbit? I think we finished it.

Sunday (11,289 steps) - Did some cleaning and procrastinated a bit deciding what we were going to do for the day. Ariel went and got us all Dutch Bros (yum!) and Ben and I finally got out of the house and took Olive to Boulder for a hike. Since we finally got some overnight snow, Olive was VERY pleased.

We stopped at Rails End on the way home. Delicious snack since there was a BBQ food truck.

Yoga video and sauna. Started a new series, "Welcome to Derry."

Monday (18,017 steps) - Blah, back to work. At least I was at home! Did a bunch of cleaning in my office, finally got about two years' worth of filing done. That's definitely one of my resolutions this year - get rid of clutter and crap we aren't using! Took Olive for a walk and then I went out for my run. I really thought I had overdressed, but turns out the layering was pretty good and only the gloves were overkill.

After work I went to Target and spent way too much money on Christmas candy. Ben and I tried to go to Parry's but there was a wait, so we just went home and had leftovers. Sauna and some stretching. Welcome to Derry.

Stats:

134,074 steps
32 miles run
13.3 miles walked
30 minutes of cardio
79 minutes of strength (I've started doing planks again...)
180 minutes of sauna

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Week in Review (August 1 - August 7)

Tuesday (10,881 steps) - Peloton ride before going to work. Did cross training at work. Nothing else?

Wednesday (15,447 steps) - Work in the office. Headed up to Louisville for run club! I had plans to run with Lisa since it was her first time there. We unfortunately had to head up McCaslin to start, which felt insanely hard. I don't think I've run around Harper Lake in YEARS, and I enjoyed some of the tile/rock art in the tunnel connector.

I had 45 minutes on schedule, but with a route I wasn't super familiar with, we ended up with more miles than planned and a bit longer, but it felt pretty good (outside of the climb at the start).

Ben met me, Terri and Larry at Murphy's for a few beers and a snack. Long night.

Thursday (17,250 steps) - Work from home. Mostly easy 45 minute run and a walk with Olive at lunch.

Friday (14,140 steps) - Wash Park and coffee!

Work ended up being CRAZY busy all day, and it was nice to have leftovers from the summer party (which I did not attend) as I never got a chance to take a real lunch.

Met up with Ben for a beer at 4 Noses.

Saturday (62,132 steps) - Ben arrived just after 5:30 to head down to Waterton Canyon. I had my longest training run in probably 14 months on schedule - 26 miles! (Normally I am scheduled by time, not miles). I compromised with Greg to attempt "progression" for first/last 6 miles and hike/jog the middle part. Well, first off, we got started late.

Saw a whole family of sheep!!

I didn't feel wonderful, but the first 6 went ok, maybe a bit slower than planned, but we ran all the way to the dam. Then, thankfully, it was time to hike!

Obligatory picture when we get to the "real" trail

The longest out/back I have ever done here is 24 miles, and even THAT was many, many years ago. I still actually remembered quite a bit, however.

Felt mostly ok, although a little hot. I had put the Platypus bladder in my pack and decided to refill the front bottles around mile 11-12. I (mistakenly) thought that I would drink less on the way back...

Neither of us felt as good as we hoped on the way down. I recognized that this was actually going to be really good training though - running whenever I can on tired legs. I hoped that we could do the last 6 quicker than we did, but we ended up taking a lot of walk breaks. We decided to go closer to home for food, and A said she would meet us at Parry's for pizza! It was a delicious lunch, and I only had one beer. Took Olive for a walk and A to get her sports physical. We did a movie night and watched the newest Transformers movie, which we all liked!

Sunday (10,451 steps) - "Slept in." Went to Torchy's for breakfast and a Bloody Mary!