Week in Review (October 2 - October 8)

Tuesday (10,135 steps) - Nada! Rest day.
Wednesday (18,739 steps) - Core and strength classes before work. Rushed home after work to pick up A to head over to Bear Creek Lake Park to meet up with Ang and Maureen. ONLY... we hit a pothole on I-70 and promptly blew out a tire. Managed to pull over on C-470 & Alameda. Called Mo, and she came to pick us up. We still went for our run in the park (although we got a little lost and ran more than we planned). Made it to the Lakewood trail series potluck, where I was too stressed over my tired to do anything other than have a beer and a few chips.

Dulce and Zach were nice enough to take us to my car, where Zach & A proceeded to change the tire to put on the donut while I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the phone with State Farm. Finally gave up on emergency road side. Took forever to get home because driving under 50 mph is REALLY SLOW.

Thursday (9,368 steps) - Left early for work to stop at Big O on my way in. They didn't have my tire in stock, but would have it later in the day, so I went to work. Went back at 4:45, and they were able to put two new tires on (because you can never get just one), to the tune of nearly $300. Picked up A and headed down to Lakewood so we could see Jeff & The Lakewood Symphony perform. It was very cool, but we were out much later than usual and we were both exhausted by the time we got home.

Friday (9,286 steps) - Went to Berkeley Park for a fun "DNF" night. Junko was there leading one of her crazy training classes, but we opted to skip since we were running in the morning. Had "dinner" of a beer and snacks.
Saturday (37,197 steps) - Long run with Runners Edge. It was COLD when we started. Glad I wore long sleeves and gloves, I kept them on most of the day. It was a hard day for me. Probably the combination of a hilly route and still fatigued from Bear Chase.

Took A to a sleepover in the evening.
Sunday (19,545 steps) - RMRR October trophy series 8 mile. It was another brisk morning, so I again opted for long sleeves and gloves. My predicted finish had me running at a 10:03 pace, which seemed impossible after how much I struggled the day before. We were running in Thornton on a double loop course (hilly). I again opted for intervals - 3:15 run / :50 walk. It was tough, but somehow I managed to run my predicted time! No ribbon though.

After, Ang and I went to Panera for brunch and some girl talk.

I picked up A around noon, and the remainder of the day was spent watching TV.
Monday (8,342 steps) - Prior to leaving the house, I noticed the wall in my basement looked weird. I touched it and it was soft, so yay, I clearly have a leak. OF COURSE I DO.

Went to the gym for strength & core. Had to leave during lunch to meet the plumber. He cut a hole in the wall, told me it had clearly been leaking a while (and previously patched). Yippee. Now I'll have to have someone come out to fix the drywall at another time.

Stats:

• 112,612 steps
• 28.7 miles run
• 2 trips to the gym

Week in Review (September 26 - October 2)

Tuesday (8,003 steps) - Nothing. Planned on going to barre at lunch. Then I got to work and was reminded we had a meeting, so I had to cancel. A skipped gymnastics so we could go to the "United the Front Range Trailrunning Groups" at Lyons Park. I opted to not run because 1). it was cold and rainy and 2). the run was a relay, with each person running 2.5 miles. I was actually surprised that A wanted to run, especially since the run didn't start until 6:45.

She got paired with a few guys who thankfully let her go first, since apparently there was an ooky, narrow section with a large drop off. At least it wasn't pitch black or pouring during her race. While A was running, I was eating pizza and having a beer. She is badass, conditions were pretty terrible.

This is her running to the "finish" area

Wednesday (15,911 steps) - It had been raining ALL morning. Thankfully, by the time I picked up A it had stopped and was just overcast and chilly. Last Lakewood Trail Series race! I had been thinking that we might have to run on pavement because of all the rain we had the last few days, but upon arrival we were told that we would be running the same 4 mile route we had the first race. At the last minute I decided I would be fine just wearing a singlet and my skirt.

Belmar crew - Mo with Colfax, me, A, Dulce, Paula, Andy, Laurie and Sue

I ran the first mile with Dulce and then was solo the remainder of the race. Walked a few small sections in mile 2, but otherwise, ran MUCH better than I had the first time around - about 3 minutes faster. Managed mid 10 minute mile pace, with my last mile being 9:30 and a sub 8 minute mile sprint!

Dang, I blinked! This is why I wear sunglasses!

I was running well enough that I didn't stop for any pictures other than this one - so pretty!

Afterwards we stayed for the potluck/BBQ. The Westfax brewery was there and we had a lot of junk food for dinner.

Dark, dark, dark

I feel obligated to say that this can was empty - although I did have some of it when Westfax was pouring

Me, A, Francesca and Samm

Thursday (11,617 steps) - Finally headed back to Belmar for run club.

I had thought that I would be walking to "taper," but at the last minute we decided to start with a run and see how we felt. Meredith joined Dulce and Matilda and I (A ran super speedy with Laurie and Annette). It was pretty darn chilly, I was glad I had worn long sleeves. Andy had made some pineapple-fanta-alcohol drinks, accompanied by jell-o shots. Those were tasty.

Headed to Rocko's (for the first time in months) for some nachos.

Friday (8,514 steps) - Nothing!
Saturday (68,836 steps) - Bear Chase 50K!

After I picked up A at Cattail we went back to the finish line. I was finally hungry after running and we had Flippin' Flapjacks (pretty much the best pancakes ever) and sausage. We stuck around until the wind picked up - then we decided it was time to head home. We didn't get home until 6:30 and by the time we showered and had dinner it seemed like it would be a good idea to go to bed.

Sunday (8,003 steps) - Up even earlier because as much as I tried to negotiate arriving "late" for volunteering, I was told I needed to be there by 5:15 (we had gotten up at 4:30). We didn't arrive until 5:30, but it was enough time for us to get set up with packet pick-up.

The half marathon started at 7 and A started to get ready to run the 10K around 7:30. It was a fun morning of handing out medals and taking pictures of teammates. A ran a fantastic race, almost 10 minutes faster than last year!

Official time - 1:05:45
Overall place - 109/239
Gender place - 58/157
Division place - 1/2

A with Jen, her hero!

The last runner didn't come through until almost 11:30 and then we helped with tear down until we left at noon. Immediately headed home to shower so that we could meet up with Dulce for family pictures!! Some of my favorites:

After we got pictures done we went to this cute restaurant in Belmar for snacks and drinks - until the weather took a turn for the worse an it got cold. Our afternoon was cut short and we headed to the grocery store on our way home. In bed early again.
Monday (5,650 steps) - Turns out that it was a good idea to schedule A's make-up gymnastics class for this night as it was POURING all day and we would have skipped running North Table anyway. As you can see I literally did NOTHING all day.

Stats:

• 126,534 steps (thank goodness I ran an ultra. Three days I didn't even hit 10,000 steps)
• 37.6 miles run
• Zero anything else

Week in Review (September 19 - September 25)

Tuesday (10,024 steps) - Barre with Sasha.
Wednesday (20,994 steps) - Lakewood Trail Series! This week was the big kahuna - 7ish miles, including the climb up Mt. Carbon. Forever, I've been thinking that I ran this last year and it was no big deal, that I finished before it got dark, etc. Turns out, I ran the short course last year. I totally made up a fake memory. A was running the short course with Laurie and I headed out with the goal to keep the pace easy-ish. No walk breaks until Mt. Carbon climb. The most interesting part of the run was when a snake slithered between my feet when I was walking up the hill. I didn't even have time to be startled.

Another small bit of walking between miles 3 and 4. We ran a section of the park that I had never been in before and I felt pretty good the last few miles.

Ended up running the 7 miles in about 1:20, which is pretty darn good, considering Mt. Carbon (and I wasn't even last). It was dark within 10 minutes of finishing, and we all scattered instead of hanging out after like previous weeks.

Garmin time - 1:21:04

Garmin distance - 7.01 miles

Elevation gain - 531'

Mile 1 - 11:21

Mile 2 - 11:57

Mile 3 - 12:07

Mile 4 - 12:51

Mile 5 - 10:53

Mile 6 - 11:30

Mile 7 - 10:21

Thursday (11,272 steps) - Another week at Berkeley Park Running Company. We got there super early again, although this was the perfect week for it as it was Hokatoberfest! A decided that she was tired from GOTR so she didn't want to run. I wasn't GOING to run, but then I decided to just run around the Rocky Mountain Lake. Managed to clock my two fastest miles in like a hundred years. After the run it was great times hanging out with friends, eating brats and drinking beer. They've got a pretty fun run club!

Passing around the blond braids was apparently a "thing." Who wore it better? Phil or A? Ha!
Friday (9,774 steps) - Barre with Kelly.
Saturday (27,588 steps) - Snow Mountain Ranch half marathon.

We left Snow Mountain Ranch and drove into Winter Park to Deno's for "brunch," which really meant a beer and sharing a sandwich with A. Michelle and her husband Scott joined us, and it was a great time to sit and chat (out of the cold wind). After Kristen dropped us off at home, we literally did nothing the rest of the day.
Sunday (5,023 steps) - I actually managed to stay in bed until NINE. NINE. A made us breakfast and I did laundry. We watched TV all day until 3:30, when we went to barre.

Can you spot us?

We met Heather, Beth and Mo for class, then headed over to DBC for pumpkin beer! It was cold and misty all day long, so perfect day to (practically) do nothing.

Don't worry, she has root beer

Monday (7,607 steps) - EXHAUSTED. Clearly not from actually DOING anything. The cold front is officially here and it was a blah day. I went out briefly at lunch to get a new phone (which turned out to be a giant pain as apparently my most recent backup was corrupt). Other than that, nada. A decided we should skip our group run because it was cold and rainy. No complaints here, we enjoyed a night at home.

Stats:

• 92,282 steps (least ever, I think)
• 21.8 miles run
• 3(!) barre classes (and first weekend one in a while)

Week in Review (September 12 - September 18)

Tuesday (10,209 steps) - Barre with Sasha.
Wednesday (19,364 steps) - The second Lakewood Trail Series! A wanted to do the short course and I planned on the long course. I ran the first two miles with Dulce, and other than walking up a fairly large hill at mile 3, I RAN THE ENTIRE COURSE AND FELT GOOD.

Thursday (14,663 steps) - The inaugural run club at Berkeley Park Running Company! Since the location is so close, we arrived about an hour early. That gave us time to help Sully and Phil get everything set up. They had a pretty good turnout, I think this is a great location for them.

Friday (11,173 steps) - Barre with Sasha (who must have been subbing for Kelly).

Saturday (35,446 steps) - Denver Trail half marathon!

We ate, showered, and then headed down to Denver for the rehearsal. It was interesting, since only one of the four bridesmaids were there, so it wasn't the most organized. Afterward we went across the street for food at the Art hotel. 

Sunday (14,342 steps) - Slept in until almost 8! Went to the grocery store and then got ready to go back downtown. Since A was in the wedding we had to be there by 11! She spent the morning hanging out with Margo and the other flower girl, and I spent my time with Eric, Heather and Beth, helping out wherever I could.

The wedding started at 4 (well, turned out to be about 15 minutes later than that). The ceremony was gorgeous (and quick). The toasts were amazing, the food was fantastic, and we had a great time dancing and seeing everyone. We were some of the last people there, not heading out until 9:30 or 10.

Monday (18,264 steps) - New Terrain run club! Berkeley Park was there again, as there was going to be a panel after the run club. We were running in two different groups, and somehow, the slowpokes got stuck in the second group. I ran some solo, some with Meredith. A had stayed with Pete, and I assumed that they were going to turn around before the summit as he had said he only wanted to do three miles. However, when I got to the bottom, they weren't there! By then it was dark-ish, and Kristen and I were worried. We found them at the base of the switchbacks. Pete had decided to go for the full loop and then it got real dark, real quick. Next week - headlamps!

Stuck around for most of the panel (any time Junko is speaking is a good time) and a beer with Kristen and Pete before heading home.

Stats:

• 123,461 steps
• 26.5 miles run
• 2 barre classes