Week in Review (August 29 - September 4)

Tuesday (10,096 steps) - Another bonus work from home day! Ariel and I made a trip to Dutch Bros. for coffee. Yummmm - this was German Chocolate.

Got all unpacked, laundry done, some cleaning, grocery shopping, took Olive for a walk, etc. Super productive. 

By the afternoon, I was wilting. I worked from bed for a bit, and the animals were appreciative. 

Watched more episodes of Beef. Kinda sad it'll be done after 10 episodes :(

Wednesday (15,655 steps) - Work in the office. The building fitness center is closed for maintenance, so I walked to REI at lunch for steps/something to do. Holy moly, it was hot. I didn't buy anything, so that was good. Ben stopped by after he got off work and we took Olive for a walk. Pretty night.

Thursday (11,448 steps) - Work from home. Took Olive for a walk at lunch. Met Ben for a beer.

Friday (18,871 steps) - Coffee and Wash Park. Went to work for a few hours but left at lunch to finish out the day at home. Took Olive for a walk.

Our office closed early for the long weekend, and I drove up to Broomfield for A's first "real" meet of the season. Kristin came to spectate, and we were able to spot her a few times on course. She looked very happy one mile in.

The course had changed from the last time we were there and I couldn't see her again until right before she finished. A new PR for her, running in 22:01!! (I can't even fathom).

Girls varsity team

Met Ben at 4 Noses, but we were underwhelmed by the beer selection, so we went over to the Tap House. It was ok, but they didn't have what we wanted either. Since we were there we ordered takeout from the small Mexican restaurant nearby. A bit of an expensive evening.

Saturday (11,143 steps) - Ariel had her fundraising run at the school, and I opted to run there with Olive. First "run" since Oregon and it didn't feel great, that's for sure. It took just under 20 minutes, but I found a fairly direct way to get there and got there right as they were starting. Ben met me there and brought us coffee and donuts. Watching other people run is definitely better than running yourself...

Went to the house, took Olive for a walk. Then we did some yardwork (mowed the lawn, pulled more weeds). Went to Torchy's for some food, then to the nursery to pick up some flowers and seeds. So productive! Can't recall what else we did, but had a movie night later.

Sunday (10,475 steps) - Plans to do nothing, but went to get coffee with A. Unfortunately, as we were leaving (we took separate cars so she could go right to work), her car wouldn't start. UGH. Exactly like last time back in May. I took her to work, then took Olive for a walk while I waited for Ben.

He had a plan to troubleshoot the car, this is the error we were getting and figured it could be any number of things.

We met at Torchy's for some food before we started our big plan of figuring out what to do with her car. Decided to change the spark plugs since that seemed the "easiest" to do. Of course we had to go and get all the supplies and specialty tools. Many stores later, we finally had what we thought we needed, including a very specific size deep socket. And after all that, the socket ended up getting stuck when trying to remove the first spark plug.

Gave up for the night. It WAS Ben's birthday, so I talked him into a beer, and then we invited Tyler over, which was a lot of fun.

Monday (18,565 steps) - Day off for Labor Day, but lots of stuff to do. I had my first training run scheduled, so Ben and I headed to the lake for 5 miles. Ickkkk.... it was pretty warm and I did NOT feel great. Compounded by running into Kevin and him asking if he could join in for a few miles. I probably ran faster than I should have with him there, but I got through it. Took Olive for  walk before picking up coffee and scheduling the tow truck to get the car to the shop. 

Poor Lucy :(

After the car was dropped off, Ariel and I ran some errands, which included picking up this adorable Halloween costume for Olive. She actually really enjoys it, haha.

The whole weekend seemed really draining, and I had a headache most of the day, so I went to bed very early. How is a long weekend seemingly shorter than a regular weekend?

Stats:

• 96,253 steps
• 6.3 miles run
• 0 minutes of cardio
• 0 minutes of strength

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 (July 10 - July 16)

Tuesday (16,949 steps) - Barre Express with Gabi! Best class in a while, I was actually able to get through most of it. After work I met up with Lisa and Lucky for a walk around Sloan's Lake. We hit up Joyride for beers. They had the best food truck ever, I got a delicious burger and truffle sweet potato fries. Yum, yum, yum!

Wednesday (15,179 steps) - Work was "exciting." Our firm has moved to doing "group" annual reviews. Even though I have not been here for a full year yet (one year is next month), and I just had a review in February, I got another raise! Pretty sweet! That's where the "good" things stop for the day. I was in a fender bender on the drive to pick up A at her friend's house in Thornton. Thankfully there was no damage to the other vehicle, so no police or insurance. Lucy is a bit sad, however. We still went to run club, although we were late. A didn't want to run, and I had already missed the group so I drove to the trail head and planned to run the route in reverse to meet up (which I did!). Turns out, the one time I wasn't with the group is the one time they saw B E A R S!!!

Went to Southern Sun after and had an entertaining evening listening to JT retell his Silver Rush experience.
Thursday (23,627 steps) - Surprise, barre with Gabi! (I have no idea why I signed up for a Thursday). Belmar run club, we walked with Ang.

Completely not on purpose matchy matchy with Mo!

A in her first "adult" sparkle skirt!

THEN, we drove down to Highlands Ranch to meet up with RER for a night trail run on the Chase the Moon course! To be fair, most of the run wasn't in the dark. Once the sun set it was actually very pleasant. Had a pretty great run, although we didn't get home until almost 10:30.

Friday (10,266 steps) - Nothing?
Saturday (38,509 steps) - Long run with Runners Edge. Was NOT looking forward to this one at all. It's been stupid hot and I had 16 on schedule. Lisa dropped down to my pace group again and we ran the first 8 together. I ran the back half with Alexa and Paul. It wasn't "as horrible" as I thought it would be, although I was fairly nauseous for most of the last few miles.

Stopped at Phil's shop on the way home for their anniversary party. Home to shower, met up with Lisa for our farewell lunch date. :( We hit up Tony P's for pizza slices and then over to Zuni Street for a new brewery. No dark beers, which was sad, but they had a nice patio with misters. We played giant Jenga and Scrabble before heading home so Lisa could clean :(

Back over to Berkeley in time for the beer mile. I had no desire to run and was put in charge of taking pictures. Fun night, including burros and a BBQ!

Sunday (28,722 steps) - No alarm set and I manged to sleep until 8:30. Headed out for my last double digit run. I was super pleased that it was overcast and "chilly" in the upper 60's. However, my first 5 miles were in a headwind (which is always miserable), and then somehow miles in the middle were also into the wind. Blech. 12 miles done.

Sat around at home before heading to barre with A, Maureen & Ben. Went to Denver Beer after, and got caught in a torrential rain storm. Colorado weather, you so crazy!

Monday (17,691 steps) - New Terrain run club! We hadn't been in a few weeks and it was a pretty pathetic showing. We started with the group and then at the top of Lithic we saw Paula, John & Mara, so we stopped to wait for them. I actually had a pretty great run! Stuck around for a drink before heading home.

Stats:

• 150,943 steps
• 43.8 miles run
• 3 barre classes & walking