Week in Review (May 12 - May 18)

Tuesday (17,534 steps) - Peloton and Olive walk before going to work. Gym at lunch. Someone was on the StairMaster when I first go there so I had to do my strength training first, then got my stairs in and a hike on the treadmill. 

Got more miles on my treadmill desk. Olive walk when I got home. Dinner and Good Wife. 

Wednesday (21,948 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. Took my lunch early since I had a speed workout to do and it was supposed to be almost 90 out. 

This felt hard, but mostly ok. UNTIL the last rep. I just had zero pep left in my step and barely got through it. 

I was so hot and grimy when I was done. Normally I just wash my face and go back to work, but this time I actually took a shower. Did a quick delivery on the way home. Ben had a work meeting after work so I took Olive for a longer walk. 

He still wasn't done by the time I got home so I went out and did another delivery. Dinner and Good Wife.

Thursday (15,582 steps) - The very rare morning run! 

It was supposed to be another very hot day, plus Ariel had plans to come by and take me out for an early birthday lunch. The run itself was fine! I took it very slow since I was still feeling Wednesday's speed work. Rower, upper body work and a core video to round out the morning. Ariel and I took Olive for a walk to the lake. Tokyo Joe's for lunch and we stayed there to eat since they had the air conditioning blasting. 

After work we all headed down to Highland Tap & Burger to meet up with Lisa for dinner!! 

It was great to see her, it's been a few years. Home, did a foot soak and Good Wife.

Friday (17,518 steps) - Wash Park with Olive and the gang. Took Olive for a short walk around lunchtime. Lisa messaged me to let me know she was ready to go for a walk, so Olive and I met her down the street for a mid-length walk. Rushed home after work to pack for my birthday weekend in the mountains. We were ready to go by probably 5:30 and thankfully we did not hit any traffic on the way up. Stopped at Outer Range and then Ben ordered pizza from Scrappy's for dinner. 

NA beer and NA seltzer with a view

Clancy and Mr. Fox are always happy for a road trip also:

Olive was a little unsure about the hotel room. Also since I actually did my hair for once we had to get a few selfies!

Ben got impatient and gave me my birthday presents early - some new tops from Patagonia! I think we tried to stay up and watch some TV but we were both tired and still went to sleep at our normal time. 

Saturday (35,614 steps) - Lisa was planning on coming up to the mountains to join us for a hike, but I had no idea what time that would be. Took Olive out for a quick bathroom break and then I went out for my pre-hike run. Greg had scheduled me for a long run, so I figured I would knock out 6-8 miles since the rest of the day would be hiking/jogging. I ran on the rec path and it was actually pretty decent! 

Lisa met us at the trailhead and we had plans to do the Vomit/Hippo loop. Of course as soon as we parked it started pouring rain. We waited it out for about 10 minutes and it thankfully cleared up. The weather ended up being pretty good the whole time although there was some "hot then cold" moments. Barely anyone was out, which is always nice. 

We went back to Outer Range and got lunch - another ahi tuna bowl for me. 

Lisa had to head back home and we were pretty tired so went back to the hotel.  Ordered in Cheba Hut for dinner (YUM) and Lee came by to visit for a bit. Cheba had been out of the brownies we ordered so Ben got me a slice of cheesecake from the restaurant in the hotel. 

Watched part of one of the Mission Impossible movies. 

TIRED DOG

Sunday (21,376 steps) - Took turns going to the lobby to pick up breakfast. Packed up and headed out for the day. Went to Miner's Creek for our hike/run of the day. The first 45 minutes or so was quite lovely. 

As we got closer to the turn for Gold Hill it started to snow! Thankfully it was short-lived and most of the way back was quite nice. 

Until we got about a mile from the truck and then a storm rolled in and it was windy/snowing/raining and we were getting pelted in the face. Of course it pretty much stopped by the time we got to the parking lot. 

A delicious mudslide latte!

Went to Outer Range, then a quick stop at the Columbia outlet store and one more stop at Cheba Hut to pick up our free subs before heading back home. Thankfully no traffic to Denver. Took Olive for a walk, unpacked and just relaxed the rest of the night, watched a movie, "Shelter."

Monday (20,672 steps) - Work from home! 

It had rained all night and was still raining when I got up in the morning. Took a Peloton class thinking I might get a shout out for my birthday, but NOPE!! Finally decided to go for my run around 11:30 because it didn't seem to be raining THAT bad. Turns out it was cold, rainy AND my Thailand jacket is only apparently waterproof for about 45 minutes. Definitely had some flashbacks from Wales. 

I was DRENCHED by the time I got home. Quickly changed into a dry sweatshirt, walked Olive, then sat in the sauna. 

After work I read for a bit until Ben got home to pick me up and take me out to dinner. Ariel met us for sushi!! We enjoyed hearing all about her first day at her new job as a geotechnical engineer. Back to the house for ice cream cake and then Good Wife. 

Well at least they got my name SORTA right at Dairy Queen

Pretty perfect birthday for an old person!

Stats:

• 150,064 steps
• 37.49 miles run
• 15.58 miles walked
• 55 minutes of cardio
• 55 minutes of strength
• 20 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (July 1 - July 7)

Tuesday (11,670 steps) - Slept much better, thankfully. Did a very short Peloton ride before getting ready and taking Olive to work. Never really thought I would say I was looking forward to work, but I was. I have taken a lot of things for granted that I am normally able to get done during the day for sure. Thanks to relatively good coverage, I was pretty much caught up on all my work by lunch. It helps that I had to check my email somewhat regularly because people were still emailing me since my out of office was vague on how long I would be out. Went to the gym and did the StairMaster (which I did NOT miss) and some weights. Really appreciate getting more sleep and being able to workout again on my lunch hour!! I did some deliveries on the way home from work and Ben picked up a pizza for dinner. We took Olive for a walk after dinner and then caught a few more episodes of Squid Games before another early bedtime. 

Wednesday (21,128 steps) - Slept AWESOME - first time in a while. I did have some weird dreams about the trial (not the case itself), however. Took Olive for a walk before going to work in the office. Since I actually had a hill-related workout to do, I had to do it after work. Unfortunately, since it was supposed to be about a zillion degrees. Ariel was able to let Olive out during the day, so I headed over to Green Mountain. I had a different type of hill workout, but since I was supposed to find something of at least 10%, I did my warm up on the bike path before doing the repeats. It was definitely HOT, but not as bad as I thought it would be?

I was starving when I finished up and met Ben at Torchy's for a delicious dinner.

Took Olive for a short walk. Squid Games.

Thursday (11,379 steps) - Work from home. Went to Dutch and Torchy's with Ariel before taking Olive for a walk. We got another episode of YOU watched while I finished up my day and did some packing for our weekend of "camping." There was a car fire with fatalities on I-70, so we were going to be delayed heading up. Once we got the camper loaded we went to 4 Noses for a beer, then stopped at the grocery store. By about 6:30 things were supposedly cleared up, so we headed up. Unfortunately, I think everyone else did the same thing - it took us probably twice as long as usual, but we got up safely. Our friend Lee lives in Dillon and has a huge driveway and he had no problem with us camping out in his driveway. The best part was having access to an indoor bathroom and running water.

Olive is the blur at the bottom of this picture

Lee was doing a bike race in the morning, so he headed to bed. We had a beer and relaxed.

Friday (14,475 steps) - We took Olive for a walk and Ben cooked some eggs while we decided what we wanted to do for the day. I had jokingly said that we should go to Webster Pass and run/hike up to Red Cone where the flag is for the fourth. Ben decided that we would drive up the pass. We got to drive by the house we are looking at (sigh, probably won't happen) and headed up. First off, neither of us seemingly had any recollection of the "road." It was a lot more technical than we remembered. Rocky, and very slow going. It took a LONG time to get to the saddle where we decided we would start. It was a bit windy and chilly when we arrived and took our initial pictures (and I let Olive roll around in the snow on the other side - but only on leash since there is still a drop off).

By the time we started it was a lot colder, very windy and was starting to lightly rain. Neither of us had pants, but we put on our R1s and rain jackets. The below picture is me looking back at where Camille was parked:

You wouldn't know it, but it was REALLY raining pretty hard at this point. With the wind, we were getting pelted and it almost felt like it was graupel. My legs were really cold! Since we were on the road, we had to wait for probably a half dozen jeeps to come down the trail.

Red Cone

We made it to the second hill before deciding we were  cold and not having fun and decided to head back to the truck.  

No regrets! I am glad that we came out this way though. I was really caught off guard for this section during Summit last year, so seeing it again was a good thing for me. It is definitely still really slow going, but knowing what I'm doing will benefit me, I think. We took the way down a "little" faster than the way up, but it was still a long way to town. We decided to visit a "new to us" brewery in Keystone, Steep. The beer was just ok, but the food was delicious.

Outer Range for one more beer before heading back to Lee's house. We made some hot dogs for dinner.

Saturday (20,844 steps) - Went into Breck for another activity. We decided to do Vomit Hill loop that we have done before. 

It was much warmer so we took a lot of breaks. Both for us and Olive.

Once again, I had forgotten Olive's bowl, but thankfully I always have random things I can turn into one. We stopped to let her drink out of a ziplock bag.

We took a different way back, this time on the Blair Witch trail. This picture of the three of us is relatively hilarious.

We were all toast when we finished. Stopped at Broken Compass on the way back to Dillon since dogs are allowed inside.

Hamburgers on the grill for dinner.

Sunday (22,308 steps) - Up early to head to Herman Gulch for the annual hike that I coordinate every year. I was especially excited that Ariel was going to drive up to join us since she had the morning off. We had a decent sized group this year:

As always, it was slow-going heading up. Partly because of all the pictures we had to take of the flowers. 

Once we got near the lake there was finally a snowfield for Olive and Waylon to play in - they had a great time!

We stayed at the lake for a decent amount of time waiting for everyone. Plus, the weather was much nicer than the year we summitted and had to immediately head down because it was raining. 

We made plans to go into Idaho Springs for lunch so that the people who had to go to Denver would be out of the worst of the traffic. Ben wasn't super crazy about that since we were still planning on being in Dillon until evening. Since we discovered last year that Tommyknocker's is dog friendly, we met up there. Lunch was delicious and it was nice to sit on the patio.

After lunch we headed back up the mountain, unfortunately hitting some traffic. We headed to Outer Range to meet up with Amanda, who needed a ride back to Lee's house. We packed up Shelly and had a snack before starting the drive down. Thankfully, waiting as long as we did, there was no traffic back to the city. Unpacked and had a frozen pizza for dinner, plus watched an episode of Squid Games.

Monday (18,116 steps) - Work from home, yay!! I had a run to do and went early since it was supposed to be in the mid 90s. Even starting before 10 am it was already so hot and I was sweating like crazy.

Ariel and I went to Dutch and Torchy's. I decided I better walk Olive before it got even warmer.

We were able to finally finish the last season of YOU. Joe is crazy. Picked up dinner at Costco and took Olive for a walk. Olive got so dirty camping over the weekend that Ariel actually gave her a bath. She doesn't need them that often!

Squid Games finale and then we started Nosferatu. 

Stats:

• 119,920 steps
• 25.97 miles run
• 11.15 miles walked
• 45 minutes of cardio
• 25 minutes of strength