Week in Review (August 12 - August 18)

Tuesday (12,074 steps) - Walked Olive before going to work in the office. Went for a walk before going to the gym at lunch. Used the Peloton, did a full body strength workout and a quickie on the StairMaster. 

Did a delivery on my way to meet Ben at Costco to pick up groceries for the week. We tried a new dinner and neither of us liked it. Took Olive for another walk. Bosch.

Wednesday (14,542 steps) - Olive walk before work, another walk before going to the gym at lunch. I had planned on doing the 12/3/30 on the treadmill. Did you know that it's really hard work to walk that fast with that kind of incline?? I still did 1.5 miles of varying 12-13% incline, but couldn't quite get it done at that pace. Did a core video that was relatively tough. Did a few deliveries on the way home, put dinner in the oven and walked Olive. More Bosch.

Thursday (19,333 steps) - Work from home. Decided to go for a run, relatively early. This was awful. I guess I was due for a horrible run eventually. It was insanely hot and I walked a ton. Was sad to discover that one of the trails on the south side of the lake is now closed for restoration too. Boo!! Basically all that this was good for was time on feet.

Ariel called me when I was almost home to ask if I could meet her to bring her work shoes to her.... At least she bought me coffee for my troubles. Took Olive for a walk. Torchy's for dinner and Bosch.

Friday (15,457 steps) - Walked Olive before going to work in the office. Took her to work with me and we went for a few different walks during the day. As soon as we got home I went with Ben to Big O so we could get new tires for Shelly. Surprised they were able to get it done before they closed. We had to go back home to finish loading everything up for camping. Thankfully, there was virtually no traffic heading up to the mountains. Of course we stopped at Outer Range before going to our campsite at Prospector. This was our first time in a bit camping here, and it was nice to have a pull through spot - made setting up go a lot quicker. Hot dogs for dinner and we went to bed pretty soon after, a long day.

Saturday (14,082 steps) - I had not slept great, so of course we were up pretty early. Coffee and breakfast. 

I had suggested that we go to Buffalo Mountain. I knew it would be a decent amount of vert, plus the few people who had been up this year had all seen mountain goats! I wasn't super sure of which lot was technically the trailhead, and I was disappointed to see it was the small one at the edge of town. We ended up having to stalk someone to their car to get a spot, but at least we finally got one. I had estimated the hike to be about 6 miles round trip and close to 3,000' of climbing. The lower part is a section we run through when we do the loop, but we are usually coming from the other direction. 

Since I'm still trying to work on my climbing at altitude, I was trying to not take that many breaks, or at least take shorter ones. 

We had just crossed paths with a few gals and were in the woods when I saw something white barreling down the trail. I assumed it was someone's dog. Imagine my surprise when....

If you cant' tell, that is a mountain goat!! I screamed "holy shit" because I have never in my life seen a mountain goat ON a trial, especially below tree line and I had no idea what to do! Luckily, Olive is not the smartest dog and she had no idea what was happening.

The goat got within about 10 feet of us, stared us down, and then suddenly bolted and ran back up the mountain. We didn't see him again until we got to the boulder field - and there he was...

He definitely seemed intent on watching us, which made me a bit nervous, ever since I had done Mt. Evans with Lisa and Lucky and the ranger told us that goats can be aggressive to dogs. We spent a decent amount of time trying to determine if the goat would let us go by, when we noticed that there were some scary clouds over Ten Mile. 

We finally decided that maybe this was a sign that we should just head down without summitting.  Between the passive aggressive goat and an impending storm it seemed smart.

Adorable Pika!

We weren't even off the boulder field when we started to hear the thunder. We started to move a lot quicker since neither one of us had remembered to put a rain jacket in our pack. (Yes, we should know better, we are definitely more experienced than this).

The truly shocking part was the number of people we saw on the way down that were still continuing up. No packs, no jackets... Anyway, we got to about a half mile from the truck when the rain started. Luckily it was only lightly raining - the heavy rain started as we were driving away. We headed back into Frisco and went to Whole Foods for a pizza/Topo lunch before going back to Outer Range for the "Puppy Party." Back to the campsite for hamburgers and relaxation.

Ben had downloaded a few episodes of Bosch that we were able to watch on his laptop before we went to bed.

Sunday (10,175 steps) - Slept a bit better. Had some coffee before starting the journey to Leadville. Stopped at Dunkin for extra coffee. We parked in town a few blocks from the finish line. I used the bathroom and we found the rabbit tent before we went down the street to spectate the golden hour finishers. Josephine managed to find us and we had a great time watching everyone finish! Picked up the gear I wanted from rabbit before driving back down to the campsite to load up. Got out right on time at 11:59! Stopped at Outer Range for a beer and food from Bird Craft (which we ended up getting for free because the kitchen "lost" our order). When we left Frisco the map said it was going to be just over 2 hours. Unfortunately we got to Georgetown and it took two hours just to get to Idaho Springs because of multiple accidents. It was not a fun drive home. Stopped at Parry's for dinner. Got home and unloaded the camper and then Ariel went with me to walk Olive. Bosch.

Monday (19,972 steps) - Blah. Supposed to be another very hot day, so I went for an early run. I had no real plan and made some route changes. 

Had some numb feet again which had me walking for a bit, but after the walking and some stretching I was able to finish my run without too much other drama. Took Olive for a walk after that. Did some deliveries after work. Ben made dinner and I spent the evening on chat with Xfinity over an issue with the trade in we had done for our phones. Not a super fun night. Bosch.

Stats:

• 105,632 steps
• 15.68 miles run
• 15.19 miles walked
• 18 minutes of cardio
• 30 minutes of strength

Week in Review (July 6 - July 12)

Tuesday (14,417 steps) - Work in the office. I went for a few walks during work and a short one after work. Apparently that's all.

Wednesday (16,946 steps) - Work in the office. Went for a few walks and then went to the gym during a late lunch for core and upper body. Nicole wasn't able to join me because she's been busy with interviews. Took Pika for a walk after work. 

Thursday (37,025 steps) - Endurance block day 1. I'll admit that I was terrified and stressed out when I saw my training plan for the week. Training for yet another 200 miler means doing everything I can to go into the race "prepared." I've been floundering a bit ever since I stopped running with Runners Edge - which at LEAST gave me a goal for a long run and overall weekly distance. Since hiring my coach about a month ago, I've definitely put in more work than I have in a LONG time. With that said, the first day of the block was 12-14 miles. Okkkk how am I going to fit that in during the week? With temperatures forecasted to be near 100 degrees. The answer was starting at 5:00 am. Even though I had taken the previous two days off from running, this was a struggle for the first 3-4 miles. Legs felt very heavy and I was TIRED. I do, however, love sunrises, so this wasn't all bad.

Can you spot the owl?

I will be eternally grateful that the dog park added port-o-potties a few years ago. I opted to try a new trail section in the northern part of the dog park that I had never run in, and it turned out to be quite a pleasant detour, at least in the cool morning hours.

Thankfully, once I started running south, my legs started to loosen up a bit and it wasn't as horrible.

It really started to warm up during the last hour of my run. I can't believe how ungodly hot it already was for the sun just coming up. CRAZY.

For this run I was really just guessing on overall distance, and added a little detour on the south side of the lake. It's still REALLY green, which is nice to look at.

As I was getting closer to home, I realized that I basically had created a half marathon course from my neighborhood. I had to be back in time for my weekly call with Abby, and I made it back with about 15 minutes to spare. Took Pika for a walk, then another walk after I got off work. Part of my training plan also included foam rolling, so I pulled a video off YouTube and worked on that while watching "The Life of David Gale." (An older movie, but I do enjoy that one).

Friday (39,502 steps) - Endurance block, day 2. Today was going to be even trickier, since I had to go to work in the office. That meant an even EARLIER wake up. This time, I was on the trails by 4:30 am. I had opted to run the same route as the day before, and hoped that the extra thirty minutes would be enough for me to finish and get to work on time. It's crazy how much darker it was, just being out a half hour earlier. Thankfully, it also didn't seem to feel as warm, although the forecasted high for the day was supposed to be about the same.

I had to stop at the dog park bathrooms again - guess it's just the timing of these runs, haha.

I strangely seemed to be feeling a lot better today, even though I had run a lot the day before and had not gotten a lot of sleep going into this. The sunrise was excellent again!

Managed to get back to the house with just enough time for a super quick shower and to re-blend my protein smoothie and out the door on time for work. Had my first review in TWO years, and was told that "no one complains about you, so you're doing fine." It was the shortest review I've ever had, although they ARE usually short since I'm good at what I do. The exciting part was getting a raise - also has been two years since I got one. Went for a few walks during the day and a late lunch at the gym. Core, upper body and some stretching. I was hoping they had a foam roller I could use, but they didn't. After work I had to rush home to pack since Ben and I had plans to go camping in Dillon for the weekend. We managed to get out the door in about an hour, which wasn't too bad. Traffic was ok, and we stopped in Silverthorne to pick up Chipotle for dinner. 

A beer at Outer Range and a quick trip to the grocery store for water and snacks, and we were at the campsite around 10. Later than we planned, but we still had time for a quick campfire before bed.

Saturday (40,316 steps) - I've been SO TIRED over the last week that I slept pretty amazing. Up early for our adventure of the day - Buffalo Mountain! Endurance block, day 3 had me scheduled to run 14-15 miles, and the loop in Frisco is just over 14 miles, so it was perfect. I cleared the route with my coach since it is certainly more hiking than running, and she was fine with it. We got a little bit of a later start than I would have liked since we were having trouble locking Shelly (the camper).

But how can you be mad at her when she is so cute??

We had hoped to start by 8 and ended up not getting on the trail until almost 8:30. And the small lot was already full! Having done this route before I knew that a bulk of the climbing would happen right at the start. 

We didn't see anyone for a LONG time - not even the group of backpackers that left 10-15 minutes before us. I'm just so slow on the climbs and really struggle with breathing the higher up we get.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, though, the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

We finally caught up the hikers a the trail juncture (and passed them). Thankfully, I had remembered this last little push as being longer, so I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the saddle - TO AN ADORABLE MOUNTAIN GOAT!!

We spent a ridiculously long time taking pictures of him - he was just so cute and so photogenic - and genuinely seemed to be posing for us. What a treat!

Once we got down a bit we were able to get some actual running in, which is always nice after moving so slow.

The lower we got, however, the warmer it got. We saw a lot of people heading up the trail (not to do the loop we did, but there is apparently a waterfall somewhere off the trail that we have never been to that's a popular spot). I will never understand how people start so late in the day when it's so warm!

Ben seemed surprised that we were going to be out this long, but it didn't seem that long to me. Tried to run a bit more the further down we got - I was getting sick of being out in the heat!

The burn area looked totally different than last year - lots more wildflowers this time around.

When we got down we went to Outer Range for a beer while we decided what we were going to do the rest of the day. We ultimately decided to head up to Leadville to watch people finish the Silver Rush 50 miler. We met Kristin, Doug and Joe at the pizza place in town - and it was a total disaster. The line was nuts and they couldn't seem to handle the number of people that were there and were quoting people a two hour wait for pizza. Which seemed insane since there were like ten people working. Luckily Kristin shared some of their pizza with us since we hadn't eaten yet. We headed over to the finish line and spent some time chatting with Jared and Kelly while we waited for Tyler to come in.

We stuck around for about another half hour before driving him to his hotel and then heading back to Frisco. We stopped to pick up some stuff for dinner at Whole Foods, then went back to the campsite. We didn't stay up too late after cooking dinner - both of us were exhausted!

Sunday (31,528 steps) - While neither of us was especially excited at the prospect of another early morning, we definitely wanted to get started early enough that we would have time to come back to the campground and pack up before noon. Our adventure of the day was running the Run the Rockies course again! I have run these trails every year for 6-7 years now and I just love them. They aren't too technical, none of the climbs are too outrageous - and it's super pretty with plenty of trees, wildflowers, and a view of the lake. My legs were certainly grateful that we had opted to NOT do a run with a lot of vertical. All the miles from the week were starting to catch up with me! The trails did not disappoint, and there was hardly anyone out at this hour.

I was definitely struggling more than I had hoped, but I did run as much of the flats and downhills as I could, and worked on strong hiking on the climbs.

Once again, Ben seemed to think that we were out a really long time, but I was pleased to have been out right around three hours. We got back to the campground in plenty of time to clean up and pack all our gear. We stopped at Outer Range for a beer before heading back to Denver. Traffic into town was the worst I'd seen in a while, and it took a LOT longer to get down than we had hoped. We unpacked and ordered pizza and went to bed early.

Monday (33,794 steps) - Final day of the big endurance block! Still had 12-13 miles on schedule, so I opted to get up early (again) and go out for a finale of the same loop I had done before to see how my legs had held up from the weekend. I was still out the door before 5 am, since I needed to make sure I was home in time to take A to practice and to get to work. It actually was not nearly as bad as I feared it might be, and my time was almost identical to what I had done on Friday, so I was pleased.

Work from home and took Pika for a walk at lunch. After work Tyler and Koda came over to celebrate Pika's 11th birthday! Ben had gone to the dog bakery and picked up an adorable cake for them to share. It was too cute.

Stats:

• 213,528 steps
• 66.31 miles run
• 0 minutes of cardio
• 68 minutes of strength training