Week in Review (January 26 - February 1)

Tuesday (11,226 steps) - Work in the office in the morning. Home early enough to take Pika for a walk. She likes the cold and snow. I do not.

More work being done in the bathroom. It may get finished eventually!

Did a core video that I didn't really like.

Wednesday (14,733 steps) - Work from home. I had a 40 minute run that I needed to get down. There is really no route near my house where I'm not going to end on an uphill, so I thought of the route that would be less awful. It was a bit challenging with snow, but I managed another run with ZERO walk breaks. Again, these are big improvements for me! After I got back I took Pika for a walk. More bathroom progress!

Ariel in her snazzy new letter jacket (that she was VERY excited to wear for her first day back to in-person school since early November) :

and... WE FINALLY GOT ALL MY MEDALS AND OUR BUCKLES UP!! Our home gym is really looking great. W

We still have some things we are working on, but all the big stuff is done. Next up is some sort of shelving for our awards, pint glasses, etc. But really excited for this progress. 

Thursday (11,885 steps) - Work in the office. Did my 25 minute run with strides on my lunch hour, and it was NOT good. I don't know why running the flats of downtown seems even harder than the hills by my house? Can I blame it on so many street crossings and there being SO MANY PEOPLE? No recollection of the rest of the day.

Friday (15,213 steps) - Work from home. The weather was FREAKING AMAZING, so I took Pika for a long trail run at lunch. She hasn't done 6 miles in ages, and in terms of "flatter" running, neither have I. She was a bit pokey, and the trails got a bit muddy on our way back, but it was fun!

REALLY starting to get excited about the bathroom!! Once they started putting the tile up on the shower walls, I could really start imagining it being done someday! Hoping everything ties together as good as we hope.

Saturday (31,457 steps) - White Ranch with the group! This trail is always soooo freaking hard. I knew I was going to be a bit tired after having done a "longer" run the day before. Obviously I was hiking a TON in the beginning. I keep hoping with regular efforts this will some day not be so hard. Haha.

There were only a few sections where it was really icy. I opted to not even bother with my spikes. And thankfully, I didn't fall. Went to Big Daddy Bagels to pick up some breakfast. Then, took Pika for a windy walk with Ariel when I got home - she was really playful!

The tile guys were really on a roll and got a LOT more work done. Woo hoo!

Ariel and I picked up our stash of Girl Scout cookies for the year. Thanks to the ability to pre-order and for even local people to buy from her page, she has already sold quite a few!

Sunday (14,184 steps) - North Table with a small group of people. The weather ended up being SUPER nice, which of course resulted in every mountain bike in the county being out. Ben and Tyler did a bigger/faster loop, and the rest of us did a relaxed and easy loop with the dogs. Fun morning!

We were all starving, so we got some nachos from the food truck. Sadly, they weren't nearly as tasty as they look. I think the cheese was somehow bland??

Monday (17,956 steps) - Work from home. I had a 45 minute run on schedule, and I re-created a loop I've done with Kristin to get the mileage I thought I might need. It was actually a REALLY good run, outside my feet being numb the last 15 minutes or so. Took Pika for a walk, and then when work was over I did a BodyPump video. Lots of lunges in this one, I'll be feeling it. The tile guys made a LOT more progress! One more day of tile guys, and then just the plumber, and we supposedly will FINALLY be done!!

Stats:

• 116,654 steps
• 31.09 miles run
• 0 minutes row - ugh
• 85 minutes strength training

Week in Review (January 19 - January 25)

Tuesday (15,686 steps) - Work from home. With the bathroom now completely gutted, the guys were ready to start work. (Bets on how long it will be before we can use this space?)

Took Pika for a walk, then did my workout of 25 minutes with strides. It's been so long since I did this I have no recollection of how this was, but I think it was ok. Ben and I went to the tile store (again) and picked out our tile for the walls... will be exciting when all this stuff is finally done.

Wednesday (20,103 steps) - Work from home. Took Pika for a walk at lunch. After work headed up to Boulder to meet Tyler and Kristin for a loop in Boulder. It was a really pretty evening!

Ben and A got a TON of work done while I was gone, and the basement finally seems like it will be a functional gym (pics later).

Thursday (10,397 steps) - Work in the office in the morning. Thankfully, Joyce had warned me that she had been in over the weekend cleaning out her office. Oy, it was a lot of stuff to walk into.

Got home with enough time to walk Pika at lunch. Now that things are out of the mud room, Ariel and I had the chance to get the area cleaned up and FINALLY organized. I am loving finally having some functional space! Not to mention, having a partial room dedicated to running gear is SO AWESOME.

Rowed a bit after I got off work.

Friday (12,636 steps) - Work from home. Did my first On Demand Les Mills BodyPump class in the morning. Here's' where I told Ben "you were right, I was wrong." I thought it would be fine doing the video from my phone. No. He is right, we need a TV for this stuff. Took Pika for a walk at lunch.

This is a woman lying in the road doing stretches. Ok.

Then I did my 30 minute run with strides, which was AWFUL. I really can't do a BodyPump class and then run. Not fun.

Saturday (26,802 steps) - Up early for a run at South Table! We had 15-20 people show up again, which was nice. I had no idea where we were going for the most part, and most folks kinda did their own thing. There are a ton of trails up on the hill, so it was fun running into people on their various routes. I mostly ran with Jandy, Zach, Jen and a gal that I can't remember her name, but she is really nice, haha.

There was only one mildly icy section, so that was nice. I wish that I was in better shape right now so I could actually run some of these trails better. Ugh. After we were done, we went to Einstein's to get some quick food before heading to New Terrain to get a beer to celebrate Jeramiah's birthday.

Once I got home I actually sat in my compression legs (it's been a LONG time), and Ariel and I vegged in front of the TV.

Sunday (23,283 steps) - Even though I wasn't really looking forward to it, Ben and I were up relatively early to meet Lisa and Tyler at North Table for a big loop. I had worn too many layers and got warm before we were even a mile in, so I had to bungee my jacket to my pack. Like usual, I was really struggling on the climbs, but at least was able to take it easy on the descents. Actually stuck with Ben for a bit, so that's always good for the ego.

We had a few beers at the brewery before heading out. Ben and I were STARVING, so we headed to Torchy's to pick up lunch. And I may have gotten a Bloody Mary while we were waiting...

By the time we were done with lunch, I was exhausted. Ben and I ended up taking a nap for a few hours, and I therefore have no recollection of the rest of the day.

Monday (10,094 steps) - Work from home. Ben finally finished installing the new TV for the gym, so I did a few videos in the morning, BodyPump and a BodyFlow class, which was supposed to be a bunch of stretches, but I found it really hard to follow.

Took Pika for a walk at lunch.

Rowed for a bit after I got off work. Made dinner, and then spent a few hours hanging up medals - it's always a time consuming process. Thankfully, when we took the medals done before moving we kept them in order and took pictures of them so it actually went faster than it has in the past.

Stats:

• 119,001 steps
• 29.1 miles run
• 26 minutes row
• 77 minutes strength training

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