Week in Review (February 24 - March 2)

Tuesday (18,275 steps) - Crossramp. Then after I got home I did some videos! Total Body Workout, 100 Squat Rep Challenge 2 (with A) and some stretching.

Wednesday (11,580 steps) - Thanks to Snowpocalypse, I hit major traffic on the way home. It took me twice as long to get there. I was going to do a run on the treadmill in the basement inferno but I was too agitated. Did 10 minute abs video.

Thursday (25,275 steps) - Snowpocalypse caused enough snow to fall that school was cancel and my work granted a two hour late start. As soon as L got home from work I headed to the gym (the roads weren't even that bad) and knocked out 8 miles on the treadmill. Longest run in a hundred years.

I think the kids enjoyed the snow day more than I did.

Friday (7,802 steps) - Work was busy. A had a Girl Scout cookie booth right after work. There was pizza, and a new beer.

Saturday (14,858) - So Runners Roost is doing trail runs the last Saturday of every month. This month, the run was going to be at North Table, where I run pretty regularly. I was convinced it would be fiiiiiine. I mean, we didn't get that much snow, how bad could it be?? I headed over to the west side and met up with the group. It was COLD and WINDY.

Now, I was a bit terrified. I have run trails, but never intentionally in snow. I was a bit freaked out when I saw the route was immediately starting up a super steep incline. Like 2/3 of a mile of TORTURE. I hate hate hate hate holding people back during a group run. But it was gorgeous out there so I stepped out of my comfort zone:

That big hill???

Kicked. My. Ass. I started mid pack and was dead last in minutes. I was hyperventilating trying to get air. I could not breathe and my calves felt like they were going to explode. I usually need SOME time to warm up, and apparently, FOR ME, going up a giant hill really doesn't do too much to loosen me up. FINALLY get to the summit and everyone is waiting for me a ways off. I can see them all in a group. Damn it. The snow here is SO DEEP. Like knee deep and hip deep in places. I have NEVER run in snow like this. It was really hard to get a groove going, it was more like I was awkwardly trying to hike in snow and couldn't really get traction and trying to step in existing footprints was slick. The wind was blowing over a lot of the tracks. Due to the conditions, the run was cut short from a 10K to a 5K. CAN'T SAY I WAS UPSET ABOUT THAT. It sure was pretty though.

Just HOW am I so slow and bad at this? I never seem to get stronger... Met up with everyone at the end and they said they were going to get lunch/drinks after. I went home and showered and grabbed A, then we met up at Cannonball Canyon. They had SOME food, but it was a brewery, so I had a beer and chatted with some of the group. Then A and I headed over to Jessa's new house in Arvada. Then, A had to go to another cookie booth and I went down to the Runners Roost Adidas Launch party. No pics, but it was a good time. Picked A up and went BACK to Jessa's. Longest day ever.

Sunday (12,589 steps) - A decided she wanted to run at Lake Arbor. The air was SO COLD... we cut our run short by a loop and got in just over a mile.

The rest of the day was spent making some stir fry (in the crock pot this time). A didn't care for it the last time I made it so this time I made it extra spicy. It was really good!

Must have just watched a lot of TV, can't imagine what else I would have done all day.
Monday (21,588 steps) - Hill program at the gym even though I was EXHAUSTED. Also did the Uptown Abs (have you tried this??) and squats again.

Miles Run - 19.2
Weekly Steps - 111,967
Minutes of Cross Training - 45
Minutes of Strength/Stretching - 65

Everything Else

• So the super fun "weigh loss" challenge ended. After 5 or so weeks of not weighing in or "watching" what I eat, it turns out I lost just over 3 pounds. But I'm relatively the same from where I was in the weeks leading up to it. L won the challenge with just over a 6 pound loss. She had to have cheated somehow...
• Nothing going on with the Kilimanjaro scam, except I got an email from someone claiming to be a reporter from the local Fox news channel... that could be interesting.
• One more weekend off and then we head into... race season.

Week in Review (February 17 - February 23)

Tuesday (16,916 steps) - Treadmill run, just over three miles. No hills, just taking it easy.
Wednesday (15,700 steps) - I had ordered the Garmin 920XT a week ago and it finally came in! It was a bit sad to drive to run club and not be able to stay. Womp. 5K at the gym.

Batman Sour is suspicious of watch. He was swatting at it like it was a snake

Thursday (17,609 steps) - Hills, glorious hills. I am sticking to my guns on this and getting at least one hilly run a week. This one wasn't too bad, and I appreciated not having the biggest inclines at the end.

And then I HAD to go out and do a super short test run with the new watch. Just to make sure the blue tooth and uploading was going to work ok for my next "real" run. I love it! It's a bit confusing as the start button (actually the "enter" button) is in a completely different place than my beloved 220, but I'm sure that will just take some getting used to.

Friday (10,419 steps) - PIZZA! Oh, and Ariel and I worked the first Girl Scout cookie booth of the season. Did you know that Denver has a cookie shortage??? We ran out of thin mints troop-wide and were unable to get more. Do you know how hard it is to sell Girl Scout cookies without thin mints? We still sold almost 500 boxes over the course of a few hours. People were stocking up for snowpocalypse...
Saturday (19,059 steps) - It DID snow a decent amount overnight, but A and I were determined to get our run done. It wasn't that cold, low 30's/upper 20's and we knew we were supposed to get more snow overnight.

And then I met L at the gym for some CrossRamp time and almost died in the sauna since I was still wearing ALL THE CLOTHES from running outside.

We stocked up for the snowpocalypse by ordering ALL THE PIZZA.

Man. It was really the most delicious ever. I hadn't eaten at Pizza Hut in ages. Did you know that you can get custom sauces and crusts now?? If you haven't had the honey sriracha you should try it. IT IS THE BEST EVER.

Sunday (5,681 steps) - The worst snowpocalypse ever. We didn't get anywhere close to the amount of snow needed to cancel work and school. I did not leave the house all day, although A did go out and shovel our entire driveway and sidewalk. #motivated (as you can tell, I was NOT motivated. Literally sat on the couch ALL DAY).

I also made a crock pot of turkey chili. WOW. Could this be any easier to make? What is it, like four ingredients? Yum.

Monday (20,182 steps) - Managed a FULL HOUR of hills on the treadmill. That last incline is 4.5% (crying). So hard! Impressed with my motivation, I normally stop under 4 miles.

Miles Run - 18.1

Weekly Steps - 105,566

Minutes of Cross Training - 45

Minutes of Strength/Stretching - 0 (oops)

Everything Else

• No closer to recovering anything from the Kilimanjaro scam. Wheee. Thanks a lot, scammers.
• I PAID OFF MY CAR YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!
• Work is going well. Really getting into a good groove. Keeping busy more and learning more things. I have been asked if I mind learning/doing some paralegal work. The best thing about being a secretary is that I don't have "billable" hours, so I *can* bill, but an evaluation on my job performance doesn't really depend on it.
• Nothing else. Except it is finally winter here and I'm over it. Already.
• Weigh in from the Dumb Challenge is on Friday. Can't wait to see how much not caring has gained me (literally).

Week(s) in Review (February 3 - February 16)

Tuesday, February 3 (18,001 steps) Hill program on the treadmill. This was two weeks ago, I can't remember if it was awful. 

Wednesday, February 4 (21,910 steps) 6.1 super sweaty miles on the treadmill. The fact that it was longer than 3 or 4 miles must mean it was an ok run. Also did a squat video and some stretching.

Thursday, February 5 (19,968 steps) Another hill program, 3.5 miles. Less awful than the one earlier in the week.

Friday, February 6 (8,571 steps). Uh, nothing? Pizza?

Saturday, February 7 (12,762 steps) We went to the "donut" run club at the Runners Roost in Lakewood. It was HOT. I mean, maybe only upper 50's but it was WARM. Never going to survive the summer :(

Sunday, February 8 (35,691 steps). In the morning L and I ran the Ralston Creek half.

The start of Girl Scout cookie season. Can I say HOW MUCH I HATE THIS? They give the girls a "quota" of cookies to sell, based on average number of cookies sold in her troop the previous year and in surrounding troops. A is in a troop with a handful of other kids with parents who DON'T WORK. These kids sell upwards of 700-800 boxes a season.

The weather was nice so we actually went door to door to sell. We ran out of change before long so we had to stop (that and it got dark).

Monday, February 9(19,962 steps) Didn't feel like running so I did 40 minutes on the CrossRamp (I KNOW) and an upper body video.

Tuesday, February 10 (19,220 steps) 3.3 miles of hills.

Wednesday, February 11 (13,187 steps). Run club! I picked up A so that she could run too, and then after they let her set up a table to sell cookies.

Thursday, February 12 (19,685 steps) 4ish on the treamdill, not terrible. Once at home, I made BARK. A crazy combination of all the leftover bark ingredient I had left over - white and milk chocolate, Heath toffee chips, peanut butter chips, graham crackers and caramel chips.

Friday, February 13 (11,543 steps). Nada. Went to my friend's house for a Friday the 13th party.

Saturday, February 14 (16,809 steps). HEAT WAVE. Ariel and I went for a run around the lake near the house. 

We went to Dunkin for coffee and then we went to the 5K that L was running down the street. Ran into Heather and Dan as well. Along with my dad, we all went to lunch at Fuzzy's Tacos. We decided we would get some pizza for dinner, which turned out to be right down the street from Voodoo...

Sunday, February 15 (20,698). Got up early to hit the trails before the weather changed. As you can see, sunny at the start, starting to be stormy by the end:

We had a lunch date with Jessa and Lisa at Vine Street. Hours of good beer and good conversation. I miss these ladies!

Monday, February 16 (13,109 steps) NADA.

Miles Run (w/e February 9) - 28.5

Weekly Steps (w/e February 9) - 136,865

Minutes of Cross Training (w/e February 9) - 40

Minutes of Strength/Stretching (w/e February 9) - 47

Miles Run (w/e February 16) - 18.4

Weekly Steps (w/e February 16) - 114,251

Minutes of Cross Training (w/e February 16) - 0

Minutes of Strength/Stretching (w/e February 16) - 0

Everything Else

• I guess I am still doing this "challenge" with L and Heather. No tracking, and I have no idea if I  have gained weight, maintained or lost. Still a few weeks left I think. I might not be logging calories but I am sure taking a lot of pictures of my food.
• Work is going great.
• I may write a more detailed post about it in a few days, but as my Facebook friends know...  I got scammed out of about $5,000 over the Internet. I posted months ago about how I was really excited to be going to Africa to run a marathon at Mt. Kilimanjaro. Turns out I was scammed through a website offering packages. Now before you ask... how dumb are you... know that I researched online. Found no evidence of fraud. Posted on Facebook in groups (including Marathon Maniacs) and multiple people vouched for this woman and her event. Since everything has come crumbling down around me, this story gets more and more unbelievable. More to come on this, but in the meantime, I have started a GoFundMe in hopes of raising the money to possible go next year to Africa.... 

MY GOFUNDME PAGE

Basically where things are now is that people are STILL claiming she is legit and to "email her" through the email on the website. WHICH IS FUNNY, because that is the website and email I got scammed through. I have yet to hear from the "real" race organizer and my pleas for help contacting SOMEONE with this organization have gone unanswered. I have filed reports with the FBI Cyber Crimes divison, local police department and my bank. I have placed fraud alerts with the credit bureaus. These hackers not only have my money, they have a copy of my passport. More information is listed in the GoFundMe page or you can email me if you have questions or if you can help. So far, it seems no one can/will do anything. squirrelgirl44 at hotmail dot com.

So. There's that.

Ralston Creek Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Sunday, February 8
Arvada, CO
Half Marathon #126
Colorado Half #59
Ralston Creek Half #4
Weather - Sunny, warm, WINDY

I was really pumped in the week leading up to the Ralston Creek half marathon. I have run it every year since inception and this was going to be THE FIRST YEAR that temperatures were scheduled to be above freezing. Not just above freezing, but WARM. I think temps at the start were upper 50's, and a TON of sun. What I didn't count on was the wind...

We dropped the kids off at my parents house just before 8:30 and drove to the start. By the time we parked the winds had pickd up to mid 20 mph. It was SO windy. In the shade it was almost chilly, although I knew I was going to warm up as soon as I started running.

Heather and I had talked before the race and we planned to run together. I was pretty confident going into the race that I was going to have a good race. HAHAHAHAHA.

We were in the second wave, which didn't start until 9:45. Normally the late start is really nice because of the freezing cold, but that was not an issue and I wished we were starting earlier.

We cycled through the bathroom line a few times and then lined up, towards the back. I wasn't wearing headphones and we chatted through the first mile. I was feeling ok but knew I was moving too fast when I clicked a sub 10 mile. The  "speed" caught up with me and I had to take my first walk break around 1.5 miles in.

View from mile 5!

I was REALLY surprised that Heather stuck with me, but it was great to have the company. The first 8 miles of the course is a gradul uphill and we were running west, against the wind. I pretty much gave up about 3 miles in and we walked A LOT. As I remembered, mile 5 was the worst. Heather's hat blew off (again, this was already the third time?) I thought that I could run up the switchbacks like I did last year. NOPE. I checked somewhere around mile 6 and the winds were upwards of 30 mph. SO MISERABLE.

I kept trying to convince Heather (and myself) that once we got to the top of the switchbacks that we would have a nice few miles of downhill. Which we did, but WHERE WAS THE WIND NOW??? We were now headed east and the wind was not at our backs like we had hoped. I was tired and ready to be done. Had a sort of decent last five miles but not the race that I hoped. Heather's hat blew off for a last time as we were getting ready to turn the corner to head into the straightaway to the finish.

Not too much to say about this race other than I was really disappointed. We had a pretty good last mile and came in just shy of 2:30 on the clock. BOOO. I run with Heather almost every time we go to run club but I have never run for this amount of time with her. It was really great to have a few hours to catch up. It was a miserable weather day and I'm grateful she kept me company!

Garmin Time - 2:28:42
Garmin Distance - 13.24 miles
Garmin Pace - 11:14
Mile 1 - 9:42
Mile 2 - 10:30
Mile 3 - 13:56
Mile 4 - 11:29
Mile 5 - 12:10
Mile 6 - 14:01
Mile 7 - 11:52
Mile 8 - 12:07
Mile 9 - 9:22
Mile 10 - 10:05
Mile 11 - 10:01
Mile 12 - 10:15
Mile 13 - 10:55
Mile 13.24 - 9:21

Met up with Dan and L, and just like I remembered, we got chocolate chip banana bread and a nice breakfast burrito. There was also diet coke, which was great.

Freakishly Amazing is a stretch for me. L, however, got a course PR for her and was pretty happy

New medal this year!

• I will run this race again. It is the only half marathon in Colorado in February. I hope that next year we don't have the wind. As miserable as the cold is, I certainly prefer THAT over THIS.
• I hate this course, but I know what I'm getting into. The views are nice, the hills are not.
• Related - with how little snow we have had the course was BROWN... so ugly :(
• This year the race shirt is a 1/4 zip tech tee long sleeve. I probably won't wear it (just because I have a billion running shirs, not because it isn't good). Dark grey color, race logo small on left chest.
• I LOVE the post race food. No beer, but the chocolate chip banana bread and burritos are good. And soda. Love me some soda.
• They offered "free" race pictures but then sent the download links in an email with this wording, so I guess I can't even post them here, although they didn't come out terrible: Your order contains one or more free digital images. SkiPix.com, LLC reserves the rights to all images. This license is for personal use only and does not grant any copyright to the image(s). No other use is authorized. All other uses are prohibited without the express written permission of SkiPix.com, LLC. Personal use does not include use in any media, publications, editorials, promotions or advertising of any kind. Unauthorized use of SkiPix.com, LLC images is prohibited and punishable by law. Statutory damages can lead up to a $150,000 fine for infringements. If you have any questions, please contact us at skipix@skipix.com.