Week in Review (November 12 - November 18)

Tuesday (11,818 steps) - Olive walk before work. Went to the gym at lunch. Ambitiously thought I could climb the tallest building in Dubai on the StairMaster, but quit after a half hour because it was going to take me longer than my whole lunch hour. 

Did some strength training. Arranged all my new ducks - pretty soon there will not be any more room for people to put stuff on my ledge.

Walked Olive again when I got home from work.

Wednesday (15,704 steps) - Peloton and Olive walk before going to work. Cross training again at lunch since the run I had on schedule needed to be hilly, which I don't have in the city. Olive walk when I got home.

Thursday (19,775 steps) - Work from home. Since it was Ariel's birthday I went down to Golden to take her out for coffee. I stopped on the drive home to do my hill repeats near the NAAC. Normally I do these at Dino Ridge, but I gave this a chance since it was on my drive home anyway. Turned out to be a good location for it and there was not a lot of people on the bike path. 

Took Olive for a slow walk when I got home. Did some driving and then we went to Torchy's for our weekly dinner.

Friday (12,032 steps) - Olive had been limping (again, but this time her back paw), so we skipped the Wash Park walk. I still took her to work though, which she finds boring.

After work did some driving and then Ben and I met at Salsa's for dinner.

Ted Lasso! This is such a great show, we are really enjoying it.

Saturday (29,459 steps) - Drove down to Lakewood for the Runners Edge winter kickoff. I had 2.5 hours on schedule and planned to do 10 miles as a compromise.

I feel like every time I run in Lakewood I am bamboozled by how hilly it feels. We saw the scariest 12 foot skeleton dressed up like a pilgrim.

While we knew quite a few people out running, we ended up doing all the miles by ourselves. The run was... fine, but it definitely seemed like too much work for the mileage/pace.

We had plans to stick around the store and shop when we got done, but there were no shoes Ben was interested in, and no apparel I wanted. Plus, everyone we knew had seemingly already left! We stopped at Parry's on the way home for a drink (NA beer for me) and a snack.

Took Olive for a long walk when we got back. They appear to be doing something with the degrading dock...

Went to 4 Noses for Ben, although he bribed me with a Ziggi's coffee. AND! Olive's new outfit came, and she looks so adorable in it!

Ted Lasso!

Sunday (10,526 steps) - I was supposed to "bag a peak," per my training. I didn't get up early enough to go anywhere, so Ben and I just took Olive for a long walk.

We drove into Golden and picked up Ariel to take her to breakfast at the Golden Diner for her birthday. 

She wanted to come back to the house to spend the day/night. She opened up all her presents, and then Ariel and I went to Target to walk around. We stopped at Torchy's on the way back to eat some queso and say hi to Amanda. Ben and I went to 4 Noses so Ariel could shower and get some studying done. We made alfredo for dinner and watched a movie. It was nice!

Monday (16,126 steps) - Work from home before taking Ariel to get coffee and taking her back to school. The weather had seemed glorious when we left, but it seemed to get cloudy on my drive back. I opted to walk Olive first while deciding what clothes would be best for my run. Unfortunately, by the time I did my run the clouds had taken over and it got WINDY. (Yes, I realize the picture below doesn't appear like bad weather, but I was running west, TOWARDS the weather).

Run was NOT good, and it was a lot more work than it should have been. I went to Tokyo Joe's for my free "half birthday" entrée and it was delicious!

Did some driving and Ben picked up pizza for dinner. More Ted Lasso!

Stats:

• 115,440 steps
• 22.08 miles run
• 15.56 miles walked
• 41 minutes of cardio
• 70 minutes of strength

Week in Review (November 5 - November 11)

Tuesday (11,382 steps) - Peloton and Olive walk. I had to go to the dealership for service on my car. Shockingly (not), it took way too long for having an appointment. I think it is impossible to leave there without being angry. Went to the gym at lunch. Did the StairMaster and climbed the Egyptian pyramids.

Did some driving before heading home. Initially, I had the news on and was watching election results, but it was obvious pretty early on that it wasn't going to go well. We ended up watching a movie instead.

Wednesday (20,368 steps) - Olive walk before going to work in the office. It had been snowing all morning, so I put of running as long as I could. When I finally headed out I was not optimistic and worried about being cold. I definitely overdressed and had to take off the additional hoodie after less than a mile. Greg had initially given me a workout, which I told him I was going to skip because of weather. Spoiler, I guess cold weather makes me "fast."

Headed home after work to take Olive for a quick walk. I went out to do some driving but ended up quitting earlier than I wanted to because the snow started coming down a lot harder.

Thursday (10,780 steps) - Work from home. Lots of activity, including Peloton and strength training. Took Olive for a walk. Drove to Golden to pick up Ariel to take her to get additional X-rays at the dentist and to Costco to get her glasses ordered. She stayed at the house until I was off work and we went to Target and then met Ben at Torchy's for dinner. We took her home afterwards, I took Olive for a longer walk to get all my steps in and we watched a movie. 

Friday (10,411 steps) - Since it wasn't snowing YET, I took Olive for a longer walk before I clocked in for work. I messaged Amber to let her know that I was going to work from home the whole day. Work was pretty slow and even the people that DID go in were told to go home by noon. Took Olive for another walk. Ben picked up pho for dinner and we watched a movie.

Saturday (23,829 steps) - Did some reading and random cleaning in the morning .Took Olive for a walk. We finally braved going for our run on Big Dry Creek. Except for a handful of places, it was actually in decent shape. WE, however, were NOT in decent shape. Felt hard.

Can you spot the coyote?

Home to shower and then we went back out. I got a holiday coffee from Ziggi's and we went to 4 Noses. Still no beer for me!

Food truck had fancy mac n' cheese, which was delicious for lunch. 

No idea what else happened.

Sunday (13,712 steps) - No idea what we did in the morning. Took Olive for a walk and then went to Boulder so Ben could look at shoes at Runners Roost. I had a short run on schedule, so I ran while he was at the store.

Opted to stop at Bluegrass on the way home for a snack. Took Olive for another walk and went out driving for a bit. Turns out that would be all we would eat all day, as neither of us was hungry when dinner time rolled around. Have no idea what we watched.

Monday (16,606 steps) - Work from home. Went for my run relatively early. Hard to believe we just had so much snow as a tee and shorts was fine for the run.

Took Olive for a walk and then took a shower. Drove to Golden to pick up Ariel and take her to her consultation for getting her wisdom teeth taken out. Glad I brought my laptop since it lasted longer than expected. I ended up having to finish work in the car since it took me right up until my time to log out. Did a few deliveries on my way home. We made stir fry for dinner and watched a movie. 

Stats:

• 107,088 steps
• 21.71 miles run
• 14.53 miles walked
• 62 minute of cardio
• 85 minutes of strength

Backcountry Wilderness Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Highlands Ranch, CO

Saturday, November 2

Half Marathon #196

Weather - Sunny, nice

For the last few years, I hit October and I dream about running shorter races again. I happened to post on Facebook asking what races everyone had coming up. I still want to hit 200 (official) lifetime half marathons - a task that's been moving at a snails pace over the last few years since I only have been running one or two a year. I remembered that I'd run Backcountry again, and signed up to run again (right before a price increase) and convinced Jandy, Christina, and eventually Ben, to also sign up.

Race Day

This was my 7th time running the race. I told Ben we needed to leave by 7:15 because I wanted to be parked by 8 since we still had to get our bibs and I'd need to use the bathroom, etc. We headed out on time, but had to turn back shortly after leaving because I forgot my sunglasses. No one wants to listen to me complain because I forgot those!

We still arrived shortly after 8 am and parked almost exactly where I had parked last year. We immediately headed over to get our bibs and saw Jandy along the way. We were in line for our bibs when Christina joined us. Had to head back to the car to drop off our swag and get our packs. Ben was taking forever so I left him at the truck so I could get in the bathroom line - which ended up taking a decent amount of time.

We got some pictures at the start and finally found Ben. I told him that he should go into an earlier wave since he is definitely faster than we are. None of us had a wave number on the back of our bibs, so we ended up jumping into the 4th wave. I had hoped to have "at least as good" a race as last year - when I race right after Katy. Probably 6 or 7 minutes into the race, however, I could tell it was going to be a long day.

I had to take my first walk break relatively early. The pace wasn't even that fast, but I was breathing insanely hard and my heart rate felt really fast. Christina and Jandy got ahead of me pretty early. I definitely had plans to just hang on. We ran within a close proximity for a few miles. Sean was photographing again and got a ton of pictures of us somewhere between maybe 2 and 3 miles in.

Christina fell back at some point around the first aid station (which I can't remember what mile that was). Jandy and I stayed together for probably at leas 6-7 miles. At some point I had to stop and take off my long sleeve layer because I was soooo hot. I ended up losing Jandy on the big climb (that I thankfully remembered from last year). 

This race kicks my ass every time! I stopped at the aid station when I got to the road and hoped to run it in, but I was just so tired. I did a lot of run/walk (no set intervals). Knowing the last mile was all downhill helped. 

I ran the whole last mile for my fastest pace of the race. I saw Ben near the finish line and he was poised with his phone to take pictures. I remember shouting "I don't especially want my grimace coming into this last hill."

Definitely was disappointed with the time on this one. Out of all the years that I have run, this was actually my slowest. I have had a few big races recently, so trying to cut myself some slack. 

Official Time - 2:52:32

Overall Place - 387/453

Division Place - 39/53

Garmin Time - 2:52:42

Garmin Pace - 13:09

Elevation Gain - 1,333'

Mile 1 - 12:43

Mile 2 - 13:09

Mile 3 - 13:48

Mile 4 - 12:07

Mile 5 - 12:00

Mile 6 - 13:13

Mile 7 - 14:24

Mile 8 - 14:57

Mile 9 - 14:48

Mile 10 - 13:36

Mile 11 - 13:06

Mile 12 - 12:54

Mile 13 - 10:35

Mile 13.13 pace - 10:20

We found where to get our finisher mugs and I filled mine up with water. For some reason, I thought chocolate milk might taste good, but it was weird to drink. Saw Jandy coming in and ran to get pictures of her crossing, and Christina was just a few minutes behind her.

We stayed at the finish line for a bit talking. Somehow we all forgot to get the pancakes though. 

Thoughts:

• I have run this event a lot, and I will likely run it again next year. It's well organized, relatively inexpensive, and good swag.

Week in Review (October 29 - November 4)

Tuesday (13,378 steps) - Olive walk before going to work in the office. Quick StairMaster, climbing Big Ben.

Also did a full body workout and stretching. Apparently today was National Candy Corn Day. Unknowingly, I wore my candy cane shorts.

Took Olive for a walk when I got home from work. Enjoying fall and daylight while it is still around :(

Made burrito bowls for dinner and watched Murders - sadly, it was the season finale!

Wednesday (14,346 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. Strength training and stretching at lunch. Pretty sure we watched one of the last Friday the 13th movies, but won't get them all done before Halloween.

Thursday (18,260 steps) - Work from home. Went for my run and it seemed really sunny and hot. Felt pretty good though.

Temperatures were a bit cooler for Olive's walk. Since it was Halloween, she wore her costume.

We went to Kristin's for dinner and Trick or Shot. It was pretty chilly after the sun set and I had to convince Ben to get out of there around 7:45. It was nice sitting on the couch and watching another Friday the 13th.

Friday (14,669 steps) - Wash Park with Olive and the gang! Chilly, but a nice sunrise. I wore my new North Face puffer mittens and my hands didn't get crazy cold. (Of course winter isn't actually HERE yet, either).

When I got to the office, I set up my winter lights. NO, they are not CHRISTMAS lights. Backstory - I bought Ariel lights to decorate her door and dorm room for Halloween and was jealous, so I got some fun lights for my desk.

Meanwhile, Olive had to suffer through another boring day at work.

We went to Torchy's for dinner since we missed our standing Thursday visit because of Halloween. There was not a taco of the month so I tried the quesadilla plate, which was decent.

Took Olive for a walk when we got home. Sad to see the Halloween decorations are coming down so soon.

Saturday (39,769 steps) - Backcountry Wilderness half marathon, recap to come.

Took Olive for a walk when I got home while Ben went to the library to vote. (Long story, but our mail carrier didn't deliver his ballot, and apparently election mail cannot be forwarded, so he had to vote in person). Olive had her grooming appointment, so we had lunch next door at Four Noses while we waited for her to be finished. The BBQ was a new-to-us food truck and it was delicious!

Olive's haircut turned out great!

Maybe this was the night we started the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series?

Sunday (13,838 steps) - Stupid time change. We were up before our alarms. Got ready and headed out to get coffee and pick Ariel up. We headed over to Runners Roost in Golden for our end-of-year race team gettogether. 

I had promised no running (not that I wanted to anyway), so we planned on a walk/hike. Jeannene and Ollie joined us for a loop up/around South Table. 

There was coffee and snacks at the store, we planned to go out to breakfast so we only had the coffee. After the "party" was done we went to Table Mountain Inn for food. Thankfully they had an enclosed patio that Olive was allowed on.

Breakfast was DELICIOUS, and the portions were HUGE.

We dropped Ariel off at home and then headed back north. Ben went out to run some errands and I took Olive for a walk and then did some driving. Another Nightmare on Elm Street.

Monday (15,829 steps) - Work from home. It was CHILLY since we had received a small amount of snow overnight. I needed to run and walk Olive and put it off ALL MORNING. By the time I braved walking Olive it was nearly 11:30 and it was overcast and brisk. I got dressed for my run and nearly headed out completely overdressed. The sun came out and it wasn't bad at all. 

It seems the new trailhead at the library is nearly complete! I haven't run by here in a bit.

Planned to do some driving after work but only got one offer so I met Ben at Parry's for dinner.

We took Olive for a quick walk when we got home. Can definitely feel the cold weather rolling in, this was chilly! We watched "Nightmare on Elm Street 3" and I fell asleep at the end. Bed just after 9 pm?? I don't remember the time change affecting me so badly in years past.

Stats:

• 130,089 steps
• 23.34 miles run
• 18.67 miles walked
• 8 minutes of cardio
• 80 minutes of strength