Week in Review (April 9 - April 15)

Tuesday (17,572 steps) - Work in the office. Ariel had a soccer game - and got to play a lot! 

Took Olive for a walk when I got home, then Ben and I went to get dinner at Salsa's. 

So much damage to fences with the recent wind storms

Wednesday (15,269 steps) - Work in the office. Did a "yoga for runners" video at lunch that was pretty good and picked up a salad at Mad Greens so I would have something to eat for dinner. Had to leave work at 4 so that I had time to walk to Union Station and get to the airport in time for my flight. My bags were so heavy, the walk was not enjoyable. 

Took the train to the airport. Was upset to see that the bag drop I like to use after getting off the train was closed. I had to lug all my crap through the airport to the Southwest desk to drop. Security was a breeze. I ate my salad and walked around until it was time to board. My flight had been delayed by about a half hour. Wasn't happy about that since it was already a really late flight. I got an aisle seat but ended up with a morbidly obese person sitting in the middle. The flight was uncomfortable and turbulent. I watched "Anyone but You" - a predictable rom com. 

Took a bit to deplane and then had to collect my bag. I called the hotel I had booked to find out if I needed to schedule a pick up since it was so late. The guy told me that if I went out a certain door there would be a flight crew somewhere and I could catch the shuttle. By the time I had my bag and went outside I didn't see anyone so I called again. He seemed super confused and kept asking if I was sure I went out the correct door. I'm like, sir, it's basically midnight and I see no one. He says they must have just left and it'll be 20 minutes. Annoying, but ok.

After THIRTY minutes I still am standing there. I call again and this time I get a female who seems very confused, also asking the same questions "are you with the flight crew?" and "are you sure you're at the right door?" and then tells me they only have one driver, and it should be there soon. I do see finally, a flight crew and ask if they are staying at the Hilton, and sure enough, maybe 10 minutes later we have a shuttle. The drive is less than 13 minutes so the fact I was out there over 45 minutes is total crap. I dropped off my stuff in the room and picked up a beer from the front to sit and relax for a bit.

Thursday (12,030 steps) - Didn't sleep as late as I would have liked, but I slept fine. I used the time to finalize all my drop bags while I puttered around.

I had a shakeout run on schedule and had mapped out a run downtown that would take me to a park loop. HUMID HUMID HUMID and lightly misting the whole time. SO HOT. I also got stuck at almost every light - reminded me of Denver running for sure.

Only ran for about a half hour and was drenched from both sweat and drizzle. Took a shower and then decided I might as well get everything  I still had about an hour until I had to be out of the room, but since I had to go back to the airport to get my rental I figured I'd just head into the lobby. When I asked about the shuttle the girl at the desk seemed confused. "Did you schedule one?" No? But you have 13 floors and offer a shuttle and it's before checkout time so.... Then she proceeds to tell me it'll be TWO HOURS for one. I'm about ready to call a Lyft and she tells me they found someone. (So for anyone thinking that the Hilton that offers an airport shuttle in Birmingham will be a breeze - it's not, what a fucking pain in the ass this was).

Rental car pickup was pretty easy, although I am not used to having the car selected for me! I ended up with some sort of Kia sedan that I'm not even sure was cleaned when I picked up as there was still some trash in there. Since my expensive hotel didn't have free breakfast, I mapped to a brewery where I could have a beer and some lunch. The beer wasn't great, but the food was.

I stopped in Oxford at the TJ Maxx (to just look, and ended up buying a few things) and Target and Publix to get some food for dinner, breakfast, water and beer before driving to the Cheaha State Park where I was staying. I was told that there were no food options in the park, hence the shopping. 

Arrived at the park to check in around 3:00 and was informed that there was no power in the park but it should be on by 8. IN FIVE HOURS??? I have frozen food and warm beer! Thankfully, there was an employee that said she would bring by a bag of ice for me so I could keep things cold until the power came on. I headed right to the Bald Rock Lodge in hopes of dropping off bags, but didn't see anyone. Decided to walk around for a few minutes - foggy and weather coming in.

There was nothing to do but sit in my room and leave the door open to cool it down. None of the windows opened and it was really stuffy. Thankfully the power came on much earlier than they had thought - maybe right before 6 pm? The ice had kept my beer cold at least.

I kept myself amused watching Law & Order - and kept hoping the weather would clear up so I could walk around, but it didn't. Stayed foggy, rainy and windy all night.

Finally decided to go to bed pretty early,  maybe around 9:30. Thankfully, I slept pretty good.

Friday (80,911 steps) - Southern States 200

Saturday (135,721 steps) - Southern States 200

Sunday (97,442 steps) - Southern States 200

Monday (97,947 steps) - Southern States 200

Stats:

• 456,892 steps
• 208 miles run
• 0 minutes of cardio
• 10 minutes of strength

Week in Review (April 2 - April 8)

Tuesday (17,510) - Peloton before work in the office. Did my short cross training and left at lunch since Joyce is on vacation. Finally stopped at REI on the way home to do my returns that I have been stockpiling since October. Ariel and I had lunch and then took Olive for a walk. The landscaper came (early) to mark the yard for sod. (As an aside, is working with every contractor on earth the most frustrating thing??) Starting my packing and then did some driving after work. It was actually a pretty good night, which was surprising since the weather is actually really nice. Ben and I took Olive for a walk. Watched the finale of "Wednesday" and really hope season 2 comes out soon, although I did some research and it seems it will be a while.

Wednesday (20,171 steps) - Work in the office. Took a late lunch to drive to Arvada to get my run in before Ariel's soccer game. First "warm" day in a long time and I inhaled my first bug of the season. 

As for A's game - THEY FINALLY SCORED AND WON!! 

Thursday (20,844 steps) - Work from home and started race packing. 

The sprinkler guy was supposed to come over and start work, so I did my run early and then walked Olive (and the canal is filled for the summer!). 

Ariel and I went to Costco for lunch and a few groceries before he called to say he wouldn't be coming by. (UGH, CONTRACTORS). Ariel was playing in the home JV game, so I stopped by the school to watch after I got off work. 

Friday (20,547 steps) - Wash Park with the gang. Work in the office. Finalized all my pace charts and cheat sheets for Southern States. Met Ben at Parry's for a beer.

Saturday (18,613 steps) - Renewed our Boulder parking passes and met Larry and Terri at Doudy Draw for a run. I only had a few miles on schedule, so they had already done an hour before we got there. It was windy, but not actually as bad as I feared it would be. 

Thankful to have it done, however. Went to Roost so Ben could get  new shoes, then got breakfast at Mudrocks. Delicious!! 

Had planned to do some driving but nothing exciting was going on. Ben and I went to Costco to pick up dinner and then 4 Noses for a beer. Wind was absolutely insane all night.

Sunday (13,358 steps) - Unfortunately, still windy. We went to South Mesa so Ben could run the big loop and I had plans to hike the small loop with Olive. 

Wind in most areas wasn't that bad. Dropped Olive off and then went to Torchy's for lunch. Delicious! I did some driving for a few hours, then Ben and I went to Parry's for National Beer Day. 

Monday (18,404 steps) - Work from home. Did my run early in the morning because the sprinkler guy had said he would be there at 11. 

Spoiler, he was 45 minutes late. I did enjoy getting my run out of the way, however, and thankfully it was not crazy windy. Temperatures were perfect for running in a tee and shorts. Woo! Landscapers dropped off our timber, sprinkler guy did the inside stuff with the water lines (or whatever he was doing). I didn't have glasses to watch the eclipse.

Did some driving after work, Ariel and I got haircuts and we went to pick up Panda for dinner since Ben is gone on a work trip. 

We watched an incredibly cheesy Swedish horror movie (our favorite!) and in bed early.

Stats:

• 129,447 steps
• 20.3 miles run
• 20 minutes of cardio
• 20 minutes of strength

Week in Review (March 26 - April 1)

Tuesday (13, 125 steps) - Overslept a bit because I had forgotten to change my alarm back after not getting up early last week. Still squeezed in a 30 minute Peloton ride before going into the office. Got my strength training done at lunch. Headed over to the NAAC right after work for Ariel's soccer game (which they lost, again).

Wednesday (23,272 steps) - Work in the office. Left work early to head up to Louisville for run club and my workout. Kristin and Larry joined me, which was fun. Took Olive for a walk when I got home.

Thursday (21,841 steps) - Work from home. Went for my run - it wasn't too bad. Bugs are already out. Took Olive for a walk. Ariel and I went to Costco to pick up pizza for lunch. Met with the sprinkler guy so we could get a quote. THEN, went to yet another soccer game (which they also lost).

Friday (17,545 steps) - Wash Park with the gang. Work in the office. Ariel messaged to say that she was going to be playing in the JV game as there were too many kids not able to play. Her game started at 4:30 and by the time I got there it was halftime, and they had already lost. Sigh. 

Saturday (16,684 steps) - Spent a bit of time trying to decide where to do our long run. Took Olive out for a walk before we went down to Deer Creek. I don't go there often because it's so far away, and it had been probably a few years since I had been there last. The lot, thankfully, was nowhere near full. The lower... half mile was fine. 

Then we started to get some snow slopes and mud. Before we knew it - just plain SNOW.

I kept hoping that if we got up high enough that we would get out of the shade and the snow would be more melted. The answer was NO, that never happened.

Most of the trail was at least knee deep and got up to the bottom hem of my shorts in areas. At best, we were barely trudging through the snow at 200 mile pace. It was definitely some type 2 fun.

Our legs were definitely getting cut up from the snow/ice and Ben was losing interest. I agreed to turn around after we got to the trail junction and it was somehow even DEEPER snow.

We saw a few groups of people coming up the trail while we were going down and we were informed that this was the first day the trails had been open since before the big snow weeks ago. There was only one set of prints on our way up, so we were basically breaking trail. Made sense. It actually was a bit better on the way down, and we took the switchbacks back to the lot instead of going back the way we came. Just over 4 miles done, with a real feel of 8-10 miles. Stopped at Parry's on the way home for lunch.

Took Olive for another walk when we got home.

Sunday (24,616 steps) - Thankfully, we had planned our run beforehand. I had told Greg I would do a longer run since Deer Creek had been a bust. We went out to South Table. Sun came out and the weather really did end up being perfect for running.

The only part of the route that seemed to hold water was on Old Quarry - it looked long and treacherous, but it was only a couple inches deep. Yelled at a few bikers for creating a new trail to ride around.

Also, randomly, a guy stopped us and asked if we had been at Deer Creek yesterday. He had talked to us then as well. We were hungry (and I weirdly had forgotten to eat breakfast), so we went to Torchy's to get some food.

Took Olive for a long walk. She was as festive as she could get for Easter, wearing her bee outfit. 

I went out and did some deliveries for a bit, then we went to 4 Noses for a beer and picked up dinner.

We are currently watching "Wednesday," which we both really like.

Monday (18,529 steps) - Work from home. We had all been awoken in the middle of the night by a freak hail/rainstorm. Took Olive for a walk while it still looked relatively dry out. I went for my run right after, and just before I turned to head back home - I noticed the sky looked a bit sketchy:

I got near the library and started to get hit with some light rain and hail. By the time I got home it really started to come down. I'm glad I was done already, because it definitely got worse. 

Did some driving after work and then took Olive for a walk. It had appeared that the rain had diminished, but it had NOT. We were all soaked after just being out for 10 minutes. Spring coming in with a vengeance! 

Stats:

• 135,612 steps
• 27.13 miles run
• 30 minutes of cardio
• 45 minutes of strength

Week in Review (March 19 - March 25)

Tuesday (12,786 steps) - Work in the office. Since Ariel is in France, I had to hire a dog walker for the first time in a VERY long time (like probably since October?). Olive is definitely still fearful of "new" people in the house, so I had to harness/leash her before I left. Isn't she adorable/pitiful?

Work in the office. I had to work through my lunch so I could go home and start my colonoscopy prep. Wooo. Took Olive for a walk and settled in for a long evening.

Wednesday (10,737 steps) - Up early to do the rest of my prep. Risked taking Olive for a very short walk before Ben drove me to my appointment.

The prep was definitely the worst part. I think from the time I checked in until the time I was discharged was less than 90 minutes. Ben and I decided to go to Parry's for lunch - our first time having the lunch special!

Once I got home I took a nap and then we took Olive for a longer walk.

Thursday (22,629 steps) - Random PTO day! I had initially planned to be in Kansas running a race, but cancelled back in December. Since I have unlimited PTO, I figured I'd just keep my days off. Did some reading, then headed to Dino Ridge to do my hill workout. 

I sent Mo a text when I started my cooldown and we agreed to meet up for coffee near her house. 

Not working is really the greatest. Took Olive for a walk when I got home and did some deliveries. 

Friday (16,925 steps) - Decided last minute to get up and go for the walk at Wash Park with Olive (even though I didn't have to work!) Took Olive for another long walk at lunch. Squeezed in an upper body Peloton video so I didn't break my streak. Did quite a few deliveries and met up with Ben at Parry's for dinner.

Saturday (30,480 steps) - We met up with Larry and Terri for our "fun" loop. Terri had hurt her back, so she was staying off the technical trails. The lower trails weren't too bad.

As we got into the more shaded areas we encountered ice, snow and of course - mud.

Navigating Fern turned out to be a challenge as the trail was lost for a bit. But we finally made it - wooo.

Once we made it back down to Mesa, it was sunny and not crowded at all.

The rest of the loop went pretty well. I think coming down Bear was probably the worst trail conditions. I am not sure why, but I was also really fatigued and felt sore. Residual stuff from the colonoscopy? Who knows...

We went to Mudrocks for food and a beer. I got a delicious mac and cheese plate. 

Hurried home to take Olive for a walk and discovered she had a poop accident in Ariel's bathroom. Would have preferred not on the new tile, but still way better than on carpet. Poor puppy!

Sunday (36,495 steps) - Tried to sleep in, failed. Took Olive for a walk before we headed out for our run. We opted to run Coal/Rock Creek. Blah. The temperatures were actually really good, but this trail has pretty much hit it's limit of us running it. It actually went much better than I expected though. We stopped for protein smoothies at Ziggi's and Ben got a beer at 4 Noses before we headed home for showers and another dog walk. We decided we were hungry and went to Salsa's for a late lunch/early dinner - accidentally crashing a birthday party.

We had a few hours to kill before we needed to pick up Ariel at the airport and were watching TV when the blizzard rolled in. It started as graupel and we thought it was hail at first it was coming down so hard. Olive did not enjoy it with the wind and icy snow.

Tracking her flight, she was going to be on time, but we were nervous with the weather, so we went out early and had a beer at Danico down the street while we waited for her to get her bag.

Conditions had deteriorated quite a bit by the time we drove home. Thankfully Ben drove!

Monday (17,232 steps) - Work from home! Took Olive for a walk and went to lunch at Torchy's with Ariel. I put off my run as long as I could before heading out for an hour of cold. Seriously, it was maybe the 5th time this year I've had to run in tights - we've had a pretty mild winter overall. I was supposed to run longer but just didn't have it in me. Blah. Did some deliveries after work.

Stats:

• 147,284 steps
• 34.65 miles run
• 0 minutes of cardio
• 10 minutes of strength