Because Being Ordinary Is Boring

Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Week in Review (August 18 - August 24)

Tuesday (11,203 steps) - Peloton and walk with Ben and Olive before going to work. Gym at lunch for strength training and a treadmill walk.

Took Olive for another walk while Ben made tacos for dinner. More Marshals.

Wednesday (20,524 steps) - Long walk with Olive to the lake before work. We saw an adorable raccoon!

I was supposed to run "rolling hills" - but we don't really have those, at least not near the house. Decided to run at Rocky Flats, even though it is probably more flat than running by the house, but at least it was somewhere different! ZERO people out, which is always nice.

Took Olive for another walk after I ate lunch. Hot. After work I did a delivery waiting for Ben to get home. Dinner and more Marshals.

Thursday (16,992 steps) - Since I had to go into work (dumb mandatory meetings are on Thursdays for the next three weeks), I got up early for my run. I GUESS IT WAS FINE.

Olive walk before going to work. Headed into the office since I needed to go to a lunch meeting. Sneaked down to the gym for a quick strength workout. Meeting was boring, but the food was good.

Went for a walk afterwards. Ended up having some sort of last-minute things that caused me to get out a little late. ANNOYING. Torchy's for dinner and Marshals.

Friday (16,911 steps) - Hadn't really planned on going, but since I woke up in time, Olive and I went to Wash Park. She was slow and it was a little frustrating that she didn't seem to want to be keeping up with people. To the office. The new paralegal actually BROUGHT HER CAT to work. Sebastian was a gentleman and I never heard a peep from him the whole day. How could anyone NOT love this kitty??

Olive and I went for a late morning walk before it got too much warmer. We left after lunch to finish the day remote. Had to quickly pack everything for the weekend since I neglected to do it earlier in the week. We headed out around 2 pm and I worked in the truck (thank you, Starlink) and we were at Outer Range in time to finish out the workday. We ordered Ollie's for pickup and thankfully we were at the campsite during daylight to get everything set up - just in time for a little rain!

Ben got Olive her own puppy burger!

Took Olive for a walk around our campground loop - surprised at the number of vacant spots!

The rain held off and we had a nice night sitting outside

Probably went to bed about the same time we normally would at home.

Saturday (14,243 steps) - Up with the sun. Took Olive for a walk around the loop while Ben got coffee ready. Ben had mapped a route up by Peak 10 for us to do now that the road was open. We stopped at King Soopers and I ran in to buy some donuts and a coffee. The drive up took a bit longer than expected and Ben mentioned that it was more technical and challenging than he thought it would be.

We finally got to where we were going to start around noon? The start was just on the road, so it wasn't too bad and it was easy to follow.

You can see Ben's truck way down there

Still would like to know what this building is

We stopped less than a mile up to give Olive water - there was nothing for her drink up this high with how dry our winter was.

We got to the saddle at the base of Peak 10 and there was a group of Broncos that had driven up. We talked with them for a few minutes before heading up.

On top of the world, seemingly! It didn't take too long to get to the summit.

We took a minute to sit and give Olive more water. The plan was to continue on to Peak 9 and then head back to the truck. As we looked around it seemed that there was a good chance of getting stuck in some nasty weather, so we chose to start the descent down (at least to get off the peak) before deciding what we were going to do next.

You can definitely see the weather coming in - we were not sure what direction it was going to be going.

It was hard to see the trail on the way down and I was regretting that I was wearing my H1's and not something with better tread. It was incredibly steep and there was a lot of gravel and loose rocks that made it tough to navigate. Ben was leading and course-finding and I was bringing up the rear behind Olive.

We probably got halfway down when the weather took a turn and we decided to just continue down and not risk going up Peak 9 - especially with the risk of lightning/thunder.

Olive did really well! Until there was a section when I kicked a rock loose and a small avalanche of rocks came down behind her and then she was scared to go. Thankfully she continued on fine once I got ahead of her for a bit.

Olive really blends in

I was not having fun trying to get down this AT ALL.

Once we got down to the field/valley - I took a picture of what we just came down. This sucked.

We weren't really on a trail at this point and the terrain really reminded me a lot of Wales with marshy/boggy sections. I rolled my ankle, thankfully not too far from the truck. What a bust of a day, always an adventure.

Started to rain basically right when we got back to the truck and then it was time to head back down. Thanks to the turn in the weather we only saw one vehicle on the way down. The highlight of the drive was seeing this cute guy!

On to Outer Range for lunch and meet up with Lee. Someone was very exhausted after our excursion!

Very quick trip to Safeway to pick up some food for dinner and more ice. Back to the campsite and we spent the afternoon/early evening under the canopy. We took Olive for a walk around the loop before the sun set. Another gorgeous evening!

Ben cooked the hot dogs for dinner. It was raining on and off and finally I got cold so decided it was time for bed.

Sunday (17,836 steps) - Somehow we slept until almost 8?? Took Olive for a walk around the loop while Ben got coffee ready. With checkout being at 11 we didn't think we would have enough time for a hiking adventure. Ben said he would get the loading up started while I went for a run on the perimeter trails. I had mapped out a 2.7ish mile loop, but I was feeling good once I was out there and ended up doing closer to 4 miles.

By the time I got back Ben pretty much had everything done. We dawdled for a bit since we had about a half hour until we needed to leave. Stopped at Outer Range. I got a delicious latte and we both got breakfast burritos. Missed our window to avoid traffic and it was well over two hours of suffering to get home. We moved quickly to get everything unloaded. Up to 4 Noses for happy hour. I honestly can't even remember the last time I was there - I think it has been months. Still the same meh NA. I reminded Ben to not renew my mug club since I'm at many months since I even had beer last! We stopped at Costco to pick up a pizza for dinner and it was a total cluster. Took Olive for a walk before watching the newest Reacher and starting in on season 3 of Lioness.

Monday (18,623 steps) - Went for my run early since it was supposed to be sweltering, AGAIN.

It was... fine. Clocked in and then the internet went out not too long after, so I took Olive for a walk while I was waiting for that to resolve. Ben and I took Olive out for another walk at lunch. Ben ordered in Cupbop for dinner.

Finished up all the available Lioness episodes.

Stats:

116,332 steps
19.13 miles run
16.63 miles walked
30 minutes of cardio
50 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Thursday, August 20, 2026

Week in Review (August 11 - August 17)

Tuesday (13, 375 steps) - Peloton and Olive walk (with Ben) before going to work. Realized on my drive to work that I had forgotten to grab my breakfast, so shortly after getting to the office I walked to Target to pick up some oatmeal. I guess it's been a while since I've been on that end of the mall - it was almost unrecognizable! Gym at lunch for some strength training and treadmill walk.

Did a delivery on the way home and then took Olive for a walk. Ben got Panda for dinner, yum! Started our next show, Dutton Ranch.

Wednesday (18,596 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. Went for a quick walk before my MANDATORY lunch meeting. I can't believe I have to give up so many of my lunch hours over the next month. Lunch meeting was blah. I planned another walk later in the afternoon, but it started to rain so I just came back to the office. Went to Runners Roost in Louisville for my run. Somehow, I got confused on the way to the bike path, missed a turn and had to cut through a parking lot to get to where I needed to be. Not sure what was going on, but that was weird.

Still walking the hills and I was pretty sore from Tuesday's cross training, so it was slow, but not bad. Went back to the store after, but didn't know anyone so I didn't stick around. Dinner and Dutton Ranch.

Thursday (10,816 steps) - Long walk with Olive to the lake before work. Peloton, Olive walk and upper body workout during lunch. Ben was delayed at work so I did a delivery before meeting him at Torchy's. Olive walk when I got back home.

Friday (11,266 steps) - Walk with Olive before we went to work. With it being a little cooler we were able to go to lunch at a normal time for our walk.

Second afternoon walk that we timed perfectly to miss rainstorm.

Little Caesars for dinner (yum) and more Dutton Ranch.

Saturday (30,189 steps) - Very early walk with Olive. Ben and I were volunteering at the Westminster Trail Race at Standley Lake, and I had picked the aid station closest to the house. We showed up at 6 am and... no one else was there.

The captain and other volunteer were both no shows. Luckily Ben and I have both volunteered a ton and we were able to get the aid station set up with ease. Weirdly, even with 50k being the longest distance we didn't do much other than give people water and coke. Most of the food was left untouched. I was also signed up to be a course sweep. Ben took the other spot since the other person that was supposed to help didn't show up. Jim dropped me off at the other aid station so I could start and try to avoid the rain. Spoiler, I didn't avoid the rain and the field area was SO muddy. Also, it is beyond me how anyone got off course in this race - I must've picked up a zillion picket signs and flags.

Got back to the aid station and Ben met me to finish the sweeping. We finished up at the middle school and then ran back home. Ariel had been volunteering at the finish line but finished up earlier and was hanging out with Olive. We decided to go to Corona's for a late lunch/early dinner. YUM!!

Maybe we finished Dutton Ranch?

Sunday (13,161 steps) - I was cleaning up the house and noticed that Robin was not looking well.

When Ben got back from picking up Dutch we took her back to the ER Vet. She has ANOTHER abscess.

This one was inside her mouth and was pretty gross also - we were there almost two hours while they treated her. Once we got home I gave her a snack and she ran away to hide for the rest of the day - kind of normal when she isn't feeling great.

This time she got half her jaw shaved :(

Ben and I took Olive to Boulder for a hike.

Then on to Runners Roost so I could pick up a pair of Mount to Coast shoes since they are finally in stock. Stopped at Rails End for a drink, the jewelry store for my semi-annual ring inspection. Mod Market for dinner.

Found out that Reacher had a few new episodes and we binged all three of them.

Monday (20,472 steps) - Walk to the lake with Olive before work. Went for my run at lunch. Still walking the hills. This felt hard, mainly because temps are back up.

Another Olive walk. After work was over Ben and I went to Costco and picked up some groceries and a pizza for dinner. Started Marshals, kinda meh about it, but at least it is only one season for now.