Week in Review (September 14 - September 20)

Tuesday (5,133 steps) - Work in the office. Nothing, other than doing 20 minutes of upper body at the gym during lunch.

Wednesday (12,407 steps) - Work in the office. Headed to Boulder after work for a loop. This was an interesting run as there seemed to be some sort of "unofficial" race/event happening. I kept getting passed by people that had some type of climbing gear with them? I have no idea, but it was interesting. Pretty night!

Really enjoying cooler temperatures (although it was still relatively warm) and the changing leaves! Stopped at the store for a beer before heading home.

Thursday (8,995 steps) - Work from home. Took Pika for a walk at lunch. Pictures tell me that I met Ben at 4 Noses for happy hour, but I really don't remember this?

Friday (18,436 steps) - Up stupid early to get a run in. I had 4 miles on schedule and went to Green Mountain again. REALLY glad that I last minute put a long sleeve top in the car - it was REALLY COLD and pretty windy. The run itself actually went really well.

Finished up the run and met people at Wash Park for our walk. It was STILL cold, but at least this time I had a hoodie in my car. I did spend most of the morning so cold that I actually didn't change out of my running clothes until close to lunch time. Woof.

Saturday (34,394 steps) - Big day! Ben and I were up early and out the door before 5:00 am. We had plans to run a "new to us" loop, Hall Ranch, in Lyons before heading into town for Ariel's cross country meet. We found the trail head with no problems and headed out. It was a bit chilly, but not terrible. We saw a GORGEOUS sunrise.

A couple miles in and it looked like there was someone driving on the fire road. Turns out, it was a ranger, coming out to tell us that "we need to have a talk about park hours," then proceeding to inform us that he had already left a ticket on our vehicle. Ugh.... definitely put a damper on the rest of the run.

The trail was pretty, but a tad more technical than I expected, which made for slow-going some of the time. The big excitement was seeing a bear! He was too far away to get a picture of, but we watched him move through the trees, across the trail and then towards the road. Neat!

We finished up, actually a bit quicker than I anticipated, and arrived at the car to find an EIGHTY-FIVE DOLLAR TICKET. OMG. I'm actually going to plead ignorance on this a bit, because I could SWEAR that the parks near us are open an hour before sunrise and an hour after sunset, although some trails actually don't have posted hours. I could NOT believe this! Especially after we talked to the ranger and were apologetic about it. Not happy.

Anyway, we headed into town to the meet, and we actually found parking that wasn't too far away. We arrived in plenty of time to watch A run. This was Ben's first time at a meet since Covid, so he hadn't seen the crazy mass starts. Ariel ran pretty well, but she was a bit disappointed with running slower than last week, although she was not alone, all the other kids ran slower times as well. 

It was close to 1:00 before we headed home. Ben and I took Pika for a walk, then later in the afternoon took the girls to Yogurtland for a team celebration.  While they were doing THAT, we went to Luki and met up with Tyler for happy hour.

Sunday (7,689 steps) - I had a rest day or optional hike on schedule. Since I'd had a few early mornings, I opted to for the rest day. No recollection of most of the day, other than taking Pika for a walk. With the weather getting colder I made sure to get some pictures of A's sunflowers before the frost kills them all.

We watched "Kate" on Netflix, which was pretty good!

Monday (4,179 steps) - Work from home. Didn't take Pika for a walk, I did my 75 minute (!!) Peloton ride instead. It was a boring ride, and seemed a LOT longer than others I have done. I watched "Prey" on Netflix, which was semi-interesting, but not enough to not make this the longest ride ever.... Nothing else?

Stats:

• 91,233 steps
• 17.6 miles run
• 75 minutes of cardio
• 20 minutes of strength training

Week in Review (September 7 - September 13)

Tuesday (5,075 steps) - Work in the office. Did a 20 minute upper body video at lunch, and apparently that's all. I did get a surprise flower delivery from Ben at work, that was exciting!

Wednesday (14,498 steps) - Work in the office. Quick 10 minute arms video at lunch. After work I went to Boulder. After a few days off from running my ankle was feeling better (still swollen), but I decided to do an out and back on Bear and skip anything technical. 

Stopped at Roost to pick up a pair of shoes and grab a beer before heading home.

Thursday (18,687 steps) - Up early for a run at Apex! Hiked up the climbs and then took it easy on the way down. Saw a bunch of turkeys (did you know that is called a "rafter?"), which was neat! 

Worked from home and had my sports massage in the afternoon. After work Ben and I went to a new (to us) nearby brewery, Luki. It was pretty good!

Friday (18,492 steps) - Met Kristin at North Table at 5:00 am to do a small loop. I was really surprised at the number of bikes that were already out! On the weekends it's rare to see bikes before the sun is up, and we saw 4-5 groups! 

Headed to Wash Park for a walk with the gang (although it was a small group this week) before working in the office. After work I drove Ariel and a friend to the Homecoming football game. 

Saturday (49,007 steps) - Dumbest thing I've done in a while. Up CRAZY early to get to Green Mountain for a bunch of hill repeats since I was supposed to get a lot of vertical in for the day. I still was trying to be careful with my ankle, plus, I needed to be in Littleton before 10:00 for Ariel's cross country meet. I started just before 4:00 am (omg) and it actually wasn't that bad until the sun came up. It had been cooler in the other mornings I'd been out this week, but it was already over 70 at that hour, so I'm glad I had short sleeves. I was instructed to not do more than 18 miles, so I stopped at 17.6 and just under 5,000' of climbing. woof.

Traffic was not bad heading south, although once I got closer to the school I realized I wouldn't be able to get closer, so I turned around and found a residential street to park on. Got there right as the Sweepstakes girls were starting, Emma ended up running a 5K in 17:23 and getting 2nd! Found Ariel and sat on the curb nearby waiting for her start. Saw Amy from Roost - she was one of the bike leads. Was able to hopscotch the course a bit and find A. She looked great the first time I saw her, a tad miserable when I saw her at the finish, but she had stuck with Gracie the whole time. Not a PR this time, but still sub 24 minutes on a VERY hot morning.

Picked up Torchy's for me and the girls and took Pika for a short walk. Drove Gracie home, then Ariel's friend came over to finish getting ready for Homecoming. Took them to buy some flowers and then dropped them off at the school - at least they humored me and let me take some pictures!

Sunday (31,197 steps) - Set an alarm, but not TOO early so that I could get my run in. Went to White Ranch and planned on a 10 mile loop. They have been doing some trail work since I was last there and I made a wrong turn (or two) and there is no phone service out there so I wasn't really able to figure out where to go... I had to backtrack a bit to get the climbing that I needed. I wasn't supposed to do more than 10 and ended up with just under 12. Oops. 

But I did hit my 10,000' of climbing for the week, so I was proud of that. 

Showered and took Pika for a walk. Ben took Ariel driving in the afternoon. When they got back, Ben and I went to New Terrain for happy hour. 

Pizza and a movie before bed.

Monday (8,705 steps) - Work from home. Took Pika for a walk at lunch and then did my hour Peloton ride after I got off. Nothing else?

Stats:

• 145,661 steps
• 44.09 miles run
• 60 minutes of cardio
• 35 minutes of strength training

Week in Review (August 31 - September 6)

Tuesday (9,580 steps) - Work in the office in the morning. We were not able to find someone that would be able to walk Pika at lunch, so I headed home early afternoon to take her out. 

It was nice only being in the office in the morning. 30 minute Peloton ride after work.

Wednesday (15,452 steps) - Work in the office. Went to the gym at lunch and did a core video, then an upper body one. I liked both! After work I headed up to Boulder. My running goal this week is a vert, so I planned the old run club loop with an addition of going past Shadow Canyon up Bear for more climbing. 

Went to the store after finishing for a quick beer and snack and the New Balance raffle, which I sadly did not win.

Thursday (14,640 steps) - I opted to sleep in instead of getting up early for a run. Instead, I decided I would take Pika to North Table to hike/run a small loop at lunch. The run was ok, although Pika had no interest in running any of the downhills, so it took longer than I thought. Then, I accidentally locked my keys in my car! Of course Ben was working south and Tyler (who has house keys) was in meetings so I had to call roadside assistance. Other than it taking a long time, I was able to get back in the car and home relatively quickly. What a pain.

Friday (21,010 steps) - Up CRAZY early. Went to Green Mountain for a quick jaunt up the fire road before meeting the group at Wash Park for our walk. 

Coffee before heading into work. We actually got an early release, which was nice. Ariel had a cross country meet in Broomfield, so the early release was just enough time that I was able to get up there, parked and find the best spectating location before her run.  She ran AMAZING and snagged a new PR!

Headed home to watch a bit of TV before meeting Ben at Torchy's for a beer before heading home to have dinner, presents, and a bit too much to drink with Tyler.

Saturday (30,899 steps) - This morning was rough. Out the door later than planned and really didn't feel great. I can't party like I'm 21 anymore. I had 12-14 miles on schedule, and I'd actually mapped out a new route in Boulder that I thought looked "fun." I had some issues pretty early on with not getting notifications of where to turn, and I was pretty sure I was doing the route in the wrong direction, but I was wasting time constantly pulling up the map - which didn't really help since it didn't have mile markers. Next problem came when I realized I had mapped a section that also included a closed trail, so I had to reroute on the fly... which meant going up Fern to Bear Peak again. I clearly had forgotten everything from last week, none of it even looked remotely familiar. I was pleased that I was moving quicker, but then I rolled my ankle pretty badly (twice) coming down Shadow Canyon, which I was NOT pleased with. 

I picked up Tokyo Joe's for lunch on my way home. We drove Gracie home and then stopped at Yogurtland, yum! Ariel and I watched part of Fear Street, which we both liked.

Sunday (14,716 steps) - Went to Eldorado to finish up my vert goal for the weekend, but thanks to starting REALLY late (11!) there was no parking so I had to drive around between two lots looking for a space, which took more time than I would have liked. Thankfully my ankle held up, and I finished my goal. 

I met Kim at Rails End for a beer, and Ben joined us later. 

We ended up having Kim over for dinner and beers, which was fun. We got to meet her new puppy, Apollo, who is CRAZY.

Monday (13,780 steps) - Ariel had practice at Matthews Winter at 8:30, so after I dropped her off I went for a hike at Apex.

About half of the kids ended up getting lost on the run and I had to pick them up at Dinosaur Ridge. I took Ariel and Gracie out to breakfast at a nearby place for breakfast burritos. I had a Peloton ride on schedule, so I did my hour ride, then we took Pika for a walk. We finally saw an owl after a VERY long time of not seeing any.

More Fear Street and Dexter before bed.

Stats:

• 120,077 steps
• 29.92 miles run / 7,011' vertical
• 90 minutes of cardio
• 25 minutes of strength training