Because Being Ordinary Is Boring

Thursday, September 3, 2026

Week in Review (August 25 - August 31)

Tuesday (13,772 steps) - Peloton and Olive walk before going to work. Gym at lunch for StairMaster, some strength training and a treadmill hike.

Another Olive walk after dinner and Criminal Minds?

Wednesday (29,707 steps) - Took a random work from home day since Joyce is still out. Took Olive for a walk to the lake before clocking in and another short walk at lunch. Had a workout, so went to North Table so I would have a hill for repeats. Thankfully it was a bit cooler than expected, but the repeats were REALLY tough - I should've picked a less steep hill!

Drove down the street to the bagel shop for a snack and to finish out the workday. Then headed over to Apex where I took a short walk before my volunteer shift of trail work started. I partnered with a gal named Sarah who hadn't done maintenance before, weather was cool and I was quickly reminded of how sore I get doing this!

Ben had ordered in Mod Market for dinner, and we barely had time to sit before it was time for bed already.

LONG DAY.

Thursday (20,999 steps) - Thanks to these eternally annoying meetings at work, I had to get up to run in the morning. I guess the run was fine, and I was lucky that I woke up before my alarm went off and started early because somehow it was longer than what I mapped out. Actually not bad.

Olive walk before driving to work. Waited a little longer to go to the gym in the morning for a quick workout in hopes of avoiding my boss, but NO, ran into her again in the locker room. Easy, quick full body workout. Stupid meeting at lunch.

Quick walk after around town and then took Olive for a walk when I got home. Took Robin to the vet after that for a follow-up. I wasn't sure if her abscess was healing well.

Since I had actually made an appointment we didn't have to see an ER vet, so it a). wasn't as much money, and b). we seemingly got more proactive advice. This doc seemed to think she was NOT too old for anesthesia/dental procedure and since they actually had an opening the next day for surgery, I snagged it. Unfortunately we would get a call a few hours later saying that they had messed up scheduling but could we do it Saturday instead? Usual trip to Torchy's for dinner.

Criminal Minds?

Friday (10,935 steps) - With Joyce being out and me having already told co-workers that Robin had a surgery scheduled, I decided to take another work from home day. Took Olive for a walk to the lake before logging in.

Another walk at lunch. Panda Express for dinner and another walk with Olive. Watched the livestream of UTMB!

Saturday (38,835 steps) - Up early to get Robin to the vet for her dental procedure.

Took Olive for a long walk while Ben went to Dutch Bros to get us much needed coffee.

We listened to the livestream of UTMB so we could hear/see the female winner cross. Inspirational! Up to Centennial Cone for the activity of the day.

We got the call from the vet probably 10 minutes into the run and had to stop to talk to him on speaker on Ben's phone since we had minimal service. Turns out the issue is NOT her teeth (he was going to take two out, but they were not the main issue). Apparently, she has a tumor on her jaw and he suspects it is bone cancer. With her age and other medical issues there isn't much to be done other than keep her comfortable. Did not ever think that would be the problem, poor Robin!

At some point Ben and I got separated, he had been having some cramping on/off, but we had planned for it, so I continued on.

Finished the loop and then went back to get him and finish up together. A relatively strong 15ish miles for me! We called the vet again and confirmed that by the time we got back to town that she would be ready for us to pick her up.

After we brought her home we went to Corona's for lunch. The rest of the evening was spent taking care of Robin and watching UTMB, then some Criminal Minds.

Sunday (16,765 steps) - Olive walk while getting some things done around the house before going up to Boulder for our activity of the day.

Costco and binge watched "Death of a Pastor's Wife."

Monday (21,102 steps) - Olive walk to the lake before clocking in for the day. Went for my run late morning before it got too hot. Not terrible, and they rangers are closing more trails :(

Another walk to the lake at lunch with Olive. Ben made dinner and more Criminal Minds.

Stats:

152,115 steps
33.87 miles run
20.36 miles walked
40 minutes of cardio
40 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

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.