Week in Review (October 20 - October 26)

Tuesday (20,252 steps) - Yay for no HIIT again! Arms with some very short cardio intervals was a great way to start the day. With A feeling better we went to the gym, where I ran a super speedy (for me) and not so awful 3ish miles (in my new INKnBURN zombie shirt, which I love). With A finally hungry and craving food we went to Chili's for dinner, using the $20 gift certificates we had. 77 cents for dinners isn't bad. I was able to squeeze in this week's episode of the Walking Dead while A was on the phone with her dad and getting her homework done. Can I just say... WOW.
Wednesday (17,260 steps) - Core and cardio intervals. One would think that a 21 minute video that consists of a warm up, abs and a cool down would be easy. FALSE. I have NO abs and my muscles are very atrophied, so this was a hard one! A had to be at school early this morning to prepare for her awards ceremony. She got a "mathematician" award (because she is more than a year ahead of where she should be), was recognized for her participation in Arvada Harvest Festival (so she was one of the students who led the "Firebird Five" chant), AND she spoke with her Environmental Club about ways to save energy at the school. Whew.

Easy 3 mile jog in the basement while A finished up her homework and dinner was cooking.
Thursday (22,717 steps) - A blissfully short HIIT video followed by a quick butt and thigh video in the morning. 4 mile treadmill run after work that wasn't great, but wasn't terrible.
Friday (17,238 steps) - An upper body video that I really liked. Have no recollection of the rest of the day.
Saturday (25,688 steps) - Delicious breakfast at home with A (she makes a mean omelette). We went to one of her friend's soccer games before heading home for a small lunch before the Monster Dash.

A had invited her friend to spend the night, so we went home, showered, had a small dinner and then picked her friend up. Went to the store to buy something for them to bake. We attempted to watch Zombieland, but A was freaked out so we ended up watching Pitch Perfect instead. They went to bed pretty early.
Sunday (50,738 steps) - Up EARLY. Like just after 4 am so I could do my long run on the treadmill. I ran this RIDICULOUSLY slow. Therefore, it took a hundred hours to run my 18 miles. Especially once the girls woke up and needed to be entertained. I helped them make breakfast and while I finished up my run they watched Harry Potter and played monopoly.

Her mom picked her up, A and I had lunch, and then we met up with friends for the "Boo at the Zoo." Holy cow. It was so crowded. The kids were way more interested in candy than animals. It was a LONG day.

Went home, had a bowl of the turkey chili I had simmering in the crockpot. As I planned on having that for "snacks" during the week, I had "real" dinner at Tokyo Joes. A and I had a "Tiny House" marathon before bed. I love that show and think I want one someday, lol.
Monday (16,942 steps) - Unfortunately, this seems to be a HIIT/cardio week for videos. I really liked the video this morning though - it was actually much more strength training and just a few HIIT moves in between sets. I added this one as a favorite. Picked A up at Girl Scouts and then we headed to the mall to get her some new jeans. All her jeans from last year are now like 3 inches too short! Unfortunately we will have to go BACK to the mall, because the store I bought them at did not have a dressing room and after she tried them on at home they were too tight. Grrrr. WHY WOULD A KID'S CLOTHING STORE NOT HAVE A DRESSING ROOM???

Stats

• 187,777 steps
• 37.3 miles run
• 23 minutes of cross training (HIIT/cardio)
• 114 minutes of strength/stretching

Everything Else

• So my furnace broke. Wheee!

Monster Dash 10k (Race Recap)

Saturday, October 24
Louisville, CO
Weather - sunny and warm
A's second 10k

Halloween races are my FAVORITE. Ariel, Heather, Dan and I were looking to find a fun race that we would be able to wear costumes at. We found the Monster Dash race up in Louisville with both a 5k and 10k option. We gave A the choice of what distance to run, and I was surprised that she picked the 10k.

One of the best parts about the race is that it was NOT a morning race! That meant we would actually be able to sleep in! And there were tons of other things at the race for an afternoon/evening event.

With the race starting at 3 pm, we headed up around 1:00 to find parking and our friends. We arrived around 1:30 and found a spot on a side street behind the finish line with minimal difficulty. We spent the next hour doing pre-race pictures, talking to people and wandering around.

Team Goblin!

The 5k and 10k lined up at the same time - right before the start we ran into our friend and teammate, Maureen, and we all headed out together for A's second 10k.

A and Dan had both chosen horrible costumes to run in. Full length black robes and masks and head coverings. It was a fairly warm day and the sun was shining. I had a feeling that A was going to get HOT in her costume, and I was right. Between the hot costume and the annoying "medallion" - there were plenty of things BESIDES running for her to complain about.

Right off the bat this was a better event than the race we had chosen last year. Most of it was on "trail" and it was a lot prettier. Plus, there wasn't a giant hill on the course. A did great the first few miles, struggled a bit the middle 2, and then had a strong few miles for the finish.

Mile 3

The most fun we had on the course was when Dan ran ahead and while us girls were gabbing further back, we managed to jump out from behind a tree - scaring us all nearly to death. It was a fun race though.

Thankfully, we were NOT at mile 13... I think this was around mile 4

My only complaint was that they started the kids races before we had a chance to finish... The last 10th of a mile we were trying to run into the finish line and there was a sea of flailing arms of hundreds of kids and their parents and strollers and dogs headed straight towards us. That was a bit of poor planning, as at least part of the road should have been coned off so that we could finish.

There was no "chip" timing for this race so we don't have an official finish time, but my Garmin definitely showed a HUGE 13 minute PR for A!

Garmin time - 1:20:05
Garmin distance - 6.3 miles
Garmin pace - 12:43
Mile 1 - 10:56
Mile 2 - 12:33
Mile 3 - 13:17
Mile 4 - 14:19
Mile 5 - 13:21
Mile 6 - 12:27
Mile 6.3 - 10:49

We collected our wine goblets (with a comment from the volunteer "did you guys even finish?") and then we wandered around looking for the food and beer.

The finisher party was at a restaurant a few blocks away, so we all walked over and got a seat on the patio so Maureen could have her dog sit with us. It was a great evening of good beer and good food (seriously, the restaurant made an amazing mac and cheese with green chilies and bacon and to die for brussel sprouts!).

I went for a quick walk to the car to move it closer to the restaurant and to get our hoodies, as it was getting chilly in the shade.

A great time!!

Thoughts:

• Course was very well marked. Mile markers at every mile - chalk in the dirt at an "confusing" intersection.
• Plenty of aid stations with both water and Gatorade.
• Most people wore costumes - which made this FUN.
• The shirt was cute - with a vampire on it, but I didn't take one of course.
• The race was "time" and yet there are no results that I can find. I guess I don't understand why you would bother timing if there are no results anywhere?
• My only complaint, again, was the kids race starting before everyone had finished. We were not super slow by any means (I mean, not the fastest, but still) - they should have waited maybe another 15 minutes, or at least coned off a small section of the road.
• Yay for the free beer! 
• We had a great time and we will likely find another fun Halloween race for next year :)

Week in Review (October 13 - October 19)

Tuesday (21,366 steps) - Cardio intervals and cool down. The first few sets of these seemed as tiring to me as HIIT. Either that or I am just incredibly out of shape? How are all of these still so challenging? It would seem to me that at some point these should get easier. Went to the gym and ran 3.5 (pretty damn great) miles. Wish more runs were like that and wish I had more time.

A has had a stomach ache the last few days. She fell asleep on the couch when I was in the shower - which mean I had the opportunity to watch the premiere of the Walking Dead. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't care for this episode much. Flashing between color and black and white and the fact I cannot remember half the characters.
Wednesday (19,998 steps) - Warm up, HIIT and abs, cool down. Holy crap. This was one of the only videos I have ever done that didn't have a water break. HIIT is so humbling... 20 seconds? Heck yeah I could do that! (Over and over and over??) Womp. I got a call from A that she wasn't feeling well so I left work early to pick her up. It was kind of nice to have an evening just vegging, even if it was only because A was sick.
Thursday (22,089 steps) - Cardio kickboxing, which I think is kind of a waste of time. I used to take the turbo kickboxing class at the gym and THAT felt like a good workout. These are some confusing moves that I don't feel like I have down very well. At least I'm up early and moving? A was still not feeling well so we skipped the gym and I did three miles in the basement inferno.
Friday (20,996 steps) - Warm up, total body strength, cool down. This was a longer set of videos - over 35 minutes. But HURRAY for some weights finally!! I don't know what I could have possibly done earlier in the week for my shoulders to be so sore, but man, ow. A got invited to join an environmental club at school and their first meeting was this morning - an HOUR earlier than she normally has to be at school. So that was fun. I drove over to Golden to join A at the Sock Hop she was attending with her Girl Scout troop. She still wasn't feeling well so she spent a lot of the time sitting down, but she did join in for a bit of dancing (but not eating).

Saturday (16,090 steps) - Sadly I seem incapable of sleeping in. I did not manage to stay in bed past 7. Womp. Sat around watching TV and simmering some food in the crock pot.

Pork, green chile, bell pepper, red pepper, onion, jalapeno and carrots

A said she was feeling up to a run, so we jogged around on the path behind our house. It was HOT (like 70).

Then we went to Target and picked up groceries. Got home and baked blueberry struesel muffins and a pumpkin cake and loaf of bread.

WHO AM I. I took A over a friend's house to spend the night and then I popped into Carrie's birthday party for a few hours before heading home.
Sunday (35,141 steps) - Denver RnR half marathon.

I picked up A and was relieved to hear that she was feeling a lot better - good enough to actually eat lunch! We hit up Qdoba and then napped on the couch before heading to the Wild West Ranch to meet up with her Girl Scout troop for a horseback riding lesson. A had confided in me that she was terrified of riding a horse, but after being paired with an advanced student and trying it out she had a lot of fun.

More TV watching before early bed. Long weekend.
Monday (17,076 steps) - Thankfully NOT a HIIT video. Lower body strength and pilates was a great video for me to recover from RnR. For the first time in ages, I was actually sore after a race. SO WEIRD. After work I met up with A at Skate City for yet another Girl Scout event - a skate party for Juliette Gordon Low's birthday. Don't ask how the two are related.

A of course in the plaid pants

A had been given dinner, but I had not, so I stopped and got  Tokyo Joe's before heading home. I haven't been there in ages, and it was DELICIOUS.

Stats

• 152,756 steps
• 25.7 miles run
• 81 minutes of cross training (HIIT/cardio)
• 63 minutes of strength/stretching

Everything Else

• So, turns out that my main attorney is "giving me" his standing desk! I asked him when he wanted it back (since I am the last in line to try it out) and he said he was going to bring in a different one. So I have been using it all week. Some days I stand more than others, but I have to say that I really like it!
• A was sick with some kind of yuck/funk all week. Literally an entire week of not feeling great and not really eating. Not fun for anyone.

Denver RnR half marathon (Race Recap)

Sunday, October 18
Denver, CO
Half Marathon #140
Colorado Half #73
Denver RnR #5
Weather - perfect

In the past, packet pick up has always been at the Convention Center downtown. Worked out super well for me since I work downtown and I could just walk over there. When I was looking at the website to find out the hours I realized they had moved it to the National Western Complex. Boo, hiss. This meant I would actually have to drive there AND pay for parking. Not happy about this!

I drove over there during my lunch break on Friday. The parking was sort of a disaster (got there about an hour after it opened), paid my $5 and walked over. Other than the Runners Roost and Runners Edge booth there were ZERO booths of interest. I spent $1 on one single Salted Watermelon GU and went back to work. (C'mon rock n' roll, you can do better than this!).

Turns out it was way too warm for arm sleeves (and I went with the shoes on the right)

Thanks to the many years I have run this event, I knew exactly when I had to leave in order to have enough time to park and get to the start line. However, I was going to be coming from a further away address and I was going to attempt parking in the lot I use for work. I studied the maps in advance to determine what roads were going to be closed and I was out the door by about 5:20. There were roads closed that I didn't expect, so the drive took a few minutes longer than expected. Since I only had a 5 minute walk I arrived about an hour early. That meant I literally cycled through the bathroom lines about a half dozen times and I was actually IN my correct corral.

I don't think I've ever seen a race the size of RnR with ZERO lines...

O'dark-thirty

I was in wave 8 and we started maybe 10 minutes after the official start of 7:15. I have a hard time maintaining a proper pace in these big races. First thing I realized... the course was different AGAIN. This time we run up 16th Street, which was neat. My watch beeped and I was running faster than I should be. Mile 2, I was already getting tired (not a good sign) and my watch beeped - still under a 10 minute pace (too fast, still).

Pepsi Center

By about mile 3.5 I was pretty much toast. My legs both were completely numb up to my knees. I had really hoped to race without any unscheduled walk breaks and that fell apart by the second aid station at mile 4 (the Roost station, the best one of the race - hands down). I had to walk a TON. If it wasn't my legs feeling tight it was my right hip/groin. In the last two years this race has been one of my fastest races of the season (substantially), so this really sucked for me.

Coors Field

Not much else to say. I really enjoyed this course this year. We ran through a lot of downtown, near the Pepsi Center and Coors Field, and up/down 17th and around City Park. The finish was even new this year, running around the Capital and finishing up behind Civic Center. With that said... the race measured VERY LONG - everyone I spoke with had at least 13.4, some 13.5 or longer. Not that it messed up my time that much, I still would have been substantially slower than last year. It was just hard to keep going at 13.1. Not sure what happened during this race, just really tired I guess.

Running down Broadway, about halfway done

Garmin Time - 2:24:06
Garmin Pace 10:46
Mile 1 - 9:27
Mile 2 - 9:54
Mile 3 - 10:49
Mile 4 - 10:39
Mile 5 - 11:42
Mile 6 - 10:56
Mile 7 - 11:03
Mile 8 - 10:25
Mile 9 - 11:04
Mile 10 - 11:11
Mile 11 - 11:02
Mile 12 - 11:12
Mile 13 - 10:42
Mile 13.49 - 10:13

Met up with Roost teammates Maureen and Heather after the finish where we chatted for a few minutes and got a group picture.

Thoughts:

• For a race this size, it is extremely organized. I have never checked a bag at this event, but Maureen did and she claimed it in about 30 seconds, so I am guessing there is no issue with doing that.
• Plenty of aid stations - one with GU at mile 8 (about 4 flavors, and since I have the most gigantic pockets in Sparkle Skirts, I helped myself to a few extra). Water and Gatorade at all stations. My only complaint is that in a race of this size there should be larger signage notifying in advance when an aid station is coming up. (I swear they had these in the past).
• Mile markers at every marker, although starting at mile 1 these were way off for everyone doing the half. 
• The 10k started at the same time as the half and the 5k an hour later. The problem with this... the turnoffs were also not marked extremely well or with a lot of notice. And for the 5k, we were about mile 5 when the faster runners merged in with us. So that was probably really irritating for THEM. 
• The shirt is nice this year (I'm lame, no picture, but I did actually take one). Colorado "flag" on the bag, Brooks tech tee in a slate blue color. I may wear casually.
• Medal is ok, not my favorite but it's nice that they do different medals and ribbons for all distances.
• LOTS of stuff at the finish area. In the past this has definitely been lacking. The only thing I ended up taking was an EVOL burrito. There was no way I was going to wait in line for a Michelob Ultra...
• As for the expo, already expressed my feelings on that. Hopefully enough people complain that they move it back to the Convention Center and they get more vendors in! I have never left this expo without buying anything, pretty disappointing!
• I said a hundred times that this would be my last year running, but then the posted the introductory rate of $50 and Heather convinced me to sign up... so I guess I'll be back in 2016.

Week in Review (October 6 - October 12)

Tuesday (22,348 steps) - A new to me upper body strength video. This was a bunch of super sets and it was strange in the sense that it was alternating arms instead of the standard moves. Not sure if I would do this again, but it was different. I used too much weight on one of the exercises and I almost dropped a dumbbell on my head.

After work we went to HuHot for dinner - have I mentioned how much I love their food? Then on to A's conferences at school. A 20 minute slot lasted about 3 minutes. She is testing almost 2 years ahead in math and a year ahead in English. She is respectful, confident and well-liked. 4.3 mile run at the gym that was actually enjoyable.
Wednesday (20,560 steps) - Abs/Obliques/Lower Back. This was tough... mainly because I have zero abs. All the reps were 50 seconds on and only 10 seconds of rest. Challenging, for sure. Left work a tad early to pick up A and go to run club!

Had a great evening running with Heather and Lisa. We stopped for a quick dinner at Noodles before heading home.
Thursday (17,708 steps) - HIIT and butt/thigh. I had done this one before, and as far as HIIT goes, it wasn't too bad (except for the Oz jumps, those are terrible). Got A packed for her camp over the weekend and then a quick jog in the basement inferno.
Friday (18,643 steps) - Cardio and upper body - although I feel like this wasn't as "cardio" as I expected. I had done this video before and it was pretty good for a quick workout. A was headed up to Girl Scout camp for the weekend so I had the house all to myself. I went grocery shopping, picked up a pizza and beer and binge watched "Fear the Walking Dead" with the cats. Up entirely too late.

Saturday (41,743 steps) - Which meant that getting up to run 16 miles in the morning was NOT THE BEST. I had signed up to do a drop in run with Runners Edge, but the course maxed at 14 miles. So I did 2 miles on the treadmill before I left. When I got to the run I was pleased to see my friends Carol and Sheila from run club. I was not pleased to know that I would be the only person in our pace group running the full distance. Womp, womp, womp. So the first 3-4 miles I was running with the group on the Farmers' High Line Canal in Broomfield. A very small portion was on Big Dry Creek, but most of this I had not run before so the change in scenery was nice. Somewhere around mile 5 my stomach began to get topsy turvy as a result of the pizza and beer (who knew this wasn't the best carb loading I could have done). Luckily I found a bathroom and the rest of the run went fairly well. It got hot at the end, so I was glad I had gotten up early to get this done.

Miles before the sun is too hot

The new awesome INKnBURN skirt - no problems with shorts riding up - YAY!!

I did a bit more grocery shopping, took a shower and picked up Pho for lunch. When I got home I threw some food in the crock pot, napped on the couch and sort of watched a show on Tiny Houses. (Which I find FASCINATING). I baked more of the awesome red velvet brownies for a party we were going to.

Random items in the crock pot - delicious!

Evening was more binge watching of shows not appropriate for A, included the premiere of American Horror Story (wow).
Sunday (16,016 steps) - Up just as early to head to Louisville for volunteering at the Louisville Trail races. I started my morning by working at bib pick up (and I knew almost everyone that picked up - and even saw Ryan from Desert Rats stage race I ran over the summer). I also assisted with the merchandise tent, worked an aid station, and then stuck around to work at the food tent handing out burgers and chips. It was a very long day, I was out there for about 6 hours.

I had grand plans of running 4 miles. Turns out the beer and burger didn't settle that well and I only jogged for about 15 minutes before I went home.

Shower, quick lunch, and then picked up A from camp. We headed into the mountains for a birthday/Halloween party for our friend Heather. It was another great party and as usual I love seeing all my friends.

A's terrifying costume - "Emperor(ess) of Evil"

Random items thrown together to be "terrifying"

What a view!

Home relatively late - basically just enough time to get unpacked, do laundry and get homework done.
Monday (19,939 steps) - Total body HIIT and strength. Luckily it was more strength than HIIT, as I was pretty exhausted from the weekend. The weather has been "fall fantastic" - cool in the mornings, clear and gorgeous. I had been dying to check out the path behind our place and went out for a quick jog before dinner. Miraculously, not a section I have run before - I can't wait to see where else it goes (and there is a nice hilly section in the event I ever pretend I want to do hill repeats).

Stats:

• 156,957 steps
• 27.5 miles run
• 31 minutes of cross training (HIIT)
• 116 minutes of strength/stretching - I decided unless it is HIIT I will lump my Fitness Blender videos into this segment. Although some of the videos are "cardio" - I'd say they are more strength oriented.

Everything Else:

• I am trying out a standing desk at work! Who else has done this? About a half dozen of the support staff has bought one (work will not pay for it, so I doubt I will get one).

Week in Review (September 29 - October 5)

Tuesday (16,594 steps) - Day 1 (sort of) of the 8 week Fitness Blender program. I skipped day 1, the fitness test, because I was drained from two half marathons over the weekend. So I jumped in on day 2 with a low impact cardio warm up (way too long), a HIIT workout (not bad) and a total body cool down.
Wednesday (22,331 steps) - Warm up, upper body strength and stretching videos in the morning. Went to the gym and ran 4 not-so-terrible-but-not-great miles on the treadmill.
Thursday (17,338 steps) - Cardio and cool down yoga in the morning before working. After work we ran to Home Depot to pick up air filters for the furnace. For the first time, I was asked to run my card as a "chip card." My card kept getting declined, so I called the bank. On their end, the error message was "expiration date error" - but said there was no reason why the card should be declined. Home Depot finally let me run my card manually (type in card number, expiration and code) and it went through. 45 minutes of my night wasted. After homework time, A watched some TV and I installed a new thermostat. Boy, that was fun too.

Trying not to electrocute myself

Friday (16,224 steps) - A combo video of HIIT and lower body strength. Not the worst ever, except for star jumps. I LOATHE STAR JUMPS. Our adventure of the evening was going to Target to buy a wall mount for my TV so that I would have something to look at when I am running in my basement. I young kid sold me a mount and a Roku stick so that I would be able to stream Netflix. Long story short. I screwed up installation on the wall mount the first time around because I didn't drill into a stud. Then I finally got the mount up, only to discover the Roku stick wasn't going to work because it was too long and didn't fit. ARG. Ended up stealing A's Wii to hook up. I'll figure out a solution to this later.

Saturday (31,356 steps) - I had every intention of doing my long run. After the TV installation fiasco I was tired and didn't get up early enough to do it. I still ran a few miles though, so my contraption wasn't totally wasted.

A had a Girl Scouts event at the School of Mines called "Bridge the Gap." Put on by student volunteers, there were over a dozen stations to help get the girls interested in science and engineering. A had a great time (and there was cupcakes).

After that we went to the zoo - mainly because A wanted to see the Lego exhibits. Stopped at Runner's Roost to pick up my new shoes and then went to an extremely late lunch (early dinner) at Sweet Tomatoes.

This turtle looked like he was doing yoga, LOLOL!!

Red pandas are my FAVORITE

Sunday (38,488 steps) - This time I *did* get up early to do my long run. 14 miles to be exact. It's incredibly hard to believe that I EVER did this kind of training on the treadmill. But I did. I did up to 30 mile runs on the treadmill. This, however, was CHALLENGING. I had my TV going and my fan going and it was mostly ok. Other than the fact that I have gotten incredibly slow and it took FOREVER.

A and I made breakfast burritos. After showering we went down to visit Heather and Dan. We went Halloween costume shopping and watched the first half of the Broncos game. Heather and I gabbed about all things running and Dan and A played game after game of Jenga. We went to Chili's for dinner - which was tasty.
Monday (16,740 steps) - Yet another HIIT video. I think I have done this one before and I didn't really care for it. I did a lot of the "easy/modified" moves as I find things like jump lunges very difficult. Finally got my hair cut after work - a couple of inches makes ALL the difference, it looks so much healthier.

Stats:

• 159,071 steps
• 21.2 miles run
• 122 minutes of cross-training (other cardio/HIIT)
• 26 minutes of strength/stretching