Week in Review (August 30 - September 5)

Tuesday (11,169 steps) - Another morning of sleeping in. I could totally get used to this. I risked going to a barre class during lunch. Turns out, it was really great. I was definitely sore, but I felt a lot better after going. I left work a little early so that I could go with A to curriculum night. What a waste of time. the gym at her school is way too small to house the amount of people that attend. The principal doesn't use a microphone and it was impossible to hear anything. Briefly met with her teacher and picked up the application for soccer. We rushed over to gymnastics, where A had what looked like a VERY challenging class. I'm pretty relieved that the team is too expensive, I think it would be too much for her right now. We used our BOGO coupon at Chipotle for dinner, going to bed just after 9:00.
Wednesday (14,484 steps) - Oh hey, another morning of sleeping in! I didn't get in any exercise today, as we were skipping run club. I did, however, figure out how to change the watch face on my Fenix 3. Boy, is this cool!

 After work we went to Arvada High School for the parent meeting and sign up for beginner orchestra and band. It was a zoo. There are two teachers and they travel to 9 different elementary/middle schools in the area. The entire auditorium was filled! A has her heard set on playing the viola. I told her everything was going to depend on cost. Turns out, it is pretty affordable! Other than buying a few essentials (book, music stand, etc.), the cost to rent the instrument is only $18 a month (plus insurance), and all the payments go towards equity to purchase if we choose. She even got to take the viola home, which was pretty exciting for her.

Thursday (17,781 steps) - Went to a barre class at 6 am. I really am not a huge fan of this instructor. All the moves are the same as other classes, but her transitions are really awkward. After work we went to Belmar "running" club. Like usual we walked with Heather, Maureen and Colfax.

Nachos afterward at Rocko's. I swear, they have the best plate of nachos that I have ever had. I try to resist them and I just can't.

Stopped at Big Lots on the way home to get A a poncho for another weekend at camp.
Friday (14,911 steps) - Dropped A off at Rose's house. Why? Because already the school is having a "flex" day, and the school wasn't offering any child care even though half the kids have the day off. I had an insanely busy morning getting a big filing done. The office closed two hours early (YAY), so I went to REI to pick up some last minute gear before the weekend. Managed to make it to a 4:15 barre class, then went to my friend's son's 19th birthday party. Headed out early since Lisa and I planned on getting up insanely early to go hiking.
Saturday (20,837 steps) - Did I mention insanely early wake up? 2:51 am to be exact. Left the house by 3:15 to pick up Lisa at her house, for an estimated 2 hour drive to Kite Lake. The drive took a bit longer than expected. First, because it is REALLY dark in the mountains at that hour. Also, the dirt road to get there was a tad junky, but that's kind of the norm. We parked when we saw the line of cars, grabbed our gear and headed out just after 6 am.

Turns out, it was only about a mile to the trail head. We used the bathroom and then began the climb up to Mt. Democrat - supposedly the hardest part of the day. Temperature really was all over the place.

First hot, then cold, lots of taking off the packs and putting back on to be comfortable. I always forget how challenging climbing is at super high altitudes. We arrived at the summit somewhere around 9:00.

We were very worried about the weather and kept watching the clouds. The decent back down to the saddle between Mt. Democrat and Mt. Cameron took a long time because of the scree and how steep it was. There was a guy checking a weather and he seemed to think there was a storm over Leadville, but that we might be fine?

We put on layers, as the wind was picking up, and decided to go for it. Heading up Mt. Cameron was the second most challenging climb. Cold and steep. Get to the summit and we were both fairly underwhelmed.

We didn't stay long and immediately headed over to Mt. Lincoln. There was a lot of snow on the narrow climb to Mt. Lincoln, with pretty steep drop offs on both sides. We decided to continue and just not look down. The summit of Mt. Lincoln was a lot more impressive!

The sky really seemed to clear up and we were glad to have kept going. Then we headed back down to go over to Mt. Bross - the "illegal" climb of the day.

We were following a line of people and before we knew it we were actually at the summit, even though we didn't plan on that. The summit was HUGE - you could have played a game of football up there!

Sky started to look dark again, so we decided to go the "short and steep" route down. BIG MISTAKE. Holy shit, it was so steep and slippery. Loose rocks, steep grade. I must have fallen on my ass two dozen times. I HATED HATED HATED this section. It took about 90 minutes to get down. Our friends that we had hiked 3 of the 4 summits with (the guy who was checking the weather at the start) invited us to have a beer with them when we got down, and offered to drive us back down to our car.

We shared a Hey, Pumpkin! beer with them (Anton and Jenny), and then they drove us down. Our 5.5 hour estimated hike had lasted almost 8. By the time we got into Breckenridge and had lunch it was about 3:00. I had a delicious burger and a beer. While we were inside it started pouring rain. Rained all the way to just outside Denver. I dropped Lisa off at home around 5:45, getting home after 6:00. I pretty much was done for the night. I never even had dinner.
Sunday (14,748 steps) - Slept in about as late as I could, then went to barre at 9:30 with Maureen. The class seemed extra hard. I guess because I was sore from hiking? After class I walked over to REI to get hiking boots. Hopefully the problem of sliding down the mountain can be avoided with better traction.

I finally heard back from A's scout leader, she would be dropped off at home after camp. I went home, did laundry and watched TV while I was waiting. She got dropped off around 12:30. We went to lunch at Tokyo Joe's, went to the music store to get the supplies for orchestra, went to the REI up in Westminster where we bought #allthethings so that A can go hiking with me, and finally went to Target to get groceries.

Then it was home to make thin mint mini cheesecakes before going up to Heather's house for burgers and hanging out. A was super tired so we left around 8. In bed early for her, up a tad late (drinking beer) for me.
Monday (20,827 steps) - We planned on NOT setting an alarm. What THAT meant was that we were both still in bed after 8:00. After we had breakfast (eggs and pumpkin pancakes), we didn't get on the road for Waterton Canyon until 11:00. The lot was very full when we arrived, but we managed to get a parking space. IT WAS HOT. This is why I run early in the morning. We did about 6 miles out and back, seeing a few bighorn sheep, but so high up on the rocks that we couldn't get a decent picture.

We went to REI (again), to get rain stop pants and a pair of hiking socks for me. (I promise, that it's, no more shopping at REI!) Then we made a well-deserved trip to Yogurtland - it was the perfect way to end a hot run. Spent the rest of the day on the couch watching TV and A doing homework.

Stats:

• 114,757 steps
• 6.5 miles run
• Walking, 4 barre classes and HIKING!
• Current weight - 123.6. Been a lot more conscious of what I'm eating. I did have burgers a few times this weekend, but I tried not to snack as much over the weekend. I had cheesecake and a bit more beer than I should have, but pretty much in line.

Everything Else:

• Apparently, due to budget cuts, my firm has decided to host this year's holiday part at the house of one of directors. This does not sound fun to me. I plan on skipping it.
• I went a little berserk shopping at REI. Need to rein it in!