Week in Review (March 20 - March 26)

Tuesday (12,210 steps) - Sloan's Lake Tap & Burger run club! It was windy, AGAIN, so I opted to just do one loop with Dulce. Quick pasta/salad dinner, trip to the grocery store & home.

Ah, I look old and tired, lol

Wednesday (20,783 steps) - Roost Boulder run club!

Another new route, which meant a couple miles on the road to get to the trail. Jumped on the Shanahan Trail (and interestingly, ran into someone we knew - hi Dave S!). This trail isn't super technical, but it was a decent amount of climbing. Onto Mesa, and then down the slushy mess of Bear. Another great 7 miles!

Thursday (19,053 steps) - Barre with Sienna. Meh. Felt tired throughout this whole class, tough to take one after a hard & hilly run. Belmar/Lakewood Roost run club after work. Started my run a little early so I could get more miles in, so I missed the group picture.

But A is there!

There was a presentation at the library after to talk about the trails in Jeffco.
Friday (12,500 steps) - Barre with Karen (who was subbing for Sasha, wah). Grocery shopping and #pizzaFriday.
Saturday (30,727 steps) - Runners Edge! Long run (as usual), but thankfully, I only had 14 on schedule. Compared to last week's, this felt pretty hard, even though it was a much flatter route.

After we picked up our aid station we headed to Red Robin to have lunch with Jackie! Always great to see her! Our lunch was brief, "only" 4 hours. Lots of Lifetime movies.
Sunday (29,951 steps) - Kristin picked me up at 8 for the "fun" of the day, hill repeats on the fire road at Green Mountain. Barf. I haven't been at Green Mountain in ages, and I'd certainly not done the fire road before. About 700' of climbing in a mile, and we (Kristin & Ringo, Alison, Alexis & Penny) did three repeats. Susan and Mark joined us for the first and last repeat, but were smart enough to just run around the peak instead of the second one.

Headed home to get A, then picked up Lisa & Lucky for a hike at North Table. We did the same route we normally run with the New Terrain group - but there were BILLIONS of bikes out and it took a long time.

Then we had beer and a delicious burrito from the food truck. Walking Dead, in bed by 9:30. Blah, shortest weekend ever.
Monday (7,581 steps) - Nothing. Literally nothing.

Stats:

• 132,805 steps
• 37.2 miles run
• 2 barre classes, a hike

Week in Review (March 13 - March 19)

Tuesday (19,170 steps) - Barre with Gabi!!! Sloan's Lake Tap & Burger run club. One slowish loop with Dulce, and then I felt pretty good, so I decided to do another loop, with Zach. AND THEN I DIED. So fast and so hard, plus, just felt blah the whole run.

Home at a reasonable hour.
Wednesday (19,841 steps) - Runners Roost Boulder run club!

Finally planned to test out my new Hierro 3 with the trails not being as muddy. We had a new route that was up the road to NCAR (bah bah bah) and I had to walk a ton. Just felt so tired this run. Then we ran down the back trail, hit the rollers and then back UP the trail, then down the road. Pretty much the only good part about the run was that I DIDN'T NEED A HEADLAMP AT ALL!!!

Thursday (14,255 steps) - Belmar run club! Dulce wasn't up for running, so for the first time in ages, I ran solo. Big loop and then a little loop. Never felt good the whole run. Ah well.

Friday (9,455 steps) - Barre with Sasha. Went grocery shopping, then picked up pizza for dinner because I didn't actually feel like cooking any of the food I got.
Saturday (36,224 steps) - Runners Edge! I had 16 on scheduled (turns out it was actually 18, but I can't read). Prior to the run I decided I would do 17, since it was the 17th after all. We were told to layer, but prepare for warm weather. LIES. It was windy and awful the whole run. Plus, we were running in Parker, which is pretty much the hilliest part of metro Denver. I ran the first 6 with the group, and last 11 solo.

Outside of the wind, it wasn't the worst run ever, and probably the longest training run I've done in well over a year. After we picked up our aid station we headed over to the new Runners Roost in Stapleton. Spent a few hours there eating pizza and socializing.

Home to shower and nap before going to Ben's for a taco bar with friends. We managed to get out by 8:00ish, in bed shortly after. LONG DAY.
Sunday (14,274 steps) - Initially we had plans to go snowshoeing with Lisa. The forecast for the lower mountains looked awful, so I bailed. Instead, we went to Mount Morrison with Alison, Kristen (and her brother & Ringo) and Alexa. Everyone but Alison and I went to the summit (I didn't feel the need to scramble). Alison and I did a "repeat" on the section between the first mile and the lower summit section.

Went to the Holiday Bar in Morrison for burgers and Bloody Marys.

We love Ringo!!

And then... nothing. Literally nothing, and it was Great. It started thunder snowing late afternoon, and kept on snowing through the Walking/Talking Dead.
Monday (6,676 steps) - I had cancelled my barre class because I didn't feel like getting up early and dealing with possible horrible roads. Good thing, too, because I was exhausted and could barely drag myself out of bed at 6:45. Picked A up at the rec center. Obviously, I did one step above nothing all day.

Stats:

• 119,895 steps
• 33.3 miles run
• 2 barre classes and one steeeep hike

Week in Review (March 6 - March 12)

Tuesday (10,858 steps) - No running again, A had her final orchestra performance of the year. This was the big all-area one, where 5th grade beginners through high school perform, ending with a song they all play together. Pretty neat!

Wednesday (19,286 steps) - Roost Boulder run club!! I convinced A to "start slow" with me and I had a pretty awesome run. Only one walk break on the paved section to the trail head, no breaks on the two rollers, and only maybe 3 breaks on Bear. Also, bade it almost all the way up Bear before I had to use my headlamp. Overall a pretty fantastic run - I managed to PR every segment!!

No headlamp needed!!

Thursday (11,956 steps) - Belmar run club! I had thoughts of running extra miles, but I was actually pretty tired, so just did the big loop (YAY THE PARK IS OPEN AGAIN) for 2.5 miles.

Tokyo Joe's, because BOGO.
Friday (9,840 steps) - Barre with Sasha. A stayed after school to watch her friend's soccer practice and got dropped off at home after 6. In my few minutes of "A free" time I managed to clean up the living room and vacuum. That was clearly exhausting for me, as we decided to do Domino's for dinner instead of cook.
Saturday (23,428 steps) - Runners Edge! This was the annual point-to-point run from the Jefferson County Courthouse in Golden (that A missed last year). We decided to do 10 miles.

Rode the light rail back to Golden, picked up our aid station, and then joined a group for brunch at Carnations. A and I split a skillet of chili rellenos. She had a side of pancakes, I had biscuits and gravy. Then we drove into Denver to pick up our packets for ROTG. I got the limited edition green "Runnin' Lucky" shirt and A her first pair of fleece-lined tights off the clearance rack. Grocery shopping, boiling/whipping a ton of potatoes and sweet potatoes for Second Saturday.

Sunday (16,153 steps) - ROTG!

After the race we met up with friends at Hop Daddy for burgers and truffle fries to dip in green chili queso. Yum. Took A to a Scout planning meeting in Broomfield, went to Roost in Boulder to pick up this year's team gear, quick trip to Lucky's, pick A up. Try to make dinner and watch the Walking/Talking Dead.
Monday (6,570 steps) - Bah, Monday. Nothing, HOA meeting.

Stats:

• 98,091 steps
• 23.8 miles run
• 1 barre class

Runnin' of the Green 7K (Race Recap)

Sunday, March 11
Denver, CO
Weather - Sunny, chilly at the start

This race was again to be the kickoff for the 2018 season. I had received a comp entry, and A is young enough to do a youth registration, so we were both able to run for $30.

Thanks to having run this race the year before, we already knew we needed to be out the door by 8:15. We got a spot only about 3 blocks from the start line again, which is nice. The Roost tent is always set up in the shade, so we were smart enough to bring warm clothes to wear until the start. This race is a blast because we know SO MANY PEOPLE.

Teammates at the start

Team picture was at 9:15, but then we still had an hour until we were going to be running.

Time was spent wandering around and talking to people. Maureen and I headed to the bathrooms right after 10 (with the race start being at 10:15), and I grabbed a beer (of which I drank less than half before the start). Jumped into the corral with Lisa, Francesca, Yuly & Jeannene. Goal was to not start out too fast (like I had last year) and hopefully not have to walk at all.

A had plans to start in the A wave with all the fasties, hoping to keep up with Lisa (who was going for a PR). I didn't see her before the start, but this was her third time running, so she knew what she was doing.

Fasties in the corral at the start

I lost everyone I was standing around with before the first turn. I was just trying to run an even pace and hope to hang on. I was also racing with music, something I rarely do these days.

I tried to not look at my watch, but when Rich joined me, I glanced to see what pace we were running. It was a tad hard, but we were also running uphill. Hoped I could hang on. We ran together for maybe 5 minutes, although I lost him at the first aid station (right around when the leaders were already heading down 20th for the finish line...)

I grabbed my water and brace myself for what I knew was another half mile or so of uphill. Only this year, it wasn't so bad! No walking!! I was definitely tired though, as I didn't feel like I had that much of a kick on the downhills.

Heading up a hill around mile 2 (I think)

My favorite part of the course are the sections when I can see the faster people ahead of me. A was with Laurie, with Lisa behind them (!) and she looked happy. We looped around near REI, and then I knew we still had to run up 15th (hill - and where Jeff was taking pictures).

Happy, because I made it to the top of the hill and feel good!

Thankfully we hit the aid station again, and I grabbed water, walking a tad longer than I hoped, but my feet were numb! I really really didn't want to walk and just tried the "butt kicker" run to hopefully get the blood moving to my feet a little better.

Turned down 20th and knew there were two more rollers to the finish. I kicked it into high gear when I turned onto Wazee for the finish. I managed to run the whole race without walking anywhere but the aid station, and snagged a 1:40 PR! Woot! Still not fast by any stretch of the imagination, but it went a lot better than I expected, which is always nice.

Official time - 45:08
Overall place - 762/1637
Gender place - 311/934
Division place - 119/281 (hey, top half, I'll take it)
Garmin time - 45:08
Garmin Distance - 4.42 miles
Garmin Pace - 10:13
Elevation Gain - 262'
Mile 1 - 10:20
Mile 2 - 10:48
Mile 3 - 10:04
Mile 4 - 10:08
Mile 4.42 - 9:05 (according to my watch, my "kick" was a 6:30 pace?)

As for A? An incredible PR.
Official time - 36:59
Overall place - 267/1637
Gender place - 63/934
Division place - 4/50
Garmin time - 36:59
Garmin pace - 8:27 (?!)
Mile 1 - 8:19
Mile 2 - 8:55
Mile 3 - 8:00
Mile 4 - 8:35
Mile 4.4 - 8:17

Jandy, A and Lisa, near the start again

Jandy, A and Lisa right after the start

Laurie and A, probably about 2.5 miles in

A coming up 15th, heading into the last mile

We stayed at the finish line forever, but that's really the most fun part of the race.

Ang, A, Lisa, Mo, Ted, Paula, me & Michael

Me, Lynn, A, Jen and Mo

I don't love road running, but this is a fun event and I'll likely run it again next year!