Week in Review (July 23 - July 29)

Tuesday (23,148 steps) - Strength class during lunch. Milk Market after work. Since I'm tapering (yes, again), I opted to just start my walk right after I got off work. I ended up doing just over four miles. Walking takes forever.

Dinner was pizza and sandwiches.

Wednesday (23,100 steps) - Core class during lunch. Runners Roost Boulder! Super hot day in Denver, so I didn't mind the clouds on the way home. Then the clouds became torrential downpour and thunder and lighting. Tricia assured us we would not die, so we headed out for the "low" route.

We did not die, but we did get rained on for about twenty minutes. Cooler temperatures were appreciated. Additional humidity was not.

Thursday (17,293 steps) - Berkeley Park! It was raining when we arrived so A decided she would just stay at the shop. I walked a few laps around the lake.

Was supposed to see The Princess Bride at the Alamo, but it was cancelled because of weather. Stupid rain!
Friday (10,500 steps) - Core class during lunch. After work I met up with A and Belmar peeps at Westfax for beers for Ben's birthday.

He opted to host his birthday party at Casa Bonita. (Why would anyone do that?)

Saturday (19,478 steps) - Out the door by six to meet up with Jandy and Daisy at Herman Gulch. I had never been there, but thanks to all the snow/rain this year it was supposed to be beautiful. Did not disappoint at all - I have never seen so many columbines in one place in my life! We really took our time on the way up. When we were playing with Daisy in the snowfield we heard a voice say "I know those humans!" Melissa and some other gals were also hiking/running.

We took some pictures at the summit and then really cruised down. We went to the Dillon Dam Brewery for brunch - which Jandy so kindly paid for ours.

Ben wasn't going to be off work for hours, so we went to his house for a shower and a nap. Met up at Angry James and got caught in another rain storm. Dinner at Cheba Hut.
Sunday (14,107 steps) - Slept in until after nine. Crazy. We lounged around debating what to hike/run. I didn't want to do too many miles and we also wanted to include A and Pika, so we drove up to Keystone and ran part of Ben's favorite 16 mile loop. 

Had a few beers at Outer Range and picked up Domino's on the way home. 

Watched Pitch Perfect 2 (how had Ben never watched this?) and in bed later than planned.

Monday (18,952 steps) - SO TIRED. Woke up 40 minutes before my alarm. Got caught at the tunnel with some construction/lane closures but still made it home before 6:00. Dead. After work I drove over to Mt. Falcon for some trail maintenance with Jeffco Open Space.

You would not think that 2.5 hours of raking and shoveling would be such hard work, but it is. Oddly, carrying the tools back down after hiking about a mile up was the hardest - forearms were so sore!

Stats:

• 126,578 steps
• 19.8 miles run
• Three gym classes & some walking

Week in Review (July 16 - July 22)

Tuesday (17,367 steps) - Strength class during lunch. Milk Market run club, although I decided that I would just walk. Lots of high mileage lately and hot road miles weren't appealing.

Sandwiches and a beer before picking A up at Abby's. Laundry and baked four dozen cookies for a work party.

Wednesday (23,967 steps) - Core class during lunch. Runners Roost Boulder!! Hottest day of the year (so far).

Was definitely not looking forward to the run, but once we got into the hills/trees it was a lot more bearable. Felt slow (like usual), but strava seems to indicate I was actually running fairly well.

Thursday (14,399 steps) - A had a birthday party during the day so I opted to go to Lone Tree after work for a community run. It was a pretty stupid decision as the traffic to get from downtown was horrendous and it took well over an hour to get there. I ran with Dave and it was great to catch up - I never see him anymore.

Hung out for a while afterward chatting with everyone.
Friday (13,786 steps) - Core class during lunch. Spent a bulk of the day creating a crew/pace guide for Tahoe. Which, incidentally, makes it seem a lot more real. Can't believe it's less than two months away!!
Saturday (47,736 steps) - Up at the ungodly hour of 3:15. Tyler picked us up and we headed down south to meet up with people to run at Barr Trail. I had never run out there and managed to convince A to hike/run 18 miles.

The early miles were nice, but it really got hot quickly. The wheels fell off for A when we still had 3-4 miles to go. In addition to running out of water, she kept catching her toes on rocks. I was able to make her feel a little better with a giant raspberry lemonade when we got into town. If you look closely at the pic below you can see that my hair looks white - I don't use any sort of product, that is all salt matted into my hair?! I've never had that happen. So crazy.

Kristin, Tyler, A and I walked to Manitou Brewing, where we got some food and beers. Traffic back home was awful - we even got caught in some nasty flash flooding.

Ben got stuck coming down - the normal 80 minute drive took him about three hours. Bed later than I wanted.
Sunday (34,118 steps) - Up early for Black Hawk half marathon!

Thankfully, as soon as we had cell service I saw a text from Jan that she would pick A up for their meeting. Saved us a trip to Broomfield! Shower and a nap. Took Pika for a walk to the lake while Ben was "recovering."

Met up with Tyler and went to 4 Noses for beers and dinner.

A ended up spending the night at Sonia's house.
Monday (8,978 steps) - So tired!! Picked up A on way home. Decided we would go to Resolute since they have a great patio and it was finally not a billion degrees.

The food truck wasn't as appealing as we hoped, so we picked up Torchy's for dinner. Ben has never seen "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," so we watched a few episodes before bed. So funny.

Stats:

• 160,351 steps
• 41.2 miles run
• Three gym classes