Week in Review (July 28 - August 3)

Tuesday (18,933 steps) - Work in the office. No running today, just the regular walks. Big excitement was Pika spotting a coyote on our evening walk. Otherwise... nothing.

Wednesday (40,692 steps) - Work from home. Actually did THREE ten minute videos - the same "magic" three that I did years ago when I got thin. (Abs, upper body and lower body). North Table with Tyler and Mike! It was CRAZY windy on the mesa, but stifling hot everywhere else.

Action shot!

It was Colorado pint glass day at all the breweries, which is why we had picked going to North Table, we thought we would be able to get our glasses at New Terrain. However, they were already out. We went to Odyssey instead - aren't the glasses nifty? Ben met us there after work.

Thursday (19,337 steps) - Work in the office. Picked up cheesecake after work because apparently it is National Cheesecake Day!

Walk at the lake - although we only went for the "small" loop because it was getting late and I still had ALL my packing to do.

I was able to get all my packing done while Ben made dinner. Excited for a weekend out of town!

Friday (10,320 steps) - We were up relatively early (although not as early as if I had to work). Ariel and I took Pika for a walk while Ben started to load up the car. We actually got out right when we planned, at 9:00. The drive was, of course, VERY long. We stopped along the way for Pika to take a few breaks, and stopped to get tacos in Ridgeway. By the time we got to Heather's it was basically dinner time. We settled in and watched the humming birds and had some food.

This was soooo delicious!!

We took Pika for a walk on the trails behind Heather's house. So pretty!!

Finalized everything for our race, yes, a RACE.

Saturday (52,134 steps) - Bridal Veil 30K! 

After the race we sat on the patio and had a few drinks. I finally got an order of sweet potato fries. Once Ross finished we decided we should head out. Ariel had left with Heather, so it was just me, Ben and Pika left. Initially we were trying to find a bakery that had cupcakes, but the two in town that were open didn't seem to actually know what they had, and we got frustrated. Stopped at the grocery store and got some cheesecake instead. Heather made a delicious pan of nachos for dinner.

We sat on the patio and chatted for MANY hours. It's been a long time since we socialized with anyone "new."

Sunday (11,071 steps) - Our only plan of the day was a drive over Imogene Pass. We took Pika for a walk and waited for Heather to get off work so we could head out. We all loaded up into Josh's truck, which was quite an accomplishment with 5 adults and Pika. I had never been on Imogene Pass, and I was a tad surprised to learn it was basically a Jeep road. We probably never went over 10 mph, and the road was super sketchy. I also learned that Ben is almost cripplingly afraid of heights - especially if he is not the one driving. More than once he got out of the truck and walked behind because he felt more comfortable.

The views were truly amazing and we were able to see a bunch of sights that we had not seen during our run, and from across the valley.

We barely made it to the summit before the weather came in. We had about 6 minutes to take pictures, have a snack and drink a quick beer before we heard thunder and figured we needed to get off the mountain.

Sure enough, within a minute or two of getting back in the truck it started to rain, and quickly turned over into either hail or snow, we couldn't really tell.

We were still taking it super slow down the other side of the pass on the way to Ouray, and took time to get more pictures.

It is still "snowing" and I think that is why I'm squinting at the camera

We got passed by a group of ATVs, and not more than 5 minutes later, we came across an accident. The last vehicle in line had somehow rolled over. 

Both Josh and Ben have EMS and medical backgrounds and they quickly sprung into action. The vehicle had been driven by an elderly couple and they helped them out of the vehicle and did an assessment. The man was 88 years old (!!) and had hit his head and possibly fractured his arm. The couple couldn't leave their vehicle up there since it was not a rental and they didn't have a way to tow it down. Josh ended up driving it down and Ben drove the truck down. By the time we got to Ouray it was HOURS later than we planned. None of the restaurants in town would allow dogs so we had to keep going to Ridgeway. We got pizza and beer from Colorado Boy and then headed back to the house.

I took Pika for a quick walk since I knew the sun was getting ready to set. I managed to have a tree branch stab me in the foot, so there was some emergency medical work done. Ouchie. We stayed up VERY late chatting with Josh on the balcony.

Monday (13,163 steps) - Slept WAY later than planned. Guess that's what happens when you stay up until almost 2 am. Heather convinced us to go for an "easy" run (that wasn't easy). She is lucky to have such a diverse and beautiful trail literally in her backyard.

Heather made a ton of food, so  I had a delicious plate of curry and spaghetti squash before getting on the road for the VERY long drive home.

If possible, the drive home seemed twice as long as the drive there. We were all a little cranky and tired, but we managed to get home before 9. Instead of cooking, we picked up pizza. Longest shortest travel/vacation weekend ever (I know I say that after every weekend, but this seemed especially short).

Stats:

• 165,650 steps
• 29.2 miles run
• 30 minutes of cross training (!)