Week in Review (March 23 - March 29)

Tuesday (9,380 steps) - Work in the office. Nothing too exciting, except we may have "done a thing."

Wednesday (18,810 steps) - Work from home. Took Pika for a longer walk (on pavement) because the trails are still a disaster. Did a Peloton ride and then when I got off work Ben and I went for a run together. I ran pretty well and I was impressed he didn't make me feel bad for being slower, and there was very little complaining about running on pavement. Power Abs.

Thursday (17,567 steps) - Work from home. After I took A to school, I ran a quick errand...

Took Pika for a walk at lunch. We barely missed crossing paths with two coyotes. The second one was injured, and we watched him hobble away on three legs :(

After work I met up with Kristin for a run at the lake. She insisted that the lake wasn't that muddy, and the further north we went, it really wasn't. It was a bit further than I planned, but I was glad to get out and get 5 miles done after work. It's been really hard to get back into consistent training.

Met Ben at New Image for happy hour and to celebrate our six month wedding anniversary!

Power Abs.

Friday (9,562 steps) - Work in the office. After work I headed over to Berkeley to pick up a new shirt and somehow ended up being there until they closed...

Ben came by after we got off work, then we took Phil out for a beer at Call to Arms before heading home.

Saturday (25,096 steps) - Long run! Ariel actually agreed to join us, and we headed to Morrison to run the 10 mile paved loop. The weather was really nice and I actually felt pretty good this time.

The run was really pretty great until we hit a substantial headwind after getting off Dino Ridge. That part was miserable. We did notice that Green Mountain was taped off, so it's a good thing I preemptively planned to run pavement, as the trails are still REALLY muddy. Maureen really wanted to get her monthly half marathon, but I had no interest in three more miles. We agreed to meet at Green Mountain Brewing, but realized after arriving they didn't open until noon, so we headed over to New Terrain instead. Took Pika for a walk when we got home and Power Abs. Otherwise, no recollection of the afternoon...

Sunday (17,047 steps) - Kristin picked me and Pika up to go to Cherry Creek Reservoir to run with Alexa. 

I'll admit I was nervous for this one, as Alexa (and Kristin) are both faster than I am. Kristin did have Ringo, however, and while our moving pace was SUPER fast (for me), it was really good! Outside of getting "lost" and doing nearly a mile and a half longer than planned, it was a good run and at almost 7.5 miles, probably the farthest I've run with Pika!

Lounged around on the couch. Ariel went to meet a friend for the afternoon. We did our Power Abs video to get it out of the way, and then I picked up A. Tyler was finally back from Utah and he came over for happy hour. We were also treat to a GORGEOUS sunset. I love that we have a backyard now!

Koda and Pika - so pathetic!

Our fire pit area has been AMAZING during COVID

Monday (11,022 steps) - Work in the office. Power Abs and a Peloton ride when I got off work. That's about it. Boring day.

Stats:

• 108,484 steps
• 27.17 miles run
• 25 minutes Peloton
• 0 minutes rowing
• 50 minutes cross training

Week in Review (March 16 - March 22)

Tuesday (12,007 steps) - I was supposed to be working in the office, but since our street didn't get plowed, the Mini Cooper couldn't get out, so I was working from home. Ben and I took Pika for a snoooowy walk at lunch.

This woman was walking her dogs near us and they were off leash. The smaller one decided to chase a flock of geese and actually jumped off the cliffs! Lucky for him we had a few feet of snow or he might not have made it out. It was pretty scary. After I got off work Ariel and I alternated Peloton and rowing.

Wednesday (16,729 steps) - Work from home. Another snowy Pika walk at lunch. Peloton ride on a break and then after I got off work Ben and I started our Power Abs program. Ben hasn't done any form of cross training in a hundred years and it was hilarious watching him try to do stuff. I'm really happy he decided to try this with me! After I was off work we went to Boulder, thinking the trails maybe would be better and more packed snow. We were wrong. It was MISERABLE. No mud, but the snow was very wet and loose and running was basically impossible. 

We cut our run short and stopped at 4 Noses for a "St. Patrick's Day and Happy Two years of officially being in a relationship" beer.

Picked up Pho for dinner on the way home.

Thursday (18,330 steps) - Work from home. LONG walk with Pika on the sidewalks to avoid the slush. Clocked out a tad early to do my run and managed to run into Ariel's track team (although I didn't see her). The run was actually pretty great, with the exception of one mud patch. Felt good the whole time. After I picked A up from practice I did a Peloton ride and an upper body video. Did Power Abs with Ben after he got home from work. Phew!

Friday (11,368 steps) - Work in the office. I was CRAZY BUSY after being out on Monday and then working from home instead of the office on Tuesday. Ben came downtown to meet me for lunch at Rock Bottom. I can't even remember the last time we had a "date" like that - it was a lot of fun! 

Flowers from Ben because he knows how much I love sunflowers!

After I (finally) got home from work we did our Power Abs video and then took Pika for a walk around the block.

Saturday (22,040 steps) - A's first track meet of the "season." (I say season because it's technically off season for her school, but she's been training for months with the track club). Her meet was way down in Littleton and I wanted to get a run in before her race, so I dropped her off around 9 and then did a route I literally found that morning on Strava. I had stupidly glanced at the Highline while driving in and it looked fine, so I picked a loop that included a few miles of the trail. It was ok in some sections, but a lot of it was either muddy or snow-packed and icy, which wasn't fun. I started the run in my R1 but got hot after a mile or so and did most of the run in a tank top! I did recognize some streets as places I used to run when I trained with Runners Edge. The route I picked also managed to have all the climbing at the end and I was really pleased that a). I didn't walk at all the entire run, and b). that I didn't have any idea what my pace was (I had my watch on the map screen the whole time) and managed sub 11 overall pace. Woot!

Ariel sent me a text to let me know where the spectators were, but I couldn't figure out where she was talking about. When I was wandering around trying to find her coach, I ran into Megan, and we chatted for a bit. A's coach had her running the 1600, which she wasn't thrilled about. I was worried that the wind that had picked up would be a factor for her race, but she said it wasn't.

I knew that she didn't meet her time goal, but I thought she ran really well. She said after the race that she felt really good the first few laps but then was having some trouble breathing. We may have to look into it to see if she has sports-induced asthma, as she has mentioned this more than once. After she did her cool down we went to Breckenridge Brewery to meet up with Jandy (to finally deliver her Girl Scout Cookies) and Maureen. We only had one beer and then headed up to Edgewater Marketplace for lunch with some of the Belmar gang.

With the weather being so nice (seriously, I actually got a sunburn) we invited Tyler over for beers in the backyard.

Sunday (20,675 steps) - Drove up to  Boulder to meet Tyler for a run. Inadvertently, the store was doing their bi-weekly trail run, but I wasn't ready to go for it knowing how crappy the trails had been. But Nate did want us to get in their picture:

We had planned on 6 miles, and in my head, the loop we were planning was about 5, so we opted to do a loop around the lake first, to get an extra mile.

We then headed towards South Boulder creek path (that we like to call the cow trail) for the loop. 

Ben had never run over here and we promised him cows - and there were NONE. I literally have never NOT seen cows on this route, so that was pretty weird. Also weird was the pop-up driving range on the bike path near the highway. Of course Ben decided it would be a wonderful opportunity to hit a ball...

It was also at about this time that we realized this route was going to be substantially longer than 6 miles. Turns out it was 7.6... oh well. We had hoped to find a place in town for food and a beer, but nothing in the area opened until noon and we didn't feel like hanging out for an hour. We did check out the new Whole Foods, but weren't super impressed. Took Pika for a walk before the snow hit and did our Power Abs video. Ben got a craving for nachos and margaritas, so we did a carryout order from Chili's. First time in bed before 10:00 in ages.

Monday (10,021 steps) - Work from home. We actually got a decent amount of snow overnight so I thought it would be ok to walk Pika at the lake at lunch. I was wrong.

See? Lots of snow!

See? MUDDDDDY because it's been so warm

The walk was pretty miserable with the mud, and a good reminder that this time of year we just have to stay off the dirt. Sigh. Rowed a bit on my afternoon break, then did a Peloton ride. Ben and I did our abs video after he got off work. 

Stats:

• 111,170 steps
• 20.99 miles run
• 55 minutes Peloton
• 26 minutes rowing
• 60 minutes cross training

Week in Review (March 9 - March 15)

Tuesday (10,068 steps) - Work in the office. I had a headache for most of the morning and decided to walk and get a beer at lunch. The close places didn't have any specials that early in the day, so I walked over to Tupelo Honey by Union Station. I couldn't believe how slow they were on such a nice, sunny day. I hadn't planned on ordering lunch, but figured I should to help them out somehow.

This was PHENOMENAL

I picked A up from practice and then we immediately headed back over to Berkeley Park so she could exchange her shoes that were apparently a half size too big. After many years of wearing Brooks Pureflow, she has moved into the Hoka Hupana.

Wednesday (18,558 steps) - Work from home. Did a Peloton ride in the morning while Ben was at work, then we took Pika for a walk. After work we went up to Boulder for a run with Kristin. It was a fairly decent run, and thankfully, no mud!

Thursday (11,092 steps) - Work from home. Took Pika for a walk at lunch. Later in the afternoon Ariel joined me for a strength video, and after I got off work we alternated between the rower and the Peloton. I like it when A joins me for workouts!

Friday (15,755 steps) - Actually got up early (both to my disbelief and Ben's) to get a short run in before he had to leave for work. The run actually went pretty well, although it was a bit longer than I remembered and I barely got back before he had to leave.

Liked the lights on this house!

Worked in the office until about 1:15, then rushed home to finalize packing before Doug and Kristin came to pick up me and Ariel. We headed out right around 2:00. Once we got out of Denver there really wasn't any traffic. Somehow we managed to end up directly behind Jeramiah on I80 - random! 

Wyoming does have pretty sunsets!

We arrived at our hotel just after 9:15 pm, and had a "happy hour" at Kristin's hotel room.

Saturday (18,282 steps) - Up early-ish to drive up to the Tetons for hiking/snowshoeing. We had actually planned on going to Taggart Lake, not knowing that was basically the only place we COULD go, because they close the road past that in winter. There were a jillion people there, so we had to park on the road and walk over. Only Doug and Ariel were smart enough to bring snowshoes, the rest of us figured trail shoes with traction would work well enough. It did... but only on the lower sections. 

I apparently really like this backdrop - I have the same picture from 2018 when we visited in the summer

Not our snow angel

We hit a decent amount of unbroken trail when we circumnavigated the lake. It was a beautiful day out there, we hardly saw anyone. The drama ensued when Jeramiah and Ariel started to goof off and were sliding down hills (which I joined in once, as well). The second time J decided to "sled" down a hill he actually hit his tailbone pretty hard and jarred it bad enough that he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to run the race we had all come up to do! We stopped on the way home to eat at this little dive bar in Jackson, then headed back to the hotel. J dropped us off so he could try to remedy his back, and the rest of us drove to find the start line for our race, which we luckily found without issue. When we got back we decided to get dinner at the local brewery, which was close enough to walk to. Shortly after arriving the waitress came over to tell us that Ben had called to buy us all a round of drinks. It was very sweet! 

The food was delicious, and as we were leaving we found out he had also bought a bunch of dessert for us all, which we had to take home with us because we were too full to eat. (Carrot cake, double chocolate cake and cheesecake!)

In bed early-ish.

Sunday (33,356 steps) - The Drift half marathon! 

While Kristin and I had been running, Ariel and Doug went snowshoeing!

We went back to the hotel to shower and change, and then walked down the street to a Mexican restaurant for a late lunch. I got a delicious plate that had a chili relleno and cheese enchilada - and we all got margaritas! (Ariel's was more fun, having whipped cream on top). 

After lunch we went for a drive to look at the Fremont Lake - fun facts, 2nd biggest lake in Wyoming and 7th deepest lake in the country at 610' (!!!) 

No recollection of the rest of the day, other than we watched TV, drank beer and stayed up late chatting. Kristin and Doug are pretty fun road trip buddies.

Monday (6,934 steps) - Initially we planned on packing up the car first thing, but we decided to wait until after we did our Mountain Man museum tour. We walked over to Obo's for coffee and breakfast sandwiches, although we ate in the lobby of the hotel so we could ask for a late checkout. Then we went to the museum. Kristin had to arrange a tour since this is off-season and they weren't really open. The tour was actually really interesting, we learned about the time period of 1825-1840 mountain men who hunted beavers to make hats for rich people. 

After the tour we headed back to the hotel to brush up on road conditions. With I-80 closed indefinitely we planned on our backup route through Utah to get home. We left around 11 am, and braced ourselves for 9ish hour drive (instead of 6.5). We made very few stops, really only to get gas and food. We did stop briefly in Sheep Canyon, however, to get a picture of this guy:

I was able to text with Ben for a decent amount of the drive. We marveled how dry it was on our way when there were literally feet of snow at home. 

Even coming into town the roads were actually fine until we got to our neighborhood. The plows never did come down our street, so that wasn't fun. We actually had to unpack Kristin's car and put everything on sleds to get it home. Glad we made it back!

Stats:

• 114,045 steps
• 19.25 miles run
• 40 minutes Peloton
• 15 minutes rowing
• 20 minutes cross training