Because Being Ordinary Is Boring: November 2021

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Week in Review (November 16 - November 22)

Tuesday (5,824 steps) - Work in the office. Took Pika for a walk after getting home. She hasn't been feeling well so she needs to go outside more often. :( Also... I'm already over how dark it is at 5:00 pm.

Wednesday (11,811 steps) - Work in the office. After work I headed up to Boulder. Initially, I had planned to just go for a walk, but after I realized how cold it was I decided to just do a short run. Part of the bike path was closed for construction, so it ended up being a solo choose your own adventure route. Actually pretty enjoyable, though.

The store was doing their VIP sale/party, and I picked up a few things before heading home for dinner.

Thursday (10,234 steps) - Work from home, and it was a CRAZY busy day. Did a Peloton ride and took Pika for a walk. Then, I had to pick A up from school, take her to the post office to get her passport renewed. Worked a bit more and then had to drive her and a teammate to the airport so they could meet up with their team in Arizona. LONG ASS DAY. On the way home I met Ben at the new Tap n' Burger. Neither of us was even remotely impressed with this place. You now have to pay for street parking in the "new downtown Westminster," they automatically add 20% tip and the food was EXPENSIVE. We won't be back.

Friday (14,401 steps) - Had hopefully my last Friday morning run at Wash Park - I reminded Steph I like to have it as a rest day! 45 minutes that was... not bad.

Did the last 10-15 minutes with the group before going to Stella's for coffee and muffins for Christy's birthday! Work in the office. After work Ben and I decided to use our gift certificate for Malone's. Unlike yesterday, we REALLY enjoyed just about everything about our experience.

Saturday (27,795 steps) - Got up semi-early so that we could figure out how to live stream Ariel's race, the Nike Cross Regionals Southwest! We had major buffering issues, but it was REALLY cool watching her on the big screen. Not to mention, her teammate actually won the heat they were in.

These results are just for her wave. Over 1000 girls ran and a time slower than 22 minutes didn't even get you in the top 500. Insane.

Still needed to get a run in and it was supposed to get windier and colder as the day went on, so we rushed out so we could finish in time to walk Pika. I had mapped out a loop in Boulder that would give us a climb/descent/climb route. Really feeling out of shape since I haven't been concentrating on climbing lately. Run started out pretty warm, but a few miles in things definitely cooled down and I was glad I'd brought a long sleeve.

Decided that we would let Batman join us on the walk. He was meow-y the first bit (when in the neighborhood), but really seemed to enjoy the sun and lake atmosphere.

After showering we met up with Kristin, Doug and Tyler at The Bluegrass (to finally use my gift card from my birthday). Fun afternoon!

Sunday (23,920 steps) - Slept in (as much as I ever do) and then went for my run. I had 8 miles to get done and I created a modified loop around the neighborhood. The one bad part about doing a "road" loop near me is that the end is ALWAYS uphill. I was trying to take it easy, and for the most part, it wasn't bad, although my heart rate still doesn't reflect "easy."

Our walk with Batman had been so successful yesterday, that we opted to take him again! Unfortunately, we did NOT have as much luck this time. He had another "incident" in the backpack, which wasn't especially fun for anyone.

Batman expressing his displeasure with being covered in poop - I'm trying to clean out his pack as much as possible with poop bags. Sigh.

He handled the bath pretty well

I started baking my "famous" pumpkin cheesecakes, since we have plans to do an "early" Thanksgiving. It's really my favorite dessert ever. (And exponentially cheaper than buying one from the Cheesecake Factory - did you know it's over $60 for a 10" cheesecake?! I think it costs me about $12 to make two, but I'm not sure on the diameter).

Ariel invited a friend over and Tyler stopped by to hang out and have a beer. How is the weekend over already.

Monday (11,456 steps) - Work from home. Walk with Ben and Pika at lunch and did a Peloton ride. After I got off work I wrapped some Christmas presents while Ben and Ariel finished making Thanksgiving dinner!

Maybe the best cheesecake I've ever made. AND NEITHER OF THEM CRACKED!!

Stats:

105,441 steps
26.36 miles run
90 minutes cardio
0 minutes strength

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Week in Review (November 9 - November 15)

Tuesday (6,141 steps) - Work in the office. Did an upper body video at lunch and a 45 minute Peloton ride when I got home.

Wednesday (10,518 steps) - Work in the office. Drove up to Boulder after work for my power hike. It was my first headlamp activity of the season :( I actually saw a few other people on the trail that had no lights. Crazy. And I was only hiking, not running.

After, there was an event at the store with Amanda Basham, a Rabbit trail elite athlete. We were treated to a light dinner from RAD, watched Amanda's new movie "Relentless," and then had a Q&A after. Fun (but late) night!

Thursday (10,868 steps) - Work from home. An incredibly windy walk with Pika at lunch.

Can't really tell, but that's a bald eagle battling the wind

Friday (18,452 steps) - Steph had given me an hour long "fitness test" - basically as "fast" as I could maintain for an hour. Well, it was finally a nice, cool morning, and I was cautiously optimistic this would go well. The first couple miles were fine, I didn't look at my watch and things went well. Then I started to get pretty tired and things definitely got hard. I took a couple walk breaks, but I guess all things considered, maintaining a 10:30ish pace for an hours is pretty fast these days.

Things aren't 100% dead yet

First frozen hair of the year

Went to Stella's for a delicious latte after. I even got a chocolate croissant to eat when I got to work. After work Ben and I quickly wrapped Ariel's birthday presents - due to her plans for her big day we were going to give her stuff early. Found more fun wrapping paper this year!

Not pictured are the half dozen pairs of funky socks she got. Her other "big" present is her upcoming trip to Arizona with cross country team.

Saturday (24,930 steps) - Ben and I were up before sunrise to head up to Boulder for a loop at Walker Ranch. I had two hours on schedule and figured that an "easy" loop would take about that long. It was another insanely windy morning, but like I hoped, once we went down the trail we were pretty protected from the elements. The air temperature was actually a lot warmer than expected and I was borderline hot in my thin long sleeve and Rabbit flannel.

Turns out, I was right. This took almost exactly two hours. We had realized on our drive up that neither of us remembered our wallets, and we had to stop and pick up some food for Paula's baby shower. Luckily, Ben has Apple Pay and I have the My Colorado app on my phone that stores my driver's license - we were even able to buy beer. Thanks, Whole Foods! Got home with a few minutes to shower and then out the door to go to the baby shower. Ariel drove Ben's truck all the way there (and back!) - it's crazy that something like 12 miles away takes almost 45 minutes to get to. The baby shower was a BLAST - it was so fun seeing people I don't get to see often anymore. Plus, Brittney has BUNNIES - an they were SO CUTE.

We had a small window of time once we got home to take Pika for a walk, then to go out and pick up stuff for Ariel's birthday "party." She invited a few friends over for the night to play video games and have pizza, ice cream cake and mini Oreo cheesecakes. We also invited Tyler over for the evening. It was a great night!

The girls went home after 10, so it was a late night for us.

Sunday (15,950 steps) - Slept in!! I had 1:15 on schedule, so I thought a loop in Boulder might be good. We weren't in any rush since it looked like the weather was going to be pretty nice all day. Picked up coffee, then all of a sudden the wind picked up. AGAIN. Still planned on the same route, although neither Ben nor I was especially looking forward to it. The first mile was BRUTAL - running into a really strong headwind. Not fun.

Thankfully, once we got to Doudy Draw the trees protected us a bit, and that section was really enjoyable. Ironically, even the section I like "least" on this route, the cow path, was pretty good since we had a bit of a tail wind.

Honestly, one of the better runs I have had in a VERY long time - it's fun when that happens when you aren't looking forward to being out at all. We stopped at 4 Noses for a beer on the way home.

By the time we got home we showered and then played video games for a bit until her friend came over to join us for the birthday adventure of the evening - an escape room! We had high hopes, but we had picked the hardest rated room and barely got through half the clues before we ran out of time. Thankfully I'd purchased the experience with a groupon and hadn't spent a ton.

We went next door to Kokopelli for fancy pizza and a beer. I just can't get behind their beer though, it's just not great compared to the other local breweries. The food is top notch, however, and I love supporting a woman-owned business!

Pitiful attempts at playing "classic" Donkey Kong and Mario on A's new game system. I promise I used to be good at these things!

Monday (9,088 steps) - Work from home. Took Pika for a walk at lunch - shockingly, it was WINDY AGAIN. Grrrrrr. Did a 45 minute Peloton ride. After work we went to Ariel's cross country end of year banquet. It was a fun (but long) evening. I hadn't been in the middle school since pre-Covid and finally got to see A's name on the wall for setting the girl's school record in the 3000m when she was an 8th grader.