Wednesday (15,194 steps) - Work in the office. It had rained overnight and all morning so it was incredibly icy on all the roads. I had been planning on going to Boulder for run club, but that ended up getting canceled because of conditions. I had 1300' of vert on schedule, so I told Ben I was going to do repeats of the Standley Lake hill.
Since I would be starting after dark I couldn't park in the lot since they close the gates at sunset. I parked a few blocks away and thought I was going to die because of how slick the sidewalk was. The lot was also incredibly slick. I figured the trails would be better. No. I have never been on such icy dirt! I did one repeat that was incredibly scary and texted Ben and asked him to bring me my spikes. I did one more repeat while I was waiting for him to get there. Once I had the spikes on it was MUCH better. It was cold and there was sideways snow, but I've been in worse.
To get the vert I needed, I had to do a LOT of repeats.
I am still not good at running up hills, especially this one! But I did run up the whole hill on my last repeat, so that one was of course my fastest. I felt pretty accomplished after this one!
I know it doesn't look like much, but it's about 80' of gain in 1/8 of a mile |
To get the vert I needed, I had to do a LOT of repeats.
I am still not good at running up hills, especially this one! But I did run up the whole hill on my last repeat, so that one was of course my fastest. I felt pretty accomplished after this one!
Thursday (17,847 steps) - Work from home! It was still so icy that Ariel had a two hour delay for school. People were sliding all over the place. I was not looking forward to walking Pika at lunch, but thankfully, it warmed up enough that there were not many sketchy sections. I also had a 5/10/5 tempo run on schedule, and unlike the last time I had this planned, I opted to NOT run uphill in hopes that I'd have some energy left for the 5 part, plus the additional 20 minutes that I still had to do.
This actually went really well! I reset my watch and did a different route home that I hoped wouldn't suck as much, and it didn't. Overall, I felt pretty good about this one. Met Ben at Torchy's for a beer and to pick up tacos for dinner.
Friday (9,989 steps) - Wash Park walk with the gang! Got coffee after and then went into the office for work. Remember nothing about the day. Ben and I watched a few episodes of the new season of Ozark and Batman was being adorable like usual.
Saturday (33,973 steps) - I had a long run on schedule, but I didn't get up early for it. I would regret this. I had created a route up in Boulder that combined a lot of areas I normally run, but not necessarily all at once. By the time I got to the lot it was full and I had to drive around a few times to get a spot. It had already warmed up a decent amount and I overdressed. First, I got bit by an off-leash dog minutes into my run. Boulder has a Voice and Sight program that allows dogs to be off-leash, but this one should NOT have been. The lady was like "Oh my god I'm so sorry" and just kept walking. WTF? Then, I was already sweating, so I had to take my jacket off. Great, now I'll have an overloaded pack for three hours. But it was a beautiful day.
I had brought my spikes, and there were definitely areas in the shade where I could have used them, but I didn't want to take the time to put them on, plus there wasn't really anywhere to sit so I could anyway. I just used extra caution, especially since we didn't have any tape for my ankle :(
A lot of the trail was fairly runnable, so I ran what I could.
I had added in the Bear/Skunk/Mesa loop that we do on Wednesdays and intentionally picked Bear to run down because it's not technical. Of course that is the one section where I stepped wrong and mildly rolled my ankle. Once I got towards the bottom it was INSANELY muddy. Had I been here a few hours earlier it would not have been as bad. Then it was icy going up Skunk, but pretty!
By the time I got through the Mesa back to the connector I was DEFINITELY getting tired. I had hoped that most of the technical stuff was out of the way.
Still runnable in the trees since there wasn't enough sun for it to get muddy.
I had a loop to do down Shanahan South Fork that was INSANELY slick. I couldn't believe how sketchy this part was! Probably the section I was regretting not having traction the most. I sent Ben a message to let him know how much was left and settle in for the last few miles. I thought they would be flattish, but it was a SLOG uphill in a ton of mud. At least this part is doubletrack "road" and not single track. It was a mess.
When I finished I headed over to Bluegrass where I met Ben for a beer and a snack.
Sunday (13,857 steps) - Another morning to sleep in! Ariel actually agreed to go with me and Pika back to Boulder for a hike/jog. Pika loves it up there!
Thankfully, it was not nearly as bad as it had been the day before. Very little mud and not as icy.
Another gorgeous day! There were a ton of people trying to get into the lot when we were leaving and I had a guy ask me "do you really have a student driver" when walking to the car. WTF, who cares and why would it matter? (Yes, obviously do have a student driver, and yes, I have a magnet on my car. Not that it matters, people are NOT patient with her). Stopped at the store for a few things and then did my Peloton ride when I got home. Liked the David Bowie collection! As soon as I finished I changed clothes and then met up with Ben at New Terrain. They were SO CROWDED. We had one beer and then talked Tyler into meeting us at Luki.
Monday (16,605 steps) - Work from home! I had a tempo run on schedule that I was DREADING. It was supposed to be relatively nice, but I still wasn't looking forward to it. Finally headed out and picked a route I like that just has a few road crossings. The warm up went fine. And so did the first 18 minutes of the 20 minutes at tempo I was supposed to do. Then everything just kind of locked up. My legs felt like lead and my feet were both numb. I had to walk so much here just to get things moving again. Felt like such a disappointment. The last part of the run once everything stopped hurting was not bad. Ugh. Took Pika for a walk. THEN, I still had a low impact Peloton ride to do. I hope all this biking gives me stronger legs or something, haha.
Stats:
- 115,781 steps
- 30.72 miles run
- 180 minutes of cardio
- 0 minutes of strength