Week in Review (July 19 - July 25)

Tuesday (14,766 steps) - Work in the office. Went for a run at Bear Creek after work - it was hot, humid and a bit muddy. I think this was fine, but it was a week ago and I don't really remember. 

I met Ben for a beer at New Terrain.

Wednesday (23,412 steps) - Work in the office.

Went for a walk at lunch. First, I met up with Josephine for another book exchange, then up to REI so that I could return the Rabbit skirt that was too big. Thought about walking around the store, but it was already a long lunch, so I went back to work. After work headed up to Boulder to meet up with folks for a run - it was pretty rainy on the drive up, so figured it would be a bit of a mess on the trails. It was blissfully about 25 degrees cooler after the storm, but it it did rain a bit in the early miles and it WAS muddy. Super pretty though!

I had 90 minutes on schedule so I didn't have time to do Fern to Shanahan, so I just turned around when I hit 1,000' of climbing and headed back. Got back to the store in time to order my watch from Trish. Wooo, finally will be upgrading my Fenix 6S.

Thursday (8,610 steps) - Peloton before working from home. No recollection of this day other than I took Pika for a walk at lunch. Did this day even happen?

Friday (11,378 steps) - Wash Park with the gang before going to work in the office. Ben got off early so we met at a fancy hotel downtown for rooftop drinks. It was loud and they didn't have much good beer. And apparently the only picture I took was of this sink where the faucet was so close to the basin it was nearly impossible to wash hands.

Headed to 4 Noses and then eventually Salsa's for dinner.

Saturday (32,257 steps) - Up early to drive to Frisco to meet Terri and Larry for a Buffalo Mountain loop. I was a bit worried when I drove past Herman Gulch at 7:10 and the lot was already full, but I got to the trail at 7:30 and there was plenty of parking. We headed up around 7:45 and it was truly a glorious day. I've definitely always struggled with the big climb right out of the gate, but we pushed hard and it didn't feel as bad as it has in the past.

We really lucked out with the weather - it was overcast and cool. Somehow, even with Larry and I both having done this route multiple times, we got off course more than once. I swear.

Once we got up closer to Gore Range trail and the meadow area, we realized we were in for a real treat. Not that I ever push hard on these weekend runs, but this truly became a tour of looking at wildflowers and taking a ton of pictures. It was probably the most flowers I have ever seen up on these trails - not to mention, the most variety. It was spectacular. 

We stopped to have a quick snack before heading to the Eccles Pass, and finally saw some pikas and a big, fat marmot. First mountain adventure of the summer actually seeing some wildlife! 

We actually also saw an entire family of baby marmots - so cute! They were a bit too far away to show up in pictures, but it prompted us to look up some marmot facts. A group of marmots is a colony (Terri and I were right on that) and there can be 3-8 pups in a litter. AND, a marmot's life expectancy is 13-15 years. Pretty crazy. 

When we got closer to the blast zone/avalanche area it started to heat up a bit. We were definitely grateful that it hadn't been like that the whole time! Then, once we were back in the trees we started to notice that the clouds were looking a bit sketchy and it cooled off again. 

I always "forget" about this last bit of climbing heading back. I opted to NOT pull my poles back out for this section since it's relatively short. It was tough, but I managed to keep up with Larry.

We all noticed that there was a lot more downed trees than we remembered - wonder if it's just been really windy and tough to get the blowdown cleaned up? 

We were nearly back to the car, less than a mile to go, when it started to rain a bit. We timed it pretty perfectly though, and we did not get drenched.

Post hike/run selfie

We headed over to Outer Range for a beer, and it doesn't look like it, but they were PACKED. It was windy and the rain had come in strong, so no one wanted to sit outside. We managed to snag a partial table fairly early, which was nice.

Traffic was complete garbage on the way home - more like Sunday afternoon traffic than early Saturday afternoon mountain traffic. I stopped at REI on the way home, where Ben randomly met up with me. We decided to go to Odyssey for a beer, then picked up Chinese food for dinner. And here is a random picture of Batman, because he is adorable.

Watched the third installment of Flowers in the Attic. Lord, this show is nutty!

Sunday (11,967 steps) - Didn't really sleep in, but I stayed in bed a while. Ben picked up coffee and donuts for breakfast. I was not in the mood for a run, but I had a 5k on schedule. It was actually not as bad as I feared, and it was much cooler than it has been. Run was... meh. We met up with friends at the new food hall in Arvada. I wasn't that impressed with the food options, but they had some Outer Range on tap. Ben also decided my shirt looked like the wallpaper?

Resolute for another beer and then pizza for dinner.

Monday (8,960 steps) - Peloton before work from home. Walked Pika at lunch. Nothing else? Maybe I met Ben for a beer but I can't remember. 

Stats:

• 111,350 steps
• 28.09 miles run
• 75 minutes of cardio
• 35 minutes of strength