(17,456 steps) - Work in the office. I switched up my workouts this week, so this ended up being a run day instead of cross training. I had another "fast" run on schedule, so I went and ran at lunch. It wasn't great, it wasn't horrible, so I guess that's something.
After work I took Olive for a walk.
And discovered she is a bit scared of cows. Poor Olive!
Wednesday (11,650 steps) - Peloton ride before going to work in the office. Did some cross training before heading out of work early so I could head home for a quick dog walk before going to A's League cross country meet. She didn't get a PR, but she ran really strong. They really lucked out that it wasn't that hot and it wasn't as windy as it can sometimes get out there.
Shortly after the girls finished their run it started lightning (REALLY close by) and raining, so we got out of there pretty quickly. I was heading up to Summit County since I had plans to course scout the new Summit 200 with Chase and Casey. I was mapping to their BnB and noticed that there was now a Sierrra Trading right off the highway, so I stopped in. I got a "much needed" Rumpl and an adorable toy for Olive. I got dinner at the Pho that was never open when Ben and I would want to go there when he lived there. Delicious!
By the time I got to their place it was already snowing pretty good (sigh) and we spent the evening talking about the upcoming race. Going to be some exciting stuff!
Thursday (16,670 steps) - Did NOT sleep well, unfortunately. We still had plans to go out and run, which did not sound appealing with temperatures in the 20s and it still snowing. We had to drop off Chase for his segment, then we dropped off my car at the end of mine. Once Casey was at her route, I drove her Jeep to the start of my segment at Gold Hill. It wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it would be, but I still had my puffy coat on (over my pack).
The lower 1.5 or so miles were my least favorite (but only because of the weather) - it was just dirt road and with the moisture it was also muddy.
Two miles in, the dirt road became a nice single track, and even for me, was pretty runnable.
It was super pretty and obviously there was not a single other person out there (1. because it was freezing out and 2. it was a weekday and 3. off season). I got warm enough that I took off my jacket and just tied it around my waist.
Maybe three miles in, I arrived at a "filed of baby Christmas trees" - it was incredibly hazy and kinda windy, so I put the hood of my Smartwool on - which helped a ton.
Five miles in and then I ended up on the rec path by the reservoir. Maybe THIS was my least favorite part.
I was glad that I had my car at the "finish" - and impressed that I got a couple hours done in this weather. (Not that I don't run outside all year, but this was a bit early in the season, and somewhat unexpected until the day before I headed up). I went to the coffee shop at Outer Range to "warm up" with a Pumpkin Spice latte, and then headed back to the BnB. After I arrived, Casey mentioned they had a phone call to make regarding Katy 225, another race they put on that I had signed up for in December. Long story short, there was a HUGE miscommunication with the permitting agency and they had to cancel the race!!
A little awkward to be there while they were processing all this and writing up what to tell runners - just 11 days away from what should be their race start. Ugh. Needless to say, my Sober October (that I had actually started on September 25) to prep for the race went out the window. They had never been to Outer Range, so we headed there first - a bit of a bummer that the beer selections were pretty slim.
For dinner we went to the Arapahoe Cafe. It was delicious, and I wish I had known about it before, as this was apparently the last weekend that they were going to be open.
Delicious mac and cheese with pulled pork for dinner.
A bit of a somber evening, we didn't stay up as late.
Friday (10,047 steps) - Initially I had planned on maybe doing another segment of scouting, but the weather was actually colder, and the distances were shaping up to be a bit problematic - plus everything seemed to be a bit further away, so I opted to just head back to Denver so that I would arrive around lunch to take Olive for a walk. Appreciated having the day off, got laundry done and did some cleaning, unpacking. Met Ben at Parry's for Juicy Bits. Yum.
Saturday (21,761 steps) - I came up with the idea to have brunch since we "overslept" and I missed the "group run" with Terri, Larry and Tyler. (I did NOT miss anything other than 27 slow miles that I would have been very sad doing). We went to a new place, Morning Story, and it was delicious.
We never were able to look at the eclipse because we didn't have the proper eye protection, womp. I still had 6 miles I was supposed to run, so I decided to run from home to 4 Noses again.
I did NOT feel great during this run at all. Ugh.
Sunday (14,557 steps) - Took Olive for a walk and then went for my run. It was also not incredibly wonderful. After taking a long break from drinking, I always forget how even just a couple will make me feel not great. We went to Torchy's for lunch and later Tyler came over to hang out.
Monday (19,429 steps) - Work from home! Took Olive for a walk at lunch. I "should" have been having a really easy week running-wise, but with my cancellation, Greg decided to give me longer/faster stuff again. Sigh. I had 6 miles with strides to do. I did not hit most of my paces, but I was feeling pretty sick during this one and the only good thing was the house with the skeletons has them out again (finally!)
Met up with Ben at Parry's - hoping for Juicy Bits, but they were out again, sad.
Randomly, we decided to get Qdoba for dinner - we have not done that in AGES. It was really good, almost too much food.
