Because Being Ordinary Is Boring

Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Week in Review (December 23 - December 29)

Tuesday (13,778 steps) - Peloton ride and Olive walk before work. Went to the gym at lunch and did some strength training and incline on the treadmill.

Another Olive walk and time in the sauna.

I think Batman is screaming "MOM, WHY ARE YOU IN A BOX?!"

Wednesday (21,049 steps) - Christmas Eve! Unfortunately, my office was open. Ben actually had the day off so he went and picked up Dutch Bros for me. Took Olive for a walk and then I took her to work with me.

Happy Olive running around the office

It was a relatively busy morning for me but definitely slowed down as the day dragged on. Took Olive for a walk during lunch.

After work I dropped Olive off at home, changed clothes and headed to the lake for my workout, only to find out that the parking lot was closed?! I guess because it's a holiday? I had to park down the street and run over, but that worked out ok for my warmup. I had done these repeats before, but this was 10 reps of 2 minutes instead of 7.

A tank top. In December. On Christmas Eve.

Difficult!!! Ariel unfortunately had to work, boo. Some sauna time and Black Rabbit (?)

Thursday (10,943 steps) - Christmas! Ben made a big "mountain breakfast" that we enjoyed while opening presents.

Big gifts were a new Purple pillow (for me), Apple Watch (for A), random fun tools (for Ben), and sauna accessories (for me/everyone).

The cats also got new collars. Robin simply doesn't know how to be photogenic

I did a Peloton ride, then Ariel went on a short walk with me and Olive so she could start figuring out her new watch. Took Olive for a longer walk to the lake since the weather was so nice.

We got the finishing touches done on the basement/gym, which was fun and has made the space SO much more inviting.

Not really "important" to the basement layout, but these are all my awards/trinkets

Did some strength and more sauna time.

Ben made Christmas dinner even though A had to work. Ham, sweet potatoes, stuffing and rolls.

We wanted to watch Elf, but it is not on any of our zillion streaming services, so we settled for watching the Broncos game. At some point I took Olive for another short walk to get my steps in.

Friday (12,822 steps) - Slept in. Ben got us Dutch Bros before A had to go to work, yet again. Ben and I took Olive to the dog park.

Rails End on the way home. Sauna and another Olive walk.

Testing out Olive's new glow-in-the-dark LED collar

More Black Rabbit?

Saturday (46,176 steps) - Had a very long run on schedule. There was an unofficial run with Runners Edge at Waterton, so I decided I would go, even though I knew I would end up running alone. Ben went with me because my brakes are STILL squeaking.

Ben asked what color my leggings were. I said "Terra Cotta"

After I started, he dropped me off and then went to Schomp so they could work on my car. Again. For the third time in 5 weeks. The run itself, other than the few times I had to stop and use the bathroom, was pretty good! It was chilly, but I had layered well.

Originally, I had thought I would run to Lenny's Rest and come back.

I decided that wouldn't be enough distance, so I went about a half mile past to get in more vert, then came back the other way, for a loop at the top.

These are not "December" trails

I haven't done that many times and thought I was lost. I also had no phone service or maps downloaded on Gaia... Thankfully my memory was correct and I was NOT lost.

The run down wasn't terrible and I saw quite a few sheep.

Ben met me with about a half mile to go. My car was STILL not done, but we headed to the dealership anyway to get a status. Once we realized it was still going to be a while, we went to Torchy's down the street to get lunch. Thankfully, my car was ready not too long after we finished eating and we were able to get home before dark. What a long day. Took Olive for a walk, then used the sauna. Black Rabbit? I think we finished it.

Sunday (11,289 steps) - Did some cleaning and procrastinated a bit deciding what we were going to do for the day. Ariel went and got us all Dutch Bros (yum!) and Ben and I finally got out of the house and took Olive to Boulder for a hike. Since we finally got some overnight snow, Olive was VERY pleased.

We stopped at Rails End on the way home. Delicious snack since there was a BBQ food truck.

Yoga video and sauna. Started a new series, "Welcome to Derry."

Monday (18,017 steps) - Blah, back to work. At least I was at home! Did a bunch of cleaning in my office, finally got about two years' worth of filing done. That's definitely one of my resolutions this year - get rid of clutter and crap we aren't using! Took Olive for a walk and then I went out for my run. I really thought I had overdressed, but turns out the layering was pretty good and only the gloves were overkill.

After work I went to Target and spent way too much money on Christmas candy. Ben and I tried to go to Parry's but there was a wait, so we just went home and had leftovers. Sauna and some stretching. Welcome to Derry.

Stats:

134,074 steps
32 miles run
13.3 miles walked
30 minutes of cardio
79 minutes of strength (I've started doing planks again...)
180 minutes of sauna

Wednesday, December 24, 2025

Week in Review (December 16 - December 22)

Tuesday (10,631 steps) - Peloton ride and Olive walk before going to work. Went to the gym at lunch and did strength training and fast hiking on the treadmill with incline. Ben and I (mostly Ben) did the initial cleaning and organization of the basement in prep for my Chrismukkah present to myself. We got some Cupbop delivered in. Absentia, I think.

Wednesday (15,878 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. I think it was busy? I had planned on going to the gym at lunch and then an Outlook reminder told me I had a Qdoba lunch, woo!!! Home to let Olive out and get ready for the annual Runners Edge holiday light run - back after sadly skipping last year. Kristin picked up Tyler, Ben and me for the drive to the new start location of Crazy Mountain. After a week (or longer) of some pretty intense training, this did not feel quite as "easy" as a fun social run should feel! It's been insanely windy all week, but thankfully we only had a few sections that were windy during the run (and those felt like being sandblasted). Overall, a great time!

We stuck around for a beer and BBQ - plus the mac and cheese was SO good. It was a very late night for us, I don't think we got home until 9:45??

Thursday (10,885 steps) - Work from home. I had the sauna delivery scheduled to be between 8 and 12. I finally got a call around 11 that they would arrive in 10-15. They DID show up, but unfortunately they only had one of the three boxes I was expecting. UGH!!! They seemed to think that the other boxes could be delivered another day without me needing to be home and that dispatch would be contacting me.

MOM, TIME FOR A WALK, GET YOUR COAT

Took Olive for a long walk to the lake, then did the 45 minute Taylor Swift Eras ride - I haven't done a ride that long in AGES. By 3:45 I still had not heard from the delivery company, so I found all the numbers I could and made a bunch of phone calls and the only person I was able to get a hold of said I had to call my "local" warehouse and then proceeded to give me number with a Dallas prefix, which no one answered. Torchy's! Finished Absentia and then started a new show, Black Rabbit. Not sure if this one will stick or not.

Friday (11,629 steps) - Skipped the morning walk since I thought "just maybe" I would get a call and need to be home in the morning for the delivery. No one called, so when Olive and I got to work I made MORE phone calls and sent an angry email. I FINALLY after almost an hour got someone from the Denver warehouse on the phone and she said the boxes were out for delivery now. Ok, well no one called me, so I am at work. Not kidding that a few minutes into the call, but the guys showed up to bring the boxes. Ben talked to them through the ring and they left the boxes in the yard. Goodness. Took Olive for a walk at lunch. After work, dropped Olive off at home and then went to 4 Noses to meet Ben. Had an NA and tried out the new food truck. The brewery has stopped contracting trucks and have their own now. Food was pretty good - burger, fries and cheese curds.

Took Olive for a walk when we got back and then an attempt at movie night - the new Knives Out, but we only made it about halfway before going to bed.

Saturday (38,372 steps) - Tyler picked me up just before 7 to go down to Denver for our long run "with" Runners Edge. I use quotes because we were running longer than everyone else and starting early. I had some major GI distress a few miles in, thank goodness for a bathroom (!), but after that I had a pretty great run! It was definitely cooler than I expected it to be and I kept my jacket and gloves on the whole time.

Honestly, probably the most solid 16 mile run I've had in a VERY long time. Tyler and I had both thought we were going to breakfast, but everyone else had things to do, so we just headed back home. Ben had assembled the sauna while I was running (YAY).

After a shower I had the inaugural sauna session - I AM SO HAPPY!!

Olive is unsure what is happening but wanted to be nearby?

Took Olive for a walk. Did some reading and watched Gossip Girl while Ben went shopping. Pizza for dinner and we finished Knives Out - which got more interesting the longer we watched it.

Sunday (17,825 steps) - Lounged around and did some cleaning before we headed up to Boulder for our activity of the day - a repeat of last week, but going up a bit higher for more elevation gain.

The weather was nice (not windy, yay!) but I swear I am just colder this winter. We stopped at Rails End on the way home for a snack.

Did a yoga video and sauna time before dinner/couch time. Watched "Fight or Flight" - which was pretty decent.

Monday (19,958 steps) - Work from home. We decided to not get a Christmas tree this year, so I set up the little one that we used to use before Ben lived with us. I think it's adorable!

Ariel went with me to take Robin and Olive to the vet. Robin needed a follow-up from her eye appointment last week (it's MUCH better) and Olive just had her annual appointment and had to get some shots.

We stopped at Dutch Bros on the way home. Took Olive for a walk and then went for my run. It was low 70s - VERY warm for December. Unfortunately, it was very windy by the lake.