Week in Review (June 22 - June 28)

Tuesday (22,886 steps) - Work in the office. Went for a walk at lunch. After work I headed into Bear Creek Lake Park to do my run. I thought it would be "flatter" and the 45 minute tempo run might not be that bad. I was wrong. The whole run was basically crap and I had to walk a ton. Did not enjoy it at all.

Went over to Green Mountain Brewery since it was Maureen's birthday party - complete with homemade cookies!

Wednesday (20,044 steps) - Did a Peloton ride before going to work in the office. 

Actually did a workout at lunch in the office gym with Nicole! We did an upper body Peloton video - it was "fun" to do a workout with someone else for once. After work I headed up to Boulder since my run for the day was to hit 1000' of gain. I planned on doing the regular loop - and just head up Bear until I hit the vert I needed. At the bottom of the stairs on Mesa, I jumped down and rolled my ankle a bit - but since I was just hiking the hills I figured I would keep going - it ended up feeling "mostly fine." Ugh.

I stopped in at Runners Roost to say hi to people since it was run club night, and I only knew three people. I'd heard there had been a lot of turnover, but I couldn't believe I didn't know anyone!

Thursday (10,324 steps) - Did an INSANELY LONG Peloton ride - my coach scheduled me for 60 minutes!! I finished just in time to start work from home, then had my weekly call with Abby. Took Pika for a walk at lunch, then took A to the DMV to take her learner's permit test! Shouldn't be a surprise that she passed. I can't believe I'm old enough to have a teen driver in the house.

We headed over to Berkeley Park for the VERY LAST RUN CLUB EVER :( The store is closing/relocating because the property was purchased by greedy developers. A huge showing - and it was great to chat with people that I haven't seen in a very long time.

With the property headed into demo, we were allowed to "tag" the building - Ariel took it a tad too far... haha.

Friday (22,292 steps) - Sadly, my coach actually scheduled a run for the day. That meant I had to get up even earlier, so that I would have time to start my run at Wash Park and finish in time to walk it in with everyone before getting coffee. It really should have felt easier to run this, but maybe I'm still recovering from War Hammer? I dunno. Work in the office, with a walk at lunch. 

Saturday (28,271 steps) - Up "early" to run at Walker Ranch with Kristin. I had never been there, and originally we had planned to meet there in the morning, but she texted to say she was going to pick me up - score!  We accidentally parked at the upper lot that added about a mile on the end of each loop - but we figured that would be fine. There were not that many people on the trails, and it was BEAUTIFUL - we had lucked out and missed all of the forecasted rain.

We headed over to 4 Noses, where Doug and Ben met us. We sat on the patio since Doug brought Obi and it was pretty windy. 

When we got home I made the mistake of lying down and ended up taking a three hour nap that didn't leave me feeling refreshed at all. Took Pika for a walk and it was incredibly muddy thanks to the rain.

Sunday (23,879 steps) - My coach scheduled me to do an interval workout - 1 mile running and 1 mile of "hiking" - for ... 8 miles. I have never done intervals that had so much walking, but I figured I would run out at the lake - and it worked perfect. I actually was surprised that my overall pace for 8 miles was 12:50 - and I even had a walking mile that got under a 15 minute pace! Luckily I still missed the rain, and the trails weren't too muddy.

We went over to Berkeley Park for the last "hurrah" - a big barbeque. It was mostly fun, but there were a lot of people I didn't know there.

Monday (11,332 steps) - Work from home. Not much happened all day, although we hung up our new gigantic calendar.

Took Pika for a walk at lunch with Ariel and saw the owls again.

When I got off work Ariel and I got haircuts, then I took her out to the middle school parking lot for a bit more drive time. Worked on shifting between first and second gears and reverse. Maybe next time out we will go on the actual roads?? Took Pika for a walk and Tyler came over for happy hour. After dinner, Ben and I actually foam rolled for 20 minutes. It was incredibly awful and painful, but I guess that just means I need to do it more often. Watched Dexter.

Stats:

• 139,025 steps
• 34.91 miles run (highest mileage outside of racing in ages)
• 80 minutes of cardio
• 41 minutes of strength training

Week in Review (March 23 - March 29)

Tuesday (9,380 steps) - Work in the office. Nothing too exciting, except we may have "done a thing."

Wednesday (18,810 steps) - Work from home. Took Pika for a longer walk (on pavement) because the trails are still a disaster. Did a Peloton ride and then when I got off work Ben and I went for a run together. I ran pretty well and I was impressed he didn't make me feel bad for being slower, and there was very little complaining about running on pavement. Power Abs.

Thursday (17,567 steps) - Work from home. After I took A to school, I ran a quick errand...

Took Pika for a walk at lunch. We barely missed crossing paths with two coyotes. The second one was injured, and we watched him hobble away on three legs :(

After work I met up with Kristin for a run at the lake. She insisted that the lake wasn't that muddy, and the further north we went, it really wasn't. It was a bit further than I planned, but I was glad to get out and get 5 miles done after work. It's been really hard to get back into consistent training.

Met Ben at New Image for happy hour and to celebrate our six month wedding anniversary!

Power Abs.

Friday (9,562 steps) - Work in the office. After work I headed over to Berkeley to pick up a new shirt and somehow ended up being there until they closed...

Ben came by after we got off work, then we took Phil out for a beer at Call to Arms before heading home.

Saturday (25,096 steps) - Long run! Ariel actually agreed to join us, and we headed to Morrison to run the 10 mile paved loop. The weather was really nice and I actually felt pretty good this time.

The run was really pretty great until we hit a substantial headwind after getting off Dino Ridge. That part was miserable. We did notice that Green Mountain was taped off, so it's a good thing I preemptively planned to run pavement, as the trails are still REALLY muddy. Maureen really wanted to get her monthly half marathon, but I had no interest in three more miles. We agreed to meet at Green Mountain Brewing, but realized after arriving they didn't open until noon, so we headed over to New Terrain instead. Took Pika for a walk when we got home and Power Abs. Otherwise, no recollection of the afternoon...

Sunday (17,047 steps) - Kristin picked me and Pika up to go to Cherry Creek Reservoir to run with Alexa. 

I'll admit I was nervous for this one, as Alexa (and Kristin) are both faster than I am. Kristin did have Ringo, however, and while our moving pace was SUPER fast (for me), it was really good! Outside of getting "lost" and doing nearly a mile and a half longer than planned, it was a good run and at almost 7.5 miles, probably the farthest I've run with Pika!

Lounged around on the couch. Ariel went to meet a friend for the afternoon. We did our Power Abs video to get it out of the way, and then I picked up A. Tyler was finally back from Utah and he came over for happy hour. We were also treat to a GORGEOUS sunset. I love that we have a backyard now!

Koda and Pika - so pathetic!

Our fire pit area has been AMAZING during COVID

Monday (11,022 steps) - Work in the office. Power Abs and a Peloton ride when I got off work. That's about it. Boring day.

Stats:

• 108,484 steps
• 27.17 miles run
• 25 minutes Peloton
• 0 minutes rowing
• 50 minutes cross training

Week in Review (March 9 - March 15)

Tuesday (10,068 steps) - Work in the office. I had a headache for most of the morning and decided to walk and get a beer at lunch. The close places didn't have any specials that early in the day, so I walked over to Tupelo Honey by Union Station. I couldn't believe how slow they were on such a nice, sunny day. I hadn't planned on ordering lunch, but figured I should to help them out somehow.

This was PHENOMENAL

I picked A up from practice and then we immediately headed back over to Berkeley Park so she could exchange her shoes that were apparently a half size too big. After many years of wearing Brooks Pureflow, she has moved into the Hoka Hupana.

Wednesday (18,558 steps) - Work from home. Did a Peloton ride in the morning while Ben was at work, then we took Pika for a walk. After work we went up to Boulder for a run with Kristin. It was a fairly decent run, and thankfully, no mud!

Thursday (11,092 steps) - Work from home. Took Pika for a walk at lunch. Later in the afternoon Ariel joined me for a strength video, and after I got off work we alternated between the rower and the Peloton. I like it when A joins me for workouts!

Friday (15,755 steps) - Actually got up early (both to my disbelief and Ben's) to get a short run in before he had to leave for work. The run actually went pretty well, although it was a bit longer than I remembered and I barely got back before he had to leave.

Liked the lights on this house!

Worked in the office until about 1:15, then rushed home to finalize packing before Doug and Kristin came to pick up me and Ariel. We headed out right around 2:00. Once we got out of Denver there really wasn't any traffic. Somehow we managed to end up directly behind Jeramiah on I80 - random! 

Wyoming does have pretty sunsets!

We arrived at our hotel just after 9:15 pm, and had a "happy hour" at Kristin's hotel room.

Saturday (18,282 steps) - Up early-ish to drive up to the Tetons for hiking/snowshoeing. We had actually planned on going to Taggart Lake, not knowing that was basically the only place we COULD go, because they close the road past that in winter. There were a jillion people there, so we had to park on the road and walk over. Only Doug and Ariel were smart enough to bring snowshoes, the rest of us figured trail shoes with traction would work well enough. It did... but only on the lower sections. 

I apparently really like this backdrop - I have the same picture from 2018 when we visited in the summer

Not our snow angel

We hit a decent amount of unbroken trail when we circumnavigated the lake. It was a beautiful day out there, we hardly saw anyone. The drama ensued when Jeramiah and Ariel started to goof off and were sliding down hills (which I joined in once, as well). The second time J decided to "sled" down a hill he actually hit his tailbone pretty hard and jarred it bad enough that he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to run the race we had all come up to do! We stopped on the way home to eat at this little dive bar in Jackson, then headed back to the hotel. J dropped us off so he could try to remedy his back, and the rest of us drove to find the start line for our race, which we luckily found without issue. When we got back we decided to get dinner at the local brewery, which was close enough to walk to. Shortly after arriving the waitress came over to tell us that Ben had called to buy us all a round of drinks. It was very sweet! 

The food was delicious, and as we were leaving we found out he had also bought a bunch of dessert for us all, which we had to take home with us because we were too full to eat. (Carrot cake, double chocolate cake and cheesecake!)

In bed early-ish.

Sunday (33,356 steps) - The Drift half marathon! 

While Kristin and I had been running, Ariel and Doug went snowshoeing!

We went back to the hotel to shower and change, and then walked down the street to a Mexican restaurant for a late lunch. I got a delicious plate that had a chili relleno and cheese enchilada - and we all got margaritas! (Ariel's was more fun, having whipped cream on top). 

After lunch we went for a drive to look at the Fremont Lake - fun facts, 2nd biggest lake in Wyoming and 7th deepest lake in the country at 610' (!!!) 

No recollection of the rest of the day, other than we watched TV, drank beer and stayed up late chatting. Kristin and Doug are pretty fun road trip buddies.

Monday (6,934 steps) - Initially we planned on packing up the car first thing, but we decided to wait until after we did our Mountain Man museum tour. We walked over to Obo's for coffee and breakfast sandwiches, although we ate in the lobby of the hotel so we could ask for a late checkout. Then we went to the museum. Kristin had to arrange a tour since this is off-season and they weren't really open. The tour was actually really interesting, we learned about the time period of 1825-1840 mountain men who hunted beavers to make hats for rich people. 

After the tour we headed back to the hotel to brush up on road conditions. With I-80 closed indefinitely we planned on our backup route through Utah to get home. We left around 11 am, and braced ourselves for 9ish hour drive (instead of 6.5). We made very few stops, really only to get gas and food. We did stop briefly in Sheep Canyon, however, to get a picture of this guy:

I was able to text with Ben for a decent amount of the drive. We marveled how dry it was on our way when there were literally feet of snow at home. 

Even coming into town the roads were actually fine until we got to our neighborhood. The plows never did come down our street, so that wasn't fun. We actually had to unpack Kristin's car and put everything on sleds to get it home. Glad we made it back!

Stats:

• 114,045 steps
• 19.25 miles run
• 40 minutes Peloton
• 15 minutes rowing
• 20 minutes cross training