Week in Review (January 18 - January 24)

Tuesday (8,316 steps) - Got up early to do a Peloton ride and a quick row before going into the office for work. Went for a quick walk during lunch. Had to do another ride when I got home since I had 90 minutes of cardio on schedule for the day.

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. 

I know it doesn't look like much, but it's about 80' of gain in 1/8 of a mile

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!

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

Week in Review (January 11 - January 17)

Tuesday (10,527 steps) - Work in the office. Longer walk at lunch because the weather was nice. 

After work I rowed (for the first time in like 7 months), then did a Peloton ride.

Wednesday (25,969 steps) - Decided to get up early to get my run out of the way. First real workout with the new coach. I had two different runs to do, the first was a short warm up, then tempo, then cool down. The warm up and tempo went ok, but I had completely depleted my legs and I had to walk a large amount of the "recovery" which probably should have been more running. Then I had some run/walk intervals that were much better. While I don't like getting up that early to run, I do like being done with it before I even go to work.

Short walk at lunch. After work I drove up to Louisville for a community run/event at the Runners Roost for the community after the Marshall Fire. Since I had already run, I walked with a few of the reps that were there. It was a nice evening!

Headed home before it got too late and made dinner. Ben had a long day and had to get his run in after work since he overslept, so he was still running just before 10 pm!

Thursday (20,439 steps) - Work from home. For my run I decided to go to North Table. I had originally just planned on a small loop, but when I realized that Rim Rock was open I decided to check it out. All in all the run was ok, but it was a lot muddier than I like to run in - except the top which was snow-packed and/or icy.

Took Pika for a walk, and after work I did the 40 minute video that my coach recommended. I honestly didn't care for it, so I don't do it again. I think I'll stick with building stacks on Peloton - they really are a good workout!

Friday (10,980 steps) - Wash Park with the gang! The weather was much nicer than I expected after driving there and seeing how windy it was. 

Turns out, that was the nicest part of the day as the snow rolled in around lunch. By the time I got off work and was driving home, however, everything seemed to be melted and the only remnant of the snow was blowing off people's roofs. I picked Ariel up from practice and then had to pick Ben up from  work since his truck is in emergent need of brakes. We stopped for a quick beer at Odyssey on the way home. Loved that their Christmas tree was still up!

Saturday (35,568 steps)  - Up really early so I could drive Ariel to the airport. We had found a really cheap flight for her so she could visit her Granny and cousins NOT over Christmas. I had decided to drop in with Runners Edge since the weather was so cold and gross. The group is soooo much smaller than it used to be. I was not at all amused that it was A LOT colder than the forecast said - about 10 degrees. Ugh. I ran for a bit with Sheila, but my lack of consistent running was evident and I ran most of the day by myself. 

Originally I had planned on doing two of the 8 mile loops, but after realizing how icy and NOT FUN the conditions were, I decided to turn around after 7 so I wouldn't be tempted to not go back out.

Shortly after turning around, I noticed a small farm and took a short video of the goats and kept going. Then I heard them bleating behind me - they had escaped out of their yard and were following me up the street. I stopped filming help corral them out of the road. Luckily the owner was outside and he was able to squish them together and pick them up. Oh my lord they were SO INCREDIBLY  CUTE.

On the way out there had definitely been some areas where the route markings were not very clear. Alex had marked it the day before and thanks to the snow and overnight freeze, some of them were not visible. I figured it would be easy to figure out going back... turns out I was wrong. I missed a turn and by the time I realized that things didn't look familiar I was pretty far off course. I pulled up Sheila's strava and created a route so I could figure out where I was and how to get back on track. Genius thinking on my part, and I'm glad I pay for the premium membership!

My run that I thought was going to be about 14 miles ended up being nearly 15.5. Ooops. I had finally started to warm up a bit but left all my layers on. Got back to the start and was surprised to see Sheila and a few others still there. I got a smoothie before heading home. SO MUCH DRIVING TODAY. Took a shower, then Ben and I went to the new(ish) Mexican restaurant up the street. I've decided cheese enchiladas are the best food after a long run! Ben's truck was finally ready to pick up around 5, and then we headed to Kokopelli for the anniversary party and met up with Kristin and Doug. It was NUTSO busy.

Scary sight to see - very hungry animals!

Ben made burgers for dinner.

Sunday (12,293 steps) - Tried to sleep in. Failed. Did my Peloton ride before driving up to El Dorado to do a hike/jog with Pika. Had to wait a bit to get a parking spot - I think because the weather was nice, but also because so many of the trailheads are closed right now, either because of the fire or because of mud. The mud was only bad on the trail closest to the parking lot and a bit up near the top, otherwise I think it had dried out pretty well. 

Pika was still a little sluggish - but not nearly as bad as last weekend.

We met Ben at Resolute for a beer. Normally we aren't too crazy about their beers, but they had a few new ones on tap that were pretty good.

We had Pho for dinner and watched the newest Resident Evil movie. It was actually pretty good!

Monday (17,274 steps) - Another failed attempt at sleeping in. 

Pika REALLY wanted to be let outside to chase that bunny

I had 45 minutes of strength training on deck, so I created a stack of three videos - lower body/upper body/core. I had never done any of these particular ones and they were all REALLY good. Ended with a nice stretch after. Solid!

After a quick lunch we took Pika for a walk. The lake is still REALLY muddy. Ugh, I hate this time of year.

We took down the Christmas tree (yes, finally), ran some errands, and then went to Odyssey for a quick beer. We had plans to meet up with Phil at New Terrain for a run at North Table for the full moon. I still had "sorta" speed work on schedule, so I started early and did my run on the flat canal trail. I managed to hit some paces in the mid 7's!! I hate running fast, but I like feeling fast, haha.

Moon was super cool looking, but of course photos don't do it justice

It was still nice outside, so we sat on the patio at one of the fire pits and had a beer. Went home and had dinner and then had to leave around 9 to pick Ariel up at the airport. Thankfully, her flight landed early, but we still didn't get home until after 11. I'm too old for this.

Stats:

• 133,050 steps
• 34.26 miles run
• 65 minutes of cardio
• 102 minutes of strength training

Spitfire 25K (Race Recap)

Menan, ID

Saturday, April 17

Weather - Cold and windy at the start, sunny and warm at the end

After the fun racecation I had going to The Drift in Wyoming, I'd been half-heartedly looking for something "fun" to do out of state. Of course the problems are finding something that fits into our schedule, doesn't cost a ton, and somewhere we would feel comfortable traveling. After going to Omaha and realizing that flying seemed fairly safe, I started looking for something. After checking out airfare, I landed on the Spitfire (Ultra) 25K in Menan, Idaho. We signed up ten days before the race, so we didn't have much time to plan going into it, but it was "only" a 25K, so how much planning did we even really need?

Race Day

We arrived at the start line with about 40 minutes to spare. I wanted to get my bib and use the bathroom, and then get everything ready to go for the 7:40 mandatory meeting. We got our bag/bib (nothing exciting, not even a shirt!) and headed back to the car to get everything ready. All we really had to do was put water in our packs and decide how many layers we were planning on wearing. In my old age I REALLY hate to be cold, so I planned to wear my R1, even though I knew it would warm up pretty quick.

We headed back over to the start and attending the meeting, which was actually helpful - I liked to be walked through the general direction of the course and hear about markings. As confusing as the course looked on paper, it seemed like it would be pretty simple once we got out there.

I opted to use the bathroom one more time before we started. Lined up towards the back with a minute or so to spare - with Ben heading closer to the front.

There was a little bit of a bottleneck right at the start as we all had to go through a fairly narrow gate. Then we were off! While the race director had emailed me the caltopo and I had put it into my watch, I really had no idea what the course was like, or what to expect in terms of terrain. Except of course, that we were going to "dance on the rims and in the belly of the worlds largest tuffed volcano!" (From their website).

So the course started out on a wide dirt trail, and headed UP. Like up the side of the volcano. I figured it was going to be a big climb, and I thought that maybe there would be, oh I don't know, switchbacks or something, but no. Straight up. I made it like two minutes before I started mall walking. Holy crap this was hard. And it was COLD. I was glad I was wearing gloves and that I had the warmer jacket on. OMG, how long was this hill?? I think I'm going to pass out and I know I'm breathing really hard. 

Finally get up to the top of the hill after a really steep section of rock that even had a chain to help keep people upright. Made sure to note the amount of elevation gain and distance. 649' and .79 miles. OK, unless my watch is wrong, I didn't imagine how tough that first climb was! Pause for a minute to get a picture of the adorable llama before heading out for my first jaunt in the caldera. 

We ran along the rim, down a pretty steep descent (so I was penguin-ing down) and then across the caldera! This section was pretty cool as we were in a runnable area that had sagebrush and single track. 

At the far end of the caldera we had to run up a hill and then we had a rocky section that I wasn't expecting that included some bouldering and climbing. It was really pretty, but I was really beginning to wonder what I had gotten myself into...

When we looped back around we were at the llama, and then we ran down the hill and through the caldera again, only this time when we emerged, we turned to the left instead. We had another pretty big climb to get back to the rim.

We were on a wider dirt trail again, and ran up to the radio towers before making a sharp right turn and heading down a pretty steep descent. The views were amazing from this section and I really enjoyed breathing easier and running down. Of course in the back of my mind, I'm remembering that we will have to come back up this later...

When we got to the bottom we had a nice, rolling section of single track that I ran 90% of. We got to the first aid station, and I didn't stop since I had barely used any of my water. I had eaten a few pretzels on the climb, into the aid station, but I still had plenty of food left. After leaving the aid station we had about 3/4 of a mile to run on road, which was actually nice because it was a gradual downhill and not at all technical. This race has a fall race and a spring race, and apparently the spring race changed a tad, so in this section my watch beeped that I was off course, but I knew better. We ran along a farm, which smelled pretty terrible, and then once we exited there were a few volunteers with a radio. We head up into the hills towards the other volcano. At this point, about mile 7, I stupidly thought this was when we were starting our loop around the rim. I was wrong.

I was playing cat and mouse with a few runners along the section by the water. They stopped to walk and eat, and I never saw them again (until the finish). Just before mile 8 we had a pretty big hill - this was obviously up the side of the volcano, and I saw the faster runners bombing the downhills and I was wondering when I would see Ben. Had I been even a few minutes faster, I would have missed him! I was at about 8.5 miles in and he was just under 11 miles, and after I saw him it was less than a quarter of a mile until he started the loop around the rim. 

I really liked the section around the south rim. It was wide and runnable and a gradual downhill. There was an aid station on the far end of the rim and I had thought about filling up my water, but I still had a decent amount left and they didn't have cups for coke, so I breezed through. I passed another few people I had been trying to catch and never saw them again after that. There was another climb out, which I ran about half of, and then I had to stop for a second time to dump sand out of my shoe. I'm glad I had asked Ben what mile he was at because I was at the same mileage at the same point and knew exactly what I had to go (or so I thought).

I was getting a little hot and tired, and I kept thinking that the people I had passed at the aid station were going to come out of nowhere and pass me, but they never did. The only people who did pass me were people on the second loop of their 50K. (Which, by the way, I can't believe that anyone did. I would never have been able to go out and do another loop after knowing what it was like). The section by the farm wasn't as smelly as the last time, and even the gradual uphill on the road wasn't terrible. I did stop at the aid station for a cup of ginger ale and a few small pickles. At this point, I was already past mile 14 on my watch, and I asked how far to the aid station. OVER THREE MILES. WTF. And "it's mostly uphill." My fears were realized! That nice downhill at mile 3? We'd be going up that now... I had secretly hope that we would be veering off somewhere before then. I was wrong. It was just as steep as I feared and I really didn't like this section. I was FINALLY not happy and I was just wanting to be done, and these stupid hills never ended!!

R is for RIDICULOUS!

FINALLY, I got to the turn at the top of the hill.  Unfortunately, by now, my legs were toast. The volunteers said "now you get to run the pretty part!" Well, the pretty part was actually weirdly technical, and my legs were jello. I was more just stumbling along and trying not to fall. When I got to the very last set of volunteers, I knew it was .8 miles to the finish (because I had been smart enough to look at the start of the course). It was even steeper on the downhill, and I really struggled at the top because the rocks were covered with sand and it was SO STEEP. Finally, with maybe a half mile to go, I was able to run all the way into the finish. Ben at least got a picture of me crossing the line. Woot!

No beer at the finish, supposedly they had a potato bar, but I didn't feel like eating anything. I downed a bottle of Powerade and took a La Croix for the road.

This was NOT an easy course! I felt some redemption when Ben and I compared stats and we both had nearly exact mileage and elevation gain (which ironically, was about 1,000' more than the Caltopo the RD had sent me!)

Official Time - 4:27:47

Garmin Time - 4:27:46

Garmin Distance - 17.74 miles

Garmin Pace - 15:06

Elevation Gain - 3,509'

Mile 1 - 22:56

Mile 2 - 15:53

Mile 3 - 16:26

Mile 4 - 11:07

Mile 5 - 12:07

Mile 6 - 11:08

Mile 7 - 12:37

Mile 8 - 14:08

Mile 9 - 19:16

Mile 10 - 13:34

Mile 11 - 13:31

Mile 12 - 12:20

Mile 13 - 14:10

Mile 14 - 13:50

Mile 15 - 15:55

Mile 16 - 19:08

Mile 17 - 18:54

Mile 17.74 - 14:38

We left the race and headed into Idaho Falls where we had a delicious lunch, and "ok" beer.

Thoughts:

• Very low-key race. Our $80ish (last minute) race entry didn't give us anything except the race and a buff. No shirt, or medal, although we did get a cowbell at the finish. 
• Course was very well-marked, although I still felt better having the route loaded into my watch.
• Course was also not quite what was advertised, so be prepared for... surprises in terms of elevation gain and mileage.
• Overall, a good time, and the race director was very responsive to the questions that I emailed her.