Week in Review (September 8 - September 14)

Tuesday (15,561 steps) - Work in the office. Also, the first snow of the year. Yes, I know, that seems crazy since it's been over 100 degrees in the VERY recent past. However, it was about 30 degrees when I got up to go into the office. Luckily the snow hadn't yet started, so it wasn't a total nightmare getting to work. I was not prepared mentally for a 60 degree temperature drop, so I didn't leave the office all day. After work I took Pika for a walk. 

Then I found out Ben had been hit by a car while he was working!! He will be ok, but pretty shaken up and worried about whether Moab 240 will even be able to happen now. UGH!!!!

Wednesday (19,415 steps) - Work from home. Snow continued in the morning and it was pretty cold again all day.

Took Pika for walks at lunch and after work. Nothing else!

Thursday (19,794 steps) - Work in the office. It finally warmed up a little bit, and I actually went for a run during lunch!! I haven't done that since 2018 winter when I was doing that 5K a day challenge between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was a pretty pleasant and fast (for me) run.

Walked Pika after work.

Friday (15,874 steps) - Work from home. Dog walks and some new beer. The end.

Saturday (32,065 steps) - Up early-ish to meet Tyler for a run around Superior and Boulder. The run started off exciting when I had to call the police about a crazy guy that was pacing up and down the trail threatening to stab people. Yikes! Jeramiah met us at the trail head but only ran with us for a few miles. He had started at 5 am and was almost done with his loop, so he was moving a bit slower. I'm not used to seeing so many people on the trails, but the weather was great and the skies were finally clear.

Took Pika for a walk and then met Josephine at Wonderland Brewing. I'm glad we are finally at the COVID stage where we can meet up with people again!

Ariel was running a XC meet, but since it was pre-state they were not allowing any spectators so that they could have all the runners and coaches there (a numbers thing, I guess).

Ariel had asked to be picked up late, and unfortunately I had taken a nap and missed the call that she got back hours earlier than anticipated. I made it up to her by taking her to Dairy Queen for a blizzard. We stayed up late and watched a cheesy movie on Lifetime.

Sunday (14,624 steps) - Had thought about running, but since Ben is still not able to do anything I figured I would stay at home. We went to the store and finally picked up all the beverages we will need for the wedding, did a bunch of cleaning, had Bloody Marys and watched TV. Outside of dog walks, I don't think we actually did anything.

I actually saw a snake for the first time in ages!!

Monday (22,062 steps) - Work from home, more cleaning and dog walk during lunch. Even though Ben can't run we went to New Terrain for run club at North Table. I figured he could walk Pika while I did a small loop. It's been a while since I ran this trail with a group, and I'm by FAR still super slow and sucky on the climbs. I was able to make up some time on the descents, so that was nice. As an aside, my calves were SUPER angry again.

It's not going to be long before we enter headlamp season again... boo. Stuck around to chat and have one beer. It was REALLY good to see people again. It's been so long since we all ran together.

Stats:

• 139,395 steps
• 23.2 miles run
• No cross training :( 
  

Week in Review (July 21 - July 27)

Tuesday (27,214 steps) - Work in the office with a walk around downtown at lunch. Met up with Tyler for another run at Apex. He was tired, so I was *almost* able to keep up with him for most of the run. We also saw a ton of wildlife, including a black squirrel, lizard, turkeys and deer!

Wednesday (37,850 steps) - Work from home. On our lunch walk break we saw "Alice" the owl super close to the trail. What a cutie!

Met up with Tyler in Boulder. We have been going counter-clockwise for months, so we finally decided to do the gradual sludge up Bear FIRST. I actually felt relatively decent on this run, and Tyler wasn't that far ahead of me. We got to our turnaround on Fern and it started to rain - and proceeded to continue for the remainder of our run. It was nice to not be on fire like usual.

 

Thursday (17,805 steps) - Work in the office, wander around on lunch. Decided to have an extra rest day, and we ended up having a porch happy hour with Tyler.
Friday (28,808 steps) - Work in the office. Went with Ben to New Image for "real" happy hour. They came out with some amazing beers this week!

Picked up pizza for dinner, then took Pika for a walk. We got a picture of one of the owls eyeballing a kitty on the side of the trail. As much as we love the owls, we hope the kitty didn't get eaten!

Saturday (30,552 steps) - Took A to meet her team for a trail run, then drove up to Boulder to meet Kristin. We planned on running 6 miles, ended up run/walking about 8 instead. Beautiful day, and luckily there was cloud cover for most of the day.

Ben, Ariel and I went to Hobby Lobby and got ideas for what we want to do for the centerpieces for our wedding. We even made a prototype - and it looks pretty dang amazing. (No spoilers, you'll have to wait for the actual wedding to see those pics!)
Sunday (13,410 steps) - Basically the first "real" mostly rest day since probably April. Only "exercise" was taking Pika for a few walks. We slept in, watched Birbox (Ben had never seen it) and did basically nothing.

Of note, my super tiny mileage for the day was still enough for me to officially hit the 1,000 mile mark in the #GVRAT.

Monday (12,955 steps) - Work from home. Lots of exciting packages in the mail! Most I can't share, but they include the custom cake topper we ordered and stuff to finalize our centerpieces. I did, however, also finally get some of my new face masks.

After work I actually ran near the house instead of going to a trail. Biggest reason is that I knew the goats would be out. Aren't they adorable?

I haven't done anything other than fairly technical and steep trail runs, so a flatter run with more... running, was a bit tough.

Stats:

• 168,594 steps
• 27 miles run

Week in Review (July 2 - July 8)

Tuesday (17,389 steps) - Strength class during lunch. Milk Market run club after work - although all I did was walk a few miles. Sandwiches were provided during dinner and I stuck around and had a beer with Lisa, Annette, Anne & Jenn. Fun night, and glad more people are starting to show up to this one.

Wednesday (21,064 steps) - Core class during lunch. Runners Roost Boulder!

A decided to do the regular trail route, but since I was unsure how I was going to feel, I opted to do a solo run on the cow path. The first few miles weren't terrible, but all my weekend miles caught up to me and the last bit was definitely not great.

Hoka hosted a BBQ, so we didn't have to cook dinner. Hooray!
Thursday (18,942 steps) - YAY for no work! Slept in late, and spent most of the day purging/cleaning.

Under the bathroom sink is so organized now...

Took a brief break to go to the grocery store, but otherwise, the whole day was spent at home. A and I took a quick walk to the lake and got caught in a bit of rain on the way home. Watched Olympus Has Fallen (because apparently we don't own Independence Day?) In bed early, although neighborhood fireworks kept me up later than I'd have liked.
Friday (27,943 steps) - Up early for some trail time. Drove up to Evergreen for a hike/run at Bergen Peak. Even though I have been on those trails at least a dozen times over the last five years, I managed to make MULTIPLE wrong turns and my planned ten mile loop ended up being over twelve. It was blissfully cloudy early, then the sun came out and it was WARM.

Stopped at El Rancho on the way home. I stupidly sat on the patio and ended up with a nasty burn.

Showered, more cleaning, trip to Yogurtland and Target and we got caught in yet another summer storm of torrential rain and hail.

Saturday (6,739 steps) - Slept in kind of. Now that we aren't running with Runners Edge, we had nowhere to go... There was supposed to be a "mile race" at Berkeley, although when we got to the store they were going to postpone. Sat around and chatted with Sully & Phil before heading to Lakewood for a BBQ and pool party at Jen's house.

Left there around four to go back to BPCO. Food, music and a rousing game of beer ball. Ben finally made it down (after apparently awful traffic in the mountains). By the time he got there, the grill was off so we had to stop and get him food at Torchy's on the way home.
Sunday (28,405 steps) - Slept in AGAIN. Man, I love a long weekend. I knew Ben wanted to get in a longer run, so we created a route on Garmin in Boulder/Eldorado. What a cool feature that I didn't know my watch could do. Create a route on Garmin app and then send it directly to your watch. It'll show you if you are off course and how many miles you have left. Of course the route I created was a bit wonky, and we ended up doing less than planned because it was a MILLION degrees. Of note, we did see our very first mountain lion on the mesa, and we saw Precious and Jake. So that was fun.

Stopped at Resolute on the way home, then picked up pho for dinner. Watched a movie and in bed later than planned.

Monday (22,541 steps) - New Terrain run club at North Table! A didn't want to go, so she stayed home with Pika. I met Ben there and we both decided to start early. He planned on the big loop, and I planned on the smaller "big" loop that I thought was around six miles. After some decently high mileage I was not super optimistic. Legs/feet actually felt ok (good sign, because the ball of my right foot was a bit achy after Sunday). It was super hot at the start, and thankfully, a few miles in the clouds came out! Struggled a bit on the big climb, but felt pretty good on the flats and downhills. Pace was relaxed. Once I was on the mesa it started to thunder and lightning, so I was happy to be on my way down. Rain started with just over a mile to go - helped cool things down.

Had some beers with everyone before heading home (way too late) for frozen pizza and chicken wings.

Stats:

• 143,023 steps
• 37.1 miles run (actually a lot of miles for only 4 runs & a week after an "ultra")
• Two gym classes