Week in Review (June 6 - June 12)

Tuesday (11,090 steps) - Somehow, I actually woke up with enough time to get a ride done before work. I don't think I've done this in probably a year.

Work in the office. Went for a walk and did the rest of my cross training at lunch. Also - I "accidentally" realized that there were still charity bibs available for Cocodona?! The page said that they were "sold out" but when I went through the process, it actually let me. So I guess I am committed to raising $5,000 for my entry in 2024. I am raising money for Bigger Than the Trail through the Wander Project - donation link HERE. After work made a quick run to Costco for a few things. Yes, I still drink V8. (Fun fact, even in when I was 11-12 years old I used to have one in my sack lunch).

Met Ben for a beer.

Wednesday (17,041 steps) - Work in the office. I had a dumb mandatory meeting during lunch, so I had to put off my run until after work. It was raining all day, and I had initially planned on going to Big Dry Creek to run, but then I was scared that it would hail on my car, so I went home and did my run in a much hillier than ideal area. 

It ended up being fine and I did not get rained on at all. Also had fun making this connection with Olive:

Thursday (20,057 steps) - Work from home! I had another easy run on schedule, with strides. Went really well overall.

Took Olive for walk. It was REALLY humid, especially near the water. How am I ever going to survive when it finally stops raining and actually gets hot?

Met Ben at 4 Noses - he picked up dinner at Hops & Drops - so good! Really cool sunset - and very shortly after the rain started. Again.

Friday (15,351 steps) - Wash Park and coffee. Work was REALLY busy and actually went by fast. Have no idea what happened.

Saturday (20,973 steps) - Ben and I had a plan to get some climbing in. He suggest Mt. Victoria, which we did a few years ago. We actually got out the door on time - which is shocking. So headed out at 8, no traffic. I believe we were parked and ready to go around 9:30. A bit of a surprise to arrive at a full lot, but we DID have a later start. I've done this lower section a few times, and it never gets any easier. Over 1,000' climb in the first mile - and it actually eases you in. Woof.

Shortly after the turn off for Mt. Royal the trail gets a little "easier" - at least in terms of incline. Ben didn't super love having to crawl under this. Much easier for someone tiny.

We didn't get super high up before we realized that there was LOT more snow on the trail than in years past. (Even when we did this the first week of May years ago). We encountered a few hikers that indicated that we would be losing the trail a bit, and just to keep the snow line on the side and we would be fine.

We definitely had some sections where we were off trail - but we were able to find some footprints and other clues as to where everyone else was going.

Seriously, so much snow.

We hiked a bit more and... started to get snowed on. I did take some videos of it. Maybe it was more graupel than snow, but it did make the temperature drop quite a bit. I didn't put on my jacket, because I knew as soon as we moved faster I would get hot. I don't know where it came from, but I started saying "snow bah bah" and Ben said it sounded like something the Minions would say, so I made a meme.

Once we got past the radio tower we could finally see Peak One. See? Storm completely over with already.

Ben spent a few minutes trying to convince me that we should just go to Peak One. It had taken us longer to get up than I expected with losing the trail, and I was getting hungry so I said we should head down. 

Once we got to the radio tower, we made a mistake. And this is how lessons are learned. Even though we had come up "off trail" we opted to go a different way down - staying on the trail from the top until we lost it. From there we did actually end up "lost." Lost in the sense that we lost our sense of direction and had to pull out Gaia to figure out how to get back to the trail when we got low enough. This was very frustrating for me. There was way more snow on the mountain than we realized and we ended up at least a quarter mile off "course." So lesson to be learned - download maps on Gaia for any area you are in - just in case. Luckily we were in a section that had phone service, so we were ok. Anyway, took a lot longer overall to get down, but once we found the trail again, felt pretty good and jogged down. (As much as you can jog a really steep & technical descent anyway).

Headed to Outer Range and they still had glasses left for the "Keep the Glass" event. Surprising, since it was hours after they opened. We sat on the patio and it was pretty chilly. We were hungry, so also got some Birdcraft so we didn't starve before getting home.

Ben suggested that we stop at the Crocs store "just to look" and I walked out with these. I'm still anti-Croc and swore I would never get a pair. No comments necessary, I am embarrassed enough for meyself.

Neon green.

Stopped by the house to get Olive and my car and went to 4 Noses for one more beer. 

Sunday (26,515 steps) - Didn't especially want to get up early, but MORE storms were in the forecast, so we tentatively had made plans to be out the door by 9. We met in Boulder for the loop I like to do on Wednesdays. I don't typically run in Boulder on the weekends and forgot that nine million people go out and hike. At least these trails don't allow bikes so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

It looked like it was going to rain the entire time, but it never did, thankfully. 

I hadn't been intending to "work hard" during this run, but apparently we "ran" pretty fast. We also managed to run into Tyler, who had summitted Bear Peak earlier and made plans to meet up after. About a mile from finishing we also ran into our neighbor Kevin and his wife. Funny to see multiple people we know - and they all live with a tenth of a mile of us. The guys decided on Murphy's for a snack and beer. They were still serving brunch and I got this delicious bowl:

Took Olive for a walk and saw an owl! (Only the second one so far this season).

I think I did some deliveries? Picked up a slice of pizza at Costco for dinner since Ariel was working. Ben and I had a movie watch party and watched "Thirteen Lives" - which was REALLY good.

Monday (21,737 steps) - Work from home. Yay! Shockingly, it was supposed to RAIN, so I actually went for my run really early. I had 7 miles easy on schedule, and it didn't necessarily FEEL easy, but HR says it was, so I'll take it. I got drizzled on starting about 3 miles in, but it wasn't a true downpour, so it was ok.

Ariel went with me for a quick Olive walk. Did some driving after work, and another slice of Costco pizza for dinner. Another watch party - this time "Memory" (Liam Neeson) and it wasn't as interesting as his movies normally are.

Stats:

• 132,764 steps
• 33.13 miles run
• 30 minutes of cardio
• 50 minutes of strength training

Week in Review (June 15 - June 21)

Tuesday (17,486 steps) - Ben is a weirdo and apparently takes pictures of me while I sleep. Can you believe how bright my room is at 6:20 in the morning?? I really need to get some blackout curtains for my windows.

Work in the office, but not until after I took A to practice. Work itself was uneventful, although I did yet another "crazy" thing. I hired a running coach! I figure I've already spent the money on a nutritionist, why not shell out a bit more and work a bit with someone. I found a gal that is also an ultra runner and has completed one of the tough races I have on schedule this year. She's also fine with a "crash training" for Bigfoot. Excited for this!!

I went for a walk at lunch, that's about it. After work I headed down to Lakewood and went for a walk at Stone House.

Holy cow was it warm!!! And this was just walking!

So applicable today

After my walk, I headed over to Green Mountain Brewing for "run" club. I had told Mo I was planning on walking, and she was fine with that. Easy, but HOT, walk with Colfax. Then onto Green Mountain Brewing for a seltzer.

SO HOT!!!

Wednesday (16,614 steps) - Well, this was an interesting morning. Day one of my training plan with my coach and she has me still "recovering" from War Hammer. She scheduled me for 45 minutes on the Peloton, which is more than twice as long as I have ever ridden. I got up early and did every minute of that ride, and it really wasn't that bad! I definitely stayed on the low end of the resistance, but it was not as terrible as I had feared. I showered and took A to practice before heading into the office. Went for a walk at lunch, then took Pika for a walk when I got home. We all went up to Carraba's to meet up with Eric and his parents. Eric is the runner that Lesley and I ran with in Texas at Possum Kingdom that was coming out to (hopefully) finish his first 100 miler, and I had given him my number so he could reach out with any questions. His parents were super friendly and sweet.

Thursday (17,652 steps) - I'm always quick to say that if I'm spending money on something I'm much more likely to take it seriously. So I got up early AGAIN and did my planned run for the day. Before I hired Steph I had planned on taking off from running at least until the weekend, but I'll do what I'm told! I took a few short walk breaks around the halfway point, and outside of a ridiculously high heart rate, this wasn't as horrible as I had feared. At least it wasn't 100 degrees.

I actually stretched when I was done! Took Pika for a walk at lunch, and happy to see the sunflowers are coming back already!

Did an upper body video. After work, we headed over to Berkeley Park for "run" club and an event with High Lonesome, Altra and Tailwind. Ariel and I took Pika for a walk at the lake while Ben stayed at the shop.

Didn't stay too long, and picked up Qdoba for dinner.

Friday (16,336 steps) - Up early to meet the crew at Wash Park! Janet was back - I haven't seen her since she had her Achilles surgery - it was good to catch up. Headed into work - and we were given a half day for Juneteenth, which was a pleasant surprise. When I got home from work (early!), Ariel and I took Pika for a walk, then since we were home sans Ben, we watched a few scary movies. 

Saturday (28,269 steps) - I got up early-ish to get in my "short long run" - Steph's wording, not mine. The goal was an hour on road, with a mini goal of not stopping. I tried to take it easy, and the only stops I took were at intersections/lights. This definitely felt like it was on the edge of my abilities right now, but I'm glad I got it out of the way before it got too hot.

Tyler had dropped off Koda/Kevin while I was out running, so after I took a shower, Ariel and I took both dogs for a walk. I dropped off A at her friend's house for a birthday party, then Ben and I headed up to the lake to volunteer at the Happy Camper Endurance Runs. Even though the head volunteer had indicated that there wasn't going to be a parking fee, we had to pay to get in. Ugh. I'm not really sure why they had us out there, there weren't a ton of entrants. We handed out water, helped out at the aid station a bit and cheered on the runners. Crazy that people were out in this insane heat.

We saw Precious and Jake (Precious was running the 50 miler), and we were able to see Eric come in after completing his 6th loop. He headed out pretty quick for his 7th, and I walked him out as far as the ranger station. Ben and I finally headed out around 3 to Berkeley Park. Phil had asked if anyone could help out at their tent sale. I managed to even sell a few pairs of shoes! It was a busy afternoon, and we headed out as soon as the shop closed so that we could take the dogs out since Ariel was still at her friend's house.

Tyler came by after 8 to pick up Kevin, and we headed to bed fairly early.

Sunday (21,515 steps) - Up early to head up to Frisco for our mountain adventure of the day! Steph wanted me to get in some power hiking, with a goal of 400' per mile for about 70 minutes total. Well, the only way I was going to be able to get that "small" of gain would be to stay in the city, and I didn't want to do that, so I had in mind two different options to get some vert. What we picked/did ended up being WAY MORE vert than what she had on schedule, but I didn't figure she would mind. We got tot he trail head for Mount Victoria just before 9:00, and there were hardly any cars in the lot - phew! Our only goals were to get some climbing in, so we pulled out our poles and headed up. Couldn't believe how soon I was getting out of breath! Starting at 9,000+ feet with a lot of vertical will do that. Within just a few minutes, a group of people were coming down in a hurry - they told us that just up the trail a big brown bear had crossed the trail, so they were bailing. One guy joined us when we said that we were going to risk it. Sure enough, we saw the bear at one of the main clearings.

He was heading the opposite direction we were (in a hurry), so we continued on with Justin, the guy that had turned around. He stuck with us for a bit, but being from Illinois, he was struggling a bit with the elevation, even though he had done Mt. Royal the day before. I had done Mt. Royal once, with Ben, back in 2019. Holy cow was this a lung buster! 

Not tall enough to ride this ride

The trail split off to head up to Mt. Victoria. I had read some reviews that said there was still snow near the top, but it seemed so hot that I didn't believe it.

I can see the brewery from here!

There were a few sections where it was a bit hard to find the trail, so I was glad to be with Ben, who had done this before. There was, in fact, snow.

Even though there was a ton of climbing, we made it to the radio tower just below the base of Mt. Victoria pretty easily. We did have to stop a few times to catch our breath, but considering we haven't been at altitude, it wasn't that bad.

We had a quick snack while in this saddle. We were discussing if we wanted to just stop here, go to the "summit" of Victoria, or head on to Peak One. Our decision was pretty quickly made when we started the climb up and the wind picked up. It was SO FREAKING WINDY. Ben was even talking about putting his jacket on (which seemed crazy).

The below "video" shows just how windy it was on this section!

The way down was was really an exercise in remembering how to use my poles on descents so they don't get caught on anything and I don't trip over them. Next time I may need to make them a bit shorter, I think that might be part of my problem with using them.

We both managed to get to the trail head without falling, although I had a few close calls. I will never understand how I'm still so crappy at trails when I do them a lot. We headed over to Outer Range for a beer, then grabbed a slice of pizza from Whole Foods to tide us over on the drive home.

There was an accident on the other side of the tunnel, so we unfortunately hit some traffic on the drive home. Ariel and I took Pika for a walk while Ben stayed home to make burgers for dinner. I was EXHAUSTED after the weekend, so we watched a short (and weird) movie, and were in bed well before 10:00.

Monday (12,146 steps) - Work from home. Took Pika for a walk at lunch with Ben - and we saw all three owls for the first time this year! The baby is so photogenic!

After work I took Pika for a walk and the owls were still out - look how cute they are!!

Tyler came over for happy hour. Ben started to prep dinner before we went over to the school for A's track and field awards ceremony.

Ate dinner and watched an episode of Dexter before bed.

Stats:

• 130,018 steps
• 14.24 miles run
• 45 minutes of cardio
• 20 minutes of strength training