Week in Review (August 18 - August 24)

Tuesday (11,203 steps) - Peloton and walk with Ben and Olive before going to work. Gym at lunch for strength training and a treadmill walk.

Took Olive for another walk while Ben made tacos for dinner. More Marshals. 

Wednesday (20,524 steps) - Long walk with Olive to the lake before work. We saw an adorable raccoon!

I was supposed to run "rolling hills" - but we don't really have those, at least not near the house. Decided to run at Rocky Flats, even though it is probably more flat than running by the house, but at least it was somewhere different! ZERO people out, which is always nice.

Took Olive for another walk after I ate lunch. Hot. After work I did a delivery waiting for Ben to get home. Dinner and more Marshals.

Thursday (16,992 steps) - Since I had to go into work (dumb mandatory meetings are on Thursdays for the next three weeks), I got up early for my run. I GUESS IT WAS FINE.

Olive walk before going to work. Headed into the office since I needed to go to a lunch meeting. Sneaked down to the gym for a quick strength workout. Meeting was boring, but the food was good.

Went for a walk afterwards. Ended up having some sort of last-minute things that caused me to get out a little late. ANNOYING. Torchy's for dinner and Marshals. 

Friday (16,911 steps) - Hadn't really planned on going, but since I woke up in time, Olive and I went to Wash Park. She was slow and it was a little frustrating that she didn't seem to want to be keeping up with people. To the office. The new paralegal actually BROUGHT HER CAT to work. Sebastian was a gentleman and I never heard a peep from him the whole day. How could anyone NOT love this kitty??

Olive and I went for a late morning walk before it got too much warmer. We left after lunch to finish the day remote. Had to quickly pack everything for the weekend since I neglected to do it earlier in the week. We headed out around 2 pm and I worked in the truck (thank you, Starlink) and we were at Outer Range in time to finish out the workday. We ordered Ollie's for pickup and thankfully we were at the campsite during daylight to get everything set up - just in time for a little rain!

Ben got Olive her own puppy burger!

Took Olive for a walk around our campground loop - surprised at the number of vacant spots!

The rain held off and we had a nice night sitting outside

Probably went to bed about the same time we normally would at home.

Saturday (14,243 steps) - Up with the sun. Took Olive for a walk around the loop while Ben got coffee ready. Ben had mapped a route up by Peak 10 for us to do now that the road was open. We stopped at King Soopers and I ran in to buy some donuts and a coffee. The drive up took a bit longer than expected and Ben mentioned that it was more technical and challenging than he thought it would be.

We finally got to where we were going to start around noon? The start was just on the road, so it wasn't too bad and it was easy to follow.

You can see Ben's truck way down there

Still would like to know what this building is

We stopped less than a mile up to give Olive water - there was nothing for her drink up this high with how dry our winter was.

We got to the saddle at the base of Peak 10 and there was a group of Broncos that had driven up. We talked with them for a few minutes before heading up.

On top of the world, seemingly! It didn't take too long to get to the summit. 

We took a minute to sit and give Olive more water. The plan was to continue on to Peak 9 and then head back to the truck. As we looked around it seemed that there was a good chance of getting stuck in some nasty weather, so we chose to start the descent down (at least to get off the peak) before deciding what we were going to do next.

You can definitely see the weather coming in - we were not sure what direction it was going to be going.

It was hard to see the trail on the way down and I was regretting that I was wearing my H1's and not something with better tread. It was incredibly steep and there was a lot of gravel and loose rocks that made it tough to navigate. Ben was leading and course-finding and I was bringing up the rear behind Olive.

We probably got halfway down when the weather took a turn and we decided to just continue down and not risk going up Peak 9 - especially with the risk of lightning/thunder.

Olive did really well! Until there was a section when I kicked a rock loose and a small avalanche of rocks came down behind her and then she was scared to go. Thankfully she continued on fine once I got ahead of her for a bit.

Olive really blends in

I was not having fun trying to get down this AT ALL.

Once we got down to the field/valley - I took a picture of what we just came down. This sucked.

We weren't really on a trail at this point and the terrain really reminded me a lot of Wales with marshy/boggy sections. I rolled my ankle, thankfully not too far from the truck. What a bust of a day, always an adventure.

Started to rain basically right when we got back to the truck and then it was time to head back down. Thanks to the turn in the weather we only saw one vehicle on the way down. The highlight of the drive was seeing this cute guy!

On to Outer Range for lunch and meet up with Lee. Someone was very exhausted after our excursion!

Very quick trip to Safeway to pick up some food for dinner and more ice. Back to the campsite and we spent the afternoon/early evening under the canopy. We took Olive for a walk around the loop before the sun set. Another gorgeous evening!

Ben cooked the hot dogs for dinner. It was raining on and off and finally I got cold so decided it was time for bed.

Sunday (17,836 steps) - Somehow we slept until almost 8?? Took Olive for a walk around the loop while Ben got coffee ready. With checkout being at 11 we didn't think we would have enough time for a hiking adventure. Ben said he would get the loading up started while I went for a run on the perimeter trails. I had mapped out a 2.7ish mile loop, but I was feeling good once I was out there and ended up doing closer to 4 miles.

By the time I got back Ben pretty much had everything done. We dawdled for a bit since we had about a half hour until we needed to leave. Stopped at Outer Range. I got a delicious latte and we both got breakfast burritos. Missed our window to avoid traffic and it was well over two hours of suffering to get home. We moved quickly to get everything unloaded. Up to 4 Noses for happy hour. I honestly can't even remember the last time I was there - I think it has been months. Still the same meh NA. I reminded Ben to not renew my mug club since I'm at many months since I even had beer last! We stopped at Costco to pick up a pizza for dinner and it was a total cluster. Took Olive for a walk before watching the newest Reacher and starting in on season 3 of Lioness. 

Monday (18,623 steps) - Went for my run early since it was supposed to be sweltering, AGAIN.

It was... fine. Clocked in and then the internet went out not too long after, so I took Olive for a walk while I was waiting for that to resolve. Ben and I took Olive out for another walk at lunch. Ben ordered in Cupbop for dinner.

Finished up all the available Lioness episodes. 

Stats:

• 116,332 steps
• 19.13 miles run
• 16.63 miles walked
• 30 minutes of cardio
• 50 minutes of strength
• 0 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (May 21 - May 27)

Tuesday (14,182 steps) - Peloton before going to work. Strength training during lunch. Did some driving after work. Nothing else?

Wednesday (23,553 steps) - Work in the office. Headed to Louisville after work to meet up with Ben for my workout. The run wasn't too bad, I guess.

We were able to stick around the store long enough for a beer and then went to Ariel's end of year soccer banquet at Dave and Buster's. Thankfully, they catered in dinner, we were starving after our run.

Ariel got multiple awards, from most improved to "some saves" (ie, she was goalie in a few of the JV games).

They did a really cute slideshow of all the seniors - baby pictures and pictures from the season with the ukulele version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." I didn't cry at her graduation, but this made me tear up. Cannot believe she is completely done with high school!!

Thursday (22,259 steps) - Work from home. Ben and I went for an early run before it got hot. Saw our first snake of the season - it was huge and I almost stepped on it!

Took Olive for a walk after that and saw two owls!

Some driving. Ben and I went to 4 Noses for happy hour, then we stopped at the store on the way home to pick up groceries for camping.

Friday (16,598 steps) - Almost everyone was out of town for the holidays, so we cancelled our morning walk. Worked in the office, and thankfully the office closed at three so we could get a head start on our weekend. I had to do some super quick packing, but we were on the road by 3:30. Unfortunately, we still hit traffic in the mountains. Of course our first stop was Outer Range.

We almost always arrive in the dark, so it was a treat to get everything set up during daylight! 

We realized shortly after arriving that Ben's plan of having us relatively close to the bathroom wasn't going to matter - all the bathrooms were closed and the closest port-o-potty was a tenth of a mile down the road. Oh well. We grilled burgers for dinner.

Saturday (26,828 steps) - We had plans to do a big run, and we knew that it would be too much for Olive. With the cooler temperatures, we were planning on leaving her in the camper with a window cracked and food/water. (It was only in the 40s). We headed into town to the trailhead for "Ben's super cool run" route. Normally we go up the trail to Peak One, this time we went towards Rainbow Lake, where I've never been.

There was actually some running in this section, although there were a decent amount of families out hiking. The lake was pretty and seemed to be the final destination for most people.

Shortly after the lake we turned onto a fire road - which was fine with me. If I am climbing, I prefer to do it on non-technical "trail." We didn't see a single person going up Miner's Creek. Ben said that people can (have?) driven up this to an upper parking lot.

We soon started coming up on obstacles that would make driving up the "road" difficult/impossible.

Also started to see some sections of snow (around 9500-9600') and this cute, abandoned cabin.

Before long, the "trail" switched over completely to snow. The biggest problem being that with warmer weather and sun, it was mostly post holing. We had some luck, occasionally, walking on the old snowmobile tracks that had packed the snow down, but it was VERY slow going.

We also kept arriving at other obstacles on the course. Between slipping and sliding, and the icy and crusty snow scratching us, I was not having a ton of fun.

We arrived at the trail split and decided we would keep going for a bit. "Thankfully," Ben hit a section where the deep snow was over his knees and he decided he had had enough. 

Of course we had to get a picture to document the snow depth.

While I enjoy doing loops, the best idea was to go back down the way we came. Even in the time it had taken us to go up, it had melted more and was almost as miserable as climbing, although obviously it was at least faster. 

We made decent time getting back down, especially when we finally got off the snowpack. 

We decided to immediately get Olive before figuring out something to do for lunch. We were less than 10 minutes from the campground, and we had cut our day short (by a lot), so we figured Olive would be happy to see us. Well. Right as I was getting out of the car and had the keys for the camper in my hand, the people across the way from us came over, looking mildly upset. We figured they would tell us that she had been barking or something, but no. Apparently Olive had figured out how to break out of the window we had left cracked for her. We were told that she had been running around the campsite all day, and since the weather was turning, lots of people were hunkering down. Of course I grabbed her harness and leash and started making the rounds. Dozens of people told us things like "I just saw her heading to the lake 15 minutes ago" or "she was on the trail going to the frisbee golf course" or "I saw her a little while ago at the boat ramp." The only other really positive thing we heard was that she kept coming back to the campsite.

Finally I convinced Ben to stay at the site in case she came back while I was still walking around and calling for her. At this point, the wind had picked up and it was starting to spittle. It had now been an hour and I was definitely worried, especially since her recall is terrible. THANKFULLY, Ben called to say that she was walking towards him in the street. I ran over there and she actually responded to her name and came to me. I leashed her up and we did a victory lap around the campground so we could thank everyone for their help/tips and to let everyone know she was ok.

We headed into town and discovered that Highside has 1). mediocre beer, 2). good, but expensive BBQ, and 3). allows dogs inside. 

I can't tell if she is pleased with herself or not...

With the weather turning sketchy, we were tempted to stay there forever, but we knew we needed to get back to camp to make dinner at some point. We picked up some snacks and propane at Walmart.

We made great use of Pete's canopy because it POURED for hours. We finally gave up sitting outside and went into the camper to be "warm" and watch an episode of Prison Break.

Sunday (24,092 steps) - Olive slept very well, and we woke up to a dusting of snow!

Coffee and breakfast, and then we headed out for our adventure day. We had another day of "bigger" vert and  trails. Olive was of course coming along for the run this time. This is a route that was inspired by something I saw on Strava, and it turns out that Ben used to live very close to the area and was familiar with the trails.

Climbing began right away, heading up a segment affectionally called "Vomit Hill."

Olive was very pleased to find some snow to roll in.

We hit a small break in the climbing, thankfully, because I needed to breathe. 

Being on a flatter section, we ran for a little here and there, with Olive setting the pace.

There was a decent amount of climbing, but the trails were deserted, so it was nice to be alone out there. 

Every time we came across snow, Olive went nuts. Especially this section. I was trying to stay upright and she was running in circles around me. 

Finally we came to an end of the snowfields and were running through trees that reminded me of Lair o' the Bear or heading up Bergen Peak.

And finally - we arrived at the trail head for Hippo Trail.

All downhill from here! We finally passed two gals that were removing layers on the side of the trail. I was ready to be done with this one, and it was nice to do some running.

Other than being a little muddy, this section was not technical and we made good time back to the car. I think this was close to Olive's longest activity, but she did really good. As you can see, between her escapee activities and a long hike/run, she was tired.

With the sky looking sketch again, we went back to Highside so we could sit inside. 

On the way back to camp we had to stop and get more firewood and a few more snacks. We learned our lesson, finally, and made dinner earlier. Thankfully, the evening was a lot more mild.  

Monday (19,005 steps) - Olive woke up pretty early and needed to go for a walk. Wasn't a surprise since we had packed up early due to the weather. It was a REALLY pretty morning.

I had a shakeout run on schedule, and since we always prefer to run at elevation when we can, we decided to do a loop around the peninsula before packing up camp and heading home. Olive did REALLY well on this one.

Always a selfie spot for us

Olive booked it for the water every time we got close.

There were some bikes and a few runners, but not as many as we have encountered previously. Probably "helped" that we were pushing it by staying in Summit so late.

The route was a tad longer than I planned, but it was about the time frame I needed, and it was a fun morning. We loaded up the camper and Ben had to basically re-wire Shelly since the blinkers hadn't been working on the way up. Turns out the connector was really corroded, and the grounding wire was somewhat rotted, so we had to cut it down and duct tape it to metal. Got gas and one more trip to Outer Range before heading down. Olive was tired.

There was some traffic on the way down, but not as bad as it could have been. An early accident started the slow down much sooner than usual. We stopped at Parry's for a beer before heading home. Unpacked and showered and then went to Salsa's for dinner.

Took Olive for a walk and planned on watching some TV, but we were so tired we ended up going to bed around 9. 

Stats:

• 146,517 steps
• 31.05 miles run
• 18.83 miles walked
• 60 minutes of cardio
• 45 minutes of strength