Week(s) in Review (February 3 - February 16)

Tuesday, February 3 (18,001 steps) Hill program on the treadmill. This was two weeks ago, I can't remember if it was awful. 

Wednesday, February 4 (21,910 steps) 6.1 super sweaty miles on the treadmill. The fact that it was longer than 3 or 4 miles must mean it was an ok run. Also did a squat video and some stretching.

Thursday, February 5 (19,968 steps) Another hill program, 3.5 miles. Less awful than the one earlier in the week.

Friday, February 6 (8,571 steps). Uh, nothing? Pizza?

Saturday, February 7 (12,762 steps) We went to the "donut" run club at the Runners Roost in Lakewood. It was HOT. I mean, maybe only upper 50's but it was WARM. Never going to survive the summer :(

Sunday, February 8 (35,691 steps). In the morning L and I ran the Ralston Creek half.

The start of Girl Scout cookie season. Can I say HOW MUCH I HATE THIS? They give the girls a "quota" of cookies to sell, based on average number of cookies sold in her troop the previous year and in surrounding troops. A is in a troop with a handful of other kids with parents who DON'T WORK. These kids sell upwards of 700-800 boxes a season.

The weather was nice so we actually went door to door to sell. We ran out of change before long so we had to stop (that and it got dark).

Monday, February 9(19,962 steps) Didn't feel like running so I did 40 minutes on the CrossRamp (I KNOW) and an upper body video.

Tuesday, February 10 (19,220 steps) 3.3 miles of hills.

Wednesday, February 11 (13,187 steps). Run club! I picked up A so that she could run too, and then after they let her set up a table to sell cookies.

Thursday, February 12 (19,685 steps) 4ish on the treamdill, not terrible. Once at home, I made BARK. A crazy combination of all the leftover bark ingredient I had left over - white and milk chocolate, Heath toffee chips, peanut butter chips, graham crackers and caramel chips.

Friday, February 13 (11,543 steps). Nada. Went to my friend's house for a Friday the 13th party.

Saturday, February 14 (16,809 steps). HEAT WAVE. Ariel and I went for a run around the lake near the house. 

We went to Dunkin for coffee and then we went to the 5K that L was running down the street. Ran into Heather and Dan as well. Along with my dad, we all went to lunch at Fuzzy's Tacos. We decided we would get some pizza for dinner, which turned out to be right down the street from Voodoo...

Sunday, February 15 (20,698). Got up early to hit the trails before the weather changed. As you can see, sunny at the start, starting to be stormy by the end:

We had a lunch date with Jessa and Lisa at Vine Street. Hours of good beer and good conversation. I miss these ladies!

Monday, February 16 (13,109 steps) NADA.

Miles Run (w/e February 9) - 28.5

Weekly Steps (w/e February 9) - 136,865

Minutes of Cross Training (w/e February 9) - 40

Minutes of Strength/Stretching (w/e February 9) - 47

Miles Run (w/e February 16) - 18.4

Weekly Steps (w/e February 16) - 114,251

Minutes of Cross Training (w/e February 16) - 0

Minutes of Strength/Stretching (w/e February 16) - 0

Everything Else

• I guess I am still doing this "challenge" with L and Heather. No tracking, and I have no idea if I  have gained weight, maintained or lost. Still a few weeks left I think. I might not be logging calories but I am sure taking a lot of pictures of my food.
• Work is going great.
• I may write a more detailed post about it in a few days, but as my Facebook friends know...  I got scammed out of about $5,000 over the Internet. I posted months ago about how I was really excited to be going to Africa to run a marathon at Mt. Kilimanjaro. Turns out I was scammed through a website offering packages. Now before you ask... how dumb are you... know that I researched online. Found no evidence of fraud. Posted on Facebook in groups (including Marathon Maniacs) and multiple people vouched for this woman and her event. Since everything has come crumbling down around me, this story gets more and more unbelievable. More to come on this, but in the meantime, I have started a GoFundMe in hopes of raising the money to possible go next year to Africa.... 

MY GOFUNDME PAGE

Basically where things are now is that people are STILL claiming she is legit and to "email her" through the email on the website. WHICH IS FUNNY, because that is the website and email I got scammed through. I have yet to hear from the "real" race organizer and my pleas for help contacting SOMEONE with this organization have gone unanswered. I have filed reports with the FBI Cyber Crimes divison, local police department and my bank. I have placed fraud alerts with the credit bureaus. These hackers not only have my money, they have a copy of my passport. More information is listed in the GoFundMe page or you can email me if you have questions or if you can help. So far, it seems no one can/will do anything. squirrelgirl44 at hotmail dot com.

So. There's that.

Ralston Creek Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Sunday, February 8
Arvada, CO
Half Marathon #126
Colorado Half #59
Ralston Creek Half #4
Weather - Sunny, warm, WINDY

I was really pumped in the week leading up to the Ralston Creek half marathon. I have run it every year since inception and this was going to be THE FIRST YEAR that temperatures were scheduled to be above freezing. Not just above freezing, but WARM. I think temps at the start were upper 50's, and a TON of sun. What I didn't count on was the wind...

We dropped the kids off at my parents house just before 8:30 and drove to the start. By the time we parked the winds had pickd up to mid 20 mph. It was SO windy. In the shade it was almost chilly, although I knew I was going to warm up as soon as I started running.

Heather and I had talked before the race and we planned to run together. I was pretty confident going into the race that I was going to have a good race. HAHAHAHAHA.

We were in the second wave, which didn't start until 9:45. Normally the late start is really nice because of the freezing cold, but that was not an issue and I wished we were starting earlier.

We cycled through the bathroom line a few times and then lined up, towards the back. I wasn't wearing headphones and we chatted through the first mile. I was feeling ok but knew I was moving too fast when I clicked a sub 10 mile. The  "speed" caught up with me and I had to take my first walk break around 1.5 miles in.

View from mile 5!

I was REALLY surprised that Heather stuck with me, but it was great to have the company. The first 8 miles of the course is a gradul uphill and we were running west, against the wind. I pretty much gave up about 3 miles in and we walked A LOT. As I remembered, mile 5 was the worst. Heather's hat blew off (again, this was already the third time?) I thought that I could run up the switchbacks like I did last year. NOPE. I checked somewhere around mile 6 and the winds were upwards of 30 mph. SO MISERABLE.

I kept trying to convince Heather (and myself) that once we got to the top of the switchbacks that we would have a nice few miles of downhill. Which we did, but WHERE WAS THE WIND NOW??? We were now headed east and the wind was not at our backs like we had hoped. I was tired and ready to be done. Had a sort of decent last five miles but not the race that I hoped. Heather's hat blew off for a last time as we were getting ready to turn the corner to head into the straightaway to the finish.

Not too much to say about this race other than I was really disappointed. We had a pretty good last mile and came in just shy of 2:30 on the clock. BOOO. I run with Heather almost every time we go to run club but I have never run for this amount of time with her. It was really great to have a few hours to catch up. It was a miserable weather day and I'm grateful she kept me company!

Garmin Time - 2:28:42
Garmin Distance - 13.24 miles
Garmin Pace - 11:14
Mile 1 - 9:42
Mile 2 - 10:30
Mile 3 - 13:56
Mile 4 - 11:29
Mile 5 - 12:10
Mile 6 - 14:01
Mile 7 - 11:52
Mile 8 - 12:07
Mile 9 - 9:22
Mile 10 - 10:05
Mile 11 - 10:01
Mile 12 - 10:15
Mile 13 - 10:55
Mile 13.24 - 9:21

Met up with Dan and L, and just like I remembered, we got chocolate chip banana bread and a nice breakfast burrito. There was also diet coke, which was great.

Freakishly Amazing is a stretch for me. L, however, got a course PR for her and was pretty happy

New medal this year!

• I will run this race again. It is the only half marathon in Colorado in February. I hope that next year we don't have the wind. As miserable as the cold is, I certainly prefer THAT over THIS.
• I hate this course, but I know what I'm getting into. The views are nice, the hills are not.
• Related - with how little snow we have had the course was BROWN... so ugly :(
• This year the race shirt is a 1/4 zip tech tee long sleeve. I probably won't wear it (just because I have a billion running shirs, not because it isn't good). Dark grey color, race logo small on left chest.
• I LOVE the post race food. No beer, but the chocolate chip banana bread and burritos are good. And soda. Love me some soda.
• They offered "free" race pictures but then sent the download links in an email with this wording, so I guess I can't even post them here, although they didn't come out terrible: Your order contains one or more free digital images. SkiPix.com, LLC reserves the rights to all images. This license is for personal use only and does not grant any copyright to the image(s). No other use is authorized. All other uses are prohibited without the express written permission of SkiPix.com, LLC. Personal use does not include use in any media, publications, editorials, promotions or advertising of any kind. Unauthorized use of SkiPix.com, LLC images is prohibited and punishable by law. Statutory damages can lead up to a $150,000 fine for infringements. If you have any questions, please contact us at skipix@skipix.com. 

Week in Review (Feb 4 - Feb 10)

Tuesday - Before work I did a Fitness Blender HIIT Cardio workout, red light green light style. DEAD. Work was the most dramatic ever,  more on that later. After dinner - 1.25 in the basement inferno. Also did a butt & abs tabata video and arms.
Wednesday - 2.15 miles before yet another exhausting BodyPump class.

Thursday - Another HIIT video before work. There was a move called "sidewinder mountain climbers" - UM NO. 5.1 miles on the treadmill at the gym and stretching.

Friday - 1 mile before work. Good thing I did that since I ended up going out for a beer with co-workers after and didn't feel like doing ANYTHING when I got home.
Saturday - 1 easy mile in the basement inferno. A and I later worked her first Girl Scout cookie booth of the season. FINALLY, the weather was nice, although it was a bit windy. They sold over 200 boxes in 3 hours!

We met up with Jessa and her son (and her boyfriend's daughter) for... THE LEGO MOVIE!!! I have been looking forward to this since I first saw the preview. Unfortunately, so was everyone else and our first time choice was sold out. We grabbed a drink at Rock Bottom and then saw the movie (only 35 minutes later than we originally planned). THIS MOVIE WAS HILARIOUS. I really enjoyed it. 
Sunday - Ralston Creek half marathon (my 100th!!). Before dinner, I took the kids roller skating again.
Monday - 4.25 on the treadmill (day 94 of the streak), 5.4 on the stationary bike, legs and yoga/stretching videos.

Weekly Miles Run - 27.89 (14.75 treadmill, 13.14 racing)
Weekly Cross Training - 15 min on the stationary bike
Minutes of Strength Training - 170 (YES!!)

Weekly Loss - 0.2 pounds

• I did go out to eat twice this weekend. Ruby Tuesday's one day (I love love LOVE their baked mac & cheese) and Smashburger after our race.
• Wasn't really monitoring food intake. Only two donuts (if I remember correctly), not as many Girl Scout cookies
• The really really REALLY big news, is that I actually COOKED. Two actual recipes, with ingredients and everything. I purchased a small crock pot and made pot roast (which, unfortunately, A did not like), and then the other meal was "Mexican Casserole" (which A did like).  

• It was the coldest ever. The phrase being tossed around all week was "polar vortex." This is no joke. We had a day where the official high was -1! That is nuts.

Everything Else 

• The work saga continues. So, shortly after I posted last week's recap, I got called in to see the Office Manager. I have good news to report!! She was able to secure a 10% raise for me. I'm pleased with that. I will continue my job hunt, as the wage I'm currently at is still very low compared to other firms in the area, but this takes a huge load off my shoulders.
• Related: Jessa quit last week. Her last day was Tuesday. She put in her notice and they opted to just let her go. Pretty bummed about that.
• Related: The new attorney was given a former employee's computer to use in the meantime. It is apparently very slow and crashes and has to be restarted multiple times a day. She does not seem pleased.
• Related: THERE IS A NEW LEGAL ASSISTANT! She started yesterday, and even came back today. She seems nice, and more importantly, I AM NO LONGER THE ONLY ONE!!
• More big news - I PAID OFF ALL MY CREDIT CARDS!!! Huzzah!! First financial goal of the year is complete!!

Ralston Creek Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Sunday, February 9
Arvada, CO
Half Marathon #100 (!!!!)
Colorado Half #36
Ralston Creek Half #3
Weather - Foggy/Misty/COLD

The Ralston Creek half is a race I will likely run every year. I have run every year now since it's inception. It is very well organized, inexpensive, doesn't conflict with anything else (for now), and is on a weekend weeks away from any other race.

The weather is never truly fantastic for this race. Two years ago it was insanely cold (first time I ever raced in long sleeves and pants), last year it was also cold. We have lucked out and missed running through a snowpocalypse, so I was pretty anxious all week watching the weather. We were in the middle of the polar vortex this week, and there were at least three days where we never broke single digits (and one day, our official "high" was -1). Saturday, we had temperatures near 50 and there was a ton of melting.

Race Day

The race is less than 15 minutes from our house and has a late start for the "fast" wave. Our race didn't start until 9:45, so we dropped the kids off with my parents at 8:30 and headed to the start, having almost an hour to wait. I ate a cinnamon roll in the car and then we headed over to get our packets. Back to the car to sit in the heat, and about 20 minutes to the start we get out to cycle through the bathroom line.

Just before the start (UA jacket, Gypsy runner skirt, INKnBURN denim capris, Pro Compression socks)

Last year I really struggled in this race and I remember having to walk a TON and being really miserable. I was hoping to have a better day. L started out closer to the front and I worked my way towards the back. I know that the key to a good race for me is to take it easy in the first mile and not get swept up in how other people are running.

It is COLD and my toes are frozen. The rest of me is doing fine (I am wearing a long sleeve shirt and a jacket, gloves with hand warmers, compression socks and capris). Other than the first half mile, the first 8 miles is uphill. It has helped immensely for me to KNOW that I am really running uphill and not just struggling and having a hard time.

See? Not imagining the hills...

The aid stations are about every 2 miles apart and the main goal for me in this race is to beat last year's time (2:32:45), and to not walk up the GIANT hill between mile 7 and 8. I got into a pretty good groove for the first mile, and then everything changed once we moved off the street and onto the trail.

The melting we had on Saturday would have been great if it would not have gotten so cold over night. The trails re-iced over. Unlike Fa La La, where the trail was icy but sorta snow packed, I would say that 80% of the trail was a sheet of ice. That really hindered my ability to keep a good pace going, and I was looking at the ground THE ENTIRE TIME. I slipped a ton, but I didn't fall once, and I didn't see anyone else fall either.

Not really a good example of how icy it was

Made it to the first aid station at mile 2, feeling fine, same with the second one at mile 4 when I took my salted caramel GU (YUM). For a brief moment, I thought I might be getting a bit warm, so I took off my gloves. That lasted about 4 minutes. Once we headed to the southwestern part of the course, we are much more out in the open, the wind picked up and it got MUCH colder.

There ARE mountains over there somewhere...

There is a very long, gradual hill around mile 5, and I managed to run up the whole thing without walking (and passed about a dozen people on the way up). I caught Ruth at the aid station at the top of the hill (mile 6), but then she took off. My legs were BEAT from running up the hill and I took an unplanned walk break. There is very slight flat/downhill for about a half mile before we hit the big hill on the course. This year, it was so foggy/misty I couldn't even see the top so I didn't bother with a picture. But I did take this one at the base:

Aid station at the base of the hill (around mile 7.25) and I knew the entire hill was probably only a half mile long. I jogged up THE ENTIRE HILL, passing Ruth (and about 20 other people). Once I crested the top, I knew there were some glorious downhills. Of course, with all the ice I couldn't run as fast as I wanted to. The wind/air was really moist and cold. I really wanted to be done and I was thankful my legs were feeling so great. I couldn't imagine walking in this weather.

The rest of the course was sort of a blur. Mainly, I just wanted to stay ahead of Ruth, and get a decent time. The last 1/2 mile or so of the course is along the road and slightly uphill and lasts FOREVER.

Overall, I was REALLY pleased with my time and my strategy on this course. I probably could have skipped my one walk break after mile 6 if I wouldn't have pushed SO hard to get up that hill, but it felt really good to pass people.

Official Time - 2:16:29
Overall Place - 288/482
Gender Place - 139/280
Division Place - 27/54
Garmin Time - 2:16:30
Garmin Distance - 13.14 miles
Garmin Pace - 10:23
Mile 1 - 10:08
Mile 2 - 10:49
Mile 3 - 10:51
Mile 4 - 10:36
Mile 5 - 11:08
Mile 6 - 10:57
Mile 7 - 11:23
Mile 8 - 10:55 (giant hill!!)
Mile 9 - 8:59
Mile 10 - 9:33
Mile 11 - 9:37
Mile 12 - 9:59
Mile 13 - 10:19
Mile 13.14 - 9:13

I met up with L at the finish. Grabbed my burrito and two slices of homemade chocolate chip banana bread. It was almost as cold as Fa La La - L's hair froze again!

Thoughts:

• As much as running in the cold is pretty terrible, it is still better than running in the hot.
• The aid stations are spaced well and there are always a surprising number of volunteers willing to stand out in this freezing weather to give us water.
• Well stocked aid stations, although I only got an electrolyte drink at one (they called it Gatorade, but I don't think it was).
• Hammer Gel at two stations.
• They have great stuff at the finish line (burritos, pastries, banana bread, Red Bull, and the winner this year was hot chocolate).
• I will run this one again next year. MAYBE, it will be - NOT windy and mid 30's. I can dream, right?

Oh, and PS, this was my 100th half marathon :D

Wordy Wordy Wednesday...

Maybe I'll just start doing ALL my posts as bullet lists (other than race recaps?)

• So hey, I'm running a marathon on Sunday. I sure hope I survive. My calf pain has gotten pretty bad. Not to mention I went to Chaos for the first time in ages and I am so sore I can barely move.
• Related - I have that doctor's appointment tomorrow. Cross your fingers that I just have some dumb vitamin deficiency or something.
• Fundraising, fundraising... Click HERE to donate!
• Team Lazarex provides financial assistance to defray the costs associated with patient participation in FDA clinical trials. Additionally, they help patients navigate their clinical trial options and provide community education and outreach services. Their mission is to provide resources for cancer patients who've been told they have no other options, but who are not yet done with their journey in life and refuse to give up now. 
• Anyone who donates $10 between now and February 20 (one week from today) will be eligible to win a tube of Nuun (my choice of flavor, sorry!). Comment on this post that you want to be included, I'll post a winner on the 21st.
•  I created a "bio" for INKnBURN when I was chosen as an Ambassador (it's actually a Power Point, but I converted to pictures for my lovely followers):

•  Speaking of INKnBURN - did you notice I have a code on my blog where you can save 15% on EVERYTHING they sell??? Use code BeckaToldMe at checkout.
• Did you notice on the last slide of my "bio" that I stated I wanted to do the Transrockies Run??? Well, you can join me! Use code rebeccatrr and save $100 off your entry! This is good on both the RUN3 and RUN6 options. Mid August, say YES!!
• I swiped a few pictures from my race on Sunday: 

Mile 3.75

Mile 12

FINISH!