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 (February 24 - March 2)

Tuesday (11,518 steps) - Peloton (actually did another live class) and Olive walk before going to work. Went to the gym at lunch and did the StairMaster and strength training. 

Actually did my first official "walk" video with Peloton since it was a 12% vert "hike." It was fine, although I will probably just continue to do my own thing, although I did like that I could just add whatever the distance was from the treadmill. If I do a manual activity I have to round to the nearest tenth to add to Strava. Got home from work and took Olive for a walk, sauna, dinner and then watched The Good Wife.

Wednesday (17,097 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. Another windy day and I had to do a speed workout. This one was a bit different than the workouts I have had recently, with longer sustained fast paces. I managed to pick the perfect route for it and the wind thankfully was not as bad as I thought it would be. 

Hard to believe I ever ran long distances faster than those paces! After work I took Olive for a walk and then Ben and I had to go to Costco to pick up more groceries. At least we picked up a new food item and I made Pad Thai for dinner. Good Wife.

Thursday (17,511 steps) - Did a quick row session before logging in for work. Heated up breakfast to eat in  my office and Olive was very interested in the smell AND stole my chair. 

Took Olive for a long walk and then went for my easy run. Another windy day, but at least it's warm, I guess.

Did some upper body and pilates. After work I met Ben at Torchy's for dinner. When we got home we took Olive for a walk, sauna, dinner and Good Wife.

Friday (14,044 steps) - Wash Park with the gang! Relatively warm, although STILL WINDY.

Busy work day, but still took Olive for a longer walk at lunch. After work I dropped her off at home and discovered that our neighbor's house is for sale! It's had various renters as long as we have lived there, and the most recent guy, Cameron (that we really liked) moved out in December. I guess the actual owner is sick of renting, sign in the year. Then headed to 4 Noses to meet up with Ben. Dinner and Good Wife.

Saturday (39,438 steps) - Took Olive for a walk and then got ready for my long run. I had hoped to get out the door by 9, but it was closer to 10 before I left. Like last time, it was windy and I stupidly picked the same route from the house that is mostly a gradual uphill and running into a headwind. Overall, it seemed very similar to the last time I ran, but not quite as cold.

Instead of stopping at the Rocky Flats trailhead, I had mapped my route to the trailhead off McCaslin. Ben was supposed to meet me at the new parking area on the north side of the road, but since I was slower than planned he got to run some of the new trail section.

Also - new fun signage. FYI, i have yet to see any signs like this IN the Rocky Flats area.

I had been hoping that the last few miles that were running east would have a tailwind, but sigh, the winds apparently shifted. There seem to have been some upgrades to the trail since I was out there last, as there seemed to be some new gravel, less rocks and overall just a flatter service. As soon as we got done we stopped at Ziggi's so I could get a protein smoothie and then went to 4 Noses.

We were pretty hungry, so we also ordered lunch. 

Took Olive for another walk when we got home, sauna and Good Wife.

Sunday (21,504 steps) - Another vert day! We stopped at Dutch Bros. for coffee before doing our regular route in Boulder. 

I had a bit more vert to do than normal, so Olive and I headed up towards Bear Peak to get a few hundred more feet of vert. Olive did pretty good with the steeper and more technical rock climbing. 

By the time we got back to the saddle to pick up Ben the wind had picked up and it seemed like it was going to rain. We were somewhat in a hurry to get down the hill and of course forgot to do our group selfie until we were nearly at the junction for Mesa trail. 

We saw another Rafter of turkeys! In all my years of running in Boulder I had only seen turkeys once before this year, and this is already the second time! They were running around making fun turkey noises. 

Onto Rails End. We have now been there enough times that the bartenders know our order. New food truck this time and we got a snack. Sauna, took Olive for a walk, dinner, Good Wife. How is the weekend over?

Monday (21,950 steps) - Work from home. Took Olive for a long walk. My training plan had not been updated, so I went on a random run that ended up being longer than what I normally do. Still nearly 70 degrees and short sleeves this time of year is crazy. And for once, the wind was not awful.

Ben got home from work early since we had our lawn guy coming over to give us recommendations on the lawn/trees. Ariel showed up for a surprise visit, which was nice! Dinner and then more Good Wife. 

Stats:

• 143,062 steps
• 37.83 miles run
• 14.18 miles walked
• 60 minutes of cardio
• 55 minutes of strength
• 110 minutes of sauna