Week in Review (December 19 - December 25)

Tuesday (14,616 steps) - 20 minutes on the Peloton before going to work in the office. Strength training at lunch. Walked quite a bit on the treadmill desk.

Wednesday (23,766 steps) - Work in the office. Walked on the treadmill desk and read my book at lunch. In VERY exciting news - Ariel has committed to the Colorado School of Mines!!!!!!!!!!

Headed up to Louisville so I could do my workout. I was apprehensive about 4 miles at "goal" pace, but I was able to maintain the "faster" pace fairly well. Went back to the store to hang out and then we all met up at Murphy's for Tyler's last run club. :(

Thursday (16,419 steps) - Had an easy run on schedule and decided to do another obnoxious Christmas outfit. 

Saw a bald eagle on the south side of the lake, which is always cool to see.

Ariel and I took Olive for a walk before heading down to Teal Tiger so... Ariel could get her first tattoo! I was really pleased with the work Doug did on mine, and Ariel drew the design herself!

I was working while she was getting the work done. We were there for an hour and a half, but most of that time was doing the prep and sizing and placement. The actual tattoo itself only took maybe a half hour. We went to Torchy's for lunch on the way home. Ben and I went to BJ's for dinner.

Friday (15,527 steps) - Wash Park with the gang! 

Since Joyce wasn't working and it was as short day, Olive came to work with me again. She was still relatively unimpressed.

Office closed at 3, but I left at 2 and finished out the day at home. Batman and Robin had their annual vet visit, and neither of them was incredibly impressed.

Saturday (21,436 steps) - Met up with friends for a run at South Table. The run was mostly fine. Weather was pretty decent and I actually dressed appropriately. 

No idea what we did in the evening.

Sunday (17,937 steps) - Awoke to find the cats got their first mouse of the season. Way to go, kitties! We only had a short run to do, so since it snowed overnight we did a road loop, which was actually ok. Took Olive for a walk, went to 4 Noses for the Christmas Eve "party." with it being Olive's birthday, we gave her a gift early. It took her a bit, but she has figured out Gordon is a very comfortable bed.

Monday (13,604 steps) - Christmas! Didn't set an alarm. We opened presents once we all woke up. Olive got a loot of new toys.

I got a Kindle paperwhite, which I plan on putting through a lot of use. Ariel enjoyed her ticket to the New Kids on the Block concert in June and Ben loves his new Yeti bag.

Ariel had suggested last night that we all go for a run together, "but no more than 3 miles." I definitely wasn't feeling it, but I don't get to run with her very often, so off we went for a family run. 

Took Olive for a walk with Ariel - in her bee costume.

We spent the afternoon cooking. After dinner, Ariel went to her friend's house, and I worked a bit on the annual puzzle before we settled in to watch Maze Runner.

Robin got a new collar since hers was shabby

Stats:

• 123,305 steps
• 26.44 miles run
• 20 minutes of cardio
• 45 minutes of strength

Week in Review (October 24 - October 30)

Tuesday (115,264 steps) - Katy 225

Wednesday (120,902 steps) - Katy 225

Thursday (109,057 steps) - Katy 225

Friday (39,070 steps) - Katy 225.

Once we finished, we literally had no plans. Paul and his family had plans to go to a hotel to rest and shower, so we grabbed our gear and then sat at the Bike Stop. They opened at 6, which is about when we finished, and they were nice enough to serve us beer. After having two, I realized I had not had any amount of sleep in many days and we needed a plan. We were able to reserve a Hilton nearby for the morning so we could shower and nap (plus, Ben was supposed to be working remote). They were still serving breakfast, so we ate first, then showered. I don't even really remember napping, but next thing I knew, it was 12:30 pm... we realized we definitely needed to get everything packed and check out of the hotel so we would have time to get everything done. No new breweries were close enough to where we were staying (or the airport), so we just headed to the airport. We found out upon arrival that since Ben and I were flying two different airlines that we weren't even in the same terminal. His flight left after mine though, so we had a beer and some pizza before I boarded.

I think I watched "You've Got Mail" and I was surprised to not fall asleep. We landed on time. By the time we got off the plane my left food was hurting pretty badly where I had the blister. I had plenty of time to walk to baggage claim while I was waiting for Ben. Bag came quickly and I was lying on the floor with my feet elevated to alleviate the swelling. 

Even though it was late (and a dumb idea) we went to 4 Noses for a beer before heading home.

Saturday (23,144 steps) - Seriously, WHO HAD THE BRILLIANT IDEA TO HAVE A 5:30 AM FLIGHT OUT OF DENVER??! We had a wakeup call of 2:00 am (after not getting to bed until 9:30?) and neither of us had packed for Arizona. We did manage to get out of the house as planned, and the only snafu was there not being any parking available at the lot we normally use. Since we were going to be gone for less than 48 hours, we just did onsite parking (which we knew would be a bazillion dollars). We landed on time (early) and Terri came to pick us up. We briefly stopped by the BnB before going to a place named Flapjacks down the street for breakfast. French toast and a bloody Mary!

The BeReal actually featured Ben and Terri (usually just me at work) when we were leaving breakfast.

We stopped back by the BnB to get stuff to take to the tent at the start. I had to take a picture of one of the "Swiftie" banners for Ariel.

The downfall of not writing things up right away is I can't remember a lot of things. We left the start/finish area to grab a beer at a local dive bar down the street. Lucky for us, they had some extra pizza they shared with us too! We realized that Ben was going to be pacing Larry on loop 3 (maybe not loop 4 like we thought). 

So we shipped them out on their loop. Terri and I decided we should find some dinner. We ended up going to the Mexican restaurant next door to where we had breakfast earlier, Maskadores. It was pretty good (and fast).

Terri decided a nap would be good, and I certainly was NOT going to complain. I swear I only closed my eyes for a minute before I heard Terri saying that it was time to go because it was going to be time to pace Larry soon. We did end up having a bit of time, but not a ton. I was definitely out of it from sheer exhaustion.

Sunday (15,170 steps) - Terri was going to be pacing Larry for two loops. Initially I had thought that maybe I could help out and pace one, but there was no way. I was way too tired. Ben and I went back to the tent and I basically passed out. I kept waking up because I was cold - who knew I was going to be COLD after how warm it had been. I had set an alarm for when I estimated it would be time to meet up with them before they headed out for their last loop - and it was the middle of the night (like 4 am?) We made it to the aid station with just a bit of time to spare before we saw them coming in. Larry still looked really good! After we sent them out, we went back to the tent. Sleep was tough with how cold it was, for sure. Once again, I had alarms set to make sure we didn't miss Larry coming in. He didn't look as great this time around - he had developed the leans, but he crossed the finish line in something like 28:13 - second oldest finisher - what a stud!!

We got Larry back to the tent and he sat in a chair and promptly dozed off. Ben and I were going to wander around near the finish line and found that Honest Bob ended up having an opening for tattoos! Since I had run Javelina before, I felt fine about getting one - isn't it cute? And free! 

Crazily, Ben decided to get one too. (Fun fact, Javelina in 2018 was the first race we did "together" - seems like a lifetime ago). 

We tipped Honest Bob and headed back to the tent to finish packing everything up. Ben and I agreed to be the ones to get the car since it was over a mile away and there was no way we wanted Larry walking that far. We got everything loaded up and went back to the BnB so everyone could get cleaned up and packed. We wanted to have a celebratory dinner before heading to the airport, and we went to the same restaurant that we had gone to last year after Javelina, Salt & Lime. Margaritas for everyone!

We then had to head to the airport. On the way, we got a notification that our already VERY late flight was going to be delayed 90 minutes, with us not arriving until nearly 2 am!! I said we should just go to the Southwest counter and find out if we could get on the earlier flight. Thankfully - we could! We lost our boarding positions but we were able to get out an hour EARLIER than we were originally going to be leaving, so I was fine with that. I managed to get in the third row, but Ben was in the back of the plane. Neither of us had checked a bag, so once Ben got off the plane it was pretty fast getting out of the airport. We had apparently parked in a really stupid part of the parking lot that was nearly impossible to access, we had to keep going up/down levels but finally found the car. What a loooong day. Got home just after midnight.

Monday (11,895 steps) - THANKFULLY a work from home day. The normal issues with digging out after being off for a week. Ugh. Took Olive for a walk at lunch on the "mud route" because I figured the trails would be icy from the snow. Second walk after I got off work and then went to Costco to pick up food for dinner since we had nothing after being out of town for so long.

Stats:

• 464,502 steps
• 171.18 miles run
• 0 minutes of cardio
• 0 minutes of strength

Week in Review (December 7 - December 13)

Tuesday (7,777 steps) - Work in the office. I had to leave early to pick A up at school and then take her to the doctor for her annual appointment. Pretty annoying that it wasn't on a day I was already at home, but it was one of the quickest appointments ever, and the doctor was even EARLY. I didn't even know that was a thing. I was busy enough at work that I actually had to log in when I got back home to finish up. At least Batman was adorable when keeping me company.

Wednesday (17,724 steps) - Up early to do my hour long Peloton ride before work. I just LOVE Cody. No matter how much I am not looking forward to a ride, he makes me smile, plus he usually has really good play lists.

Work in the office. Ariel and I took Pika down to Denver for the annual Runners Edge holiday light run! It is really my favorite run every year. Parking has become quite the headache, and we had to pay $12 to park in a lot. Oof. Ben met us down there.

Pika definitely started out too fast, and was wanting to be in front of the group. Luckily, in the early mile there are a TON of stoplights, so she had to slow down a bit. It was a REALLY warm evening and I was definitely overdressed.

Every year the Civic Center has the best lights (in my opinion).

Pika is a mile high!

First year the tour has had the lower part lit up!

This was a much smaller group than we have had in years past, but it was fun because we actually all stuck together the whole time. After the run we went to Amato's for a beer before heading home. It was really late by the time we left, good thing we don't do this often!

Thursday (8,133 steps) - Work from home. Pika was pretty zonked after running almost 5 miles, so she only wanted to go on a short walk. After work I met Ben at Goldspot so we could talk to Greg and NOT play trivia.

Friday (10,925 steps) - Denver's first OFFICIAL snow of the year! Not many of us were planning on walking in the morning. Imagine our surprise when we had a reporter stop us and ask for our names so that he could put our picture in the local paper! Pretty cool, since it was a record-breaking year. Full article can be found here.

Photo cred: Denver Gazette

Freaking brrr. It was a heavy and wet snow, but luckily the park gets plowed. Stella's for coffee before going into the office for work. The snow was already done by my drive in. After work Ariel and I headed to Sully's house for his annual Christmas party. It was a little weird this year since it was mostly his work friends and only a couple of runners, the only one we really knew was Andrew. The food was delicious, like always.

Saturday (30,830 steps) - Slept in because the only plan I had for running was that I wanted to finish before noon. I had 10 miles on schedule, so I figured I would just run by the house again. I felt like I had dressed warm enough for the temperature, but it was windy (again) and overcast, so I was actually pretty chilly on this one. Didn't feel great for most of this one either - wonder why I seem to be retreating into feeling more miserable again?

Showered when I got home and had lunch. As soon as my hair was dry I actually straightened my hair (I cannot believe I used to do this every day) in prep for my work holiday party. It was a smaller event this year, but it's always a good time. The food was amazing!

It turns out I don't really talk to anyone at work and Ben and I awkwardly sat at our own table for most of the night. We did at least take an awesome picture at the photo booth, haha. Ben is so weird.

We stayed a lot longer than I had intended, and it was about 11 before we got home. I haven't worn heels in YEARS, and my feet were hurting, so I took them off on the drive home. When I got out of the car I promptly dropped one on my foot. I didn't even realize I was bleeding profusely until I had walked all over the house. We had to clean blood off the couch, rug, and kitchen floor. Sigh.

Sunday (18,846 steps) - Slept in a bit later than planned, but since we had both fallen asleep on the couch only to wake up at 2 in the morning, we obviously needed it. Ben had his long run to do (he actually hired a coach to hopefully get him more consistent before WSER) and I figured what I had on deck (30 min easy run, 45 min power hike, 30 min run) would take about the same amount of time, so we headed up to Boulder. What a shock, it was windy again.

At least the way back was a tailwind, and I somehow managed to run really well. I'm glad my toe wasn't bothering me. We had to be done "early" because I had another thing to do... finally get some new tattoo work done! Sheila's son is a tattoo artist and had just opened up his new studio down in Aurora and I had an appointment at 2. We stopped to get some food beforehand, and it was DELICIOUS. Cheese enchiladas are a perfect post-run food! He got about half the work done before we decided to call it quits for the day - I have another appointment next weekend.

We stopped at Station 26 on the way home for a celebratory beer. 

Monday (14,996 steps) - Work from home. Went for a run at lunch and it was NOT great. My calves were pretty achy and then my stomach was off. I had to use the bathroom at the Simms trailhead. The way back wasn't as bad, but I still can't figure out why my heartrate stays so high when I feel like I am running "easy." After dinner we finally decorated the Christmas tree!

Stats:

• 109,231 steps
• 27.9 miles run
• 65 minutes of cardio
• 20 minutes of strength training