Week in Review (March 12 - March 18)

Tuesday (17,245 steps) - Peloton before working in the office. Strength training at lunch. Left work to go straight to Ariel's soccer game. They lost again, but Ariel got to play more, so she was happy about that. 

Wednesday (17,645 steps) - Since Joyce wasn't going to be in the office, I took a bonus work from home day. Took Olive for a walk at lunch. 

By the time I got out for my run it was late and the storm was already rolling in. It was lightly drizzling by the time I finished up - but at least it wasn't that cold. The weather had gotten worse by the time we were supposed to go to Ariel's soccer game. I was surprised it hadn't been cancelled! We stopped to have a beer before getting there. It was pouring (eventually switching over to snow), but thankfully Ben had reminded me to grab an umbrella. I haven't been that cold in a bit! And the poor girls having to play in shorts!

Thursday (10,140 steps) - It definitely snowed a lot overnight and I was glad to have a work from home day. Olive basically had to swim through a foot of snow to get to the backyard.

We had a break in the snow coming down for a bit, so I pulled out my snowshoes and figured it was a good time to take Olive for a walk. She had a BLAST.

Conditions were NOT spectacular for snowshoes - the snow was heavy and wet, and every step I took I was kicking up water onto the back of my legs.

We still managed to get out and do the full big lake loop, although by the time we got back home I realized Olive was covered in snowballs!

When I was drying her off I realized that she was now missing her bandana, so I headed back out to find it (without the snowshoes) - it was a half mile away and nearly buried in the snow.

We did not go out again the rest of the night - and it kept right on snowing...

Friday (10,343 steps) - I messaged Joyce very early in the morning and told her I was basically trapped in the house and did she actually need me to come in after we took Ariel to the airport. Thankfully, she said now. The city did a decent job plowing, but it was going to be a while before I was going to be able to get my car out - so thankfully Ben drove us in his truck to the airport. After stressing all week about the weather, Ariel was able to get out (on time!) to France - lucky gal. Took Olive for a walk at lunch - blue skies, but a LOT of snow.

Ben and I went to Parry's for dinner. Mmmmm, I love this salad so much!!

Saturday (23,099 steps) - The front range trails were all either closed or a mess, so we met up with Larry and Terri in Superior for a run on some dirt roads. Uninspiring, but better than nothing - and at least not where we normally run, so at least we had a change of scenery.

We had thought about taking the trail back, but ZERO people had been out and we figured post holing and trying to find the trail might not be the best idea.

Decided on Upslope afterward for a beer and burgers.

Ben decided we should take Robin with us when we took Olive for a walk. It was her first time in the backpack. She was much calmer than Batman ever has been, didn't pee/poop in it and didn't try to escape.

Home Depot to return extra supplies from the bathroom and to pick up a new vent for the ceiling in A's bathroom. Also stopped by 4 Noses.

Sunday (24,393 steps) - Decided on Bear Creek for our run since it's paved and we would be able to get at least a little climbing in. Not my favorite place to go, but it wasn't too bad. Overcast and the paths were mostly clear.

Quick stop at Parry's for a beer/snack and then took Olive for a long walk. The lake trails are a muddy mess.

Monday (21,237 steps) - Work from home. Took Olive for a walk and got my (almost) 8 mile run in. No recollection of the rest of the day, but pretty sure we went to Parry's again.

Stats:

• 124,102 steps
• 26.64 miles run
• 40 minutes of cardio
• 40 minutes of strength

Week in Review (March 22 - March 28)

Tuesday (25,266 steps) - With a forecast of snow mid week, I wanted to get out and run while I had the chance. I got up really early and did eight miles. It was actually a really great run, felt good the entire time. Yay!!!

And I even remembered to do some stretching when I was done. Archery and Tokyo Joe's after work.

Wednesday (15,569 steps) - Took a rest day. Did a lower body video instead. I vaguely remember this being one of my favorite videos, back when I actually did them regularly. I went upstairs to get ready for work and A commented that it looked pretty bad outside. So I sent her out to shovel (I'm the best mom ever!) - she came back in and said the wind was making it impossible to scrape the car off and shovel because as soon as she would finish she would have to start over. Excellent. I had received emails that her normal child care was canceled due to weather, and I kept checking to see if we would have a delayed start or snow day at work. No such luck. Stopped at Dunkin Donuts before dropping A off at her friend's house and I went to work. The drive was terrifying. The wind and snow was icing over all the stoplights, so there was no way to know if a light was red or green until you were practically through the intersections. Accidents galore. The weather obviously took a turn for the worse, and it was full blown blizzard by the time I got to the office. Less than half the support staff showed up and only a couple attorneys. By 11 am, the office manager sent out an email that we would be closing at 2. Great. Only it was getting worse NOW... After some negotiating, they closed the office at about 12:15. I had some work to finish so I didn't get to head out until closer to 1. The roads were a disaster and it was still snowing pretty good. Picked up A (I had to circle the block and stop in the middle of the street because there was too much snow to pull over) and headed home. The company the HOA hired only plows once, and I had to stop in the middle of the lot to shovel my parking space out. Oh, and did I mention that the heavy snow had caused a tree to fall on my house (PS - a week later, and it is still there. THANK GOODNESS I PAY THE HOA TO TAKE CARE OF THESE THINGS). A and I vegged the remainder of the day.

Aforementioned tree on my house...

Thursday (29,669 steps) - Obviously, I could not run outside. I didn't measure until morning, and even then, we had over 20". The forecast was for 3-6". That's one thing that is super fun about Colorado weather... you never know what you're really going to end up with. Anyway, got in a 10ish super slow miles done in the basement inferno, finishing up the first season of "Better Call Saul."

Remembered to stretch again!

PS - tree still there! And it landed on the SUV that was abandoned about a month ago.

Since it's spring break, traffic was light going to work and the roads were in really decent shape. A had her free trial class at Tigar Gymnastics at 7:00, so we stopped to pick up a veggie tray to snack on before she went so we didn't die of starvation.

By the time we got home and ate dinner it was almost 8:30. This is going to take some getting used to.
Friday (16,469 steps) - Another rest day!! A was spending the night at a friend's house, so I picked up pho on my way home from work, binge watched the first three episodes of season 2 of "Better Call Saul" and was in bed by 10. Party animal!
Saturday (44,251 steps) - Due to the blizzard at the beginning of the week and more snow in the forecast Friday-Saturday, our long run was moved to Wash Park in Denver, as the inner loop is plowed pretty regularly. Sadly, Heather is still injured, so I was hoping I wasn't going to be alone, with 22 miles on schedule. It was freaking COLD (24 degrees), WINDY, and lightly snowing. Oh, and overcast. No sun to even pretend to warm up the day. Because of the weather and the 2.5ish mile loops we would be doing our pace groups got all messed up. I ended up running with my Roost teammate (and former co INKnBURN ambassador), Lisa. The first 13-15 miles weren't really that bad. Every time we ran north it was FREEZING. The wind was hitting us directly in the face and even though I had hand warmers, my hands would get super cold. Then we would loop around and I would contemplate taking off my hoodie. Lather, rinse, repeat until I got 19 miles in and decided that was plenty.

I was OVER this run, plus, I needed top pick up A at her friend's house. After I showered we went to Cheesecake Factory (I'm not going to deprive myself forever!), and then stopped at a dance store to get A a new leotard. Some TV time before heading over to Runner's Roost in Lakewood for the Brewery Running Series event. Such a fun night! There was a run at the start, which I skipped, because hello, I ran plenty in the morning. A went with Maureen to walk Colfax and I picked up some gear and started on my beer sampling. We ended up staying at the store until about 8:30, and Maureen and I registered for four of the races. 11 a.m. 5K's in July? Sure! Should be a blast. Didn't end up eating dinner until almost 10, then immediately to bed.
Sunday (32,141 steps) - First Endurance Race Series half marathon, Westminster Trail, of the year!! (Recap to follow).

Since it was Easter, A decided she didn't want to have breakfast/lunch at the race (even though it was freeee), so we went to Sweet Tomatoes. I was freezing and smelled pretty sketchy, but we had a great brunch and I didn't overeat. Watched some TV/napped on the couch. We hadn't been grocery shopping in a while so we went to Olive Garden for dinner. They were actually pretty busy. Do people not cook Easter dinner anymore? Did a yoga video with A. In bed pretty early. LONG WEEKEND.
Monday (15,956 steps) - Rest day, so I did an upper body video. I had a delusion that I would get up early enough to do a second video, a lower body video as well, but LOL. I was way too tired. After work we had to stop by the store to get dinner. A wanted to do a quick run around the neighborhood, so we did a mile loop. Legs actually felt fine, so that was nice. Pilates video after dinner.

Stats:

• 179,321 steps
• 53.9 miles run (pretty solid week, with three rest days...)
• No cross training, with the exception of some walking
• 95 minutes of strength/stretching

Everything Else:

• Pretty quiet week, nothing much going on. A spent all of spring break with her friend (who has a stay at home mom). They did lots of fun things - museum, IMAX, zoo, roller skating, swimming and the Botanic Gardens. Certainly more fun than what she would have done at her normal facility.
• I had been on a pretty good "roll" with eating well. Everything came a bit unhinged over the weekend. No real binge I suppose, just a lot of crap I haven't been eating lately. Ah well, everything in moderation, right?

News and Sentinel Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Saturday, August 18
Parkersburg, WV
Half Marathon #67
State #49 (!!!)
Weather - Foggy and cool at start, mild at finish

Originally, West Virginia was supposed to be our final state. However, due to insane airfare costs, we had to postpone our Vermont race in July. We had managed to coerce Kim to join us for state 50 (or 49 as it ended up being). We were NOT looking forward to this race. We were anticipating heat, hills, and humidity. NONE of the things I enjoy. Then, a few days before we left, I checked the weather and saw the highs weren't even going to break 80. What, what?? I can totally deal with cooler temps. MAYBE, it won't be awful.

Rewind AGAIN. K and L booked their flights in May. Due to my traveling to Peru, I didn't have the money at the time, and by the time I had the money to book a flight (mid July), their flights were going to cost me close to $600. FOR WEST VIRGINIA (Actually, flying to Columbus, OH - flying directly into West Virgina is even MORE). I ended up booking completely separate flights - meaning my flight out of Denver was at 6:00 am - 4 hours earlier than theirs, yet I'd only land about a 1/2 hour earlier. And the return flight was similar, with my flight leaving 3 hours later. But I did book for about 1/2 of what their flights would have cost. Anyway.

The News and Sentinel half marathon was pretty much only picked for 2 reasons. It fit one of my criteria (needing to have a medal) and we weren't already committed that weekend (since racing in August should be banned anyway). So off we went.

K flew in Thursday night and stayed at our house so that she could be on our same flights. As I said, I had to leave a few hours earlier, so at 4 am Friday, I was headed to the airport. My flight to Atlanta was on time, and then I had about 3 hours to kill in Atlanta. With no free WiFi. Boo. Flight to Columbus was also on time, and I landed around 3:30 pm. None of the monitors in the Columbus airport had arrivals, so instead of meeting them at the gate, I waited for them at the rental car counter. It wasn't a long wait.

L managed to rent a Jeep Liberty for the same price as a compact. Probably not as good on the gas mileage, but it was a bigger vehicle and I enjoyed being driven around in it.  We stopped on the drive to Parkersburg for Dairy Queen. Best idea ever.

You know what's delicious? The M&M brownie blizzard. I only got a size small, even though I really wanted a bigger one. Considering how much weight I've put on lately, this was probably a good call. The drive took a bit longer than we expected thanks to the Friday afternoon traffic out of Columbus. We arrived in West Virginia with no problems.

Parkersburg wasn't that far over the border, and we didn't get lost finding where we needed to go. Parking downtown was $5. Unsure if that was a cost incurred because of the race or the awesome "homecoming" festivities. Either way, there was a carnival-esque atmosphere with food and a live band. We found the packet pickup with ease:

We got our bibs and packets, and K scored a pair of her discontinued saucony shoes. Then we decided to check out the FREE pasta dinner that was being hosted down the street. BEST THING EVER. The walk to the dinner was fun and the downtown area was super cute and quaint.

I totally could never LIVE in a tiny town, but I think they are super cute. And THEN, we saw the awesome finish line:

Somewhere there is a picture of me and K running (in slow motion) across the finish line. We found the place for dinner, and it was PACKED. We shared a table with a nice lady and her two kids. She gave us some hints on where to find our West Virginia souvenirs and was super friendly. Dinner was pretty great also:

After dinner we headed out to get our souvenirs, since we were not going to have time to after the race. We ended up going to the nearby mall and picking stuff up there. Relieved to get that out of the way. We arrived at our "motel" just before 9:00. Pretty great deal for $60, outside of the ridiculous outlet situation:

We headed to bed around 10:00 pm, after eating delicious cupcakes we had picked up after dinner.  Well, L and I ate our cupcake, K dropped a lot of hers on the nightstand and floor. Sadly, no pictures of that either. I'm slacking.

Race Day

K got up first at 6:15, and we got up about 20 minutes later. I had slept surprisingly well, and had "saved time" by taping my knee and putting on my compression socks the night before. FYI, the "pro" KT tape DOES stay on tons better than the original. Not sure about the 5 day promise yet.

We left the room just after 7:00, and we were parked less than 10 minutes later. Another $5 parking charge, but we were close, so that was ok. We used the port-o-potties by the stage and there was no wait. Score. A few minutes later, we were at the start line, with about a half hour to kill.

Outside the Oil & Gas Museum

L, K, Me - Start Line!

Cycled through the bathroom lines just in time to watch the underwhelming wheelchair start - only two that I saw. Ten minutes later, we were lined up and headed to the start line. The interesting thing about this race is the separate race walk division. Also interesting - they line up close to the front, even though the race in chip timed.

Flag dropped for the Star Spangled Banner

I did not go into this race with any expectations, since my knee is still being a punk. Main goal - don't die. Secondary goal - don't fuck up my knee any worse. Gun goes off and the race starts. Mile 1 wasn't even that congested. I was feeling pretty good the first mile - the ONLY good mile of the race.

Cute house in the historic district

My calves started seizing pretty much right after we passed the first mile marker, and were super tight until mile 2. Then my knee started acting up. It sucked. I'll summarize how I felt during the race with this. DAMN IT. From about mile 2 on, it was a painful run walk. I only ran at all so that we had time to take quick showers before the drive back without anyone missing a flight. Honestly, I would have preferred to have walked the last half. The flats were the least painful. Uphills were sort of awful. The downhills were not even runnable. By mile 12 I could barely move. Even walking hurt. With that said, enjoy a few pictures I took on the course.

Around mile 4?

Every mile marker has a permanent street sign!

Mile 10.5ish  

Mile 11 or 12?

The Good

• Pretty much everything outside of the running.
• WEATHER - I was psyched to see temps in the low 60's for most of the race. That's much more bearable than what I've been running in, and certainly better than I expected to have in AUGUST.
• Parkersburg is SUPER cute and everyone was very friendly. The family that we had eaten with at dinner were on the course and they did a loud "GO COLORADO" cheer for L and I when we ran by. How cute is that??
• Most of the course is closed to traffic and there weren't any super narrow areas
• 17 (or 18) aid stations. All had water and gatorade. Most also had ice. Two had sponges. No GU or food, or medical that I saw. At least 4 or 5 had port-o-potties.
• The medal is REALLY nice
• The free pasta dinner and free pizza lunch (although we didn't have time for the lunch).

The Bad

• Calves - but at least that was minimal since it only lasted about a mile.
• The "rolling" course was super painful because of my aches and pains. On a normal day, the hills were not NEARLY as bad as I had been anticipating, so that was great. Around mile 11.5, there was a substantial hill - the "13th Street hill" - but even that wasn't very long.

THE UGLY

• MY DAMN KNEE. Honestly, I thought the "worst" thing was getting slow and sluggish running. No. This is pretty much my first injury since I started racing and it fucking sucks. I felt GREAT outside of my knee and I could NOT run because every step was excruciatingly painful.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the whole experience of the race. If you have a half to run in West Virginia - pick this one. For real.

Everything is more fun with a friend!!

Bib #80
Official Time - 2:42:46
Official Split - 1:13:27
Official Pace - 12:25
Overall Place - 710/786
Division Place - 42/49
Garmin Time - 2:42:48
Garmin Distance - 13.19 miles
Garmin Pace - 12:21
Mile 1 - 9:56
Mile 2 - 10:54
Mile 3 - 13:09
Mile 4 - 11:26
Mile 5 - 11:53
Mile 6 - 12:23
Mile 7 - 12:10
Mile 8 - 12:13
Mile 9 - 12:27
Mile 10 - 12:47
Mile 11 - 12:54
Mile 12 - 14:04
Mile 13 - 14:04
Mile 13.1ish - 13:05

So yeah. You can see what went wrong and where. I'm bummed that I felt so shitty, because everything else was so good. Next blog I'll go more in depth about the stupid knee stuff.