Week in Review (October 20 - October 26)

Tuesday (9,752 steps) - Work in the office. Headed straight to A's "not award" ceremony for cross country at the local park. Happy to report that she was one of the kids the lettered as a freshman! Go A!

The "Little Mermaid" award (whatever that means)

And for fun, a picture of Pika with a leaf on her head.

After the ceremony, I took Pika for a walk on the path while A played on the playground with her friend. Unfortunately, Pika KNEW A was nearby and almost ripped my arm off trying to get back to where she was.

Wednesday (12,459 steps) - Work from home. Batman got to go on another walk since the weather was nice! The newest fire in the area made the air super smoky (but pretty):

Thursday (8,960 steps) - Work in the office. That's it?

Friday (11,852 steps) - Work from home. Nothing else?

Saturday (22,210 steps) - Up not too early to drive to Hildebrand Ranch. Like last year, I was going to be running the Two Brands trail race. Unlike last year, I would only be running five miles instead of ten. This was also going to be my first post-Moab run!

I arrived only ten minutes before the start and barely had time to get my bib and use the bathroom before we started. Only running for an hour meant I didn't have to carry any water, which was nice. Because of COVID there were no water stations, but I knew I'd be find for five miles.

My goal was under an hour. I thought in my head that I had run just under two hours last year for ten, so it seemed like a good starting point. I didn't feel too terrible, outside of my normal struggles with breathing and tightness. I walked a decent amount in the early miles and I'm sure I irritated the ladies near me that I kept passing and then slowing down again.

The forecast was finally for warmer weather, although you wouldn't know it by how people were dressed, lol. I was wearing one of my thin Columbia shirts and had to roll up my sleeves by the time we were maybe 2 miles in.

This was the course I had fallen on last year and hurt my rib. Wondering exactly what rock I tripped over last year occupied most of my thoughts between miles 3 and 4. Thankfully, the entire last mile is alllll downhill, and I was able to run in pretty strong for finish.

With the course being a tad long, I didn't "quite" get under two hours, but I figure I was close enough:

Garmin time - 1:00:26

Garmin distance - 5.21

Garmin pace - 11:36

Elevation gain - 472'

Mile 1 - 12:14

Mile 2 - 11:44

Mile 3 - 12:27

Mile 4 - 12:17

Mile 5 - 9:59

Mile 5.2 - 8:26 (whoop whoop!)

Post-race with Jandy (who paced me a BUNCH at Moab!)

Jandy and I stuck around to watch other people finish and chat for a bit. Finally, I figured it was time to head out, so I grabbed my free burrito and Gatorade.

Ariel had made plans to go to the skate park while the weather was nice. Ben and I dropped her off and then took Pika for a walk before going to Denver Beer. 

THEN, we had to go look at two different houses - and we didn't like either of them. Super cold evening walking Pika.

Sunday (7,866 steps) - THE COLDEST DAY. (Well, the coldest day so far this winter). Mountain breakfast!

Really no recollection of the afternoon, other than we took Pika for a walk, and it was freaking cold.

Monday (12,802 steps) - Work from home.  Even colder. SO COLD WALKING PIKA. Need to find my mittens that I took with me to Moab.

Ben picked up pho for dinner and we watched "It" (Chapter 1). I am really enjoying post-Moab recovery!

Stats:

• 85,901 steps
• 5.2 miles run :)
• No cross training

Week in Review (October 6 - 12)

Tuesday (21,468 steps) - Work in the office. Took Batman for his first real walk in the kitty backpack. I think he'll like it!

I love this picture! So funny and adorable.

Unfortunately for Batman, he had to go back in the backpack later in the evening. Since we needed the house to be pet free for the showings and open houses while we were going to be gone, Batman and Robin were going to a kitty sitter. Our friend Kim was gracious enough to let them stay with her for a whole week! (The cats were super dramatic, but we saw pictures all week long of them living a wonderful kitty life - her place has a balcony that they were allowed to wander on).

Wednesday (19,118 steps) - Work from home. We had to be out of the house relatively early for the photographer to do her thing in preparation for the showings, so we took Pika to the dog park for a bit. Lots of last minute packing for Moab! Ariel decorated Ben's truck for us as well.

Thursday (7,721 steps) - Up early to drive to Moab! The coolest part of our drive was that Ben's friend that still works in the tunnel briefly changed a highway sign for us!

We stopped for lunch in Palisade at the brewery. Both the food and the beer was delicious, and it was nice to relax on a fairly deserted patio.

Obligatory welcome to Utah sign (seriously, we stop every time)

We had to leave Zach at the truck when we went to check in for the race because we had ALL our stuff in the back of Ben's truck. Eeeek, things are getting real!!

After picking up beer at Moab Brewery, we unloaded everything in the BnB. This is apparently the only picture I took inside. Our master suite was super nice - and large enough that we could arrange all our gear pretty easily. We only spent two nights (out of a week) in here. Also, between this BnB and the one we had after the wedding, I'm definitely bargaining for a King size bed. It's so luxurious!

Most of this is briefly summarized in my Moab 240 race report as well. Ben ordered Domino's for delivery, and it literally took TWO HOURS to arrive. WTF?! Had we known it would take the long we just would have picked up, it wasn't that far from where we were, we just didn't want to be driving around all night. In bed way later than planned.

Friday (103,297 steps) - Moab 240!

Saturday (119,564 steps) - Moab 240!

Sunday (106,434 steps) - Moab 240!

Monday (104,679 steps) - Moab 240!

Stats:

• 482,281 steps
• 200ish miles run
• No cross training, but lots of walking/hiking/running....