Because Being Ordinary Is Boring: puzzle

Showing posts with label puzzle. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Week in Review (December 24 - December 30)

Tuesday (16,641 steps) - Up early to use the rower and walk Olive before going to work in the office. Yes. I had to go into work on Christmas Eve. Which was pointless because NOTHING WAS HAPPENING. I went to the gym at lunch and used the StairMaster (Eiffel Tower again) and did a Pilates video.

At least the office closed early? I had hoped to do some deliveries, but didn't get any offers, so I met Ben at 4 Noses.

Wednesday (18,924 steps) - Ariel had to work, but we all went to Dunkin to get coffee since they were the only place that was open. Put off my workout (that once again, I was really dreading) until about lunchtime. I had a LONG set of faster repeats. Hit the first and third, but the one in the middle was a bust. I hated this run - A LOT. But like Ben says, running "fast" is sorta my weakness. I can go on and on forever, but I have a hard time running faster and hitting those paces. So I will continue to do this runs even though they suck.

Realized I didn't have any pictures of Bruce Jr. (our tree) and presents this year.

Took Olive for a walk at the lake.

When I got back Ben insisted that I needed to work on the other puzzle I got for Christmas LAST year. He turned on the football game and hours of my life just disappeared. Ariel finally got home from work around dinner time. We had a delicious meal, talked to Ben's mom on the phone and finally opened our gifts. Great haul this year - no pictures of anything though. Took Olive for another walk. Yellowstone?

Thursday (10,944 steps) - Did a 30 minute Peloton ride to start the day. Sadly, I had to "work." Ben and Ariel were both off. At least I was at home? I was covering for Erica's attorneys and hoped it would not be busy. I didn't need to worry. It was NOT BUSY AT ALL. I did end up finishing my Christmas puzzle though - with VERY little help.

Ben and I took Olive for a long walk at lunch on the mud route since it had rained so much. Squeezed in some strength training. Torchy's for dinner and Amanda's second to last shift before she goes on maternity leave. Short walk with Olive and more Yellowstone.

Friday (17,528 steps) - Had hoped to go on the Wash Park walk but they moved it later in the morning "since everyone is off work" - uhhh, not me. Took Olive for a walk and had a very boring day in office because, it's true, just about everyone but me is not working. Stayed home for the evening and took Olive for a walk. Yellowstone!

Saturday (24,386 steps) - Up early so we could be at Terri's house by 8. We had plans to do Bobcat Ridge - a trail area near Fort Collins that I haven't run before. I'm glad I randomly threw an extra layer in my pack because it was overcast and chillier than I expected it to be. In general, I felt overall pretty awful the whole time.

Overall, I'm really glad we went out there, it was beautiful and I think the cooler and gloomy weather kept the crowds away. By the time we got back to the parking lot the sun was coming out and the lot was pretty full. Terri took us to Berthoud Brewing, where she is in the mug club. Beer was meh, the pizza, however, was amazing.

We stopped at Mudrocks on the way home, where Larry met up with us. Secondary stop at 4 Noses to give Alicia her Christmas present. Leftovers & Yellowstone.

Sunday (19,078 steps) - Dragged a bit getting out the door to walk Olive before doing the Rock Creek loop with Ben again. Thankfully, I felt way better than the last time we ran that.

Went to Torchy's for Amanda's last shift.

Took Olive for another walk and then did a few deliveries.

Monday (18,550 steps) - Work from home! It was an insanely windy day, so I put off all outdoor activities. Finally took Olive for a walk and then went on my run. The wind chill took like 15 degrees of the air temperature, but happy to be done with it. Not fun.

Did a few deliveries after work, met Ben at 4 Noses. Pizza and Yellowstone.

Stats:

126,051 steps
25.91 miles run
20.55 miles walked
70 minutes of cardio
40 minutes of strength

Friday, January 5, 2024

Week in Review (December 26 - January 1)

Wow, where did 2023 go?! It was not all all sunshine and roses, but it was overall a pretty good year. Onward to 2024.

Tuesday (10,569 steps) - Just because I can, I took the day off since I figured it would be really slow anyway. It was a cross training day, so I rode the bike in the morning. Ariel and I went to get coffee, and suddenly it was already lunch time. Ben and I ran some errands, including returning a freakishly ill-fitting pair of Prana jeans. Unsure of what else we did. I convinced Ariel to join me for a Taylor Swift pilates video.

Wednesday (24,565 steps) - Work in the office. Read my book at lunch. Headed up to Louisville for my workout. It was actually light for the first few miles!

I had a workout (again) and even though I ran roughly the same pace as last week (and got a break in between) it still felt insanely hard. While running hasn't been "bad" lately, it's certainly felt like a struggle. Headed to the Louisville Roost afterward. Randomly, Terri and I both won the raffles for the Speedlands!! Excited to try out these (very very expensive and niche) trail shoes soon! Took Olive for a short walk when I got home.

Thursday (19,298 steps) - Work from home, yay! I know this has been a short week, but one day in office was PLENTY. Ariel joined me and Olive on a mud route walk. Had an "easy" run to do. It was... ok. After work I set to work on finishing the Christmas puzzle. Probably the longest a puzzle has taken me, but it was 1,000 pieces. Happy to have it done, but it took right up to bedtime.

Friday (14,701 steps) - Wash Park and Stella's. Work in the office and I got in a a few miles on the treadmill desk. Ben and I went to 4 Noses for happy hour.

Saturday (32,868 steps) - Took Olive for a walk around the neighborhood since we were getting a late start for our weekly long run. I felt like Waterton would be "good" since we hadn't been there in a while. This was one of the worst runs I have had in a LONG time. I didn't enjoy this one at all.

We went to Parry's for a snack and some delicious Juicy Bits on the way home. Took Olive for another neighborhood loop.

Sunday (17,991 steps) - Headed to New Terrain to meet up with a few friends for the "Raptor Rim" loop. BPRunCO apparently had the same idea as us, start time and all. This was overall a pretty awful run as well. I felt like complete garbage on most of the climbs.

The way down as a bit better. Got some food from the food truck and had a few beers - picture below courtesy of Doug.

Stopped at our favorite liquor store on the way home for NYE beers. Went to 4 Noses for a beer and to get our monthly growler fill. Took Olive for a walk. Spent NYE on the couch! Watched a movie, a few episodes of "Reacher" and listened to Spotify's 1984 playlist when we realized that a lot of the songs we like are 40(!!) freaking years old. Made it to midnight somehow.

Monday (28,110 steps) - Begrudgingly got up and had coffee and breakfast to meet up with friends for our annual Red Rocks run. Right at 10 am on the dot I was able to sign up for Kettle Moraine 100, although my Ultrasignup gift card didn't apply (??) but just glad to get in since it sells out. Another pretty awful run for me. This was definitely due to all the beer. Almost a dozen of us headed out, with more than half of us planning on doing the full loop. First picture is partially up the Red Rocks road section with everyone.

It had been cold and windy in the parking lot and I was worried I would not be warm enough. As happens every time we do this, it gets warmer for the back half. Thankfully I layered in a way I could easily strip down to a tee.

This was pretty terrible, but that seemed to be the theme of the weekend in running. I did most of my miles with Maureen, and Ben towards the end.

Since Morrison charges for parking now (boo, hiss), we walked back from the free lot to get food at the Holiday Bar. True to my word, no post-run beer for me. Had a random burger with jalapeno cream cheese and some sort of raspberry chipotle. Was tasty! Took Olive for a neighborhood walk.

Stats:

148,102 steps
41.25 miles run
45 minutes of cardio
20 minutes of strength

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Week in Review (December 20 - December 26)

Tuesday (10,345 steps) - Work in the office. Went for a walk at lunch. Stopped at T-Mobile to pay my bill since I never did receive my final one. Pretty annoying that I never even got a bill and they already charged me a late fee. GOOD RIDDANCE. Since I had switched my tempo run to Monday, I had nothing to do.

Wednesday (8,973 steps) - All anyone has been talking about for days is our "once in a generation" storm. We were supposed to have something like a 70 degree temperature drop. Work in the office, and initially, it was a nice day!

A bit chilly in the office, but I went for a walk at lunch, and other than being windy, it was over 50 degrees.

I looked at the temperature just before leaving work, around 4:15 and it was still over 40 degrees. By the time I got into my car at 4:30, the temperature was already below freezing. And by the time I got home, less than a half hour later, it was already down to 5 degrees. You could just SEE the weather coming in. Did my workout, which was Peloton and some upper body.

Thursday (4,062 steps) - THANKFULLY, it was a work from home day. It was BRISK when I got up.

Feels like -29??? Geez.

Even Robin decided that sleeping in the cat scratcher was a great idea since it's right by one of the floor vents.

Sometime during the day, I came across my friend's FB post. She posted pictures of the most adorable dog that she is fostering. I showed her to Ariel and we decided to put in an application for her!! By the end of the afternoon we found out that we were going to be able to adopt the dog!! A and I took turns shoveling the driveway and spent the rest of the night watching Criminal Minds.

Friday (6,558 steps) - Obviously we were going to skip Wash Park walk. It was WAY too cold for that. I definitely enjoyed sleeping in though.

I don't know if you can tell how cold it is - but it's cold.

Still -13 on my drive to work. Blech.

So with it being Christmas Eve, I really thought that we were going to be let out early. SADLY, I found out after arriving that we were having a regular work day. SAD!! I actually was really busy though, so the day went by pretty quickly. Also, Nicole said I could leave early if I got all my work done AND I found out that Joyce was going to be out the following week, so that prompted me to ask for a bonus work from home day to spend time with the puppy.

Cold enough for the kitties to canoodle

Had a workout, which is not normally something I have on a Friday, but because it was a weird week... ended up just doing a total of an hour on the Peloton.

Saturday (27,462 steps) - Woke up before my alarm. Dragged A to Target with me so we could get some last minute supplies for the puppy! I ended up having to rush to get down to Waterton Canyon by 10:30. On a bit of a time crunch, and Maureen and I had 2 hours of running planned. I assumed it would be colder and windier, so I was definitely a bit overdressed. We planned to do 7-8 in the canyon and then a few with Colfax.

I was setting the pace, which was a relatively comfortable zone 2, in the mid 12's. A few miles up we saw a bunch of sheep butts:

We were enjoying our time in the canyon, so we opted to do 8 total, and took this picture right as we planned on turning around.

Saw the sheep again on the way down, and they were closer to the road, but still couldn't really get any great pictures of them. We stopped in the parking lot long enough to grab Colfax. Headed into Chatfield, which was a LOT harder to run on! Colfax enjoyed his time, and we were able to get a couple miles in, totaling just over 10 for the day.

Maureen and I wanted to stop and get coffee and picked a Sbux about 15 minutes away from Waterton. Turns out the Sbux was in the Safeway and they were out of half of the desserts, so we decided to pick something up from the bakery instead. I figured I would save money, but ended up buying a huge variety platter of bars anyway. I figured I would barely make it home to meet Tami and the puppy, but thankfully she called and said she was running about 10 minutes late, so I had time to take a shower before she got there. The puppy, whom we named Olive, IS THE CUTEST PUPPY EVER!! She has a bit of sad past, she was found as a stray in Texas with an embedded collar. She had to have it surgically removed, and as a result of her trauma is pretty scared of people, which is understandable. We let her outside to show her around, but she was afraid to come back in and it took a while to get her. Initial pictures of Olive, approximately 1 year old. Aussie / cattle dog / possibly Corgi mix.

Tami suggested that at least until she gets more comfortable that we keep her harness and leash on her when letting her out so we can at least grab the leash when she gets close to the door.

Did I mention that she had also just been spayed so has to wear a cone when we are sleeping or not home? A had her work Christmas party, so I was home alone with Olive, who is still very nervous, but adapting well.

Sunday (19,089 steps) - Olive was afraid to attempt stairs, so she slept alone in the living room. She took a liking to the ottoman, which is where Pika always used to sit. Doesn't she look pathetic in the cone?

Since we were up, we woke up Ariel so we could do breakfast and presents. Ariel made cinnamon rolls, which has become a bit of a tradition on holidays.

Batman got a snazzy new collar for Christmas

I had a run planned with Maureen from Green Mountain. Everyone else planned on running just a 5k, so it was just me and Mo running to Stone House for a total of 5 miles before picking up Colfax for another 2, for a total of 7 miles.

Green Mountain Brewery is one of the few places I know of that is open on Christmas. They opened at noon and for the last 6-7 years have a big potluck. I had just one beer and didn't stick around for too much longer since we had plans for late lunch/dinner.

Robin also got a new collar for Christmas!

Olive didn't mind wearing Pika's old Christmas sweater

Deidre had invited us over for Christmas dinner, so we left around 3. Food was AMAZING, and it was great to see them again. We were surprised by them also getting us each a heated throw for a gift. (Thank you, we still are keeping the house at 60 degrees).

We got home just after dark and started our Christmas puzzle while re-watching the second season of Jack Ryan. Sadly, we weren't going to be able to finish it. I hate leaving puzzles unfinished!!

Monday (14,376 steps) - Woke up earlier than planned, but I didn't really care since I didn't have to work. A had practice, so I sat in the living room with the zoo.