Week in Review (August 1 - August 7)

Tuesday (10,881 steps) - Peloton ride before going to work. Did cross training at work. Nothing else?

Wednesday (15,447 steps) - Work in the office. Headed up to Louisville for run club! I had plans to run with Lisa since it was her first time there. We unfortunately had to head up McCaslin to start, which felt insanely hard. I don't think I've run around Harper Lake in YEARS, and I enjoyed some of the tile/rock art in the tunnel connector.

I had 45 minutes on schedule, but with a route I wasn't super familiar with, we ended up with more miles than planned and a bit longer, but it felt pretty good (outside of the climb at the start).

Ben met me, Terri and Larry at Murphy's for a few beers and a snack. Long night.

Thursday (17,250 steps) - Work from home. Mostly easy 45 minute run and a walk with Olive at lunch.

Friday (14,140 steps) - Wash Park and coffee!

Work ended up being CRAZY busy all day, and it was nice to have leftovers from the summer party (which I did not attend) as I never got a chance to take a real lunch.

Met up with Ben for a beer at 4 Noses.

Saturday (62,132 steps) - Ben arrived just after 5:30 to head down to Waterton Canyon. I had my longest training run in probably 14 months on schedule - 26 miles! (Normally I am scheduled by time, not miles). I compromised with Greg to attempt "progression" for first/last 6 miles and hike/jog the middle part. Well, first off, we got started late. 

Saw a whole family of sheep!!

I didn't feel wonderful, but the first 6 went ok, maybe a bit slower than planned, but we ran all the way to the dam. Then, thankfully, it was time to hike!

Obligatory picture when we get to the "real" trail

The longest out/back I have ever done here is 24 miles, and even THAT was many, many years ago. I still actually remembered quite a bit, however. 

Felt mostly ok, although a little hot. I had put the Platypus bladder in my pack and decided to refill the front bottles around mile 11-12. I (mistakenly) thought that I would drink less on the way back...

Neither of us felt as good as we hoped on the way down. I recognized that this was actually going to be really good training though - running whenever I can on tired legs. I hoped that we could do the last 6 quicker than we did, but we ended up taking a lot of walk breaks. We decided to go closer to home for food, and A said she would meet us at Parry's for pizza! It was a delicious lunch, and I only had one beer. Took Olive for a walk and A to get her sports physical. We did a movie night and watched the newest Transformers movie, which we all liked!

Sunday (10,451 steps) - "Slept in." Went to Torchy's for breakfast and a Bloody Mary!

Took Olive for a walk, then we went to 4 Noses for a beer. The afternoon was spent... watching tv? I may have done some cleaning.

Monday (25,336 steps) - Work from home, thankfully. Did my run, which ended up being faster than I expected.

Took Olive for a walk. Did some chores around the house. Ariel took me to dinner at Torchy's. 

Stats:

• 155,637 steps
• 41.59 miles run
• 20 minutes of cardio
• 40 minutes of strength training

Week in Review (August 16 - August 22)

Tuesday (5,513 steps) - Woke up to POURING rain. Like apocalyptic rain. I have no idea what happened, other than I went to work. No walk because it rained all day. 30 minute full body strength video when I got home from work. 

Wednesday (19,456 steps) - A's first day of... 11th grade!! Hard to believe that she was (I think) in preschool when I started this blog. Typical first day of school picture before I went to work in the office. 

Went for a walk at lunch. Headed up to Boulder after work for run club. Traffic was probably the worst it's ever been for me, so I got up there much later than I would have liked. I had some speed work on schedule, so I wore my trail shoes (after all the rain we had I was worried it was going to be really muddy) and headed to the cow path. The tempo intervals were "fine" but it was kinda hot/humid and I had to walk a decent amount.

Look at this cute prairie dog!

After getting back to the store I stuck around for a bit to talk with Jeramiah and Terri. Apparently Kristin and Joe had "gotten lost" (HOW?) and weren't able to make it back to the store before it closed. 

Thursday (21,978 steps) - Up EARLY to get my run in before work. I was supposed to be staying in zone 1 and 2, and it was REALLY tough. I'm wondering if it's just because I had just run fairly hard the night before? 

Anyway, I managed to get this done, took a shower and then in the office. (Switched my days so I could work remote on Friday). Walk at lunch, and who knows what else happened the rest of the day.

Friday (16,629 steps) - Wash Park and coffee with the gang before heading back to Denver so I could leave my car at my office and take the train to the airport. Security was INSANE - probably one of the top ten longest lines I've seen. At least the actual TSA part went fast because apparently now we don't have to take electronics or liquids out of our bags, nor take off shoes. Flight into Rapid City was FAST. Basically the seatbelt sign was off for maybe 15 minutes and then we were on the ground (45 minute flight). Rest of the day is recapped with Lean Horse 100.

Saturday (97,932 steps) - Lean Horse 100

Sunday (115,025 steps) - Lean Horse 100

Adding this picture of the random gas station dinner I had, haha.

Monday (8,839 steps) - I had originally set my alarm for 7:30 so that I could get some work done before leaving. We still had to get everything packed. Breakfast in the hotel lobby again, plus an extra cup of copy for me - tired! Our only objective for the morning was to go to Crazy Horse. We were a little late arriving (and meeting up with Lisa, Jandy, Troy and Maureen). Right after we got there, we watched a really cool informational video about how the carving got started. 

Construction started in 1948 and will likely still not be complete in my lifetime

We walked around the museum a bit, it was pretty interesting! The rest of the group had to drive all the way back to Denver (6+ hours), so they didn't want to stick around too long. I drove us towards the airport and Steph found "Sickies" which was a DELICIOUS recovery lunch. A huge burger, mac and cheese, fried green beans and a beer. Exactly what I needed!

Arrived at the airport thinking about 80 minutes would be sufficient to get through security and to the gate. Didn't even need that. Literally no one in front of me at security and my gate was the first one (of only 4). Once Steph got through we just sat at the gate and talked until it was time for me to board. Once we were pushed back we found out our flight was going to be delayed about 20 minutes, grrr. At least it was a quick flight, although turbulent with storms.

Made up a decent amount of time and only landed about 15 minutes "late." Walked through the whole airport to get back on the train, which I got right before it left. Walked from the station to my office and got my car. Thankfully, traffic was really light, which was crazy for 6 pm on a weekday On the drive home I got a call that I needed to meet Ariel and Ben at the tattoo place because they wouldn't let her get her septum piercing with him as the guardian because of the different last name. Thankfully, it all worked out, and she was able to get it done. 

A went home to do homework and Ben and I stopped at 4 Noses to chat about the weekend. We watched a movie - which unfortunately made for a very late night for me.

Stats:

• 285,372 steps
• 112.88 miles run
• 0 minutes of cardio
• 30 minutes of strength training

Week in Review (October 12 - October 18)

Tuesday (7,088 steps) - Work in the office. 45 minute Peloton ride and I guess nothing else.

Wednesday (13,677 steps) - Work in the office. I had an easy three miles on schedule, so I went to run club in Denver! It was fun to see people I don't normally see. Ran with Mo and Colfax and felt pretty good. Stuck around after and talked with Lisa about all her exciting upcoming trips!

Thursday (20,896 steps) - Work from home. Had my last "shake out" run to do, so I did an "easy" three at the lake - and it WAS actually not bad! Super rare for that to happen. Took Pika for a walk at lunch. Headed down to south Lakewood for the League XC meet that A had qualified for! It was supposed to be cold and stormy and we weren't optimistic about good racing conditions when it was snowing on the drive down! By the time they raced it cleared up a bit, thankfully, although it was still cold.

Emma leading the way - she'd maintain this lead the whole race

A was super pumped to find out that her time (which was a new PR, by the way) was enough for her to qualify to run Regionals. Woo hoo!! She wanted to ride the bus home with her teammates, so Ben and I stopped at a "new to us" brewery on the way home.

Friday (9,019 steps) - Up at an obscene hour to rush out the door to the airport. We hadn't been able to book our normal offsite parking because it was sold out, so we planned to just park in the economy lot. This turned out to also be a terrible idea, as that was almost completely full as well! We ended up in row Z, which is literally the last one. We had a ton of crap and had to basically run to the airport. We Came in at the wrong side and had to do the up/down escalator thing because of all the construction. The line to check bags was insane, although not as bad as the lines for security. I was REALLY sure that we were going to miss our flight even though we had gotten to the airport two hours early. Finally got the bag checked and jumped into the security line, hoping that our bags wouldn't get to Kentucky without us. Made it through security and got to the gate with 16 minutes to spare, only to have an announcement that our flight was delayed 30 minutes. Who cares at this point, at least we made it there. Flight was uneventful, and I continued with my Schitt's Creek episodes. We had booked a Turo for the first time instead of a traditional rental car, so we had to take a Lyft to get to the location since they didn't deliver. Everything worked out well with that experience, so I'd recommend using them if you can find a good deal - even with the Lyft both ways we still saved a few hundred bucks. By now we were both starving, but we also wanted to get on the road. It was POURING and we had a foreshadowing of what the rest of the weekend would look like. We had hoped to find a brewery on the way, but the options were really limited. We found a "brewery" named Goodwood about an hour away. The beer was meh, but the food was REALLY good and hit the spot.

There really wasn't a direct route to get to where we were going, and we ended up on quite a few country two-lane roads. It was really pretty, however, and I did enjoy the drive. Finally, we made it to Virginia!

By the time we got to where we were going it was about 6 pm. We had made plans to meet up with Dave at the pizza place next to the Expo Center, so I texted him as soon as I got service so we could eat ASAP. We picked up our packets first, then met Dave. Even though we were at a pizza place, I opted to order lasagna instead - it ended up being really good! We had a very pleasant dinner, then planned to run to Walmart to get our last minute groceries so we could get everything ready for the morning. The day flew by!

Saturday (110,640 steps) - Cloudsplitter 100

Sunday (124,461 steps) - Cloudsplitter 100.

Monday (6,041 steps) - I had apparently slept like the dead. I don't recall how early I got up, but I know we didn't set an alarm and we woke up sometime after the sun came up. I was really sore and throat was pretty scratchy. Ben went into town and got us coffee and scones. We had to pack and get out of the hotel and still had a pretty long drive to get back to Louisville. We stopped at a really cute brewery in Lexington that had great food and beer! Unfortunately we couldn't stay long as we still had another hour to drive.

Steph still wanted me to do a 20 minute walk, so we found a brewery near-ish the airport that had what looked like a park nearby where we could walk. Turns out, it was a cemetery. Ironically, one of the tombstones had this:

Drove the car back to where we had picked it up and then got a Lyft back to the airport. We had plans on getting dinner or a snack, but EVERYTHING was closed. ARG!! Schitt's Creek on the flight home. We actually landed early and getting our bags wasn't a problem, but we still had the LONG walk back to the truck. Not fun. Then, because of construction, it took forever to get out of the airport because they had everyone merging into one lane! I-70 also had ALL lanes closed, we had to drive in the break down lane, plus our exit was closed. Needless to say, it took a LONG time to get home, then we still had to have a snack when we got home because we were starving. Probably 2 am before I got to bed.

Stats:

• 291,822 steps
• 107.07 miles run
• 45 minutes of cardio
• 0 minutes of strength training

Week in Review (November 13 - November 19)

Tuesday (8,319 steps) - I have no idea what happened today (writing this almost two weeks later). Pretty sure I stopped at the grocery store on the way home, otherwise... ?
Wednesday (21,618 steps) - A is 13 years old. Thirteen. Where have the years gone??

Finally made it up to Boulder for run club! The group was kinda small for the trail run, and it wasn't ideal conditions (read, muddy).

Afterwards we stuck around for a short event - learning some self defense. Lots of fun, actually.

Then we went to Under the Sun for A's birthday - a really long night! Also, can you believe that A is THIRTEEN??

Thursday (10,712 steps) - See Days 1 and 2
Friday (13,142 steps) - See Days 1 and 2
Saturday (37,193 steps) - See Day 3 (parts 1 and 2)
Sunday (17,945 steps) - See Day 4
Monday (18,468 steps) - See Day 5

Stats:

• 127,397 steps
• 18.6 miles run
• One trip to the gym and lots of hiking in Europe!

Week in Review (August 28 - September 3)

Tuesday (8,153 steps) - NOTHING!
Wednesday (18,198 steps) - Core & strength at the gym. We did the core in circuits using the TRX, and it was pretty tough. Strength was even harder since I was the only one. I picked up A during my lunch break. After work we went to Denver Roost's off site run club at Banded Oak.

I ran with Susan, Maureen & Colfax - it was probably the best I have felt during a run in ages. Had food and beer, then headed home to pack up the car.
Thursday (9,027 steps) - Vacation day 1!
Friday (10,409 steps) - Vacation day 2!
Saturday (40,243 steps) - Vacation Day 3 - The Rut 28k!
Sunday (23,290 steps) - Vacation Day 4!
Monday (29,860 steps) - See vacation recap

Stats:

• 139,180 steps
• 19.1 miles run
• One trip to the gym and six hikes totaling over 20 miles!

Week in Review (May 22 - May 28)

Tuesday (14,154 steps) - Up at 3:55 so I could be on the shuttle by 4:30 to the airport. Since I had my trekking poles with me I had to check my bag. The lines were long at the KLM counter, but it moved fairly quickly and I was through security in no time. The Budapest airport does a funky thing where they don't announce the gate you'll be at until about 45 minutes before it pushes back. So while I was waiting I sat in the food court and ate my bagel with peanut butter. The flight to Amsterdam was uneventful. Out of every connection I had, this was the tightest! I stopped briefly to pick up Sbux city mugs for Ruth, the only stop I made in the airport. By the time I got through passport control & Delta's customs, through the gate, I was on the plane with just 8 minutes until we pushed back. Eeek! I sat next a pleasant woman from Kansas City, and we chatted occasionally through the flight. Mostly, though, I was watching movies. This flight I watched I, Tonya, The Commuter, dozed off a bit during Murder on the Orient Express, Happy Death Day, and part of Dirty Dancing. We landed on time in Minneapolis, and customs there was about as seamless as I've ever been through. Certainly better than when we came through New York last year. The only middle seat I had was on this flight. I watched another movie on my phone, and once again, we landed on time. By the time we deplaned and I got to baggage claim my bag was already there. I was dropped off at my car shortly after 4. Home by 5:10. Immediately threw my disgusting race clothes in the laundry. Once A got dropped off we went to Red Robin for a belated birthday dinner, stopping at Kneaders for cake on the way home. I barely made it to 8:30 before I crashed. Longest day ever.
Wednesday (17,330 steps) - Runners Roost Boulder! Special run club with a BBQ provided by Saucony, so thankfully, we had a modified trail run that didn't go up into the hills. Actually not the worst run, considering what I had done over the weekend.

We stuck around until about 8. Had to stop at Target on the way home because A decided she needed tights to wear for her continuation.
Thursday (10,225 steps) - A's last day of 6th grade! How did this happen??

We opted to skip run club so that we could go out to dinner to celebrate her last day of elementary school.
Friday (10,965 steps) - Barre with Kelly! Extra tough, since it was my first class in 12 days! Dropped my car off at the dealership for brakes, and got a call later in the evening that I had a gash in the sidewall of one of my tires. OF COURSE I DO.
Saturday (13,313 steps) - Team run at 8:00 in Lone Tree. A decided to walk with Ang and I ran with Mo. It was insanely hot, and we all struggled.

Stuck around at the store until almost noon, socializing and eating. Arrived at the dealership to pick up my car and THE TIRES HAD NOT BEEN CHANGED. Urg. We ended up having to sit there for over an hour and a half while they got the work done. Such a pain.
Sunday (10,366 steps) - FINALLY got a great night's sleep, over 10 hours! Went to barre at 9:30. After lunch we went up to Runners Roost Boulder to help out with the last minute Bolder Boulder packet pick up.

"volunteering"

Monday (18,469 steps) - Bolder Boulder!! (Recap to follow). We got back to the store just after 12:30. We went to Under the Sun for food and drinks, until about 3:00.

Stats:

• 94,822 steps
• 16.7 miles run
• 2 barre classes