Week in Review (July 2 - July 8)

Tuesday (13,015 steps) - Peloton before working in the office. Did my strength training at lunch. Nothing else?

Wednesday (31,205 steps) - Work in the office. We thankfully got a (slightly) early closure for Independence Day. I headed up to Louisville to do my run before run club (since I planned on being slow and hot). I had mapped out a 6 mile run and it wasn't the WORST, but it certainly wasn't great.

Ben met me at the store and we walked with Larry. We planned on a few miles, but Larry somehow tricked us into doing over 3... we went to Murphy's after (for much longer than I would have liked).

Thursday (37,202 steps) - Big plans for the 4th! Ben and I headed up to do our (almost) annual loop of Buffalo Mountain. I had hoped to be starting around 8, but we were later than that. Thankfully, we were still able to get a spot in the small lot. No matter how many times I do this route, the first few miles are really strenuous!

We noticed some blow downs early on, and even saw the forest service doing work to cut down obstacles on the trail. 

Some of the water crossings seemed really big this year. I certainly don't ever remember this one from past years.

Once we got to the top of Eccles Pass we encountered more snow and mud than on the other side, and not nearly as many wildflowers as we have seen in the past. It also got cold with the wind and both of us put on our sun shirts as a layer. Still super pretty though!

At one point we came to one of the water crossings that I remembered falling in a few years ago. I made a point of telling Ben "not going to get me THIS time," and then I promptly slipped in the water. Ugh.

The only wildlife we saw on the top was an adorable marmot that actually let us get pretty close for pictures. 

LOTS more water crossings (faster moving water and wider) and then of course some fairly catastrophe downed trees that looked like they had been there for a while.

It was getting pretty warm and we were both ready to be done. Finally did some "real" running as we got closer to Lily Pad lake. 

The big excitement was when we were less than two miles from getting back to the truck and we were running across a bridge and there was a moose right next to us. It moved pretty quickly and we didn't really get a clear picture of it. But we saw it! We went to Outer Range for a beer and lunch, as we were both starving.

Ben's bowl was too spicy for him so he didn't eat a lot of it. I still think he should have asked for a replacement. We left after one beer and headed down the mountain, stopping at Parry's for more food and a snack. Had hoped to get home with enough time to walk Olive, but the kitchen was really slow. By the time we got near the house our neighbors were setting off illegal fireworks in the street (that we nearly ran over). Over the course of the evening we had a confrontation with them and the people at their house got really aggressive and we ended up having to have the police involved. That was really nice for when A got home with some of her friends for a sleepover. (These are the same jerk neighbors that use a snowblower and plow all the snow from their long driveway into the cul-de-sac, making it next to impossible for the Minis to drive. Upon asking them to please not do that they cussed us out and said IN 20 YEARS NO ONE HAS EVER COMPLAINED. They still do it.)

Friday (15,998 steps) - Bonus day off from work! I slept in until some crazy hour like 8:30 and then after getting everything ready, Olive and I headed up to Square Top for a fun hike/run.

Olive doesn't really do selfies yet. Maybe she never will.

Across the road, Bierstadt was packed, but we only saw maybe a few dozen people the whole afternoon. Initially, Olive was dragging a bit.

There was a TON of wildflowers on the lower trails, specifically, my favorites - Columbines!

There were sections of the trail that were a little muddy, but in general, the trails were in good shape. Olive seemed to perk up a bit at the first body of water she could cool down in. 

I have hiked Square Top before and had no desire to summit. The goal was just to get to the lakes, and hopefully find some snow for Olive.

We found two separate snowfields that Olive ran and played in for quite a while. (No pictures, I only took a video). 

Probably her best selfie, but of course I'm holding a poop bag (eyeroll)

We decided that just going to the lakes was find and we headed back down. She was much quicker going down and we even did some running. As an aside, I finally wore my Topo Traverse shoes (touted as a hiking shoe). When I initially put them on, they didn't seem like they would be that comfortable, but they worked great.

It was already getting late, so after cleaning her off, we started the drive down, stopping briefly for the one sheep we saw on the side of the road.

We stopped at Cabin Creek for lunch and a beer. Service was pretty typical, but I don't think I had to wait as long for a check.

Dinner at Torchy's!

Saturday (35,315 steps) - We stayed local and opted to do (almost a replica of ) the route I had done in May with Larry and Terri. Figured that parking in any of the public lots would be a disaster, so we started in town.

I rolled my ankle a few miles in going down the steps (that I've done a million times). I like the new sunglasses I got, but I think the lenses are too dark for anything in the shade as it seems like my depth perception is off. At least it seemed to not be too painful. 

I'm glad that I had loaded the route on my watch. Even though I have run on these trails a ton over the years I still get easily confused and am never entirely sure I know where I am going. There had been a TON of growth over the last month - everything was so big and green and leafy.

No matter how much climbing I do, Shadow Canyon ALWAYS SUCKS. It is 1.3 miles with 1,500' of technical gain. I always feel like I am going to pass out when I am climbing. I had my poles in my pack, but not sure they would even be beneficial on such technical climbs?

I always forget about the last bit of climbing to Bear Peak. The week of climbing definitely had me clumsy and tired. 

We had the excitement of coming up on a big snake. Ben jumped. 

We did more running on the downhills, with brief stops to take pictures of some of the prettier flowers. 

Even though I knew this HAD to be the way we had come the last time, nothing really looked familiar. And this section was SUPER overgrown.

Finally, I knew where we were. Just thankful we didn't have to go another 5 or so miles to South Mesa.

We did more running just to get things over with. We stopped at Runners Roost so Ben could get new shoes, and then we went to Illegal Pete's for a snack and a beer. We rushed home so I could take Olive for a quick walk and shower, then on to take her for her grooming appointment. We waited at 4 Noses for her.

She is always SO happy to see me when she is done. I don't know what magical products they use, but she always smells so good and is so soft after these appointments. 

Sunday (23,568 steps) - We somehow got Ariel to join us for the annual hike at Herman Gulch! We took separate cars to the carpool lot in Morrison because she was going to have to go to work early. We ended up with a decent sized group, and most of the climb up was me, Ben, A, Mo and Pete. We met up with Sheila nearer to the top when we were waiting to see how far back everyone was.

Never comes out great in pictures, but the columbines were AMAZING this year, I think one of the best years yet! So many of them!

We didn't have a ton of time when we got to the top, but Olive played in the snow and was a little hesitant to get her feet wet in the big lake. 

The whole group wasn't up yet, so we were going to do a quick selfie to get everyone we could before we needed to head down.

As we were walking, we saw Lisa and her friends, so we did another quick photo.

Ariel found the rock that she will take for the "M" climb next month. I can't believe she carried it for like three miles.

We hit some traffic on the way down, but still got A to her car in enough time for her to go work. We headed to New Terrain where we would meet up with Mo. There were a ton of people there, and we had to stalk people to get a table in the shade. Olive was also exhausted from her day.

Ben randomly bought movie tickets at Alamo so we could see Despicable Me 4. It was a pretty cute movie.

Monday (18,419 steps) - Slept in, instead of going for an early run. The weekend DRAINED me. I did go for my run fairly early, fully expecting it to be horrible, but it actually wasn't that bad. Shocking after a lot of miles and like 11,000' of climbing. 

Took Olive for a walk. A ended up having to work, but we met at Torchy's when she got off for a quick lunch.

Stats:

• 174,722 steps
• 49.97 miles run
• 15.5 miles walked
• 45 minutes of cardio
• 40 minutes of strength

Week in Review (June 25 to July 1)

Tuesday (15,007 steps) - Peloton before work in the office. Did strength training at lunch. Nothing else?

Wednesday (26,398 steps) - Work in the office. Walked to REI at lunch to get some new sunglasses. I have a zillion pairs of Goodrs, but want some higher quality ones that work in more temperatures/weather conditions. It seems they have finally "finished" some sections of the mall that have been torn of for literally years. I have to say, I am not sure what the point is? It basically looks the same? It seems that if they wanted to turn this into pedestrian only they could have saved billions of dollars and just put up "posts" at the end of each block?

Headed up to Boulder after work since I had hill repeats. It stated to rain when I got to Westminster area. It stopped by the time I got to Boulder, but that just meant it was REALLY humid. 

Shouldn't come as a surprise that the repeats REALLY sucked. The sunglasses that I picked up also didn't work well for me. They didn't come low enough towards me cheek and they left an annoying line of light that made the technical trail sections tough to focus on. The nose piece also pinched, so I didn't like that either. I managed to run into both the slow and fast groups of the Roost group run at the junction. I got back to the store and was excited that Topo was there, but wasn't given a raffle ticket and therefore didn't win shoes. Sad. I also recognized NO ONE at the store, even though like 70 people had attended the run. Weird feeling out of place at this store after all these years.

Thursday (22,345 steps) - Did my run early because it was supposed to be another really hot day. After all the rain, it was cool, but still humid.

Work from home. Took Olive for a walk at lunch. 

Friday (22,802 steps) - Skipped the Wash Park meet up so I could sleep a bit later. Walked to REI at lunch again so I could return the sunglasses and get a different pair. Rushed home to change just to come back to Denver! Ariel and I went to dinner at Sliceworks and then walked over to Ball Arena to see NKOTB again!

We had pretty decent seats, but being first level club seats mean that a lot of the stage lights were directly in our faces. Also, the acoustics seem to have gotten terrible. Either that, or I'm old. DJ Jazzy Jeff was fairly awful. Paula Abdul was good, but her set was really short. I did  like that she introduced all her dancers though. NKOTB was fun as always, but they played a LOT from their new album and we just didn't learn it all fast enough so it wasn't as fun for me.

I missed the format of the last few concerts where there was no wasted time between performers and no "central" stage. Show ended before 11, which was surprising to me, but at least I was in bed before midnight.

Saturday (23,070 steps) - We slept a bit later than planned and decided to bring Olive with us to Sourdough trail for a hike/run. We arrived fairly late, but like I had remembered, it was not crowded at all at the trailhead. We mostly hiked the whole way out. Olive did really well off leash, and even moved off trail on command more than once. I would like to think she is getting better and is figuring stuff out.

Elevation was too low (I think we MAYBE got to 11,000') for there to be snow, but thankfully there was a river that Olive was able to drink out of and get her paws wet a few miles up.

The two below pictures are when she actually moved off trail for people coming down.

This was going to be Olive's longest distance, so we decided to turn around at about 4.5 miles when we started to descent again.

We actually did some running on the way back to the car.

Mileage PR for Olive of 9 miles! Way to go, Olive! We stopped at Knotted Root in Nederland (since Ben had never been) and sat on the patio. 

Finally heard from Larry and Terri and we decided to meet them at Murphy's for a snack and a beer. Olive was exhausted. 

4 Noses on the way home and we had to figured out the gpx for the Summit sections we would be scouting in the morning.

Sunday (47,905 steps) - Didn't get up crazy early, or out of the house as early as I would have liked. We had plans to scout two segments of the Summit 200 course. I was doing segment 4 and then since Ben had a loop, I was going to do his loop in reverse until I caught up to him. I wasn't feeling great. I took some ibuprofen and forced myself to eat a waffle before I headed out of Horseshoe Gulch.

The lower 2/3 of a mile were really runnable. A decent number of people running and riding.

Shortly after the gate there was a split in the trail and most of us going in different directions. I was going UP.

Saw one of my first columbines of the year! Other than sunflowers, they are my favorites!

I had expected my segment to have about 2100' of climbing, but it was more like 2500'. There were also A ZILLION bikes on this part of the trail. Maybe 10% of them yielded, and MOST of them were going dangerously fast. I hope I hit this section at night or very early in the morning.

Conditions were pristine, with only a few obstacles.

Only wildlife I saw was this cute squirrel.

It was probably 6.5 miles of climbing and then finally some downhill. The trail also became wider and more rooty and some loose rocks. I did enjoy NOT climbing for a bit though.

It was looking stormy and I was glad that we seemed to be avoiding the weather.

I had figured it would take me probably 3 hours to do my segment. I was surprised to finish almost 15 minutes faster than that. I saw Ben's truck and pulled out Gaia so I could map where I needed to go. I had briefly read descriptions on All Trails about the North Fork loop and was distressed to find that I was on dirt roads. I was going by some dog training facility, but didn't see any dogs :(

I really thought I would see Ben within a few miles, so for a bit, I was taking it really easy. I missed a turn and grew concerned that I had missed him. There was a water crossing that didn't look that deep but ending up going up to my butt!! My shorts stayed wet for an hour. It was really hot and dusty and I kept encountering ATVs and dirt bikes. I had zero phone service for at least an hour, maybe 90 minutes. Finally I got to the junction of the trail. Having looked at the profile, this was the "plateau" that I figured Ben would be able to run a lot of. 

I finally got pinged with some messages including one from Ben where he said the map was wrong. I made a deal with myself that I was going to turn around if I didn't find him because I was also nearly out of water. Not more than a minute before I was going to turn around I spotted his red shorts! We caught up for a few minutes and did some running since it was mostly flat and downhill. I had to dump out my shoes and Ben thought that was a good photo opportunity.

We had gone down a few miles of the ATV roads when we came to a turn and a girl approaching on foot asked if we had any phone service because there was an ATV accident below. We didn't get a lot of details out of her but told her we would stop. It was pretty concerning on arrival. The ATV had gone off road and the female driver had what appeared to be a broken hip and/or femur and was in and out of consciousness. There were also two firefighters in their group and between Ben (with his paramedic experience) and everyone they were able to get her evacuated and stabilized. 

None of us had service to call 911 on site. A Jeep that had come down shortly after we arrived agreed to drive her to the road. Two other ATVs that had been ahead of the accident had gone up to where there was service and called for emergency services. After THAT, we still had a few miles to go. The water crossing below shoes how deep it was on Ben (who is a foot taller than me...)

 I had planned on 10-14 miles and ended up doing over 20 with 3900' of climbing. Oof. We finally got back to the truck and minutes after we arrived, it started to rain. Good timing. A very hard day and longer than I expected. It turns out, however, that Ben HAD gotten caught in some storms on the mountain - lightning/thunder and pouring rain. Eek. We were hungry and decided to go to Ollie's for dinner.

By the time we drove down the hill there was actually no traffic. Wes stopped at Parry's for a beer, walked Olive and it was basically bed time.

Monday (19,620 steps) - Actually got up early to suffer through my run. It was fairly horrible and I had to take a lot of walk breaks, but my heart rate was low and I made it through a recovery hour. Plus, sunflowers!

Work from home. Took Olive for a walk. Went to Torchy's for lunch and then picked up a few things at Costco. It's been a while since I shopped there and it's still dreadful.

Met Ben for a beer at Torchy's when he got off work, then home for dinner with Ariel. Ben had to write up his scouting stuff for the race directors, so I read my book (which finally got better).

Stats:

• 177,147 steps
• miles run
• miles walked
• minutes of cardio
• minutes of strength