Week in Review (November 28 - December 4)

Tuesday (14,729 steps) - Peloton rides before work. Had another glitchy where I couldn't get the video I wanted to do to play. I don't have any updates so not sure what the issue is. Walked quite a bit on the treadmill during the day and did an upper body video at lunch. I definitely will be sore from this one. It was also... Spotify unwrapped day!

Definitely surprised that all my top songs were country!

Not as surprised about the top artists, except for Pink Floyd, which I didn't think I listened to nearly as much this year. ALSO exciting is there is finally info on Candice's new 300+ mile race. This is gonna be "fun"

AND, I got a cute new nameplate at work, haha

Took Olive for a walk before Ariel and I headed to the school for a meeting about her upcoming trip to France. We met Ben at Buffalo Wild Wings to celebrate A getting into the Colorado School of Mines. 

Wednesday (21,626 steps) - Work in the office. More treadmill desk while working, read my book at lunch. Headed up to Louisville to get my speed work done. Workout wasn't nearly as bad as I feared, although I ended up running longer than planned because I misjudged the distance of the area I was running. 

Nice night and I stayed at the store for a bit socializing. 

Thursday (20,571 steps) - Work from home. Went for an easy 45 minute run at lunch (which actually felt pretty easy). Took Olive for a walk. And in OTHER running excitement, Summit 200 finally (publicly) release a screenshot of the course. Wooo! 

Convinced Ariel to join me in Belmar for run club. Not a lot of people there, unfortunately, and it was chilly walking with Mo and Colfax. 

Friday (14,656 steps) - Wash Park - with special guest, Olive! New holiday drink menu at Stella's. Yum!

Joyce was going to be on vacation and Nicole thought it would be fun to bring her into the office, so she got a long walk before we went in. Olive enjoyed walking around and saying hi to everyone. She was so well-behaved! 

And I finally got my yoga ball to put on my treadmill so I don't have to keep moving it. I still have my regular chair, but this is going to be a game changer. 

We went for a walk with Nicole late morning. Headed home to work the rest of the day remote. Lisa came to pick me up to go to Colorado Springs. A group of us signed up to run a Saturday morning race and decided to get a hotel the night before. We got to packet pick up in the Springs around 4:30. Everyone else arrived shortly thereafter. We were all hungry and decided to go to BJ's for dinner since it was close. I got my trusty jalapeno cheeseburger. Delicious!

Alison and Janet were sharing a birthday weekend, and Janet had made delicious cupcakes for us to have after dinner. Yum!

No picture of all of us, which is a shame. By this time it was "late" so we went to the hotel. Lisa had booked a suite for me, her and Christina to share. I got my own room (yay!!!). We stayed up chatting until maybe 9:30. I had a bit of trouble falling asleep - I blame that on the room being much warmer than I normally sleep in.

Saturday (29,146 steps) - Colorado Cold Rush half marathon - recap separate.

We decided we would just head right back to Denver after everyone had finished. Once I got home I took a quick shower and then we went to Torchy's so I could finally get something to eat. Instead of starting with Fargo, we rented a movie - "The Fall" - WAY different than I expected, and it was pretty good! 

Sunday (18,918 steps) - I had an hour recovery run on schedule, which I was dreading. I had actually "raced" (versus just running like I normally do) and I was pretty sore. We did a loop that was semi dirt and paved. The paved was actually worse since it hadn't been plowed yet.

I was definitely tired during this and it felt like a massive effort. Really happy to be done with it. Took Olive for a walk. We then had a busy afternoon - first we had to go to Costco for groceries. We then went to 4 Noses so Ben could get a beer (I'm still not drinking for a bit, so I just had a Topo) before going to Target. So many errands, but we needed our sport laundry detergent and of course ended up with a bunch of other stuff we didn't need. Fargo.

Monday (20,343 steps) - Work from home. Olive spent a lot of time with me in the office, which she has been doing more and more lately.

Went out for my run and it was unfortunately really windy. I didn't feel horrible, but still pretty sore and tired from Saturday's race. In addition to the windy, the mud was actually pretty bad since it has warmed up since we got snow. 

Then I took Olive for a walk. Because of the mud I had encountered during my run, we did the "mud" route, which took us by this house that I normally only see on our really short night walks.

And another fun thing from Cocodona, they used me and Ben running through Buffalo Park in the start of their newest reel. 

Short dog walk with Ariel and more Fargo.

Stats:

• 139,989 steps
• 33.21 miles run
• 30 minutes of cardio
• 30 minutes of strength

Weeks in Review (April 25 - May 8)

Since I got behind with racing, I'm combining two weeks. I can barely remember anything anyway.

Tuesday 25th (11,395 steps) - Work in the office. Did a 20 minute upper body workout at lunch, and then walked on the treadmill and read more of my book. Working on packing - proving to be a nightmare.

With the course finally being finalized, I went through and made my miniature segment charts.

No idea what else. 

Wednesday 26th (11,570 steps) - Work in the office. Administrative Professional day! Got a gift card from the executive committee and they catered in a very nice lunch for us.

Headed up to Boulder with Olive after work because it was supposedly Sandy's last run club. She wasn't there, though. We had a nice walk around the lake though!

Thursday 27th (16,018 steps) - Work from home. Walk with Olive at lunch. Finally got all my drop bags ready to go! I took pictures of all of them, since I can never remember what I put in them.

Took Olive to Belmar and did some "running" but since it was just us, she wasn't super motivated. We did see horses though, which she found super interesting.

Friday 28th (11,565 steps) - Wash Park and coffee with the gang. Work in the office. Met Ben for a beer and was able to have a flight of Micheladas that was delicious.

Saturday 29th (15,041 steps) - A had (what she thought would be) her last meet of the season. Headed down to the stadium and got to watch her run. 

I had a 30 minute run on schedule, and I mapped out a route to do between events. The run was fine, although what I picked ended up having to be run on the shoulder as there were no sidewalks. It all worked out. Took Olive for a walk when I got home. Finished/finalized packing.

Sunday 30th (14,843 steps) - Up early for our flight! Ben took a Lyft to the house and Ariel drove us (what a kid, getting up at 5 am to do this!) Our flight was uneventful. I watched "The Whale" and it was a bit disappointing. No issues with our rental car, thankfully. We were both hungry, so I found a hole in the wall Mexican place and we got breakfast. 

I still had a walk on schedule, so I found a park/hill for us to get a walk in - and maybe some heat acclimation, since it was SO HOT. I was glad I had changed out of my flip flops, Ben was in his Crocs and didn't have a great time.

We went to Front Pourch for a beer and then went to the start to check in for the race and get my bib. 

Photo Cred: Scott Rokis

Checked in to the hotel and then went to Bobby Q's for dinner - and it was delicious! Stopped at the store for groceries. Actually went to bed early, but didn't end up sleeping great.

Monday 1st (114,001 steps) - Cocodona 250

Stats:

• 194,433 steps
• 54+miles run
• 0 minutes of cardio
• minutes of strength

Tuesday 2nd (122,394 steps) - Cocodona 250

Wednesday 3rd (110,548 steps) - Cocodona 250

Thursday 4th (104,898 steps) - Cocodona 250

Friday 5th (112,441 steps) - Cocodona 250

Saturday 6th (44,754 steps) - Cocodona 250. Well, we did it! 

Thankfully, we had booked at the Marriott right down the street. We found our drop bags and figured since it was still early morning and everyone was done, we would have some breakfast and shower, etc. We didn't bother cleaning up before heading to the buffet, which was pretty good. After showering, we made the mistake of "resting our eyes" and the next thing we knew it was hours later. We decided to go to the brewery for our post race celebrations. 

There was more napping, attempts at watching "Naked and Afraid," and dinner. 

Otherwise, who knows.

Sunday 7th (10,585 steps) - Somehow the morning got away from us. Between packing everything up, walking to get the most delicious smoothie ever, having breakfast, etc., before we knew it, it was time to drive back down to Phoenix so we could return the rental car and catch our flight. I had found a good brewery near-ish the airport. 

We also were able to get food from next door, so that was nice. Our flight was delayed a bit, but Ben upgraded and we got a seat in the 4th row. I think I watched Pitch Perfect again. Tyler picked us up at the airport, what a great friend!

Monday 8th (12,347 steps) - Work from home. I was trying to dig my way out after being out for a week, and also covering for Nicole. It was a CRAZY work day. Took Olive for a walk at lunch. Weather was nice enough to go to the lake, and she likes looking at ducks.

Unpacked, did laundry. Not sure of what else.

Stats:

• 517,967 steps
• 211 miles run
• 0 minutes of cardio
• 0 minutes of strength

Week in Review (April 4 - April 10)

Tuesday (10,252 steps) - Work in the office. Cross training at lunch. Did some deliveries after work - and surprised it was STILL snowing. Stopped early enough to pick up Chipotle for dinner since A's track team was doing a fundraiser

Wednesday (21,114 steps) - Work in the office. I found this meme to be hilarious, and applicable.

I had yet another hill workout to do, so I headed to Boulder. They apparently got a LOT more snow than we did. (Or maybe it just "stuck" - ours didn't). The lower trails were hardened mud - not as bad as it looks.

As soon as I got nearer to the trees, the snow was more prevalent. 

And then, the mud started when I got near the top of Mesa.

The repeats themselves were...ok. Had I really thought about the weather we have been having and chance of poor conditions, I maybe would have used spikes for the lower part, as it was really pretty icy. For my longer repeats, I hit a few sections like this - with slush :(

I stopped by Roost on my way home since they were hosting a Leadville event (with food). The lot was a nightmare and it took a while to get a spot. There were also one million people IN the store, so I left, mainly because I was feeling claustrophobic. 

Thursday (27,998 steps) - Work from home. The garage door guy came by and looked at it. We did some troubleshooting, and his initial thought was to replace the wire from the wall unit - and he gave me the wire to do it! Super nice guy that didn't rip me off. I took Olive for a walk to gauge how muddy the trails at the lake might be, and they seemed fine, so I ran there and it was quite lovely!

Olive and I went to run club later - and ended up running alone :(

Friday (13,668 steps) - Wash Park and coffee. Still somewhat chilly in the mornings.

I wore my "Easter" ears since it was Good Friday. Work was VERY slow - because I guess it's a holiday or something.

Met up with Ben for a beer.

Saturday (40,899 steps) - Had plans to meet up with Ben pretty early in the morning in Boulder so we could do a run at Walker Ranch. I had mapped an additional segment heading down towards Eldorado to get some more time on the trails and more climbing. Really glad I brought a jacket, as it was relatively chilly and I ended up keeping it on the entire run! At 7,000', there was a shocking amount of ice and mud. Most of the run was fine, and we did a lot of hiking, but man, I am REALLY getting tired of ice.

Really thought we were gonna die on these stairs

We turned around at this sign - not sure how they enforce the passes though

We stopped at Under the Sun for brunch and one beer. The skillet I got was DELICIOUS and I devoured it.

Took Olive for a long walk at the lake. 

Lounged around a bit and then met Ben at Resolute for one more beer - I brought Olive with me. She is really good in public! She's so quiet.

A had a track meet, but it was in PUEBLO, which is HOURS away, so she told me not to drive down. She had to leave at 5 am for the bus and didn't get home until like 9 pm. She ran the 3200 and got a PR though! Yay!

Sunday (32,220 steps) - Didn't want to get up early, but still had a "longer" run to do. Did a few deliveries, then met Ben in Boulder for a Dowdy Draw/lower Eldo loop. Initially I thought I would feel like garbage, but it ended up being a pretty good run. And my ears were definitely a hit!

Took Olive for a walk. Did quite a bit of deliveries in the evening, and the tips were really good! I guess people are more generous on Easter?

Monday (24,843 steps)  - Work from home. It was supposed to be HOT, so I went for my run early. It was actually a pretty good run!

Took Olive for a walk. She REALLY wanted to go down to the beach.

Ben stopped by to fix the wire for the garage, PLUS I finally gave Blue-C a car wash. I'm really hoping we don't have any more snow in the future. Ugh. Had the new gyro kit from Costco for dinner and it was REALLY good.

Stats:

• 170,994 steps
• 46.46 miles run
• 0 minutes of cardio
• 30 minutes of strength training