Week in Review (February 16 - February 22)

Tuesday (15,649 steps) - Work from home. Went for a solo run late morning. Writing this so long after the fact, I don't remember anything specific about this one. I had a warm up and then 4 x (2 min hard, 4 min "normal") and my only comment on Strava was that it was better than last week. I hit all my "fast" paces (under 10 minute miles, lol) and I don't think I had to walk at all. Took Pika for a walk. Big excitement of the day was... FINALLY GETTING OUR PELOTON! Even though Ben works there, we did not get any sort of delivery priority, so this was exciting. All of us did a ride to test it out. Fun!

Wednesday (19,552 steps) - Work from home. Did a BodyPump video in the morning. Don't remember if I liked this release or not. Took Pika for a walk. Since we were still quarantined, we couldn't do our normal "meet up" with anyone, so I created a route outside Boulder. This ended up being SO FUN. With the snow starting while we were out, we only saw maybe 5 people in the course of an hour. I was wearing my Smartwool Merino 250 1/4 zip under a jacket and got SO HOT. I did most of the run just in that with my jacket tied around my waist. Crazy. By the time we were heading down there were zero tracks at all, I rarely get to run on fresh now, it was fun. I really like these trail systems, and I may actually pay for a pass for Boulder trails when Covid is over.

Quick ride on the Peloton when we got home before dinner.

Thursday (11,063 steps) - Work from home. Took Pika for a long walk at lunch because Ben had a call he needed to do on Zoom and it was going to be easier to to do from the laptop. Also did a Peloton ride, Ariel joined me for a core video, and then I did a quick row. Phew... for a "rest" day, I sure did a lot. After work I had to pick up an order from Target, and Ariel and I decided that would also be a good time to stop and get cupcakes. I'm not sure if the cupcakes were more delicious, or this amazing German Chocolate Stout that Ben found. YUMMY!

Friday (10,706 steps) - Work from home. Took Pika for a walk, and since I already had overtime logged for the week, I did a BodyPump video. I decided that since we just got the Peloton that I was not going to continue with the Les Mils for now - this may change later, but for now, I can only do so many activities, and there is no sense in paying for multiples of things. Peloton ride. 

Saturday (19,681 steps) - Again, since we are quarantined, we had to do a solo run. I know Ben gets jealous of the different trails I run, so I tried to give him some different options, but apparently he is just as much a creature of habit as I am, because we ended up just going to North Table. Since we can't socialize, we didn't park at the brewery, and instead parked at the base of the fire road. I was pretty excited to get this out of the way right at the start, because I super hate it.

There were actually a surprising number of people out, considering the amount of snow. With the sun out, however, it was really warm, and I was glad that I had opted to just wear a t-shirt for the run, it got warm! The top of the mesa was pretty nice, packed down snow and easy to run on.

As soon as we started to head down the south side, things changed. We went from snow-covered to some ice, but mostly MUD. Ugggh. I hate running in mud and always feel badly about being on the trails when they are in less than stellar condition. At least we only saw about 4 bikes all morning, because they tend to damage the trails even more. The east side was super sloppy and gross, but once we turned back onto the west, we got back into snow, and I finally seemed to catch my groove. 

Starting at the base of the fire road actually cut the run shorter than we had planned, by over a mile and a half, but due to trail conditions we both felt like we had done adequate work, and were fine with the shorter mileage. Stopped at Home Depot on the way home because apparently they were unable to process the refund for not installing the dishwasher over the phone. We also got a new smart thermostat (mainly because Ben really wants to be able to control the temperature from his phone...)

Sunday (10,263 steps) - Ben and I had planned on a "maybe" run. I had also challenged him to do a barre video with me, and after having coffee, the plan was to get started on activity so we could relax the rest of the day. The universe had other things in mind, and when I was changing the cat box I noticed the floor in the basement was wet and pooling with water. Where it was located I immediately thought it was the water heater. WTF! But after Ben came and did some investigating, we discovered there was an active leak, although we couldn't tell where it was coming from. We went BACK to Home Depot, this time to buy a scope so we could put some smaller holes in the wall while trying to figure out where the problem was. While Ben was investigating, Ariel and I took Pika for a walk, and when we got back, he had already cut a hole in the drywall. The leak was coming from somewhere behind our (newly remodeled) bathroom. We were thankfully able to get a plumber in once we figured out where the leak was (thankfully NOT from anything they did in the remodel, but still...)

Yup, all that drama to replace this tiny connector :(

After spending an entire day doing MORE home improvement, we decided that margaritas were in order. I hadn't been to Chili's in years, and it was really neat the way they are doing contactless curbside. We did have to purchase food (we got queso) in order to do carryout margs, but it was worth it. What a freaking day.

Did a quick Peloton ride to keep my streak going!

Monday (14,330 steps) - And just like that, quarantine is over, and I had to go to work in the office. With crazy, unseasonably warm temperatures, I went for a run at lunch. I REALLY do not like running in Denver right now. I hate having to keep my mask on for so long because of all the people out. This did not go quite as well as the last time I ran this loop, but I only took one walk break (around the halfway point). I don't know if it's my shoes, or what, but I've lately had so many instances of numb feet and really tight calves again. I hate to think it's my shoes, one pair of my Newtons only has a little over 100 miles, and the other is definitely closer to retirement at maybe 300 miles. I did get some new ones on sale, but hate "wasting" shoes, although if it IS my shoes for some reason, it'll be worth it. I dunno. My coach seems to think that I need to be mindful of my sodium and potassium intake, so I've been trying to work on that to see if it helps at all. 

Trey came over to visit (and to drop off a belated wedding gift from his parents. It was fun to visit with him, I didn't get much of a chance at the wedding. Ben made tacos for dinner. Yum! (And ironically, today was National Margarita Day, although we decided two days in a row might be too much.)

Stats:

• 101,244 steps
• 20.67 miles run
• 85 minutes Peloton (!)
• 10 minutes rowing
• 65 minutes cross training

Week in Review (December 11 - December 17)

Tuesday (16,834 steps) - Woke up at the ungodly hour of 4 am. I don't know what's wrong with me that this happens. By 5 I hadn't fallen back asleep, so I went for a run. It was REALLY warm for December, and I regretted wearing Smartwool and a jacket. Balmy!!

Strength class with my trainer at lunch. He has been trying to find harder exercises for me since he thinks I'm not getting any benefit from "regular" stuff. Good class.

Left work a bit early to drive to Idaho Springs to meet Ben for dinner/drinks at Tommyknockers. Although I should be eating "better," I couldn't resist the "build your own" Mac n' Cheese, so I got mine with green chili pork. So delicious!!

Wednesday (19,710 steps) - Annual holiday lights run with Runners Edge! A walked with Janet and Pete and I ran with Mo and Colfax. Weather was perfect (again) - and we stuck around for a beer and nachos.

Thursday (14,413 steps) - Core class during lunch. Belmar run club - was bummed when I realized it was the Newton Ugly Sweater run and I totally didn't prepare for it. Ran my 5K with Mo and Colfax.

Friday (14,929 steps) - Jared sent me a text during lunch asking if I had brought clothes to run in - when I said yes, he said I should meet him and Sean for a run... so I did. Those boys are fast! It was fun to run with them, and it was a welcome surprise to have a beer after.

Still trying to figure out 1. my face and 2. why Jared is mooning Sean

Picked up A and went to BP to watch the Kilian Jornet Everest flick - it was pretty good! Quick aid station prep before bed.
Saturday (25,981 steps) - Runners Edge! David wasn't in town so our pace leaders got us out on time. I wasn't sure how far I wanted to run, but ended up doing 10 (and the fastest I have ever run on the Highline!)

Had to wait around a bit because A had my keys and had gone to breakfast with Pete and Janet. Once home, boiled and mashed potatoes, showered. Headed over to Kristin's house because her and Doug had offered me a VIP ticket to... BEER FESTIVUS!! We took a Lyft downtown (and unfortunately realized that there was also a Broncos game, so prices were high and traffic was awful). Looking back, I made some rookie mistakes and did not pace myself well.... it was SO MUCH FUN.

Amy, me & Holly

Lexa, Kristin and me

Got home around 5:45, grabbed A and headed down to Belmar for Second (actually this month was Third) Saturday. Dinner was amazing, and we stuck around playing Mexican Bingo, until I realized it was already 10 and we needed to get to bed.

Sunday (21,634 steps) - Was regretting that we had agreed to meet people for a run, but at least we had decided on 9, and not 8. Got to Kristin's house, met up with the gang and ran a fairly enjoyable 8 miles around the lake. Doug had prepared a pretty amazing breakfast for us all!

The rest of the day was some chores and a LOT of TV, with Torchy's thrown in because I never went to the store for groceries this week.
Monday (14,313 steps) - Wasn't sure what the plan for the evening was. I was either going to be going to Coohills for the Roost ugly sweater run (but having to leave early because A had Scouts), or Ben was going to be coming down. I decided to get my run in during lunch before taking core. It was actually a great run, even though it was interrupted by CDOT calling me about my tire claim... from September.

Ben wasn't going to be able to come down, so I did briefly stop by Coohills on my way home. Much smaller showing than in previous years!

I somehow got talked into watching Love Actually, and all my suspicious were correct - terrible movie!!

Stats:

• 127, 814 steps
• 38.3 miles run
• 3 trips to the gym (2 core, 1 strength)