Running, Running, and even more Running

Yesterday it beyond downpoured in Denver. Essentially three storms came off the mountains and all met in Denver for a superstorm convention. It was almost like being in a slightly less windy hurricane. At one point, we couldn't see the buildings a few blocks down from our office.

Suffice to say, I ran indoors last night. I had five miles on the schedule and wasn't too excited to do them on a treadmill, but was even less excited to try to bike home in the monsoon. I also learned yesterday that my gym uses DirecTv, so all of our TVs were out during the storm too. Bummer. My first two miles were great and I started including 1/2 mile pace increases towards the end. Mostly I just got bored and wanted to break things up a bit, but I ended up with my fastest 5 mile time ever: 51:30, with an average pace of 10:18 minute miles. For me, that is essentially flying. I recognize that treadmill running is faster than pavement running, but it was still nice.

Today all of those pounds the scale happily yielded to me last week were back (of course), which is a bummer but oh well. For now I've got more important things to focus on - like potentially dying in Allenspark tomorrow.

In my haste to find a 10k race for this weekend, I picked the first and only one I could find after one google search. The Allenspark Run Like the Wind 10k. It is up near Rocky Mountain National Park and I figured it would be a really pretty run, even though its at 8500 feet. Even more high altitude training for my at-sea level half marathon - hooray! I found a sucker, er um, friend to run it with me and we signed on up.

What I failed to notice is that Allenspark is almost an hour and a half away. Which is no big deal, but we'll have to leave nice and early from Denver. I also failed to notice that this is also a trail run, not a road race (or it might be a combo of the two, I'm still not quite sure). To make matters even more fun, the elevation chart for this course looks like the cardiac machine printout from an emergency room patient - except without all the charming flat bits.

Lest you think I exaggerate:


So, I'm nervous to say the very least. But I figure that I'm not concerned about time, just finishing and not dying, so if nothing else it will be a new experience! And hey, the hills in SF will have NOTHING on this course, so I actually wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being more challenging.

Three Things Thursday

1.) Yesterday in yoga I looked at my form in the mirror while in reverse triangle pose and saw some serious arm muscles. It made me smile. Yoga hasn't, however, been helping me with clenching my jaw in my sleep again. No idea why this time (last time was because of the AICP). It hurts a good bit.

2.) I've decided I am a Droid girl. After losing my Droid2 and replacing it with the iphone, last night I went back and did an exchange for the DroidX2. I am incredibly happy with my decision. Having a piece of equipment on me that expensive, especially with my propensity to lose phones, just made me really uncomfortable.

3.) I think I have decided that triathlons may be the sport for me. I'm not crazy enough to try to ride for 100 miles (esp because in Denver, most of those miles are up and over mountain passes. I don't care for uphill) and running is just getting really repetitive day in and day out. I have exercise ADD.

I get bored doing too much of one thing. Surprisingly, I'm actually enjoying my half marathon training. While 8 miles was intimidating to me, I rocked those miles and now I'm already planning where I can plan my routes for the 9 and 10 miles runs before the actual race. But I miss doing other activities. I've been cross training on W and Sat, usually boxing or riding, but most Tues/Thurs I don't drag my butt out of bed early and therefore must run after work instead of doing something else. Morgan and I were lamenting this weekend that it feels like there just isn't enough time in a week for all the stuff we want to do.

So that's why I was really excited to get into the pool last night - my first swim in nearly a year. It went really well. I did my standard 1500 yard workout, with 500 yards of sprinting. My lungs definitely aren't where they were, but they aren't bad. The awesome exhaustion in my chest and arms afterwards brought back memories of high school practice - I felt like I would have chicken nuggets w/ honey and pasta waiting for me on the kitchen table when I got home. Sadly, I didn't find any.

Wordless Wednesday

My 'new' two-person tent! Compliments of Papa B :)

Epic Weekend

Two days of my three day weekend were absolutely fantastic. After getting out of work at 3:30, I headed home, packed up for camping. Morgan picked me up and we were on our way. We had plans to hike Mt. Sherman on Saturday AM, so we camped alongside the road in Pike National Forest.


Our friends Nick, Adam, and Diana showed up shortly thereafter and we set up our tents and went about cooking dinner. There was a county-wide fire ban, so we weren't allowed to have a campfire, but we made do with cooking stoves on the back of Morgan's tailgate. Then we hit the hay, ready for our 6 am wake up call.

Nick is training for the Pike's Peak half marathon, so while all of us piled in the pickup in the morning to drive to the trailhead, he decided to run the 4 miles there. People in Colorado are crazy sometimes. We slathered on the sunscreen as we waited for him (I still got burnt) and we were on our way.

Mt. Sherman is one of the easier 14'ers. We started at about 11,700 feet, although you can park as close up as 12,000. The mountain was full of old mining buildings and equipment and it was a lot of fun to explore those along the way.


I was definitely the slowest in the group, but I just kept plodding along at my own pace, happy to be avoiding altitude sickness. It was absolutely gorgeous and I didn't need snowshoes. Overall, I enjoyed the hike up so much more than I had Quandary.

The last 100 yards or so were pretty much horizontal from the summit, and Morgan waited for me along the way so we could summit together.



We hung around up top for about half an hour then began our downward climb. There had been snow patches along the way and from up top we saw people glacading down - essentially sledding down the snowpatches on your butt.


It was so much fun and a real highlight of the hike. Nick and Adam had so much fun on the first one that they hiked back up to do it again. Overall, it took us about 4 hours to go up and down and we were back at the campsite by around 1. We hung around then drove into Fairplay for some foods - the local pub specialized in all things fried which didn't really sit well in our stomachs. After that, Morgan and I headed back to Denver for an early bedtime while everyone else went back to camp.

Sunday morning, after the best nights sleep ever, I woke up ready to knock out my 8 mile run. I was a little nervous about the distance, but had a planned break at 4 miles to feed my friend's cat and refill my water bottles. The planned break really helped me mentally break up the run and overall I was happy with it. Nothing hurt and my pace was a little slow, but still substantially faster than the 7-miler the previous week. I didn't walk at all and didn't stop with the exception of the cat feeding break. I'm feeling more and more ready for the half marathon.

Sunday night I went to a bar crawl for a friend's birthday and have come to the conclusion that I really haven't missed going out at all. I left my phone in the cab (again) and was hungover for all of Monday. The day was a complete waste and I didn't care for it at all. I had planned to do a 45 mile bike ride down to Chatfield (although my legs appreciated the rest day) and there are so many other more productive things I could have done with my day. I had enjoyed my hiatus from going out and I think I will return to that hiatus.

Overall it was a fantastically active and productive weekend, mostly. I am excited that it is already Tuesday and another weekend will soon be upon us.

Today is a good day

Over the past week or so, I've really been noticing the slight changes in my body from working out - thinner waist, more defined shoulders, the slightest hint of an inner thigh muscle starting to show - but after working hard so for long, the scale had still refused to yield even one ounce. In fact, I'd gone up about 2 lbs, which my mom continually tried to comfort me saying it was muscle (which I'm sure is true on some level, but still frustrating).

This morning, the scale finally relented a full five pounds in my favor. I was absolutely giddy. I think it has a lot to do with the seriously upped mileage for running, combined with the lack of alcohol and increase in fruits and veggies over the past month. It also helped me surpass the goal I had for my birthday, which I've now lowered, but also gave me the much needed mental motivation to keep going.

Then I got to work and the day got that much better. July 1 is the beginning of Berger's fiscal year and also the day we get our raise letters. I had been in discussions for a raise based on the level of work I was doing, my completed master's degree, and my AICP cert, but you never quite know how raise time is going to go. It went well and I was bumped from Planner III to Planner IV and I already fit some of the qualifications for Planner V (Senior Planner), which is my goal for the next two years.

Today is my rest day, so I'll stick to an easy yoga class during lunch then head out a little early to go camping. But today has certainly put a big smile on my face.

Run Report: New Sneaks

Tuesday AM I actually got my butt out of bed and ran before work (I only hit snooze twice!). I had 4.5 miles planned and I think my eyes were barely opened for the first 1.5. I had picked my original 5k route around Cheeseman Park (a local gay hangout park where I refuse to run at night because women have a tendency to get goosed). I added a loop around the Denver Botanical Gardens (which I had no idea I lived so close to) to get the route to 4.5 miles.

Overall, I love my new sneaks. I wore my running socks: blue with extra padding on the front and heel. Next time I think I'll skip these, as they made the new shoes super tight and I don't think I needed the extra cushion. My tootsies went a little numb around the 3rd mile so I think I'll loosen the laces next time.

But more importantly, for the first time during a run without any walking, I felt incredible. After about 2 miles, I picked up the pace and pushed even harder for the last mile. My overall pace was 10:37 minute miles, which is just about where I want to be for the half. It felt fast to me, but until I really pushed it in the 4th mile, I felt like I could have run for days, which is encouraging for my planned 8 mile run on Sunday. My 7 miles this past Sunday were extremely slow, so I'm going to work to pick of the pace a little on my long runs. I think I'd be happy with 11-11:30 miles.

Next weekend I'm supposed to race a 10k. After searching high and low (or googling "10K Denver July 9" once) I found the only 10k in the area that weekend is right up next to Rocky Mountain National Park. I'm excited because a girlfriend and I are going to possibly camp the night before and then run but also nervous because the race is at 8,500 and the course elevation looks like a heart monitor - straight up and straight down about 3 times. If nothing else, it will give me an interesting race report to blog about!

And even with all the running, lifting, eating well (most days) and drinking lots of water (more importantly, not beer) I have not lost a single ounce. I'm about to lock my scale in my truck and say to hell with it. But, looking back, I figure at least now I can run strong miles, see bicep muscles, bike all over town, and walk up stairs without feeling like I'm having a heart attack. I guess thats enough progress for one year.

Three Things Thursday

1.) While snorkeling last week I got into it with some fire coral. At first it was a cool story and a neat looking wound, but it didn't really hurt and appeared to be healing quickly. Yesterday I woke up and it had 'reactivated' and itches like crazy. After some googling, I found out that fire coral tends to do that and it can last for as long as it would like to. Awesome.

2.) I ran my 4.5 mile loop again today, trying to focus on pushing the pace a little the entire time and not just letting it get faster as I could see the finish line. I had a pretty painful sidestitch for most of miles 2 and 3 but I pushed through and took 22 seconds off of my Tuesday time for an average pace of 10:28!

3.) Today I learned you are not supposed to wear undies with biking shorts. Who knew?!?