Updates and family visit

RUNNING:

Not too much actually. I am having a great summer though. I ran a 4k on the 4th of July in Boulder with my dad. It was really hot with a 9am start and I stayed with him for the first 1.5 miles and then he had to rest a little. It was a great time and the after party was awesome!. I even won a $25 gift certificate to the local running store by just acting crazy :)

Now that company is gone I plan to start upping my mileage.

HIKING:

Well we did it! My husband and I took my dad and step mom out to hike their first 14er! They went slow  and steady but they did it. I am so proud of them. It was cloudy out but no rain!

BIKING:

I am still enjoying biking. Went on a 31 mile ride with my folks on a hot day in July.

They had a great visit! Lots of activities and down time too playing bean bags, euchre and Farkle.

4k on the 4th

Views on the hike

The Summit!!!

Bean Bags

Bike Ride to Denver

Fun Updates

UPDATES
Running:
Well it's been 100 degrees almost everyday and I am not a good heat runner.
Also due to all the fires there is smoke in the air some mornings and that hurts my throat.
**Prayers for all of those that have lost their homes to the Colroado fires I feel so bad.**

The fires have really put in perspective all of my "problems" I am so grateful for all that I have and am able to do :)
I have been getting up early on Tuesday and Thursdays to run and gettin 'er done but miles are slow. On Thursdays I go up to Evergreen, CO and it is usually cooler so that helps.

I have a 4k coming up on the 4th of July but am running the entire race with my dad. He is visiting from minnesota and has been training. He ran a 5k in 26 minutes! I know the heat and altitude will effect him so hopefully I can keep up HA! I haven't done much speed training just nice miles and trail running.

I can tell I have matured as a few years back my family all ran a race together and I just took off. I really want to run this step by step with my dad. When will I ever be able to do that again?

I was planning on running a race in August and September but I just can't register...I don't want to miss out on hiking a 14er weekend and with my husband's schedule we can't plan ahead. It just happens and we go. I don't want a $35 race to keep me from going.

Tentatively I would like to run the Evergreen Town race 10k in August and then a 10 miler on labor day and then IDEALLY the Boulder full or half in October. However, I need to start training for the full mid July. I just don't know if I can commit. I know there are some great marathons in December but I am not sure that I want to travel etc.


Biking:

My new activity! David and I have been having the best adventures. We biked to a farmers Market in Denver. We are members of a wine club and they have these jugs that you can fill up for 13$. The jug is a little more than a bottle so it's a really good deal. Well, the winery has a table at the farmers market so we brought our empty jug in the camelback and had it filled up :) that ride was about 35 miles.
A few days later we explored up north and rode to Lafayette and had lunch on a deck at a cute place and back. I only like to bike on bike paths but on the way home we rode a really bust street home, Wadsworth, and it was scary but I am glad I did it. I am not as scared to ride on roads. I hope to get a rode bike soon! I have just been riding a mountain bike. I heard a rode bike feels awesome! that ride was 25 miles.
Then two days after that we rode to Wash Park, which is in Denver. That was 44 miles round trip so pretty long for me and I loved it! We packed a lunch and had a fun picnic in the park and then rode back.

Since it's been so hot we have been going in the heat of the day but I like the breeze you get from biking. I feel zapped after ninety minutes are so but it's challenging different from running.

I am not losing weight though, which I am bummed about but it might come off slowly.

We made it! Only 20 miles from our house!

My cool bike!

Nap after picnic

Body Pump:
So I have been a member of 24HR for years and honestly I don't like gyms. Especially after working in a high school when I can work out in a weight room by myself or with my fun teacher friends! However, I need to use the gym membership or get rid of it. Now is the perfect time. I am starting a new job and although it is still a high school they don't have a weight room :(

So I have been going to a weight lifting class called body pump. It's weight lifting for an hour to music. You hit all body parts for about 3-5 minutes. It's awesome! I have been going once or twice a week. I hope when school starts I continue to go. I admit it's nice to go to a 9AM class.


Hiking:

I have hiked 31 14ers and there are 55 (on my list) there are various lists with 53-56.

Most of the ones we have left are over three hours away so they are overnight/camping or weekend trips. We are planning on doing a few of these in July. Hopefully we can get 6 in this summer There are about 5 that I need to hike that my husband that he will re-do with me. Those are just day trips. We have done 3 so far this summer :)

The one thing mixing hiking with running is that I am pretty beat up a couple days after hiking so that hurts my running but so far it's been OK.

That's all for the month of June!


Have you taken a Body Pump class?


Any recommendations for a December marathon?

June Fun!

Lots going on so far in the month of June!

My husband works nights so we have been riding our bikes a lot and working out during the day. It's been a lot of fun.
We live right on a bike path that takes us to Golden, CO or to downtown Denver.  It's about 15 miles to Denver and it is so fun! I like how biking has been easy on my body too.

I am meeting with a form running coach today and am so excited! I am sick of running with pain. I really believe if I change my form and work on it I will feel better running overall. Then I plan to train hard!

We hiked 2 14er's yesterday. It was windy but it was a great day to hike! Everything was dry!!

Top of Belford...on our way to Oxford...path in the background. It was super windy!

View from the top of Oxford.

Did you know that if you take a picture with a WICH WICH bag at the top of a 14er you get a free sandwich? 

 

 

:)

Taking a break after biking to Denver.

REI in Downtown Denver

Fun to watch kids swimming while taking a bike break :)

Have you hiked a 14er?

Have you eaten at WICH WICH? Is it good?

First Day of summer!

I am summer break! Yeah!
I have 8 weeks off to hopefully train and get in great running shape! I have a few side jobs lined up but nothing major. We aren't traveling a lot this summer just weekend trips and hopefully climbing a bunch of 14er's!

On my first day of break a really great friend of mine invited me on a crazy hard trail run. She is moving to Steamboat, CO and I will miss her tons! We met at the trailhead near Nederland, CO. I met some great women! One had run the Leadville 100 four times!!! Another lady participated in the Leadwomen. She did ALL of this:
Entrants compete in Trail Marathon, Leadville Silver Rush 50-Mile Mountain Bike Race, a 10K, Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race, and Leadville Trail 100-Mile Run.HOLY CRAP!! I can't even imagine.

This summer I am volunteering for the Leadville 100 just to see what it's like. I would like to get into ultras in the next few years. I just wish my body would cooperate.

The run was great i just had on a huge camelback so I need to get a smaller one for running it was pretty annoying.

At the beginning

Lots of water along the way

About halfway

Rollins Pass above (old RR tracks). 

 

 

David and I on those RR tracks Labor Day 2011!!!

Almost made it to the continental divide but too much snow...why not slide down :)

It was an amazing 12 mile run/hike. What a great way to start off the summer!I will miss you Les!!

Has anyone ran the Leadville 100?

Memorial Weekend-Hike, Ride, Run

What a great and busy weekend!

It started with a 3am wake up call on Saturday morning. We decided to hike our first 14er of 2012. Normally we don't start this early since we don't like to hike in winter conditions but we had read that it would be OK.
We started hiking Grays peak at 5:24am. Another first, the earliest we have started in the past was 6am. We were with some newbies though and wanted plenty of time to summit. Overall the hike was great about an hour to the summit were wind gusts of 60mph that was not fun but we just got to the summit took a picture and headed back down. There was some snow on the trail but not bad. Since it was so windy we didn't attempt Torrey's. I guess another day. Another first was sliding down on my butt :) that was fun and scary.

View early in the morning. Grays is on the right and Torrey's the left.

Add caption

At the summit

So fun and scary.

Sunday
 David and I decided to go on a bike ride so we rode 20 miles one way to Golden, CO and back. This was all on bike path, which I love, I am not a fan of riding on the streets with traffic etc. I had a great time and am feeling more comfortable on the bike.

Monday
 I went on a trail run at Apex and that was gorgeous. the enchanted forest is one of my favorite trails.

As for summer running and training I am up in the air. My left calf has been hurting pretty bad so I want to bike this week and try to stay off it running. I want to go into summer feeling good. There are a few races I plan on running for fun but I am thinking at this point that I want my main race to be a fall marathon. Most likely the Boulder marathon October 21. I also plan on going to some all-comer track meets which scare the heck out of me but I know will be good for me.

I really enjoyed all of this cross training. I plan to bike a lot more this summer :)

Wicked

I had a great weekend but the best part was my husband and I went to see Wicked! We decided to splurge as we never go to the theater. Growing up we didn't have cable so it was a big deal to watch the Wizard of Oz once a year when it came on TV. When I was little I had nightmares about the wicked witch. This musical was sooo good! I loved the story and how it changed my thinking about the characters and the songs were awesome. Afterwards we went to the 27th floor of they Hyatt in downtown Denver and had a drink.

Before the show!

27th Floor of the Hyatt.

Has anyone else seen Wicked?

Did you like it?

Palisade Half Marathon

The Palisade half marathon was a great race! It was small race and the course was amazing.
I ran a 1:49, which I was happy with since I had not run speed workouts for the month of April. My hip has also been bothering me and started hurting at mile 1 so I felt like I was mentally tough for this race. We ran along vineyards, the Colorado River and huge mesas! There was a huge hill around mile 4 that which was advertised as 195 ft but it sure seemed a lot longer than that! I started out slower on purpose and that seemed to work for me. I did start to get fatigued at mile 9 but held strong. There was some wind but nothing major.

The views





There were 14 of us from the club that either ran the 10K or the half!



Wine Tasting!