Happy St Patty's Day! Wow last week was busy! In retrospect, I can totally see why I have been exhausted all day. Our busy week took off last Monday. I had planned a field trip to the US Mint in Denver. I had to schedule the tour back in January. It had been something I wanted to do for a while and we were all excited for the adventure! You ever try to pack in too much to one day? Yeah , well I thought I would do some laundry before we left and right before we got in the car to drive to downtown Denver, I went to get the dry out. To my dismay, my 11 year old had recently purchased camo face paint from the army surplus store in town and left it in his pocket. All of the clothes had brownish grey smudges all over them. I flipped my lid and this is how we took off for our field trip. With mom in a mood. Then we continued to get into the heart of downtown Denver. We were suppose to arrive 30 minutes early because the mint is a secured government facility and they need to make you go through security etc. We were there 30 minutes early but I couldn't find a parking spot to save my life so we just drove around. Finally I told the kids we weren't going to make it and just then Wrex found a parking spot. A friendly police officer helped me park and we made it to the Mint. My older boys really liked it, the two year old was not impressed. Hopefully they will remember more than mom's lecture about removing the content s of your pocket before throwing stuff in the laundry.
I got back to my car in time to see an officer writing me a ticket. Apparently I had parked in a "Mayoral" spot and I was minutes away from being towed. It pains me to admit that my husband was right, I just may get a ticket in every city we travel in. UGH.
Friday , Ian had off and we decided to hike up to North table mountain. If you ever visit Golden, Colorado the city is nestled between two mesas, North and South Table Mountain. We packed some waters and a sling shot and went for it. Ian had to let Waylon ride on his shoulders most of the way. Our highlights were watching Houston try to catch a deer and stopping to practice our sling shot skills. It was a fabulous day.
Sunday was my long run of 15 miles. The training plan was Tues. 4 miles, Wed. 7 miles, Thurs. 4 miles and Saturday 7 miles and Sunday 15 miles. I ran outside Tuesday and Thursday but snow prevented me from running outside on Wednesday. My runs were slower all week than they had been inside but my ego recovered a bit and I am more prepared to run slow to make it through as opposed to not completing at all. After our hike on Friday I decided to skip Saturdays run and rest an extra day. One of my epiphany's that sank in last week is that I am a novice and I can do with extra rest and less pressure. So Sunday I was prepared. I got up early to have my coffee and my oatmeal and then stretched. It was a mere 28 degrees which I wasn't too happy about but what could I do. I decided to experiment with Cliff shots this week. They are a supplement that I decided to try out to increase my carbohydrate consumption while I ran. Studies have shown that there is an increased performance in runs over an hour long with additional carbohydrate consumption, so it was something I wanted to try. So I started out slow. Another thing I did differently, is that I committed to a trail. Sometimes when I run , I just go wherever my legs take me, but then it can feel like a never ending journey. I think that the trail I picked is between 6.5 to 7 miles long. So my goal was to run it in the opposite direction of last week, so the dramatic hill climb would be on the way down. Then I would run it twice and after that, run to a place in town that I think is only a mile and a half or so away. So I still don't have a GPS watch so it was a guesstimate. Also my phone pooped out on me before I was through, so I don't have that to go off of either. I did run for 3 1/2 hours so I'm pretty confident I hit 15 miles some where in that time. The best part of the run was when Ian accompanied me on the trail on my second loop around. He hopped on our 11 year olds bike and rode 7 miles with me. He made it look effortless but it made such a huge difference for me powering through miles 7-14. They seemed to breeze by, when we parted ways, I only had a mile or 2 to go but they seemed way longer than the previous miles. It made my day having him out there with me. I am crazy sore today but I feel like I really kicked butt this Sunday. That's marathon training for ya, down in the dumps one week, on top of the world the next. Thanks for the cheers and support, you guys are the best.
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| He even let me steal his hat, what a guy! |
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