Here I go again!

I can't explain how I felt today - no energy, no desire to do anything but lay on the couch watching TV and snoozing every so often... It was like complete exhaustion but more mental than physical... It would've been a perfect day for a long run and I wasted it...

To Fletcher's Boathouse after work, and back. Ran (literally) into my friend Ileana, also a runner, who did the Muddy Buddy with me back in 2006 - she's getting back into running after a long pause, she's done several marathons but I don't think she ever broke 5 hours, and is not interested in getting faster either. A fun girl though. Went very slow with her. Metroed home.

Ahhhhhh Colorado! The air smells fresh and cool... 

Flew into Denver, got there around noon - picked up rental car and went back to the airport to pick up Will, who was on a different flight cause he has free miles or something. Then we both had the same thing in mind: let's bike! Drove to Boulder and picked up rental bikes at a great shop, Will got a mountain bike because of his foot problem and I got a road bike. Then we were off to Left Turn Canyon or something like that... A beautiful ride, steep, not too many cars. Will was going super slow,  huffing and puffing and I was making fun of him, riding circles around him on my cool fast road bike, taking pictures of him. We did about 12  miles, 6 up and 6 down, 1,500 ft elevation gain according to Garmin. Then Will exchanged his mountain bike for a road bike, risking foot issues... While he was doing this, I sneaked a 5-mile run in a trail that goes by a creek, close to downtown Boulder. Sooooo beautiful! Runners, bikers, walkers... such a nice day.... nice weather - feeling great. Then a nice dinner - yummm!

Woke up and drove from Boulder to Estes Park... We stopped mid-way to do a ride around Lyons that was in Will's cycling book. We went up about 5 miles, then all the way down, 1,400 ft elevation change.

Then we drove to Estes Park. Sooooooo beautiful!!! It was very cloudy but we were just happy to be there...  We went straight to Rocky Mountain National Park to do a big ride - but the storms were very close... We went anyway, hoping for the best. Went up about 6 miles, a very difficult slow ascent... then there was lightning very close to us, so we decided to turn around and went down the mountain. It got cold very fast and it started to rain.... it was kind of cool, felt very hard core. Going down with the cold wind and the rain hitting your face and hands.

Then we checked into our beautiful little cabin by a river just outside the park and drove to Estes. Will went shopping or something, and I went for a nice run.

6.65 miles in 1:02 around the lake in Estes Park. Didn't want to push it cause I was worried about the elevation change, but felt very good. Sunny... sooooo beautiful, mountains all around us. 

Had dinner at the St. Mary's lodge and headed back to the cabin. 

Ok, so this was our BIG ride - one of the hardest rides in Will's cycling book - it says cyclist use it as training ground for the Tour de France. I didn't think we could make it, but we did. My quads were burning. It was up, up, up, up, up, sooooo steep, for 17 miles. Almost 4,000 ft elevation gain, Garmin says 4,900 total ascent. It took us 2 hours 20 minutes to get to the top, including a few short stops to take pics and have a snack. It felt like the top of the world - such a great feeling to do something like that. I never thought I could do it. We took some pics at the top, saw lots of elk and a couple of big horn sheep next to the road, and headed back down - the downhill was so fast, it took us less than 1 hour. Then we realized we didn't have our camera! We had either dropped it somewhere, or left it at one of the stops... we hope a good person saw it and took it to the ranger station to the lost and found... soooo sad! It wasn't a good camera at all, but the pictures were priceless! 

No running today for obvious reasons. A good meal and to rest!

Checked out of the cabin and went to the ranger station to fill out a lost and found report. Got a cheap disposable camera.

Then we went on a 10-mile hike to a beautiful lake. Then we drove up the mountain to take "fake" pictures because Will wanted them (I couldn't care less, it's not the pic that counts but the moment!). Then we decided to take the "scenic" way from there to Fort Collins, not realizing it was a REALLY long way. Took us several hours and we both got in a very bad mood. The scenery was gorgeous, and we stopped to look at two moose in a creek on the side of the road. Finally we made it to Fort Collins, to my friend's house. It was good to see him and his dog Roxanne - He was my boss in 2003 when I was the front desk manager at Rising Sun in Glacier NP and we became good friends. He has a congenital disease and is losing his sight slowly, and he has a knee problem so he can barely walk. And he doesn't take care of himself so he's overweight, which doesn't help. So it's hard to help him out... getting a white cane won't do much because he can't walk much. Getting a scooter won't help because he can't see where he's going. It makes me very sad... He is dealing with it so well, I can't imagine what it would feel like. Spent the night at my friend's house.

Alright, now to the best part!

Woke up at 7 am to a beautiful morning in Fort Collins, planning on a 20-mile run, having eaten only a banana and a granola bar for breakfast. Took my little pack with water and nuun, and a gatorade. Went all over the trail system in Fort Collins - sooooooo beautiful, sooooo great! It was the best long run EVER. Felt great the entire time, no pain whatsoever. Then around mile 18 I got lost and ended up doing 2 miles longer than I wanted to - the last 2 miles I slowed waaaay down cause I didn't want to over do it, they were 11 and 12-min miles, so I wouldn't really count them... still including those two slow miles the average pace was 9:40, so maybe without them the average would be even better! Eventually I found my way back to my friend's house and met up with Bart, went to a great brunch, and Will picked me up (he had biked in the morning in the hills around Ft. Collins). and we drove back to Boulder, returned the bikes, had some food, and drove to Denver, we stayed near the airport to catch an early flight tomorrow... sooooo sad the trip is over!!!