Weekend Update

Ahhh, what an awesome weekend.  It was relaxing, tough, fun, fun, and fun!

I met with StevieP on Friday for a quick swim lesson.  Yes, I know, a swim lesson?  But here's the deal:  I learned how to swim and competed at swimming years and years ago.  So my stroke is "old" school swimming and there is "new" swimming.  Kind of like new math (I am completely frightened by the prospect of my 1st grader teaching ME math).  

So we worked on some drills, I drowned just a little bit, and we did more drills.  This is going to be tough.  I understand where we are trying to go - a more efficient, powerful stroke.  Plus, if I can take another minute off of my 1500, YAHOO!  But really, it is hard to reprogram years and years of coaching on the old stroke.  But we figured out a good couple of drills at the end that I will work on and if I don't actually drown while doing them, maybe we'll see some improvement!

Saturday was a trail run at Lair O' the Bear.  It was an absolutely beautiful Colorado morning: clear blue sky, and a cool, crisp temperature to start.  My goal?  To hang with Steve, Tony, and Sonja for the run.  StevieP wanted me to run the 7.5  miles to the top but I have been fighting this silly cold for 2 weeks and wasn't sure how it would go.  Sure enough, we get going (they had already done 5 miles), set a great slow pace on the first uphill and I feel fantastic!  A few lung cookies coming up but now I felt I could go the entire 15 miles.  I had brand new trail shoes on, my traction was awesome and I really couldn't have asked for a better morning and better running partners.  

We made it to the tee-pee and the rocks above for a stunning view of Mt. Evans and the foothills.  Very cool.  I don't have pictures but my PIC Sonja does.  She even has a cool video of the day check it out here.

 

On the way down I led for a bit and then John, Barry and Steve decided to pick it up.  Hmmm.  I tried to bow out but Finchy was behind me and just pushed me ahead and said you're fine.  Hmmm.  The lung cookies were expanding now and my heart rate was telling me to back off.  I hung out with the big kids for a bit longer and then pulled off the back.  John and Barry had as well so we had our own group on the last downhill and still managed a pretty good pace.  What a cool run.  15 trail miles with a great group of people, we chatted lots, caught up with one another, shared food (thanks Sandy!), posed for pictures and video and just really had fun.  

Saturday night put a nice bright pretty bow on the entire day.  Michael and I went out to dinner - well, not dinner, SUSHI!  It has been awhile since we ate sushi and we sure did eat lots.  It was Yummy!  And how cool to have alone time to just hang with my hubby?  Yep,  it was awesome.  We then found a really cool wine shop and bought a bottle to bring over to our great friends home:  DF and WSM.  We shared the wine, talked, laughed, got cupped, played games, and had a great time!  Cupped you ask?  Well, my friend WSM is in her final year studying eastern medicine and we decided to that it made sense to cup me to get rid of the lung cookies and Michael claims it was to get rid of spousal stress.  Here are the results:

My back, doesn't look too bad today.  And lung cookies??? Pretty much GONE!

Michael's back.  Apparently the spousal stress is pretty bad.

I won't use her real name here because I know these pictures may freak some people out.  But she is VERY talented at her new career and will be opening up her own shop in about 9 months.  It's been pretty cool to watch her go through the process of deciding what she wants to be when she grows up at the ripe age of 39 and then going after it.  

So Sunday rolls around and it's time for a nice LSD ride.  DF Andy led the way and took a few of us on a great ride.  Kudos to Troy (PIC Sonja's hubby) for pulling a burley with a flat tire.  That looked HARD.   It's almost Thanksgiving so here is one thing that I am grateful for:  living in Colorado.  It is November 23rd, and at 10am a balmy 55 degrees for our ride.  We got to ride OUTSIDE!!!  Woo Hoo!!!  

And the rest of Sunday?  A horrible Broncos game, pre-Turkey day shopping, and a lovely dinner with the family.  I mean really, what more could I ask for in a weekend???  

Hope your weekend was everything you wanted it to be too!