Eight Hundred Thirty-Seven

July 25, 2018
5.89 Miles in 57:27
Mood: Patriotic!
Soundtrack: Counting Crows: "Across a Wire (Live in New York)" and "August & Everything After - Live at Town Hall"

I know this run was on the shorter side, and based on the colors of the map, it looks pretty slow, but I swear I felt great for the majority of this run. I fell apart a bit at the end with a mild low blood sugar, which really killed my groove, but there was a definite groove hit on this run, and it felt good.

Also, I chose this photo because July is the most patriotic of all months, and it's harder to get more patriotic than this American Flag/Eagle wind mobile thing. I'm not gonna lie, this is both ridiculous and wonderful.

Eight Hundred Thirty-Six

July 20, 2018
6.11 Miles in 1:00:20
Mood: The cleansing feeling of letting go.
Soundtrack: Jimmy Buffett "Songs You Know By Heart" / Arctic Monkeys "AM"

We piled up a significant mound of garbage for collection this morning. Jen has been going through our storage closet with reckless abandon, and we are doing our best to cast nostalgia to the side and ditch stuff we clearly no longer need. We are far from hoarders, but it's amazing how much junk can collect in your house over the period of sixteen years. It's kind of freeing to consign so many useless items to the dustbin of history (and the literal dustbin of the junkyard), and now we have SO MUCH ROOM in our storage closet. So good job, Jen.

This run was one I have done many times before along the Highline Canal, and I have recently taken to calling it "the hook" for obvious reasons if you look at the map below. I actually ran further than I registered, but one chunk of my run was done with my running app on pause, so I only get 6.11 miles of credit, but that's okay...I still get the health benefits of that extra half mile.

Eight Hundred Thirty-Five

July 17, 2018
7.11 Miles in 1:12:31
Mood: Dominating squirrels
Soundtrack: Ben Folds "Way To Normal" / Ben Folds Five "The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind" and "The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner"

Squirrels will stare at you. This one did so at me, and I wan't having any of it. I decided that if you're going to stare at me, I'm going to post a picture of you, and there is nothing you can do about it because you're a wild rodent living outdoors. I showed that squirrel! Don't let the squirrels win.

Eight Hundred Thirty-Four

July 15, 2018
1.18 Miles in 11:13
Mood: Tired, then wet.
Soundtrack: Hamilton Original Cast Recording

Spent the weekend in the mountains, including a 21 mile bike ride on Saturday, but I still wanted to get a run in at Wash Park for Sunday. The weather was cloudy, so the heat was much less of an issue than it normally would have been.

I began running, but quickly realized that two nights of sleeping on a pull out sofa bed combined with a pretty intense bike ride around Lake Dillon had left me with not much energy. I was feeling pretty tired and had a hard time getting into a groove. Then, about three quarters of a mile in, the heavens opened up and I was now tired AND getting wet. I made the executive decision to cut this short and call it a day, leading to one of the shorter runs I've ever posted.

Eight Hundred Thirty-Three

July 12, 2018
6.77 Miles in 1:07:20
Mood: Helpful
Soundtrack: Manchester Orchestra "A Black Mile To The Surface"

I had the rare opportunity to be genuinely helpful this morning! A woman on a bike pulled up next to me and asked me if she was headed in the right direction for Belleview Park. She was headed in the exact opposite direction of said park, so I was able to get her turned around and give her step by step instructions to point her in the direction which she needed to go. It's nice to feel both knowledgeable (which I am concerning getting around the Highline Canal area) and also having that knowledge be useful to someone who needs it.

Eight Hundred Thirty-Two

July 8, 2018
7.03 Miles in 1:10:06
Mood: Just keep running, man.
Soundtrack: The Avett Brothers "True Sadness"

I was determined to push myself hard this Sunday at Wash Park, and I did. I didn't take my first rest (apart from pausing for a few seconds one time to re-tie my shoe) until I had run four straight miles. I can't remember the last time I ran that many miles consecutively without taking at least a little walking break.

I was sweating profusely, and it felt really good. My speed for the first two miles was pretty decent, averaging around 9:20 a mile, but I then kind of fell apart. I kept moving, but the speeds were pretty slow. Still, I kept moving with minimal breaks, and I count that as a win.

The hardest thing was that I was passed by several other runners, and my usual response to that is to try and pick up my speed to match that faster pace. I had to work so hard to maintain my slower speed and not try to get macho and keep up with the young woman pushing a stroller. (She was going really fast, even with the stroller, I assure you.)

The final three miles has a handful of short breaks, but in all, I ran harder than I have in quite awhile.

Eight Hundred Thirty-One

July 5, 2018
7.04 Miles in 1:10:33
Mood: Appreciating a camel bench for the very first time.
Soundtrack: First Aid Kit "The Lion's Roar" and "Ruins"

Thankfully, this run went much better than Tuesday's. I struggled at times, but I huffed and puffed my way to a respectable seven miles along the Highline Canal. At one point I diverged slightly off the trail to go catch a very rare Bagon in Pokemon Go, and when I did so, I noticed for the first time ever this bench which has camels as the side supports. I very much like camel benches...a fact I learned this very morning. Camel benches are infinitely better than boring normal benches.

I thought I might be extra tired after frolicking late on the 4th of July and watching fireworks, but I had no troubles getting up, and felt pretty decent as I ran. It was slow, but at least I had energy. I'm still clearly not back to where I was prior to the foot injury, and I'm beginning to think it's more mental than physical. Back when I had a long 100 mile streak to maintain, I had more motivation to drag myself out of bed as I wanted to keep it going. I need to get back into that groove so that I can motivate myself better. I'm still doing the dang thing, just not quite as motivated as I once was.

Eight Hundred Thirty

July 3, 2018
4.15 Miles in 41:22
Mood: Tired and blah
Soundtrack: Daves of Thunder / The Avett Brothers "A Carolina Jubilee"

Blah. This run was terrible. I was tired and not feeling it, and the less said about this awful morning outing, the better.