Ft Collins racing and hiking

I am getting really good at going from clinical to the airport, changing in the airport bathroom out of my scrubs and into my "civilian" outfit. People look a little funny, but I have to maximize my time off :-)

Last week I flew to Ft Collins again. Veterans Day weekend meant lots of running events around the Ft Collins area. We decided to run the local CSU Veterans 5k and had a ton of fun. The course is flat and fast. I wanted to go out conservative but the competitive me just had to stay behind this girl who took off fast. We went through mile 1 in 5:45, mile 2 in 11:40. I tried to move ahead at mile 1.5 but she left me in the dust. With one mile to go I tried again and was successful :-) YAY. I finished in 18:30 and was super happy to take the win, but a little confused about the time. After some research we found out that the course was long...3.25 miles instead of 3.1. That made me feel much better about effort/pace/time. JR took the W as the first veteran. 

I don't know what is in the Ft Collins air, but the next day I ran 14 miles at probably my best training pace ever, with 5 miles sub 7 and an average of 7:06 - for a "going by feel" run, this was a great start to the day!!!

 In the afternoon we met up with our friends Pam and Jason. Jack was waiting for Scout and Aidra.

We hiked Arthur's Rock in Lori state park. Tons of great running and mnt biking trails around that park!!! I am so excited to explore more. The hike is around 4 miles, so it was a perfect afternoon hike. The puppies had fun and really enjoyed playing.

 Made it to the top :-) Horsetooth Lake in the background.

 The crew at the top of the rock.

One more month and I will be in Ft Collins over Christmas break, exploring the routes and racing some more. Until then it is a little more studying, some yoga and strength, a lot of running.

Phoenix 3 TV 10k and 5k - the Double Header

Last week didn't go as planned...my airplane from Denver to Flagstaff on Monday got cancelled, so JR and I spend 5 hrs driving and waiting for nothing...

Tuesday I got sick...

Wednesday I was at clinical so long that it got dark outside and I had to cut my run short...

Friday this happened: 

Some strange person decided it would be fun to smash in an innocent person's window...They left the weapon, which landed right next to my american flag, but the police said the rock was too rugged to get fingerprints off :-( 

                                 

I knew my collection of athletic tape was good for something :-)

Things don't always go the way we want, but we have to make the best out of it. My friend Stacey and I didn't let any of the above influence our plans and off we were to Phoenix for a girls weekend, including a great race (despite having a 20 page essay due...and YES, we worked on it for many hrs in our hotel).

Race morning was great, Stacey and I both woke up NOT ready to race...that essay caused us to have nightmares about the critique of a research paper ;-)

We jogged the 2 miles to the race start and sooner then I knew my 5 k came up. I had done mileage and some speed, but my body wasn't sure what racing on the road feels like anymore. I started out very conservative to safe some energy for the next race. I finished in a 18:40 which wasn't super awesome, but it was a great start to a great winter 2013/ spring 2014 season. I had a 30 min break before the 10 k, which I pretty much spent walking from finish to start. 

At the start line I had no idea what I had in me, but I knew I had to do the same again, go out conservative. I think I pretty much even split the entire race and finished in a 39:40, again, nothing super fantastic, but great for where I am in the season and training.

I won the Double Header for the females - YAY!!!

I licked the blood again and immediately got excited to race next Saturday again. 10k race in Longmont, CO. I can't wait to see how every week of training affects my performance and effort level.

I think staying positive is the key to happy running and life. Shit happens, some weeks a lot of it (see above), but things work out if you just want them too.

Flagstaff Fall and the kick off of the AZ running season

Fall in Flagstaff is beautiful. There is about a one week window where the trees look like they have golden leaves. The weather here is mostly sunny in the first place, but the combination of sun and golden aspens seems almost magical. 

 There are many great spots to check out the beauty, but my favorite is the inner basin at lockett meadows, especially on a wednesday or thursday when no one else is there.

 I went on the hike with my friend from nursing school and my other friend, Joy, who is most likely going through the program next year. Funny how we ended up in the same place: we went to Black Hills State University at the same time, then ventured off into different directions and now we are both in Flagstaff.

 We got to play in our fist snow of the season!!!

 JR said he didn't do it but apparently another JR had been here before :-)

Next week I will explore the newly opened Waterline trail on my Mnt bike, which should end up at lockett meadows again. About 30 miles of Mnt bike fun!!!

Yesterday after clinical I drove to Phoenix to participate in the first race of the season: AZ Xterra trail run. I had been running 50-60 miles/week, but not much over an hour at a time, so it was interesting to see what I could do in a 13 mile trail run. Last year I won the overall women's in 1:42:09. This year I felt great until mile 6 where my speediness literally left me in the desert. I switched to training mode and  just finished the day off with a 7 mile fun run, enjoying the surroundings. I thought my time would be much slower then last year, but to my surprise it was still 1:42:49. But I ended up 5th place overall women :-( After the race I met up with Coach B and we came up with a plan for the winter. I am excited to get in a lot of racing over the next 6 months, both in Ft Collins and in AZ.

Ft. Collins/Flagstaff

My second semester of Nursing school is in full swing and we finally get to do a lot of hands on things. The past few months have been a little stressful with overall 3 drives from and to Ft Collins (I got to fly once :-) JR and Jack are now settled in Ft Collins and they are exploring new things every day...and the more they explore and the more they tell me about it, the more I fall in love with the town as well. Here are some images from what has been going on during the last month:

 Beautiful sunsets by the Poudre River.

 Jack playing in one of the many streams during our runs.

 Unsuccessful first house hunt in the two weeks we were up there prior to moving.

 JR told me the piggy bank cannot come with from Phoenix to Ft Collins unless it is empty...so...

 I emptied it. I found a lot of Euro's in it as well as US bills...I am pretty sure my family put those in their :-)

 Because I am too cheap to bring it to a counting machine, I hand counted EVERYTHING and rolled it. Over 500 $ :-)

 Our house was under contract within 24 hrs of putting it on the market. One month later it was time to move out. I will miss our first house :-( If I could I would have moved it with us!!! The yard, the citrus trees, the brick house, proximity to the trails ... we will definitely miss it.

 The Penske truck was loaded at 1 am, I had to leave for class at 5 am, sit in class all day and then start the drive to Trinidad, Co. Yikes, I was soooo tired. Here is the "stationay monsoon cloud" that I encountered in Albuquerque. It caused a massive flood and if I would not have been in a Tacoma I would not have made it through the water.

 Following the truck :-)

 The flood damage in Colorado was crazy. On our way there we saw the Thompson River, which had more water then the Mississippi flowing!!! Cars were on the side of the road, upside down, stuck, craziness. JR brought me to the airport and I had to head back to class and Flagstaff without him and Jack :-(

Right now class is Mon/Tue and rotation is Fri/Sat...so we have Wed/Thu to explore. I have a fantastic group of people in my program. They are so nice, love the outdoors and help you in any situation. Here we are exploring Fossil Creek. Unfortunatelly we couldn't hike to the "blue" part of the water but we got to see the original Dam.

 Lunch break at the water. 

 Igor found an apple tree in the middle of nowhere!!!

 The apples were ripe and delicious!!!

 The dam and "the toilet". See the hole on the bottom left of the pic? You apparently can jump in it and you get flushed out on the other side of the rocks...aehhh...no thanks. The sound of the toilet was crazy - talking about power flushing...

 After a few water crossings and loosing the trail a few times we made it to our campsite.

 Igor made us coffee in his fancy glass coffee maker. I am still amazed he got it there inane piece!!!

 We jumped into the water, found some swings and had so much fun on the way out.

 Fossil Creek is great and I think we are trying to get back before it gets too cold down there. I need to take them to the really colorful part of the creek where Pam took me a few years back. Sooooo beautiful!!!

Today I decided to get my Mnt bike out. Since I wanted to get a good workout in I decided to ride up Schultz road to Mnt Elden. It was a total of 2 hrs on nice steep forest road. The aspens are starting to change, and thankfully the snow we got earlier this week was melted again for the ride.

 View from the top!!!

 San Francisco peaks in the background.

 Sunset Crater and Painted Desert.

 Aspens are slowly changing.

I am very excited to fly up o Ft Collins in less then 1 month to see JR and Jack. Two more months before Christmas break and then it is only one semester to go. I am starting to get excited about returning to running races and triathlons and am planning my 2014 season...unfortunately a lot of dates are not up yet and I am very impatient. It looks like I will start off the season with running and then kick off the tri season in May. Colorado has a ton of racing to offer and I am very excited to see what we are doing. I hear the XTerra in Ft Collins is one of the easier courses to ride, so I might even try my luck at my first Xterra Tri.