Feels Like Flying in New Mexico and Colorado

Marathon Training Week Four (Week of July 1, 2013):

Monday: Off.  Driving all day to Albuquerque, New Mexico

Tuesday: Hiked a trail at the National Petroglyphs Monument (shown in photo above)

Wednesday: Off.  Departure from NM and a long drive up to Denver.

Thursday: Walked around the Denver Museum of Science and Nature.

Friday: Off.  Bummed around Denver.  Read books in a park.

Saturday: Biked from brunch at Mercury to Commons Park and back to Hotel VQ. 

Sunday: Biked to brunch and back before leaving Denver for Routt National Forest

Minutes run this week: 0.

Minutes walked this week: Lots! 

Marathon Training Week Five (Week of July 8, 2013):

Monday: Went for a long afternoon hike.  Was attacked by hungry mosquitoes.

Tuesday: Off.  Lazed about reading all day.  It was nice.

Wednesday: Walked around Colorado Springs.

Thursday: Off.  Long drive from Colorado Springs to Dallas

Friday: Off.  Dallas—>College Station—>BED!

Saturday: Attempted to go for a run…which ended badly.

Sunday: Long walk.  105 minutes to HEB and back.

Minutes run this week: 7.

Minutes walked this week: 110 + all those vacation steps.

Hey, hey!  How about this marathon-length update?  After my Trip of a Lifetime, I have returned to Texas.  The trip was awesome; it was everything I wanted it to be.  It was filled with great food and laughter set against a backdrop of spectacular mountains.  Paul and I got along well for the duration of our 12 days on the road, which is kind of amazing.  We were both, however, really happy to see our friends in Dallas—it gave us a chance to share our favorite vacation stories with new people on top of our joy in seeing them.

You can see from my training log up there that I tossed my marathon training out the window as soon as we left Texas.  I had hoped to do some running while in Colorado, but it didn’t happen.  What happened instead: lots of walking around and some biking in Denver.  I mentioned the bikes on my other blog, so here I thought I’d give a little more info about Denver B-Cycle because we loved it so much.  So much so, in fact, that Paul is planning to get a bike so he can start bike commuting to campus instead of driving every time.  I fully support this plan of his—my bike is one of my favorite possessions.  Riding it makes me so happy!

Here’s how Denver B-Cycle works for tourists like us.  We bought a one-day “membership” for $8 each ($16 total for the two of us).  From there, we could borrow two bikes for up to 30 minutes at no additional charge, as many times as we wanted during that day.  Rides 30-60 minutes in length are $1 each; each additional 30 minutes is another $4 each.  The program encourages shorter rides—$1/bike for a 60-minute ride is pretty great.  Paul and I took several bike rides over a 24-hour period, for the fun of riding and to get from place to place.  We rode from a brunch spot (Mercury) to Commons Park and then back to our hotel.  The next day, we rode to brunch at Duo and back again.  I’m not exaggerating when I say that riding a bike in Denver was one of the highlights of the trip for me.  The weather was great, Paul’s smart phone helped us navigate, and I just loved seeing the city while on two wheels.  I would love to plan another trip to Denver just to pedal my way through the city (with pit stops for delicious meals, of course).

 

The day after we got back to College Station, I had an accident, which I described here.  The score between me and Texas is now Texas 1, Rose-Anne 0.  I’m now pretty scared of the Texas heat to which I am not acclimated at all, so I’m adjusting my marathon training plan to be realistic about the danger of summertime Texas.  The good news is that after some hemming and hawing and—I won’t lie—some internal wimping out, I have decided not to drop out of the marathon.  In my next post, I’ll talk about my recalibrated expectations and training plans.

Until then, ride happy, friends!