I'm Still Here!

My mean runner face. Side note- this is a dumb hairdo to run with, I had hair in my mouth and eyes the entire run. Made me want to shave it all off.

It has just been so sunny and warm out, I have not been indoors on the computer a whole lot this week! (and obviously have not spent any time editing these pictures!)

It has been another busy week, full of workouts and amazing runs! The kids had Monday off, so we spent the day outside in the yard, mowing, pruning, cooking lunch my favorite way, and then we went for a hike. Tuesday was another great day of running. First I worked out, then did a 4.5 mile loop packed full of elevation, then picked up Myles at school and from there headed to the reservoir to meet up with the Beast for another hilly run.

 Haven't done a double day in a while and it was great!
Wednesday I was in the kids classrooms and took a rest day. Thursday is Beast day, and we headed out of Castle Rock for a tough 6.9 (ok, I count this as 7, but it's technically 6.9) with a few feet shy of 1700 ft of elevation gain.  Check out this elevation chart -


Followed that up with an afternoon in Sophie's class helping with her art program (watercolor project this week) picking up kids at 3 different times. Today is a non-running, yes to a working out day, so not a full rest day, but legs need a break, so getting all errands/cleaning done today.  It's also CO's visit this week, so yeah. Busy week.
Brian and I will get a run in together tomorrow after noon, I've got a doozy mapped out of 10 miles with 2620 ft of climbing! Should be a hoot!

Mustard flowers have always been his favorite.

this was so pretty in real life

They have had enough of the Beast and my antics and decided today was the day to present a united front.

Seriously, they tried to be so tough...but they were no match for a crazy mom running at them waving her arms over her head and yelling, "woo hoo, woo hoo, woo hoo!"

Dropping back down to Stage, the sun was hitting the section of trail that is more creek than trail right now, one of my favorite sections.

 

 I leave ya with an overhead view of the froggy pond, Pine Pond. You can see the trail runs along the bottom edge of it and the pond is still flowing over the trail and making a waterfall over the edge of it. I know when running through there to stay towards the waterfall edge. It's about mid calf deep, but not muddy or anything. Well, two weeks in a row the Beast has seen the reeds and mistakenly thought it looked like higher, less wet ground.  It's not, since the reeds are laying down on top of the drop off into the pond. I thought she learned her lesson last week, but nope, in she went again! Ankle deep mucky mud + her new Salomon trail shoes = not happy Beast!  Good thing there were 6 more crossings to rinse them off in! : )
 More pictures here.