Chasing My Joy

My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

Thanksgiving Eve

Happy Thanksgiving Eve! If you are one of the millions who are traveling today I wish you safe and easy travels. I am not traveling today since my parents conveniently moved to Colorado last year.

Even though I am not traveling I am still busy and trying to fit a bunch in today so I can relax and enjoy tomorrow. I got up early this morning to fit in a 90 minute easy spin, this helped to flush out my legs after yesterdays long run. I am hoping to get some yoga in tonight when Cory gets home. This afternoon I am trying to get some school work in before starting to cook tonight. This year we are in charge of Thanksgiving desert and post race treats. Cory decided to make homemade cinnamon rolls (I am SO looking forward to that) and I am in charge of pies!

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and dutch apple all from scratchDSCN1909.jpeg

I love baking but I don’t do it very often due to dietary and time limitations. Cory is a great helper and by cooking the pumpkin and peeling apples for me!

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Are you cooking the full meal for Thanksgiving, just a part or just showing up?

Holiday Fun

I LOVE this time of year. I like the cooler weather and the holidays that seem to come one on top of the other. The colors are beautiful and it’s fun to run through the leaves

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I also love that this time of year comes with fun blogger “challenges” two that I am participating in start this month. First Pile on the Miles put on by Monica at Run Eat Repeat

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I joined this challenge but it’s definitely not my shining moment, it really shines a light on how little I run compared to real runners. A challenge that I am more suited to and excited about is Holiday Booty Buster Challenge

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This challenge includes all types of workouts and healthy eating, you also choose a category and compete against people with the same goals as you. Copy and Pasted from the sight:

This year you will pick the segment that best describes your current/planned activity level for the next few months and that will help make the points within a group more competitive. Continuing with putting our best foot forward you will be grouped by the shoe that fits:

  • Low Profile: 5K, 10K, cardio class master (includes CrossFit)
  • Cushioned: Half marathon/marathon/distance biking
  • Stability: Half Ironman or more
  • Minimalist: Yoga/Weight lifting

You should expect to continue earning points for activity in any area,cross training, but by selecting your primary activity throughout the challenge you can be more competitive for the top points prizes.

I signed up for Stability, I am questioning that choice a little bit as I am not technically training for half ironman, ironman or anything else that long at the moment. In truth I wont race anything longer than a half marathon until May. So maybe I should drop to cushioned. Also there are only two of us signed up in that category right now, I guess I will think about that more.

How do you feel about challenges? Are you participating in any? Any others I should know about?

It’s Almost Fall

Ok maybe technically it’s not almost fall and the weather here in Denver is really trying to remind me that is is still summer.
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See the seasonal average? 85 would be a lot nicer than the mid nineties we have been having.

Regardless fall is my favorite season and sometimes it feel like we go straight from summer to winter, so I am going to start celebrating fall/harvest now. I also heard that Starbucks is bringing out their Pumpkin Spice Latte today (is that true?!?)
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While I may still be wearing my summer clothes and sweating it out on my bike
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my house will smell like pumpkin spice and I will be happily watching football while recovering.
What is your favorite season?

Weekend Wrap-up

Cory and I had a great Autumn weekend, we started off Saturday morning with Running with the Buffalos 5K we then headed home where we tried to do some errands while watching the live feed of Kona. It was such an exciting race so happy for Chrissy and Crowie.

On Sunday we woke up very early so we could volunteer at aid station number one for the Rock and Roll Denver Marathon. It has just turned cold so we bundled up

Apparently Cory was still asleep…probably shouldn’t have let him drive. It was dark when we arrived so it was hard to see the cups to fill them

I couldn’t believe how big the aid station was, I have never ran in a race this big.

We then headed home, picked up our dogs and took the “long way” to my parents house to enjoy some fall color

After eating a quick lunch we headed to Anderson farms for some fall fun

Baby Goats!

My brother erik expertly lead us through the corn maze

Not sure what’s going on here

We picked out some pumpkins

It was the perfect day, not cold, not hot with lots of sunshine. It was then back to the grind and a long work week. I am feeling ready to start ramping up my training. PT is going well, I am getting stronger and almost never have knee pain.

What is one of your fall must dos?

mine is visiting a pumpkin patch

PT and Fall Fun

Yesterday I had my first PT appointment with Rebound Physical Therapy, it was a great experience, Djimmer explained everything to me and reassured me that with some time I would be as good as new and thought that I would be able to complete an Ironman and an ultra marathon (not at the same time). I need to focus on strengthening my gluteus, so that is my task for this week. I am not surprised since many triathletes have weak gluteus. I have a set of exercises and stretches that I am supposed to do everyday this week. I can’t wait to go back on Thursday so I can keep moving forward.

Yesterday Cory and I headed up to Georgetown in the Rocky Mountains. The Aspens have started changing so we wanted to go see them before it was too late

We took the historic train loop, it was a beautiful fall day, I was in heaven. Fall is my favorite time of year and always goes by too fast

Prepare yourself for photo overload….

We are very proud of our elevations in Colorado.

We also took an historic mine tour, it was really fun and I learned a lot about how hard the lives were of the miners. Makes me grateful for my cush job!

Cory and I looking stylish in our hardhats.

What’s your fall activity? I have many but I LOVE picking pumpkins