Our Colorado trip started with a detour to Oklahoma. My parents are in Norman, OK and we were having a family reunion during the 4th of July weekend. Driving 15 hours after we had driven to Squaw and back a few days prior was pretty much torture.
We stopped in Albuquerque so Enzo could ride at the skate park and I could get a run done. The neighborhood was a little sketch and I was conflicted about heading out for a run all alone. Good thing I was debating because about 3 minutes after he left us Enzo came back saying a pedal had fallen off and he didn't have the right tool to fix it. Back in the car and into a massive thunderstorm we headed.
No hills or mountains to train on in Oklahoma. Luckily, my parents put us up at the Marriott and I was able to use the treadmill for some uphill running. I really hate the treadmill, but on a 10% incline I don't mind it as much. There is something nice about being able to run uphill for a long time. I did one day of speed work around the neighborhood (because I overslept enjoying the comfy bed and quiet hotel room.)
We stopped in Albuquerque so Enzo could ride at the skate park and I could get a run done. The neighborhood was a little sketch and I was conflicted about heading out for a run all alone. Good thing I was debating because about 3 minutes after he left us Enzo came back saying a pedal had fallen off and he didn't have the right tool to fix it. Back in the car and into a massive thunderstorm we headed.
No hills or mountains to train on in Oklahoma. Luckily, my parents put us up at the Marriott and I was able to use the treadmill for some uphill running. I really hate the treadmill, but on a 10% incline I don't mind it as much. There is something nice about being able to run uphill for a long time. I did one day of speed work around the neighborhood (because I overslept enjoying the comfy bed and quiet hotel room.)
 My dad gets the party started! |  Some of family walks in the 4th of July parade in Norman, OK |
We were supposed to leave for Silverton, CO on Tuesday, July 7th, but 90 percent chance of rain all the way from Norman to Silverton made us decide to postpone by one day. I woke up Wednesday morning at 5am with little desire to head to Silverton. The weather was saying rain all day. I just was not looking forward to setting up camp in the rain on ground that was already soaked. I drug myself out of bed and started preparing to leave. This was interrupted when the youngest showed up crying in terrible pain. The small earache the day before was a full-blown ear infection. There would be no travel today. We needed to take him to the clinic for medicine. The CVS Minute Clinic in Norman, OK was amazing! What was not amazing was discovering that he no longer had insurance coverage. His father was recently laid off in a RIF and there seems to be some lag time between the end of insurance and the start of COBRA. Thank G-d it was just an ear infection! All of my family (except my dad) has left so we are enjoying a nice relaxing day in a quiet house before heading out in the morning.
Knowing that we wouldn’t be showering for over a week I decided to scrub myself one last time. I turned the water as hot as I could stand it and used a washcloth to scrub until felt like I lost a layer of skin. We packed everything expect our bags and planned to leave between 3am and 4am. Then at 12:30am Sinjin woke me in terrible pain. And now the ear infection seems to be in both ears. I was up for 30 or 45 minutes trying to calm him down and waiting for the pain medicine to work. I hate making decisions and now I have to decide if we travel or not. A 13-hour drive to move from a comfy house to camping in the rain and cold might not be the best thing for Sinjin, but I am losing my chance to acclimate to the altitude and do some final serious hill training. We are coming close to the point where we should just stay here until the day before the race so I can attempt to trick my body.
We made a plan for going to Colorado. We would leave early on Friday and drive to Durango so that Sinjin could adjust to the altitude before heading to Telluride to volunteer at Hardrock. Relaxing before bed, Ava comes into show me her glasses are destroyed. She is super blind so leaving without glasses is not an option. I also know she needs a new prescription. My ex-sister-in-law is 3 hours away in Dallas and has always been Ava’s eye doctor. I text what I hope is still her husband’s number and get an appointment for 1pm. (She treats Demi Lovatto, so she must be worth the drive!) Also she deals with my ex-husband directly so all I have to do is show up and leave with glasses. PERFECT!
Knowing that we wouldn’t be showering for over a week I decided to scrub myself one last time. I turned the water as hot as I could stand it and used a washcloth to scrub until felt like I lost a layer of skin. We packed everything expect our bags and planned to leave between 3am and 4am. Then at 12:30am Sinjin woke me in terrible pain. And now the ear infection seems to be in both ears. I was up for 30 or 45 minutes trying to calm him down and waiting for the pain medicine to work. I hate making decisions and now I have to decide if we travel or not. A 13-hour drive to move from a comfy house to camping in the rain and cold might not be the best thing for Sinjin, but I am losing my chance to acclimate to the altitude and do some final serious hill training. We are coming close to the point where we should just stay here until the day before the race so I can attempt to trick my body.
We made a plan for going to Colorado. We would leave early on Friday and drive to Durango so that Sinjin could adjust to the altitude before heading to Telluride to volunteer at Hardrock. Relaxing before bed, Ava comes into show me her glasses are destroyed. She is super blind so leaving without glasses is not an option. I also know she needs a new prescription. My ex-sister-in-law is 3 hours away in Dallas and has always been Ava’s eye doctor. I text what I hope is still her husband’s number and get an appointment for 1pm. (She treats Demi Lovatto, so she must be worth the drive!) Also she deals with my ex-husband directly so all I have to do is show up and leave with glasses. PERFECT!
Serious earache situation
Ava seems to think driving for 7 hours to get new glasses is fun!
The Arbuckle Mountains - more like the Arbuckle hills... We took the back way because my mom was worried about I-35 being closed. Good thing we left early because the 3 hour drive took 4 hours! This also meant we did not get lunch until after the eye exam. But 50 minutes after we arrived we were back in the car with new glasses. I decided to take my chances with I-35 and it was much faster. Did I mention today is my husband’s 50th birthday? Happy Birthday! I stopped at Target for some dinner supplies, but got home and realized I forgot dessert. I scowled at my family, found some advil for my headache and took to my bed (the couch in my teenage brother’s room) and waited to get rid of the headache that had been with me since about noon.
But wait! The bad news does not end there. My only choice for running here is concrete. The sidewalks and the roads are all hard concrete. When we were staying at the hotel I was using the treadmill, but now I am just running in the neighborhoods. Today my knee decided it was pissed off about the new surface and my knee feels like someone took a bat to it!
The Colorado plan right now is drive up on Sunday to Durango. Move to Telluride on Monday and Silverton on Friday. If I am feeling good, I will race Kendall Mountain on Saturday and Audi Power of 4 on Sunday. If I am not feeling great I will skip the races and just keep training and enjoy the mountains. Although my mom is headed to New Braunfels next weekend and a trip to the Austin area is mighty tempting at this point.
And then the plan changed again. Now the plan is to drive to Telluride on Monday. We will leave here at 3am and take the longer, scenic route. I don’t want to drive on major highways – I want to see pretty stuff! Plus we already drove through Amarillo and Albuquerque. I don’t need to do that again.
My racing is still questionable. I alternate between just run and have fun and not racing at all. I’m tired of dealing with the knee pain and I miss enjoying racing and running. I clearly suck right now so maybe I just need to be okay with being sucky and enjoy two really pretty training runs that happen to have a race going on at the same time. This all sounds good, but the competitor in me might have a hard time following through.
But wait! The bad news does not end there. My only choice for running here is concrete. The sidewalks and the roads are all hard concrete. When we were staying at the hotel I was using the treadmill, but now I am just running in the neighborhoods. Today my knee decided it was pissed off about the new surface and my knee feels like someone took a bat to it!
The Colorado plan right now is drive up on Sunday to Durango. Move to Telluride on Monday and Silverton on Friday. If I am feeling good, I will race Kendall Mountain on Saturday and Audi Power of 4 on Sunday. If I am not feeling great I will skip the races and just keep training and enjoy the mountains. Although my mom is headed to New Braunfels next weekend and a trip to the Austin area is mighty tempting at this point.
And then the plan changed again. Now the plan is to drive to Telluride on Monday. We will leave here at 3am and take the longer, scenic route. I don’t want to drive on major highways – I want to see pretty stuff! Plus we already drove through Amarillo and Albuquerque. I don’t need to do that again.
My racing is still questionable. I alternate between just run and have fun and not racing at all. I’m tired of dealing with the knee pain and I miss enjoying racing and running. I clearly suck right now so maybe I just need to be okay with being sucky and enjoy two really pretty training runs that happen to have a race going on at the same time. This all sounds good, but the competitor in me might have a hard time following through.
Happy 50th Birthday Norm!
