Two weekends ago I tried to take advantage of the extra time, since we didn't boat anything, to get caught up with my day to day stuff. I went to Sports Authority and got some new running shoes, a heart rate monitoring watch and few pairs of yoga pants. I also got a holder for my Ipod since up until this point I have been holding it in my hand and it was awkward!
I've gotten into a routine now and things are starting to flow better for me. The new shoes made a huge difference! I was using an old pair of walking shoes which had no cushion and were pretty worn out. I got a pair Asics Gel which I love, they work well outside and on the treadmill, which I didn't think that would be the case for whatever reason. I started using the heart rate monitor and staying in my 70 - 80% range for at least 30 minutes. The first few days I struggled a little. I've gotten my schedule down so I do this 5 days a week and then either boat on the weekends or flex that time during the week so I rest 1 or 2 days in there. I keep upping the time every few days too. I'm working my way to 1 hour walk/run on that schedule. By the end of the first week I managed to run for a entire song and I had a little involuntary wohoo...it was a goal I set for myself, to be able to run for an entire song without huffing and puffing and to enjoy it :) I can run for a couple of songs in a row now, but no where near the 3 mile mark yet. Yesterday I met my friend Patty and we ran with the dogs on the Bobolink Trial in Boulder. It went a lot better than I thought it would. We slowly jogged the entire thing...took about 40 mins and total I believe it was 2.5 miles or so. It was the first time Patty had jogged in a long time, so she was going a lot slower than my pace was originally. I couldn't find a good place to keep time with her, it was either a little to fast to walk and a little too slow to jog, so there was a mixture, but I tried to keep jogging. Going again on Thursday...it'll get easier. It was nice to have a partner....when I would have talked myself into walking she kept going and vice versa. The dogs loved it! I look forward to jogging now...It's a nice release of the daily stress (mostly work), I get to zone out for a half hour or more and have no worries. I can probably say now that this will not be what its like when I start biking....blech...not looking forward to that piece!! Swimming I could do all day every day! And by 'run' in this blog I mean slowly jogging....very slowly. Once I meet the marker where I can run consistently for 30 mins, I'm going to start timing myself.
OK enough about running....I wanna talk about boating :) Last weekend I went on an overnight trip which was a blast! On the Colorado River by the Colorado/Utah border there is a long stretch of flat water that flows through a gorgeous canyon. The run is called Ruby Horse Theif.
It's a float...there's not a lick of whitewater on the entire 26 mile stretch. You really need to know this information before you do it, otherwise you could get pretty restless. I did this with the small group of people that will be going to costa rica with me, it was intended to be a bonding trip for us and there were a couple others too. Total we had a group of 12, two rafts for support and the rest of us were in our kayaks. Friday night around 8:30Pm or so (5 hour drive from Denver) Patty and I arrived at the put in at Loma. It's a boat launch patrolled by the BLM
We were the first of the group to arrive but were followed closely by a few others. We setup tents on the beach of the boat launch and settled in for the night. It was relatively cool and we were about 10 feet from the river on the beach so I slept in my long johns, hat and 0 degree sleeping bag. I was comfy! Morning came and we had to beat cheeks to rig up the rafts with our gear and get a move on. Campsites in the canyon are first come first server even with the BLM's sign up sheet at the put in. If we wanted a site big enough for our 12 person group we needed to get there first. Did I mention it was ALL FLAT... ALL OF IT!!! We had to make our own entertainment.
The Canyon is gorgeous.... here's a few pics from the early AM at the boat launch, riggin the rafts and the other boats getting ready to launch (not all of them were with us, only kim's raft in this pic, in the forefront)...
And we're off.... Day 1 floating (I'm the orange boat), chatting, laughing and beautiful views.......

Our campsite was easy enough to find with this tell tale rock formation it was about 12 miles into the day going only 4 miles an hour.....

Our campsite was Ok, not what we originally wanted as the other was stolen by an inconsiderate group that we didn't like much. But not the end of the world. We de-rigged the rafts got our tents set up and started dinner. There is a fire ban in the canyon so no campfire but we made do and chatted a little until we all realized how tired we were. Right around the time everyone went to bed it started to sprinkle....then rain....then downpour the entire night!....and by morning it was off an on until we all started to wake up which the rain then stayed at a constant 'on'! Breakfast was served under a rain flap, and we rigged up the rafts in the rain while sliding down the muddy hill. It was a weird night because of the rock we were on it must have been retaining heat because I felt like I was being slow roasted by morning...it was SOOO HOT! And because of how much it rained we all woke up in a puddle. Once out of the sleeping bag and off the heat rock it was quite chilly. I didn't even take off my long johns... I boated the rest of the day in all my rain gear plus my long johns...... burr!

Once we were on the water again we had some more gorgeous scenery.....
Black Rocks is the name, pretty obvious right :)

A couple miles into the second day we crossed into Utah... the boarder is marked on the canyon wall in this picture look for the white in the middle of photo.....

After 26 miles over two days it was over...we arrived at the Westwater put in and did a few hours worth of work to get everything taken down and packed back into our cars... I was happy as could be... on the water and with my friends, the weekend couldn't have been better :) wish you were here!
