Time For A Change 😍

Still here, still running, but we are MOVING to Maine! Aka I left Colorado on Saturday with my mom and the cats. Alex will be driving to Maine with Stella at the beginning of June. I didn’t really share the moving news with too many people, mainly because I hate to say goodbye! Also because I’m sure we’ll be back to visit Steamboat & Colorado often. We’ve been driving around 8-9 hours since Saturday and will arrive in Maine tomorrow night! 

Stopped for a break & they aren’t so sure about Ohio... 

It’s been a really stressful few weeks/ months and I’m so excited for this new chapter. I want to put everything together for a nice blog post, but it may not be until the end of the week when the internet is set-up at our new house! 

Goodbye for now, Colorado! You are beautiful! 

So, here’s the shortened-down story for now. I’m going back to school at University of Southern Maine in Portland to get my nursing degree! I’ve always had a strong passion to go into healthcare since Middle School? And so so excited to finally be making that big-scary-career-changing jump. It has NOT been an easy decision OR easy journey to get here NOR will it be easy moving forwards, but what in life IS easy that is also equally REWARDING? 

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 -Ever made a ‘Big Move’?!  

-Anyone live in ME or Eastern NH!?! Let me know! Can’t wait to find a running tribe  here

Rock 'n Roll Las Vegas Day 4/POST RACE!

Running at night is great, but also really terrible for your sleep cycle. I was so elated from my run, but also exhausted= so I hardly got any actual sleep the night after my race. Oh well, the runner's high was strong. We went out to breakfast at New York New York at Tom's Urban and got the BEST iced coffee I've ever had. You MUST go there if you're ever in Vegas. Afterwards, we decided that we would walk the strip to go to Cesar's Palace to show my Grandmother (who had never been to Vegas), but too many stairs for me= I needed to rest and ice outside of Cesar's (with a mimosa of course) and we never made it there. It was perfect weather outside and much needed to just rest in the sunshine for a bit. 

Afterwards, we headed over to Krispy Kreme and my mom got a new tattoo!! 13.1 on her foot- it looks super cute (I'll need to get you a photo)! Then we proceeded to go to the M & M Factory Store (my gram's favorite) and I loaded up on chocolate. 

We made it back to the hotel to pack up our things and get ready for Cirque Du Soleil Michael Jackson's ONE/ dinner at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay. Dinner was OK- it took much too long to get our food (mine was cold) and we were crunched for time to get to the show 15 minutes before it started. The show was also OK- we had high expectations from seeing the Beatles' LOVE show last year (definitely GO SEE IT). They also continued to have technical difficulties throughout the show, which was a bummer. 

We gambled for a bit afterwards, then headed to our hotel to get a few hours of sleep before our 3:30AM wake up calls (we had 6AM flights home)!

I'm still loving re-living this trip and probably will be for quite some time! 

Ever been to Vegas? Favorite thing to do there? 

Mountain Monday- Havasupai Falls

Havasupai Falls on the Havasupai Indian Reservation is still one of my absolute favorite hiking trips of all time. It was around a 12 hour drive from Steamboat to get to the start of the hike (it is an 8 mile hike from the Hualapai Hilltop to Supai town and another 2 miles to the campground). The hike into the campground is generally all downhill and they recommend to take two days to cover the distance. We did it in one full day and arrived to the campsite around 5pm after leaving our car a little before 8am. There are also horses that I believe you can schedule to help carry your items to the town, however the town of Supai is really remote. No car traffic is able to get into or out of the town and the only accessibility is either by helicopter, horse, or hiking. It is also really important to remember that because of its remoteness, everything in the town is outrageously priced. I believe bottled water was 5 or 6 dollars! It's best to bring in all the food and necessities that you will need and I recommend planning to camp there for 4 or 5 days.

We hiked there over Labor Day weekend and the weather was hot, but it still gets pretty cool at night once the sun leaves the canyon. We only stayed two nights, which was enough to see everything but I do wish we had at least another full day to spend there.

Mooney Falls is the last Fall that you can easily get to and the hike to get down to the falls is pretty challenging. So challenging that I'm not sure if I would do it again. The ladders leading you down and up are almost completely perpendicular to the rocks and because they are close in proximity to the Falls, they are wet (makes it really slippery). We hiked down to the Falls twice (once to get to those falls) and once to go past Mooney Falls and hike the additional 2 miles to Beaver Falls.

Havasu Falls was the most spectacular and I would recommend just planning to spend a full day there. There are great caverns to explore by the Falls and the atmosphere is really peaceful. 

Beaver Falls wasn't spectacular (although ANYTHING in this area is really amazing), but I absolutely LOVED the hike to get there. Although it really is challenging to get up and down the ladders at Mooney Falls- I wouldn't recommend it unless you are in fantastic shape, have great gripping waterproof shoes, and are not afraid of heights/ close areas. You have to maneuver through many small holes and traffic is coming in both directions. It's not for the faint of heart. You can still get really great photos from above the Falls (which I really recommend).

I would highly recommend making sure you have the following items with you before making your hike:

• waterproof, durable shoes (I love my Keens)- I wore them for almost the entire hike in and out, as well as around all the waterfalls. They are amazing!
• empty waterbottles (they have water pumps there)
• swimsuit
• cash- It is expensive to travel to Supai and they didn't take credit cards when we were there in 2014. Entry fee is $50 and the campground was around $25 a night. 
• food- bring all the food you'll possibly need on the trek in AND out. Food is way too pricey to decide to purchase it once you get to town
• a really good camera (or two). you'll want to remember these experiences!
• sunscreen

Running back-to-back half marathons

Thinking back to when I ran back-to-back half marathons (one was on a Saturday & the other one was the following Sunday), the Emerald Bay Half-Marathon and the Rock 'n Roll Denver Half Marathon. This was the first time that I've ever ran two races so close together and I learned several things that worked and a few things that I would recommend not doing! I ended up PRing at both races, beating my first race PR by a minute and then beating that PR by 4 minutes! 

DO:

• Fuel properly between races (eat healthy, get a good mix of protein/carbs)
• Get extra sleep that week
• Drink extra fluids (with electrolytes, not just water)
• Limit your travel/ time on your feet
• Add in a few easy runs between races
• An easy strength training/ yoga session between races to ease stress (only if you normally do this; try nothing new during this time)
• Foam roll often!
• Legs up the wall everyday
• Keep your race expectations in-check. Maybe utilize one as a training/recovery run and the other as a potential PR/hard-effort. Listen to what your body needs.

DO NOT:

• Travel in the car for many hours between races (yeah, we drove back from California after Emerald Bay and then I drove to Denver the next weekend..not the best idea)
• Eat lots of sugar/ junk food between races
• Drink excessive coffee
• Skimp on sleep
• Run hard between races
• Not run at all between races
• Have high expectations for both races! Have FUN!

Hanson's Marathon Method Week 8 Run down

What a week it was! This week was pretty low mileage since I had a headcold come on and wanted to get rested up for my half marathon on Saturday. I originally had wanted to race my half, but with my head still staying pretty congested I decided to just have fun and not push myself into a deeper sickness (plus I wanted to enjoy our weekend full of camping!). I still ended up getting fourth in my age group (!!!) at my race and honestly had SO MUCH FUN! It was by far the best half marathon I can ever remember having (race recap to come soon). 

Besides getting sick, I did hit my mile repeats on Tuesday so that was a huge bonus and I just ultimately took the rest of the week off from any hard runs and just focused on recovery and easy paces. 

Monday: 6 miles Easy @ 10:20 on the treadmill

Tuesday: 1.5 warm-up; 3 @ 7:20 (600 R) ; 1.5 cool-down- 7 miles total

Wednesday: Sick- took a rest day

Watching Sheep Herders because what else are you supposed to do when you're sick?! 

Thursday: 3 miles easy on the trails @ 9:54

Friday: 3.25 miles easy @ 10:00

Saturday: RACE DAY! 13.2 miles @ 9:17 - 2:01:37- I turned off my auto alerts for mile splits on my Garmin and just went by feel. I negative-split my race time by over 2 and a half minutes and kept my heart rate under 160. I never pushed myself too hard and felt super recovered after I finished. I also got 4th in my age group!

Sunday: Rest Day

Sunshine Goods:

• Kept my health and rest a priority
• Fitness is still there!
• 4th in my age group
• Negative-split by a huge amount!!
• Kept positive the entire race and never felt like I had 'hit the wall'
• Hit my mile repeats

Gloomy Goods:

• Got sick (bummer!)
• Didn't hit my mileage for the week 
• Didn't get a PR for the half like originally planned
• Took an extra rest day
• So much running = so much laundry!!!