What I do when I'm not running

I took two weeks off after the Estes Park Marathon. I didn't run at all except for a couple of miles with the girls. I've been riding my bike, and I logged 138 miles on the bike in the past week. Finally got out and ran 13 miles up Redstone Canyon with Cat and a few others on Sunday, and my legs felt the same. I wouldn't have gone out to run if I didn't have other people to run with.

I'm not having any trouble motivating myself to get out and ride 2 hours every day. It's the running I can't seem to force myself to do, so I don't force it. I think I need more time off than two weeks. I'm enjoying the bike, and I do want to build up to doing a century ride one of these days. I have a few rides I want to do this summer, like riding to Wyoming, doing the Rist Canyon/Flowers Road/Pennock Pass loop, and riding up to Estes Park. The hardest part about riding is my butt. It gets so sore. I probably should invest in a better seat on my bike.

The other night I went over to Riverbend Ponds dressed like the Radon Lady to protect myself from the bugs, and took pictures of what I knew would turn out to be an awesome sunset. I was not disappointed.
Longs Peak looks gigantic in the background here. It's about 50 miles away and 9000 feet above Riverbend Ponds, where I took the picture.

I've been going to the sauna to get ready for Death Valley. Only 12 days until I leave! I can't wait to get out there!

And the other thing I've been up to, now that my workouts are down to no more than 2 1/2 hours a day, is painting. I've been consistently painting again and it's like starting from scratch some days, but I'm enjoying it and I have actually painted a few things that look good! It will take a while to get back to painting in details, but I will get there. I started a website and once I have some paintings done, I will start selling things again.

It will be interesting to see how I feel after going to Badwater this summer, if it gets me charged up to train again. I'm thinking it will be 2011 at the rate I'm going, before I go back to run it again. And I've decided on my age 50 goal. More about that in a future post.