Team Amazing Day Run Camp

In my January recap post, I mentioned the possibility of doing run camp with Katie and her Team Amazing Day people. I promised if she didn't fill it up, I'd take one of the open spots, so, well, I took it.

Run camp was a completely different experience from SMASH camp - mostly in that it was a lot less crazypants - but that doesn't mean it was better or worse. I actually really enjoyed the low-key nature of it and the wide range of abilities there.

Camp started Thursday, February 8, with a shakeout run up in Boulder at Tom Watson. It wasn't long and I didn't even do the whole thing - ran out and then walked back - but enjoyable.


On the way back.

We then all went to Modern Market for dinner, and then I drove back home.

This is where my day got fun ... before I left for Boulder, our neighbor smelled gas and called Xcel out. Apparently it was coming from (so we thought) this chimenea thing that we inherited when we bought the house - valve was loose. Well, I got back from Boulder at around 8, 8:30pm ... and Xcel was back in front of the house. Thankfully I got back, because what was actually wrong? The gas line that was installed when two owners previous converted the fireplace over from wood-burning decided to start leaking. We're not sure if the pipe is corroded or what, but yeah. So we no longer have a working fireplace or chimenea for the foreseeable future. It was also good that I got back because due to the leak, Xcel had turned off our gas. If they had been gone when I got back? No gas until early the next week (when I would have been out of town anyway). The Xcel guy was super helpful, getting our gas back on, getting the pilot lights on our water heaters relit ... and helping with a leaking faucet on the outside of the house (because of course Brandon was out of town for all of this).

That whole story is to say that I didn't even get showered and in bed until around 10:30pm. And I had to be up early enough to be up back in Boulder at 8am the next day ...

... I did wake up, thankfully, but quite tired. Friday, February 9, was hill day. We went for a shakeout run in the fog first.



Next was the actual workout. Katie found a hill off 51st (near Boulder Reservoir) for us to do repeats on - four rounds of 30/60/90s (30 seconds up; walk/jog back, 60 seconds up; walk/jog back and so on). This is definitely a workout that I can take with me and do on a hill we have nearby. The 90s started getting super hard by the second round, though ...


Photo courtesy Katie. Doing hill repeats in the fog.

After the run, we had a bit of time to grab some food (and for me, sweet, sweet coffee) before heading over to RallySport for some swim instruction. I was super happy to be able to swim in the outside pool (with snow! and steam so that I couldn't see the other end! #triathlete) for my warmup before my one-on-one instruction (which was first).


Took this after I was done, but this is where I swam.

I got some good drills and tips from Katie that I'll use going forward and I might actually hire her for some separate instruction (because we know I need it). I didn't swim too much after (as I'm not swimming much right now), but it was awesome.


Katie doing her thing on deck.

Post-swim, I actually hopped on over to Skirt Sports to buy some longer pants (a new Tough Girl, actually), since I sometimes don't know how to dress for the weather. Oops. (It was colder than expected that day.) I then joined everyone over at Protein Bar for some lunch and then it was back to Rally for a run mechanics session with Charlie Merrill. The session was good ... but I do feel I didn't get all the gait analysis that some others did since I went first. Everyone who went after had their stride changed up a bit and I didn't. I know what's wrong and what I need to change, but I don't know. I just felt I missed out some.

After that session, Katie talked to us some about both success and sports nutrition, with good nuggets of information shared during both segments.

We had an optional group dinner at Roost Longmont (which I went to) ... after which it was snowing for half of my drive back home. It also meant that after showering, another day back in bed by 10:30.

Saturday, February 10, was long run day. We met at Katie's at 7am (which meant I had to leave my house just before 6 thanks to the snow). The run was 60-90 minutes, depending, and I went 60. I also put on the HR for the first time all camp, which meant that I did 4.28 miles in that hour.




It was teens and snowing. Weeeee!

We all got back to Katie's, got some coffee, I changed clothes ... and then it was off to find more food (and, in my case, more coffee and to fill up my gas tank) before back to Rally with a session with Erin Carson. I know I've mentioned Erin on here before; she's awesome. Brandon was actually landing at DIA during this session ... but I told him I'd pick him up after it since I did NOT want to miss it. I did, however, skip out of the little strength routine Katie was leading everyone through after Erin's bit so I could fight through the snow and ice to the airport.

While I was doing that (in shitty, shitty conditions), everyone else was swimming more. I got Brandon, we went home, ate something ... and very seriously considered not going back up to Boulder for the final session that day. However, we fought the crappy roads (the storm had moved east - which is weird for Colorado - so while Denver roads were fine driving up that morning and got terrible in Boulder ... everything was terrible driving to DIA ... and driving back, Denver was shit while Boulder was okay) back to Rally for a session with sports psychologist Julie Emmerman. Julie had a really good interactive session regarding comfort zones which made us think quite a bit.

Katie had gotten some delicious Kim and Jake's for us to enjoy afterward, so we had our cake and drove back home.

There was officially a final run Sunday morning, which I was going to skip anyway to go curl ... but I had to skip all of it in order to catch a flight, as we were meeting my brother and sister-in-law and their two kids in California to crash their trip to Disneyland.

All in all, run camp was great, and I regret nothing for going. I really do enjoy the camaraderie of camp and I should probably try to do more!