Altitude

Blogger didn't want to upload the few pictures I took of our gathering this weekend, so I'm going to write a short post. Everything went so well and it was fun to have everyone together and show off our house. Matt cooked some wonderful "burly man" chicken burgers and homemade spicy cole slaw. We're still eating them for leftovers. All I had to do was cut some vegetables and make a couple pasta salads. Oh, and go shopping at Wal-Mart with the entire rest of the population of Denver. It was CRAZY! I had a whole cart full of stuff and couldn't navigate around the store at all!

My dad came over for dinner on Sunday evening which was really nice but didn't seem long enough. I totally took it for granted how close and easy it was to see my family before. But it was still fun to have him over and our furnace got a passing grade. (He always checks to make sure everything is in good condition, which makes me feel much better.) In our last house, our basement heater didn't have a return duct which made it really dangerous so we never used it. I hope my dad is proud of me for remembering that bit of information.

And now to discuss altitude, which is the title of my post. I have taken up my old running regime after taking about a month off. Now I realize I am probably just a bit out of shape because of this and also from eating out so much during our move. But my first run yesterday was BRUTAL. I made the mistake of taking Pongo with me. He was still tired from staying up late on Saturday night and it was hot so he refused to run after about 5 minutes. And then when he finally decided he was ready to run, I was absolutely exhausted. I only got in a 20 minute run/walk which was pretty disappointing. The alitude also gave me a headache that lasted through this afternoon when I finally gave in and took some Advil. I don't like to take meds unless I absolutely can't stand it anymore. My run today went a lot smoother even though I was still sore from yesterday. I went a lot farther and ran most of the way since I didn't take the dog.

We finally rewarded Pongo with a trip to Cherry Creek State Park today, which is not far from our house and boasts a dog park with plenty of walking trails. I was disappointed that there weren't more dogs there but Pongo was still able to get in some good running and socialization. He even got a couple dogs to chase him for a short time. (That's his favorite game.)

Okay, well this post ended up not being so short. I can't wait until Friday and some camping in Rocky Mountain National Park!!!