Saturday Sweat Session

I could not have been happier to kick off this past Saturday with a 4.5 mile trail hike at Matthews Winter Park in the foothills west of Denver.  The weather was cool... a light breeze that rustled through the grasses and trees around us while we were shadowed in some great cloud cover to keep the heat at bay.

(Clockwise from top left:  beautiful day as we head up in elevation  /  Ryan and I  /  making our way through the trees  /  beautiful  moss rock  /  Beth and I taking a water break  /  Mark and Ryan as they headed out on their run)

Ryan and our friend Mark are training for a 17 mile mountain run later this summer so they went ahead and ran (insert: crazy!) the trail as Brett, Beth and I took off on a swift pace.  The hike was beautiful and the company could not have been better.  I will admit, I have a hard time turning off my blabbering mouth when doing physical activities and that might have taken away from the peacefulness that could have been achieved on our hike but I hope it was not too distracting... I need to work on that.

Regardless, the sense of accomplishment after 90 minutes on the trail as we completed our hike was fabulous.  I felt strong and proud that I pushed myself and that in the past week, I have been pretty active (a gym visit, some rowing on the Colorado River and another 4 mile hike).  I think the week to come will bring more physicality and I welcome the activeness with great excitement.  Maybe I am onto something here...