Busy, Busy, Busy...

Fat tire division for me? Maybe someday....

If you look really close, you can see the elk

After running the gorgeous trail in Nederland

As I mentioned in the previous post, my amazing parents drove my car all the way across the country for me. After they finished the journey, they stayed with me in Colorado for a couple of days before they flew back to Florida. So, while they were here, I had to get all of my training in and entertain them at the same time. It worked out perfectly because they wanted to see the mountains and I needed mountains to bike/run up. On Thursday, in between house and job hunting, I took them up to a trail called Caribou Ranch in the town of Nederland (not too far from Boulder). I've only been to this trail twice but it is already becoming one of my favorites because of the changes in scenery (from forest to wide open space with flowers) along the way.

On Friday, I had a little bit of a lighter day training-wise and we were able to go to Estes Park, about an hour drive from where I'm staying right now. Estes Park is the name of the town and within it is the Rocky Mountain National Park. If you are at all interested in nature/wildlife I highly recommend going (2 thumbs up). Because the park is a vast expanse, there are maps and signs within the park to guide you where to stop and take pictures or where to look for certain animals. My favorite spot was one where you had to look straight up a cliff to see elk blending themselves into the pine trees. :) After a great dinner at Grub Steak in downtown Estes Park and some homemade ice cream (there was 7 shops within a block so clearly it was a sign to stop), we called it a night. That's basically all the excitement from last week. Since then, I've been...you guessed it...training! Nationals is approaching fast, but more on that later!

~AHahn