An Early Morning Long Run

My alarm went off early this morning.

Like, 5am early.

After a quick coffee (there must always be coffee) and a bowl of oatmeal, I hit the road to meet up with my running friends to get a few miles in before the main Rivertown Runners meet up at 8.

We got a little over 4 miles in and then hit the trails with the big group. There was a really good turn out today for some reason, (maybe because people have races coming up?) and we had around 30 people for our chilly run. Maybe everyone was fooled by the sunny morning. It's that time of year when you expect the sun to be warm, but it's not quite there yet. Although, it's supposed to hit 70 on Wednesday, so spring is not far off!

I attempted to take a picture right as the trail turned, so instead of seeing all the people ahead of us, here's a few.

11 miles for the morning and other than being tired from my early morning wake up, I'm feeling good. Good thing too, because my first half of the year is only 3 weeks away!

This is my current favorite Yoga With Adriene video:

Ignore the "for weight loss" title - I do. I just really enjoy the flow and have done this video several times this week. I also want Adriene's tights.

Buddy has had a busy day of sleeping. It's impressive how exhausting all that sleeping is!

I have a feeling I won't be staying up very late tonight either.

Weekend Update

I'm not sure where the weekend went. Pretty sure it was just Friday!

Buddy looks really small in this picture. He's been having a great time running a few days a week, and had a pretty speedy two miles on Friday. 

Tom bought a tractor.

He's been pulling bushes out and moving heavy things like wood and our new wood stove.

It was a bit of an adventure getting this beast into the house, but it does an amazing job warming the place up. Don't worry, we moved all the flammable things out of the way.

On Saturday morning I woke up bright and early to drive down to see my old running group. It's about a 45 minute drive, but the roads are pretty clear at 7am on a Saturday.

I'm so glad I made the trip, running with people is so much fun! It helps me run faster, and the miles just fly by. Not to mention the amazing trails we run on. There's really nothing like the trails at The Rockefeller Preserve.

I'm going to make an effort to get down there at least every few weekends.

When I got home I lounged around and drank coffee for a while. It felt like a lazy morning even though I drove a ways and ran 7 miles.

Today I actually ran some intervals with my new gadget. Let's be honest, there's no way I'm running intervals by myself out on the roads. I used to run them on my treadmill, but it's buried in the garage right now.

Having the Moov tell me my pace and when to start and stop my intervals was much better than trying to run and stare at my watch at the same time. Especially since I haven't mailed my watch off to get fixed yet.

I have some serious running goals for next year that I've been contemplating, and I think cross training and speed work are going to be a necessary part of reaching those goals.

Speaking of cross training - you'll probably be surprised to know that I completed day 28 of 30 or my 30 days of yoga challenge. I haven't missed a single day, and I am seriously loving the Yoga with Adriene channel on YouTube.

One of THOSE People

Lately, I have been missing my weekend running buddies, and the beautiful trails we run on. I have looked into closer running groups, but all the meet up spots are about a half hour drive away. So why not tack on another 10 minutes to that drive and run with some of my favorite people?

This morning I woke up early, wolfed down some coffee and an english muffin and hit the road to meet up with the group. I didn't tell anyone I was coming, so it was fun to surprise them!

The skies were cloudy and I hit a few showers on the way down, but it's supposed to be the hottest weekend ever (or the hottest weekend of the year so far, whichever) so we were a little surprised when, about a half mile into our run, the skies opened up and we were caught in a complete downpour! There was a bit of thunder and lightning and a LOT of rain and mud, but we were already soaked, so we just kept going.

We got a good laugh out of the fact that I woke up early to drive 45 minutes so I could run in a thunderstorm. I'm officially one of those crazy runner people!

It was really nice to get to see everyone again, though one of our usual group was home with an injury, so it was a bummer to miss seeing her. The drive really wasn't so bad, and it felt really good to be on the trails instead of on the road all the time.

6.89 miles at 9:09 pace according to my watch. Not bad considering our less than prime weather conditions!

I wasn't expecting the rain, but luckily I had a rain coat in the car (and a dry shirt!), so I sat on that for the drive home. My seat still got wet, but probably less than it would have otherwise. Next time, I'm bringing a towel, regardless of the weather report!

Unrelated, but how cute is this dog?

I hope your Saturday is off to a great start!

Heavy Legs and Shorts Shopping

I have a special request for the universe: please leave my toes alone, specifically those on my left foot. In the last few days I have dropped the dog gate on one toe and shredded the cuticle, buddy scratched one to the point of bleeding, and I stubbed another on the coffee table. I'm running out of toes, so please, give it a rest.

I did my run on Thursday in my Altras to give my poor toes some extra room. 4 easy treadmill miles.

On Saturday, I planned on doing my long run like I did last week - half with the group, and half after on my own. It was a beautiful morning, clear skies and about 50 degrees. And then when we started running, my legs felt like they weighed a couple hundred pounds apiece. I had to push pretty much the entire run to keep up with the group.

I was feeling a bit better by the end (around 6.5 miles in) and was trying to convince myself to go out for a few extra miles, when one of the guys offered to go back out with me. Up until last year I was pretty much a solo runner, and I never realized how much easier it is to run with people. We did another 4 miles, bringing me up to about 10.5. I was planning on 13, so I didn't quite hit that goal, but considering I wanted to stop after mile 2, I'm happy with 10.5.

The funny thing is that my running buddy had run before meeting up with the group and was heading back out for a few more miles after I went home. When I left he was almost at 17 miles for the day - and he isn't training for anything!

I went on a running shorts shopping expedition in the afternoon. I have a pair of shorts I use for treadmill runs, but they're not something I want to run in outside (they're short and spandex). I have always had problems with looser shorts riding up and driving me insane, but I also know that I won't get through marathon training this summer trying to run in my capris.

After trying on pretty much every single pair of shorts in the store, I picked up a pair of Oiselle Rogas. I'll let you know what I think once I get a chance to test them out.

I'll leave you with some springy pictures from the neighborhood:

The lonely white flower from a couple weeks ago has some company now.

Do you have running shorts that you love?

A Long Run and Group Nap Time

Winter feels like it is never going to give up this year. We had snow flurries on Thursday and freeze warnings the last few days. This morning it was chilly and I actually had to track down my running jacket.

Fun fact: my hair is fine, but super slippery and it usually takes 3 elastics to keep it in check. I know you were all wondering.

I actually managed to leave on time (I'm not good at that on Saturday mornings) to go meet up with the group. We ran our usual loop and complained about how cold it was. After a short break, I headed back out to get in some more miles. I had already told Tom I was planning on doing my long run today, or I might have been tempted to get back in the car and drive home.

Getting almost 7 miles in with the group definitely made the rest of my run not seem so long. I may need to find someone to run long with when I start marathon training later this year.

After I got home and showered I made biscuits and gravy, which I promptly devoured. I'm getting much more successful making biscuits with my grandma's recipe - practice makes perfect!

Then we watched tv and had group nap time (I actually napped a little bit today!). Buddy was loving it.

This was $1 at the grocery store the other day, I couldn't pass it up.

And watermelon Nuun is back for the summer, so I restocked my supply the other day. I love that Nuun almost always has a water bottle or pint glass that they put in with every order (they post on the home page when they're available) - naturally, I love that this one is a watermelon water bottle.

I'm looking forward to not setting an alarm in the morning, fingers crossed I actually manage to sleep in!

Muddy Buddy

Buddy and I had to be out of the house for 2 hours today for more house selling shenanigans. Lucky for us, the weather has gotten better, and it was in the upper 40s this afternoon.

This is the look I got when I made him sit in the snow.

We headed to Rockefeller for a while. The paths were either still snow-covered and slushy, or really muddy. We walked the slushy parts and ran the muddy parts. Buddy was having a blast!

Sometimes we run home from the mailbox or the dumpster and when I tell Buddy to "go, go, go!" he spins around and grabs the leash to drag me back to the house. I told him to "go, go, go!" during a particularly muddy part of the path today so he would go faster.

Instead I ended up standing in the mud cracking up at my crazy dog.

We were a little muddy by the time we got back to the car.

 And Buddy was a little tired.

We had a couple of bananas just begging to be turned into banana bread, and some mini chocolate chips may have made their way into the batter.

Don't mind if I do!

Cooking, Cleaning, and Hanging out Upside Down

I've been busy busy cleaning the house the last couple days. 

I had a mellow morning on Wednesday and made myself some biscuits and gravy. I have tried several times recently to successfully make my grandma's biscuit recipe (I have the recipe, I just don't have the touch). I'm getting closer. These ones were good!

At around 1:00 someone made an appointment to come see the house at 4:30, and I ran all over the house to get it clean in time.

Buddy and I went to Rockefeller Preserve and wandered around for all of 15 minutes before we decided it was much too cold.

We drove around town to kill time until we could go home.

Another person made an appointment to see the house this morning, so I did some quick dishes, swiffered the floor and packed the dog into the car. Since I knew it was going to be too cold out to be outside, we drove up to the new house to check out the snow (and because I hadn't been up to see in in a long time).

I got 4 mile runs in both Wednesday and today - fairly uneventful, as cutback weeks tend to be. The only thing less interesting than cutback weeks are taper weeks.

I've also been spending some time upside down.

I find this arm positioning way easier than the tripod stand I was doing the other day. I still have terrible balance, but I'm getting a few more seconds of balance off the wall, so I'm getting better.

It's fun. :)

I made stuffed chicken breasts for dinner tonight. As an added bonus, they actually turned out the way I wanted (this is not always the case when I cook).

They're stuffed with goat cheese and arugula and wrapped up with prosciutto - hard to go wrong with that combination!

I win at dinner tonight.

All I Want To Do

There was more house action today - two people came to see it! That means I spent some time this morning cleaning (our tile instantly gets dirty the second you finish cleaning it, it drives me crazy) and Buddy and I had some time to kill outside the house this afternoon.

I finished early but I didn't want to mess anything up, so I was laying on the floor. Buddy was confused.

We went to the Rockefeller Preserve to walk around for a bit. The trails were pretty well packed down, and some sections were plowed.

The lake is officially frozen.

When we got home I tried to jump back to my training plan, which maybe wasn't the smartest course of action. I was going to do a tempo run (6 miles including warm up and cool down), but I stopped after 2 miles, which was really frustrating - there may have been some ankle pain...maybe. I hate when my body won't do what I want it to.

All I want to do is on this shirt:

Is that so much to ask?

I've been stretching/foam rolling, and I iced my ankle after my run. Just to be annoying, it doesn't hurt at all right now. We'll see what it's doing tomorrow.

You know I'm going to try to run.

Some Saturday Randomness

I meant to write yesterday, but I got home later than I thought I would last night.

Friday we woke up to snow, which I didn't know we were getting.

Rather than do anything productive (ok, I did the dishes), I decided to make cookies instead - snickerdoodles!

I really didn't want to work out, but mostly because I was feeling lazy (which I decided was not a good enough reason), so did a little 30 day shred with Jillian Michaels. I may even make it past level 1 one of these days! ;)

I got a little caffeine boost from some Nuun Energy before heading off to babysit for one of the kiddos from my old class.

I intend to use this holiday glass all year round, and you can't stop me.

I didn't end up getting home until 11:30, and since there's no way I can just go straight to sleep, it was yet another Saturday morning where I woke up way too tired.

It was a little brisk this morning - check out that "feels like" temp!

We had about 14 runners show up this morning for our run. Most of yesterday's snow is gone from the roads, but the trails still have about an inch on them. It definitely slowed us down a bit (especially on the downhills where you don't want to suddenly lose traction), but other than my frozen face, it was a really good run! My gps says we went 6.61 miles in 1:00:32, a 9:09 pace. Not bad considering the weather and the trail conditions.

Any exciting plans for the weekend?

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Just me and the cows

Jillian Michaels is mean. I know I said it yesterday, but I just wanted to make that clear. 

All kinds of muscles are sore today. Holy cow. That workout yesterday was not a joke.

This afternoon I bundled up for a run in the snow.

It was pretty much just me and the cows.

I definitely picked the wrong shoes for running in the snow. My Mizunos have a circle in the heel that collected and packed snow into little elevated ice heels. It was a little annoying, but it didn't stop me from knocking out just under 6 miles.

It was really nice to have the trails to myself, just the quiet crunch of the snow and the occasional cow sounds. Pretty peaceful.

I turned taco leftovers into nachos when I got home. I'm a terrible example, don't be like me. 

I dropped one of those pickled jalapenos on the floor and Buddy got it before I could stop him. He's a weirdo, and he wanted more.

Dinner tonight was Eggroll in a Bowl again. We can't help it, it's a quick and easy meal - and it's delicious.

We found the original recipe HERE.

Ours usually consists of country sausage, onion, cabbage, ginger, garlic, carrots, bean sprouts, soy sauce and chili garlic paste. It does not photograph well. We usually use red cabbage, so the whole thing turns purple. We top it with green onions and sesame seeds. The leftovers are amazing with eggs the next day.

You should definitely try it.

Do you like running in the snow?