Baby Trees!

You can't really see anything in this picture, but we got some new plants for the yard!

Our county had a seedling sale with native plants, so we decided to order some. Then we let them sit in the garage for a week after Tom picked them up...oops!

To add to the apple trees we planted last year (we have a honeycrisp, a red delicious and a granny smith) we added two baby pear trees today. 

Tom put tomato cages around the baby trees to keep Scout from playing with and/or destroying them.  Sticks are Scout's favorite thing in the yard.

The apple trees survived the winter and losing several limbs to Scout. They even have blossoms!

There are also baby eastern white pine trees which will one day form a wind break for the yard.

It's going to be a few years though, they're pretty tiny!

The dogs were sad they couldn't be outside while Tom mowed the lawn this afternoon, so they found the sunniest spot in the house to nap. Please ignore the piles of Scout hair on the floor. The second I vacuum it up it just comes right back. He's been shedding like crazy and I can't figure out how he's not completely hairless at this point. 

Double Digits

I keep having runs where I drag my feet getting out the door, and for the first mile or so, and then I suddenly feel better and end up having a really good (and fast!) run. It's weird. I guess it's better than being excited to run and having a sluggish run.

Check out this 5 miler from Friday:

I can't believe there's a mile that starts with a 7 in there!

My Saturday started off extra early this morning. 

Some of my weekend running buddies decided to meet up for 3 miles before the regular Saturday 7 miles that we run. I had a 10 miler on my training plan this weekend anyway, and 10 miles with friends always goes faster than 10 solo miles.

It was a brisk 17 degrees out when I left the house, though it warmed up to a toasty 23 by the time I parked the car, tied my shoes and hit the trails. Three of us ran 3 early miles and went back to the parking lot to meet up with the rest of the group.

I kept having to remind myself that we had already run a few miles, because some miles felt tougher than they normally would have. We had to run a bit past our cars to hit 10 miles, but we weren't about to come up short after waking up early to run. I'm happy with the 9:28 pace we managed to maintain.

Plus it's nice to have a recent double digit run. I think the last time I hit 10 miles was on Thanksgiving.

I drove home and waffled up some cinnamon rolls (because we don't have an oven).

Post-long-run breakfast lunch of champions.

What's your run this weekend?

Do you have a go-to post-long-run meal?

Snow Day

My training plan called for 5k at race pace today. That didn't end up happening. Barely anything ended up happening. 

The snow started at 8am and pretty much hasn't stopped. If it were just snow, I probably would have gone out for a run, but the wind made that a little lot less appealing. 

Buddy and I ran around the yard this afternoon - we've gotten a lot more snow since I took these pictures. 

It seemed like a good day to try out one of the hot chocolates that Tom's parents gave us for Christmas.

We only had jumbo marshmallows from making s'mores this summer, so I tore one up to add to my mug.

I did today's yoga camp video and 3 minutes of planks (not all at once), but otherwise spent a lot of time playing on my computer and watching Harry Potter.

There are worse ways to spend a day.

Long Island Adventure Race

I was up extra early this morning to meet up with a couple of my usual Saturday running buddies. They were putting in some extra miles before the group run, and since I was going to otherwise miss my group run for the week, I decided to join them.

We ran about 4 miles at around a 9:00 pace, in lots of humidity and sunshine. It was really hot for 7:30 in the morning.

The reason I didn't make it to the group run was because Tom signed up to run an adventure race on Long Island. It was SO different than the races I'm used to.

The course was just under 4 miles, and there were over 20 obstacles. There were big groups, teams, families and individuals running. Tom ended up running with a 19 and a 22 year old who were very impressed that he was keeping up with them.

There was a lot of running through the woods, so I missed a lot of obstacles, but I took pictures of the ones I could get to.

These were dumpsters filled with ice water. The one on the right had boards across it so people had to get completely under the water.

I would have looked more like the girl on the right if I had tried to run this race. Tom landed safely on the other side.

There was some rope climbing.

 

Some tire flipping.

And a crazy plank walk.

Then some monkey bars over a mud pit, naturally.

And a giant bubble and water pit at the bottom of a ramp/wall. I have no idea how I managed to not get any bubbles in the picture because they were everywhere! This is where having a group was helpful. Part of the time there were race volunteers at the top to help people up. All the obstacles were optional, so if things got too tricky, people could go around.

Then there was some (more) mud.

And a little more mud.

They had finishers medals, bananas and water waiting at the finish line, and the fire department was there to help take care of the mud.

Tom had a great time and I managed to only get a little sunburned. A pretty fun day overall!

Have you run an obstacle course race? Would you want to?

I haven't, and I don't know that I would want to - I'm not big on rope climbing and dumpsters full of ice water :)

Long Weekend Laziness

Oh hey! I hope you all had a good holiday weekend! Sorry for the major disappearing act, but we were out of town and I switched into total vacation mode.

We spent our weekend at Tom's family's lake house and had a nice, relaxing weekend. The weather was all over the place, but we had one good afternoon out on the jet boat. Tom likes driving super fast and doing crazy sharp turns/power slides - it takes me a little bit to get used to being on the boat, and then it's a lot of fun.

There's a spot on the lake with a rock that Tom likes to jump off of (he estimates it to be about 20 feet up, or a little less). It took a great deal of patience and insisting that I wouldn't die, but he convinced me to jump. The water was COLD, and that was with shortie wetsuits on (it didn't help that I'm not used to wetsuits and was pretty sure it was trying to suffocate me).

Most of the rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, eating, and visiting. It was excellent.

I did manage to convince myself to go for a run on Saturday, and took a very pretty (and very hilly) 5 mile run on the roads near the house. I don't feel too bad for slacking off a little since I didn't actually take any recovery time after my last race.

I'm back to business as usual starting tomorrow  - apparently my next race is in 18 days, so I should probably get a little more focused...

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!

Go With It

Friday morning I didn't have anywhere to be until noon, so I tackled the dishes that we (yet again) let pile up. Then I was struck by a super random urge to clean more things, so I decided to just go with it. These things don't happen often, so I try to take advantage when they do.

I cleaned the kitchen counter - I actually moved things and cleaned under them (I know, it's madness over here). Then I did some vacuuming and dusting and swept. From the amount of hair I swept up, you would think both buddy and I would be bald (for a short hair dog, Buddy sheds an impressive amount).

We had group nap time (the boys napped, I just relaxed with the pooch) in the afternoon. Buddy is the best lounging companion.

The Rivertown Runners (my weekend running buddies) had a brewery meet up Friday night, so Tom and I went and enjoyed some free beer. It's always funny to see people in non-running clothes. We don't always recognize each other!

This morning I was up bright and early to hit the trails. The weather was just about perfect, sunny and mid-50s. I did not feel like running when I woke up - my cold is really lingering and I had a headache - but about a mile or two in, I was so glad I went. It ended up being a really nice run!

We ran our usual 7 miles, my watch calling it 6.58 miles at a 9:10 pace.

Buddy hung out on the deck with me when I got home.

A nice run, coffee, and sunshine - an excellent start to the weekend!

Spring Weather is Hard to Dress For

I took this week easy. I did a couple of easy runs on the treadmill, but otherwise haven't done much since the race last weekend.

This morning I was up bright and early to meet up with the group for our trail run. It was in the 40s, but windy, so I wasn't sure what to wear. I took buddy out to do a weather check and decided to wear capris, a tank, a half zip and my smart wool headband. 

By mile 2 the half zip was tied around my waist and by mile 4 the headband was looped through one of the arms of the half zip. Spring weather is hard to dress for. 

We were moving at a pretty good pace, though the hills reminded me that it hasn't been that long since West Point. It was good to catch up with my running buddies since I hadn't seen most of them for a few weeks. We were all pretty excited because we were back to our regular trails - the snow is finally gone! We ran 6.6 miles at around a 9:16 pace according to my TomTom. Everyone insists that the run is 7 miles, and my GPS always comes up short. Blame it on the hills.

This afternoon I did laundry (1 load of running gear and 1 of normal clothes). It still needs to be folded, but I'm counting it as a win. 

My computer is getting slower every day. I actually wrote most of this post on my phone because it was faster.

Buddy has been in absolute heaven the last few days since it has actually been sunny out. He just sleeps in the sun and periodically gets up to stretch.

And in other exciting news: I finally found this ice cream!

Um, yes please. I'll take one for after every long run please. That totally balances out, right? :) Anyway, it's good stuff, you should track some down.

I hope you're having a good weekend so far!

More Snow and a Candy Jar

I had an easy 3 miles yesterday after my speedwork on Thursday. It wasn't terribly exciting, so I won't bore you with the details. What I will do is tell you about this:

That's right, an online candy store that delivers a candy jar to your front door! You get to pick the size of your candy jar and then pick what will be inside. My mom gave me a gift certificate so I could try it out - thanks Mom! :)

This is what I picked for my jar:

The candy is good too, not that cheap chocolate that tastes kind of waxy. Pretty fun!

We got several inches of snow yesterday, and it's already melting off. I didn't even bother to shovel the driveway because I knew it was going to warm up today (and because I'm lazy and I didn't want to shovel any more snow).

This was Friday afternoon, there's more out there now.

The Sleepy Hollow Half was this morning. I know the roads are pretty clear (and they changed the course so there weren't any trail portions this year), but I have to say, I'm glad I wasn't running this morning. It was cold when I ran it last year (you can read my recap HERE), but there wasn't any snow on the ground.

There wasn't a group run this morning because most of the group was at the race. I slept in instead. I have one last long run tomorrow and then next weekend is the West Point Half - I'm starting to get nervous/excited!