Happy Saturday! I treated myself to 8 trail miles today! That’s right. I say treated because normally I’d just run out my door and around the neighborhood for a mundane view but I felt the need for fresher air and scenery.
Hello scenery
After having such a nice hike with dogs last Sunday I knew I wanted to go back to the same park for this run. It’s 5 minutes from Mr. SOTSS house and there’s a nice variety of technical trails and wider, loose gravel paths. I ran the first mile on one of the more technical trails but with ice and snow I walked a lot of it so I kept to the loose gravel paths for the last 7 miles. I took it nice and slow and just enjoyed getting lost in the forrest. I listened to music but kept it low enough that I could hear the sound of my footsteps too. There’s something really peaceful about that sound when it’s quiet otherwise.
My hamstring felt a little tight as I approached mile 7 but nothing major. it’s really been wonderful to being running lower mileage and hurting less. Nothing but love for today’s run…
And this might just be the last time I run with snow on the ground and Spring is approaching fast!
Other than my run I’ve just been spending time on Mr. SOTSS’ sofa with lots of dogs.
I can’t remember the last time I felt the endorphins like I did today. I ran 5 miles which is the longest I’ve run this year.
5 miles to start….building up to 13.1
Even the iPod felt good enough to last 52 minutes all while saying “battery low”.
Happy!
And technically I’m calling this my first long training run for all my Spring races. I’ve got the Cherry Blossom DC 10 miler the beginning of April followed by the Philly Love Run Half Marathon the week after that and the NJ Marathon (Half) the first week of May.
Yesterday I slogged through 3 miles but definitely didn’t feel as amazing.
New kicks couldn’t give me the oomph.
I’ve been fighting a cold since I came home from Vermont. But today the cold symptoms didn’t hold me back one bit.
This is all so perfect for me right now. To feel that boost in self-esteem and to feel happy and excited for racing again.
Aside from sniffling, coughing until my abs hurt and going through 1,250,400 cough drops and tissues, not too much has happened since I came back from my ski weekend last Sunday. I worked from home the first 3 days of the week.
This was my Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
Duncan got a haircut…
Coiffed!
Thursday and Friday I worked in the city. Friday morning was interesting. It was snowing heavily for my commute in but by the time I left in the evening you’d never know it.
First I had to clean off the car
I drove to the train station and walked through a winter wonderland to get to the platform
and then I waited forever for the train
Two hours later I got into the city to see that the snow wasn’t even sticking.
I caught a gorgeous sunset with the Statue of Liberty to the left while waiting for the ferry home
And then captured this shot….all the exhausted, disgruntled commuters inside the boat and the gorgeous colorful sunset and statue right outside the window
And now it’s time to prepare for the Superbowl. I have no interest in the game really, just the food, commercials and the Puppy Bowl during halftime 🙂
Got any plans for the “Big Game”? Have you had any endorphin filled runs lately?
We finally got snow! It might be just an inch but enough to make things look pretty. Duncan couldn’t believe it….white flakes finally arrived.
Finally!
Pretty soon he’ll be wearing his ridiculous snowsuit.
I came home from work on Friday and had some freelance work to do. Good thing my Girl Scout cookie order arrived. I paired it with a nice Cabernet and hit the ground running.
Time to start the weekend…..
Saturday morning I ran a local 5k trail run literally 10 minutes from my house. It was held at Duncan’s and my favorite park.
Pink ribbons marked the trail. Photo: King of the Mountain Events
I really enjoyed it. I will be running these trails more for sure.
On Saturday evening, I packed up my nice little portable life (cookies, wine, my laptop and the doodle) and headed over to Mr. SOTSS’ house for the remainder of this nice long weekend.
Cookies, wine, laptop and Duncan….ok let’s go!
We saw the movie Sisters. OMG so funny! Not PG, but SO FUNNY!
best theater ever…recliners
Yesterday we took the dogs on a really muddy 3 hour hike. Hiking is one of our favorite things to do. The dogs agree. =) I always laugh how the first 2 hours I’m fine and then my legs get tired and I start tripping over every single tree route and then I get cranky. Mr. SOTSS knows when the wheels start to fall off the bus but somehow he gets me to continue a little farther without me realizing it.
Chester!
I have this strange obsession with moss. I’m fascinated by it.
I’m coming ma!
There were lots of mountain bikers in the park so they must use this ramp. Notice duncan’s muddy dipped feet
My secret selfie. LOL!
The boys
After hiking we grabbed a bite to eat and then ran a few errands. Mr. SOTSS has been renovating his bathroom so we made a pit stop to The Home Depot for a few things. He’s up to the electrical….
I don’t know why but I love the way Home Depot smells.
And then we picked up the ingredients to make toffee doodle cookies. I had one at Starbucks the other day and it was so good I decided I needed to find a similar recipe and bake them.
This morning started with coffee, freelance work and two dogs for company while Mr. SOTSS fixed his door lock and then went to work on his bathroom.
Working at my house and working at Mr. SOTSS’ house are pretty much the same only I have two dogs cuddled on the couch next to me
Mr. Fixit!
After a few hours of working I went for a short run. It was COLD and WINDY!
must have ears covered when it’s windy and in the 20s
The exposed skin was only an issue for the first 1/2 mile and then I warmed up enough that it didn’t bother me
Now I’m back home and I realized that I forgot to take some of those toffee doodle cookies home with me! So Mr. SOTSS scored at least a dozen all for himself. Good thing I still have plenty of Girl Scout cookies to get me through the week 🙂
What is your favorite type of cookie? Do you like soft or crunchy cookies?
Today marks my first run of 2015, my first run in 17 days and most importantly my first run of my training for the New Jersey Marathon in less than 16 weeks. Woot Woot! Plus, it was 20 degrees with a “Real Feel” temp of 3.
BRRRRR!!!!
Cold enough to test out the new Nike running vest
I finally got to try out the Nike Aeroloft Running Vest that Mr. SOTSS got me for Christmas. I.LOVE.IT!!!! Really, really love it! I can pretty much guarantee I’ll get tons of use out of it. And it’s quite flattering too.
Nike Women’s Aeroloft Vest
The vest is constructed with 800 fill goose down but it’s so light. And there are thee laser perforated details that allow heat to escape so I never got sweaty underneath. That’s HUGE for me. It blocked the wind from my core pretty well too. And if I did start to overheat I could fold it into the back pocket and strap it to my wrist for easy portability. The only thing it doesn’t have is pockets in the front. Not the end of the world.
I covered 4 easy miles.
The best part of this run is that I really felt happy running! I wish I could say I felt no discomfort at all but my left hammy is still tight….Heck, it’s been tight for years really so I guess I’m going to have to work really hard at fixing that. And the knee held up ok until literally the last 5 minutes of the run. My fault. I should have only run 3 today. I am limited on time today so I ran the neighborhood which does have hills and that might have been too much for this bum patella. I’m DEFINITELY going to do my next run at the beach this weekend where it’s pancake flat and loose gravel. Anyway, I’ve gotta dart. I need to do my strengthening and stretching this minute. And then I’m headed into the city to meet some of my gal pals for drinks and eats. We were supposed to get together last week but then Duncan got sick. So they rescheduled for me. =)
Hope you’ve been having a good week.
What’s the one piece of running gear you get the most out of? Is it Arctic temps where you are? Or balmy? I’d love to hear about balmy….
Recent Comments