I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day weekend! I can’t wait for tonights game. Today, I am linking up again for weekly wrap, hosted by HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin’.

Monday – Rest

Tuesday – Cross train. Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred level two workout.

Wednesday – 3 mile run. I headed over to the state park trail after work and did four hill repeats with a 1 mile warm up and roughly 1 mile cool down.

Thursday – Rest

Friday – 7 mile run. I chose to do my long run on Friday morning, since I am off work on Fridays. I did this run over on the Huckleberry Trail so that my run would be on rolling hills.

The new part of the trail has a few hills that are pretty big! Pictures never capture it, but trust me the hill pictured below is a big one.

Saturday – 3 mile run. Just an easy run at a nearby park, breaking in a new pair of shoes that I bought on Friday (more on that sometime in the near future…).

Sunday – 6 mile run. Debbie and her husband, Bill, were driving through my neck of the woods and decided to stop in so we could meet up for a run. Debbie and I got to run together, and I got to show them ‘my’ trail. It’s neat getting to share a place you run all of the time with others!

Debbie had her trusty, and very cool, GoPro with her, so we got some action shots toward the end of our run. Thanks for the picture, Deb!

Total Miles: 19 miles. This weekend I started cutting my mileage back in preparation for the Hokie Half Marathon. Sometimes I think we feel worse when we start cutting our mileage back, but it’s  usually just our body recovering and getting ready for race day. Fingers crossed the last of this summer humidity moves out and the fall weather gets here soon!

Do you have a long weekend for Labor Day? What did you do this weekend?
Is it starting to look/feel like fall where you live?

This week is an important kick off week – college football is back! Goodbye summer and hello fall. I’m always sad to see summer go, but it means that fall is upon us and football is finally here.

I’m excited for this long Labor Day weekend, but I kind of can’t wait for Monday night. Why? Because on Monday night the Hokies have their season opener at home against Ohio State!

There’s nothing like Lane Stadium under the lights, especially at a home opener. Last year Virginia Tech had a huge win over Ohio State. It was a very exciting game and I couldn’t believe we came out on top.

In fact, we were the only loss they had last year, as they went on to win the national championship.

Barry and I will not be going to the game, because I cannot find any tickets under $200 a piece. If this was a national championship game, I’d pay that, but not for this game. So we will be cheering from home as the boys of fall take to Worsham Field once again. It’s going to be a tough game, but I’m cautiously hopeful that we can pull off another huge win. It wouldn’t be the first time we had a miracle in Blacksburg.

What are your Labor Day weekend plans?
Who else is excited that football is back?

P.S. My running buddy, Kim, had her baby this past Monday! A little boy named Hunter! 🙂

It’s Wednesday, so it’s time to link up with Debbie for her Wednesday Word weekly link up!

Click the button above to see who else is linking up this week and to join in. This week’s word is accountability.

When you’re trying to keep a regular running/workout schedule and especially when you’re training for a race, sometimes pure willpower isn’t enough. You need things that help keep you accountable to yourself. Here are a few things that keep me accountable….

1. A Running Buddy. One of the things that helps the most with accountability is when you have an individual or group to meet up with. Knowing someone is waiting for you will get you out of bed before the sun on a Saturday morning when it’s 40 degrees and raining. It also really helps just to have someone to check in with and talk to about your running.

   

2. A Training Schedule. Making a plan, whether it’s to workout four days a week on M-W-F-Sa or an 18 week training program for a marathon, will keep you accountable. Especially if you are type A like me 😉 When I know what the plan is that week, I can make adjustments in my schedule as needed to make sure everything works out.
   
3. A Running Log. Naturally, if you are following a plan you’ll need somewhere to write it down. It could be tempting to just cross a workout off of your plan and skip it. But it’s harder to do that when you have to go tell your running log. Writing down your workouts is also really useful for tracking trends – what works and what doesn’t, developing injuries, etc.
   
4. This Blog. I have been blogging since January 2013. For most of the first year, I blogged nearly every day. I don’t even know how I did that back then! Now I blog three times a week. But either way, it definitely keeps me accountable. Sometimes social media can be overwhelming, with everything people post on it. But it can keep you accountable, too, if you want to be able to post as well! Specifically, this blog gives me a place to share my thoughts and (sometimes) vent my frustrations. And it gives me a place for support and encouragement, and to interact with others and hear their stories.

What keeps you accountable?