Last night I found something to do with all of the eggs we have now (we get six eggs a day from our chickens). I made a chicken, rice, and veggie quiche and a ham and cheese quiche! We ate the chicken, rice, and veggie quiche for dinner last night, and it ended up being pretty good fuel for my long run.

This morning Barry and I headed up to the Huckleberry Trail in Christiansburg for our long run. I ended up doing a little over 10 miles and he put in a little over 11 miles for the day. I was planning on meeting up with my running buddy, Kim, and she had the genius idea to meet me at the parking lot 2 miles into my run. She is limiting her long runs to 5 or 6 miles, so this allowed us to run the middle 6 miles of my run together. It was 70 degrees at the start of my run, with 100% humidity, and over 80 at the end with humidity in the 90’s. That definitely made the run tough and made it hard for me to try and break my long run trend. I think it will take a few more weeks to try and see if the pattern is disrupted. I was feeling rough enough that I was kind of wanting a walk break, and I told Kim if she wanted a walk break I was totally cool with that (because I secretly wanted to walk). But she was running tough today and she kept me going. If we hadn’t met up for those middle miles, I probably would have walked.

It was humid enough that I managed to drink all 20 ounces of my water by mile 8. Luckily this also happened to be back at Kim’s starting point, and she offered me water from her car to get me through my last 2 miles. She filled up my water bottle a little over halfway and I drank all of it before I got to mile 10. I cannot wait until fall gets here and the humidity goes away. I think my long runs will be a lot more enjoyable when it doesn’t feel like I’m breathing water.

After our long run, Barry and I did a few errands in town. We swung by PetsMart to get some more dog food, and the employees asked us where Hank and Scout were. Yes, they know our dogs by name because Hank and Scout tend to make an impression on people. I had to explain that they were home sleeping and we were just running some errands since we were in town. After PetsMart we headed over to the local bike shop where I grabbed some Honey Stinger waffles to try out. I am still experimenting with new fuel and wanted to give these a try.

And since it was just up the road from the bike shop, we had to swing by Carol Lee’s for some donuts!

I spy a white iced with Hokie sprinkles!

With dog food, Honey Stinger waffles, and donuts secured we headed home. I got my usual weekend cleaning done while I watched Game Day and we ate some of the ham and cheese quiche I made last night for lunch.

Now it’s almost game time! I’m excited, but nervous. This game against Alabama is going to be a tough one.

Go Hokies!!

How is the weather where you are? Is it hot and humid, too?

Have you ever tried Honey Stinger waffles? What did you think of them?

What are your weekend plans?

I feel like it’s Christmas Eve. Tomorrow is the day! The Hokies kick off their season against #1 Alabama.

Tunnel to Worsham Field in Lane Stadium

It’s time to go to work, lunch pail defense-style.

And I’m hoping to see a little bit of ‘Beamer Ball’ too!

Block that kick!

Game day, game face!

Gobble, Gobble. Beat Bama!! As if I needed more excitement, I am planning on doing tomorrow’s 10 mile long run on the Huckleberry Trail. Although the football game is in Atlanta, Blacksburg is still where it’s at. I think a ten mile run on the Huckleberry Trail is the perfect way to pregame before the Hokies kick off at 5:30 PM!

View of the football stadium from the Huckleberry Trail

Lately I have noticed a pattern of having a good long run one weekend followed by a bad one the next. If the pattern continues, this weekend would be an off weekend. I am hoping a long run on my favorite trail will break the pattern.

Anyone planning to watch tomorrow’s game (5:30 on ESPN)?

Do you have plans to watch any college football kick off games?

What is your long run/workout this weekend? Anyone racing?

I don’t often run with music. If I am running on my own I like to be alone with my thoughts. My mind wanders to some extremely random and often entertaining places while I run. When I run with other people (usually Barry or my friend Kim) I never bring music. But every once in awhile the mood strikes and I decide I’d like to rock out during my run. Wish I had his skills:

I’ll be facing some of the longest long runs I have ever done as I work my way through my marathon training plan. I’m sure there will be at least a few runs that I bring along my music, for no other reason than a little company while I’m out on the trail. With that being said, I thought I’d share a few songs I’m currently enjoying as well as my favorites.

Songs I’m currently digging (not necessarily current top hits, but mostly):

All time favorite songs to run to:

Since we’re talking about music, I’m going to touch on my opinion on the safety of running with music real quick. I never run with music when I am running on roads, because I don’t want any distractions that may keep me from hearing an oncoming car or more often than not a loose dog in hot pursuit.


A friendly loose dog who used to run with me, but I haven’t seen him in a long time.

When I run on a designated bike/hike/horseback riding trail with music, I always keep my left ear bud out. This allows me to hear what’s around me, including approaching cyclists. Sometimes I do zone out and get startled, but I always stay to the far right of the trail and look over my shoulder before passing anyone. Just my two cents.

Do you listen to music while working out?
What are some of your current favorite songs to workout to? All time favorites?
Anything to add on listening to music while running?

1. Do you remember how I saw a black bear during my long run the weekend before last? It was a large, black animal up in the trees that was scuffling up or down (I didn’t stick around long enough to see which way) a tree next to the trail I was running on. I assumed it was a bear, because what else could it be? Well this past Sunday there was an article in our local paper about an unidentified animal being captured on a trail camera in the next county down from ours:

Seriously, what is that thing? And is it the animal I saw the weekend before last? The article talks about the animal possibly being an unverified “Bigfoot” but I think that’s nonsense. I don’t believe in Bigfoot and I think it’s either some weird looking bear or somebody’s pet monkey that got loose or something. I’m not bringing this up to argue the existence or non-existence of Bigfoot. But I can’t help but wonder if that animal is possibly the same one I saw the two Saturdays ago, since I don’t normally see bears. The best part of the article is when the author says “I think it must be a bear. It has to be a bear, does it not?”

2. I was at one of the pharmacies in town over the weekend to print pictures for our family tree picture frame collection and I saw something crazy. They had their whole Halloween candy display up already. In August. I said something to the girl working at the register about it and she replied “I know, it’s crazy! You want to know something crazier? The last truck we got in had all of our Christmas merchandise and candy.” Crazy indeed. It seems like that stuff shows up earlier and earlier each year.

3. Yesterday’s track workout went really well. I wasn’t sure how this workout was going to go, because I felt exhausted all day long and had a headache when I got home from work. But I ran solid, albeit a little too fast because I was without my trusty pacer. I had 5 miles on my schedule, so I did 800m warm up, 5 x 800m with 400m recovery jogs in between, and 1200m cool down to total five miles. Here are the splits for the 800’s:

1- 4:15
2- 4:25
3- 4:17
4- 4:21
5- 4:13

If you remember from last week, I am supposed to be aiming for 4:30 for each repeat, since my goal for the marathon is 4 hours 30 minutes. I’m sure as I increase the number of 800m repeats my times will slow down a bit. I do most of my runs with my Garmin, but when I’m on the track I prefer my Timex.

Just like last week, I received whistles and cat calls from the JV football team as they made their way from the practice field to the locker rooms. There was also an older man, who I think was waiting for his son to finish football practice, who sat in the stands and watched nearly my whole workout (he showed up just as I finished my warm up). When I finished my cool down he asked me how many times I had gone around the track, and I replied “twenty.” He said “Wow, what is that, about two miles?” and I said “No, it’s five miles.” Then he told me “Way to go!” I left with a smile on my face.

What do you think: black bear, monkey, Bigfoot?? Do you think that could be the same animal I saw the weekend before last?

Any signs of Halloween candy in the stores where you live?

Do you ever get whistled at by high school boys??