Yesterday I met up with my running buddy, Kim, for a 6 mile run on the Dora and New River Trails. It was nice and cool outside and my legs felt a lot better than they did on Friday’s run. We did an out and back on the trail and on the way back we had a new encounter. We were just about to start crossing the trestle bridge when we realized a pickup truck was crossing it from the other side. We had to stop and wait for him to get across before we could continue our run. When the driver finished crossing the bridge, he rolled down his window and told us “Sorry, I would have let y’all cross before I drove across if I had seen you.” I didn’t have my camera, but it was this bridge:

The man was a Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation employee and was driving a green DCR truck. We have seen DCR driving along the trail in the past, but always assumed they did not drive across the bridges. I always figured they drive to the bridge, then back up to the closest access point and bypass the bridges by using the roads. Apparently that is not the case. I also did not think the bridges were wide enough for a vehicle or strong enough to support it’s weight. Kim and I learned that both are true.

The rest of my day was relatively low key. I fixed breakfast and watched some Track & Field World Championships that we had recorded. Since it was Scout’s birthday, I asked her what she wanted to do. At the moment, all she wanted to do was nap. So I gave her a special treat by letting her nap in Barry’s and my bed, along with Hank, while I read. I got sleepy and all three of us ended up getting a nap in.

Then I took Scout to Tractor Supply to pick out a new bone. Funny enough, they had a rawhide display right after you came through the entrance. Scout walked over to the bin, sniffed around, and selected a bone. I picked up a few other things that I needed and she enjoyed walking around the store sniffing and meeting new people (she loves people).


Happy puppy

Of course we brought a bone home for Hank, too, since it wouldn’t be fair for only Scout to get one. They both spent the afternoon and evening chewing their new bones.

While the dogs enjoyed their rawhides, I worked on putting our family tree picture frame display together. My grandparents gave us this set of frames as an anniversary gift back in June and I finally got around to choosing pictures to go in them this weekend. By the way today also happens to be my grandparent’s 64th wedding anniversary. How about that?

It came with a really helpful template. All I had to do was put the pictures in the frames, tape the template to the wall, and use the guide on where to place the nails. The only difficult part was the tape didn’t want to stay on the wall, so I had to use a lot of extra tape to get it the template to stay up long enough for me to get the nails in.

Crazy masking tape due to my frustration with it repeatedly falling.

Once I got all of the nails in, I took the template down and started hanging pictures. I was worried it would be too big and I wouldn’t like it, but I’m actually pretty content with it. I included a few wedding pictures, some race pictures, a few travel pictures, and of course dog pictures. I’m happy with the way it turned out.

I also got an exciting package yesterday. It was exciting because it finally arrived, but it wasn’t a surprise since I both ordered and paid for it.

Two new pairs of Oiselle Distance Shorts!! I have been running nearly all of my long runs in my original pair of Oiselle shorts that I got at the end of July. I have been loving them (my new favorite!) and haven’t had any issues with them, so I decided to invest in two more pairs. I will be taking one of these for a run later today on my three mile run.

What strange encounters have you had out on the trails while running/biking/hiking/walking?

If you have pets, what do you do to celebrate their birthday?

Are you good about having pictures printed and framed?
Not usually, but every once in awhile I get motivated.

Today is Scout’s first birthday!

Last October we met with a bloodhound breeder who lives about 2 hours south of us to pick out our puppy. The pups were nine weeks old at the time. Bloodhounds are usually either black and tan or red. Since we already had a black and tan male, I wanted a red female.

How could you not instantly fall in love with that face??

Hank came along with us to help pick out the puppy. He approved of our choice.

We worked it out with the breeder that we would pick up Scout in a month, after running the Richmond Half. Shortly before Thanksgiving, we headed back down the road to pick up Scout and bring her home. She was around 13 or 14 weeks old.

After getting settled in her first night, she hit it off with Hank and they became best buddies.

When Scout first came home she had a baby named ‘gator’ that she carried around with her everywhere. When we would let her out of her crate in the morning, she would have to bring gator out of the crate and set him by her food bowl before going outside to potty. It was pretty cute.

A few months later, she decided to chew that toy to shreds. That was the end of gator. I bought her another baby, which was supposed to be made out of tough material that dogs won’t chew up. Someone forgot to tell Scout, though.

Death to gator #2

Now a days we mostly stick to rawhides, which are probably her favorite anyway. When she’s really happy or gets really excited, she’ll grab a bone or other toy and run around growling while wagging her tail.

Outside of chewing things up and running around growling, Scout is a big fan of naps.

Ears make good blinders from the light.

She loves to sleep in a lot of weird positions. I don’t know how some of these are the least bit comfortable.

While we were at the beach, her favorite thing to do was climb up onto the couch and stretch out as much as possible.

When she’s not sleeping, she’s usually following Hank around. She loves to run around with him in the yard and loves to jump on his back and bite his neck (Hank does not love this so much). She has done so since she was little.

And continues to do so now that she is nearly full grown.

Aside from harassing Hank, Scout also enjoys pestering the cows in the field behind our house. She talks big, but I think she would run away if there weren’t a fence between her and the cows.

She experienced snow for the first time this past winter. She had a blast running around in it, but soon she got wet and cold and then all she wanted to do was come inside and take a nap.

Once it got to be spring, she loved all of the rain because it made mud in the backyard which was oodles of fun to play in. Barry and I were not as impressed by the mud.

Scout also holds a degree in Puppy Kindergarten and is a proud graduate from the PetsMart training school.

Her love for naps continued to be strong. When other puppies were busy wagging their tails and hopping around at class, she would lay down and go to sleep. Maybe she just wasn’t being challenged enough? It’s hard to believe that she’s already one year old and that we’ve had her for nearly nine months.

Happy Birthday, Scout!

Sorry for the radio silence over the past few days. I had to travel for work and had a 10 1/2 hour workday followed by a nearly 13 hour workday. I kept up with my running schedule, but not with my blog. Such is life.
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Football season is finally here!! Technically it starts next weekend, but tonight we are going to the local high school benefit game. Next weekend they will kick off their regular season. I get so excited this time of year because I love football. Going to a high school football game on a Friday night where the whole community comes out to support the team is unlike anything else (it makes for a great date night, too). Those kids play with a lot of heart and this time of year everything revolves around the high school team.

Posing with the PCHS Cougar after a track workout. Before a football game all of the football players come down those steps and pass by the cougar before taking the field.

A couple of years ago Kenny Chesney came out with a great song, which I borrowed for the title of this post, called ‘The Boys of Fall’. There’s a music video for the song that’s nearly 8 minutes long. But it’s worth the watch if you haven’t seen it before.

Next weekend the Hokies start their season in a game against #1 ranked Alabama. It’s a heck of a way to open the season, especially after the rough year we had last year. But I’m still excited. I get goose bumps when I think about Virginia Tech football and jumping up and down to Metallica’s Enter, Sandman as the team runs onto the field.

The kickoff game is being played in Atlanta, so I will be at home watching on TV. Hokie fans and anyone who enjoys college football will enjoy this 2013 trailer for VT football (don’t worry this ones only two minutes long).

We are hoping to get to a bunch of Virginia Tech games this season. Especially since my cousin is a freshman on the team this year. He got moved from defensive tackle to left tackle (offense) earlier this month due to other players being injured. Look for #57!

On the professional level, I have never been to a game. But I enjoy watching any good game of football and I root for the Redskins. I especially love Monday Night Football. My dad and I bet on Monday night games and have done so for a long time. I think we still do ten cents per game, unless it got upped this year. I always get to pick which team I think is going to win (except when the Skins play, he automatically gets them). Sometimes I pick based on how many Hokies a team has and other times I just choose based on which quarterback has the cutest butt. Cute butts equal mad football skills, right? At the end of the season we often go double or nothing for the Super Bowl.

Thank goodness football season is finally here. Let the fun begin!

Do you enjoy watching football? What’s your favorite level to watch?
High school, college, NFL. I love it all. 

If you are a football fan, what team do you root for?
Pulaski County High School, Virginia Tech Hokies, Washington Redskins.

If you don’t like football, what sport(s) do you enjoy?

Last night Barry and I headed to the track for my first track workout since beginning marathon training. I decided to try something a little different than the type of workouts I’ve done in the past. Instead of focusing on faster intervals like 200’s and 400’s, I decided to focus on 800’s in the form of Yasso 800’s.

I ran here, except this picture is from May and there were no hurdles or starting block things.

The articles I read on Yasso 800’s varied on what you should do during your recovery interval. Some said to jog for the same amount of time you were doing your repeats in (so 4 minutes 30 seconds for me), while others said to do a 400m jog in between. I chose to do what I felt like doing in between repeats.

Another week in the books. This week was half in Myrtle Beach and half at home. We got home on Thursday and since then it has been a whirlwind of unpacking, settling back in, a bit of relaxing, and of course a bit of running.

Monday- Morning 4 mile run at the beach. It was really hot and humid (even at 6:30 AM) and I only managed a 10:40/mile pace. I ran around the nearby swanky Kingston Plantation. It is a complex owned by Hilton with three or four high rise hotels, a whole mess of smaller condo buildings, and a fancy fitness center.

We said goodbye to my Dad and sister, who had to head home, and then Barry and I spent the rest of the day on the beach. In the afternoon I got him to play football and Frisbee with me. I will play for as long as the other person will, so both of us were sore the next morning.

Tuesday- Cross training day. Barry and I started out the day on the beach and decided to take a break for a mid-afternoon bike ride. I didn’t want to disturb the dogs by going in the camper to get my tennis shoes, so I rode in my flip flops. We ended up riding for ~30 minutes for a total of 9 miles or so.

Wednesday- Four mile run with 2 @ MP. I tried not to stalk my Garmin as much and ended up with my two middle miles coming in at 9:53 and 10:10. A little fast, but that’s alright. I also took running selfie #2, even though it embarrassed me to do so.

Thursday- Rest day and travel home from beach day. Can we call 50+ trips to/from the camper to unpack everything cross training?

Friday- Four mile run on the treadmill in the evening. The weather was really nice all day, but I just didn’t feel like going outside so I chose to run with Sven instead. Did you catch that?? That is my treadmill’s name! Except “running on Sven” sounds weird so I will refer to a treadmill run as “running with Sven.”

Saturday- 10 mile long run on the Dora and New River Trails. I finally accepted that taking a few short walk breaks during my long run can actually help me have a better run overall, and it doesn’t count as cheating.

Sunday- I met up with my running buddy, Kim, for a three mile run in the morning on the Dora Trail. She is keeping her runs under 5 miles and for good reason- she’s pregnant (due in December)!! Kim and her husband held a “reveal party” on Saturday with family and friends and we all got to find out along with them if they are having a boy or girl. It was the cutest idea. They had the doctor put the ultrasound picture in an envelope and had the people at the grocery store make a cake that was either blue or pink inside, and fill a box with either pink or blue balloons. Then at the party they opened the box in front of everyone and found out they are going to have a girl! I wish I had remembered to take a picture of all of the pink balloons coming out of the box as Kim and her husband opened it, but I was so excited that I forgot.

Total miles: 25

This week’s schedule:
Monday: 4 miles
Tuesday: XT
Wednesday: 4 miles w/ 2 @ MP
Thursday: rest
Friday: 4 miles
Saturday: 6 miles
Sunday: 3 miles