Four miles and a new phone

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We are having some gorgeous spring-like weather today. It was a really pretty day outside today, with the temperature in the upper 50’s. That means it was shorts and t-shirt running weather! This evening I did a 4 mile progressive run at the trail in town. I felt strong and fresh today. I ate a granola bar about 20 minutes before my run, after discovering last week that I feel a lot better if I eat shortly before running. My mile splits were: 10:24, 9:37, 9:14, and 8:53. I also did a 0.8 mile cool down afterwards.

This morning was my third day at level 3 of Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred (day 23 overall). Let me tell you, Jillian is not messing around! Level 3 is really tough and she means business. I don’t know if 23 days is enough to see much change (I hope it is, though…) but I feel like my running has gotten a bit stronger since I started the 30 day shred. I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ve gotten any faster, but I’m finding that my usual pace feels easier than it used to.

One last thing to mention. Last night we went by the phone store and found out that I was eligible for an upgrade. I ended up choosing my first-ever smart phone, so I have now crossed over to the world of smart phones! It was quite a concept to see email messages real time as they came in today! The phone also takes much higher quality pictures than my old phone did. That picture of the trail was taken with my phone, during my cool down. I have now joined instagram, as turkeyrunner, although I’m not quite sure exactly what to do with it. I’ll also now be able to scan all those funky codes that are on everything (once I figure out what app does that….).  

How is the weather where you are?

We had a beautiful day today!

Do you have a smart phone? Tell me something cool that I can do on my new phone! 
 
Are you on instagram?
 

That exciting thing I’ve been talking about

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Yesterday after my long run, I ate a quick breakfast and changed into dry clothes and headed to the former Norfolk & Western Depot in town. It’s located at the start of the trail that I run on in town and is currently used as a bike shop/bike rental place. But I wasn’t there to rent a bike.

 
I was there because a steam engine pulling 12  passenger cars came through town on it’s way from Bristol to Radford, VA.

As you can tell by the people out watching the train, it was kind of a big deal. These excursions only take place once a year, if that, and usually it’s just freight trains that come through town. There was a similar excursion in July 2012, but before that they hadn’t done an excursion using a coal-fired steam engine on the mainline Norfolk Southern tracks since 1994.  

Picture from when the train came through last July

The passenger train was pulled by the Southern Railway steam locomotive #630. It was built in 1904 in Richmond, VA and was retired from regular freight service in 1952. It currently resides in the Tennessee Valley Railway Museum in Chattanooga, except when they bring it out for an excursion as part of the 21st Century Steam program.

The excursion was by the Norfolk Southern Corp., in partnership with Watauga Valley Railroad Historical Society & Museum and the Tennessee Valley Railway Museum. They said the tickets sold out within days of them going on sale. Unfortunately, the train did not make a stop in town, so I was unable to get a good side shot of the engine. He actually came through really fast, which was kind of wild since people were standing really close to the tracks. It was fun to wave at all of the passengers on board.

The train made a return trip later in the afternoon, but I must have missed it because all I saw were two freight trains go by. Here is a good side picture of it at the grand junction depot at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.

Here is another photo of Southern Railway #630 coming out of the tunnel that it goes through after coming down the mountain and before coming into town.

It was a really neat thing to see, as I think there are only a handful of steam engines operating in the country. Here’s one more picture, from the Watauga Valley Railroad Historical Society website, that shows the engine better than I could as it was going by yesterday.

Hopefully someday we can take part in this once-in-a-lifetime experience to see the hills and mountains of the Appalachian region, while riding behind a steam engine, and to hear the whistle echo in the hills and hollows. See you next time, steam locomotive #630.

Have you ever ridden on a train pulled by a steam engine?

Black Hollow Long Run

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I decided to do my 8 mile long  run on a road a little over a mile from our house called Black Hollow Road. To get to Black Hollow, you have to go down this monster hill about a mile into the run, which means towards the end of your run you have to make the climb back out of the hollow. Black Hollow Road itself winds through farmland and I usually see very few cars. Today I saw three cars and one tractor, and a whole lot of cows, horses, and sheep.

It’s a really nice day outside today. It was around 27 degrees, with no wind and not a cloud in the sky. It’s supposed to warm up to nearly 60 degrees today! The temperature had already climbed to 40 degrees by the end of my run. Despite the nice weather, I didn’t feel all that great today. Just one of those days, I guess. Right from the first step I took at the end of our driveway, my legs felt heavy and tired.

I kept plugging along and around 2 miles into the run my legs finally shut up. I guess after ignoring them for about 20 minutes they figured I wasn’t going to listen to their protests that they were too tired for hills today. Speaking of which, check out the elevation from today’s run. I still need to check the elevation stuff on my watch through Garmin Connect. The run was a lot hillier than it looked on this elevation profile, especially the descent at mile 1 and the ascent at mile 7.



After I got past 2 miles, I just took the entire rest of the run one mile at a time. Sometimes you just have to do that to get through a long run. So the miles ticked off one by one, and before I knew it I was back at the big climb out of the hollow, close to mile 7. I took one short walk break about halfway up, but I’m glad to report I ran almost the entire thing. I finished up my run back to the house, with a 10:47 pace. Good enough for me, since I was questioning my ability to complete 8 miles after the first mile today. I also had my pepper spray with me today, in case I had a run in with the pit-mix dog (I had to run past his house twice today), but he wasn’t out, thank goodness.  

 
View from the bottom of the climb up from Black Hollow, just before mile 7.
View from part way up, where the hill levels off and then climbs some more
Black Hollow Rd. is the one going off to the right at the bottom.
 
Once I got home, I had a quick breakfast of some scrambled eggs with hot sauce. Then I headed into town for that exciting thing I mentioned on Thursday that was happening today! Unfortunately you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see what it is, since this post would be entirely too long if I included it today.

When I got back home, I did my Jillian Michaels 30 day shred, level 2 workout. Today was the last day at level 2, so tomorrow morning I will be doing level 3. Yikes!

Don’t forget to spring forward tonight! One of the two times a year it would really stink to work in a clock shop, haha.

What was your long run/workout this weekend?

Did you know Arizona and Hawaii don’t observe Daylight Saving Time?

Any exciting plans for the weekend?
 
 

Pre-run Snacking

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Yesterday I took a day off from running. We didn’t get as much snow as they predicted (although up in the Shenandoah Valley area, north of us, they got 15+ inches!), but it was really cold and windy. I figured since I had already adjusted my weekly running schedule with plans of taking Wednesday off, I’d just stick to that. Plus I didn’t really care to run in below freezing temperatures with wind gusts up to 50 MPH. I did do my level 2 workout of the 30 Day shred yesterday morning. Our puppy, Scout, sure knows how to spend the morning inside and out of the wind. This is how she slept for about 2 hours yesterday morning:

Before work this morning I did Jillian’s 30 Day Shred, level 2 workout. My legs and shoulders really seem to get a good workout with this level, as they are burning by the end. I think all the jumping moves during the cardio parts work my calves and quads in ways that running usually doesn’t. Kind of the point of cross training, right? I have two days left at level 2, and then it’ll be time to step up to level 3!

The weatherman was way wrong about the forecast today. He said high’s in the mid-40’s and partly sunny. It never got above 32 degrees today and it was cloudy and windy. Good try, though….
 
After work I ran a little over 4 miles with Barry. It ended up being my fastest run of the week, at 9:39 pace. I have been doing something a little different this week, and I think it’s been the reason my running has gone well. I have been eating a snack, such as a granola bar, about 10-15 minutes before I head out to run. I feel like it’s really helping me feel energized, or at least keeping me from feeling like I have an empty stomach. Today I ate a Power Bar before my run.

There’s something exciting happening this weekend (well, I think it’s exciting, anyway) that’s non-running related. You will have to wait and see what it is! I hope it doesn’t end up being a disappointment, haha.

Have you done the 30 Day Shred workouts? What did you think of level 3?

Do you snack before a run? If so, how soon beforehand and what do you like to eat?
 
 

Glad to have that one in the books

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I bet you can’t guess what I did before work this morning. Okay, you guessed it- another day at level 2 of the 30 Day Shred. Sorry… I know that was lame. This was day 6 at level 2, and day 16 overall in the program. I just keep trucking along with it.

It warmed up to the low 40’s today, and then started raining around mid-afternoon. As soon as the rain started the temperature steadily dropped, and was hovering around 38 degrees when I headed out for my 4 mile run after work.

Let me tell you I am glad to have this one in the books. It was cold, windy, and raining/sleeting during my run. I’m happy to be back inside and out of that nastiness. When it gets this cold, I’d prefer to run in snow over this rain that just chills you to the bone. The run itself went pretty well. My legs were feeling tired from yesterday, but I managed a 9:59/mile pace.

My post-run “glad to be done” face

I had another encounter with that white pitbull-mix dog that has been loose lately. He didn’t see me on my way out (and I never saw him), but on my way back he chased me. He ran out into the road, barking and chased me across the road and then continued to chase me down the road. I tried to just keep running to get away from him, but he jumped up and put both of his front paws on my back. At this point I slowed briefly to a walk and yelled at him to go on. A little further down the road he turned around and went back to his yard. I am always afraid to try and hit or kick a dog that’s chasing me, because I am afraid it will provoke the dog. But the next time I run in that direction I am going to bring my pepper spray. If I have to use it I hope it tells the dog to stop messing with me. I hope using pepper spray won’t make the dog react more aggressively.

When I got home I found this much cuter, friendly puppy (Scout) sound asleep in her crate.

Isn’t she cute? Hank was jealous I wasn’t taking his picture, so I took one of him too.

Hank likes posing for the camera

Tonight the rain/sleet is supposed to switch over to snow and the wind is supposed to pick up even more. Tomorrow they’re predicting we will get anywhere from 3 to 6 inches of snow, with the snow and high winds going on until the early afternoon. This is the reason I did one of my weekly runs yesterday, as I am not expecting to be outside running tomorrow evening. We’ll see, though… sometimes the weathermen get really excited and then the storm peeters out or misses us.

If you had to run in one, would you rather run in rain or snow?

Have you ever been chased by a dog while you were running? What did you do?

Do you have any pets??

"I've opted for fun in this lifetime." -Jerry Garcia