Lately I have fallen back into an old habit. The phrase ‘old habit’ typically has a negative connotation, so you’re probably thinking I’ve begun an old, bad habit. But that’s not the case. This is a good habit, and I’m happy to have fallen back into it because it means I’ve earned my shirt!

Still don’t know what I’m talking about? I’m talking about finally getting back into a consistent running/workout routine. Specifically, I’ve started following a training structure similar to what I followed for my first half marathon, which subsequently was when I started running. It’s the same structure I’ve used for the past 7 years of running, except when I trained for my two full marathons. It feels good to be back in this routine, like putting on a pair of well-worn shoes.

This training pattern involves cross training on Mondays, running Tuesday through Thursday, a long run on Saturday, and rest days on Friday and Sunday. The only difference this time around is that I’m also including a short to mid-distance trail run on most Sundays as well.

Hanson’s training really skewed my view on running and training. It made me feel like anything under 30 miles a week, and anything less than 6 days of running per week, wasn’t enough. Somehow that translated into my doing little to no running instead. If anyone can figure out that logic, please explain it to me.

But I’m back to my old ways now, and am running 15 to 30 miles per week. Although I liked the training process for a marathon, and the weeks of hard work, it’s not a schedule I can keep regularly. This old schedule keeps me in shape for races, keeps running fun, and is a good fit for me overall. It’s the style of training that has carried me through seventeen half marathons.

You know what they say: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Do you have a standard workout pattern that you follow each week?

We had some great spring weather this weekend! I hope that we’re finally done with winter. On Saturday morning I got out to enjoy the weather for a bit on a long run with Kim. It was in the upper 40’s and partly cloudy, and we both kept commenting multiple times on what a nice day it was.

We got in 8 miles, and overall I felt pretty good on this run. I had a few high’s and low’s during it, and my calves/ankles were giving me some trouble because they were really tight. But other than that it was one of the better runs I’ve had in awhile.

On Saturday afternoon I headed up to Blacksburg to spend time with my best friend, who was in town for the weekend. We hung out for awhile and then decided to go see Insurgent, the second movie in the Divergent series. We had some extra time until the movie, so we went shopping at the mall for a bit. I’ve been looking for Toms/Tom-style shoes for awhile now. I ended up finding a pair that were slightly different than what I thought I was looking for. It’s hard to tell, but they’re a bit sparkly but not too much!

They sparkled a lot on the way into the movie theater, with the floor lighting they have, and I’m probably lucky I didn’t walk into anyone. I was too busy staring down at my feet! But we made it into the theater without any catastrophes. The movie itself was pretty good!

It was close to 9 PM when the movie ended, and neither of us had eaten since breakfast so we were both starving. We ended up grabbing some Subway sandwiches and heading back to our friend’s house where my BFF was staying for the weekend. I hung out for awhile and stayed up hours past my bedtime before heading home for the night.

Yesterday I decided to skip the mid-distance trail run I had planned. My calves and ankles were still so tight, and had been that way since last Wednesday. I’ll be running solo for my long run this coming weekend, so I’ll hit the trails then. Instead of running, I spent the morning doing laundry and some other stuff around the house and made a grocery store run.

In the afternoon, I headed back up to Blacksburg again to hang out with Laura for awhile until she headed home. Then I came home and made dinner with Barry. We had baked pork chops, and I made half of them with Ranch dressing (I saw a Hidden Valley commercial on TV). I made the other half with some Italian bread crumbs, the way I normally do. The Ranch ones were alright, but I think I’ll stick to the Italian bread crumb ones in the future.

How was your weather this weekend? They’re calling for chance of snow this coming weekend. Boo!
Have you seen Insurgent or read the Divergent book series?
Has anyone else tried the Ranch baked pork chops? What did you think?

1. I’ve had a pretty decent week of running so far. I got in 3 miles on Tuesday, 4 miles on Wednesday, and 3 miles yesterday. It really feels good to get back into a regular routine.

This weekend, I’ve got plans to meet up with Kim for a long run and to hit up the trails!

2. This past week was Virginia Agriculture Week. Seeing as how I’m married to a dairy herdsman, and I also work in the agriculture industry, I figured it was worth mentioning. Agriculture is the biggest industry in the state, so it’s a big deal.

When I was at Tech, our College of Agriculture t-shirts in school said “Where would you be without agriculture? Naked and hungry.” And when you think about it, that’s about right!

3. Annabelle continues to grow. We haven’t officially started working on halter breaking her, but she has had a halter on a few times. She’s not a big fan… and that’s putting it lightly.

Jerseys are famous for what we call “the Jersey flop.” When you put a halter or lead on them, they will lay their head on the ground and flop their body over (it’s a little scary looking). Then they lay on their side with their legs sticking out straight. Sometimes they’ll even roll their eyes into their head and quiver. I can only describe this strategy as “Maybe if they think I’m dead, I won’t have to comply.” We are not fooled, Annabelle.

4. Dogs are just plain fun and funny. There’s nothing like being greeted with a wagging tail when you get home – whether you were gone 5 minutes or 5 hours. Like most dogs, our dogs do a lot of things that make us laugh. Case in point: I gave Hank a piece of popcorn the other day and he contemplated it for nearly 5 minutes before finally eating it.

It was like he was expecting the popcorn to make a run for it or something!

5. It snowed and sleeted yesterday. Seeing as how today is the first official day of spring, I’m really hoping that was our last snow for the season!

However, it is not uncommon for us to get snow as late as mid-April. But then again I think it was in the 70’s in mid-April last year at the Blue Ridge Half. I’m hoping for some nice low-50’s, partly cloudy days.

P.S. if you have a race coming up, remember these words of wisdom I came across on Facebook:

What funny things do your pets do? When we have the dog’s bones on top of the fridge, Scout will deliberately stare at the top of the fridge and then at us, back and forth repeatedly.
What is your favorite type of weather?

Three races down in the RNUTS series, and we’ve had three extreme weather/trail conditions. The first race had temp’s in the single digits, race number two had 8-10 inches of snow, and race number three on Saturday had rain and shoe-sucking mud! But hey, that’s the trail experience. As I mentioned last Friday, I was originally signed up for the 10 miler but decided to drop down to the 5 miler. My training is just not where I expected it to be at this point. It’s a bummer, because I like longer distances, but it’s the right choice for me. The good news is I am healthy and back to running regularly, and I have no reason to not expect to be ready for the trail half (my next race in the series) at the beginning of May. Anyway, back to Saturday’s race: the Montvale 5 Miler, better known as the ‘Montvale Mudfest’. Once again, I convinced Barry to tag along with me and he ran the 10 miler. We arrived at the race about 30 minutes before start time and hung around, used the restroom, and attended the prerace meeting. I love small, low-key races! A little before 9, we made the quarter mile walk from the park pavilion over to the start area. We had to cross a (very springy) footbridge over a full creek to get to the start. Towards the end of the race, we had to run back across that same footbridge. That was interesting with all the mud on my shoes! The 10 miler started right at 9 AM, and the 5 miler started about 10 minutes later. It was in the low 40’s and very cloudy at the start. Shortly after we got going, it started to rain. It ended up raining for the rest of the race, for the most part. It was mostly light, but heavier at times. What’s a trail race without a little (or a lot, in this case) of mud?? The first couple of miles ticked by, and I was enjoying being out on the course. I’m still not running the way I would like to, but this is the first race of the year where I allowed myself to just be happy to be out there. Between miles 1 and 2 Barry spotted me (I think he was somewhere around mile 4) and hollered out to me. We were separated by a hollow, and it was neat to suddenly have him cheer me on! During miles 3 and 4 I kept working. The trail had become very sloppy at this point and my feet were sliding all over the place with each step. Somehow I managed to stay on my feet. The switchbacks were the toughest place to maintain my footing, both going up and going down.

A little after mile 4, I came careening down a hill. There was a lady standing in the curve at the bottom making sure 5 milers (and 10 milers on their second loop) turned left. I literally slid down the hill and into the curve, and nearly into her! We both laughed, as I regained my footing and kept going.

I didn’t think it possible, but the trail got even sloppier in the final mile. There were actually a few spots where I either used my hands to scramble up a steep, but short slick hill, or grabbed a tree trunk on the way downhill to keep from falling. Then it was back across that precarious footbridge (with a volunteer stationed at it asking each runner “please be careful!) and on to the finish.

After I finished, I hung out at the finish line and waited for Barry. I didn’t have to wait too long before he came blazing in with a strong finish. Then it was time for some post-race food in the pavilion and awards. I didn’t run my best race on Saturday, but I did manage to squeak out a third place finish in my age group. Barry also snagged third in a very competitive age group. We both had a pretty great day and enjoyed running on some really nice trails through an old growth forest. And boy were we muddy! It kind of makes me feel like a kid again (except this time no one is coming after me with a water hose in the yard before I’m allowed into the house…). Yea… we probably should have brought some towels. Oops. At least we had other shoes to change into. Next up in the RNUTS series is the Mill Mountain 10K trail race. I have opted out of this one, because it is the weekend before the Blue Ridge Half Marathon. However, I am going to volunteer at the race and Barry is going to run it. He decided over the weekend to sign up for the series before their Monday deadline! Do you like playing in the mud? Have you ever volunteered at a race?

This past weekend started out my favorite way: with a trail race! Any weekend that starts with a Saturday morning run is a good one, but races are especially fun. Especially when Barry decides to run, too. We both had a pretty good day on the trails, got really muddy, and snagged some hardware! Full details on Wednesday.

We took it easy the rest of the day on Saturday and celebrated a once-in-a-century Pi Day the best way possible: with pie! Three kinds of pie, in fact. I made an egg custard pie and a peanut butter pie for the occasion. On top of that, we had cornbread chicken pot pie for dinner. It totally still counts as pie even though I made it in a square dish!

Yesterday afternoon, I convinced Barry to go see McFarland, USA with me. We both thought it was a really good movie! Plus you can’t beat the small town movie theater $5 ticket price and virtually having the theater to yourself. There were probably 10 of us total at the movie.

In the evening I got in a Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred workout while Barry went for a run. Then we decided to watch movie #2 for the day: Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1! I went and saw the movie with my Dad and sister when they came down for Thanksgiving, but this was Barry’s first time.

Not a bad weekend, overall, if I do say so myself.

Have you seen McFarland USA?
Who else raced this weekend?
Are you starting to get some spring weather? We are! Maybe we will get our April showers out of the way in March.