So this past weekend was probably one of the laziest weekends I’ve ever had, exercise-wise. Meaning I didn’t actually run or workout at all because I’m still sick. I am starting to feel better, but I still have a bad cough and cold congestion that pretty much keeps me from doing anything. Guess I should probably move “go to the doctor” up the to do list.

On Saturday I took it easy because I was really worn out from my week of travel and from being sick. I just hung around the house with Barry for most of the day. In the evening we took a trip over to the cell phone store to see if they would renew my contract early. I’m less than 30 days away from the end of my 2 year contract. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t renew early. Jerks. I’m considering crossing over to the “darkside” and making the transition from android to iPhone. Decisions, decisions….

On Saturday evening Barry braved the 20+ mph winds to grill us some steaks for Valentine’s Day. They were really yummy! I returned the favor Sunday morning (although, I stayed inside) by cooking us some blueberry pancakes. Nothing like blueberry pancakes on a Sunday morning, amiright?

By noon I was on the road up to my dad’s house for my final trip to the dentist (aka my uncle/dad’s brother). I’ll be headed over to his office later this morning to have my permanent crown put on – so glad to have all of this tooth stuff over with! Later today I’ll be headed back home, and back to work tomorrow.

Who else had the day off of work today? Happy President’s Day!
Did you celebrate Valentine’s Day this weekend? Barry and I don’t make a big deal out of the day, but we like to get each other cards and have a nice dinner.
Android vs. iPhone: thoughts, opinions?

As I mentioned earlier, I spent the whole week in Raleigh, North Carolina, this week for work. I’m actually heading home later today. I was excited when I scoped out the area around my hotel online before traveling here, because I saw that I was close to both a park and the extensive trail system. Unfortunately, I did not get to do as much running as I had hoped.

I got to town on Sunday after sunset, which kept me from exploring. I was also feeling a bit under the weather. Monday I woke up with a full blown cold. I couldn’t believe that I was sick yet again. It’s even less fun than usual, since I’m away from home. Monday was cold and rainy and I was miserable, so no run. Tuesday I thought I was feeling a bit better, so I went out for a short 25 to 30 minute run in the evening.

Just shy of a mile, I arrived at a nice little park called Pullen Park. It was really cute, with a playground, café, ice cream shop, mini railroad, and a pond. I bet it’s really hopping in the summertime.

The park is also home to the ‘Andy and Opie’ statue, a tribute to the Andy Griffith Show.

Once there, I decided to run a lap around the little pond area. It wasn’t too far – maybe a bit over a quarter mile but not more than half a mile. The bridges were neat to run over, though.

After my lap around the pond, I headed to an upper portion of the park. Turns out stairs aren’t just in the woods 🙂

I ran by some geese (who were not too friendly) before turning around to head back. What is it with geese? Why are they so pompous?

On my way back to my hotel the sun was setting. I had a pretty nice view of the downtown Raleigh area. All of the buildings were pink in the setting sun.

Unfortunately, that was all of my running in Raleigh. On Wednesday my sinus pressure and stuffy nose were mostly better, but the cold had moved into my chest. My coughing had gotten really bad and I was wheezing a lot. So no run for me. Same thing on Thursday and this morning. I think I’ll be making a trip to the doctor soon to see what’s going on with my breathing.

It was a bummer that I only got to run once while here. Hopefully I’ll find my way back someday to explore their trails more. Another bummer: this week was week three for me to earn my new shirt. Guess I’ll have to start over once I get better!

How do you stick to your exercise routine when traveling?
How do you handle being sick while away from home? It’s been lots of cold medicine for me to make it through the week.

I always enjoy reading random things about people that wouldn’t necessarily come up when you’re blogging about running or your day to day life. So for fun, here’s five random facts about me!

1. I have a permanent retainer behind my lower bottom front teeth. They cemented it in after I got my braces off in 9th grade to keep my teeth from shifting. I’ve had it ever since.

2. I’m going to learn to juggle clubs! I already know how to juggle balls and I can also juggle larger objects and oddly shaped things, but I’ve always wanted to learn to juggle clubs. Barry got me my very own set for Christmas and I can’t wait to learn.

3. When I was a kid I had a more unusual way of playing on the playgrounds – things like walking across the tops of swing sets. When I did actually swing on a swing, just jumping off wasn’t fun enough. Instead, I would do back flips off of the swing.

4. My great uncle taught me how to put someone in checkmate in a game of chess in the first four moves. Oddly, it never worked when I tried to use it on him

5. I am a huge Virginia Tech football fan (okay, that’s not news to anyone). Our stadium is looking pretty sleepy right now during the winter…

… but come Labor Day night it will be packed as the Hokies take on Ohio State in our season opener. I  can’t wait!

Your turn! Tell me some random facts about you.

My weekend started early, on Friday, because I had the day off of work (I had already hit 40+ hours earlier in the week). I was up early to ride to work with Barry so that he could drop me off at the shop to pick up my car. Once I got home, I hung out for a bit before heading out for a late morning trail run. I got in nearly 4.5 miles on the local mountain trails.

Friday afternoon I got a much needed hair cut and then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening running errands. I hadn’t planned on spending so much time on errands, but I was in search of a new Virginia Tech jacket and couldn’t find what I was looking for (my old one from 2006 is worn out). Five stores later I finally found “the one.”

Even better – it was on winter clearance! Why winter coats are on clearance and bathing suits are already on the sales floor in February, when there’s two more months of winter, I’ll never know. Worked in my favor, though!

On Saturday morning I met up with Kim for a 6 mile run on the trails in town. It was a pretty chilly morning, with temp’s in the low 20’s, but it was really clear and crisp. I felt pretty tired the last two miles but I didn’t want to mess up Kim’s run so I pushed through. Which means I was capable of pushing through 🙂 I need to remember that the next time I get really tired when I’m running on my own.

I spent most of Saturday afternoon doing laundry and other stuff around the house, and getting packed for my trip to Raleigh this week. Once Barry got home from work, we hung out and had BBQ crock pot chicken and sweet potatoes for dinner. Yum!

Yesterday morning I slept in (i.e. woke up without the sound of an alarm, glorious!). I didn’t feel like running, so I did a Jillian DVD workout instead. Then I finished up some packing and hung out with the dogs for a bit before heading down the road to Raleigh. Once I got to my hotel I didn’t feel like going back out for dinner, so I bought an overpriced $8 side salad with grilled chicken from the hotel restaurant.

I was surprised that this qualifies as a side salad, but at least I got more bang for my buck than I was expecting. I added the hard boiled eggs, which I bought with me. Unbeknownst to me, there’s no in-room fridge (would have been nice of the hotel to put that info on their website…). However, they will provide one for $10/day, as the friendly front desk attendant informed me. Guess I’ll be using lots of ice from the ice machine until all of my eggs are gone! 🙂

When you’re shopping for something (like a new coat), are you really particular?
Do you like busy weekends, or laid back ones?

I’ve got a lot of traveling going on this month, both work-related and personal. I kicked off my series of travels earlier this week with an overnight trip to Virginia Beach for work. It was one of those trips where you get where you need to be around bedtime, and are out of the hotel by sun up the next day. Unfortunately, that did not leave me anytime for a boardwalk or other beach-related run. Bummer.

Luckily, I’ll be back at the beach again for work in April. That trip will be a week long, so I’ll definitely be getting some miles on the boardwalk and hopefully on the trails at the nearby state park!

On Sunday I am driving down to Raleigh, North Carolina, for the week for work. It looks like my hotel is about a mile away from Raleigh’s extensive trail system, so I am looking forward to checking that out! It shouldn’t be a problem to meet my workout goals this coming week.

Once I get home from Raleigh, I’ll be home for a day (Valentine’s Day, in fact). Then I’ll be heading up to the DC area for an overnight trip to have a permanent crown put on my tooth. I’ll be glad to have that whole saga over with! The day after I get home from that, I have a work meeting in Richmond. I’m driving there and back in the same day, for 8 hours total of driving. Then the day after that I have a work meeting in Roanoke, so I’ll be running back up the interstate. Only two hours of driving that time, though.

After all of that driving I’ll be home for about a day and a half before I make the three hour trek to hang out with my best friend for the weekend. We’ve been needing a girls weekend for awhile and I’m looking forward to it!

Finally, the last weekend in February I have my second trail race of the RNUTS Series in Roanoke on Saturday and Barry is running a half marathon in Roanoke on Sunday. Whew! All of this traveling is by car, and that’s a lot of hours of driving. I always pack road trip snacks. Sometimes I don’t eat them at all, and other times they’re the lifeline that keeps me awake.

I usually listen to audiobooks in the car, but on my round trip to Virginia Beach earlier this week I listened to the entire Serial podcast I’ve been hearing so much about. You can do that when you drive for 12 hours, split between two days. If you’re not familiar, Serial is a podcast (like a radio show) that explores a nonfiction story over a series of episodes. In this case, it’s about a teenager that was convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend in Maryland in 1999. He’s still in prison today. I’m really torn about what to think. I found the ending unsatisfying and the lack of facts in the whole thing is frustrating. It sounds like there will be a season 2 later this year.

In the meantime, I think I’ll check out other podcasts that have been recommended to me during my travels over the next three weeks. By the time I make it through, I will have felt like I’ve been everywhere for sure! I’m looking forward to a quiet March. 🙂

Do you travel for work?
Do you pack snacks when you travel?
Have you listened to Serial? What do you think?