I don’t know how these weekends keep flying by, but that’s exactly what they do! This one felt like another busy one, although looking back I only really did three big things. They took up a lot of time, though.

Saturday morning I took it easy and got some things done around the house (laundry, dishes, etc…). We had freezing rain all night Friday night, so this was partly to let the trails thaw out a bit. Despite the weather I was still determined to do my trail run as planned. Around lunchtime I headed over to the Draper Mountain trails in town for a run up Draper Mountain and back down. It ended up being one of the most beautiful days I’ve spent in the woods.

I ended up taking a bunch of pictures because it was so pretty in the woods. I don’t feel like they captured it very well, but I’m still planning to share a bunch of them tomorrow. Once I got home from my run I got a quick shower and grabbed something to eat before heading out to the grocery store for a big shopping trip. I decided to plan out about 10 meals for the next two weeks.

I realize that’s a pretty crappy picture. I also realized I actually have 14 meals on that list (although we already ate one of them – chicken enchiladas on Saturday night!). But either way it’s on the fridge now, so it’s official.

On Sunday morning I headed up to Roanoke with Scout for Search and Rescue training. We were working in the downtown area, an ‘urban’ environment, which is tougher for the dogs. She had a good day, though, and did pretty well! She even conquered her fear of stair wells and followed a trail that started in a parking lot and finished by going into a parking garage and up a stairwell to the top level.

Hank didn’t come this time since Barry is his handler (so official) and he had to work yesterday. Hank totally doesn’t mind, though. He likes to stay home and nap and blow slobber bubbles and stuff.

I got home from training in just enough time to grab a quick lunch, change, and head out to meet Kim for a late afternoon run. I was feeling pretty worn out at this point, and I was worried Kim would want to run 8 – 10 miles. I was prepared to tough it out, but luckily she was feeling a bit tired, too, so we settled for 5 miles. It was plenty for me!

I’m glad it’s now Monday and time to go back to work, because I need a rest after that weekend! Luckily, today is also a rest day.

Do you ever plan out several meals in advance for a week or more?
Do you have a certain day of the week that’s typically a rest day? It used to always be Sundays for me, but now I try and do two runs on the weekends and take a rest day on Mondays.
What did you do this past weekend? Who raced?

Annabelle is now a little over 3 months old. She has changed so much since we brought her home in early October! Below on the left is the day we brought her home, at 3 days old and 35 pounds. On the right is nearly 3 months old, and at least 150 pounds!

She has put on a lot more weight and has grown a bit taller. She’s also grown a lot wider, too! Looking pretty healthy, with a furry coat to keep warm.

Right now she is still living in our backyard, but Barry has expanded her area. She’s really enjoyed this as it lets her walk/run around a bit and she gets to eat grass!

She still likes running around with the dogs, and can now outrun Hank. She also recently head butted him! I guess poor old Hank is at the bottom of the totem pole. Annabelle and Scout are still best buddies, and Scout can often be found just sitting or standing by Annabelle’s pen keeping her company.

One major change since I last checked in is that we have weaned Annabelle. We started the process around the second week in December, by taking her down to one feeding of milk a day (down from two). By December 22 we had cut her off milk completely. She was not very happy about that and made her feelings known!

While Annabelle was being weaned, Scout was very upset. Anytime Annabelle was outside bawling, Scout would go and sit by her pen and stare at us like “hello, clearly she needs something!” Now Annabelle eats hay and grain, from her snazzy feeder that Barry got for her. It took a few days, but she has adjusted and is completely weaned now.

She still really likes hanging with the dogs, but I think she’s no longer having an identity crisis. She spends a lot of time talking to the cows in the field behind our house, and I think they’ve set her straight.

The next step is to find some land for our little ‘peanut’ to move to. She’s not staying in the backyard forever and she’s not going to be a little peanut for long!

Do you have any questions about Annabelle? I’ll try and address them in the next update!

Remember that Monday trail run I had planned? Yea, it didn’t happen. I thought it would be fun to hit the trails since I had the day off of work. But after spending nearly five hours cleaning the house, I was feeling pretty worn out and my back was sore. So I decided to take a rest day (originally I had planned for Tuesday to be my rest day) and moved my trail run to yesterday.

Right after work I headed over to run on some trails in Radford (the next town over from us). I discovered that combining stairs with trails makes for a pretty tough climb, especially when the stairs have varying lengths and heights.

I decided to base this run, and most of my weekday runs, on time instead of distance. It’s hard to make a distance goal on trails when my pace varies so much. So for now I think my weekly runs will be based on time and my weekend runs will be based on distance. My time limit yesterday was based on how much time I had until sunset – about 30 minutes.

On my way back, I discovered that stairs can be as difficult to run down as they are to run up. I had to react quickly on my way down, as some of them only took one step while others took two or three.

It was unseasonably warm yesterday (about 50 degrees!) so I got to run in shorts. It felt glorious, but my legs definitely showed how little they’ve been exposed to the sun lately. I’m so pale right now! At least I don’t have a shorts tan, I guess 🙂 There were still plenty of signs of winter on the trail, despite the warmer weather.

Lastly, I got to run through a tunnel at the beginning and end of my run. Running through tunnels is fun, especially when they have lights 🙂

Do you ever base your workouts on time instead of distance?

The long weekend is just about over. Boo. But it’s been a pretty good one, so I can’t complain too much. On Friday, I did as I had planned and spent most of the morning arranging my new filing cabinet. It look a long time, but it feels good to have everything organized! In the afternoon I headed over to Draper Mountain for a bit of trail running.

I went up a trail I hadn’t ever gone up before, and had to run and hike on the way up. It was tough, but I enjoyed exploring a new-to-me trail.

I finally made it up to ‘The Landing’ (which is probably about 2/3 of the way up the mountain). From there I headed back down a different trail, back to the parking lot. The very first part of this trail was completely covered in ice (none of that is snow in the below picture). I tried to edge my way down very slowly and immediately slipped. I slid on my backside all the way down to the bottom of the patch of ice. Luckily I didn’t rip my capris or my shirt! When I stopped sliding I thought to myself “well, I guess that was the fastest way down.” I laughed, got back to my feet, and continued on.

It was about a mile back down to my car, and it didn’t take too long to get there. In total, I think I ran about 2.5 miles. My watch acted up a bit at the start, and didn’t get signal for the first 10 minutes or so. I also ran in my new socks, and really liked them.

On Saturday Barry and I spent most of the day at Search & Rescue training with Hank and Scout. One of the trails we did was through the woods, up to the top of a ridge line. I ended up getting some unexpected trail running in! I’m working on a full post about what these trainings are like, and what types of things we do.

On Sunday morning I met up with Kim for 8 miles on the Dora and New River Trails. It has been a little while since we ran together, so it was nice to catch up. It felt pretty cold at the start, with the temperature hovering right around 30 degrees, but once we were moving it felt like great running weather. Thankfully the wind wasn’t blowing!

It was a pretty tough run for me. My legs were toast before we ever hit mile 1. Kim really kept me going. I think I would have cut the run down to 3-4 miles if she hadn’t planned on doing 8. I think she had a bit of a tough time during the second half of the run, so we definitely needed each other. We got it done without any walk breaks (which each of us were very tempted to take at time).

Today I’ve got plans for another trail run, some cleaning around the house, and some time spent relaxing and soaking up the end of my long weekend.

What adventures did you get into this weekend? Who else had a long weekend?

I have the day off of work today! We have a state holiday, called Lee Jackson Day, today. Since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is on Monday, it means I get a four day weekend. It’s always nice to have this little break shortly after returning to work post-holidays. I have big exciting plans for today, too. I’m going to organize my new filing cabinet and take the outdoor Christmas lights down. Being an adult is fun 🙂 In case you missed the sarcasm, I do have actual fun plans. I’m hoping to get out for some trail time both today and other days during the long weekend!

I was really sore after Saturday’s trail race and Sunday’s Jillian workout, so I took a rest day on Monday. On Tuesday it was dark, cold, and sleeting on and off all day. All I really wanted to do when I got home from work was take a nap. Instead, I did a Jillian Michaels workout DVD that was about an hour long. Scout supervised.

I ended up taking rest days both on Wednesday and Thursday because I was sore (on Wednesday) and tired (on Thursday). But now I’m ready to go on a few adventures this weekend!

This is random, but I wanted to share. In case you missed it, The Ohio State (yes, that’s their official name…) won the first College Football Playoff, and thus the National Championship title, on Monday night.

Why do I care? Look closely at the above picture and bear in mind I’m a die hard Virginia Tech Fan.

Yea, that happened. 🙂

Did you watch the National Championship game earlier this week? Who were you cheering for?
What plans do you have for the weekend?
Who else has a long weekend?