Its seems like every time you accomplish a big goal or finish a goal race, you find yourself thinking “what next?.” After I finished my first full marathon last year, I decided to start running on trails. Last spring I ran three trail races. And then I started training for my second full marathon. Trail running mostly got pushed to the back burner, to lessen my risk of turning an ankle/getting injured during training. But after finishing my second full marathon, I felt the trail itch again (which sounds more like some kind of disease than a yearning to run through the trees and up mountains).

So this time I decided to sign up for the entire Roanoke Non Ultra Trail Series, which is put on by Mountain Junkies LLC. Last year I ran two of their races, and I had a great time. I loved the atmosphere, they did a great job with logistics, and I got to see some really great trails I never knew were there.

The series has six races total, and I will be participating in five of them. The only one I opted out of was the Mill Mountain Mayhem 10K, because it is the weekend before the Blue Ridge Half Marathon. My first race will be the Frozen Toe 10K on January 10th.

The race is run on a favorite loop of the owners of Mountain Junkies, and in years past the weather has caused the trail to be frozen, completely ice-covered, or even snow covered. Should be interesting! It may end up being like my first trail race last year. The second race is the Explore Your Limits 5K & 10K.

I will be running the 10K for this race. The race is held at Explore Park in Roanoke, which I’ve never been to before. I look forward to exploring the singletrack mountain biking trails, which have been described as “challenging,” on foot. After that comes the Montvale 5 and 10 Miler.

For this one, I chose to do the 10 miler. I’ve never run a 10 mile trail race before. This race is held in Bedford county, and it sounds like the park is another hidden gem you never knew was there. Since I’m skipping the Mill Mountain Mayhem 10K, my next race in the series will be the Trail Nut 10K & Half Marathon.

Last year, the Trail Nut was my first Mountain Junkies RNUTS race. I ran the 10K and had a great time. I was amazed at the set of trails that were there for exploring, right there behind the Bedford County Nursing Home. This year I decided to give the half marathon a try.

Finally, I’ll wrap up the series with the anchor event to the RNUTS series: Conquer the Cove Trail 25K & Marathon. I have chosen to run the 25K again this year. The race was a real challenge for me last year, but I loved running through Carvins Cove Natural Reserve, the second largest municipal park in the nation.

I’ve never done a series of races before, and I’m looking forward to the experience. It will be neat to see familiar faces at each of the races. At the end of the year, they hold a social get together and awards ceremony (the series also has a points system based on overall and age group placement at each race, like a grand prix). I’m hoping to make new friends and officially join the trail running community.

Have you ever participated in a race series before?

I mentioned recently that I needed to get back to a regular running schedule. I especially need to get more time out on the trails, with a lot of upcoming trail races. In the spirit of trail running, here are some random things I’ve seen on trails in the past year.

Anytime you get outside for a workout, be it a run, walk, hike, or bike, I feel like you often end up seeing random things. But for whatever reason, I always see the most random things when I’m out on the trails. Sometimes they give me the heebie-jeebies, too.

While out on the trails you may see….

…A rusted out mower hanging in a tree.

…Handmade signs trying to persuade you to take one trail over another one.

…Tropical birds hanging out in Mountain Laurels.

…Deer.

…A snake.

…More Deer.

…Another snake.

…The occasional turtle.

…And finally, various warning signs to let you know about the trail conditions.

What random things have you seen out on the trails?

This past weekend was one of those weekends that feels really long and really short at the same time. It started off with the inaugural Frosty 5K at Bisset Park in Radford. Barry and I both ran the race, and it was the first time I’ve gotten him to do a holiday-themed race with me. I usually do the Jingle Bell 5K in Roanoke, which is about an hour away, but I was happy to find a race in Radford this year, which is only about 25 minutes away.

It was a chilly, rainy day, but I liked the race course. Bisset Park is where I did all of my interval workouts during marathon training this year. My only goal was to run sub-30, since I spent all of fall focusing on endurance and not speed, and I was happy to finish in 28:50. Barry pulled off a first place in his age group (and the groups were in 10 year increments) despite being about a minute away from the start line when the race started!

That is possibly the crappiest picture my camera has ever taken, but it’s all I’ve got. After the race I had to rush home and get on the road to make the 4.5 hour drive to my dad’s house. His birthday was on Saturday and my little sister put together a surprise birthday party for him. She did a fabulous job, and he was really surprised! We had a whole bunch of family and his friends over for the party.

We also celebrated my dad’s sister’s birthday, which is on the same day as his (although they’re not twins, they’re a few years apart).

I spent the night at my dad’s house and then hung out for a bit on Sunday before heading back home. On the way home, I met Barry at the Inn at Virginia Tech to view the Fashions for Evergreens display.

Every year, they hold a Christmas tree competition and then display them all at the Inn. Then people can walk through, look at them all, and vote on their favorites. The winner gets a prize, but I don’t know what it is and the folks at the hotel didn’t know either. There were at least fourteen trees on display, and of course I loved the Virginia Tech one.

But my favorite tree was actually one done by the Radford Health & Rehab facility, which coincidentally was the organizer for the Frosty 5K on Saturday morning. So I guess we’ve come full circle. The reason it was my favorite was because they had little framed pictures all over the tree of a bunch of the residents and their families from when they were younger. The residents also cut up all of the oranges, grape fruit, and apple slices and dried them to put on the trees.

Overall it was a fun, but exhausting weekend. The only downer was waking up yesterday morning with a sore throat and chest cold thing going on. Hopefully it will clear up soon!

How was your weekend?
Who went racing this weekend?
Have you ever been to a Christmas tree competition display?

This is a running blog, after all, and I haven’t been talking about running much, lately. The simple answer for that: I haven’t been running much, lately. I actually haven’t run at all (except for a handful of times) since the Star City Half, which was the weekend before Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving I walked a 5K with my Dad and sister, and broke in my new pair of running shoes.

Aren’t they pretty? These are my replacement shoes for the ones that broke right before the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October. Hoka One One didn’t carry the model that I had, so they gave me the newer model instead. The good news is they feel great to run in (which I did earlier this week with Sven, the treadmill).

The whole week of Thanksgiving was really busy for me. I had a lot to do in advance to prepare for having my dad and sister stay with us, and to host the actual dinner at our house. So running kind of got pushed to the back burner. Once everyone headed home I was pretty worn out, so I chose to spend my time hanging out with friends, cleaning, and wrapping Christmas gifts.

It’s time to get back to running, though. I have a holiday-themed 5K tomorrow that I’m running with Barry – together, but not together. I also need to get out on the trails more, since I have a whole bunch of trail races coming up this spring, which I’m really excited about. More on that sometime in the near future.

The only challenge with getting trail time is that I typically run trails on the weekend. I’m not quite sure how much running I’ll be able to do on the weekends for the rest of this year, since I’m going to be out of town nearly every weekend until New Years. But I always feel better when I’m running regularly. I make better food choices, I feel less sluggish/tired, and in general I’m just in a better mood. I think I handle difficult or stressful situations better when I run, too.

It’s good to take a break every now and then, and even have an off season. I’ve read in Running Times that some elites will actually take an entire month off after their racing seasons. But it’s time to get back to business and start running regularly again. And I intend to do just that.

How do you find motivation to run after a big race/long training cycle?
Have you started planning races for 2015?

A big part of the holidays, and Christmastime in particular, is the gift giving. For me, its not so much about receiving gifts as it is about giving them. I love putting lots of thought into  a gift, wrapping it up as pretty as my non-crafty self can manage, and then watching the recipient open his/her gift. I get so excited, in fact, that I often do the majority of my shopping pretty early and I typically wrap everything during the first week of December. Then I forget what I got someone and I’m as surprised as they are. Sometimes I’m even surprised at what a good idea I had for their gift.

I think we’ve definitely seen a shift in society to more purchases being made online. There are pros and cons to each option. On one hand, shopping in person is putting money back into your local economy, you get your items immediately, and you may even find a better deal. But on the other hand, shopping online is very convenient, you can occasionally get free shipping, and it often has a wider selection. Shopping in-person in a store takes more time, and you cannot always get everything you’re looking for at one place. But shopping online means you have to wait for your items to be delivered, and it can be more difficult to return items.

Over the years I have started doing more and more of my Christmas shopping online. Last year I probably did about 90% of it online. It has become so convenient, especially with free shipping, and especially when you know what you’re looking for. My favorite place to shop online is Amazon, because it is so diverse. There’s a lot available directly through Amazon, and they can also connect you with a lot of other companies. In my experience, if there’s an issue with the product you purchased, Amazon is great at resolving issues between you and the company. (And no, they’re not paying me. I’m just sharing an opinion)

Despite the ease of online shopping, I actually flip flopped this year and did about 75% of my Christmas shopping in stores. There’s just something about wandering the aisles and seeing something that you think would make a great gift for someone. Actual shopping. I should qualify that all of this shopping took place between Halloween and Thanksgiving. I pretty much won’t step foot in a mall or a Walmart-type store between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It just gets too crazy and the traffic can be awful.

So the other 25% of this year’s shopping took place online. I surprised myself by doing the majority of my shopping in-person this year, because you really can’t beat the convenience of purchasing gifts from the comfort of your living room couch. But I think I sometimes come up with better gift ideas when I actually shop in a store.

Which method do you prefer: online or in-person?
Where do you do the majority of your holiday gift shopping?
When do you do most of your shopping: before or after Thanksgiving?