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?

The month of November sure did fly by. I guess now it’s out with Thanksgiving and in with Christmas. The rest of my Thanksgiving holiday weekend went by nearly as quick as the first half. The highlight was definitely the Virginia Tech vs. UVA football game on Friday night. My dad, sister, and I went together, along with a few of my friends. We were all able to get seats right next to each other, which was pretty sweet.

It was 23 degrees outside, but we were able to squeak out with a win so the weather didn’t matter. Things got close during the 4th quarter, but the Hokies were able to pull it off in the final 2 minutes. Bowl eligible for the 22nd year in a row!

It was nearly 2 AM by the time we got home, and we were all exhausted. Saturday morning my dad, sister, and I hung out for a bit and just recovered from all of the excitement from Friday night. In the early afternoon I said goodbye to Dad and my sister as they hit the road to head home. Then I got ready and headed over to my friend’s house for ‘Friendsgiving.’ We had a full Thanksgiving-type spread and I had a great time hanging out with college friends who were in town for the football game. Once again I stayed up way past my bedtime and didn’t get home until after midnight.

When Sunday rolled around I was ready for a low key day. I spent some time cleaning the house a bit and doing laundry. Then I spent the majority of the rest of the day wrapping Christmas gifts.

I probably got about three-fourths of it done. I really enjoy wrapping Christmas presents, so it didn’t feel like a chore. I deiced to seize the opportunity to get some wrapping done yesterday, since I’ve got lots of stuff going on pretty much every weekend between now and Christmas. Once that’s out of the way I can just relax and enjoy all of the festivities!

How was your holiday weekend?
Who else has started wrapping gifts?