Weekly Wrap...April 30

Welcome to another edition of the Weekly Wrap.

This is going to be a quick wrap this week! Because I am not training for anything I've rearranged my run days. I've been trying to run Tuesday's and Thursday's and walk Baylee Mondays and Wednesdays. So far it's been working out pretty well. Even on the day's I'm not running, I look forward to getting out on the trail with Baylee (did you read my Runfessions?).

I saw these two lovelies on the path but as I ran towards them they scurried into the water.

Running was not the highlight of my week though this week. We had our neighborhood yard sales this weekend so we spent most of the week preparing for that. We hadn't participated in the sales the past few years so this year we had plenty to set out.  I was so pleased to see how much stuff actually went and the little bit that we had left got donated.  I've pretty much kept every CD I've ever owned since High School and I finally decided it was time to let them go. I can't even tell you the last time I listened to a CD (I don't even have a CD player except for in my car). I sold the CD's for 50 cents a piece and every person that bought one, bought more than just one. They were a big hit!

Now that I have less "junk" in my house, I've done a major Spring Cleaning. I feel so refreshed! If my house could talk, I'm sure it's giving a sigh of relief right about now!  

I'm looking forward to redecorated a few rooms. I started in my bathroom this weekend. I have a palm tree shower curtain that I hang up in the Summer months and then a dark floral one for the winter months.

Not my photo but is the exact same curtain. Source

 However, since our winter was pretty warm, I never ended up taking down the palm tree shower curtain. I'm now tired of it so I am putting up this Tres bombshell one that I had up a few years ago. I also got a chrome shower rod with crystals, gems on the end and crystal/gem shower hooks.  I am now on the hunt for new vanity accessories and some light pink rugs. In all honesty I've been looking for the pink rugs for over a month now.  Apparently pink bathroom rugs are no longer in style. I've looked at  Target, Wal-Mart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Marshall's, Burlington, Boscov's, Bon-Ton, JC Penny, TJ Maxx, Ross, and Kohls, and K-mart.  I've even looked at their online store too. 

I am finding some extra time on my hands this week so I am going to continue to clean and shop for new house decor!   And that s a wrap! -M

When was the last time you listened to a CD?

Where else can I look for pink rugs?

We are linking up with Holly and Tricia for the weekly Wrap!

Runfessions from the Trail

Welcome to another edition of the Friday 5. Since it's the last Friday of the month, we'll be doing Runfessions. Can it be a "Runfession if there wasn't much "running" involved? I guess I'll have to ask Wendy about that one!

First of all I will Runfess that I was taking a gamble letting go of a Labrador's leash this close to the water. Baylee's a good dog though so I figured she'd stay put for a picture. Second of all I will Runfess that I thought of all of these Runfessions while I was walking Baylee on the trail.

1. I Runfess that I need to buy more shorts for Spring/Summer running. There is nothing wrong with my old ones, I just need more so I don't have to do laundry as often (not that I do anyway).

2. I Runfess that I feel guilty listening to my ipod while I walk Baylee.  I feel like she might think I'm ignoring her. I also Runfess that I talk to her when we walk. Yes, I talk to my dog!

3. I Runfess that the beginning of every walk with Baylee can be a challenge.  When she is hooked to that leash she's ready to go and she thinks that we are going to run. She still has some spunk to her but because of her age and her health condition, I won't run her anymore.  This means the first hundred yards of our walk is spent sniffing the surroundings. After that she's good!

4. I Runfess that when I returned to the trail this week I was a bit hesitant when I approached the spot where the "incident" happened last week. I actually surveyed the area before continuing forward.

5. I Runfess that I Really enjoy my walks with Baylee when we walk on the outer trail by the water. It's so peaceful when nobody else is there.  I like to put the music on my ipod and sing along.  Yea, I can sing out loud when I know nobody else is around. Baylee doesn't mind.

Can you relate to any of these?  -M

An InLinkz Link-up

The things that affect our lives: Pom-poms vs Race medals

Recently Scott and I started doing some Spring cleaning. We are really trying to down size, maximize our space in our house, and get organized. We no longer want to feel obligated to keep things because they were given to us by friends or family members if those things aren’t “useful”.  Which can be hard to do because I know I feel guilty getting rid of things. I am NOT a hoarder but I tend to hang on to things for sentimental reasons.

We came across some bins that we probably hadn’t opened up since we moved into our house over 10 years ago.  In those bins were old yearbooks from both High School and College, old trophies, and a few old photo albums of mine that were mostly pictures of school friends from High School and college, and memorabilia from High School, and college, and sorority stuff.

I will tell you that I had no problem tossing this stuff. The old Sorority paddle, it went in the trash. All the High School newspapers that I wrote for, gone. I even tossed my Varsity Letters from High School.  Now mind you, they were only from Cheerleading, but they went in the trash.

 Scott pulled them back out and said “You can’t throw away your varsity letters. You earned these”.  I looked at him and said “Cheerleading did not change my life and it’s not like I will be displaying them on the wall. They can go.”  He put them back in the trash and reminded me that I’m throwing these letters away which I earned but yet I was keeping a Beverly Hills 90210 book I’ve had since High School…lol. Yes, I may have issues. But come on, 90210 was THE show back in the day, right?

I would have probably got rid of my Yearbooks too but that kind of seems like something we should keep out of obligation.

Anyway,  the next day when I walked into my dressing room, I looked at all the race medals I have hanging on my wall and wondered will there come a day when I think these are all just things?  Will I look at them as things that no longer have meaning? Will they be things that no longer have any sentimental value? Will they be things that have not affected my life in any way?

 Of course they mean something NOW but will they mean something in 10 or 20 years from now?  This I don’t know.  However, I can say that unlike cheerleading, the races I’ve done HAVE affected my life.  I know that I can accomplish hard things (like really hard things), I have become more determined and dedicated to tasks, I’ve learned to love the outdoors, I’ve got to experience some really cool places and events, I’ve got to spend meaningful time with family, and have built friendships that will hopefully last a lifetime.

Although I am not doing as many races as I use to, and I’m sure I’ll even slow down more as I get older, I think I’d view these races and medals as a part of my adult life and always look at them with a sense of pride and happiness. I could never imagine tossing my marathon medal in the trash. But if I do, I am glad to know that I will have Scott there to dig it out! 


What are your thoughts? -M

April Highlights

Holy cow, we’re wrapping up the month of April this week!  How can that be?  I know it's a few days early to be wrapping up the month but that's the topic on TOTR  this week so I will oblige! 

 Because I had this cough and chest cold hang around longer than I wanted, there wasn’t a whole lot of running going on, but that’s okay because this was one of the best April’s. Here’s why…

1  - The weather has be absolutely gorgeous and everything is green again! We haven’t had many rainy days like most places. If it rained it was usually at night or in the middle of the day while I’m at work anyway.

#ChocolateNails

2  - Going to Hershey! As you may recall I ran the 10K and then had the best time at the Hershey Spa. Visiting the Spa may have been the Highlight of my month! Is it any coincidence that the Hershey 10K was the weekend before Easter? I still have so much chocolate leftover!

3 -  Miles with my sister. I don’t always run with my sister because she is faster than me, but since I needed to ease back into my running after being sick, she agreed to walk the trail with me which I appreciated.

4  - EASTER! I absolutely LOVED Easter this year. We usually travel for Easter but this year we went to my Parent’s house for dinner (and a doggie egg hunt of course) and I couldn’t have been happier. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and it was a great day to stay in the area. We also visited my family at my Pap’s house and made an adult egg hunt for our adult cousins. It was actually a lot of fun because Lacey and I were the only ones who knew where the eggs where!

5 - I’ve been using my fitness tracker again and on Monday through Friday I’m able to get in 10,000 steps. For some reason I struggle with it on the weekends. I'm I the only one?

I don't have any big plans for the rest of the month so unless something amazing pops up, this was my April in a nutshell.  Oh, our community Arts Festival is this weekend so I hope to check that out and see if my favorite artist is there (she does lab prints)!

What was the highlight of your month? Are there certain days you struggle with getting all your steps in? -M

We are linking up with the lovely ladies from TOTR.

Something you DON'T Want to see on a Run

If you all got a chuckle out of Wednesday's post on what I though I saw, then you're gonnna love this post!

This week was my week to get back at it! I could tell my chest was still a little tight so some full out running was not going to happen (until Thursday). Instead, I dug out my fitness tracker from ifit and gave myself some new goals to work towards. I would try to get 10,000 steps in each day.  I know a lot of you do this every day, but boy it can be a challenge, especially if you are not running(or walking) at least 3 miles a day.

My sister kept me company on a 5 mile walk/run (but mostly walk) on Monday, and then again for 3.6 miles on Tuesday.  Wednesday and Friday I walked and Thursday I ran. It was a challenge but I did get 10,000 steps in each day.

Okay, now back to the Thursday's 3 mile run on the Island.  This time of year the Island Park is just swarming with visitors. Soccer is in full gear and there are always games and practices going on in the fields and kids playing at the playground. The inner paths are filled withe walkers, runners, people with dogs, kids with bikes, etc.  Us serious runners, often deviate from the inner path out to the North and South trails which are in the woods. They are clearly marked as trails and people have been using them for years. Just to be clear, there is no mistaking these are walking/running paths.

Well, I did my first mile on the inner trail (I got my pace down to a 9:12 which I thought was pretty good for me for my first run in a while) and then decided to run the South trail in the woods. The south trail runs along the water, comes to a point, and then I loop and run up the opposite side of the island.  As I was running I could see that some Spring clean up had happened. Trees were trimmed, a lot of brush was cleared out, and some trees were cut down leaving just stumps for now.

Not the exact spot but a picture from the Island Trail.

As I got half way down the other side of the island, I could see further ahead that something was blocking the path. I couldn't quite tell what it was. Maybe a stump? As I got closer I saw a turqoise color and what looked like a plumbers butt.  Had someone fallen? Was someone hurt?  OMG was someone being attacked??

This is NOT a picture from this day, but this is almost exactly where the "incident" occurred and I wanted you to see the path I was talking about.

And then I saw what was happening. Eeek! It never occurred to me to give them privacy and turn myself around. All I kept thinking in that short amount of time was how I would get around them as they were clearly RIGHT ON the path (and this is a dirt path at this point).  The most discreet thing for me to do would be to run below them, but that only gave me a narrow path that is banked into the river and at this point I was running pretty fast and didn't want to take a chance of slipping.  So I ended up running above them. Thank goodness I had my sunglasses on  cus I looked directly down and just kept running.  The man heard my feet shuffling when I ran passed and he quickly got up and I heard them both start to giggle.

I got to the end of the wooded area and turned back around to run the loop in the opposite direction.  I was not deviating my running plan because of these two.  As I ran by them again, they had put themselves together and were standing upright. As I ran by I mentioned to them that this would be my last loop running by and just smiled. They giggled and said I was just fine. Darn right I was fine!  What do they think they are doing????  I am not condoning what they were doing but geeze, they could have at least took it off the path into the grass area. There is a grassy lawn area right above the path that is still secluded with tress and no one ever walks up there, that could have been their spot! For that matter, there are many other "hidden" spots around the island they could have found to be alone.

Clearly these people where not locals or they would have known how busy these paths get (even the wooded ones). My case in point,  shortly after I passed the couple for the second time, I passed another runner coming in that direction.

So, that's my best running story for the week. Heck, it might be my best running story all season. We will see!

Anyone have a story quite like this to share? -M

We are linking up with Holly and Tricia for their Weekly Wrap!

Spring Races to Run

I messed up last week and I posted my pampering post when I should have posted about Spring. If you’d like to read about the Chocolate Spa at the Hotel Hershey, you can check out this post HERE.

So now I guess I’ll talk about Spring!

I can’t believe how fast Spring is going already. Heck in another week it will be May! I also can’t believe how many good races are available in this short window of time. I know many people can plan a full race schedule for each season and not think anything of it. I am not one of those people. I can really only plan one long distance race and maybe a few mid distance races per season.  As you know, I’m just building my confidence and strength back up and I don’t want to do too much!  This year already I’ve done the NYC Half in March (would you consider that a spring-ish races?), and the Hershey 10K in April, and I may do one more mid-distance race in May before our Spring ends. That is enough for me!

However I’ve been keeping a running list (no pun intended),  of Spring races I’ll want to do in 2018. Since so many of them are around the same time, chances are I won’t get to do them all, but it’s good to keep a list for the future.

1. The Lucky Charm 5K/10K- I’m hoping to have this race in March be the first race I do next year. I think training for a 10K is a good and reasonable goal to have for over the winter months.

2. The NYC Half??? – Scott said I should do this one again since we had so much fun last month. Even though I LOVED this race and will claim it as the best courses I’ve run so far, I’m not sure I want to jump right in and do it again next year. I had such a great training cycle this winter, we ended up having great weather on race day, and just everything worked out wonderfully. Even though I didn’t PR, it was a really great race for me and I just want to leave it at that! End on a high note if you will.

3. Atlantic City April Fools – This is one of my favorite race weekends! I’ve done this race the past four years but this year opted not to do it in exchange for doing the Hershey 10K instead. Usually the Hershey race and this race are on the same weekend in April but this year it wasn’t for some reason but I didn’t realize this until I had already made other plans. I’m hoping to go back and run it again next year!

                                                            or

Hershey 10K ???- I really LOVED being in Hershey! I loved Chocolate World, I loved the Hotel, and most of all I loved the Chocolate Spa! I had a chest cold while running the 10K race and I found it to be way hillier than I would have liked. There was a lot of time ran in the park (which was also hilly) which was nice. The medal was great as was the shirt and post race swag! I’m not really sure how I feel about this race but giving it another chance is not completely out of the question (as long as it is not the same weekend as the Atlantic City race).

4. Pittsburgh Half Marathon – Gotta get that "Runner of Steel" medal at some point. Plus I want to try the new "flatter" course".  I ended up giving my registration away to Gretchen from Gretch Runs, so I am happy that she will be running it this May as I virtually cheer her own! 

5. The Kentucky Derby Half Marathon- This race has been on my bucket list for a while now but this may have to be a full out Race-cation for me since it is not close.  

As always, so many races in such a short period of time.  I won't get them all done in one year, but hopefully I'll do them.. What Spring races have you wanted to do but haven't got to do yet? -M

An InLinkz Link-up

My silly IRONMAN (the race) story

 Because of the holiday weekend our blogging schedule is a little off. So instead of doing posts Monday and Wednesday, you are getting them Tuesday and Thursday this week (and we will still be doing the Friday Five).

So since it’s Think Out loud Thursday, I wanted to share a little story with you about my commute to and from work recently. Disclaimer: Please don’t judge me for my judgement but I do hope you get a laugh out of this.

I don’t know if I am just more aware lately, but I’ve noticed that I’ve been seeing an increasing amount of Ironman license plates and stickers on cars.

I found this odd because I am not aware of any Ironman events in my area. So why do so many people have these stickers and license plates?

The second thing I noticed  (and I don’t mean to judge or profile anyone) but the vehicles that had these stickers and license plates on them were not exactly vehicles that I would think overly athletic /ironman type people would drive. Now I know this sounds completely like I am profiling, but a lot of these vehicles were bigger type trucks, almost like farm trucks.

And then one day I saw it!  These weren’t Ironman stickers and license plates at all. In fact, they had nothing to do with running or anything athletic.

What I thought was the symbol for Ironman (as I passed it at 65 MPH going down the highway), was actually the symbol for International Harvester, a Tractor company (and other agricultural equipment)!

So that completely explains why these symbols were on all the big trucks!  I do realize that now that  I see them side by side that there is no mistaking which is which and that the symbol is clearly not an ironman. But hey, I did say I was passing them at 65 MPH.   Ha! Honest mistake I guess.