Wrapping Up My Birthday Week!

First of all, aren’t you thrilled that my birthday is behind me, and I won’t be talking about it again for about fifty weeks – after today’s post… 😉

After a super early morning weight lifting session followed by training a few clients, Monday really got going with a Cruisers’ reunion of sorts at The Mellow Mushroom. I can’t even begin to guess the number of miles I’ve covered on the W&OD Trail with these two! Bob and Terri were in my first marathon training group when I started coaching for Worldgate Sport & Health in 2000. They accompanied me on training runs for about twenty-five of my marathons, running several of those races with me. We haven’t had the pleasure of running together in several years, and I miss my friends!

Tuesday was a miserable rainy day and I never made it outside to run. Wednesday morning after a mile warm-up, I ran eight half-mile repeats at a low 8:00 minute/mile pace with easy, short recoveries.  Afterward, I met Nema for a nice and easy recovery three miles. It was great getting to know another MRTT member! Late Wednesday afternoon I got my second weight lifting session in for the week.

Thursday morning while stepping up into my SUV to go meet Lupe, Angela, and Nelson, I noticed my left hamstring felt odd. I warned the girls that I might need to turn around and walk back to my car after a half mile or so…  As I warmed up, my hammie started feeling better, and by the time we finished our run it was feeling pretty normal. 

After our run we were treated to a magnificent sunrise!

And we even got Nelson to sit still for a post-run picture! Despite how it looks, I don’t have pinkeye!

Friday morning I got my third and final weight lifting session of the week completed between client sessions. I’m feeling strong, but I still walk a fine line between enough and too much work on my back. Over stretching is usually my biggest problem, and I’m forever trying to find that sweet spot.  Sometimes I stretch a tad too much and have a low-grade ache in my back for a couple of days…

Friday evening Bill and I drove to Arlington to meet Daniel and his roommate Bryan for my pre-birthday dinner at Mussels Bar & Grille.  Daniel and I had salmon, Bill had scallops, and Bryan had tuna.  We’ve known Bryan since he and Daniel ran cross-country and wrestled together in high school. Both the food and conversation were fantastic!

Since it was my birthday we treated ourselves to a brownie dessert and cocktails. Bill got a Corvette (left) and I got a Shake Your Pom Pom, both new-to-us drinks.

Originally, I was so excited that my birthday was going to fall on a Saturday because I’d be able to run with lots of my friends. It ended up that most of them were in Richmond for the Richmond Marathon and Half Marathon. Since some of my other friends were talking about a trail run on Sunday, I decided to skip Saturday’s run and go on the trail run… 

I chose to sleep in…

I woke up early on Saturday, rolled over and went back to sleep for a couple more hours. Yep, I chose to sleep in – something I don’t particularly like doing, but my body loved. For all the build up, Bill and I had an extremely lazy and relaxing day of watching college football, interrupted occasionally by phone calls and friends stopping by with birthday wishes.  It was perfect!

Saturday afternoon I received these beautiful flowers in a martini glass shaped vase from Joseph and Julie. What is it about getting flowers that’s so awesome?

This morning my friends and I met at the C&O Canal at Point of Rocks, MD at 7 AM. The C&O Canal is a lovely gravel and dirt trail that runs along the Potomac River for 184.5 miles. I hadn’t run there since I met Dora and Beth there in July 2014. 

There were several Husky sled teams there getting ready for a training run. They were so happy and friendly, and desperately wanted our attention as we ran by them in the parking lot.

We paused a few times to take group pictures, but for the most part I struggled to keep up. Very early in our run I stepped on a pretty big stick and then tripped on it as I brought my other foot forward. I went flying through the air, trying to catch myself, and finally did after three or four of those slow-motioned flailing awkward strides. My glute hurt for about a mile, but then it felt fine; however, I think I jammed my back a little when I finally landed because it’s bothered me all afternoon. 

After the near fall, my body was just off and it wanted to run about thirty seconds per mile slower than the rest of the group. I’d tell you our pace, but my Garmin is broken, again, on this it’s first year anniversary of belonging to me – it was a birthday gift last year.

We saw the Husky’s several different times along the trail.  As I mentioned earlier, there were several different teams with different drivers. Of this particular group, the middle dog very much wanted to say hello to me. You can see him looking my way, and in other pictures in the burst he’s headed off course toward me!

One time, while my friends stepped out of the way, I jumped on the trail and took off running in front of the Huskies. Those dogs are fast and before I knew it they had caught up with me forcing me to step to the side of the trail, or be trampled and probably licked to death! 

Near the end of our eight miles, we stopped to play with the GoPro. I caught Gayle running by with the Potomac River in the background. Since the picture was pretty dark, I added a heavy hand when editing. I love the way the trees reflect in the Potomac.

Once back at the parking lot at the end of our eight miles, Dora and Michael continued on for a total of fourteen miles. The rest of the crew took off and I ran around looking for a couple more spots to snap some GoPro pictures.  

Back at the parking lot I met Parker. Just as I got ready to snap this picture, Parker’s friend’s trailer pulled into the parking lot and Parker suddenly became very happy. His ears perked up and he got fidgety. His owner explained that he recognized the trailer and knew that he was about to have a play date with Reve.

Meet Reve…  As I pulled away from the parking lot, Parker and Reve were being saddled for a ride. 

Once home, I had one client to train, and then watched my Hokie wrestlers lose to Penn State. We were ranked #6 and Penn State was ranked #2.  Penn State will most likely move to #1 with Oklahoma State (previously #1) losing yesterday. Our ranking probably won’t change much…

Feeling absolutely exhausted and achy all over, I took a two-hour nap… I’m hoping to rebound quickly because I’ve got some training runs to complete before this pilgrim runs in her neighborhood turkey trot next week!

*********************************************************

I’m linking up with Holly at HoHo Runs and Tricia from MissSippiPiddlin for their Weekly Wrap.  Be sure to check them out and the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!

Have a great week!

• Questions:
• When is your birthday?
• What’s your pet of choice, dogs or cats or something else?
  
• Did you race this weekend?