Morning, my friends! Before I get into today’s fun, I wanted to thank you for your wonderful comments on my “Why I Love Yoga” post from Friday! Glad to hear what I wrote resonated with many of you, too. I’m thinking a little yoga might be in order today, in fact…
Anyway! This weekend, we were treated to my favorite “winter” weather: sunny and in the low 50’s. Glorious. Reminded me of North Carolina winter weather!
We celebrated by getting in some solid outdoor time, of course! First up, on Saturday, was hiking the Billy Goat Trail (section A) in Great Falls, MD.
Our friend Kathleen came along for the fun, and the three of us had an awesome time out there. Couldn’t have asked for better hiking weather!
It took us a few hours to hike Section A, and we stopped about half way through on some pretty rocks to have a little picnic lunch. We all brought snacks and shared!
Kathleen brought an insanely delicious truffle cheese from Whole Foods. So good, especially on a cracker paired with the prosciutto that we brought! We also enjoyed mini PB&J sandwiches:
And some veggies – gotta get those in! 🙂
Section A (there are sections B and C, too) of the Billy Goat Trail is my favorite because it involves so much fun rock scrambling with pretty views of the water! I love this part where you scramble up:
When you finish hiking section A, it dumps you out on the C&O canal, where you can either forge on north to sections B and C, or walk back to where you started. We decided to go a little farther and walk back on a trail on the other side of the canal. Pretty!
Such a fun way to spend the day!
My second outdoor adventure of the weekend was a long run yesterday with Matt, also on the C&O canal, but farther south, near Georgetown.
We had another beautiful day, especially by the time we got out there around 11. We ran a few miles south on the trail, then popped out for a little bit on the Georgetown waterfront. Nice combo of trail and city!
8 miles, done! Matt played some music for us on his phone for the last couple miles and it gave us a nice boost – check out the difference in pace! Perhaps we should do that more often… we were flying by the end!
- Mile 1: 9:05
- Mile 2: 8:49
- Mile 3: 8:53
- Mile 4: 9:12
- Mile 5: 9:02
- Mile 6: 8:55
- Mile 7: 8:40
- Mile 8: 8:12
Wait – 8 miles? Why are Matt and I randomly running 8 miles, you ask? Well, I have some exciting news – thanks to my friends at Cabot, we’ll be running the Charleston Half Marathon together on January 16! As you guys know, I’ve been honored to be a member of the “Cabot Fit team” for a few years now, and have been lucky enough to run the Beach to Beacon 10k with them twice as part of a team of other bloggers. Cabot is sponsoring the Charleston Marathon and reached out to me recently to see if Matt and I would be interested in doing the half marathon together, sponsored by them. To my surprise, Matt was really into the idea of doing another half marathon (he’s done one – the Pittsburgh Half Marathon in 2014, in addition to some 10 mile races), and we’ve both been wanting to take a trip to Charleston – perfect! Matt is in good running shape thanks to lots of soccer and was already comfortable at the 5/6 mile distance, so this was our first official long run for training. I know I wrote in October that I was over half marathons and wanted a break, but unsurprisingly a couple months was enough. I found I was still doing longer runs just for fun, and with the wonderful weather we’ve been having I’ve been running a lot more than I was this summer/early fall when it was hot! So, time for another challenge – let’s do this! Even better: Charleston is apparently super flat, which means I might have a chance at finally getting a new half marathon PR. Time to dial things back up at the track. 😉 A huge thank you in advance to Cabot for this awesome opportunity for the two of us!
Matt and I grabbed some mochas on our way home, then refueled back at our place with a delicious brunch. Mimosas? Sure, why not. It was even warm enough to dine al fresco!
The rest of yesterday was spent decorating our place for Christmas! We got our first real Christmas tree this year since we’ll be sticking around DC for the holidays. So exciting! Zara is already plotting our tree’s demise, don’t worry… (I love how she’s all “Who, me?” in this photo)
And now, back to work! I’m working from home today because I have to take Zara to the vet later today for her annual check up. She’s also getting a nail trim, which she HATES, so they told me to give her a sedative before I bring her so she doesn’t annihilate their staff, lol. This should be interesting…
Was the weather nice where you were this weekend, too? How did you enjoy it?
Has anyone else done the Charleston Half Marathon? Any tips?
Speaking of running, check back tomorrow because I’ll be sharing my annual Brooks stocking stuffer giveaway! And in case you missed it: here’s my Holiday Gift Guide for Fit Foodies.
