Month: January 2017

Apples & Onions ~ Weekly Wrap Up

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 15 Comments

 

Happy Monday!

Honestly, I’ve tried to start this blog post a number of times I can’t come up with a good first line other then Happy Monday….though it just doesn’t seem so “happy” out there, ya know! Quebec, US, Russia…oh man, so many things going on. I’m gonna try to stay positive folks…hang on.

Last weeks workouts were all over the place. I often wonder people following my Instagram, if they think I just can’t settle on one activity since I’ve been doing so many different things lately. I guess that’s the bonus of winter time and all the adventures we try to take advantage of. However, WE NEED MORE SNOW! Seriously winter, snow please.

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January 22nd – January 29th’s Workouts.

  • Sunday: 8 am Soccer Game (way too early!)
  • Monday: Rest
  • Tuesday: Treadmill Run: 5k
  • Wednesday: Rest
  • Thursday: Physiotherapy Appointment & Soccer Game
  • Friday: Rest
  • Saturday: Nothing.
  • Sunday: Skating with the family 30-40 minutes.

This past weekend we had very little planned and it was great. We hit up our local farmers market, relaxed, missed gymnastics due to the instructor being ill and went skating instead. Skating was short as it was way too warm and the ice was melting. A quick 30 – 40 minute skate session with the girls and lots of wet snow pants 🙂

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That’s a puddle under my feet above….yup, they fell in it! But we all left smiling 🙂

Running

I’ve barely run all week! Just one treadmill run in the middle of the week which was great. I’ve been given the go-ahead to increase my mileage and test out 7k! You’d think that knowing this last Thursday would push me out the door on the weekend but it didn’t. Sometimes you just have to rest and relax more then you need to run, workout or write a blog post.

Apples and Onions

Back in the day when I worked with youth at an over night camp, we would always ask our campers “what’s your apple / onion of the day”. It was a way to share something that went well or they liked (apple) and something that they didn’t like or didn’t enjoy (onion). We started doing that with our daughters a while back and it’s really funny sometimes what they come up with.

So, at bed time we ask them what their “rainbow” or “rain cloud” of the day was. It’s now become just something that we do and often Lilly, our oldest would say well before bedtime…”I know my rainbow already”.  It’s eye opening to see through their eyes things such as excitement or disappointment!

My apple: Getting to Barre class at lunch time today!

My onion: my washer eating my Tiux compression sock. Just one of them. It’s gone! Like gone-gone. Washer repair guy comes on Wednesday. How’s that for an onion?

How was your weekend?

Anyone enjoying outdoor activities?

Got an “apple” or “onion” to share?

Joining in (late) for the I’m joining for the first time the Weekly Wrap hosted by HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin.

http://hohoruns.blogspot.com

January Runfessions

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 42 Comments

Happy Friday Folks!

With only a few more days left of January, I thought I’d join in the fun and share with you some Runfessions from the last month, hosted by Marcia . 

*Update/Runfession: When scheduling posts for first thing in the morning, make sure you use AM not PM.

Runfession: I took two weeks off running (unplanned) this month! I started off the month great; running 3-4 days a week then just kinda stopped. I stopped partly because of my next runfession but it wasn’t required of me to stop running. I did however, rest!

Runfession: I’m not loving the fact that I’m back in weekly physiotherapy for my silly ankle that just doesn’t want to heal. However, I’m thankful to have access to a great physiotherapist that’s working hard at getting my ankle stronger. Me and the BEAST have been hanging out lately.

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Runfession: My goal this month was to run 75 km and I’m a little short. Well, to be honest, a lot short. I’ve managed 32 km and I’m not even upset, disappointed or bothered by the fact that I’m not going to reach my monthly goal. Life happens!

Runfession: Though I haven’t run a significant amount of kilometres this month, I’ve stayed pretty active. Between soccer games, random lunch time skating, snowshoeing in our only dump of snow (which is gone now) and skiing with the family – I runfess, I don’t regret taking some time off running.

Also, sometimes I make our lunches late at night after my soccer game. Yes, I’m still in my jersey and shorts…..priority was make lunches first, shower second.

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Runfession: I’ve only signed up for one race so far this year – Maritime Race Weekend in September (5k and Half). I have a long list of races I want to do but right now, I don’t have an interest in signing up for them 😦 I’m hoping that when my ankle is 100% I’ll feel a little more motivated and register – or I might just wing it this year and sign up for races last minute. Don’t worry, I’ll at least train for them.

And I’m joining Running on Happy and Fairytales and Fitness  for the Friday Five 2.0 linkup!Five Reasons I Love Blogging | Friday Five 2.0 | Running on Happy

Do you have any runfessions from January?

What’s one thing you loved doing this month?

Have you signed up for all the races or none?

 

 

Weekend Challenges & Wins!

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 34 Comments

It’s another “hard to believe it’s Monday” because we had such a great weekend!  Even past the numerous tantrums (5) my four year old had on Sunday, it was still a great weekend.

As a parent that wants to be active with their kids, it sometimes can be pretty stressful pulling it all off. Make it a little harder for ya: planning to take your kids somewhere without your husband because he is working. It’s life and it goes on but sometimes it can be stressful.

It took me about four days to finally decided that I wanted to take my girls skiing Saturday. The packing of gear, the stress of teaching Hilary how to ski while Lilly was off on her own, packing the car, unloading the car, making the lunch, carrying everything from the parking lot in your ski boots with two kids. It doesn’t always sound like fun to me. So, I hesitated in making the decision to go.

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Luckily my Dad lives to ski…yes, lives for it and he joined us at the hill. All the packing, gear finding, stressing over if it was going to fit them this year went pretty smooth. Relief set in for me once I had everything ready to go. Friday was all about packing a lunch and snacks, making sure the car had gas and packing all their gear and mine while they slept. I didn’t tell the girls we were skiing until the morning so they were pretty excited.

The day went way better then I expected. Lilly quickly remember how to ski on her own and Hilary tried to bomb the hill though I’d slow her down and try to control her speed. I managed to take Lilly up the big hill and she did awesome while Hilary got to hang out with Grandad.

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I had planned to leave at lunch but we stayed until 4pm. Time got away from us and then “just one more run, please”...said Hilary…which turned into three more runs. Though it was a lot of work and a little stressful seeing if I could pull it off – it was worth it. I also though they would fall asleep on the way home but they didn’t.

We had a blast. Big win!

Weekly Workouts

So, I guess this is going to be my new thing….weekly wrap up of workouts that I did…or didn’t do 🙂 Here we go!

January 16th – 22nd

Sunday: Soccer game

Monday: Osteopath appointment (then rest for two days)

Tuesday: Nothing. Think about all the running I want to be doing 🙂

Wednesday: Skating at lunch.

Thursday: Physiotherapy appointment. Went well, can run 2 days a week. 🙂

My husband and I went to the Banff Mountain Fill Festival in Wolfville Thursday night. All the films were great, inspiring, exhilarating, some terrifying and some made me laugh out loud.

My favourites were Ace the Desert Dog, Young Guns, and Four Mums In A Boat – oh my gawd, I laughed at those amazing women from England. Loved their film!

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Friday: Nothing. (Packed for skiing, that’s kinda of a workout) 😉

Saturday: Skiing ALL DAY LONG!

I also played soccer yesterday morning at 8 AM – whoever schedules women’s 7 aside (over 30) for 8 AM games is not smart. With all that skiing, soccer and then taking the girls to their gymnastics class – I was spent Sunday afternoon. It took everything in me to get through the afternoon and evening.

You can plan so much, do so much but you also need to remember you need to sleep and rest so much to recover well.

How was your weekend?

Parents: do you find it stressful planning a day trip?

Have to seen any Banff  Mountain Film Festival movies?

I’m joining the Weekly Wrap hosted by HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin.

http://hohoruns.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday Five: Winter Activities

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 27 Comments

Lately I’ve been feeling like winter has come and gone in Nova Scotia! We had one beautiful dump of snow (30cm or so) a few weeks ago but that all melted…YES, it all melted and we are left with nothing! That kinds puts a little damper on trying to do “winter” activities, eh!

Favourite Winter Activities

Having said that, I’m still hopeful that we’ll get to do some skiing, snowshoeing and skating outside since the temps are cold enough. It’s my first time joining the hosts Running on Happy and Fairytales and Fitness for the Friday Five 2.0 linkup.

Skating

I’m not the best at skating only because I don’t do it enough. I also have hockey skates and for a girl who grew up wearing figure skates in her back yard every day in the winter, I feel like I have two left feet sometimes. I’m trying to get out skating on Wednesday during my lunch break as their is an open skate near where I work.

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Snowshoeing

We got in one snowshoe around the house when we had that beautiful dump of snow. Snowshoeing is so easy and as long as you have snow, you are good to go! Both girls love it and a little unknown secret – my husband proposed to me while snowshoeing on a lake! Oh yeah! He even bought me the snowshoes a month before for Christmas knowing that’s how he wanted to propose! So, snowshoeing has a special place in my heart.

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Downhill & Cross Country Skiing

Good lord, I feel like we are never going to get to our local hill! I love skiing – downhill and cross country skiing!  Again, both girls love downhill skiing and we are going to be THAT family that goes on ski trips. Fingers crossed we get out soon!

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I grew up downhill skiing and only learned how to cross country ski weeks before I was to teach it to others! Good thing I love the outdoors and being active as it came naturally to me to teach. We haven’t had a chance to do this with our girls but it’s on our list 🙂

Running

Of course winter running is on my list. The sound of the snow crunching under your feet, the way your face freezes and the numerous layers you have to wear – who wouldn’t love winter running! All jokes aside, there is something refreshing about running in the winter outdoors.

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 What’s your favourite winter activity to do?

Any weekend plans?

What’s one winter activity you want to try?